Chapter 179
The servants, all newly appointed, dared not delay upon discovering Prince Teng’s fever and immediately informed imperial physician. High fever was a serious matter; many had died from it. The physician went to watch over him immediately.
By the next morning, Li Yuanying’s fever still had not subsided so they needed to inform the Emperor.
Li Er immediately canceled morning court session and rushed over. The servants knelt on the ground in fear.
The Emperor ignored them and went straight to the couch and sat down. Yuanying was laying face down on the couch, fast asleep. His face flushed, eyes tightly closed, brows furrowed, and the corners of his eyes wet; he’s clearly very uncomfortable. He hadn’t noticed it yesterday, but today he was struck by how much thinner the boy had become, and how haggard his face looked.
Li Er clenched his fists.
Knowing the boy’s clever tongue, he figured he will be easily fooled if he were to meet him first, so he ordered the boy to be beaten right away.
Yuanying couldn’t escape this beating as many in the court wanted him executed. If he wasn’t severely punished, gossip will be hard to silence and others might follow in his footsteps.
However, he hadn’t expected the boy, weakened by his journey, to fall so ill after the beating.
Li Er personally cared for the boy for half a day. Although he hadn’t done much caring for anyone before, he believed himself to be the Son of Heaven, possessing extraordinary fortune, and was confident he could bring down Li Yuanying’s fever. By noon, Yuanying was still drowsy and showed no signs of waking, only vaguely calling out for his sister Shu.
Li Er had no choice but to order Wei Shu to the palace.
Wei Shu was extremely worried when she heard that Yuanying had been flogged. She knew that flogging meant either death or permanent injury, neither of which was acceptable, and even though Wei Zheng said the Emperor had instructed his men to hold back, she was still uneasy.
Wei Shu endured this agonizing ordeal until noon the next day when someone from the palace came to fetch her. On the way to the palace, she cautiously inquired about Yuanying’s condition and the result sank her heart: Li Yuanying remained unconscious!
Wei Shu hurried into the palace. When she reached Yuanying’s quarters, she saw a figure in bright yellow robes sitting before the bed.
Wei Shu quickly stepped forward to greet the Emperor.
Li Er her from the formalities, instructing the imperial physician to teach her some tips before turning to leave.
Wei Shu sat down before the bed. Seeing Li Yuanying’s eyes tightly closed, she instinctively reached out and grasped his burning hot hand.
Perhaps because the fever had lasted long enough, Yuanying’s fever subsided soon after Wei Shu entered the palace. Although he remained unconscious, the flush on his face had faded.
Even though Yuanying might not be able to hear, Wei Shu still spoke to him gently, recounting Wei Zheng’s analysis and the fact that Li Er had been with him for half a day.
Dating an immature boy inevitably involves such situations and Wei Shu was prepared for this. Even if it happened, she felt more worry than resentment. He had lived this way for over a decade; he couldn’t possibly become mature and reliable overnight.
She is willing to face and endure any potential difficulties with him.
As evening approached, Yuanying finally opened his eyes. Seeing his head nestled beside Wei Shu, and smelling a sweet fragrance, he felt like he was having a beautiful dream. He closed his eyes again, wanting to continue sleeping.
Wei Shu gently called out: “Wake up, it’s time to eat. Aren’t you thirsty or hungry?”
Yuanying then realized it wasn’t a dream and opened his eyes to look at Wei Shu, who was close to him.
Yuanying immediately grabbed Wei Shu’s soft hand, looking at her expectantly, “Sister Shu, it hurts.”
Wei Shu felt a pang of heartache at his wet eyes and squeezed his hands to comfort him, “It’ll be better soon with the medicine.”
Upon hearing about the medicine, Yuanying looked at Wei Shu warily: “You put the medicine on me? Did you see my butt?”
Wei Shu blushed with embarrassment: “We’re not married yet.”
Yuanying then lay back down: “You’re not allowed to look. You can only look after it’s fully healed.” He didn’t want to leave a bad impression on his wife, affecting his wise and heroic image.
Wei Shu wanted to spit out: “Who wants to see your butt!”
“Before I entered the palace today, it was His Majesty who was taking care of you. Because you were unconscious, His Majesty even skipped morning court session.”
This was something the old imperial physician had told Wei Shu. Yuanying was being stubborn and wouldn’t listen to anyone, so the old physician wanted Wei Shu to persuade him.
Wei Shu indeed got a different reaction from the old physician. He lay there groaning silently, feeling wronged and saddened by the thought of His Majesty ordering him to be flogged.
Although Yuanying had been in a daze all day, he was still somewhat conscious, and had vaguely sense someone watching over him.
Yuanying was a little reluctant to part with Wei Shu: “Are you going back already?”
Wei Shu took a handkerchief and wiped his face clean: “I’ll feed you some porridge and then I’ll leave the palace.”
They weren’t married yet so it wasn’t appropriate for her to spend the night.
Yuanying is particularly clingy when he is sick and he nestled closer to Wei Shu, not moving an inch. When Wei Shu fed him some vegetarian porridge, he ate it obediently.
When Li Er arrived, he saw the scene of Li Yuanying obediently eating porridge. Although Wei Shu was slightly younger than Yuanying, she took excellent care of him, and the two got along harmoniously and pleasantly.
The Emperor had someone report in great detail about what had happened after Yuanying woke up, he got to know that Li Yuanying was both affectionate and crying out in pain to Wei Shu, yet he stubbornly says to his brother: “You might as well have someone beat me to death!”
Thinking about Li Yuanying calling out “Sister Shu” even in his illness, Li Er felt a pang of bitterness. The boy he had raised so carefully had grown up to belong to someone else, his heart and soul devoted to another family’s daughter.
