She inherited Wei Yutang's handsome features, though it's not very obvious now because she's still young; she has more of a refined look similar to Chu Qing.
"This is His Majesty."
Wei Yutang spoke up first, and Xia Xia nodded as if he understood. He knew about this; his father had told him about it several times before he entered the palace. He quickly bowed slightly in greeting.
"Greetings, Your Majesty."
"No need for formalities, please rise."
After saying this, the young emperor kept carefully observing Xia Xia's expression. The child was similar to what he had imagined, but even cuter than he had guessed.
"Where are the things I ordered you to find yesterday?"
Yesterday, the young emperor had someone find a suitable item from his storeroom. The eunuch reacted very quickly, bringing a box forward and presenting it to His Majesty.
The young emperor opened the box, took out the jade pendant inside, and personally put it on Xiaxia's body.
"This is my gift to you as our first meeting."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Looking at Xiaxia, the young emperor had a very strange feeling. It was probably because when his teacher first saw him, he was not much older than this child.
Now, being with her husband and looking at Xiaxia, she felt a wonderful sensation that brought a knowing smile to the little emperor's face.
"If you have time in the future, please come and visit the palace more often."
"Is it really possible?"
Xiaxia had just found this place very interesting and originally planned to ask her father if she could come here again after returning home today. Now, after hearing His Majesty's words, she felt relieved.
"nature."
"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty."
At the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, Chu Qing had a pretty good impression of the young emperor, and Xia Xia's affection for His Majesty was almost as strong as that for her best friends.
His Majesty not only allowed him to enter the palace, but also agreed to let him bring three of his friends with him.
Just as Xiaxia had made arrangements with her friends and received her father's permission to enter the palace, a palace attendant suddenly stopped on horseback at the gate of their residence.
They kept a distance and said it was inconvenient for them to enter the palace today.
"What's wrong?"
"Your Majesty... is quite ill."
Chapter 128
Chu Qing immediately sensed something was amiss upon hearing this. Not long ago, Wei Yutang had visited the palace, where the young emperor had kept him company while discussing court affairs until midnight.
When he consulted the imperial physicians at the Imperial Hospital, he had seen the young emperor's medical records. If it were just a common cold, it wouldn't be necessary to prevent Xiaxia from entering the palace.
What kind of illness is it?
When the messenger heard Chu Qing ask about this, he hesitated for a moment, then bowed to Chu Qing.
"It's not convenient for me to say."
The more this person acted this way, the more curious and puzzled Chu Qing became. What was it that couldn't be told to him? However, he wisely refrained from asking further.
When Wei Yutang returned from outside the city that evening, he was completely baffled when Chu Qing mentioned the matter. He had not heard anything related to it from anyone else.
Actually, compared to Xia Xia, the little emperor is more like Wei Yutang's first child. Wei Yutang taught him many things by hand and watched him grow up and slowly develop into an outstanding person.
After Chu Qing saw through his thoughts, she didn't try to stop him. She stood up, went to the side, got him a cloak, and draped it over his shoulders.
“I’ll go with you. It’s so late, I’m worried about you going alone.”
"good."
Wei Yutang did not refuse. At first, he hoped to shoulder everything himself, but later he gradually learned to share the burden with Chu Qing.
Chu Qing taught him a lot and made Wei Yutang realize that many things cannot be as he had previously assumed. If he insisted that Chu Qing not participate in anything in his life, it would only make Chu Qing feel uneasy.
Upon arriving at the palace, they were immediately stopped there. This unusual situation made Wei Yutang even more uneasy, since the young emperor had specifically given instructions to everyone beforehand.
No matter what has happened, even in the middle of the night, if the master wants to enter the palace, no one is allowed to stop him.
"Get out of my way! This general is entering the palace. Who dares to stop me?"
After saying this, Wei Yutang ignored their attempts to stop him and barged in. Chu Qing followed behind him, and the two of them entered the palace together.
On the way here, Wei Yutang had wondered if this was a scheme by the young emperor.
Breaking into the palace at night is a serious crime, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to suspect him of treason.
However, after much consideration, they were still worried about the young emperor's safety and couldn't put their minds at ease.
There were many imperial physicians busy in front of the young emperor's bedchamber. Chu Qing could roughly guess their identities from the things they wore on their faces. She reached out and grabbed Wei Yutang's hand, stopping him from taking another step forward.
"No, you can't go in."
Judging from the reactions and behavior of these people, it must be a highly contagious disease, otherwise the entire palace would not have been locked down.
