Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

Chapter 35

Tang Xuan was the first one to notice Sun Simiao’s return. He’s been partners with Li Yuanying for half a day and really likes his new friend who is unreserved in personality.  Upon seeing Sun Simiao, he requested the others leave first and led Li Yuanying to him for a conversation.

Someone had already came looking for him a few days ago. That person requested for doctor Sun to delay his travels for the Crown Prince Li Chengqian has a favor to ask from him. The Emperor has always treated Sun Simiao with courtesy and so Chengqian naturally had to follow suit and couldn’t force the doctor to stay put for too long. He told Li Yuanying to visit him immediately with a token in hand and to personally invite Sun Simiao.

Yuanying also liked his new friend and so he didn’t see a need to hide his intentions. He followed Sun Simiao into the humble farmhouse and told him his purpose for visiting.

As soon as Sun Simiao heard Li Yuanying’s name, he knew his identity.  When he heard that an elder in the family is sick, he immediately thought of His Majesty Li Er who was resting in Li Mountain.

This is a tricky situation!

The reason why imperial physician uses gentle methods to treat nobles and royalty is that it was difficult to treat them. If the medicines didn’t work, that’s still fine but if they use aggressive methods and it backfires, they might lose their head.

Li Yuanying kept looking at Sun Simiao. He has an unpredictable expression and looked like a poker face old immortal. Yuanying immediately straightened himself and bowed to Sun Simiao: “Please visit my imperial brother.” Although the Emperor had always bullied him and loves to either make him copy books as punishment or to knock him on his forehead, he has already lost his doting father and his gentle royal sister-in-law. He doesn’t want to lose this bad royal brother of his.

Sun Simiao saw that the boy’s words and attitude were sincere and he didn’t have the heart to refuse. He never liked being bounded by official position and didn’t want to have too much involvement with the royal family. But seeing this half-baked teenager making such a heartfelt request, he didn’t want to disappoint him.

Tang Xuan who was still listening was left stunned. Since he hadn’t been to too many places and didn’t have too much experience in life, he could only judge that Li Yuanying must be of extraordinary origin. He did not expect that he was royalty. A real nobleman.

Sun Simiao stretched out his hands to help Yuanying stand and promised: “I can come with you, but since the Emperor has not sent anyone to invite me previously, I’m afraid I might be of little help so please don’t expect too much.”

When Li Yuanying heard the old doctor’s agreement, he happily agreed: “As long as you treat the Emperor, I’m sure he’ll be alright.”

Since Sun Simiao has already agreed to his request, Yuanying became playful again: ” Lord Brother’s old ailments have been with him for so long, he can wait a little longer! I just heard from Ah Xuan that the mushrooms in this area are delicious and fresh. Since it’s coincidentally the mushroom season and if you touch the bottom of a tree, you’ll find lots of big and great mushrooms! Such plump mushrooms must be delicious if used for stewing chicken. Let’s try some first before returning to the palace.”

Sun Simiao: “…”

Li Dejian: “…”

Li Yuanying sent a guard back to update the Emperor that he wouldn’t be back for lunch. He then went to search for mushrooms with his new friend.

While Yuanying happily followed Ah Xuan and brought back a small basket for mushrooms, Li Dejian has already pulled up his sleeves and started cooking the tender chicken. This untalkative second-generation officer was skilled.

Yuanying leaned over to talk to him and found out that his mother has been weak since the beginning of spring and Li Dejian has been cooking easy-to-eat dishes for his mother.

To obtain military books, Li Yuanying visited the Li’s mansion a while back, and back then madam Li (Li Jing’s wife) came out to see him. Although Madam Li is nearly sixty, you can still see signs that she was a great beauty when she was younger.

The boy had heard stories about her. It is said that Mrs. Li’s name is Hongfu and was a singer in someone’s residence. When chaos broke out towards the end of the Sui Dynasty, she saw that Li Jing was quite heroic and started following him everywhere without hesitation. After Li Jing returned to the Tang Empire, she became Li Jing’s wife.

Hearing Li Dejian say that the gentle old lady was ill, he comforted him: “Once Doctor Sun has finished tending to the Emperor, do invite him to treat your mother, she will get better.”

Li Dejian nodded. Others said that the Prince of Teng was a little devil but he has seen Li Yuanying from both sides and felt that the boy isn’t like what the rumor makes him out to be.

Yuanying and Ah Xuan ate the fragrant mushroom chicken stew at Sun Simiao’s place. The mushrooms were really fresh and the chicken raised by the village tasted really good!

Li Yuanying had a full stomach and was very satisfied. When he was about to leave, he took Tang Xuan’s hand and said goodbye: “If you even visit  Chang’an, go to the library in the western city and leave me a letter. If I can make it, I’ll bring you around Chang’an!” Although he hasn’t visited all of Chang’an himself, he must be bold when speaking in front of his friends. Otherwise, why would his friends want to get to know him better?!

Tang Xuan being only a teenager quickly agreed upon hearing Li Yuanying’s enthusiastic invitation. Before this, he isn’t very interested in Chang’an for it was just a place that he needed to visit for the exams. Now that there’s this agreement, Chang’an holds a very different meaning to his heart.

He also wanted to see the Library that the Prince mentioned.

Tang Xuan seriously agreed: “I will visit.”

After a successful future appointment with a new friend, Li Yuanying happily bid farewell and headed back to the palace with Sun Simiao.

