Blank Slate
Blank Slate
Lei Xing in her normal state would never let him near her with a single acupuncture needle, much less the multiples he had stuck on her in the last hour. She just sat there staring forward, no change in expression at all as he stuck and twisted the needles deeper. The head physician inwardly sighed, this was quite a problematic condition.
The Emperor was surprisingly calm, at least on the surface, throughout this process. Other than his panic the first day he realized Lei Xing had a problem, he has been quite calm and surprisingly non-threatening.
In fact, he hasn't called the physicians over or hassled them about finding a cure at all since that day. It was the head physician himself who had taken solving her condition upon his head, he would not be fooled by the Emperor's quiet demeanor. As far as he was concerned, the day he did not show up at this patient's door would be the day he was e condemned to death.
The head physician removed the needles, checked her eyes, and took her pulse again, another failed "solution". He sighed, turned around, then flinched when he was met with the Emperor's frown, only let to let out a sigh of relief when he realized the Emperor was not frowning at him, but at the dazed Lei Xing behind him.
The head physician inwardly sighed, the Empress was the one that was sick but the Emperor's complexion was far worse than hers. To be honest, other than her unresponsiveness, Lei Xing looked to be in good health, her complexion was good despite not eating properly for days. Other than the soups they managed to force down her throat, she had nothing else but still looked quite healthy. Although this was probably because all she did was sleep these days. The Emperor, on the other hand, looked as if he was wilting, it was obvious he has not been sleeping or eating properly either.
Feeling a very misplaced sense of pity, the head physician went over to the Emperor's side and tried to reassure him, "Your majesty, there is no need to worry too much. In cases like this, they usually -"
"Cases like this?" That got the Emperor's attention, "You've come across this before?" He asked turning his frown on the head physician, "You said you had no idea what was wrong."
"Ah, no, not exactly..." The head physician quickly explained, "I reached out to some old colleagues, and apparently there was a case or two of widows becoming like th-"
"Widows?" The Emperor's frown intensified.
The head physician quickly lowered his head and backtracked, "Of course, I'm not saying the Empress is mourning you, Your majesty is at peak health, naturally, but it can be for the loss of a close family me-"
"Family." The Emperor's frown deepened as he repeated the word, turning his gaze back to Lei Xing who was just sitting in place with a blank stare.
The head physician on the side realized he made another mistake and amended, "O-of course it's also not limited to a family member, someone close to her could - I don't mean to say that the Empress was close to Pr - close to anyone!" He closed his mouth and eyes and bowed low, his sense was truly starting to fail him in this old age!
A heavy silence hung in the room, Xiao Ruo inwardly groaned at the stupidity of the head physician. It was clear from the older man's eyebags that he had not been resting properly either, otherwise how could he make this sort of stupid blunder?
Although he was mostly silent, everyone was aware that the Emperor was on quite a short fuse recently, it was really best not to agitate him. Bi Lo and Bi Lu had disappeared the second after Lei Xing became like this. Xiao Ruo heard conflicting stories about what happened to them, ranging from them being simply thrown out of the palace to their limbs being cut off and left to die in prison.
One minute the Emperor released Princess Nalan, the next he threw her back in prison for no reason. When the Emperor was told that Princess Nalan was not eating, his solution was to "send" all the Zou delegates to the prison to accompany their Princess in prison, so they can "look after" her. This one Xiao Ruo witnessed herself. When Commander An tried to protest against the decision, the Emperor said to let her starve then. Commander An could only reluctantly proceed with option one.
As for herself, Xiao Ruo believed that the only reason the Emperor left her alone was probably because he did not trust anyone else to look after Lei Xing like this. After all, she had also been right next to her and also did fail to stop Princess Nalan from taking Lei Xing hostage.
Not that Xiao Ruo could have stopped her with how quickly everything happened, but considering her disappeared friends, the Emperor probably did not care all too much about whether she was capable or not. Either way, the atmosphere in the palace was suffocating these days and it felt like she was walking on glass shards.
Xiao Ruo honestly suspected that Princess Nalan had poisoned Lei Xing, even though the head physician said on the first day that there was no poison in her system.
