Chapter 257 - Mysterious Old Sage

Ling mama quickly went over to the Empress dowager's side, bowed and went, "Your majesty, are you alright? I had heard you were injured..." Ling mama said with concern.

Unfortunately, on their journey back Ling mama started feeling sick and was stopping to throw up. This irritated the Empress dowager and after the third time of her stopping, the Empress dowager simply rode off leaving her alone to catch up. Although two of the men ended up riding back to follow along with her slower pace for her protection. 

This made Ling mama very happy as it showed that the Empress dowager was concerned over her wellbeing. Unbeknownst to her, it was the Commander who was nice enough to send those two men back to her, not the Empress dowager.

The Empress dowager did not respond and so Ling mama tried again, touching the Empress dowager, "Your maje -" Her words were cut short when the shrugged her off and stormed up to the doors.

The Empress dowager tried to open the doors but it did not budge, she scowled and barked, "I said open the doors!" 

Still no response, the Empress dowager repeated herself, but still nothing. She barked the order again, sounding more irate but still, the doors did not open.

The Empress dowager then flew into a full rage and started banging on the doors as she barked, "I said open the doors! How dare he do this to me?! Who does he think he is?! He is MY son! That ungrateful, good-for-nothing useless son! Get him here this instant! Tell him to come to face me so I can end him as he wants! As I always should have! Bring him h-"

Song mama took a step forward but then froze with a conflicted expression on her face. She wanted to go over to help the Empress dowager out of worry but she was too scared for herself to move.

Ling mama on the hand was courageous, she raced over to the Empress dowager and held her arm, "Your majesty, calm down. You will hurt your hands-"

The Empress dowager immediately slapped and shoved her off to the ground, turning her rage on her, "How dare you touch me?! Who do you think you are?!" 

Ling mama stared up at the Empress dowager in shock as her face stung, holding her breath. To her relief, the Empress dowager turned back to the doors and continued her banging and screaming. This time no one interfered.

Ling mama slowly got on her feet as her uneasy gaze met Song mama's equally uneasy gaze. Ling mama gulped dreading what sort of trouble she had gotten herself into as she shuffled back from the scene as the Empress dowager continued to rage, repeating threat after threat.

"I will kill all of you! You all deserve to die! How dare you? How dare you all do this to me?! Yo -" The Empress dowager suddenly stopped and gripped her head and bent over in pain and then she just dropped to the ground. 

Ling mama and Song mama immediately rushed over to her, screaming, "Your majesty!"

Song mama promptly got up to bang on the doors herself as she shouted over, "Send for a physician! The Empress dowager has fainted! Quickly!"

***

In the royal study, Commander An was briefing the Emperor on the result of the search. As expected, they found nothing. Suddenly an Imperial guard rushed in and reported, "Your majesty, the Empress dowager has fainted!"

The Emperor simply looked at the man for a bit and then he casually asked, "Is an Imperial physician there?"

"We sent for one...But she has been asking for you." The Imperial guard tentatively said.

"That's fine then...Leave." The Emperor said in the same casual tone. The Imperial guard covertly glanced up at the Emperor, who clearly was not bothered or planning to even move. The man bowed and made his way out.

Although, the man had been at the Chen manor and witnessed the Empress dowager's erratic behavior, hearing the Empress dowager banging on the doors and screaming like that was quite nerve-racking...and pitiful. The woman was pitiful.

After the Imperial guard left, the Emperor turned back to Commander An and asked, "What about the survivor?"

"The sword wounds on his body are not worrisome. But the head physician said that his head wound was quite so he can't say when or if the man will wake up..." Commander An solemnly informed. 

The Emperor let out a breath, "And Madame Chen?"

Commander An knit his brows, "She is still unconscious...Her wound is not too deep, but the bleeding is not stopping. The physicians have tried everything to stop it but they've only managed to slow it down a bit...If it continues then the head physician said she will not make it to tomorrow..." 

The Emperor massaged his head and let out a heavy breath. Doctor Lou then flashed his mind again and he immediately perked up and ordered, "Go find that Doctor Lou and ask him for assistance...He is very knowledgeable and may have a solution..." 

Commander An blinked, nodded, and promptly left The Emperor let out another heavy sigh, today was a very long and tiring day. Now that he thought about it, Doctor Lou was probably the one who told Lei Xing about how to use the cure for the flower poison through the bracelet that time. 

The Emperor hoped that the knowledgeable Doctor Lou's could save the woman's life. He should truly not have allowed his mother free roam. He had seen the signs but chose to ignore them just like his father did and now an innocent woman was going to die because of it.

