Chapter 106: Spicy Candy

Hearing the sound of coughing, Bao Ning’s heart clenched. She glanced at Pei Yuan’s face; it was already very pale.

In the past, he never liked to move on rainy days. Because the leech toxin had damaged his bones, the damp, rainy weather triggered intense pain. Pei Yuan would curl up under the blankets like a giant cat—silent and motionless. Fortunately, the rainy spells recently had been short, clearing up within half a day at most, allowing him to seem “alive” again.

“Go back and lie down,” Bao Ning said, supporting Pei Yuan as they walked toward the bed. “You’ll feel better after a nap.”

Pei Yuan leaned half his weight on her, his voice low and raspy: “I hate rainy days.”

Bao Ning replied, “Mhm, I hate them too.”

Pei Yuan added, “But it won’t do if it doesn’t rain. Farmers pray for it. Without rain, the rivers dry up, the land withers, and no one can survive.”

“Do you have a fever?” Bao Ning pressed him down onto the bed, pulled off his shoes and socks, tucked him in, and felt his forehead. “What nonsense are you talking about…”

“I am,” Pei Yuan pulled at her hand, chuckling softly, “worrying about the country and the people.”

Bao Ning couldn’t help but laugh. She brushed his eyelids shut. “Sleep first; worry in your dreams.” Having said that, she stood up to head out.

Pei Yuan asked, “Where are you going?”

“I’m taking the blueprints to Wei Meng. I’ll have him find different people to rush the labor, then bring the parts back to me for assembly—it’ll be faster that way.” Bao Ning folded the papers on the table and tucked them into a large envelope made of oil paper. “I also need to take a bath when I get back. I didn’t get to wash during the day and I feel uncomfortable. I’ll have Mother Liu boil extra hot water so I can give you a wipe-down too.”

Pei Yuan said, “Alright, I’ll wait for you to come back.”

“Wait for what? Just sleep. I’ll be back soon.” Bao Ning smiled, went to the bedside, and leaned down to kiss his chin. “We’re an old married couple; why the sentimentality?”

“It’s not sentimentality. I’ll wait for you. With the lamp lit, you’ll feel at ease when you see it.” Pei Yuan hugged her shoulders and whispered, “Bao’er, you’ve taken on too much for me. I remember it all.”

After a busy day, Bao Ning hadn’t felt much of anything, but hearing him say this, her eyes suddenly grew moist, and a large part of her heart softened.

That feeling—knowing your true feelings haven’t been misplaced—was truly wonderful.

“So cheesy,” Bao Ning straightened up, feigning disgust. “It doesn’t even sound like you.”

Pei Yuan said, “It’s dark and the roads are slippery. Let Mother Liu go with you.”

Bao Ning agreed. She looked back at Pei Yuan once more and blew out the lamp, wanting him to get a good night’s rest in the dark. Then, she pushed open the door, opened her umbrella, and trotted into the curtain of rain.

She was delayed at Wei Meng’s place for a while, writing down all the precautions on paper for him to give to the workers. It was nearly an hour before she returned home.

To Bao Ning’s surprise, the light in the room was actually on.

Mother Liu understood immediately and said to Bao Ning with a smile, “His Highness must still be thinking of you; he didn’t dare sleep.”

Bao Ning gave a soft “mhm,” her gaze softening. She realized what Pei Yuan meant by “peace of mind.” On a rainy night, dark and cold, returning home exhausted to see a lit lamp made one feel truly cherished—steady and warm.

Bao Ning went inside and put away her umbrella. Mother Liu brought the hot water into the room. Bao Ning took a bath first, then wiped Pei Yuan down. She had asked Auntie Ming before; while the Red Cinnabar poison could be cured, there was currently no antidote for the leech toxin. Fortunately, it wasn’t fatal—just painful. Applying hot towels to the aching areas could provide some relief.

As she did this, Pei Yuan spoke a few words to her in a daze: “I must earn a titled lady’s rank for you.”

“Nonsense,” Bao Ning patted his arm. “Lift your hand.”

Pei Yuan said, “I’m serious. A First-Rank Titled Lady—how majestic.”

Bao Ning replied, “I don’t care about that.”

Pei Yuan asked again, “Then what do you care about?”

