Chapter 59
ONCE LIN QINGYU WAS promoted to fifth-rank court physician, he and Chu Zhengde took the emperor’s pulse daily. Lin Qingyu was allowed to enter and leave the emperor’s bedchambers, but the Eastern Palace was still off-limits. If he neared its grounds, the guards on duty hounded him with questions.
He wasn’t worried, though. So long as he and Shen Huaishi were both in the palace, they’d eventually bump into each other.
Chu Zhengde had grown older and thus couldn’t work as hard as he would’ve liked. After catching a cold, he took a few days off to recuperate, leaving Lin Qingyu the only court physician attending to the emperor.
When the emperor’s migraines recurred that night, Lin Qingyu—who happened to be on duty—was immediately summoned to the emperor’s bedchambers. The bedservant sleeping with the emperor that night was the young man whom Lin Qingyu had seen previously. The emperor couldn’t do anything strenuous while he was sick, so he’d just had the bedservant warm his bed and pour him tea.
After acupuncture from Lin Qingyu, the emperor’s headache subsided. The emperor opened his eyes to see his bedservant and Lin Qingyu both standing beside his bed.
“Your Majesty,” the former called softly, his eyes red.
Lin Qingyu, on the other hand, remained calm and collected. “Autumn is fast approaching, so yang energies will wane as yin energies rise. We should alter your prescription according to the changing balance between those energies, Your Majesty,” he explained. “I’ll return to the department and write out a new prescription right away.”
“I have a brush and paper here. Write it now and show it to me,” the emperor commanded out of nowhere.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Lin Qingyu said after a pause.
The emperor sat up, helped by his bedservant, and watched as the beauty clad in official robes wrote under the lamplight, the young physician’s thick eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings. His haughty, cold disposition did nothing to dull his captivating allure, and the beauty mark under his eye provoked an irresistible wave of desire.
But that was all the emperor felt—desire. He was old and plagued with illness, and it had been a long time since a new face joined his harem. After his health improved a little, he could perhaps summon this imperial physician to his quarters to feast his eyes on. Not now, though; even if he wanted to, he didn’t have the energy.
Once Lin Qingyu finished writing the prescription, he was told to leave. As he walked out of the bedchamber behind Xue Ying, he looked back at the bright-yellow canopy of His Majesty’s bed, and sharp coldness seeped into his darkening gaze.
It seemed that the emperor would eventually lay a hand on Lin Qingyu, even if he didn’t end up ordering Gu Fuzhou to marry.
Hearing that the emperor’s migraines had returned, Xiao Cheng rushed over in the dead of night to demonstrate filial piety. He happened across Lin Qingyu, who was just leaving His Majesty’s bedchambers. Lin Qingyu glanced at the crown prince before his gaze fell on Shen Huaishi behind him.
When Shen Huaishi looked back, Xiao Cheng snapped coldly, “Seen your fill?”
Shen Huaishi quickly glanced elsewhere. “I would never dare look, Your Highness.”
Xiao Cheng sneered. “Why not? Xiao-Qingyu was born with a face that could drive any man mad. If the opportunity to look at his face arises, you should take it. Who knows? Perhaps you won’t get the chance to see him in the future.” He shook out his sleeves with a derisive scoff, then headed into the emperor’s bedchambers after Xue Ying.
Another eunuch approached Lin Qingyu, carrying a lantern. “I’ll walk you back to the department, Imperial Physician Lin.”
Shen Huaishi could only wait outside the emperor’s chambers for Xiao Cheng. As Lin Qingyu passed the shadow guard, he said under his breath, “Make time to visit my residence.”
Shen Huaishi flinched in surprise. After a covert glance in the direction of the emperor’s chambers, he made a soft sound of acknowledgment.