Before long, Su Yan brought out 100,000 taels of silver notes and handed them to Gu Xingchen. Gu Xingchen took the notes and bowed again, saying, "This humble subject thanks Your Highness Ting. This humble subject will take his leave."
After leaving the Prince Ting's mansion, Gu Xingchen hurried back. When he passed a candy stall, he stopped and bought all the candy the stall owner had, filling the entire bamboo basket. There was still some left, so he asked the stall owner to pack it up so he could take it back and put it in Wen Hongye's small bamboo basket, filling that basket as well.
He continued his journey back, clutching a bag full of candy.
Now he finally understood why Wen Hongye always looked sad and why she always wanted to eat candy.
It turns out that Wen Hongye had been hurt badly, so he felt bitter and wanted to eat candy to make himself feel sweeter.
For three years, Wen Hongye devoted herself to someone who didn't love her, but in the end, she got nothing in return.
He couldn't understand why Xiao Nian didn't appreciate such beautiful red leaves.
But it's alright, he will cherish the red leaves.
Xiao Nian doesn't know how to feel sorry for Hongye, but he does!
Gu Xingchen rushed home, and before she even entered the door, she called out, "Hongye, I'm back! Look what I bought for you!"
He smiled and pushed the door open, only to find the room empty except for a letter on the table and the new clothes he had bought for Wen Hongye.
Gu Xingchen's smile froze. He immediately ran over, put the bamboo basket and the candy he was holding on the table, and then quickly opened the letter to take a look.
Those few simple lines of text pierced his heart—
Star, this is the first time I've called your name, but I never imagined it would be the time to say goodbye. Didn't you want to know my answer? My answer is: I've loved others, I'm not pure, I'm not worthy. I'm leaving. Take care, you'll meet someone better.
Chapter 373 Ah Liu, can you promise me one thing?
Gu Xingchen cried out sadly, "I don't mind, Hongye, I don't mind! Why didn't you wait for me to come back? Why didn't you wait for me to come back..."
He put down the letter and immediately ran out of the house to search for Wen Hongye.
But by then, he could no longer find Wen Hongye.
He didn't know which direction he went, how long he walked, or how far he had gone.
The world is vast, where could he possibly go to find him all by himself?
Gu Xingchen returned home dejectedly, slumped onto a stool, picked up the letter left by Wen Hongye, and read it sadly over and over again.
He murmured, "You deserve it, you deserve it. Why are you so ashamed? It's clearly me, an ordinary herb gatherer, who is worthy of you. You are so wonderful, like the moon in the sky, pure and white. It is I, the one who dared to dream of plucking the moon, who should feel ashamed. Why did you run away..."
Just as Gu Xingchen was overcome with grief, the 100,000 taels of silver notes in her sleeve accidentally fell out and scattered on the ground.
He glanced at the silver notes, initially uninterested, but suddenly an idea flashed into his mind.
He immediately grabbed the silver notes from the ground and ran out of the house again.
Prince Ting's Mansion.
Looking at the Hundred-Continuation Grass, Feng Muting sighed, "I even sent people all over the world to search for it, but it turns out that this rare Hundred-Continuation Grass was right outside the imperial city, hidden in that inconspicuous place."
“With this Hundred-Continuity Grass, I will be able to restore my martial arts skills,” Su Fuliu replied.
"Then...should I send someone to fetch Lu Chimo first?" Feng Muting asked.
Su Fuliu nodded: "We can call Doctor Lu over first. I want to teach him the Xuan Yin Acupuncture Technique and the Xuan Xian Acupuncture Technique. Then we need to find a few more medicinal herbs to combine with the Hundred Continuation Grass in order to maximize its effects. Although those herbs are also rare, they should be available at pharmacies."
"Okay, write down the name of the medicine, and I'll have someone buy it."
"Hmm." Then, Su Fuliu wrote down the names of the other medicinal herbs and handed them to Feng Muting.
Feng Muting glanced at it and couldn't help but praise, "Ah Liu's handwriting is really beautiful."
After giving all the orders, he returned to Su Fuliu's side, took his hand, and said, "Then, won't A-Liu have to suffer again..."
