Chapter 1178: Ill be a mad and demented fool (1/2)

Both Han Yunxi and Long Feiye grew anxious.

They stared at Han Yunxi’s swelling stomach and waited, but there was no reaction. Still, they didn’t stop staring in silence.

After a while, a small bump appeared on the surface of Han Yunxi’s stomach before swelling up.

The little fellow was making a fuss!

Long Feiye couldn’t help it. He reached out to touch the spot with his hand. Instantly, the area flattened from sight.

This was already the ninth time!

Long Feiye had been anticipating the baby’s movements, but he was too busy and missed it multiple times. Thankfully, the kicks occurred more frequently this late in the pregnancy, so he finally had the luck to witness them in person. At first he only watched, but after a few times, he gave into his urge to touch.

It wasn’t clear whether the little fellow was naughty or afraid, but he always hid when Long Feiye touched him.

“The ninth time, haha!” Han Yunxi laughed. Every time the baby kicked, she would touch him, causing him to kick harder. He seemed to like her touches very much. But Long Feiye’s touch only produced opposite results.[1]

“Is he afraid of me?” Long Feiye wanted to know. But it’d probably take him another couple of years to know for certain.

“Probably!” Han Yunxi nodded with a grin.

“What’s so scary about me?” Long Feiye muttered to himself. He leaned in close and pressed his ear against Han Yunxi’s stomach to listen for any sounds. But there was nothing.

Han Yunxi shoved him and said, “Enough, I’m going to bed. Are you sleeping?”

Han Yunxi knew Long Feiye wouldn’t sleep this early, so she was actually chasing him off. He and Gu Beiyue had gotten so engrossed in their chat that they even forgot to eat, so she suspected they had plenty to talk about. Meanwhile, she was extremely sleepy and didn’t have any energy to mix in even if she wanted to. Thus, she decided not to waste their time.

“Sleep now, I’ll stay with you,” Long Feiye wasn’t planning on leaving.

“Gu Beiyue dropped by because it was on his way. I think he’ll leave by tomorrow. Didn’t you want to establish an Imperial Physician Courtyard to hold direct jurisdiction over Medical and Medicine City? Take this chance to talk it over with him. You probably won’t see him for months after this,” Han Yunxi was serious.

A knowing husband looked after his wife just as a knowing wife looked after her husband.

Long Feiye was waiting for these very words! He knew Han Yunxi would remain in the Rear Camp and sleep after that, not disturb him. Stroking her bangs, he smiled and said, “Then you be good and sleep.”

“Go already! I’m sleepy as death!” Han Yunxi urged.

Long Feiye still left only after exchanging a few more words. Once out the door, he quickly found Gu Beiyue and entered his rooms. “Where is he?” he asked.

Naturally, he meant Gu Qishao. Long Feiye was very clear on Gu Qishao’s true condition, but he never expected Gu Beiyue to show up. If he was here, there was no way in Hell that Gu Qishao hadn’t tagged along.

“He doesn’t want to see you. He just wanted me to come and gift the little master a red packet,” Gu Beiyue was helpless.

Long Feiye refused to accept such an explanation. “Where is he?” he asked again.

“Your Highness, you know as well. If he doesn’t want to see you or the princess, then none of us can find him,” Gu Beiyue was telling the truth. “I’ll leave first thing tomorrow. Qishao said he’d be waiting at one of the outposts 200 li away. This subordinate already lost track of his whereabouts from last night.”

Long Feiye didn’t say much, but sat down with a crease in his brows. Gu Beiyue fell silent as well before finally muttering, “Your Highness, Qishao…”

“...only has two months left at most.”

Gu Beiyue had already written as much in his letters. Judging from the speed of growth, the vines on Gu Qishao’s body would swallow up his heart and brain within the next two months. By then, Gu Qishao would vanish from this earth, leaving nothing but thorny thistles behind.

“Can’t the medical academy recreate the poisonous medicine from plague patients?” Long Feiye suddenly asked in a loud voice.

“We can’t. If it was any other medicine, we could use death row convicts, but one from plague…”

“How many people do you need?” Long Feiye asked before Gu Beiyue could finish.

“Your Highness!” Gu Beiyue’s voice was stern.

A plague was highly infectious, so creating poisonous medicine from its victims would mean forcing countless people to pay the cost. Over the past few months, Gu Beiyue had used at least ten death row convicts to experiment on. Although they had gotten permission from them first and given them plenty of benefits in exchange to sweeten the deal, Gu Beiyue still felt guilty about it all!

To a doctor, these were highly unscrupulous methods.

They wanted to save Gu Qishao, but if it came at the expense of forcing other people to relive Gu Qishao’s past suffering, neither him nor Gu Beiyue would feel at ease.

Long Feiye hung his head, his face cold. “Recently, Chu Tianyin attacked a city in Western Zhou with a prison full of death row convicts. All of them have committed unpardonable evils. There’s around 50 prisoners.”

“We cannot,” Gu Beiyue’s gaze was steady as he added, “Moreover, it won’t be enough.”

Gu Yuntian had used a poisonous medicine created from the deadliest, most famous plague in Cloud Realm Continent history. Tens of thousands perished to the disease. How could a mere fifty men produce anything usable?

Long Feiye was struck speechless. He rose to his feet and asked, “Gu Beiyue, have you given up?”

“I haven’t!” Gu Beiyue replied immediately as he stood up.

Long Feiye turned to the door, tossing back a single sentence. “Return to Medical City this instant!”

When Long Feiye reached Han Yunxi’s quarters, he didn’t go instead. Instead, he stood there for a long time, debating whether to tell her the truth. Moreover, he had to wonder if she even had a chance to see Gu Qishao one last time within the next two months?

In front of Rear Camp, the fireworks were still going off in the skies, brilliant and bright. Unfortunately, they only lasted seconds in the night sky before fading into oblivion.