Chapter 539: Chapter 191 Improvement
On a cloudy afternoon, the heavy clouds hung low.
Beneath the artificial hill and pavilion of the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion, a pool of water lay still, like a gently polished mirror.
In the pavilion, several people leaned against the railing on the long bench; Qi Yutai, clad only in an undershirt, with a thin silk robe draped over his shoulders, was taking a bowl of medicine from a maidservant.
In just a short month, Qi Yutai had lost a considerable amount of weight, his clothes hung loosely on him, and he appeared much more haggard. His complexion was pale, and his eyes lacked any luster.
He received the bowl of medicine and seemed to be overwhelmed by the bitterness, his lifeless eyes moved slightly, revealing an expression of barely tolerable discomfort. He hesitated for a while, then drank the entire bowl of medicine in fits and starts.
After setting down the bowl, Qi Huaying promptly passed him a bowl of rock sugar. Qi Yutai hurriedly grabbed a piece and threw it into his mouth, the sweetness offsetting the bitterness. His brows were still furrowed, but his expression softened considerably.
"Brother, take it slowly," Qi Huaying said, "be careful not to choke."
"So bitter—" Qi Yutai complained.
"Good medicine tastes bitter," Qi Huaying advised, "the medicine from Envoy Cui has shown rapid effects after only a few days. You mustn’t stop halfway."
"I know," Qi Yutai spoke irritably, "Cui Min that bastard, who knows if he made the medicine this bitter on purpose!"
Qi Huaying looked at him and shook her head.
Qi Yutai got better.
At first, he stopped hitting people at random, but he would still hide on his couch and whisper to himself, panic-stricken whenever someone entered the room. But ever since Envoy Cui Min of the Medical Officer Institute changed his prescription a few days ago, the symptoms of delirium decreased, he became more lucid, and the periods of clarity grew longer. One day, Qi Yutai rose from his couch in the early morning, recognized everyone, and was free from his illness for the entire day.
These days continued for a spell, and everyone in the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion breathed a sigh of relief.
The young master of the Qi Family seemed to have truly recovered.
"He’s an Envoy of the Medical Officer Institute, what good would it do him to offend you?" Qi Huaying also picked up a piece of rock sugar and put it in her mouth, "brother, you might be awake now, but you didn’t see how you frightened everyone in the mansion those days you were out of sorts."
Thinking of Qi Yutai’s condition, Qi Huaying felt a lingering fear.
When Qi Yutai fell ill five years ago, she was young, and Qi Qing was afraid of scaring her, so he kept her from entering Qi Yutai’s room. She did not witness it herself, but only heard Qi Yutai’s cries and howls.
However, this time she had seen Qi Yutai’s madness with her own eyes. When he smashed a vase over the maidservant’s head, killing her, she had just arrived at the door and witnessed the scene...
Qi Huaying shuddered and looked at Qi Yutai, her gaze suddenly filled with a hint of fear.
Qi Yutai did not notice Qi Huaying’s strangeness, but suspiciously said, "That sounds serious, is it true? Sister, you’re not just trying to scare me to keep me from going to the Fengle Building, are you?"
"Brother, you’re talking nonsense again."
Qi Yutai sighed, "Even if you didn’t mention it, I wouldn’t go back to that building in the future."
He looked around, leaned in, and whispered, "There’s something wrong with that building."
Qi Huaying frowned, "Are you going to say again that you saw a bleeding painting?"
At these words, the surroundings fell into a strange silence. Qi Yutai suddenly felt goosebumps all over his body, and involuntarily pulled his robe tighter.
"It’s true..." he murmured.
After he recovered from his illness and regained his senses, he could no longer remember anything that happened while he was sick. The last thing he remembered was the sudden spread of the great fire in the Fengle Building, and a bizarre silk painting on the wall, where the human and bird figures seemed to bleed from all orifices.
Once he became lucid, he told Qi Qing about it.
However, the fire had started in the attic, and everything in the "Waking from Hibernation" room turned to ashes. Those who went to investigate reported no trace of a silk painting. Moreover, the figure in the painting bleeding from all orifices sounded more like a hallucination he experienced after taking the Cold Food Powder.
But Qi Yutai felt it was not so.
However, without evidence, and since it was true he had taken the powder, when Qi Qing questioned him several times, he even began to doubt whether his own vision had been a hallucination.
"Even if seeing the Light-vented Bulbul Painting was false," Qi Yutai insisted, "at least the good-for-nothing bastard I encountered in the ’Waking from Hibernation’ room was real."
"If it hadn’t been for that son of a bitch, maybe there wouldn’t have been a fire at all."
The more Qi Yutai spoke, the angrier he became, "Now I’m here suffering so much, and that bastard still can’t be found, it’s outrageous! Has father really sent someone to search for him? Once they find that dog, I’m going to flay his skin myself and throw him into the fire to burn alive!"
Qi Huaying frowned.
She said, "Brother, please stop. You’ve just recovered, and you still need a few more days of convalescence, especially at this time..."
The fire in the Fengle Building was now known throughout the court. Although the matter of the Cold Food Powder was covered up by Qi Qing, Qi Yutai’s crazed and panicked behavior in Rouge Lane that day was witnessed by everyone.