The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 1025 - 1025 489 Tricky Jiaojiao (Second Update)

Chapter 1025: 489 Tricky Jiaojiao (Second Update) Chapter 1025: 489 Tricky Jiaojiao (Second Update) Gu Chengfeng searched the entire cabin and was sure Gu Jiao was gone, his heart tightened. Of course, he wouldn’t think that Gu Jiao had abandoned them and walked away, because if she had wanted to leave them, she didn’t need to follow from the beginning.

The firewood was about to run out, and the food was even more scarce. Gu Chengfeng guessed that Gu Jiao had gone to find either food or firewood.

He couldn’t let her venture alone in the forest of the Snow-sealed Mountain, so he decided to go out and look for her. But as soon as he pulled the door open, he saw from a distance someone carrying a bundle of firewood on their back, holding what seemed to be someone else’s fur as a banner, silently dragging a… person, struggling through the snowfield.

The struggle was partly because she hadn’t slept for too long, partly because she was completely drained of energy, and partly because the snow in the forest was really too heavy, making movement almost impossible, not to mention that she was carrying a bundle of wood and dragging a person.

Gu Chengfeng was a bit dumbfounded.

He had guessed she went to chop firewood, but he hadn’t guessed she would bring back a person!

Gu Chengfeng trudged through the thick snow toward her.

When he got close enough to hear faint breathing, he confirmed that this was not a corpse.

Gu Chengfeng’s expression was somewhat hard to describe, “What’s the situation? Don’t tell me you’ve picked up another person!”

The reason he used “again” was because of the old grandma and Xiao Liulang’s incidents before.

Without waiting for Gu Jiao to answer, Gu Chengfeng’s mouth twitched, and he said with a look of disdain, “Do you have a habit of picking up people and bringing them home? Or did you not find any food, so—”

Gu Jiao gave him a look of caring for the mentally challenged, “Are you idle?”

“I am not,” Gu Chengfeng denied categorically, pointing at the man whose face was smeared with tangled hair and snow, “Who is this?”

Gu Jiao said, “Look for yourself.”

Gu Chengfeng crouched down and cleared the hair and snow from the man’s face. A familiar and authoritative face met Gu Chengfeng’s eyes, and he was startled, standing up suddenly and taking a big step back, “Tang Yueshan!”

He looked incredulously at Gu Jiao, “You, how did you pick him up? No, that’s not the question I should be asking. How did he end up here? And dressed… like this?”

Without a doubt, the fur mat under Tang Yueshan had been stripped from him, his legs were also wrapped in fur for warmth, and he was wearing a fur hat, a perfect hunter’s garb.

“Wait, the owner of this cabin… couldn’t be Tang Yueshan, could it!” Gu Chengfeng’s mouth fell open.

Gu Jiao said, “Who the previous owner was isn’t clear, but the current owner ought to be Tang Yueshan.”

“So the reason the remnants of the former dynasty and the Chen country’s army have been unable to find Tang Yueshan is because he has been hiding here? But why is he injured?”

There were bloodstains on his clothes, and Gu Chengfeng naturally assumed he was wounded.

Following Gu Chengfeng’s gaze, Gu Jiao explained, “You mean his blood? That’s from him vomiting; he has been poisoned.”

“Poisoned?” Gu Chengfeng was even more puzzled. Wasn’t Tang Yueshan very formidable? How could he be poisoned?

Gu Chengfeng had imagined a hundred ways Tang Yueshan might fall, but none involved poisoning. A general like him should die from injuries on the battlefield.

Gu Chengfeng didn’t expect Gu Jiao to answer this question since she just stumbled upon Tang Yueshan. Whether Tang Yueshan was even aware he was poisoned was uncertain, and even if he was, he would not share any details with Gu Jiao.

“Give it to me,” Gu Chengfeng extended his hand to Gu Jiao.

He actually didn’t want to save Tang Yueshan. It was Tang Yueshan’s blind ambition and refusal to heed his grandfather’s advice that led to their defeat, and his refusal to lend troops to his grandfather, causing his grandfather to be taken hostage and suffer the remnants of the former dynasty’s revenge.

If Tang Yueshan died in front of him, he wouldn’t even blink.

But since Tang Yueshan was brought back by Gu Jiao, Gu Chengfeng thought about it and felt he probably had no right to interfere in what Gu Jiao did to Tang Yueshan.

However, he still felt he should remind her of her standing with Tang Yueshan, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but you crippled Tang Ming, and Tang Yueshan holds a grudge against you. If he finds out you’re the one who hurt Tang Ming, he won’t let you off.”

“Mm,” Gu Jiao responded, indicating she understood.

“And you’re still saving him?” Gu Chengfeng asked, puzzled.

Gu Jiao looked at Gu Chengfeng and said, “Among all of you, he’s the best fighter.”

Gu Chengfeng looked at himself, wrapped in bandages, and thought of his grandfather who was unconscious. He found himself unable to argue.

If the Chen country’s army and the remnants of the former dynasty caught up, besides this girl, it seemed that indeed only Tang Yueshan could really hold his own.

