Li Qing chuckled, "Since Your Highness knows that golden eagles are wild and untamable, you must also know that even the best trainer cannot tame a golden eagle to be obedient.
That golden eagle was an orphaned chick that Shen Tangzhou found by chance while on a mission in the northwest. He never expected it to be of any use but simply did a good deed.
Who would have thought that after growing up, the golden eagle would refuse to leave his side.
Later, during a battlefield emergency when the carrier pigeons were intercepted, Shen Tangzhou, as a last resort, sent the golden eagle with a message. To his surprise, it actually delivered it.
From then on, the golden eagle became Shen Tangzhou's exclusive messenger."
Lu Qing Wan smacked her lips in envy and resolutely decided that she had to meet that golden eagle.
However, she suddenly remembered, "Where did His Highness ask me to go to treat Prince Ning just now?"
Did she mishear something?
Ren Dong leaned closer to the carriage and whispered, "Answering Your Highness, His Highness said Ci An Tang."
"Oh, Ci An Tang, then I didn't mishear."
Lu Qing Wan rested her chin on her hand and nodded. Suddenly, she sprang up as if electrocuted, "Ci An Tang, isn't that Bai Xing Lin's arch-rival?
His Highness asked me to go to Ci An Tang, has the Lan family completely collapsed?"
On the very first day of her official posting at Bai Xing Lin, she had already made an enemy of Ci An Tang. If Feng Xi Wu hadn't said he would use Ci An Tang to bleed the Lan official dry, Lu Qing Wan wouldn't have kept Ci An Tang around until now.
After that, she hadn't paid much attention to Ci An Tang's situation. Hearing it again today, her first reaction was that the Lan official's manor behind Ci An Tang had collapsed, and thus Ci An Tang had also fallen.
Li Qing replied from outside the carriage door, "Among those dealt with on the day of the late emperor's passing was Official Lan. Official Lan was beheaded, and the male members of the Lan family were exiled.
Their property was confiscated, and this was on the condition that they first repaid the silver Official Lan had embezzled over the years, otherwise, the entire family would face execution.
My subordinate heard from Li Yang that on the day of the late emperor's funeral, Official Lan submitted all his debts, left a suicide note, and took his own life."
Lu Qing Wan laughed upon hearing this, "If that's the case, will there be no worries about the operational funds for the army in the northern region?"
Li Qing only smiled and remained silent.
Lu Qing Wan sat silently in the carriage, calculating. She realized that a group of corrupt officials could support the eighty thousand troops of Da Gan. Just then, the carriage stopped at the entrance of Ci An Tang.
She alighted with satisfaction, looking at Bai Xing Lin, which had been reduced to ruins. With a sigh, she entered the opposite Ci An Tang.
She didn't know when Feng Xi Wu had arranged it, but Ci An Tang had been cleaned and tidied. The employees of Bai Xing Lin were now residing there.
As soon as she entered, Meng Sheng, who was behind the counter, saw her and exclaimed joyfully, "Grand-master, why are you here?"
Although Lu Qing Wan was not pleased about Lin Sa's identity being revealed, Meng Sheng was very happy because he could finally openly call Lu Qing Wan grand-master.
He then scampered over to Lu Qing Wan, beaming like a fool.
"There is a patient arranged by His Highness, were you the one receiving him?"
Meng Sheng nodded repeatedly, "I know who it is, Grand-master, please follow me."
Ci An Tang specialized in making money from the wealthy, and the pharmacy was undoubtedly luxuriously decorated.
As long as the money was sufficient, every patient could rest in a private room. Those rooms were on par with the bedrooms of ordinary wealthy families.
Prince Ning was in Ci An Tang's Heaven-tier room. When Lu Qing Wan arrived, she almost failed to recognize him as Prince Ning.
The once tall and imposing prince, who could be mistaken for a general, was now so thin that he was almost unrecognizable.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, he stiffly turned his upper body, his eyes devoid of any light.
When Lu Qing Wan walked over, he spoke with a blank expression, "The Regent said that the late emperor ordered you to recuperate my health. Does this mean that as soon as I give birth to an heir, my time will be up?"
Lu Qing Wan did not answer him but instead asked, "If I say yes, would you choose to cooperate with me in recuperating and giving birth to an heir, or would you prefer to be childless and live on, even if it means a lingering death?"
"Lingering death?"
Prince Ning suddenly burst into laughter, his whole body trembling. "Yes, as you said, I am merely lingering on. What difference is there between that and death?
Come, if you can help me have a son or daughter, this broken life is yours to take."
He cooperatively extended his hand, like an animal about to complete its reproductive task, devoid of any emotion.
It was quite pitiable for a prince to be brought to such a state.
However, Lu Qing Wan felt no sympathy for him. To her, he was merely a tool to help her kill Feng Xi Wu and avenge her father as soon as possible.
Prince Ning likely sensed her intentions. After Lu Qing Wan withdrew her hand from taking his pulse, he suddenly said, "Do you believe me? I never truly desired to be emperor."
Lu Qing Wan picked up a pen and paper, prescribing medicine while coldly sneering, "A man who plots rebellion, and even went as far as to kill his father, claims he didn't want to be emperor. What do you expect me to say?
That I understand you were forced?
Or that I understand that when you're in the imperial family, your fate is not your own?"
Prince Ning's hand on the medicine pillow clenched. "You don't know how ruthless Feng Qing Heng is. If he becomes emperor, he will not allow Prince Jing and me to live.
I just wanted to live. Is that wrong?"
His eyes turned red with agitation, and his teeth clenched tightly.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to live. What's wrong is that your strength doesn't match your ambition."
Lu Qing Wan glanced at him expressionlessly and continued writing the prescription.
"The late emperor labored his entire life without allowing the empress's relatives to interfere in politics, so all the princes had equal opportunities.
As princes, you, the eldest, and Feng Qing Heng, the son of the empress, had comparable advantages in status and neither had the support of a maternal clan.
Yet, to this day, Feng Qing Heng has managed to win over so many people to his side, and even Duke Xu and Jiang Ding Kun, whom you relied on, eventually became the ones to send you to your doom.
This only proves that Feng Qing Heng's strength is superior to yours, and you yourself are incompetent.
On what grounds do you blame heaven and earth, and why should you make the lives of my father, Little Zheng'er, and the people of the capital pay for your ambition?"
As Lu Qing Wan spoke with emotion, she unconsciously stopped her hand. The ink at the tip of her nose smudged, ruining the freshly written prescription.
She took a new sheet of paper and began to write again. She appeared incredibly calm, but the repeated discarding of paper revealed her anger.
Prince Ning was stunned. "You all know?"
After the rebellion failed, a war broke out in Sai Bei, diverting everyone's attention.
Feng Qing Heng and Prince Jing's subtle maneuvers were endless. He thought that what he had done would remain unknown.
But Lu Qing Wan's words clearly told him that the reality was far from what he had imagined.
Lu Qing Wan sneered, "Know what?
Know that you sent people to assassinate my father in the army, causing him to be critically injured, and then framed Feng Qing Heng for it?
Or know that to weaken the Emperor's will, you poisoned him with mushrooms, and then widely poisoned mushrooms in the restaurants of the capital to confuse the public.
After the rebellion failed, you deliberately led us to discover the connection between Xu Zhi Huan and Consort Ye, pushing all the blame for the Emperor's poisoning onto Consort Ye?"