Chapter 4
Chapter 4
I withdrew the needle and lowered my eyes. “Princess, do you still feel any bloating or discomfort now?”
Princess Yongwu cautiously opened her eyes, which had been clenched shut from pain.
She touched her stomach, and her expression was no longer as twisted with agony.
Color had returned to her face. She could already support herself and sit up by clutching her belly.
She looked at me. “This female physician of yours does have some skill.”
I knelt obediently. “It is only that Your Highness is blessed with deep fortune. This servant’s medicine merely adds a little polish.”
The prince consort touched the princess’s belly. “Then is this pregnancy saved?”
“Although this acupuncture technique can treat the root cause, I will need to apply the needles once every seven days to nurse Your Highness’s weakened body back to strength. Once the princess recovers, the little heir inside will naturally remain safe as well.”
“This servant will come from the Imperial Medical Bureau every day.”
“How troublesome.”
“What is your name?”
“This servant is Ning Li.”
As expected, Princess Yongwu said, “Then stay in the princess’s manor and nurse me through the pregnancy. Physician Xu, you surely have no objection, do you?”
Physician Xu looked at me deeply before answering, “Everything should be for the princess and the little heir.”
“Wait.” The prince consort suddenly looked at me. “I think you look somewhat familiar.”
“Since you will be serving the princess up close every day, we naturally need to check your background carefully.”
He stared at my face and questioned me suspiciously. “Where are you from? What do your parents do? Do you have any brothers or sisters at home?”
“Prince Consort, this female physician lost both parents in childhood and has no relatives. She…” Physician Xu tried to answer for me, but the prince consort only gave him a sidelong glance.
“I was asking this female physician. Who asked you to speak?”
He sat down in a chair, pressed the top of my chin with his shoe, and lifted my face as if teasing a dog.
“I think I saw this face on a wanted notice.”
Physician Xu’s face went white.
I kept my chin slightly raised and looked him straight in the eye, steady as anything.
“Prince Consort is joking. Since this servant was able to enter the palace as a female physician, my background must be clean. How could I possibly appear on a wanted notice?”
The prince consort was suspicious by nature. Back then, he had been the one to arrange the framing of the Ye family, and he had seen that wanted notice with his own eyes. It was possible he still remembered my face.
But when the notices were posted all over Yue City, I had looked at one myself. Perhaps the painter had done it on purpose; the features were not especially accurate, only vaguely similar to my own.
To avoid even the slightest chance of exposure, I had even altered my appearance with medicine.
He had only seen the portrait. There was no way he could recognize me.
He was bluffing to see if I would give myself away.
“I only wish to help the princess nurse the pregnancy. When the little heir is born, I would be grateful for some reward.”
Keeping my eyes lowered, I remained calm and took the initiative. “If the prince consort doubts this servant, you may have the magistrate’s office verify my identity.”
The prince consort narrowed his eyes, suspicion and scrutiny filling his gaze.
He set down his teacup. “Fine. Then send Yue City’s magistrate Lu Bin to the capital and have him identify you. Let’s see whether you are the same person who was on Yue City’s wanted notice!”
Before Magistrate Lu arrived, the prince consort ordered me locked in the princess’s manor’s underground prison.
The princess still needed me to nurse her pregnancy, so she asked why.
The prince consort said, “Being cautious never hurts. These ants who claw their way up from the bottom, relying on a little skill, quickly forget they are servants.”
“Even if she turns out to be innocent in the end, we still need to beat down her arrogance so we can keep her nearby with peace of mind.”
The princess leaned weakly into the prince consort’s arms. “Husband, you really are thoughtful.”