Chapter 91 |
After spending only a few days in the imperial palace, Qu Dubian left for the Marquis's estate.
Although Ye Banban had told him that his grandmother's emotions were stable, he still wanted to see for himself. Taking good care of his grandmother was the promise he had made with his grandfather.
Wu Siwan was both gratified and filled with lingering fear upon seeing him alive, kicking, and even having opened his dantian.
Their little darling was truly extraordinary; even opening his dantian caused a huge stir.
Qu Dubian: "Grandmother, let me show you!"
He held his breath, took a few running steps, used the plum blossom stakes for leverage with his toes, and then leaped up, staggering slightly as he landed on the roof.
Qu Dubian turned his head to look into the courtyard, flapping his hands excitedly, "Grandmother, look, I can fly!"
Wu Siwan squinted her eyes, smiling and clapping for him, "Oh my, our little darling is so impressive, even more so than your grandfather was in his youth." After a pause, the old lady said, "But darling, how are you going to get down?"
"Should we ask Mother Fang to fetch a ladder for you?"
Yi Shier also appeared on the roof, put an arm around his shoulders, and skillfully brought him down.
They landed without a sound, light and nimble.
Qu Dubian gave a thumbs up: "Liuliu, your martial arts have improved." He had played this game of flying onto and off roofs quite a few times during his days at Shunning Palace, always relying on Liuliu to carry him.
Yi Shier nodded.
He too was constantly improving. Without learning and progressing, one would surely be left behind one day.
Qu Dubian stayed with Wu Siwan at the Marquis's estate all morning. After lunch, he planned to go find his uncle.
Wu Siwan said, "Didn't you two agree not to be seen together frequently?"
Qu Dubian: "I'll climb over the wall, not use the main gate."
Wu Siwan was both amused and exasperated: "You and your grandfather, really... the walls of the Ting Feng residence are going to be trampled to pieces by you two. Is it something important?"
Qu Dubian: "Yes, but it depends on Uncle's own decision."
He told Xiao Yuan to stay at the Marquis's estate and sneaked out himself. He found a slightly lower section of the wall at the rear of the Xu residence and climbed over.
He had come here a few times before and was familiar with the route. Avoiding the servants, he went to check the study.
No one was in the study.
Qu Dubian then turned and headed for Xu Tingfeng's bedroom.
There were guards at the door. Qu Dubian knew them; they were the trusted guards from his uncle's courtyard.
"Is Little Uncle inside?"
"Yes, Young Master." Qu Dubian was addressed as 'Young Master' both outside the Xu residence and at the Sword-Holding Marquis's estate.
Qu Dubian called out through the door, "Uncle, may I come in?"
A few seconds later, a voice came from inside: "Wait a moment."
Qu Dubian waited outside for a while, roughly seven or eight minutes. "Xiao Qi, come in."
Qu Dubian pushed the door and entered.
Xu Tingfeng's bedroom was divided into two sections: one for sleeping and resting, and the other for maintaining his legs to prevent further atrophy.
The partitioned area contained a huge medicinal tub, from which steaming, misty medicinal vapors rose.
Qu Dubian was quite familiar with this scent, as he often soaked in similar baths at Shunning Palace, though they didn't seem to be exactly the same type.
Xu Tingfeng wore only a snow-white inner garment, loosely tied at the waist. His hair was damp and cascaded over his shoulders, and he held a towel.
He smiled, "Xiao Qi is here."
"You came at just the right time. Your uncle just finished his medicinal bath," Xue Letian was also inside, sleeves rolled up. After greeting Qu Dubian, he continued inspecting the medicinal herbs placed in a winnowing basket beside the tub.
He knew a bit about medicine, not an expert but enough to get by. When he was in the capital, he would come to the Xu residence to check on things whenever he had time.
Qu Dubian, having been 'chronically ill', had become something of a doctor himself. Through constant exposure, he recognized many herbs: "The herbs on the ground have changed a few varieties. Compared to before, they're of the same type, but the medicinal properties are more potent."
