Chapter 532. Saliva to Heal Wounds (1/2)

After Yu Xiaocao calmed her nerves down, she emerged out of Zhu Junyang’s arms and addressed the serious looking eldest imperial prince, “Your Imperial Highness, you don’t need to take this episode to heart. I also did this to save my own life. Just think about it, if something happened to you in front of this official, and I just stayed on the sidelines, running away for my own life, how could the emperor possibly spare me?”

Zhu Hanwen revealed a slight smile and his expression relaxed a bit. He shook his head and said, “However, I still need to thank you because not everyone would be able to sacrifice their own safety to save another person in the face of immense danger. Although Official Yu is a woman, your actions and bravery are above most men! Imperial Father was right. The world has so many women of distinction who are buried in the inner courtyards, forbidden to go outside. We need to release them and give them their freedom to reach their true potential!”

By the time the group of them reached the edge of the campgrounds, the emperor had already gotten a full report of what had happened. The empress pulled the eldest imperial prince aside and inspected him carefully from head to toe before she was finally convinced that not a hair had been harmed on him.

She pulled her son into her arms. Currently, she was only an ordinary mother who was concerned about her son’s safety. She haltingly stated in a voice choked with emotion, “My child, why couldn’t you just obediently stay next to Imperial Father’s and Imperial Mother’s side? Yet you insisted on going out to hunt! If something terrible had happened to you, how would Imperial Mother feel then?”

Zhu Junfan looked at Yu Xiaocao for a minute and then looked back to address the mother-son pair, “Don’t cry, isn’t our imperial son fine? A pine tree raised in a greenhouse will be unable to reach the skies. As the heir to the throne, if Wen’er can’t even handle the slightest bit of trouble, then we will truly be worried about the throne in the future.”

“Imperial Father, the appearance of this tiger was a bit strange…” Zhu Hanwen wriggled out of his mother’s arms and his pair of round eyes held a hint of seriousness. The appearance of the tiger was too coincidental. Why did it not appear in a different area and instead showed up right where he was at? If this wasn’t fishy, then he...would eat this entire tiger!!

Zhu Junfan narrowed his eyes, which had a bit of resemblance to Imperial Prince Jing’s eyes, and raised a hand to stop the eldest imperial prince from stating his next thoughts. He had a solemn look on his face, “Wen’er, you’ve been frightened, so you should go back to the temporary residence to rest a bit. Tonight, we still have a bonfire and banquet to participate in! Don’t worry, we have our own suspicions about this. Someone come...take this tiger away!”

“My tiger pelt…” Yu Xiaocao was very interested in this tiger pelt but she had to stare blankly as servants took it away. She revealed a reluctant expression on her face which was very obvious to everyone that was present. However, when she saw the faint look of amusement on the emperor’s face, she shrank back in fright. She didn’t dare to bring up the topic of the tiger pelt again.

Sigh…the little lass had a bunch of regret within her heart. In her previous life, Amur tigers had been classified as a grade one state protected species. It was said that the country only had around a few dozen wild tigers. She could only see tigers in zoos, but the animals there had been raised as if they were giant house cats and had no wildness left in them. It’d be impossible in that time period to get her hands on a tiger pelt even if she wanted to!

Even after transmigrating over, it wasn’t as if a tiger could be hunted whenever one wanted to. In Yu Xiaocao’s eyes, if she was able to have a tiger pelt to be used as a mattress, that would be incredibly awesome. However…the tiger pelt that had appeared before her eyes had been shamelessly snatched away by someone who had way more power than she did. She could only grit her teeth and twist her handkerchief as she blankly watched as the tiger pelt was taken further and further away from her.

“Beloved Official Yu, we will gladly receive this game that you have offered as tribute!” The same shameless bandit was shoving another dagger into her heart. Who sent this up as tribute ah? Clearly it was you snatching it away from me!

“Our imperial father has had a weak body for quite some time and cannot tolerate the deep cold during the winter. This tiger pelt will be a sign of our filial respect for him. We will not take this pelt for free from you and will definitely compensate you fairly with treasures.” Zhu Junfan deigned to give an explanation to her.

“Your Imperial Majesty has an imperial father?” Yu Xiaocao couldn't help but blurt out the question that was twirling in her mind.

Zhu Junfan lightly chuckled and replied, “It’s not as if we were born out of a crack in a rock like Monkey Sun. How could we not have an imperial father ah? However, Imperial Father’s body has been weak and he has been recuperating in the south all this time. After thinking about it, it seems like it has been many years since we last saw our imperial father!”

The emperor’s father was Imperial Prince Duan. In the past, during the chaos of war and the fight for the throne, in the middle of winter, he had harmed his body and constitution when he saved the emperor emeritus who had fallen into an icy river. His body’s condition was sometimes good and sometimes bad, but he had been weak and sickly ever since that incident. As for the emperor emeritus, he had the halo of transmigration and hadn’t even gotten a cold or cough after spending a copious amount of time in the icy water.

Yu Xiaocao had originally thought that the reason why the emperor emeritus had passed on the throne to his grandson was because the current emperor’s father was no longer alive. She didn’t expect that he had skipped a generation and directly transferred the throne to the grandson he looked the most highly upon.

“Imperial Father, this son acts for permission to go see imperial grandfather in Jiangnan so I can do one’s filial duty for you.” Zhu Hanwen’s eyes glittered with the craftiness of a child as he butted into the conversation.

Zhu Junfan glared at him. Earlier the child had just mentioned that there was a plot against him and they hadn’t even found out who the culprit was, yet this kid now wanted to go play in Jiangnan. Hmph! It looked like he needed to temper his son a bit more. In the future, he was adding more schoolwork to this brat!

“Your imperial grandfather’s body has gotten a lot better after eating the warming pills made by Tongren Medicine Hall. We plan on bringing our imperial father back and have the imperial physicians take a look at him and see if there’s any hope in healing his body back to normal.” Zhu Junfan easily rejected the little brat’s request.

Zhu Hanwen was a bit disappointed but continued to sincerely think of his grandfather, “Imperial Father, are you sure that bunch of charlatans in the imperial physician compound are up to it? If we’re talking about healing the body, Official Yu should be the best expert here. Wasn’t Princess Consort Jing’s body healed by her?”

At that time, everyone in the capital knew that Princess Consort Jing was an invalid but now she seemed to have no problems at all. In fact, compared to people of the same age as her, she even looked healthier and livelier. This was truly all due to Official Yu’s medicinal cuisine!