Chapter 55: The truth must be concealed (1/2)

Not a pregnancy pulse?

Gu Beiyue was surprised, but patiently waited for Han Yunxi to explain.

“But there’s definitely a life inside that stomach,” Han Yunxi continued.

It wasn’t a pregnancy pulse, but the stomach still carried life. What did this mean? Gu Beiyue raised his eyebrows but didn’t speak, waiting for Han Yunxi to go on. Her entire face turned serious.

“You’re the only person I can tell the diagnosis to, do you want to know?”

Only then did Gu Beiyue grow astonished. “What exactly is going on?”

“I need your help, but you have to keep this a secret,” Han Yunxi spoke again.

Gu Beiyue nodded without the slightest hesitation. Perhaps he himself didn’t even know why he believed Han Yunxi so much. Besides him, there really was no one else Han Yunxi could trust. This secret was too frightening! Even people in the modern era might find it inconceivable, much less those from the past.

She lowered her voice. “The crown prince’s illness is called ‘fetus in fetu’[1]. Strictly speaking, the child in his stomach should belong to the esteemed empress.”

When these words came out, the ever-tranquil Gu Beiyue actually backed up a few steps, his face filled with amazement. But he settled down very quickly. “Qin Wangfei, such words, you can’t speak carelessly.”

Han Yunxi felt a helpless urge to laugh. Once again, she’d destroyed the calmness of this man. She managed a light chuckle instead. “I know. Just listen to my explanation.”

Only now did Gu Beiye draw closer with a nod.

“When the empress was pregnant with the crown prince, she actually carried two babies in her womb. But before the children were born, the crown prince took the other child into his body.”

Truthfully speaking, fetus in fetu was a type of parasitic fetus that came one one twin swallowing up the other into its body. As the infant grew, so did the other fetus, absorbing nutrients over the years until it developed into a malformation. Under various circumstances, some fetus in fetu grew quickly and were discovered early on. But some developed slowly and only revealed themselves after a long time. Historically speaking, the longest case took 32 years[2] before the symptoms emerged. Long Tianmo wasn’t even twenty years old this year, so his case couldn’t be considered long.

Gu Beiyue didn’t understand things like cells or embryos, so Han Yunxi could only explain things to him in the simplest terms. “In other words, the empress was pregnant with twins. But before they grew to maturity, the crown prince absorbed the other child. Then the crown prince grew into a baby and was born with the other child still inside him, who survived by leeching off the nutrients in his blood as it slowly grew up.”

Gu Beiyue finally understood and shook his head in disbelief. “I didn’t think that such a thing existed.”

Of course he didn’t believe in men having babies, but he’d done research on the crown prince’s illness over the years despite never treating him. Although he was shocked by Han Yunxi’s explanation, it still sounded reasonable. He lost himself in thought for a bit before suddenly raising his head to look at Han Yunxi with an imposing gaze.

“We can’t keep this life! Although all these years we’ve called it a pregnancy pulse, the emperor doesn’t really believe in it.”

Han Yunxi knew that they couldn’t keep this life, or else she wouldn’t have kept it a secret and made up a wild story about stomach sarcomas. A fetus in fetu wasn’t a normal, healthy, child. Some of them didn’t even have limbs or things like a heart or brain. Even if they extracted the fetus, it wouldn’t live for long. Leaving that aside, even if it was a normal, healthy baby, they couldn’t afford to keep it.

How could the crown prince give birth to a child?

If he really did, everyone who knew of it would have to be silenced, including the crown prince and the fetus itself. When news of this spread, the Long imperial family would be labeled as monsters, giving rebellious forces the excuse to stir up the populace for an uprising. Of course, Han Yunxi didn’t care about all that. She just knew that she couldn’t tell the truth, but she had to save her patient in order to live. Seeing Gu Beiyue’s imposing gaze, Han Yunxi’s voice turned icy.

“So we have to kill it in the stomach.”

“Your father prescribed quite a few miscarriage pills without effect,” Gu Beiyue reminded her.

Han Yunxi’s lips curled up. “Of course his medicine wouldn’t work. Miscarriage pills are used by women.” Han Congan’s medicine only worked on pregnant females. Technically speaking, Long Tianmo wasn’t pregnant, so how could it work on him?

“I need a certain poison to dissolve the thing inside the crown prince’s stomach to watery blood. Then I’ll expel it with my usual methods for poison so all the emperor and the rest will see is poison water. The crown prince wasn’t pregnant, but grew a malignant tumor,” Han Yunxi’s tone of voice was very self-assured.

Hearing this, Gu Beiyue fell silent for a long while before giving her a thumbs up. Beyond a doubt, Han Yunxi’s idea was most appropriate. It not only protected herself, but the reality behind this secret forever. Those who didn’t know the truth would never feel the knot in their hearts.

“His Highness Crown Prince should thank you,” Gu Beiyue smiled.

Han Yunxi just shrugged her shoulders. “I just hope his mother will give me less trouble in the future.”

Gu Beiyue knew that poisons weren’t difficult for Han Yunxi, so why did she need his assistance? “You found me for…” he trailed off.

Han Yunxi’s self-assured gaze suddenly darkened. “That thing’s extremely large, so making the incision will be ten times more difficult than what I did with the young general. Before we expel all the poison, there’s a risk that the crown prince might lose too much blood.”

In fact, Han Yunxi was preparing poison for the crown prince to dissolve the object inside his stomach. She could make up the most efficient, exquisite prescriptions that wouldn’t harm the organs and just dissolve the lump into watery blood. But the poisoned blood would have to be quickly expelled from the body. Her biggest problem now was what to do with the body’s loss of blood, because she needed enough time to expunge all the poison.

In modern times, a blood transfusion would do the trick, but now all her hopes rested on Gu Beiyue, who understood as soon as he heard the problem. He looked at Han Yunxi with a complicated expression, only speaking after a long time. “I know of a medicine called the Life Blood Pill that can create blood after being ingested…”

Han Yunxi was already delighted before he finished speaking. “Where is it?”

Seeing her so excited, Gu Beiyue couldn’t help the affectionate flicker in his eyes. “Qin Wangfei, this pill is hard to obtain.”

“The imperial household has plenty of money and power, so what’s there to fear?” Han Yunxi said easily. All right, in her heart at least, the imperial family was a incomparable tyrant and thief.