Phoenix: Rules Of The Harem
Chapter 13: Then Let Him Wait

When night fell, Ling Mei's two horse carriages had reached Zhuzi Rural Palace. Ling Mei's expression remained flat with a cold aura encompassing her even though the poison had reacted within her body. In contrast to Ling Mei who looked as if it was a normal thing, Yun Rui's agitated and sad look was clearly visible along the way. With a puffy face from crying for too long, Yun Rui came out of the carriage following Ling Mei who had also come out earlier than him. Seeing the distance from Xiaoyang and Ningle cities that took almost a day of travel, Ling Mei thought of treating her own injuries before summoning Physician Xia to help her detoxify the poison that entered her body.

"Yun Rui, since the servants of Zhuzi Palace are not my people, so I will return pretending to be mentally disabled after this. I hope you understand." Ling Mei said without looking at Yun Rui who was behind her.

Yun Rui walked behind Ling Mei while looking at Ling Mei's blood-soaked back, but then she chose to lower her head and replied in a soft tone. "I understand, my wife."

However, just as Ling Mei entered the front courtyard of the palace, she was startled by the existence of Physician Xia who stood firmly as if he was welcoming her arrival. Ling Mei furrowed her brows, feeling suspicious of the existence of Physician Xia in Zhuzi Palace.

"Need help, Your Majesty?" Physician Xia asked with a thin grin that was visible on his firm face.

Ling Mei snorted, she stared intently at Physician Xia who looked relaxed. "What are you doing here, Physician Xia?"

Physician Xia chuckled with a pleased face. "Certainly fulfilling the orders of the Grand Empress. Oho! And don't worry about the servants and guards who served in this palace, the Grand Empress had replaced everything with her confidants. So you're free to show your true self here without having to pretend like you used to."

"That means that from the very beginning you have known about this plan of attack, but since this is a special request from the first sister, you have to accept it to avoid first brother's suspicion of me. Then, because it couldn't be prevented by her, mother decided to send you and some of her other confidants to help me after I got here, wasn't that Physician Xia?"

"As always, you are an intelligent person, Your Majesty." Xia Lu Si smiled faintly in his admiration.

Ling Mei sighed, her gaze slightly softened afterwards. "Because it's like this, be prepared to do the Physician Xia treatment process! You'll probably be very busy and troubled after this."

Physician Xia lowered his head in respect while smiling in satisfaction. "As per your orders, Your Majesty."

That night, while the treatment was still going on, Ling Mei had a fever that was high enough to make Yun Rui choose to settle down next to Ling Mei and keep the woman overnight.

"Does Your Majesty always have a high fever when exposed to poison?" Yun Rui asked Physician Xia who was not far from the two of them, the no longer young woman looked busy concocting medicine for Ling Mei.

"No. Only if His Majesty were to be exposed to a deadly poison would he become like this, but, it would not hurt him any deeper. In addition, his body has been trained to deal with small, long-term poisons that are only debilitating."

Yun Rui wiped away the sweat on Ling Mei's face with gentleness, she gave a small smile looking at Ling Mei's face that remained beautiful even while she was in pain. However, not long after that she gasped a little at the clear liquid dripping from Ling Mei's eyes that was still tightly closed. It seemed as if Ling Mei was unknowingly crying, even the legitimate princess of the empire was seen groping softly with an agitated look on her face.

"A-chien! T-chen! Dui bu qi!"

(Dui bu qi: in Chinese it means "sorry").

Yun Rui heard him, her body was fixated when she heard Ling Mei call out that name. In silence he stared worriedly at Ling Mei who was still fumbling.

Physician Xia who saw that could only sigh slowly. "Leave it alone, he would improve by himself after this. You don't need to worry, Prince Wei."

.

.

"Your Majesty! Something terrible happened in the forest of death!" Ling Mei who was leaning on her contest also opened her eyes which she had since closed.

