Chapter 862 - 766: Cold and Sinister (Part 2)

Chapter 862: Chapter 766: Cold and Sinister (Part 2)

Who would have thought the Imperial Physicians of Nanxia couldn’t even cure smallpox.

Meng Zhang and Luo Jia were eager to have more Doctors share in this peril, and even brought out the previous case records to discuss them with the East Tang Imperial Physician.

After reading the records, the East Tang Imperial Physician’s once-disdainful gaze withdrew, replaced by a trace of surprise. Then he checked the prescriptions—the smallpox formulas were not wrong, not even off by a single measure.

Once he took her pulse, he secretly gave a great start, and his expression grew grave.

It seemed it was not that Nanxia’s Imperial Physicians were incompetent, but that this Seventeenth Princess’s illness was truly bizarre.

Especially when, through the thin veil, a Palace Maid dipped some of the yellow fluid from the sores on the Seventeenth Princess’s face to show him. Peering through the tiniest gap in the curtain, he clearly saw the Princess’s head covered in vile pustules.

This East Tang Imperial Physician did not even leave a prescription before he departed.

The portrait of the Seventeenth Princess was quickly completed. The East Tang Envoy went to Extreme Wind Tower, paid five hundred taels of Silver, and demanded it be delivered to East Tang within seven days.

Extreme Wind Tower accepted the job, and on the sixth day the portrait was handed into the Third Prince’s grasp in East Tang.

The Third Prince of East Tang was eighteen, born of Imperial Concubine Chen. His brows and eyes were refined, but his looks tended toward the effeminate; especially when he smiled, the chilly, shadowed curve of his lips made one feel as though a venomous snake had fixed its stare on them.

The Third Prince established his mansion at fifteen; it was a gift from the Emperor, exceedingly grand. The Imperial Concubines in the palace feared this son might lack for anything, so good things flowed into his mansion without cost, making the Third Prince Mansion extremely wealthy.

The Third Prince was in Hongding Pavilion, on the right side of the main courtyard.

Hongding Pavilion was inlaid with gold and jade, resplendent in its brilliance. The floor was covered in soft, furry rugs. The Third Prince, dressed in a scarlet Hong Yi, sat directly on the ground. On the table beside him were fine wine and delicacies, and at his feet two peerlessly beautiful girls in light robes were serving him on either side.

His robes were open at the chest, a hint of laughter between his brows and eyes, yet on closer look there was only an icy chill to be seen.

One girl poured wine and lifted the cup to his lips. He drank, following the line of her hand, his manner languid. Clearly a man, yet his lips were rosy, his teeth white, his allure as bewitching as a demon.

His skin was snow-pale, making him appear somewhat frail, but with his garments open one could see the powerful muscles of his chest within, clearly not as genteel and weak as he looked.

A servant passed along the painting and letter sent back over a thousand miles by the Envoy. The Third Prince’s lips held a faint, indifferent smile. He tossed the scroll onto the rug at random and tore open the letter.

He skimmed its contents ten lines at a glance, then his gaze fell to the scroll as he murmured, "She’s fallen ill? Grown ugly? And so what?"

His eyes slid to the girl on his right who was pounding his legs. He reached out, lifted her chin, and said casually, "If it’s beauties, this prince has plenty. What this prince wants is that person, nothing more."

The girl smiled seductively, her smile tinged with both flattery and fear.

The Third Prince released her and lightly nudged the scroll, letting it roll over the rug.

He had originally forbidden anyone from opening that scroll; no matter what that little girl had become, he would first marry her and then speak of everything else.

However, after all, it had been more than ten years; he was still somewhat curious, just how ugly she had grown.

His hand—slender, long, with sharply defined joints—reached out, caught the scroll, and unfurled it.

As he looked at the girl in the painting, when his gaze fell upon that face his hand gave a twitch, and he flung the scroll away in fright. Was this ugly? Was this even human?

The girl pouring wine was spared, having not seen the portrait, but the one pounding his leg had been close just now and happened to catch a glimpse; she too cried out in terror.

The instant the cry left her mouth, her face turned as white as paper. She hurriedly knelt, body prostrated, shivering like chaff.

The Third Prince’s vicious gaze swept over that girl, then glared hard at the fallen portrait. His face darkened as he said, "That Consort Li was born with a face of peerless beauty. I’d thought her daughter would at least inherit three to five parts of her charm. I never imagined she’d truly grow into a grotesque freak."

He recalled that scene from back then, of that unruly little girl standing with her hands on her hips in Nanxia’s Imperial Palace, calling him a freak. He still remembered those brows and eyes, so very similar to the ones in the portrait.

What a pity—between those brows and eyes, the scars from the sores ran together, and a sheet of yellow pus flowed down from them. That was no longer merely ugly; that was revolting.

He snorted a cold laugh, fingers curling as he stepped forward and stamped heavily on the painting, grinding with his toes. Then he grabbed the girl lying on the ground and hauled her up, his voice gentle and even, soft as he asked, "You saw it? Ugly or not?"

The girl was seized with such force it was as if he held a rag doll. She hurt, pain flooding her eyes, yet she dared not cry out. Hearing the Third Prince’s question, her lips trembled as she whispered, "Ugly..."