No matter how much the young emperor tries to keep the news a secret, once the news of the palace being sealed off gets out, it will still cause widespread panic.
"Leave this to me."
Chu Qing glanced at the eunuch beside her. This eunuch had been serving His Majesty ever since he learned that His Majesty had contracted that disease, and had not shown any intention of avoiding him.
Now that they understood Doctor Chu's meaning, they took out the things that the imperial physicians in the palace had prepared.
After Chu Qing put it on, she stood in front of Wei Yutang and said softly:
"When you go back, remember to tell Xiaxia that there's no use in this kind of thing even if you stay here. Keep the good news under wraps. If there's any unrest outside, we'll need you."
Wei Yutang wanted to go in and see the young emperor, but after hearing Chu Qing's words, he silently suppressed his thoughts and simply hummed in agreement.
"Be careful, you really need to be careful."
"Don't worry, I'll be careful."
Before going in, Chu Qing gave Wei Yutang a hug. He had read about several highly contagious diseases in medical books and had also discussed various possible solutions with his teacher.
However, for some epidemics, we can only rely on some records in books and our own guesses, which inevitably leads to some one-sidedness.
"Don't tell Lao Qi about this; he's not young anymore."
"Okay, don't worry."
Wei Yutang wrote down everything Chu Qing had instructed him to do. After Chu Qing went inside, he could see that the window was open and the room was filled with a strong smell of medicine.
Some of the things the young emperor used before, those that could be burned have been burned, and some were buried deep underground.
These methods of preventing infection are indeed effective, and it's hard to find fault with them.
"When did Your Majesty begin to experience these symptoms?"
The imperial physicians in the Imperial Hospital had all spoken with Chu Qing before, and now that they saw him come in, it was as if they had seen a savior.
Although Chu Qing is still young and has not been studying medicine for long, his medical skills are in no way inferior to theirs.
"Just a few days ago, we initially thought it was just a common cold, but after taking the medicine, it didn't get better. Last night, we discovered that it had developed a rash, and that's when we realized it might be..."
The imperial physicians couldn't say for sure what it was, since they had never seen anything like it before, and the symptoms described in various records didn't match up.
It was only when a maidservant serving His Majesty developed the same red rash that they were certain it was indeed contagious.
When the maid was discovered, His Majesty was still conscious and ordered everyone to seal the palace gates and prevent the news from getting out.
There is no other way.
"Let me take a look."
After taking His Majesty's pulse, Chu Qing glanced at His Majesty's condition and then asked the imperial physicians about the medicines they had recently given him.
He had never heard of such a situation before, and even he found it somewhat troublesome, truly unsure how to handle it.
On the other side, after Wei Yutang left, he returned to his residence. Xia Xia was still insisting on going over to see what was going on. When Xia Xia, who was making a fuss, saw her father's serious face, she subconsciously controlled her expression.
"Father, where is Father? Why didn't he come back with you? Did something happen?"
"Yes, so you should stay at home and not wander around. We all have things to do these next few days."
To Wei Yutang's relief, although his son was not good at some things, he would not mess things up in such an important matter.
"Will Father be in danger?"
Xia Xia's only concern was this matter. Wei Yutang thought about it and realized that the young emperor was always a cautious and prudent person. He must know how much turmoil the news of sealing the palace gates would cause if it got out.
Even so, his resolute decision to seal the palace gates is enough to show that the illness was very serious.
Chu Qing's medical skills were indeed excellent, and she cured many incurable diseases. Wei Yutang had heard countless people praise his wife as a miracle doctor.
Even under these circumstances, he still couldn't guarantee whether Chu Qing could resolve the issue.
"Will Father be in danger?"
Xiaxia could roughly guess the truth from her father's expression. For some reason, she didn't want to be as obedient as before, and she stood up and subconsciously wanted to run outside.
"I want to go and be with my father!"
Seeing her father blocking her way, Xiaxia almost burst into tears.
“You can’t help with this. If you go, your father will have to take care of you. Be good.”
Wei Yutang barely managed to control his tone, trying not to sound too frightening. He had many things to deal with and didn't have much time to waste on comforting Xiaxia.
If Chu Qing hadn't repeatedly told him that dealing with children required extra patience, he might have remained silent and left everything to the housekeeper.
"When can I see my father?"
Xiaxia seemed to be convinced by her father's words, but she was still a little worried.
"As long as you behave well, it will be at most half a month."
If the little emperor doesn't get better after half a month, then he probably won't get better.
"good."
"Father, where are you going?"
"I have my own things to do. You stay here obediently and are not allowed to go out for the next few days."