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"Nonsense! How could the Crown Prince, a living person, have no detectable pulse?" Shen Xihe's face turned cold as she sharply rebuked.
Both the doctor and Xiao Changyan's advisor fell to their knees with a thud, their minds in turmoil. Though they had achieved some expertise in medicine—one having treated countless complex ailments, the other trained under a renowned master—they were utterly confounded. A living person without a pulse was unimaginable and unheard of, sending chills down their spines.
"The Yellow River's waters flow from heaven, rushing seaward never to return..." Xiao Huayong, unconscious, intermittently and repeatedly murmured these two lines of poetry, like someone delirious with high fever. Yet aside from his usual frail pallor, his face showed no flush of fever.
There were clearly no symptoms of illness.
"Mo Yuan, bring Zhenzhu back and summon physicians—every healer in the county," Shen Xihe commanded loudly, her urgency palpable.
Eventually, Shen Xihe summoned every available physician. Even when Zhenzhu was brought back, she failed to detect Xiao Huayong's pulse, nearly frightening her out of her wits. Unaware of the truth initially, she recalled just in time what Sui Axi had once mentioned to her, allowing her composure to return.
Inside and outside the room, people knelt in terror, their faces pale and eyes filled with dread.
Shen Xihe's fury raged unchecked. Neither Xiao Changyan nor Xiao Changqing dared intervene, unsure how to placate her.
"These quacks are useless—why keep them?" Shen Xihe's expression was icy, her gloomy eyes terrifying.
Some doctors kneeling under the eaves shuddered as a cold rain-swept wind brushed their backs. Watching guards stride out with hands on their swords, wordlessly seizing and dragging away those at the edges, several physicians fainted on the spot while others lost control in fear. Only one, spurred by desperation, suddenly leaped up as a guard reached for him: "The Crown Prince is not ill—"
His shout drew all eyes, halting the guards mid-action.
"Bring him inside," Shen Xihe's cold voice rang from within the room.
The young physician swallowed hard, trembling yet resolute, and followed the guards inside with stiffened neck.
"What did you mean by that?" Shen Xihe demanded sternly.
Prostrate on the floor, the young man could only see the hem of a pale purple skirt embroidered with exquisite, intricate patterns, draped with an apricot-colored moon-shaped shawl. He stammered, "Your... Your Highness, Crown Princess... I... I once heard... that those possessed by deities may lack a pulse though living..."
"Do you know the penalty for spreading rumors, slander, and defaming the Crown Prince?" Shen Xihe glared down at him.
She had arranged for someone to deliver preplanned words, but this man was not her agent.
"Your Highness... I speak no falsehood. I... I once read of symptoms like His Highness's in a book..." the young physician quavered.
"What book? Where?" Shen Xihe pressed.
Hesitating, the young man flinched as a cold sword suddenly pressed against his throat. Trembling, he blurted, "The 'Classic of Extraordinary Dreams'! I have it at home!"Shen Xihe cast him a glance; she had actually never heard of the book "The Classic of Strange Dreams." "Mo Yuan, take him to retrieve the book."
"Acknowledged." The young doctor was dragged away by Mo Yuan.
Shen Xihe's expression remained grave, failing to notice that Xiao Huayong, lying on the bed, had nearly betrayed his act—his shoulders twitched slightly before he stilled again.
After roughly a quarter of an hour, Mo Yuan returned with an oilpaper-wrapped book, though his expression was peculiar. "Your Highness, this book does contain similar records. Shall I deliver it to Prince Xin and Prince Jing for their review?"
Shen Xihe lifted her gaze and coolly glanced at Mo Yuan. He intended to give it directly to Xiao Changqing and Xiao Changyan without even showing her first? Not only were his actions and tone odd, but his proactive suggestion was utterly abnormal. "Is there something inappropriate about this book?"
Mo Yuan bowed his head deeply but offered no reply.
"Never mind, just deliver it to the two princes," Shen Xihe conceded, not insisting on seeing it herself.
Though she sensed something amiss, it never crossed her mind that it might be obscene material. In reality, it was a book detailing intimate relations between men and women, disguised under a misleading title. Yet, upon reading the content, the true meaning of the title became clear.
The term "Strange Dreams" was derived from the idiom "sharing a bed but dreaming different dreams." The book contained over a dozen chapters, each a standalone story, mostly depicting marital discord in intimate matters. Often, either the husband or wife encountered supernatural entities and engaged in shameless, entangled affairs with them.
After skimming a few explicit terms, Xiao Changqing and Xiao Changyan paled dramatically. Xiao Changyan turned his head away abruptly, while Xiao Changqing took several deep breaths to purge impure thoughts, gripping the seal on his wrist tightly before bypassing the sensual descriptions to roughly finish the story.
Such a book naturally couldn't defile deities. It told of a young woman forced into marriage with a wealthy man. Her family, greedy for riches, not only tore her from her true love but also caused his death. The lover's accumulated resentment transformed him into a vengeful spirit that possessed the woman's husband, engaging in illicit relations with her. By chance, the wealthy man's friend, a doctor, encountered him and, noticing his poor complexion and knowing his aversion to medical treatment, discreetly checked his pulse—only to find no pulse at all...
Likely terrified out of his wits, the young doctor had concocted this far-fetched tale. He naturally dared not claim the Crown Prince was possessed by a vengeful spirit, so he improvised by invoking a deity.
The story's resolution involved severing the ghost's earthly attachments. By analogy, to cure the Crown Prince, they must fulfill the deity's instructions.
After reading it, Xiao Changqing selectively relayed the permissible parts to Xiao Changyan and Shen Xihe.
Shen Xihe didn't ponder it deeply; she assumed it was a book of supernatural folklore. Such texts were forbidden to her by Shen Yueshan and Shen Yungan, which explained why Mo Yuan hesitated to hand it to her.
Without further investigation, Shen Xihe felt as if a pillow had been offered just as she grew drowsy. Earlier, she had discreetly sent someone to investigate the young doctor and found no issues. Having such a person emerge spontaneously was more fitting than any arrangement she could have engineered.
Even if Xiao Changyan or His Majesty later dispatched investigators, they would find little trace of human manipulation.
"So, it seems a deity wishes to use His Highness's body to convey guidance? What kind of guidance?" Shen Xihe dutifully played her role.By this point, Xiao Changyan had already realized—what matter in Dengzhou would require divine guidance now?
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