Chapter 31
Chapter 31
“Your Majesty, this servant has brought your tea.”
Shengsheng Zhou stood outside Siran Ming’s private tent and called softly.
“Enter.”
His deep voice came from within.
Siran had not brought Shan Hai on this journey. Rong Li was the only guard attending him.
Although Shengsheng had come to cure the plague, she remained a palace maid first and foremost. Serving the emperor was therefore considered her natural duty.
At that moment, she silently resolved that after reincarnating, she would become a carefree princess who was served by others every day.
*A-Pang, will this stuff really work if I put it in his tea?*
Shengsheng set the cup on his desk and stepped back.
Siran, who had been reading, went still. His gaze drifted involuntarily toward the tea.
*Don’t worry, Shengsheng. I checked. Aside from injection, direct ingestion works too. But the virus costs far more than the medicine used to cure it.*
Shengsheng looked at the System Points balance that had lost more than half its value. Her heart nearly bled.
It was fine.
This was for the plot.
Knowing perfectly well that the tea was poisoned, Siran picked it up and drank.
Before it touched his lips, he said, “After we return, you may go back to the Zhu Kingdom.”
Shengsheng lowered her head.
“Understood.”
That was several days earlier than she had expected.
*Wonderful!*
She secretly flashed a victory sign in her thoughts.
The bitter tea seemed to sour Siran’s entire chest.
Did she truly want so badly to leave him?
***
That night, the camp churned with people.
Rong dragged Shengsheng directly from her bed.
“What happened, Guard Rong?”
Pretending ignorance, Shengsheng rubbed her sleepy eyes.
Rong’s expression was grave.
“Miss Shengsheng, something has happened to His Majesty.”
They hurried to Siran’s tent.
Imperial Physician Zhang emerged wearing a simple protective garment. Exhaustion covered his face.
“It’s smallpox.”
The words drained every trace of color from Rong.
“How could that be?”
“Someone must care for His Majesty,” Physician Zhang continued. “Miss Shengsheng, do you know anything about smallpox?”
His hopeful gaze settled on her.
Shengsheng pretended to consider.
“I need some time.”
Rong knew of Shengsheng’s extraordinary abilities. Hope filled her face as well.
“Miss Shengsheng, go conduct your research. I will personally care for His Majesty.”
Her righteous courage moved everyone present.
At a moment when life and death hung in the balance, Guard Rong had volunteered to serve the emperor. What loyalty!
Shengsheng, however, was horrified.
No. Rong could not do that.
If she went inside, what was Zhiyu Jiang supposed to do?
“No, Guard Rong!”
Shengsheng’s sudden shout startled the entire group.
Rong immediately answered, “No, Miss Shengsheng. I can do this!”
The important point was that Shengsheng would surely find a cure. Rong might even earn merit before the emperor.
“Guard Rong, I am only thirty percent confident that I can cure smallpox. You are one of His Majesty’s most important officials. Nothing must happen to you now.”
Shengsheng delivered the warning with solemn concern.
Hearing that the chance of success was only thirty percent, Rong felt a stab of belated fear.
“Miss Shengsheng is right. But His Majesty cannot be left without an attendant.”
She seized the offered escape with admirable speed.
Shengsheng smiled.
That was precisely the sentence she had been waiting for.
No one saw where she produced the person from.
One moment, the space was empty. The next, a breathtakingly beautiful young woman stood before them, blinking sleep from her eyes.
Rong’s lips moved.
“Miss Shengsheng, are you certain Miss Jiang should do this?”
Could she care for anyone?
“Rest assured. Miss Jiang’s devotion to His Majesty can withstand the judgment of heaven and earth!”
Shengsheng clenched one fist with conviction.
While Zhiyu slept, Shengsheng had secretly vaccinated her. Even if every person in the military camp became infected, she would remain perfectly safe.
Medicine produced in the interstellar age inspired that degree of confidence.
In the end, Zhiyu Jiang was forced into protective clothing, given a long list of instructions while still half asleep, and pushed into Siran Ming’s tent.
The original novel said that Zhiyu cared for Siran without changing her clothes for two days and nights. At the end of that devotion, he miraculously recovered.
This time, Siran had smallpox rather than plague. He was unlikely to recover spontaneously.
Shengsheng Zhou therefore had to wait two days before she could finish “researching” the cure.
Two days was neither especially long nor particularly short. For the imperial physicians waiting in constant dread, it felt endless.
It was no easier for Shengsheng.
Every few minutes, another physician entered to ask about her progress. She could not even steal a moment of laziness. When she went to coach Zhiyu, she had to do it in secret.
The following day would be the last.
That night, Shengsheng slipped quietly into Siran’s tent.
Zhiyu had already fallen asleep with her head on the bedside.
She had no idea how to care for a patient. Shengsheng taught her every task by hand and still needed to come in each night to wipe Siran down herself.
Burning with fever, Siran opened his eyes through a haze.
The first thing he saw beneath the lamplight was a vivid red mole.
He knew Shengsheng had come.
Illness made people exceptionally vulnerable. It could even reduce a grown person’s mind to that of a child.
“It hurts,” he mumbled.
Persistent fever had placed a mist over his dark eyes. Combined with his pale face, it made him look painfully helpless.
For an instant, Shengsheng remembered Xiao Ming.
Perhaps Siran truly had been like that in his youth.
“Shengsheng… it hurts.”
When she ignored him, urgency entered his voice.
Shengsheng continued wiping sweat from his skin, eyes lowered, refusing to answer.
Siran pressed his lips together.
She had plainly resolved never to acknowledge him again.
But if she had poisoned him, why not simply kill him?
Why place another woman here as a decoy while secretly coming to care for him herself?
The feverish Siran could not know the truth.
She had not killed him because he was the male lead and could not die.
She came herself because she feared someone might realize Zhiyu had done none of the work and punish her.
Nothing Shengsheng did had anything to do with Siran.
Once she finished the nightly routine, she set down her things and turned to leave without hesitation.
A burning, weak hand caught hers.
“Shengsheng… don’t go.”
His voice was hoarse.
She gently freed herself.
“Sleep, Your Majesty. You’ll recover tomorrow.”
After covering Zhiyu with a blanket, Shengsheng walked out without looking back.
***
Following two days of Shengsheng’s diligent “research,” a treatment for smallpox appeared.
The imperial physicians were overjoyed.
Two of humanity’s greatest scourges had been conquered on a single journey. What greater professional blessing could there be?
After Siran recovered, he never summoned Shengsheng again. He almost seemed to avoid her.
Instead, he kept Zhiyu at his side.
From time to time, Shengsheng heard Zhiyu crying inside his carriage and Siran roaring in fury.
The sweet couple of the original novel could exist only on its pages.
In plain language, their present relationship resembled a husky fighting a German shepherd.
It was unbearable to witness.
Shengsheng assumed that once they returned to the palace, she could quickly pack and leave for the Zhu Kingdom.
An unexpected visitor disrupted that plan.