Xue Letian: "Yes, the usual ones aren't very effective at slowing the atrophy of his legs anymore. Stronger medicine works a bit better."
But where could one find so many potent substitute herbs? Eventually, the resources would run out.
"Don't listen to his nonsense," Xu Tingfeng took Qu Dubian's hand, his voice warm with amusement. "Come, let your uncle take a look. You weren't frightened by that fellow, the Duke of Lu, were you?"
Qu Dubian: "How could I be? The nephew takes after the uncle; I'm not afraid of him."
Xu Tingfeng laughed heartily: "Good."
He examined Qu Dubian's left hand.
Several days had passed. The little pig's trotter from before had improved greatly, now only wrapped in a thin layer of gauze. The wounds at the edges had already scabbed over.
"Is it itchy?"
"A little bit."
Xu Tingfeng unwrapped the gauze and studied it for a moment. "It'll be almost completely healed in another few days. Then we'll apply some scar-removing ointment."
Qu Dubian: "I'm perfectly fine. I inexplicably opened my dantian back then and just used the opportunity to get some compensation from Nanning. It looked scary, but it was actually a good thing."
"I heard about it from Xia Fuyang."
"Does Xia Fuyang often come to bother you, Uncle?"
"Don't go looking for trouble with him," Xu Tingfeng saw right through his frowning little nephew's thoughts and couldn't help but chuckle.
"He... it's not really bothering me. He's heard about my time on the battlefield and comes with military books to ask this and that. It's just that his status isn't very convenient, so he always climbs the wall. Xia Fuyang has an interesting personality. His occasional visits help relieve my boredom."
"Oh..."
Alright then. He had been looking for an excuse to spar with Xia Fuyang.
Qu Dubian: "Uncle, you've been staying in the capital all this time. Don't you want to see other places?"
Xu Tingfeng: "Other places? Why do you ask suddenly?"
"Even Uncle Letian goes out for trips now and then, but you seem to never leave."
"Hey, hey, hold on there," Xue Letian grumbled, "When I go out, it's not for leisure; it's for work."
Qu Dubian: "Oh, it's all the same, more or less."
"The physicians in the capital are limited. There are many famous doctors in other regions too."
Xu Tingfeng shook his head with a faint smile: "Traveling is inconvenient. It's more familiar here in the capital. Famous doctors... well, they aren't of much use." He didn't know how many famous doctors he had seen, only to be met with disappointment time and again.
Qu Dubian hesitated for a moment, then took out the book from his robe: "Uncle, the mental cultivation method I practice is this one."
He had spent his afternoons and nights over the past few days copying it out in his spare time. It was a thick stack, feeling heavy in Xu Tingfeng's hands.
"The internal energy cultivated from this book has a slow, restorative effect on meridians," Qu Dubian explained. "But it will probably take several more years for my internal energy to become profound. The longer Uncle's legs are left, the harder they will be to treat."
The longer the time, the more necrotic the meridians become.
"So, it's best if you practice it yourself, using the internal energy to nourish your meridians constantly. After mastering it and nurturing them for two or three years, Uncle might be able to stand up again."
"It's just that this mental method is incompatible with others. To practice it, one must abolish their previous cultivation and start anew."
Qu Dubian had heard from Ye Banban, Consort Xuan, and his grandmother that his uncle possessed extraordinary martial talent in his youth. His spear skills were peerless, and he was a heroic figure on the battlefield.
Precisely because of this, he felt that suggesting this method might be somewhat cruel to his uncle, which was why he had been hesitant.
Qu Dubian: "And I can't guarantee how long it would take to succeed."
Xu Tingfeng did not find it unreliable for a child to say such things. He seriously flipped through the mental cultivation method in his hands.
The handwriting of my little nephew was neat and steady, not a single wrong character throughout the entire text... He must have copied it overnight, even though he had just opened his dantian and was precisely at a time when he needed to consolidate his foundation properly.
Xu Tingfeng: "When I first came into contact with your zhenqi back then, I immediately sensed a subtle difference within it." However, even people practicing the same mental cultivation method can have subtle variations.