On this day, Li Zhi was looking for Yuanying only to find out that he’s gone out after paying the Emperor a quick visit early in the morning. No idea where he went with his men. When it was time for lunch, this fellow then informed us that he had eaten outside, it was obvious that he was having fun!

Li Zhi and the girls were feeling resentful: Why didn’t you invite us along when you go out to play?

His Majesty was not as dissatisfied as the children but he understands that deep down although Li Yuanying said his outing was to meet old doctor Sun but in actual fact he just wanted an excuse to go out and play!

When Li Yuanying brought Sun Simiao back to the palace, the princesses rushed toward him together and started accusing him of not taking them out for a play trip.

But who is Li Yuanying? He’ll definitely not feel bad or repent just because the others accuse him. Not only did he not feel shameful for playing alone, he proudly told them that he made new friends and played teacher with them for a long time!

He then continued by telling them about his mushroom picking adventure in the forest. Since it was raining the past few days, the mountains were wet. Mushrooms were growing under trees and were easy to find. Since I pick them myself, they tasted especially delicious! Also, Li Dejian’s skill in cooking chicken is top-notch. He plucked out all the feathers in record time. Super awesome!

Sizi and Hengshan hearing this started pulling at Li Yuanying. “I want to go too!”

Yuanying shook his head: “No, your father has now forbidden me from bringing you out.”

Gao Yang ran toward the Emperor without hesitation. Crying that she wanted to go out with Li Yuanying and that she wanted to eat mushrooms and stewed chicken!

The other three followed suit and started pulling and crying on His Majesty Li Er.

Hearing all about Li Yuanying’s good deeds, he got angry again. He then had to coax the four little lolis to go play by themselves and got someone to bring Li Yuanying the troublemaker over.

As usual, Li Yuanying didn’t panic when he saw Li Er’s black face. He sat down and chatted with him about his adventure, saying that he had traveled long and far to find the village…and that he was tired and hungry and could no longer walk without first eating.

Li Er sarcastically sighed: “It must be really hard finding the doctor and asking for medicine. Isn’t it fortunate Chengqian has already sent someone ahead to inform doctor Sun much earlier?  Otherwise, he might have gone traveling around the world again, where then do we find him?!”

He then sneered and expose Yuanying’s nonsense: “Didn’t you tell Sizi and the others that the stewed chicken with fresh mushrooms outside was delicious?”

Li Yuanying countered back with a plausible excuse: “I’m an elder, how can I tell the others unhappy things? I must pick and share happy thoughts!”

His Majesty didn’t believe his nonsense. This kid knows that he’s no longer allowed to take the princesses out and deliberately share fun and delicious experiences to make them cry.

“So did Doctor Sun come back with you?”

“He’s waiting with the other imperial doctors. Just waiting for the Emperor to be free and he’ll come over to diagnose you.”

Only after sending Li Yuanying away did the Emperor send someone to invite Sun Simiao over.

Li Yuanying was dissatisfied with Li Er’s behavior of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge. He walked away for a short distance but saw that no one was paying attention to him, so he turned back and eavesdropped at a corner.

The guards of course noticed the sneaky behavior of His Royal Highness the Prince of Teng. It was negligence of duty the last time when the young prince posted a drawing at the entrance of the council hall. This time, they definitely cannot let Li Yuanying spy on the Emperor’s private affairs. So they did not hesitate in “inviting” him to move far away.

Li Yuanying circled around indignantly.

Only after about half an hour did Sun Simiao come out from the hall.

 Li Yuanying ran up to him to enquire about the result but Sun Simiao shook his head and shared that the Emperor has requested that he remain silent. It’s a serious offense to leak the affairs of the royal family, especially updates about the Emperor!

Li Yuanying didn’t want to embarrass Sun Simiao and so went back to ask Li Er directly.

His Majesty had already heard reports from the Imperial Guards that Li Yuanying had been wandering outside and was looking for an opportunity to eavesdrop on his conversation.

Looking at his younger brother who was pulling at him for updates, his Majesty felt that the kid was both annoying and caring.

After Sun Simiao diagnosed him, the first thing he wanted the Emperor to do was to put aside his complicated affairs and take a good rest.

This alone Li Er could not do. He’s in his prime and has many things to accomplish, so how would he be willing to let go and recuperate?

Since dropping everything to recuperate is out of the question, the rest of the methods are very much less effective. They will most likely treat the symptoms but not the root causes. No matter how brilliant Sun Simiao’s medical skills are, it’s impossible to cure him when he insists on being busy all year round!

His Majesty will no longer tell Li Yuanying about these things. It’s great that Sun Simiao can write a few pain-relieving recipes to help him get through the torment of the relapse of old injuries. Other than that, there’s no need to think about anything else.

The Emperor has already made up his mind so he said mercilessly: “You’ve never studied medicine before so why are you asking so much? If I tell you my problems can you cure them?”

Li Yuanying was unhappy that his brother is treating him like a child. He scrunch his face unhappily and argued: “I want to know!”

Li Er calmly leaned on the table and glanced at him: “Have you finished your task of copying the Book of Songs?”

Not only is His Majesty not telling him anything but he still remembers his punishment. Li Yuanying got angry: “Lord Brother, you’re so annoying!”

After speaking, he ignored Li Er and ran away angrily.