Chapter 143: Evidence in the Bones

Chengqian was deeply depressed.

Not only had he been knocked unconscious before he knew what was happening, but when he awoke, he was greeted by another burst of excruciating pain. It came suddenly from his foot, completely without warning, and was so intense that it nearly knocked him unconscious all over again.

“Liu Yitiao!” Li Chengqian gave a bitter smile. This benefactor of his truly was audacious beyond belief. He had actually dared to strike the Crown Prince himself.

But on further thought, it was not all that surprising. He had heard that when Liu Yitiao first treated his injuries, he had looked fierce enough to frighten the famously brave Li Jihe with a single roar.

“Alas!” Li Chengqian sighed inwardly again. He was utterly speechless at Liu Yitiao’s method of treatment.

Did he really have to knock him out by beating him whenever he performed surgery?

He remembered that the imperial physicians at the Imperial Medical Office had dozens of ways to make a person lose consciousness silently and painlessly. Why had Liu Yitiao chosen this method of all things?

“Your Highness, you are awake?” Liu Yitiao looked at Li Chengqian with a smile. He lightly cupped his hands and said, “Congratulations, Your Highness. The operation was a success, and the foreign object has been removed. In another two or three months, Your Highness should be able to walk again—yes, walk just like an ordinary person.”

“What?!” Li Chengqian’s spirits soared. Enduring the tremendous pain radiating from his right foot, he bared his teeth and asked Liu Yitiao, “Is that true, Master Liu? Will I really be able to walk like an ordinary person? I will not be a cripple anymore?”

Liu Yitiao understood the feeling of having been granted a new lease on life. He chuckled and comforted Li Chengqian. “Yes, Your Highness. Once your bones and tendons have fully healed, you will no longer need to limp. From this day forward, you are a normal person.”

“Thank you, Master Liu! Thank you, Master Liu!” At the sudden good news, Li Chengqian’s eyes reddened, and he looked as though he might cry.

For an entire year, he had suffered. For an entire year, he had been abandoned and humiliated by countless people. And now, was his foot finally going to recover?

Seeing Li Chengqian on the verge of tears from joy, Liu Yitiao smiled and nodded. He rose to his feet and said, “Very well, Your Highness. The operation was successful, and you are no longer in danger. I shall go outside and announce the good news to His Majesty and Her Highness the Empress. After waiting so long, they must be frantic with worry.”

“Yes, yes. I have troubled you, Master Liu!” Li Chengqian forced himself upright and sincerely cupped his hands in salute.

The slight resentment he had felt toward Liu Yitiao earlier vanished without a trace. Compared with the recovery of his right foot, what did one blow from Liu Yitiao amount to?

“Then, Your Highness, be sure to rest. This humble one shall take his leave.” Liu Yitiao bowed to Li Chengqian, then bent down and withdrew.

Outside Li Chengqian’s bedroom, Li Shimin and Empress Changsun, along with the imperial physicians, were all watching Sun Simiao and his disciple anxiously.

After Liu Yitiao had removed the foreign object from Li Chengqian’s ankle and successfully sutured the wound, Sun Simiao had not stayed behind to wait for Li Chengqian to awaken. Instead, he had removed the silver needles from Li Chengqian’s leg and led his disciple, the Long-Brow Daoist, outside.

There, they happened to encounter Li Shimin and the others, who had already been waiting at the door for quite some time.

When Li Shimin and Empress Changsun asked Sun Simiao about the operation inside the bedroom, he gave only one reply:

“Brother Liu’s skill is nothing short of miraculous. This old Daoist is no match for him.”

After that, he said nothing more.

Yet that single sentence was enough to set Li Shimin and Empress Changsun considerably at ease.

“Your Majesty, Master Liu has come out,” the eunuch who had been standing guard at the door loudly announced.

Li Shimin’s face brightened, and he immediately instructed the eunuch, “Quickly, invite Master Liu in to speak with us!”

“This humble one pays his respects to Your Majesty and Her Highness the Empress.” Liu Yitiao emerged from the bedroom with a calm expression. When he reached Li Shimin and Empress Changsun, he bowed to them.

“Master Liu, there is no need for such formalities. How is the Crown Prince now?” Empress Changsun’s expression was anxious. After waiting for so long, her heart had been in her throat the entire time.

“Thanks to Your Majesty and Her Highness the Empress, the operation was successful. His Highness is out of danger, and everything is well. The Crown Prince has already awakened, and his condition is fairly good. Your Majesty and Her Highness may go in and see him,” Liu Yitiao replied with a cupped-hand salute.

“You have worked hard, Master Liu!” Upon hearing this, Li Shimin rose and ordered his attendants to carry Empress Changsun inside with him.

Liu Yitiao, Sun Simiao and his disciple, and all the imperial physicians followed behind them.

For a time, the already cramped bedroom was packed with people.

“This son pays his respects to Father Emperor and Mother Empress. I cannot rise to salute you in person. I hope Father Emperor and Mother Empress will forgive me!” With the help of the eunuchs, Li Chengqian had propped himself up against the bed. When he saw Li Shimin and Empress Changsun enter, he hurriedly straightened and bowed in greeting.