"Hmm... But once you get through this, you'll be able to recover your martial arts skills. Doctor Lu still needs to learn acupuncture from me, so he won't start removing the pipa hook so soon. Probably in three days. So, for these three days, Tinglang should obediently go to the palace to help the Emperor with state affairs so that he can spend more time with Aunt Xu."
Feng Muting pouted and said, "I want to spend more time with you..."
Su Fuliu looked at him with a wry smile: "Didn't Tinglang say that he wanted the Emperor and Aunt Xu to get married soon and give you a younger brother so that no one would make things difficult for us in the future? So, for our future, Tinglang naturally has to work harder now."
"Well, it's not that I'm afraid of hard work, it's just that I'm worried about not having time to spend with you, and you'll be lonely by yourself," Feng Muting said, hugging him tightly.
"I won't feel lonely when I'm thinking of Tinglang." Su Fuliu hugged him back.
Feng Muting thought for a moment, then said, "Ah Liu, can you promise me one thing?"
"What is it?" Su Fuliu looked up at him.
"Once you regain your martial arts skills, you can't use them against me."
Su Fuliu smiled and said, "Why would I use martial arts to deal with you?"
Feng Muting pursed his lips slightly, then said, "Just tell me if you agree or not?"
"Okay, okay, I promise." Su Fuliu agreed without much thought.
Feng Muting then laughed: "A-Liu has always been a person of her word. You must not break your promise in the future?"
"Yes, yes, yes." Su Fuliu was completely unaware that a hint of triumph was hidden in someone's smile.
Just as Feng Muting was about to steal a kiss, Su Yan's voice rang out again from outside: "Your Highness, that herb gatherer is here again..."
Chapter 374 A belly full of ghost fire
Feng Muting gritted his teeth, really not wanting to open the door.
Su Fuliu pushed him away and said, "Tinglang, Su Yan said that the herb gatherer came to see you again. I'm afraid something's wrong. Tinglang, why don't you go and see him?"
Feng Muting frowned: "What could it be? Maybe he wants the gold. Just let Su Yan give it to him. Let's ignore it. I'm going to the palace tomorrow, so I need to spend more time with A-Liu now."
As he spoke, he hugged Su Fuliu again, ignoring Su Yan outside.
But Su Fuliu felt that Gu Xingchen definitely hadn't come to ask for gold; he probably had something else on his mind. So she pushed Feng Muting aside again: "Tinglang, why don't you go and see him..."
At this moment, Su Yan saw that there was no sound inside, so he said again, "Your Highness, it's not that I intentionally came to disturb you, but that herb gatherer came running in looking like he was about to cry, and knelt in the front hall saying he wanted to see Your Highness."
Upon hearing this, Su Fuliu immediately said, "See, Tinglang, they really have something urgent to discuss with you."
Feng Muting had no choice but to let go of him and then go to open the door.
When Su Yan saw him come out, he immediately lowered his head, feeling extremely uneasy. He knew that he had bothered Feng Muting twice that day, and Feng Muting must be furious.
Feng Muting glared at him: "It seems Xie Chen didn't teach you properly. As an excellent subordinate, you know when to speak and when not to speak. You get back here now and let Xie Chen teach you properly again. You're not allowed to leave the room until you've been taught properly!"
Startled, Su Yan looked up at Feng Muting: "Your Highness... this, this won't do, Xie Chen, he..."
"Fine, very well, so you're not even obeying my orders anymore?" Before Su Yan could finish speaking, Feng Muting interrupted him.
"Your Highness, please forgive me, I dare not..." Su Yan was extremely frustrated.
What do you mean by "not allowed to leave the room if not properly taught"? If that little bastard Xie Chen finds out about this, he'll probably misinterpret the prince's meaning again.
At that point, he really won't be able to leave his room.
"Then why don't you get back to Xie Chen?!" Feng Muting felt that he was already being considerate of the master-servant relationship by not kicking Su Yan back.
Su Yan swallowed hard, and could only bow his head and clasp his hands in greeting: "Yes..."
