Chapter 235: Chapter 142: It’s Time to Go Back and See the Two Aunts~

"Mother, what brings you here?" Lu Yuan murmured, awakened by their conversation.

Seeing that her daughter and son-in-law were both awake, Su Liyan’s mother decided there was no need to wait. "Son-in-law, get dressed first. I have something to discuss with you."

Lu Yuan glanced down at his naked body, then at the clothes strewn on the floor.

He promptly drew the bed curtains, chose a fresh set of clothes from the bedside cabinet, and quickly dressed.

"Mother, please sit," Su Liyan said as she led her to a seat.

The room was filled with an intoxicating aroma from a few hours prior.

After dressing and getting out of bed, Lu Yuan walked toward his mother-in-law, bending over to pick up the clothes scattered across the floor from the previous night.

"Mother, did you have something urgent to discuss with us?" Lu Yuan asked, curious.

"Well, I had foreseen that the Empress’s illness was severe," Su Liyan’s mother began, her expression tinged with sorrow. "I came to the Imperial Capital to pay my respects to Empress Ma."

"Son-in-law, since you’re skilled in the medical arts, could you go into the city and examine the Empress? If by some chance there’s a way to cure her, it would be a way to repay her kindness to the Half-demon Race!"

Lu Yuan listened to his mother-in-law, his mind racing.

’If the Divine Ling Empire’s history really follows the same course as the Great Ming Dynasty’s, then the Empress is destined to die this very autumn.’

Lu Yuan didn’t want to get too close to the Emperor.

Yet, it was as if fate had other plans.

The more he tried to distance himself from court affairs, the more he was drawn in.

His post as a Seventh Grade County Magistrate and the invention of the corn sheller had brought Lu Yuan increasingly closer to this Emperor he had never met.

And now, with this business concerning Empress Ma, his own mother-in-law had come to him with a plea.

Lu Yuan couldn’t just turn his mother-in-law down, not after she had stepped in and driven off the Xingzi for him just a few days prior.

"Honey, why don’t you give it a try?"

Seeing Lu Yuan remain silent, Su Liyan gently tried to persuade him.

Her unspoken message was clear: he shouldn’t worry about failing, as long as they did their best.

’My silly wife,’ Lu Yuan thought. ’Does she really think you can treat the Empress’s illness just because you want to? If I fail, I’ll be condemned.’

’If it really came to that, Su Liyan would be left a widow, raising our child with her two ’aunts’.’

’And I can’t bear to part with my wife and my two other ladies.’

Then again, the Empress was gravely ill and the Court had posted a royal summons for physicians, yet no one had come forward to treat her. Why was that? The whole affair was rather strange.

Lu Yuan decided to figure out what was really going on first. "Mother, rest assured," he said. "If there’s a way, I will certainly go and examine the Empress."

Hearing her son-in-law’s response, Su Liyan’s mother left the room content. As she was leaving, she added one last thing.

"You two should remember to rest. Don’t be so rough you hurt my grandchild! I’m still waiting to hold them, you know~"

Her mother’s words made Su Liyan blush crimson. After she had gone, Su Liyan pouted at Lu Yuan. "It’s all your fault! You insisted, and you even forgot to close the door. Hmph~"

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of his wife’s beautiful, blushing face.

"Okay, okay, I’ll be more careful next time, I promise!"

"Hmph~"

With his arm around Su Liyan, Lu Yuan picked up the telephone and dialed 000002.

That was right—it was Gu Gaoxu’s number.

The trouble with the Xingzi a few days ago had made Lu Yuan realize how inconvenient it was to be unable to contact Gu Gaoxu, who didn’t have a telephone.

Therefore, in the last few days, Lu Yuan had built two more telephones and given them both to Gu Gaoxu.

"Well, if it isn’t Brother Lu. This is the first time you’ve actively called me, isn’t it? Is something the matter?" Gu Gaoxu teased.

Lu Yuan skipped the small talk and got right to the point, asking about the Empress.

"The Empress is unwell. My superior and I came to the Imperial Capital to visit her. We went to her chambers a few days ago... she rarely leaves her bed now..."

Su Liyan, for her part, didn’t shy away from the men’s conversation, simply letting Lu Yuan continue to hold her.

Lu Yuan kept his arm around his wife as he spoke on the phone.

His hand wasn’t idle, however, roaming as if searching for something. It wandered here and there, deliberately seeking out the softest places to pinch and knead...

From his conversation with Gu Gaoxu, Lu Yuan learned the full story behind the Empress’s illness.

As it turned out, despite her grave condition, the Empress had not summoned any Imperial Physicians to treat her.

Even when the Emperor sent physicians, the Empress refused to see them, one and all.

Left with no other choice, the Emperor could only keep trying to persuade the Empress while also issuing a broad royal summons, seeking talented healers to diagnose her.

The Empress believed that life and death were preordained and refused treatment from the Imperial Physicians. She feared that if they failed to cure her, the Emperor would have them executed, and she could not bear to see them lose their lives innocently because of her.

Lu Yuan was profoundly shaken by the Empress’s selflessness.

’As the mother of the nation, to face death so calmly and forsake all worldly attachments... How many people could ever be so noble?’

Lu Yuan made his decision. He would go and treat the Empress, and he would do everything in his power to cure her.

It would also give his mother-in-law the answer she was looking for.

His talk with Gu Gaoxu also gave Lu Yuan a general idea of the Empress’s symptoms.

The Empress frequently suffered from abdominal pain in the middle of the night, which was sometimes so severe that she was unable to eat.

After learning all this, Lu Yuan went straight to the city gate to take down the royal summons.

Lu Yuan looked at the royal summons posted by the city gate and calmly took it down.

"Who is that?"

"Someone actually took down the royal summons."

"That summons has been hanging at the city gate for over a month, and no one has touched it."