Bao Ning said, “I just want my family to be healthy, and for me to be healthy too. I want us all to live to be a hundred… a thousand years old.”

“Oh, I see. A family of old spirits,” Pei Yuan said. “Living to a hundred is fine, but I don’t want to live to a thousand. I’d have to live in the water then.”

Bao Ning asked curiously, “Why?”

Pei Yuan laughed loudly and answered, “Because that’s a soft-shell turtle!”

“…” Bao Ning was so annoyed she pinched his ear. “Go to sleep! Just go to sleep!”

Bao Ning originally thought the rain would pass quickly, but when she woke the next day and saw the gloomy winds howling outside, her heart skipped a beat. This was not good.

Mother Liu came in with breakfast and looked at the sky. “The clouds are thick and there’s no wind. I’m afraid it’ll rain for another two or three days.”

Bao Ning’s heart sank to the bottom. She brushed Mother Liu off with a few words and went back to see Pei Yuan. He was already awake, sitting on the bed playing with the dog.

Bao Ning worried about his health, but she worried even more about the plan three days from now. “What if it’s still raining then?”

“There’s no choice. A set plan can’t be changed for one person, and we can’t let the opportunity slip away.” Pei Yuan leaned tiredly against the wall. “Go call Wei Meng here.”

Bao Ning agreed. Fifteen minutes later, Wei Meng arrived. He bowed to Bao Ning and hurried into the inner chamber to speak with Pei Yuan.

Separated by a bead curtain, Bao Ning slumped over the table, chin resting on her wrist, eyes closed as her mind wandered aimlessly.

Bao Ning felt afraid. She had never worried about Pei Yuan’s health as much as she did today. She was someone who liked to be happy, so when faced with problems she couldn’t solve, she usually chose to escape or ignore them. She had felt the same way about Pei Yuan’s poison.

Usually, he was healthy and strong—a normal person. Bao Ning would comfort herself: So what if he’s poisoned? It doesn’t matter, it won’t kill him. It’s just hard on rainy days, and the pain passes. Pei Yuan was someone who could endure so much pain; she thought it wasn’t a problem and wouldn’t affect their lives at all.

But today, she watched as Pei Yuan grew thin overnight. She watched the continuous rain, watched Pei Yuan’s agony, and realized his carefully laid plans would be affected. Yet, she found she could do nothing. Bao Ning felt utterly powerless. She had been wrong before—this was a hurdle they couldn’t simply skip over.

But what could be done? Gongsun Zhu was dead, and there was no antidote. Auntie Ming said a blood transfusion was an option, but with only a 30% chance of success, no one dared take the risk.

When a bigger crisis occurs, one temporarily forgets the trivial thoughts that once plagued them. Bao Ning no longer thought about how this plan’s success would change her life, for better or worse. She only hoped Pei Yuan would get well quickly—healthy, living to a hundred, no longer suffering the torment of illness.

In the inner room, Wei Meng whispered, “Little General, the scouts in Pei Xiao’s manor sent news this morning. The Crown Princess has made a move against Yuan’er.”

Pei Yuan frowned. “Did she succeed?”

“No.” Wei Meng shook his head. “The Crown Princess’s plan was quite thorough. Children love candy, right? The manor uses poisoned sugar cubes to catch rats. She claimed there were too many rats lately and had someone place rat-catching equipment in Yuan’er’s room, ‘accidentally’ leaving a few brightly colored poison candies on the windowsill to lure him into eating them.”

“He recognized it was poison and didn’t eat it?”

Wei Meng waved his hand. “Not at all! The person the Crown Princess sent didn’t even make it into Yuan’er’s room! Yuan’er’s room is always locked, and outsiders aren’t allowed in. The servant picked the lock to get in. If he’d just done the deed and left, it would have been fine. But no! He thought there might be treasures in the room and decided to steal them, thinking a kid like Yuan’er wouldn’t be able to explain it. He started rummaging around and—lo and behold—he tripped some kind of mechanism. The whole room filled with snakes crawling out of cages—some a foot long, some as thin as a finger—and plenty of scorpions too. The servant was scared out of his mind and ran screaming through the manor. Pei Xiao caught him and interrogated him, and he spilled everything.”

“This…” Pei Yuan asked in shock, “Yuan’er raises snakes in his room?”