Qu Dubian: "Whether to practice it or not is for Uncle to decide. If you don't want to, I'll find another way in the future."
The simulator would absolutely dangle prizes related to Little Uncle's legs to lure him into spending money. When the time came, he'd just save up more lifespan to buy them.
"You're still just a child. How can I let you worry on your uncle's behalf?"
Xu Tingfeng pinched his cheek. "Alright, Uncle understands. Thank you for making this trip."
Qu Dubian didn't stay long. His task was complete once he delivered the mental cultivation method. He climbed over the wall and left the Xu residence.
Inside the room.
Xue Letian wanted to take a look at that mental cultivation method, but Xu Tingfeng didn't let him.
"My little nephew's possession. He gave it to me, but he didn't say you could look at it."
Xue Letian: "You're not really planning to discard your cultivation and start over, are you?"
Xu Tingfeng tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair, looked up, and said, "What if I said I am?"
"Then so be it. Could I stop you? It's not like there are many situations left requiring you to use martial force anyway. Might as well try. Your internal energy will be gone sooner or later, it's all the same in the end." Xue Letian shrugged. "Since you didn't refuse on the spot, that means you agree. Once you, Xu Tingfeng, have decided on something in your heart, I've never seen you change your mind."
Xu Tingfeng smiled. "Then let's take that gamble."
The decision to discard his cultivation and begin anew was made amidst this light, casual conversation.
He committed the mental cultivation method to memory and burned the copied version.
The moment the flames leaped, it resembled a phoenix soaring out from the fire.
-
Yu Ruo took up residence in the capital.
His mansion was just one street away from the Crown Prince's, not particularly large in area, and his daily provisions followed the standard for a prince. Apart from lacking considerable freedom, he lived quite comfortably.
However, since moving into the mansion, he had never stepped out. Qu Dubian left the palace from time to time but never managed to run into him.
Before he had, through a strange twist of fate, gotten involved with the Duke of Lu, he had been busy with Yuan Jie'er's marriage prospects. Now, the envoys from Nanning had left, but Yuan Jie'er's marriage was still unsettled.
Seeing that after the New Year she would be considered a year older, Xie Jingshan and his wife Madame Feng had ruled out the young master from the Xiang family who frequented pleasure houses, yet they still hesitated to make a final decision on whether to betroth her to the young master from the Tong family.
When Qu Dubian went with Zhiyi to the Xie residence to find Yuan Jie'er, the couple was still arguing.
Xie Jingshan: "How long has the Tong family been in the capital? That boy is only fourteen or fifteen this year, right? They merely had one Vice Minister in their ancestry, and no one noteworthy since. It's only in his father's generation that they barely managed to get an official post in the capital, at the Court of Judicial Review."
"The eldest son of the Tong family is still in the provinces. It will take another ten or twenty years of seniority before he can be transferred to the central government."
"The second son hasn't even taken the Spring Examinations yet. We don't even know if he'll pass the provincial level. How much land does their family own? How many shops? With such shallow foundations, you want to marry our daughter into that?"
Madame Feng retorted coldly, "And how much do you know about matters within the inner courtyards of households? From his father's generation down to the current eldest son, the Tong family's rear courtyards have been very clean. Men in their clan can only take concubines if they have no heir by the age of forty after marriage. Most women live their lives in the rear courtyard. This point alone makes them countless times better than most other noble families in the capital!"
In essence, Xie Jingshan didn't have faith in the Tong family's future prospects, fearing Yuan Jie'er would suffer hardship if she married into them.
Madame Feng, disillusioned with the messy, squalid rear courtyards of other noble families, would rather marry her daughter to a family of lower status than see her exhaust her later years in harem rivalries and jealousies.
As they argued to the point of nearly coming to blows, Qu Dubian said, "The young masters from the Xiang and Tong families must have been carefully selected by both Uncle Jingshan and Auntie. Since Uncle Jingshan's pick is out of the running, why not meet and get to know the young master from the Tong family?"