“Ah, Chengqian, there is no need for such ceremony. Quickly, lie back down.” Li Shimin walked to the bedside and sat down gently. Patting Li Chengqian on the shoulder, he helped him settle onto his side and said softly, “You have only just undergone surgery and are still injured. You must not—”

“Yes, Father. I understand. Thank you, Father.” Li Chengqian took the opportunity to lie back down, warmth rising in his heart. It had been a long time since Li Shimin had shown him such concern.

“Chengqian, how do you feel now? Does your foot hurt?” Empress Changsun was carried to the bedside. Seeing Li Chengqian’s tightly bandaged right foot, and the spots of blood splattered across the floor during the operation, she felt an unbearable ache in her heart and could not help asking.

“Thank you for your concern, Mother. I am already fine, and I feel quite well.” Li Chengqian nodded lightly. Looking at Empress Changsun’s pale, worried face, he forced himself to tell a white lie.

“Good. That is good. Now Mother can finally be at ease.” Seeing his expression, Empress Changsun nodded with relief, and a faint smile appeared on her face. At last, the stone weighing on her heart had fallen away.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness the Empress.” At that moment, Liu Yitiao took a wooden tray from the hands of a eunuch. He cast a sidelong glance at Wang Zikui’s somewhat pale face and gave a faint smile. Then he walked before Li Shimin and Empress Changsun and bowed. “This is the sharp foreign object I removed from His Highness’s right ankle. I ask Your Majesty and Her Highness to examine it.”

“A gold leaf?” Li Shimin’s expression changed.

Lying on the tray was a bloodstained gold leaf—a thin piece of gold roughly two inches long and one inch wide.

How could a gold leaf have ended up inside the Crown Prince’s right foot? Had his foot not been injured when it was trampled by a horse? Where had this gold leaf come from?

“Wang Zikui!” Li Shimin pointed at the object on the tray and shouted furiously, “How do you explain this?”

“Your Majesty!” Wang Zikui instantly fell to his knees, pressing all four limbs to the floor. Yet even then, he continued to argue in his own defense. “This was an error on my part. I failed to examine the injury carefully at the time, causing His Highness’s foot to become crippled. I beg Your Majesty to punish me!”

An error?

Li Shimin snorted coldly, utterly dismissive of Wang Zikui’s words. He could not help recalling Liu Yitiao’s earlier assessment of the man.

Had Wang Zikui tampered with both the Crown Prince’s foot and the Empress’s illness? Who had ordered him to do it? What had given him the courage to act so boldly?

For a moment, Li Shimin was enraged.

Wang Zikui was the head of the Imperial Medical Office, entrusted with the grave responsibility of treating the imperial family and administering their medicines. If he had been bribed or bought by someone, the consequences were almost too terrible for Li Shimin to imagine. Even his back felt cold.

“You worthless dog!” Li Shimin kicked Wang Zikui to the ground and roared, “Do you take me for a fool who understands nothing? An error? Could one of your errors cause a gold leaf to appear inside the Crown Prince’s bones for no reason at all?!”

“Your Majesty, please calm your anger!”

All the imperial physicians fell to their knees. Even a fool could see by now that Wang Zikui, the head of the Imperial Medical Office, was deeply implicated.

“Hmph!” Li Shimin gave another cold snort. He glanced warningly at the physicians, then shouted toward the outside, “Where are the Eastern Palace guards?”

“Your servant is here!” Li Jihe entered the bedchamber with two guards, bowed to Li Shimin, and replied in a ringing voice, “What are Your Majesty’s orders?”

“Seize Wang Zikui, head of the Imperial Medical Office! Imprison him and keep him under guard in the Eastern Palace for now. After I personally interrogate him tonight, execute his entire clan and display his remains as a warning to the people!”

As he spoke, Li Shimin’s expression was ruthless and his voice icy, revealing the full majesty of a blood-and-iron emperor.

The imperial physicians shrank their necks in terror, fearing that Li Shimin’s fury might spread to them.

Execute his entire clan?

Liu Yitiao could not help shivering. It seemed that Li Shimin, the illustrious ruler, was truly enraged.

“Your Majesty, please calm yourself.” Empress Changsun quietly urged him from the side. “Wang Zikui deserves death a hundred times over, but his family should not be implicated in his crimes. I beg Your Majesty to act according to the law and not undermine the foundation upon which our Great Tang was built.”

Although she disliked Li Tai and knew that he might have harbored intentions against both his brother and his mother, he was still her own flesh and blood. Empress Changsun did not want him to become too deeply entangled in this affair. If word of it spread, it would also damage the dignity of the imperial family.

“Hmm.” Li Shimin pondered for a moment, and his anger subsided somewhat. He waved to Li Jihe and ordered, “Take him away for now.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Li Jihe cupped his hands in salute, then stepped forward, seized Wang Zikui by the shoulders, and dragged him away.

As he passed through the doorway, Wang Zikui continued shouting, “Your Majesty, I have been wronged! Your Majesty!”

His voice was louder and more shrill than ever before. Unfortunately, no one was willing to listen to his protests anymore—

A man should live as a hero, and die as a hero’s ghost. Even now, I remember Xiang Yu, who refused to cross the river eastward.

After hearing the poem, Xiang Yu’s tears poured down his face. He muttered under his breath, “Truth be told, I did rather want to cross it. But I had no monthly votes, and that rascal Liu Yitiao absolutely refused to carry me over, so…”