Wei Meng clicked his tongue. “I heard he raises a lot. Yuan’er’s wet nurse said he’s liked those things since he was little and treats them as playmates. Pei Xiao knew and has been keeping it quiet.”

Pei Yuan asked incredulously, “Don’t the snakes bite him?”

“Who knows?” Wei Meng was equally baffled. “The servant said they were all pointed-snout, red-headed calico snakes. They should be venomous.”

Pei Yuan suddenly remembered the scars on Yuan’er’s arms—those were marks left by snake bites… Could it be that Yuan’er wasn’t afraid of poison at all?

“Did you find out who threw the candy to him from the tree?”

Wei Meng said, “Still checking. No leads yet.”

Pei Yuan said, “As quickly as possible.”

Wei Meng complied. He studied Pei Yuan’s expression and said worriedly, “Little General, you should rest well. Don’t worry about other things. If your body still isn’t up to it in three days, I can go save the Emperor alone. The credit will still be yours anyway. You absolutely must stay alive… the Little Madam is only in her teens, don’t make her a widow…”

Pei Yuan gritted his teeth, still finding the strength to curse him: “Bullshit! Even after you’re dead, buried, rotten, and maggot-infested, I still won’t be dead!”

Wei Meng felt relieved. He bowed and took his leave.

Bao Ning, hearing their conversation from the outer room, burst into laughter. Her heavy mood lightened considerably. She went inside, fetched more hot water and medicinal wine, wiped his body down, dried him with a cloth, and then applied the medicinal wine, rubbing it in carefully.

She hoped with all her heart that the rain would stop soon.

But the next morning, more bad news arrived. The rain was steady and grew even heavier. Bao Ning couldn’t even force a smile anymore.

She realized the situation was much worse than she had imagined. Auntie Ming didn’t fully understand the leech toxin; she had only mentioned the consequences briefly before. Now Bao Ning realized just how fierce it was. After two days of rain, Pei Yuan had lost weight rapidly. This change was so sudden that Bao Ning couldn’t react. She tried everything to nourish him, brewing crucian carp soup. Pei Yuan drank it readily and finished a whole bowl, but before Bao Ning could even feel happy, he threw it all up a moment later, along with yellow bile, leaving nothing in his stomach.

Bao Ning was heartbroken. She didn’t dare cry in front of him, so she hid outside and cried secretly.

She felt that their lives were simply too difficult.

Pei Yuan told her, “There’s a rainbow after the storm. Wait until the rain stops, and I’ll take you to the courtyard to ride a ‘big horse’—you can ride on me, okay? We’ll watch the rainbow together.”

Bao Ning said okay, but she didn’t know when the rain would stop.

He then showed his rogue nature again, leaning sloppily against a soft pillow, waving a cattail fan with one hand and crossing his legs. “Just wait. After I take another nap and have a dream, I’ll dive three thousand feet into the Eastern Sea, drag that Dragon King up, use a hundred kinds of torture, pull down his pants, and smack his white butt while asking him: ‘Are you going to stop? Are you going to stop?'”

That night, the rain actually stopped for a while, but it started again the next morning.

Bao Ning noticed that Pei Yuan’s left leg didn’t seem as flexible as before. The previous toxin and sword wounds had already damaged the bone. He was young and had mostly recovered, but this time all the old injuries had been flared up. Bao Ning helped Pei Yuan off the bed to let him walk a few steps. He walked unsteadily, and after just one step, he played the rogue and said he wouldn’t walk anymore, wanting to go back and lie down.

Bao Ning wanted to cry again but forced herself not to, saying as if she didn’t care, “Mhm, there’s no point in walking. Go back to sleep!”

After settling Pei Yuan, she sat on the stone steps outside, buried her head in her arms, and wept silently. A-Mian and Jixiang were exceptionally well-behaved these past few days, crouching by her side to keep her company.

Bao Ning was interrupted by A-Huang’s barking. It barked all the way back, leading Wei Meng and a woman with her face veiled in black silk.

Bao Ning looked up. Wei Meng, unable to hide his excitement, said to her, “Little Madam, we’ve found Yuan’er’s mother!”

The woman gave Bao Ning a bow, neither humble nor arrogant. Her voice was coarse and unpleasant as she said: “This servant’s name is Mo Nanshu.”

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