Two days after the incident occurred, the slash wound he had was still wet and was just about to be treated again, since earlier Ling Mei was waiting for Yun Rui who was busy preparing medicine for her along with Physician Xia. The young man insisted on treating her even though Ling Mei had told him that it was unnecessary. The fourth princess of the Shao Empire looked at Wu Jin who looked panicked with a calm face. "What's wrong? Say it clearly, Wu Jin."

"Something has happened in the forest of death, Your Majesty. Lin Yin reported that a group of people were trying to disguise themselves as Yuyin's soldiers and keep an eye on our movements. They look very dangerous and seem to want to know our secret, Your Majesty. Luckily all of them had been captured by the first-rate shadow guards and had been locked inside the Jiangdi prison. Your Majesty, we are all waiting for your orders."

"Damn! Really not lucky!" ling Mei's countenance darkened, she looked unkind and quite frightening. "I'm going to go. Wu Jin prepare a horse for me! Yu Shen come here!"

"I, Your Majesty." Yu Shen walked closer towards Ling Mei before then he lowered his head in salute.

"I'll go to the forest of death, you'll stay here to look after Main Companion Wei along with a few other shadow guards. If he asks for my whereabouts, tell Principal Wei that I have urgent matters to resolve right now. Make sure no assault happens as long as I'm not in this place! Don't let anything happen to her or it'll be a problem for me!"

"This servant understands." Yu Shen nodded. It was an absolute order, yet in his heart he was quite worried about the state of his master.

Ling Mei rubbed her face rough, feeling annoyed all of a sudden as her calmness was being disturbed just like that by not knowing her embarrassment by those troublesome people. Luckily, the distance from Ningle city to Jianhu city was really close, which meant that the area of the death forest was not far from where they were at the moment. When he reached the headquarters later, if all the information the intruders gave him was not important, after the interrogation session Ling Mei vowed to kill them all in a way that was not easy!

Sure enough! It didn't take long, Wu Jin and Ling Mei were riding their horses at high speed respectively. Ling Mei's facial complexion looked so cold and sharp that everyone who saw her would probably shiver in fear.

"Your Majesty, is it alright to leave the palace without properly saying goodbye to Major Companion Wei? I think he may be looking for you to continue the delayed treatment process."

From the top of his horse, Ling Mei turned her head to the side looking at Wu Jin who was also staring at him. But, not long after that Ling Mei turned her face back to the front, she replied in a flat tone.

"Then? Let him wait. I don't need his permission to go anywhere, besides injuries like this I've experienced worse than today. There was still plenty of time to treat these wounds, but for Yuyin I couldn't take my eyes off them for even a little while. So, let it be, it's nothing."

Without waiting for a reply from Wu Jin, Ling Mei spurred her horse faster and left the bodyguard looking silent with a sad look. 'Your Majesty, even if I don't really like Prince Wei as your official companion because of personal feelings, aren't you getting too cold to him?'

As soon as it arrived at the headquarters of Yuyin's army and the shadow army, the, Ling Mei got off her horse and walked quietly even though everyone who was there knew that the look on their chief's face now looked bad. A sharp suppressive aura completely oozed out involuntarily from Ling Mei's body, even some people shuddered in horror as the fourth princess of Shao Empire as well as the future grand empress candidate walked past them.

"How did they get inside the heavily guarded headquarters?! You were chosen because you have extraordinary abilities compared to the others! Then why are they all able to enter the base and watch over us by pretending to be Yuyin's army?!"

Right, when it had reached the main room of Ling Mei's headquarters showed considerable anger this time around. The plan was still not implemented, Yuyin's army also still had a small number of members. Ling Mei didn't want everything to be broken in the moment she hadn't even started yet. After the assault incident happened, he let it go. But, for this time there should not be a single mistake that can happen.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. This is because I am incompetent in taking care of the headquarters." Meng Ying, the woman who was the head of the first-rate shadow army bowed respectfully with a look of guilt.

Ling Mei sighed, however this was a common mistake that no one could bear. "Here you go, how many intruders did you catch?"

"Nine people have been arrested and are now in Jiangdi prison. We found no trace of anything other than them, Your Majesty." Meng Ying replied in a flat tone, a serious expression visible on her stern face.

