Chapter 48

Walking through the winding corridor, Lingxiao and Lianshan were taken to the bedroom of Prince Mu.

After getting the permission to get in, they stepped into the inner room following the middle-aged man. A girl in green was carefully wiping the face of the man in bed as if she wasn’t even aware that someone had come in.

After pausing for a while, the middle-aged man leading the way smoothed his clothes and was about to say something, but was interrupted by the girl. “Butler Xing, you may leave now!” she said, her voice silvery and gentle.

“Yes!” the man answered obediently and then walked out, without even taking a look at Lingxiao and Lianshan.

After rising to her feet, the girl put the handkerchief in the water basin held by a young maidservant next to her before she turned and fixed her gaze on Lingxiao. “You’re the physician?”

“Yes!”

“Do you know if you can’t wake His Highness up, you will not only be beaten with sticks but also lose your qualification to be a physician?”

“I know!” Lingxiao answered calmly.

“Good!” With a nod, the girl walked to the bed and said respectfully, “Physician Ling, we’re counting on you!”

“I’m flattered!” Lingxiao answered politely, but instead of walking to the bed, he lifted the hem of his robe and sat down on the chair carved with a pattern. Unfolding his fan gracefully, he continued, “Before diagnosing, I need to know if Prince Mu suffered from any health problems and if there was anything unusual about his behavior before he lost consciousness. Miss, could you please get the one who served Prince Mu in bed that night here? I have some questions for her.”

“Er…” The girl remained silent with a gleam of hesitation in her eyes.

Lingxiao had figured out what was on her mind, so he added with a faint smile, “Observation, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry, pulse feeling and palpation are the basic methods of diagnosing illness. Every time I examine a patient, I ask him about his medical history and his physical conditions, but as Prince Mu is unconscious now, I have to inquire about this to the person who stayed with him that night. Do you think I’ve gone too far?”

Hearing that, the girl said with a smile, “Don’t get me wrong, Physician Ling! Just a moment, please!”

She then whispered in the ear of the young maidservant beside her and the latter then hurried out with a nod.

About ten minutes later, a voice rang outside loudly. “Here comes Her Highness!”

Seeing that the girl walked to the door in haste, Lingxiao rose from his chair with a strange look, as if the scene gave him some sort of a thrill.

After a while, a well-dressed noble ‘young lady’ appeared at the door.

“Your Highness, greetings!” The girl in green bowed to ‘her’ respectfully.

“Your Highness, this is Ling Xiao paying respect to you!” With that, Lingxiao bowed to the ‘princess’ as well. Hearing him greet the lady loudly, Lianshan was filled with doubt. “My young master said he hated women with heavy makeup, but why did he treat her so differently? Wait… how come this princess smells like the herb named ‘Liuyun’?”

“You may rise!” Zixiu waved his hand as if he were the genuine princess. “If it weren’t for that pervert’s sudden unconsciousness, Xingyi wouldn’t have been so respectful to me!” he thought.

When he found in surprise that the arrogant physician who had taken down the notice was a young man, he couldn’t help but wonder, “Is he the physician? Aren’t those experienced physicians all gray-bearded old men? Seems this is another crazy guy who would rather take the risk of being beaten up for a reward. But ten thousand ingots of silver are very tempting indeed…”

“Eh-hem!” Xingyi suddenly coughed slightly, hinting the “princess” not to stand by the door in a daze.

When Zixiu came back to his senses, he immediately put on an anxious look, as if he worried about Prince Mu very much. However, he was stupefied again the moment he saw what the arrogant physician was doing. “Gosh! Is that guy making eyes at me? How dare he flirt with a princess? Are my eyes deceiving me?”

“Eh-hem!” Seeing Zixiu still standing at the door like a log, Xingyi deliberately coughed again.

However, to her surprise, Physician Ling, who was smiling brilliantly, suddenly put on a solemn look. “Miss, as you can’t stop coughing, you’d better stay somewhere else. Prince Mu is very weak at the moment and the consequences could be serious if he gets infected. I’ll ask my servant to send you some medicine for your cough later.”

“Mind your own business!” Xingyi thought resentfully, but she didn’t say anything. “Maybe this young man can cure Prince Mu. Who knows? But if he can’t, I’m going to make him pay the price for his meddling!”