The Emperor knit his brows and let out another heavy sigh.

{...I should have done better...}

***

Commander An went to Doctor Lou's pharmacy but surprisingly found it closed. He tried knocking a few times but received no response. So he left someone there to wait for the old man to inform him of the Emperor's order and bring him over to the Chen manor.

Commander An then returned to the Chen manor to check on the status of things there; madame Chen's condition, but most importantly, that of their prisoner who was left there because the head physician said moving the man could result in further damage.

As soon as Commander An arrived at the Chen manor, one of the imperial guards came over and informed, "There's an old man waiting for you. He said you are friends and he had something important to tell you...We confined him in the front courtyard..."

Commander An knit his brows, thinking that it might be Doctor Lou. But then he was just coming from the pharmacy. Doctor Lou could not have returned and got here before him which meant the old man was on his way here already. Commander An wondered if he might have some information on the enemy for him and so he quickly went entered the Chen manor.

And just as he suspected, it was Doctor Lou but he was sitting on the hard ground in the middle of the courtyard. Commander An turned a question glance at the guards and one of them immediately explained, "We tried to offer him a seat but he insisted on sitting there...and said we were disturbing him so we let him be..."

That definitely sounded like the old man and so Commander An nodded and went over to him, "Doctor -"

"Shhhh! Do not disturb!" Doctor Lou immediately shut him up to the surprise of the guards. It was one thing for the old man to be rude to them but to their leader, it was not acceptable. They were ready to drag the old man up, but then to their surprise again Commander An did not issue any order, he did not even seem offended. 

Instead, Commander An simply scrutinized Doctor Lou. The old man had assumed a meditation pose with his eyes closed. What's more, he was actually sitting right at the spot the enemies had disappeared the night before. They had advertised the details about the disappearance and so this fact made it all the more intriguing.

Commander An was not sure why, but he got the sense that perhaps the old man might truly know something about this mystery. Otherwise, why else would he be "meditating" on this exact spot?

As Commander An was debating whether to give Doctor Lou a few minutes, Doctor Lou frowned and mumbled, "This is strange...very strange."

"What is? What is strange?" Commander An swiftly inquired, but Doctor Lou just raised a hand up, telling him to be quiet.

Commander An knit his brows and waited with bated breath as Doctor Lou continued on with whatever he was doing.

Doctor Lou then began stroking his beard with a deep frown as he lightly swayed from side to side.

{...Feels like mine but it's definitely not mine, I would know if it was me - and I haven't! ( ￣^￣ )... Hmm, it wouldn't be that annoying sister of mine, wou- No, no, I would also know and she's also too much of a tree to ever do anything fun!... And the only other person this could be...is long dead...Hmm, so what is this?...}

Doctor Lou opened his eyes with a sigh as he mumbled, "Someone must be playing a trick on me hehehe~" Doctor Lou chuckled in amus.e.m.e.nt, "It's a good one..." It had been a long time since he found something that truly confused him. 

It was one thing to copy a person's appearance, but it was a whole different level to copy the essence of a person's soul. He would have liked to exchange notes with the perpetrator of this but he would not pry into someone else's business. Moreover, he could not even trace the person even if he wanted to, the trace goes nowhere. 

"So what did you find?" Commander An asked, cutting into Doctor Lou's thoughts. Doctor Lou innocently blinked up at him as he asked, "Find? Was I looking for something?"

Commander An knit his brows and motioned to where he was sitting, "They said you have something important to tell me. You also just said something was strange...you were referring to this disappearance spot, correct? is there something about this spot? Or did you find something about the enemy...what trick?"

"Ohhh, you mean the disappearance~...Help me up!" Doctor Lou went raising up an arm, Commander An pursed his lips but he quickly grabbed his arm and pulled the old man up, "Now tell me, what did you discover?"

Doctor Lou stretched his back, yawned and then said, "...I heard some people mysteriously disappeared in the Chen manor so I came to see~ It's not every day that happens and I was thinking of helping Xiao Kai hehe~ You know we a-"

"Okay, what did you find?" Commander An cut in before Doctor Lou could go off topic.

Doctor Lou then pouted and pulled at his long beard as he said, "Nothing...I tried to trace them with my amazing mind but I could not..."

Commander An let out a breath as his hopes were dashed.

"I'm going home~" Doctor Lou announced and was about to turn when Commander An grabbed his arm. Doctor Lou squinted at him and said, "My arm needs to come too..."