This boy is heartless!
Li Er excused Wei Shu from the formalities and patiently waited until she finished feeding him before having her sent back to the Wei family. Seeing that Yuanying was lying there pretending to be dead after eating, Li Er sat down, not saying a word, but simply ordering someone to bring unfinished official documents to read by the lamplight.
Yuanying couldn’t contain himself any longer. He raised his head and asked, “What are you doing here reviewing documents!”
Li Er put down the documents he was holding and reached out to touch Li Yuanying’s forehead.
Yuanying stared blankly as he let the emperor press his forehead. He vaguely remembered when he was a child and sick, his father would come to see him and touch his forehead in the same way to check if it was hot. His eyes immediately reddened, and he tugged at Li Er’s robe, tears streaming down his face. “Brother, I thought you didn’t love me anymore.”
How heartless the imperial family is! He’d heard that his father had once loved his elder brother dearly, just as his brother loved his fourth nephew. But later, they both changed. Father and son were no longer father and son; neither could live happily together.
He was always bothered by this thought while in Chang’an, so he longed for his fiefdom. Once there, he yearned to see a wider world.
How dull it would be to spend one’s entire life confined to one place.
Li Yuanying cried, “It hurts so much.”
The Emperor felt that the biggest mistake in his life was taking Li Yuanying in and raising him. This troublesome boy—he couldn’t be beaten, he couldn’t be scolded, who could control him? Hearing Yuanying cry out in pain, he felt pain too, but he still had to scold him sternly: “Look at what you’ve done! Is there anything worthy of praise?”
Yuanying continued to clutch Li Er’s robe, “It hurts.”
“How can you learn a lesson if it doesn’t hurt?!”
After being scolded a few times, Yuanying perked up. He reached for Li Er’s hand, his voice still trembling with tears, “I was wrong, brother, just scold me, don’t ignore me. If you ignore me, I’ll feel like you don’t want me as your brother anymore.”
“Should I give you a chance to cleverly excuse yourself first?”
Yuanying fell silent.
He understood. His elder brother had ordered him beaten first because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to give orders if he saw him. It wasn’t that he disliked him or didn’t want to see him again. Sister Shu had said that not only had his elder brother not slept well lately, but they hadn’t either. Lady Liu had been fasting and copying scriptures to pray for him ever since she learned hat he had gone to sea.
He went out to play happily by himself, but caused everyone fear and anxiety. He had made a mistake; he hadn’t considered things thoroughly enough.
Yuanying obediently admitted his mistake: “Brother, I was wrong.” He looked pleadingly at Li Er: “Please don’t be angry with me anymore. Get a good night’s sleep. If you’re still angry with me, have someone give me thirty strokes of the cane after I recover.”
“Just this once.” He gazed at Li Yuanying, “If there’s a next time, I won’t punish you again. I’ll just exile everyone around you to Lingnan, leaving you alone in Tengzhou.”
Yuanying was startled : “Brother, you can’t do this…”
“I can do it.”
This was how he treated Li Tai, his most beloved son, clipping all of Li Tai’s wings, assigning the strictest chief secretary to keep a close watch on him, ensuring Li Tai could never harbor any improper thoughts again.
Li Yuanying met Emperor Taizong’s sharp gaze, and his heart skipped a beat. He knew this was a boundary Li Er had drawn for him; within this boundary, he could do whatever he wanted, but this incident absolutely cannot happen again.
This was the greatest leniency Li Er as an Emperor can give him.
Yuanying obediently nodded: “I will never go to sea without permission again.”
Yuanying’s illness and weeping disrupted the Emperor’s original plans for further punishment. He only ordered Li Dejian and Du He, his two accomplices to be flogged in front of Li Yuanying.
It didn’t matter if they knew Li Yuanying was on the ship from the beginning or not, failing to immediately send him back was a grave mistake!
Yuanying wanted to plead but seeing the Emperor’s extremely displeased expression, he kept quiet.
He finally realized that brother’s reluctance to punish him didn’t mean he wouldn’t punish those around him. He had always been arrogant and unruly, and those who followed him rarely suffered punishment. However, he had witnessed other princes’ attendants and eunuchs being beaten; it was always because the princes themselves hadn’t done their job properly that their servants suffered.
The Emperor always kept his word. Even if they were highly talented and capable, the court didn’t lack such talented individuals.
Di Renjie and the others trusted him enough to go to Tengzhou with him. If they were exiled to Lingnan because of him, they would definitely regret making him their friend.
Yuanying apologized again: “It’s my fault, Your Majesty, please don’t blame them.”
Seeing his good attitude in admitting his mistake, Li Er softened slightly. He asked Li Yuanying what he had gained from his trip, lest he have just gone there for fun and suffered a beating for nothing!
Yuanying became enthusiastic when talking about his trip, with shining eyes as he told Li Er about the current situation.
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Young Prince: Give me some sunshine and brilliance!
Fourth nephew: What did I do to you? You always drag me into this comparison!
Notes from the Author:
Update! How could Sweet Spring be so angsty!
Regarding the young prince’s recklessness, he’s been spoiled rotten, but his past misbehavior always ended well, so he got away with it. He hasn’t considered the possibility of implicating others; in his mind, he can get away with anything by acting spoiled and demanding, and it has nothing to do with others. As for the relationship between Li Er and the young prince, I feel that feelings aren’t just about love. Anyway, the things that make me cry in dramas and novels aren’t about love; sometimes seeing the protagonists heartbroken over love even makes me want to laugh a little (not really).