Chapter 10: What This Prince Lacks Is a 'Medicine Guide'

Ever since the great victory of the "kidney puncture and drainage," Shangqing Temple's threshold had nearly been worn flat.

Not only did the old fossils of the Imperial Medical Bureau show up daily with pastries in hand to pick her brain—even princes and nobles of Chang'an, anyone whose household suffered from "stone strangury" or troubles of the waterways, arrived in sedan chairs to line up outside the gate.

Li Ce sat atop the wall, watching the crowd churn below. The faint pride of "glory by association" was quickly drowned by a rising irritation.

When he saw a marquis past fifty actually reach out to take Jiang Yuejian's hand for a "pulse reading," the frost in Li Ce's eyes nearly killed the crooked tree growing on the walltop.

"Shadow guards." Li Ce vaulted down from the wall, his voice terrible to hear.

"Present."

"Close the main gate. Tell the people out there that Priestess Jiang is attending to this prince's... follow-up examination. Everyone else—get lost."

Half an hour later, the Prince Regent's residence.

Jiang Yuejian was carried through the gates on a soft sedan chair, practically by force. She still held half a chunk of half-eaten flatbread, staring blankly at Li Ce seated in the seat of honor.

"Your Highness. I've told you many times—the stone is fully passed. Drink more water and there's no need for a daily examination." Jiang Yuejian sat down ungraciously and poured herself a cup of water.

Li Ce waved away the attendants. The doors of the hall swung slowly shut, and the room went abruptly quiet, leaving only the slightly quickened breathing of two people.

He rose and advanced on her, step by step. Today he wore no court robes, only a moon-white sleeping robe, its collar somewhat loose, carrying a slack, aggressive edge she had never seen on him.

"Jiang Yuejian. Do you think what I lack is that cup of water?" He bent down, planting both hands on the arms of her chair, caging her whole self within his presence.

They were so close that Jiang Yuejian could see the bloodshot threads in his eyes.

"Those old fossils at the Imperial Medical Bureau have been drafting memorials for days, trying to transfer you into the Bureau to teach." Li Ce's voice was low, faintly hoarse. "And those young idlers of Chang'an, every one of them suddenly 'ill,' flocking to Shangqing Temple—all just to see with their own eyes what the woman who made this prince bow his head looks like."

Jiang Yuejian arched a brow, entirely unmoved by his bearing. "So now that I'm famous, shouldn't Your Highness be happy for me?"

"Happy?" Li Ce gave a cold laugh. His fingers drifted, without his own noticing, through a strand of her hair—a touch carrying a tenderness and a madness he himself hadn't detected. "Right now all I want is to seal that temple of yours shut. Jiang Yuejian, this city of Chang'an cannot contain your medicine. They will treat you as a freak—or worse, as a ladder to climb on."

He looked at her, and the possessiveness in his eyes stopped hiding: "On the west side of this residence, I've had a medicine study built for you. Every instrument and herb inside was made to your specifications. Stay here, and I grant you absolute freedom. No one will dare come trouble you."

Jiang Yuejian laughed, a glint of mischief in it: "Absolute freedom? And if I want to go out and treat the common folk?"

"Then I go with you." Li Ce answered almost before she finished, imperious as a child. "But you must live here. You are the one who saved this prince's life. Only my own eyes on your safety will set my mind at ease."

Jiang Yuejian studied the man. He held all power under heaven, yet right now he was like some small beast guarding its beloved treasure, terrified someone might steal it away. She knew perfectly well this wasn't about safety. This was the Prince Regent, in twenty-odd years of life, learning for the first time what it meant to worry himself sick over another person.

"Your Highness, living in the Regent's residence is expensive." Jiang Yuejian set down her cup and deliberately leaned to his ear, her breath like orchid. "Overtime pay, missed-meal allowances, and my private consultation fees... can Your Highness afford it?"

Li Ce looked into those sly eyes, and the wire pulled tight in his chest suddenly went slack. He lowered his head and laughed, and the laughter carried endless doting:

"This entire Prince Regent's residence is yours—along with this prince's very life. Doctor Jiang. Tell me... is that enough?"