Chapter 395: Is Your Highness planning a surprise? (1/2)

Chapter 395: Is Your Highness planning a surprise?

The antidote to Mute Granny’s poison only consisted of three ingredients: Serpent Fruit, Bear Chuan, and Panoptic Red Lotus. Long Feiye already had the Serpent Fruit in his hands, while the Panoptic Red Lotus had been verified to exist at the Mu Clan medicinal grounds. Only Bear Chuan was left.

A crafty gleam came into Mu Linger’s eyes as she grinned smugly. “Qi gege, do you think I’ll be even more formidable than that Gu Qi Sha from Pill Fiend Valley one day?”

“Yes!” Gu Qishao was very certain.

“Heheh, there’s only a single Bear Chuan in the entire world. Most likely, even Gu Qi Sha doesn’t know where it is,” Mu Linger said mysteriously.

“You’re still not telling me?” Gu Qishao’s patience was reaching its limit.

Mu Linger drew close to his ear and murmured a single name. “Northern Li’s Duke of Kang!”

“Jun Yixie!” Gu Qishao was extremely surprised. “How do you know?”

Jun Yixie had been keeping a low profile ever since escaping from Medical City in the past. But Gu Qishao hadn’t forgotten him. He was someone who bore grudges, and he made sure to pay them back–whether it was his own, or Poison lass’s! Even though Poison lass had poisoned Jun Yixie with an incurable toxin, that was only her personal revenge! Gu Qishao had been waiting the whole time to take vengeance on her behalf again!

“That thing’s raised in the poison grounds of the Hundred Poison Sect. I bought the info from my friends for a huge sum.” Unlike Gu Qi Sha, who was enemies with everyone in the medical circles, Mu Linger had a wide circle of friends and access to their information network.

“Qi gege, when we find the Panoptic Red Lotus, we can invade Hundred Poison Sect together and look through their poison grounds, all right?” Mu Linger was very excited. She hadn’t written Gu Qishao the info in their letters because she wanted to tell him in person so he’d agree to her request! She was always most content when facing danger together with Qi gege. Even dying together would be a tragic sort of happiness.

“Jun Yixie, ah…” Gu Qishao rubbed his chin and thought it over. “No rush. Find the Panoptic Red Lotus first.” As long as he was certain the Bear Chuan was with Jun Yixie, then he could set his cares at rest.

“Qi gege…”Mu Linger wanted to say something else, but she suddenly sneezed. Her damp clothing had finally caught a chill from the breeze that settled down into her very bones.

“Be a good girl. Dry off your clothes with the fire first, I’ll keep watch on your behalf,” Gu Qishao’s lips quirked up into a smile with his excellent mood. His simple ‘be good’ really did turn Mu Linger docile.

“Okay!” she cried happily.

By the time Mu Linger tidied herself up and walked back out, Gu Qishao was leaning against the wall, one hand pillowed against his head while the other stroked his smooth chin. His sly, narrow eyes seemed especially crafty as they puzzled over something.

“Qi gege, what are you thinking about?” Mu Linger felt that he was preoccupied with business.

“Nothing much.” Gu Qishao lazily straightened. “Let’s have a consultation and then split up to do our work.”

Mu Linger was thrilled. She’d been together with Qi gege for so long that she could always ask him about his business later. There was time enough for that in the future. Aside from the places she’d already looked into, there was still over half of the Mu Clan’s medicinal grounds left untouched. It really was a monumental task. After planning out their respective routes, the two of them spit up to search. They would only reconvene at night with their results. This whole project lasted an entire two months–by which time it was already the end of the year.

The grain given to Tianning Country’s disaster regions was almost all used up. Many regions within the country also donated their own grain, but it was like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water. Thanks to Emperor Tianhui’s efforts, everyone in the country was preoccupied with the problem of grain stores after the new year. However, His Highness Duke of Qin, who was in charge of all the relief efforts, wasn’t even at the disaster regions anymore.

“Your Majesty, the scouts from South Ning Prefecture sent back news. His Highness Duke of Qin left the prefecture!” Eunuch Luo reported.

“Where did he go?” Emperor Tianhui was surprised. He had personally sent the Duke of Qin to the disaster regions, but ended up being most worried about his plight.

“The scouts are still searching,” Eunuch Luo said timidly.

Emperor Tianhui lost his temper at those words and slammed his hands on the table. “Useless things! They’re all trash! All they had to do was keep their eyes on one man, and yet they’ve lost him!” This could be considered Emperor Tianhui’s final fight against the man, so he had to be extra prudent.

“Your Majesty, could His Highness Duke of Qin have gone to secretly search for grain?” Eunuch Luo asked doubtfully.

But they hadn’t! Emperor Tianhui had been keeping an eye on the Duke of Qin and esteemed wangfei for the past two months. He wasn’t the only one–everyone assumed that His Highness Duke of Qin and Qin Wangfei would be scrambling to find grain by now. But instead, the couple simply spent all their days at the senior provincial official’s estate and rarely came out. It felt like they were on vacation instead!

“They haven’t done anything in the past two months, so where could they find grain now?” Emperor Tianhui retorted peevishly. There had been bad harvests everywhere this season, and the end of the year was a prime time for everyone to use up their stores. Grain was scarce all over the country.