Li Xin Gui, Li Xin Gui, why didn’t you come back after three years had passed? It was pleasant to be together and bitter to part. There were always spoony people in this world. Between the layers of clouds in the sky and the heavy snow on the mountains, you may wonder where you should go since you are alone now.

The rare grass, Li Xin Gui could only be found on the cliffs of the extremely cold areas in winter. Once Zhu Quan had gone for a trip and brought two blades of it to He Danggui. He asked her to decoct them and drink the soup. When she asked him what good the grass could bring to her health and what disease it could cure, Zhu Quan wrote down those lines for her and said “let’s wait and see”. However, she waited for several days and didn’t see anything special. She had long since forgotten this matter in her previous life. Why would Lu Jiangbei suddenly mention the gray-green grass that looked like moss?

He Danggui suffered from her own actions. Her hands trembled like that of old people but she still pricked her Aching Acupoint with silver needles. When Lu Jiangbei mentioned “Li Xin Gui”, she was slightly shocked and pricked herself hard so tears welled up in her eyes and she fell backward because of the pain. Lu Jiangbei kept saying without glancing at her, “Miss He, have you heard about the legend of ‘Li Xin Gui’? It is nicknamed ‘Black Widow’ which doesn’t sound good at all, but the story about it is so tragic that people can’t even bear to hear it.”

When the pain was relieved, He Danggui found in shock that her body could move slowly now and her numb legs began to feel better. Sure enough, Aching Acupoints should be pricked hard if people wanted the treatment to work, but they always couldn’t do this to themselves. Only when they pricked others could they be not soft-hearted. He Danggui got up slowly. She pricked her Shaoyang channel with a silver needle to regain her strength and at the same time, she squinted at Lu Jiangbei again. She said in a bad tone, “How weird it is. I thought Mr. Lu was a straightforward man, but why did you keep beating around the bush and playing charades with me this time? Black Widow or White Madam? What do they have to do with me? For me, Lord Ning is like the noble Arhat and Golden Immortal that only exist in heaven. What will he have to do with me? I’m not smart or patient enough. Please be franker, Mr. Lu.”

Lu Jiangbei turned his head to her and blinked his eyes several times before replying with a smile. He said, “Great. Your acupuncture is indeed powerful. It’s great that you’ve cured your mute throat. You look more vigorous now so you’re out of the desperate situation you’ve been in for several days. I can rest assured, then. If you die because of saving us, I will feel really guilty. As for the matter about Lord Ning, I just mentioned it casually and it wasn’t anything important. Since you don’t like to hear things about him, I will stop making you angry with such careless remarks.”

After she finished her words, He Danggui still didn’t realize she wasn’t mute anymore. As soon as Lu Jiangbei reminded her, she finally found it and felt slightly glad. She stopped being angry at him and said with a smile, “I just saved you by accident that day and it was not a big deal. Mr. Lu, you don’t have to be so grateful. But what about the thing happening when you tried to heal me? You should explain it to me clearly. Reputations are always important to women. No matter how knowledgeable or generous I am, I care about this as much as other ordinary women do. Before I woke up, did anyone strip me of my clothes? Did anyone see me being naked? And why would you heal me in that way, Mr. Lu? I’ve never heard of such a treatment.”

Lu Jiangbei quietly waited for her to finish her questions. Then, he moved closer to her on the bed, touched the pulse in her right wrist with one hand, and felt the temperature on her forehead with the other. He said in a low voice, “I knew you would get angry after you woke up if I did that to you, but I felt terrible as soon as I thought you might never wake up again. If you want to vent your anger, just scold me.”

He Danggui didn’t feel uncomfortable about his intimate behavior. She just took her eyes off him and asked while looking in another direction, “I just want to know what has happened before I vent my anger. You’ve paid much effort to save me and I feel thankful for that. But I can’t understand why I’m in Yinma Town now. Didn’t anyone in Yangzhou City feel anxious about my being missing?” Even if Meng Xuan didn’t know she was poisoned, he would be very worried because they hadn’t seen each other for long.

“Don’t worry.” Lu Jiangbei replied, “Feng Yang said he would solve the problem in Luo’s Mansion. No one would know you were resting in Yinma Town. It would be good if you were cured. If not, we would send your body back to Luo’s Mansion and told people you died of some disease. It wouldn’t ruin your reputation. We decided on these things that day. Now you’re still alive. It is so good. You may not know that a year ago, Dongchang Organization and Imperial Guards were affected badly because of something happening in the capital. Imperial Guards were already the lucky ones while many of the eunuchs in Dongchang Organization lost their lives. After that, the Department of Imperial Guard has been transferred to Baisha Mountain Villa in Yinma Town. All the precious vulneraries and treating equipment are here. And it only takes half a day to get here from Yangzhou City if we can move fast. Thus, I made the decision to bring you here with a soft sedan.”

