CH 27

Dragon's Inner Elixir

"What's wrong?" The two of them let go after hugging for a while. When he saw Ning Zhiyu staring at him in disbelief, Yan Yuan was puzzled.

“It's nothing." Ning Zhiyu smiled and shook his head, his expression unchanged.

Yan Yuan leaned over and kissed him lightly on the corner of his forehead, "Then I'll go to the court, I'll come and keep you company later."

"Mm."

Yan Yuan said he would come later to keep Ning Zhiyu company, so he would really come, unlike with Xuan Long, who he coaxed with his mouth but in reality did not care about at all, forgetting what he had said to that dragon in the blink of an eye.

Only Xuan Long waited foolishly, thinking that Yan Yuan would really come, and that he would not be allowed to sleep in the darkness of the night. They couldn't see each other very often, and if he slept like this again, he would waste another day. When A'Yuan comes, he should have a good talk with him. 

Although he was too clumsy and could not say much at all, it would be good for him to stay with him in peace and quiet.

He got up and cleaned himself, dressed his wounds hastily, changed out of his bloodstained robe, and sat down at the table to wait. He was carving a small wooden figure in his hand, but he didn't feel bored.

Although Yan Yuan was no longer angry with him, he was not prepared to give up halfway on what he had started. Even if the final wooden figure was still too shoddy to be given away, it would be good to keep it for his own pleasure.

As the moonlight dawned outside the window, Xiao Dezi gauged the time and knocked lightly on the door, "Young Master Han, it's getting late, do you want to be served a meal?"

The carving knife in Xuan Long's hand slipped and cut his left index finger, and blood instantly emerged. He recovered from his daze and lifted his sore neck to look at the door: "Wait for A’Yuan to come, then bring it in."

Xiao Dezi: "It is already this hour, the Emperor will not come. You haven't eaten much since noon, you should eat something to fill your stomach first. If the Emperor knows you don't take care of your body like this, he will be distressed."

The man in the hall did not reply for a long time, and when Xiao Dezi could not help but speak again, a low, muffled voice came from the door.

"He said he would come."

......

At the same time.

Luanfeng Hall.

Ning Zhiyu has been ill for a long time. Not only is he unable to breathe fresh air, he is exhausted even after taking a few steps out of bed. Yan Yuan does not want him to suffer, so he lets him eat in bed, and is now personally feeding him congee from a white jade bowl.

The congee was made from a thousand-year-old ginseng and a top-quality hen. The hen was de-boned and only the lean meat was taken and shredded into pieces, which was boiled in a golden pot and sprinkled with a handful of spring onions. It was light and nourishing, and melted in the mouth, making it the most suitable for Ning Zhiyu nowadays.

However, his appetite was not good and he said no more after just a few bites. Seeing how thin he was, Yan Yuan was distressed and tried to cheer him up.

"Eat some more. If you finish this bowl of congee, next spring, I will take you out of town to hunt, how about that?"

When Ning Zhiyu heard him say this, he seemed a bit moved. He looked down at the ginseng and chicken congee that was still left, and hesitantly looked up at Yan Yuan: "Really?"

"Silly, when have I ever lied to you."

Ning Zhiyu smiled at his words and nodded, “En, A'Yuan has never lied to me."

He then took the bowl and spoon from Yan Yuan's hand and put one bite after another into his mouth, clearly not having an appetite but trying desperately to swallow it, his face becoming more and more pale.

Yan Yuan was distressed to see how little he ate, but he was also distressed to see him pushing himself like this. He was about to tell him to forget about it when Ning Zhiyu covered his mouth and fell onto the edge of the bed, vomiting, and the white jade bowl fell to the ground and broke.

The palace staff quickly brought a spittoon over. The congee that had just been eaten was vomited out, and a lot of blood was coughed up, splattering on the snow-white spittoon's inner wall, which was shocking to the eye.

