Chapter 1297: Reunion (2)
Qi Haoran’s tense heart immediately relaxed and he slowly walked forward. The first to notice her father, Baozhu pointed behind her mother and shouted, “Daddy!”
Mu Yangling immediately turned around and saw Qi Haoran smiling at her. Her heart instantly calmed down and she couldn’t help but purse her lips and smile.
Seeing that their father and mother only smiled at each other, ignoring them, Little Leopard and Baozhu were instantly unhappy. They shouted, “Daddy, Mother, there’s still us! We’re here, too! You’ve forgotten about us again!”
As Baozhu spoke, she ran towards her father. As the mountain was filled with protruding rocks, Baozhu had only bounced two steps forward when she tripped over a rock and fell face-first. Qi Haoran hurriedly rushed forward and caught her in his arms.
He gently spanked her butt twice and lectured, “You have to look at the road when you walk. We’re on the mountain, yet you still dare to run like this. What if you fall off the cliff?”
This mountain was not low and was filled with rocks. Wouldn’t one’s head bleed if they rolled down?
Mu Yangling also grabbed Little Leopard, who was about to run away, and ran to Qi Haoran’s side with two light leaps. She touched his lips with concern and said, “Did you catch a cold? Why are your lips so black?”
Not daring to say that he had been poisoned by the blood exchange, Qi Haoran nodded and said, “I was drenched in the rain on the way.”
Mu Yangling reached out to touch his clothes and noticed that they were cold but not wet. Qi Haoran grinned foolishly and said, “I changed out of my wet clothes on the way.”
Mu Yangling’s eyes reddened as she looked at his dark undereye circles. “The night wind dried your clothes, right? Look at your dark circles. One look and I can tell that you haven’t slept.”
Qi Haoran gave her a silly grin.
The guards behind him opened their mouths. After being cast a warning glance by Qi Haoran, they immediately did not dare to reveal his true situation.
Worried about Mu Yangling, Qi Haoran looked around and asked, “You guys have been hiding here for the past two days?”
“No, we hid in a small cave halfway up the mountain. We only came out because ew got bored waiting. Seeing that the weather was fine today, I decided to bring the children out to see the scenery.”
Qi Haoran grabbed her hand and asked, “Since you discarded your luggages, did you catch a cold? Are you hungry?”
Seeing that King Rong had completely forgotten about his poisoning and the Emperor, the guards immediately coughed lightly and interrupted softly, “King Rong, we still have to find the rock lotus…”
“Rock lotus? What rock lotus?”
Qi Haoran glanced at them and said, “It’s the antidote for Big Brother. Yuan Hui said that you know about this.”
Mu Yangling immediately shook her head and said, “I do know about lotus flowers, but I’ve never heard of rock lotus. Could it be that lotus flowers can grow on rocks?”
Qi Haoran immediately took out the piece of paper wrapped in oil paper from his pocket and unfolded it. “Here, it looks like this and it’s said that it grows in a crack in the rock. Big Brother’s health is very poor now and he can’t take aggressive medicines. This rock lotus has warming properties and is a good antidote. It’s said that it’s even harder to find than a hundred-year-old ginseng.”
As Mu Yangling unfolded it, she said, “I’ve heard of snow lotuses. It’s said that snow lotuses are great, too…”
Mu Yangling looked at the drawing on the paper and said after a while, “This doesn’t look like a lotus at all.”
Qi Haoran nodded. “But that’s what it’s called. Just tell me if you’ve seen it before.”
“Indeed, I haven’t seen them before today. But I just did today.” Mu Yangling led him to the cliff on the west side and pointed down. “Look, don’t they look alike?”
Qi Haoran lowered his head to take a look. A hundred feet away from him, a stalk of flower grew out from between two rocks in full bloom under the sunlight. As the pink flower trembled in the wind, it made for a pretty sight.
Mu Yangling coughed lightly and said, “I think it’s like a single-petal sunflower. I was just telling the children that it’s resilient to be still standing after so many days of thunderstorms. When the sun rose, it bloomed.”
Qi Haoran could not believe that the flowers came so easily. He muttered, “When did these flowers bloom?”
“I think it was just now. They were still in the process of blooming when we came up this morning.”
Qi Haoran immediately ordered, “Hurry up and pluck it!”
Immediately, two guards took a rope and wanted to hang it down to pick it. They read the paper again and again. After confirming the method of picking, they hung from the rope and carefully cut the flowers.
Seeing that they were holding the flowers like they were treasures, Mu Yangling asked with a complicated expression, “Can this flower really save Royal Brother?”
“Yuan Hui and Chief Physician Hua said so.”
Mu Yangling felt even more complicated. “So Yuan Hui is really not a fraud!”
The corners of Qi Haoran’s lips twitched. He got someone to split the rock lotuses into four portions and put them in four boxes before mixing them with the other two boxes. Then, he handed them to six teams each comprising four people. He said, “You guys will return to the capital in six directions immediately. Remember your route. If you encounter an ambush on the way, I’ll allow you to change your route. You must send the items back to the palace within two days.”
The 24 chosen people immediately knelt down and complied.
As Qi Haoran had only brought 18 people with him, he still had to select six people from the original guards. In addition to the four people who had left previously, there were now only nine people left to protect them.
A guard who came with Qi Haoran couldn’t help but pull the guard captain aside before he left. He said in a low voice, “King Rong and His Majesty have just done a blood exchange. Not only is his body weak, but he’s also poisoned. Considering he doesn’t have enough antidote on him, you have to be careful. Don’t let him put up a strong front in front of Her Highness.”
Stunned, the guard captain couldn’t help but turn back to look at King Rong. Only then did he realize that the black color on King Rong’s lips had yet to disappear. This didn’t seem to be caused by the cold at all.
King Rong’s internal energy was deep and many times stronger than his. Considering even the guard captain can prevent getting a cold by using his internal energy to protect himself from the rain, let alone King Rong.
The guard captain became anxious and hurriedly followed Qi Haoran.
Qi Haoran naturally saw their private conversation and couldn’t help but glare at the guard captain. Then, he looked at the guard captain warningly and said, “You have to keep your mouth shut if you follow me.”
Mu Yangling asked from behind him, “Why?”
Startled, Qi Haoran turned to look at her in panic. Mu Yangling had originally asked casually, but seeing his reaction, she immediately asked with concern, “Why? Are you hiding something from me?”
Qi Haoran shook his head repeatedly.
Mu Yangling glanced at his lips and expression and snorted. “It’s best if you aren’t. Otherwise, hmph…”
Qi Haoran followed her to the cave like a little wife and promised, “I’ll never hide anything from you.”
“Then tell me about the Royal Brother being poisoned and the neutralization process.”
Cold sweat broke out on Qi Haoran’s forehead.
When Baozhu and Little Leopard saw this, they immediately clapped and shouted, “Daddy is feeling guilty. Daddy must have done something bad.”
Qi Haoran couldn’t help but glare at the two children.
Not afraid at all, the two children hid behind Mu Yangling and stuck out their tongues at him. “Who asked Daddy to break out in cold sweat? Even despite our young age, we know that it’s because of guilt.”
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