“A soft sedan?” He Danggui asked in confusion. What kind of strong men could walk over a hundred miles while carrying a sedan?

“Yes, a soft sedan. We were afraid that it would hurt you if we used other vehicles.” After having checked her pulse, Lu Jiangbei stood up and walked toward the ice sculpture in the shape of a deer nearby. His hand seemed to have triggered some mechanism and an over two-zhang-high door was opened in the wall. Then, a row of mahogany medicine chests was seen inside. While he was filling the prescription deftly by taking out medicine from every tiny drawer, Lu Jiangbei smiled and continued, “I’m going to mention the name you don’t like again. It was also Lord Ning’s idea to use a soft sedan and he volunteered to carry it. But at least two men were needed to do that and Xue Xiao had the best physical strength among us back then. Thus, the two of them brought you to Baisha Mountain Villa before the night was out. Miss He, you thought Lord Ning was beyond your reach because of his high social status, but he has carried the sedan for you.”

He Danggui remained silent and began to make a cross in her arm with silver needles. Why did Lu Jiangbei mention Zhu Quan frequently? Based on what he said, Zhu Quan became a good man while she wasn’t grateful at all… Suddenly, she felt pain in her fingertip and made a low scream. Then, she apologized, “Sorry. I broke your needle.” What was going on? Was the Spirit and Love Poison in Zhu Quan’s body activated again? It was so annoying.

If she could make a choice, she would rather die than be saved by Zhu Quan and owe him the favor. Although she had seen the old stories in the seventh stage and knew he wasn’t a villain that wanted to kill her, what happened before was still vivid in her mind. Her abortion, the matter about Xiaoyou, and those bad things she couldn’t even count on her ten fingers only proved that Zhu Quan was so cold-blooded and selfish that he would make people’s blood boil. It was right to stay far away from such a man. Back then, when she was Concubine He, she was blinded by her own fantasies and acted presumingly as a docile woman who lived happily and was willing to sacrifice herself. She could only blame herself for failing to know she shouldn’t love a man like him.

Now a long time had passed and everything had been changed. Her love for Zhu Quan had long since become more subtle than dust and not even a bit of “hatred” was left in her heart. She only felt regretful for their old relationship and didn’t even want to have a nodding acquaintance with him. She just wanted to empty her memories about that period of time as if she hadn’t married anyone or been pregnant. However, why couldn’t Zhu Quan just stop? When would he stay far away from her world and become the arrogant, selfish, and cruel Lord Ning he was before? The two of them would feel comfortable if he could do that.

“You feel uncomfortable about it, don’t you? Right, it’s not easy to pay the debt of gratitude.” Lu Jiangbei seemed to have X-ray vision. When seeing her gloomy face, he knew she didn’t feel happy or grateful at all after knowing Zhu Quan had condescended to save her. Instead, she was like a turtle that wished to take off its old shell and throw it to her savior before having a new one to protect itself.

Having witnessed how Zhu Quan behaved that day and seen He Danggui’s reaction now, Lu Jiangbei was certain that the relationship between them was complicated and mysterious. He wasn’t a gossiper but he became slightly curious about it now. After he had filled the prescription, he didn’t bring the medicine to He Danggui immediately but light a fire below a pot on the other end of the icehouse. When the small amount of water in the pot was boiling, he added Si He Flour and yak butter to it. Then, he poured some goat milk after he could smell the scent and stirred it steadily to make it golden paste. Nearly a half pot of goat milk paste was cooked by him.

Lu Jiangbei moved the pot to the bedside and put it on the ground of Ice Pool. As soon as the bottom of the pot touched the ground, the ice began to “sizzle” and lots of steam came out. He apologized, “We don’t have enough tableware here. I can’t find you a spoon and only get two bowls. You just eat some paste. It’ll be better for you to eat something before taking the medicine.” When he finished his words, he saw the confusion shown in He Danggui’s face as if she was asking, “There’s no spoon here? But I felt someone was feeding medicine to me when I was asleep! There’s no spoon here? Really?”

