Chapter 091

Chapter 91: Dragged In

Five years ago, Yu Zi Xuan had burned with fever as a child. His mind stayed at the level of a five- or six-year-old.

Because of that, his peers mocked and bullied him, yet no one in Yu Manor noticed. It was Yu Zhi Yi who saw he moved slowly and told the servants to check, and only then did they find his body covered with bruises.

Those were the marks of abuse.

He had been bullied and then warned: if he told anyone, they would beat his whole family.

Such a threat could scare even a normal child. How much more a boy whose mind was only five or six?

He was sad, afraid, and in pain, but he did not dare to speak.

Yu Zhi Yi could not bear to see the one person who still treated her kindly be hurt. Ignoring the risk of backlash, she forced fate to change for him: [Yes, I changed fate.]

He was not simple-minded because of sickness. He had been missing two souls since he was in the womb.

His fate was special. He was never meant to gather those two souls in his whole life and would remain dull until death.

Yu Zhi Yi used a secret method to find the missing souls and fused them, making him normal.

For both the caster and the one receiving it, forcing broken souls to merge cost a great deal. She was a Daoist cultivator, so she could bear it, but Yu Zi Xuan fell into a coma for seven days.

Before she acted, she asked the Yu clan for their opinion. They did not believe she had such power and warned her not to meddle.

While she hesitated, someone beat Yu Zi Xuan until he was black and blue.

In a burst of anger, she acted anyway.

When the Yu clan saw Yu Zi Xuan unconscious, they did not believe a word she said. They refused to believe she wanted to help him or that she could. They even thought she had caused the bruises and almost had her whipped and thrown out.

It was the third brother who begged for her and won her a chance to explain.

But all she could explain was where the bruises came from. Whether Yu Zi Xuan would ever be normal could only be proved when he woke.

Later, the Yu clan learned those injuries came from a few cruel boys and had nothing to do with Yu Zhi Yi, yet there was not a single word of apology.

It was under these conditions that Yu Jiao Jiao brought in Divine Physician Chun Yu.

Divine Physician Chun Yu denied the very idea of mystic arts and said he could save Yu Zi Xuan and restore his mind.

A few days later, Yu Zi Xuan did wake up and did have a normal mind.

But he no longer remembered his dear sister. All he saw was Sister Jiao Jiao.

Yu Zhi Yi’s eyes turned frightening.

Madam Yao jumped and called softly: “Yi’er? Yi’er?”

Yu Zhi Yi came back to herself. Seeing the worry and fear in Madam Yao’s eyes, she pinched her brow and said: “Sorry. I was thinking of old things. Mother, please go on.”

She had thought two lifetimes were enough to let her move on. Now she found the scar still remained. [No matter how much you try to bury it, when your fingertips brush it, it still reminds you how the knife once stabbed and twisted.]

In the end, her Dao heart was not steady. [No wonder Master would not take me away.] [With my state now, even if my cultivation base were high enough to ascend, I would still be turned to ash under tribulation lightning because of my heart demon.]

“Let us not talk about it,” said Madam Yao. She did not want to rub salt into the wound.

Yu Zhi Yi silently recited a calming verse twice and was calm again. She said: “Go on, Mother. I am fine.”

Madam Yao nodded and continued: “I am thinking about whether to tell Your Majesty and the Yu clan that the divine physician is dead.”

If the Yu clan had nothing to do with them, she would not have struggled.

But the Yu clan was Yu Zhi Yi’s birth family. If this was handled badly, Yu Zhi Yi might be dragged down.

Still, her heart wavered. What if she was wrong?

What if the one the Yu clan knew was the real divine physician, and the one she had seen before was fake? Wouldn’t that be a foolish mistake?

Before Yu Zhi Yi could answer, Madam Yao set down her chopsticks: “Forget it. Let us wait for your father to come back and talk it through.”

Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law did not wait for Chancellor Du. Yu Zhi Yi was summoned to the palace.

They said “invite,” but the messenger’s attitude was not good.

Madam Yao grew anxious. She sent people to look for Chancellor Du and tried to buy time: “I do not know why His Majesty is calling Yi’er so urgently. What is the matter?”

As she spoke, she signaled to Aunt Wen. Aunt Wen understood, went to the guard, and tried to slip him a silver ingot.

He refused: “His Majesty is waiting. Official Yu, please.”

Madam Yao wanted to stop them. Yu Zhi Yi shook her head: “It is all right, Mother. I may not come back tonight. Do not wait for me for dinner.”

“Yi’er!”

Madam Yao gripped Yu Zhi Yi’s hand hard.

The Yu clan had just tried to use the West Empress Dowager to stir up trouble, and the emperor summoned Yu Zhi Yi right after. How could she not worry?

But she was only a minister’s wife. She had no power over whom the emperor called. After Yu Zhi Yi left, she went to the small Buddha hall and prayed to the Buddha with all her strength.

Yu Zhi Yi could not calculate matters tied to herself, but it was not hard to guess why she was called.

Most likely the divine physician had failed to treat the West Empress Dowager.

So the Yu clan dragged her into the mess again.

She showed no fear and entered the palace calmly.

Yu Zhi Yi’s guess was right. The Yu clan had indeed dragged her in.

After Yu Jiao Jiao was rescued, she took the two wolves, Boss and Fifth, to look for the divine physician.

Back then she had found him near Northern Shaanxi, so she asked the emperor for one month.

But as soon as they left the capital, on the outskirts they met a man who seemed to be the divine physician heading toward the city. They ignored his resistance and forced him into the palace.

When he saw the Empress Dowager, the divine physician wrote a prescription and said: if she took it for seven days, she would regain her senses.

After a single dose, the Empress Dowager suddenly fainted.

The entire Imperial Medical Bureau hurried over, but even the Bureau Chief could not find the cause.

They could only guess the divine physician’s medicine was the problem.

After they read the prescription, the guess was confirmed.

What he wrote was not a real treatment, only a body-toning formula.

In normal times, giving it to the Empress Dowager would not have been a problem.

But the Bureau had already prescribed medicine for her before.

Many herbs in the two prescriptions worked against each other.

The Bureau Chief questioned the divine physician’s identity and said: “Even a barefoot doctor knows to ask what the patient has already taken. How could a true divine physician not know this common rule?”