Ling Mei furrowed her brows unhappily, this felt awkward. "Wait on! Do you know how long they've been infiltrating and pretending to be members of Yuyin's army?"

One of them came forward and bowed respectfully before saying, "Ask the question, Your Majesty. We have estimated that they have entered the base since five days ago, sorry that we were late in arresting them, Your Majesty."

"Damn it, really bad! They are not nine, but ten! One of them must have left this place and was in charge of reporting the information they got about us to their master!"

Everyone in the main room was wide open to Ling Mei's words, they had lost one trace of the other and thought that all had been captured without a trace. Immediately all members of the first-rate shadow troops knelt before Ling Mei.

"We are guilty, we have been negligent in carrying out our duties. We are ready to accept punishment from you, please for Your Majesty to punish us in accordance with the applicable regulations."

Ling Mei turned her face to the side, a glance of sorrowful look was seen in both of her eyes. Ling Mei was cold-hearted and did not hesitate to be cruel, but she had never treated a loyal person and valued him badly. Therefore, punishing them made the corner of her heart throb pain even if Ling Mei tried to deny it though.

"I will punish you after the interrogation session is over. Wu Jin, Meng Ying, and Lin Yin will come with me to interrogate them in Jiangdi prison. If they don't provide useful information, then I'll execute them myself."

"Shi." Everyone there bowed respectfully while smiling with satisfaction. Their boss is the best and they are proud of it.

.

.

Inside Zhuzi Palace, more precisely inside Ling Mei and Yun Rui's room, the young man who had the title of Fourth Princess's Prince Chaperone was sitting on his contest with a grim face. Again Ling Mei left him without saying anything, his wife became so cold and different from before. Not to mention Ling Mei leaving with a wound that was still wet and had just been sewn up making her feel worried, Yun Rui wanted to make sure that Ling Mei was fine now, unfortunately, he doesn't even know where his wife is. Yun Rui sighed, Ling Mei's poison has not been fully restored.

"Are you feeling sad that Fourth Princess left without saying anything to you?"

The sound made Yun Rui startled and turned his head towards the open door of the room. There was Physician Xia who leaned his back in front of the door with a slanted smile.

"Th-that's not true! His Majesty must have his own reasons for deciding that, so I think I will try to understand."

Xia Lu Si looked at Yun Rui with mysterious glittering eyes. "Is that so? Aren't you wondering where he's going right now?"

Yun Rui shook her head quickly, she felt she had no right to it. Even with Ling Mei still not believing him, the man did not want to make his wife hate him. "If Your Majesty doesn't want me to know, it means I don't have enough confidence in his heart. Therefore, I will wait for His Majesty to trust me completely."

"Hmph! Really a good husband! I've always wondered, is it because this Grand Empress chose you to be the official companion of her favorite daughter?"

Yun Rui raised her head with rounded eyes in surprise. "What do you mean, Physician Xia?"

Xia Lu Si smiled mysteriously, "Prince Wei, don't you know? Of course it's because—"

"Stop provoking Physician Xia! Did you come here just to gossip about my marriage and Yun Rui?"

That tone full of decisiveness made Xia Lu Si and Wei Yun Rui flinch, they could see Ling Mei who had just returned and walked into her room with a face and clothes full of blood.

"God! What happened to you, Your Majesty?!" Yun Rui exclaimed with a panicked face.

"No need to panic, it's not my blood."

Looking at Ling Mei's back which was also full of blood, Physician Xia smiled obliquely with a stern look on his stern face, he understood that Ling Mei's wound was re-opened and shed quite a lot of blood.

"Your Majesty, you look relaxed, did you forget to have an appointment with me to continue your treatment? Or should I drag Your Majesty to the Phoenix Palace and complain to the Grand Empress, then let you listen to the long advice of the Grand Empress for a whole day?"

Ling Mei snorted, she looked resentfully at the old man who was infuriating Xia Lu Si. "Do you want to die?!"

"If you can do it." Xia Lu Si chuckled, pranking the imperial fourth princess who had a cold nature turned out to be quite pleasant, this was not bad and she liked it.