The Dragon's Flower Vol 1-5

Vol 5 Chap 164

"Your Majesty is busy governing the Kingdom. Such matters are supposed to be handled by the royal tutors. But Your Majesty had misunderstood about my apprentices. I merely have three students, including Long Zhu."

Feng Jiu, the Vermillion bird's vessel, and Mingzhi, the black turtle's vessel, had requested to be apprenticed under him just to have more chances to make contact with Long Zhu. Qing Baihu, the white tiger's vessel, had refused and opted out of the apprenticeship because his martial technique differs greatly from Doctor Bai's and he has zero interest in medicine. It would be bad if he decided in being Doctor Bai's apprentice in name and gave his countrymen a fake hope of him being a healer. Even if he faked to have knowledge in medicine, it would not be impossible for him to wrongly cure someone and caused death instead!

The four of them had to secretly meet each other because if others were to discover that the four successors of the Four Kingdom had contacted each other secretly, it would alarm everyone. Even if Long Zhu was not the successor, it will still cause panic to everyone. Everyone would first assume they wanted to have a strong ally, with a beneficial treaty, but those with extreme thoughts would jump to conclusion that they wanted to unite the Four Kingdoms!

The Four Kingdoms never bothered with each other, minding their own business for the last thousand years. No one dared to entertain the idea of conquering and merging with other kingdoms, because their ancestors that had tried mostly end up dead, bringing along a large number of deaths with them. After countless tries, they soon figured out that they must never merge the Four Kingdoms into one!

They suspected something prevented them from doing so and killed them as a warning, but the survivors never know what they were. But a large number of deaths were enough to scare the others off from being greedy, leaving the four kingdoms to govern separately, and leaving word for their descendent least they had the same idea as those that had died.

"Miss Liu is a talented doctor and even We had been cured by her. Since Doctor Bai only has three students, perhaps having one more apprentice would not trouble Doctor Bai much," The Emperor suggested meaningfully. "Long Zhu would not have much time to learn medicine from you for We will be handing more tasks for him to oversee."

"Foolish!" With eyes blazed with fury, Long Yuen was the first to respond to the 20th Emperor's words. "One is your son and another is an outsider! You would throw your son away for a liar with suspicious medicine?"

Long Yuen might have not been Guilin's Emperor for years, but that does not mean he has no power! His sources had investigated Liu Chu Chu for him, and he was not impressed with what he heard. She might be able to hoodwink most people when she covered her mistakes, but Long Yuen was not one of those fools.

Liu Chu Chu always requested that her healing would be private between her and the patient, without even needing an assistant to help her. The patients were usually unconscious, or not in the right mind to pay attention to what Liu Chu Chu did. They were only aware after the main treatment was done, and things like advising them to rest more, drink more water, or eat with proper diet, were just common sense. Yet those pieces of advice had boosted Liu Chu Chu's image in everyone's eyes!

The 20th Emperor's face turned ugly. "Don't you dare twist my word! Miss Liu will be a family member of the royalty soon and she had shown her great talent in medicine! We are just suggesting it to Doctor Bai if he does not mind nurturing a good talent! Long Zhu will not have time to learn more from Doctor Bai because he will be busy taking over some work from me!"

"I will answer for Bai Chuan. The answer is no. This sort of unclean girl can pollute Long Shan, but not my good friend's line!"

"Pollute? I am just strengthening the royal family's power! I found a good girl for my son but what did you do? You found a commoner and useless girl for your son! You choose to weaken the royal bloodline just to harm me! Between us, everyone can see who is the better Emperor!"

Xiao Hua's loud gasp was the one that broke the angry haze surrounding the 20th Emperor's mind, and finally realized what he had just spoken out loud. With a face that rapidly losing color, he turned to his Empress. He could see he had angered and disappointed her when she did not even bother being polite and avoided his gaze.

"This lowly one needs to help Your Majesty's beloved Concubine He to arrange the Second Prince's wedding. Doctor Bai, 19th Emperor, please enjoy your stay. Xiao Hua."

Xiao Hua gulped. "Yes, Your Highness?"

"My garden is blooming well lately. Do join me for flower viewing when you have the time."

"I love to, Your Highness."

Without sparing a glance at her husband, the Empress left with a look of indifference, her long purple dress swept the floor regally. The sound of the door shutting echoed in the 20th Emperor's heart.

"And you ask me why I did not allow you to take over the throne originally? You make me wonder how Guilin still survives for all these years but when I look at Ling Yi, I got my answer." Long Yuen did not hold back in throwing salt at his useless half-dead fish son.

It did not take long for the Emperors to get into another argument. Xiao Hua did not pay attention to the content, her heart worried for the Empress.

"In this era, divorce is frowned upon," Doctor Bai suddenly speaks up and it touched a very sensitive spot in the 20th Emperor's heart.

The 20th Emperor does not dare to scold Doctor Bai, so he remained quiet. For him to be an Emperor was not only because he was the only son left. He does have some brains! He knew he often displeased his Empress and he ignored it because he was the Emperor of Guilin, the most powerful person in this Kingdom!

If divorce was allowed, he knew that his Empress would be the first to sign up for it!

But who would have thought Doctor Bai had not actually finished speaking. "Xiao Hua, you should think about it carefully before accepting Long Zhu's hand in marriage."

"That will also depend if he will ask me that question in the first place," Xiao Hua pointed out. "I will think about it when that day arrives."

Xiao Hua does not dare to admit that fear started to appear in her heart.