The Prince Is Abolished

Chapter 20

The next day, Lu Ran came to the clinic.

'Father is with monk and they are discussing how to get inside palace. They are trying to ensure that Mang doesn't carry out to bloodbath,' Lu Ran told Kang Zhing.

'That's great. But won't that be dangerous for the Lu family and Xi Jiang?'

'Father said that even sitting outside is dangerous. Xi Jiang is safe and he is about to come. When he fled the palace, mom had him followed, and his shelter was being watched by our guards.'

'Madam Lu Fan should be the role model for all women! What a spirit! Do I need to write to Song Wu anything?'

'Yeah. Tell him to die this instant. I am sick of these bast...'

'Ran!'

'Yes mother.'

'Look who is here?'

Xi Jiang was standing in front of them. He had a stubble after fleeing from the palace 6 days earlier, but otherwise in good health.

Lu Ran looked at him and her heart filled with joy. She ran towards him and hugged him and he hugged her back with passion. They later withdrew as they came to their senses, because, after all they were in the hospital.

Kang Zhing too saw Xi Jiang and tried to get up to greet him, but seeing the two of them together so intimately, she felt pained. It was clear that her best friend and Xi Jiang have started liking each other.

'How are you Lu Ran?' Xi Jiang asked.

'I am fine. Call me Ran. Aren't we...aren't we, friends?

'Am I still just a friend, Ran?' Xi Jiang was unhappy and his feelings appeared on his lips. Lu Ran made eyes at him to remind Xi Jiang that they were in a public place.

After reading her eye signals, Xi Jiang composed himself and went inside the room to see Kang Zhing.

Lu Fan was observing their shy love; Himalayan master was right, these two were well-suited to each other.

Kang Zhing greeted him warmly, and narrated all that happened in between, and how they collected the evidences through communication with Song Wu. Xi Jiang praised Kang Zhing and told her that this was enough to bring Song Wu to task and nail Xi Mang as well, once the emperor awakes and the case begins.

Xi Jiang then told them all that happened right from the day he fled:

I was out of the palace, and when I went far away...towards the outskirts, I heard some horses neighing. But soon it was pin-drop silence again. I decided to increase my speed, and looked out for a place to seek shelter. A while later, I saw a small house and saw just one lady inside. She happened to be a widow of the palace guard and was most keen to have me. Her name is Su Ning. Her story is very heart-wrenching; only 29 and became a widow, has no one in her family. Do you know, that she never received a single copper coin of widow pension till now? She is surviving on free ration provided by the Lus and she cultivates some vegetables by herself.

I only had some gold coins, and gave her one, and she gladly tended to my horse, did laundry, fixed my food, and everything.

I opened the sealed packet handed to me by the emperor the next day, and found his seal in it; with this, Xi Mang's ascension can always be challenged. I felt grateful to my father for not giving into him so easily, and felt happy at his brave act for the first time in my life, and guess what Kang Zhing, Ran?...The next day head of Lu mansion security, Mr. Cheng appeared at the door.

Madam Lu Fan had sent him and his men to escort me safely to wherever I went that night and the neighs I heard were from his horses! He told me that Madam Lu Fan got the imperial physician to change my father's medicine. The Imperial Physician advised my father to handover the seal, and send me out of the palace. So even this 'brave' act was not entirely my father's own undertaking. I am also very grateful because had Madam Fan not tried to get me out of the palace, I may have been slayed by my dear brother and mother.