But the idea that Lei Xing became like this because of shock from that night did not make sense to her, and even more unbelievable was the idea of her "mourning" Prince Yi's death - even though Lei Xing did behave a bit weirdly that night when she was Prince Yi's corpse. Either way, it was not something she was stupid enough to mention to the Emperor, unlike the currently "brave" head physician. It seems another person was going to disappear again.
Either way, Xiao Ruo was worried, very worried. Although Long country did not have a practice of burying royals with their servants, with the way things were, it was feeling like if Lei Xing truly died, the Emperor would bury all of them with her, including himself.
"Leave." The Emperor finally said to their surprise. Xiao Ruo and the head physician blinked, it took them a moment to process what he said. When the Emperor started walking towards the bed, they snapped out of it and quickly bowed out of the room, each letting out a sigh of relief as they reached the doors.
The Emperor sat on the bed and gently held Lei Xing's hand, he scanned her face, but as usual - what had become the new usual in the last few days anyhow, he was met with only the blank stare of an empty shell, "Xing er'..." She blinked once and her eyes shifted in his direction, but it was still the same blank expression.
She had been like this since the day after Prince Yi died, she was either sleeping or staring blankly at nothing. The Emperor had not even realized anything was wrong when he woke up that day. He had simply thought Lei Xing was sleeping a little longer than usual. It was only when Xiao Ruo raised the alarm that she was not waking up in the late afternoon that he realized something was very wrong.
When he ran over and called over to her, her eyes finally opened, but she woke up a shell of herself. She was unresponsive whenever anyone else tried to call or wake her, but when he called to her, she responded. Although this could simply be her responding to her own name being called and nothing special.
There was no court session that day and even though the ministers had sent requests to meet, he had ignored them all because he did not want to be nagged into releasing Princess Nalan just yet. From what he was told about the events after he and Lei Xing left the Imperial pharmacy, "Lei Xing" had apparently somehow overpowered and disarmed Princess Nalan and then ordered her to be imprisoned along with Mo Lin.
Even though he did not remember how they fell asleep that night, he was certain that Lei Xing would not have returned to the Imperial pharmacy. Not to mention, the fact that she lacked the skill or strength to overpower anyone, much less Princess Nalan. So he was certain the old man had somehow orchestrated this end.
Since the old man had set the stage, the Emperor had planned to leave Princess Nalan in prison - just for a day or two because he worried that if he bullied her too much the old man would come back and this time would not be polite enough to give Lei Xing a choice. After all, regardless of the circumstances, she had threatened Lei Xing's life so he thought they were allowed to vent a little anger.
Not to mention the fact that there was heavy suspicion that Zou country, if not Princess Nalan herself, was involved in Prince Yi's death.
In the end, it was naive of him to think the old man would have just let things be, especially not after the brutal lashing Lei Xing gave him. So right from the beginning, he was certain the old man was responsible for Lei Xing's condition.
The Emperor was currently at his wit's end and was not sure what to do or how else to appease the old man.
When Lei Xing did not go back to normal the next day, he ordered them to erect a memorial altar in the palace for Prince Yi, he even considerately specifically had them arrange it in the courtyard he shared with his mother and ordered everyone in the palace to go there to pay their respects. He even went there to pay respects himself. He also released Princess Nalan and had her dropped off in the memorial hall to mourn for him.
He also announced an edict absolving Prince Yi of all his crimes, granting him the post-humous title of the Lord of a province. Naturally, he had ordered an investigation of Prince Yi's death and made it the top priority of the Imperial guards.
When Lei Xing still was not back to normal the next morning, he thought perhaps he had made a mistake. Maybe the old man actually wanted Princess Nalan in prison - he honestly did not think Princess Nalan killed Prince Yi, but perhaps the old man wanted her to be punished by association. Either way, he didn't care, so he ordered Princess Nalan back to prison and waited again.
It had crossed his mind that maybe the old man would punish them until he caught and punished those who murdered Prince Yi. Perhaps, Lei Xing would continue to be like this until he caught and killed the ones responsible. But at this point, the investigation into Prince Yi's death was yet to yield any result, short of killing all suspects, he was not sure what else to do.
But then what if he did and that turned out to be another mistake? This really could not continue.