Lu Jiangbei hesitated for a moment before telling her the truth. He replied, “Didn’t I say that Mr. Duan was severely injured so he couldn’t exert his internal energy to heal you? In fact, it was more than that. You were brought to Baisha Mountain Villa first. When Mr. Duan knew it later, he immediately rode a horse after you but it was dark and the road was slippery at that time so he fell off a cliff. Fortunately, Mr. Duan was always lucky and didn’t die but just break one of his legs. He couldn’t walk freely but he still insisted on ‘supervising’ us while we were doing the treatment for you. He said he was afraid that Lynx might avenge the private grudge in the name of treating you. He couldn’t walk and you were still in a coma. Thus, we put the two of you on the same bed ‘incidentally’.”

He Danggui thought, “It turns out that the light fragrance of pear flowers isn’t my illusion. It’s from a real person.”

“Someone did strip you of your clothes. It was Mr. Duan. After he had covered you with the quilt, we came in and started the treatment.” Lu Jiangbei told her the whole cruel truth at one blow as if he was testing her endurance, “As for your body, Gao Jue, Jiang Yi, Song Fei, Lynx, and I all have touched it. I’m very sorry. We did that just because we had to, or you would definitely die and even Mr. Duan would lose his life as well. The situation was so urgent. Miss He, you have medical knowledge, too. What kind of poison is He He Qi Ri Qing and what will the result be after it reaches people’s heart arteries? I can’t explain them clearly but you can try pricking your Zhongfu acupoint and Guanyuan acupoint now. Look at the points of the needles and you will see there is still poison in your body.”

He Danggui tried as he said and the points of the needles became golden-red! What was the poison? A poison should’ve become black sediment in human bodies after it was activated, shouldn’t it?

“The situation back then was so urgent that even the antidote couldn’t save your life. We could just have one of us act as the guiding medicine with his blood.” Lu Jiangbei showed his left wrist and patted it. A slight scar could be seen on it. He continued with a smile, “We’ve all tried and only my blood could mix with yours. Thus, I took He He Qi Ri Qing first and three times as much as the antidote. Then, I cut your right palm and my left wrist and sent my blood with the antidote into your body. However, you were extremely weak and we needed to send the blood and keep you alive by feeding ginseng soup to you at the same time. Since we didn’t have a spoon in the icehouse, Mr. Duan finished the task.”

What did that mean?

“That meant he had not only stripped you of your clothes but also kept feeding ginseng soup and herb soup to you. We saw he did it very smoothly so we didn’t try to bring any spoon to the icehouse.” Lu Jiangbei told He Danggui these details thoughtfully, “After you took the antidote, your condition was still not stable. Thus, we decided to invigorate the circulation of your blood with ‘Ba Huang Finger’. In the process, you would feel your body was burning in the fire so we needed to take off your clothes and put you in an icehouse. This was also why we decided to bring you to Baisha Mountain Villa. The natural icehouse here is the coldest place in the southern area. Thus, Mr. Duan just had to strip you of your clothes. If you don’t believe me, you can tear apart the quilt covering you now. Then, you will see we have stuffed it with asbestos to prevent causing a fire while we were using the finger technique. And after having transmitted internal energy for five days, everyone became exhausted. Only I stay here and to avert suspicion, I asked a maid named Liu Sui to help you put on your clothes since Mr. Duan wasn’t here.”

So should she thank them for doing those things?

Seeing the strange look on her face, Lu Jiangbei persuaded, “Only if you can survive will your life become meaningful. If you died, you would only be dust and no matter how good your reputation was, it would be meaningless. Nothing is more important than your staying alive. Mr. Duan and I had the same thought so we gathered others to invigorate the circulation of your blood. Only one or two people wouldn’t make it and we had to take turns. As for the way to transmit the energy, it’s just like what I did before. I put one hand on your Dantian outside the quilt and my three fingers of the other hand on the Xuehai acupoint behind your knee through the hole of your trousers. I covered you with a thin quilt in such a cold place just because it was convenient for me to transmit internal energy to you.”

Hearing it, He Danggui felt relieved. That was all? Fortunately, he just transmitted internal energy across the quilt. Since she was saved by them, she would forget about these details. Lu Jiangbei was right. Only if she stayed alive could she have the future. If she died, everything would be meaningless. She would have to be reincarnated and become ignorant again. There would be new trouble for her to handle and she might get through more humiliation. She was very willing to stay alive because there were lots of people important to her in this life.

“These are what we have done to you and we are all willing to take responsibility. You can choose one from us to be your husband,” Lu Jiangbei suggested, “if you don’t want to marry Zhu Quan, Lord Ning. What do you think, Danggui?”

Zhu Quan? Why did he mention Zhu Quan again? He Danggui frowned and looked at Lu Jiangbei.