However, as if thinking of something, Gu Chengfeng grabbed Gu Jiao’s wrist and pointed at Tang Yueshan in the snow, saying, “Wait, but didn’t you say he was poisoned? Then he can’t fight, can he?”

Gu Jiao shattered his hopes with a single sentence, “The poison can be cured; he’ll recover faster than you all.”

Gu Chengfeng: “…”

Gu Jiao dragged Tang Yueshan into the cabin.

Along with him, she also brought in Tang Yueshan’s prey—the animals Tang Yueshan had caught and then discarded, which Gu Jiao picked up again, were three plump rabbits and two fat wild chickens.

The cabin suddenly had three patients, and the two bamboo beds were not enough. Gu Jiao moved two stools from the hall, placing them one in front of the other, and then she took the door panel off the bedroom and set it across the two benches.

Gu Chengfeng: “…”

This works?

Gu Jiao placed Tang Yueshan on the makeshift sickbed.

She then began to check Tang Yueshan for signs of poisoning. The darkening of the skin between his eyebrows and fingernails wasn’t obvious, but his gums were swollen, and under the mucous membrane, a blue-black line could be seen.

It was mercury poisoning.

Gu Jiao found a porcelain bottle on Tang Yueshan and poured out several dark red elixirs from it.

After carefully analyzing the ingredients, she indeed found traces of mercury.

Mercury is extracted from cinnabar and was mainly used in ancient times for alchemy and corpse preservation, both extremely expensive and used only by the very wealthy for cinnabar and mercury.

But whether it was pure cinnabar or refined mercury, in reality, they should not be used in elixirs; long-term use would lead to poisoning.

Hence, those monarchs who sought the secret to eternal youth often didn’t live long.

Gu Jiao had no idea how such a thing came to be in Tang Yueshan’s possession.

Fortunately, his poisoning was not deep and had not damaged his internal organs, and fortunately, there was a specific antidote for this poison.

Gu Jiao took out medicine from the first aid kit and started an intravenous infusion for Tang Yueshan.

The reason Tang Yueshan was vomiting blood and fainting wasn’t just due to the poisoning; he had also suffered a minor internal injury, which was far less severe than those sustained by the old Marquis and Gu Chengfeng.

An hour later, Tang Yueshan woke up on a wooden plank, his treatment finished. He was covered with his own animal skin and was near a burning brazier, so he wasn’t cold.

Gu Chengfeng had gone to check on the fire in the hall’s stove, where a pot of wild chicken soup was simmering.

The rich aroma of chicken soup wafted in and out, and having not eaten for several days, Tang Yueshan’s stomach growled with hunger.

Gu Jiao, who was changing the old Marquis’s dressings, heard the noise and replied indifferently, “The chicken soup is not ready yet.”

The room was so small that Tang Yueshan’s wooden bed was right in front of the old Marquis’s bamboo bed; a turn of his head and Tang Yueshan saw the old Marquis and Gu Jiao.

A flicker of gravity and surprise crossed his eyes.

His gaze moved from the old Marquis to Gu Jiao who was attending to him, and he asked in a deep voice, “Just who exactly are you?”

Gu Jiao finished dressing the last wound, covered the old Marquis with a blanket, turned around nonchalantly, and removed the mask from her face.

Seeing Gu Jiao’s face, half ethereal beauty and half marked with a red birthmark, Tang Yueshan’s brows furrowed slightly.

He had never seen Gu Jiao, but he had heard of her.

The Marquis Residence’s heiress with a red birthmark on her left cheek, only fifteen, raised in the countryside, yet deeply favored by the Empress Dowager.

“I should have guessed it was you…”

The sister of Gu Yan, the apple of the Empress Dowager’s eye.

That would explain why she had sought revenge on Tang Ming and why the Empress Dowager lied and put on an act for her.

A chilling murderous intent burst forth from Tang Yueshan again, “Don’t think that just because you saved me, I will forget the past. You harmed Mingming, and for that, you must pay with your life!”

Gu Jiao could tell from his voice that he was recovering well; in fact, she hadn’t given him much medication, as the internal injuries were borne by himself, and the external injuries healed on their own. The only thing Gu Jiao had done was to administer some antidote for the poison.

Hmm, quite the medicine saver.

Once again, Tang Yueshan harbored the intention to kill Gu Jiao.

Gu Jiao suddenly raised her hand, stopping his action, “Before you act, you might want to check your condition.”

“What do you mean?” Tang Yueshan asked.

Gu Jiao asked, her tone inscrutable, “Do you think I would have brought you back here for no reason?”

Tang Yueshan’s face darkened.

Gu Jiao said, “Lift up your sleeve and look at your left hand. Is there a red line starting from the palm of your hand?”

“Then check the Elixir Field area. Is there a new green mark there?”

“Finally, feel your hair. Is it about to start falling out rapidly?”

After checking every detail, especially when he felt his balding head, Tang Yueshan’s expression changed drastically, “What have you done to me?”

Gu Jiao, hands behind her back and looking down at him, lifted an eyebrow and said, “Nothing much, just poisoned you a bit. You’d best listen to me obediently, otherwise, you’re going to have a very ugly death.”

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