Falling of the Lady

Ch 4. The Realization

Lingli has helped Scarlet stripped off the many layers of garments, now she was only in what looked like a pink halter top with the strings tied behind her neck. Trying her best to hold off the questions for later, she told Lingli to stay outside while she try to operate on herself.

"Your highness..." Lingli hesitantly stood there, unwilling to go, 

"Call me Scarlet, I'm not your highness." Scarlet stood up and shooed Lingli out and limped back to the bed. Outside the door, a crowd of servants stood there discussing with each other,

"Lingli, why are you out here?" The doctor questioned irritably,

"Her highness kicked me out." Lingli picked at her fingers worriedly, "Is her highness going to take her life? I'm so worried."

The manservant who reported the situation to Manhai earlier commented, "You mustn't let her highness in there alone with soo many sharp utensils. She's injured and hot headed right now. What if she doesn't think clearly?"

The group all shook in their pants as they thought about it more. The more they pondered on the situation, the more, they wanted to come in, "We should go in."

"You can't!" Lingli told the male servants, "Her highness is not dressed properly. That's indecency." She stood guarding the door stubbornly.

Inside, Scarlet cursed the doctor for not bringing her painkillers. But instead they gave her wine. She heated the scalpel dry after washing it with alcohol then took a white cloth and bite down as she punctured her wound open again. She choked on her tears and screamed in pain.

"Your highness!" Lingli was about to barge in.

 Scarlet shouted, "Don't come in!" she needed to concentrate or else she would seriously injure a vessel.

Everyone outside was agonizing with fear when they heard the princess consort scream in pain. The doctor's voice trembled as he spoke, "If the princess consort were to pass away using my medical kit, then I am to be blamed." He was shaken to reality. 

"Have you called his highness?!" The doctor yelled at the manservant,

"His highness is at the meeting in court right now." The servant pinched his fingers nervously.

While turmoil erupted outside, Scarlet was fighting a battle with pain and blood. she grabbed a pair of scissors and picked out specks of shredded wood out of the wound as the blood gushed out of the hole in her shoulder. Her face became pale as the thick red liquid drained out of her body. Cold sweat rolled down from her hairline. 

Scarlet took another sip of wine to ease the pain and started stitching the wound with a needle. Her hand trembled as each piercing made her stomach turn. Pulling the thread through each piercing in her skin made her realize how traumatic it must've been if she hadn't given her patients anesthesia during big operations. At last, the stitching was finished, she used the last bits of untainted cloth left and dabbed on the wound to stop the blood from oozing out. Now that she was done, Scarlet felt weak, all her energy drained.

---------------------------------

After hearing the news from Minhai, fourth prince rushed over to the West palace with crown prince to see what the big deal was. When Zexian arrived, he saw a crowd of people outside the crown princess's door. 

"Crown princess won't let us come in." Lingli greeted the prince with respect, keeping her head low.

With angst in his heart, Zexian could not longer think about anything else and kicked the door open. He entered while Lingli stopped the others from coming in, by closing the door behind her.