Afterwards, Feng Muting took Su Fuliu to the front hall, where they found Gu Xingchen kneeling there, looking anxious.
Upon seeing Feng Muting arrive, he immediately kowtowed and said, "Your Highness, you've finally arrived."
Without waiting for Feng Muting to ask a question, he quickly placed all the 100,000 taels of silver notes he had on him in front of Feng Muting: "Your Highness, these are the 100,000 taels of silver notes that you bestowed upon me. I will return them all to you. I also don't want the 50,000 taels of gold. I will return them all to Your Highness."
Feng Muting looked at him and replied, "Not enough?"
Gu Xingchen immediately shook his head: "No, no, this humble subject does not want gold or silver. This humble subject would like to use these to exchange for Your Highness to do this favor for me. This humble subject would like Your Highness to help me find someone, Wen Hongye. He, he has left, he has disappeared. This humble subject cannot find him. I beg Your Highness to send someone to help me find him. This humble subject will thank Your Highness in advance!"
As he spoke, he began to kowtow repeatedly, each kowtow forcefully, until blood appeared on his forehead after only a few kowtows.
Su Fuliu couldn't bear it, so she gently tugged at Feng Muting's sleeve.
Gu Xingchen only came to ask Feng Muting for help in finding someone. He didn't even want any money; he just wanted Feng Muting to help him find Wen Hongye. It wasn't an unreasonable request at all.
"Alright, stop kowtowing. If you die here, I'll have to find someone to dig a hole and bury you," Feng Muting replied.
Gu Xingchen finally stopped, then looked at Feng Muting with red eyes: "Your Highness, I beg you..."
"Go back and wait for news," Feng Muting said again.
Upon hearing this, Gu Xingchen was immediately overjoyed: "This humble subject thanks Your Highness! This humble subject, Gu Xingchen, lives at..."
Before he could finish speaking, Feng Muting said, "Alright, no need to say so much. If I can find Wen Hongye, how could I not find where your home is? Step down."
"Yes, this humble subject takes his leave!" Gu Xingchen didn't dare to say much to Feng Muting. If it weren't for finding Wen Hongye, he wouldn't have dared to come to Feng Muting.
After he left, Su Fuliu sighed, "It seems that Wen Hongye has met the right person this time."
But before he could finish speaking, he was suddenly picked up and carried upright by Feng Muting.
Feng Muting grabbed his thigh, and he was so frightened that he instinctively clamped his calves around Feng Muting's waist, and quickly wrapped his arms around Feng Muting's neck, hanging on Feng Muting's body in an extremely ambiguous position.
Chapter 375 You Really Cried
"What are you doing, Your Highness!" Su Fuliu blushed and struggled to get down.
Feng Muting held him tightly and said, "Don't move, you'll get hurt."
Upon hearing this, Su Fuliu was so frightened that she dared not move.
He swallowed hard and said, "Your Highness, you...you put me down! If you want to carry me, go back to your room. It's not good if someone sees us carrying you here!"
Feng Muting laughed: "No one's watching, what's there to be afraid of? Call me Tinglang."
"..." Su Fuliu didn't speak, his eyes kept looking to the side, afraid that someone would come and see him.
"Good Ah Liu, we haven't been here in so long, let me have some more, okay?" Feng Muting said ambiguously, rubbing his nose against Su Fuliu's nose.
If he doesn't try it now, it will be even harder to do it once his Ah Liu recovers her martial arts skills.
"You, you mustn't do this. Let's go back to our room and talk about it." Su Fuliu was terrified that someone had come to the front hall.
"Okay, let's go back to the room and talk." Feng Muting felt that since Su Fuliu hadn't directly said no, there was hope. He was immediately excited and carried Su Fuliu back to the room.
Along the way, Su Fuliu didn't dare to move around. Although he really wanted to get down, Feng Muting wouldn't let go, so he couldn't get down.
Once they arrived in the room, Feng Muting carried Su Fuliu to the bed and then leaned over her, saying, "Good Fuliu, is it alright?"
He assumed Su Fuliu would definitely agree, so as he asked, his hand had already reached for Su Fuliu's waist.