Yan Yuan was so anxious that he shouted for the palace staff to summon the doctor. Holding Ning Zhiyu's thin body with both hands and patting him on the back, his whole body was in chaos: "A'Yu... A'Yu..."

Ning Zhiyu looked like he was about to cough out his internal organs, and when he slowed down, his whole body was already deflated. Yan Yuan held him tightly in his arms, his eyes were red: "It's all my fault, I forced you to do something. From now on I won't force you, A'Yu can eat as much as you want, I won't force you again."

Ning Zhiyu's chest rose and fell weakly. Lifting his hand, he placed it over Yan Yuan's hand that was encircling his body and gently held it, listening to the strong heartbeat in Yan Yuan's chest as his eyes fell on the nine-headed candlestick with its swaying firelight in the distance:

“A'Yuan is doing it for my own good."

"Perhaps it is because I am too weak... to bear A'Yuan's kindness."

"It's because I'm too useless."

Yan Yuan looked down at Ning Zhiyu and saw that he was smiling but his eyes were red. His heart tightened and his arms tightened: "Don't say that about yourself. I forbid you to talk about yourself like that."

"Okay, I won't say it." Ning Zhiyu meekly responded and closed his eyes, "Don't say anymore..."

Ning Zhiyu was already asleep when the imperial doctor arrived.

Zong Hua came in from outside the hall carrying a wooden medicine box. Yan Yuan exempted him from the salute and directly let him check Ning Zhiyu's pulse.

He took out an ink-stained handkerchief from the wooden box and laid it on Ning Zhiyu's wrist, which was faintly bruised, and had just placed two fingers on it when he heard Yan Yuan say:

"Didn't you say that dragon scales could save A'Yu? Why is he still so weak after being awake for a few days? I can see that his spirit seems to be worse than when he first woke up, and just now he vomited so much blood."

Zhong Hua was at home on leave for the past few days, and this was the first time he had been to the palace for consultation since Ning Zhiyu had woken up.

After hearing Yan Yuan's words, he did not answer immediately. He quietly checked his pulse and asked the palace staff to bring the spittoon where Ning Zhiyu had just vomited blood to check, before turning to Yan Yuan and bowing to him.

"Your Majesty must have misunderstood what I meant. As this minister said that day, the dragon scales can only revive the Empress and suppress his condition, but not cure it completely. If we want to cure it at the root, we still need a dragon heart."

"What did you say?" Yan Yuan frowned.

After going around in circles, he still needed the dragon heart, so why did he go through all this trouble to coax Xuan Long, he might as well have just dug his heart out raw in the first place.

Zong Hua: "Dragon scales are still useful, but taking too many will gradually create resistance to the medicine, which is the reason why the Empress's spirit is getting worse and worse after waking up. Without the dragon heart in the medicine, it won't work in the end."

Yan Yuan was so agitated that he paced back and forth twice, then fiercely flung his sleeve and sat down on the edge of the bed, his face grim, "You quack doctor, useless to the core! All you know is dragon heart this, dragon heart that, what use do I have for you?!"

Zong Hua maintained his bowing posture without moving, waiting quietly for this fire of his to pass.

After a few moments, Yan Yuan really calmed down and looked deeply at him, "I'll ask you once more, is there really nothing else under the sky that can save A'Yu's life other than the dragon's heart?”

Zong Hua was silent for a moment: "Yes, there is, but it is more difficult to obtain than the dragon heart."

"What is it?" Yan Yuan's heart was secretly happy.

Zong Hua looked up and met Yan Yuan's gaze, "The dragon's inner elixir. The dragon's heart can be dug out raw while the dragon is caught by surprise, while the inner elixir, a spiritual core condensed from the dragon's spiritual energy, cannot be obtained by others if it is not willingly expelled."

Yan Yuan: "If the inner elixir is lost… will the dragon die?"

Zong Hua shook his head, "That would not be the case, it would only become no different than a mortal."