"If you don't wake up, I'll kill all of them... Princess Nalan, that fool called Molin, all the Zou representatives, actually let's just burn Zou to the ground. There's your parents... but you don't really care much about them, do you? There's that maid you like, your younger sister... you seem close. You don't really care much for Yong either so we can skip him. Ah, there's that girl, Governor Tung's daughter... if you don't wake up, I'll kill all of them tomorrow, I mean it." The Emperor said, gently stroking her palm. He had hoped to illicit some reaction with threats, but still nothing.
The Emperor knit his brows, "...did you want to go back that badly?" He asked with a conflicted expression. He had simply blamed the old man and not even considered this angle until the head physician's words just now.
His mind went back to how sad Lei Xing had been that night after seeing her family from the past, she had not talked about it much, but he knew she was deeply hurt about the old man dangling that offer before her like that. Not to mention the other times she had cried because of those people from another world.
What if the old man persuaded her to go back to her world in her thoughts? What if she had agreed to leave and this - this was just what was left behind? After all, it was only her soul that had come here. If she left, she would not take this body with her. And yes, it was alive and breathing, but in this state, it might as well not be.
Even at this stage, the Emperor had never believed that the old man would be truly cruel to him. The old man clearly had a twisted sense of humor, but the Emperor had always believed that he was firmly on his side.
No matter what, he believed that the old man would not treat him too badly. But then on the flip side, he also believed that the old man felt the same towards Lei Xing. He may tease her and such, but he was on her side…on their side. So, if she asked him, begged him, cried to him…the Emperor did not think the old man could just ignore it.
The Emperor frowned and felt himself starting to shake, in anger or fear, he really could not tell. With his elbow propped on his leg, he put his other hand to his head and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself.
He told himself to think about this rationally, Lei Xing was happy with him, very happy, she had told the old man as much, and even wanted to take him with her if she had to leave, this meant she would not leave him behind, it had to.
He wanted to believe this, he truly wanted to believe in her. But if she really left him, if she really left, what was he supposed to do? How could she?... He shook his head and reminded himself, it did not matter if she left willingly or not, he could hash that out with her when he got her back. The problem was how would he even begin to go about getting her back, this was the issue…this was what he always feared.
{...How could she do this to me?! I gave her everything - no, no, it's not her, she wouldn't do this, it's that old man, she told him as much, he had to have forced her, he forced her into it, she wouldn't leave me, she w-...}
The Emperor suddenly stopped when he felt a slight movement from the hand in his, he paid no mind to this, it happened often recently, tricks of his gullible mind. He realized he was crushing her hand and relaxed his grip but then he felt her fingers curve into his hand. He excitedly opened his eyes and turned to her, thinking that the threats may have worked after all!
This time, it was no illusion. This time, there was a reaction, one he knew very well, his Lei Xing's frown. She wasn't looking at him though, her head was turned to the side and she was facing out into the room.
The Emperor let out a relieved sigh and smiled as his shaking fingers reached for her face, "Xing er'..." Her eyes darted to him for a brief moment, before they returned to whatever it was that calling her attention. The Emperor's eyes unconsciously followed hers, finding nothing amiss, before rushing back to her face, "Xing er', are you alright? How do you feel?" The Emperor anxiously asked, turning her face towards him.
She seemed to be having trouble speaking, her lips shook as they tried to form words. Her face was turned to him, but her eyes remained locked on the side where she had just been facing. Her frown grew deeper as her eyes strained to keep that side of the room in view. If they could, her eyes looked as if they would jump out of their sockets just to keep whatever it was in sight.
"Xing er', what is it? Tell me." The Emperor excitedly urged, holding her face and staring at her lips struggling to form the words, trying to read them.
"S-s-s..." She was visibly struggling, the Emperor knit his brows and tried to guess, "Hungry? Are you hungry? Thirsty, I c-" His words were cut short when to his absolute surprise Lei Xing grabbed onto his left arm. This was the first time she had moved on her own in days, the Emperor let out a laugh.
{...She didn't leav-...}
Suddenly, Lei Xing threw his arm out of her way and moved to get up as she shouted, "Shan, no, wai-"
...And then she collapsed onto the Emperor's lap.