Scram Back to Persia!
Xuan Tian Mo felt that continuing to communicate with old ninth would definitely result in internal injuries. Ever since childhood, he would spout lies with a straight face, and as he grew older, his ability to speak nonsense improved. Why was it that during today’s banquet, he would just keep going on and on because he looked at Feng Yu Heng a little bit? He really did just drag the conversation onto whatever was most disgusting. With this blame being placed, although he did not care too much about some damn reputation, it was still annoying, was it not?
Even the smoothest of individuals would be left fuming with anger after dealing with Xuan Tian Ming. Xuan Tian Mo used a full 20 seconds to calm himself before finally ensuring that his voice would not carry any trace of anger. Only then did he say: “Ninth brother has always loved twisting words and situations. It seems that this ability has improved with age. You are the younger brother, and eighth brother will not argue with you. No matter how you try to argue it, it will be pointless. Since I have already brought them from the South, I just want to get an explanation. Moreover, with things as they are, even if I don’t want this explanation, do you think that the officials will easily forget about it?”
As he spoke, he looked toward the officials in the hall, and a portion of them stood on his side. This look was just like an imperial decree, as they immediately began to agree, “That’s right! We just want an explanation. We just want Imperial Daughter Ji An to explain the origins of her abilities. This request is not too unreasonable!”
In an instant, all of the officials began to rise, and even their families members began to cause a fuss. The eighth prince’s faction was not actually very large. There were many military officers, but it was a bit lacking in terms of government officials; however, stirring up the situation did not require too many people. People loved to participate in gossip to begin with. They would fan the flames in this hall. Naturally, they could not do anything to move the people that opposed them, but the people that were slightly lower in rank and were not aligned with any faction were very easy to incite. Also, what they had said was correct. They just wanted to know where Imperial Daughter Ji An’s abilities had come from. This was not unreasonable, and some people even said: “We have all used medicine from Hundred Herb Hall, and we have all had doctors from Hundred Herb Hall examine our health. We need to be able to feel at ease! Precisely where did the medicine come from?”
A perfectly good banquet became quite rowdy. The Emperor watched from the head seat with a frown on his face; however, he did not speak up to stop them. First, the law did not punish the majority, and there were too many people causing a ruckus. Also, their request was not unreasonable. If he moved to suppress them, it was likely to cause some resentment among the officials. There were times when the Emperor really could not be willful and needed to pay attention to the circumstances. Moreover, he really wanted to see how Feng Yu Heng would handle this mess. Of course, put plainly, he himself was also quite curious about Feng Yu Heng’s abilities. Thus the Emperor sat as a spectator with these complicated feelings. He just watched as the area below became chaotic, as he continued to remain silent.
As for the Empress, who was a very observant person, when she saw the Emperor’s current attitude, how could she not understand his feelings. Thus she also remained silent and continued to sip tea. With the imperial concubines seeing the Empress do this, they also vaguely understood. Either way, they did not have much power to speak. Seeing that the Empress and Imperial Concubine Gu Xian had chosen to stay away from the matter, what would they join in the ruckus for?! The only exception was Noble Lady Yuan, who would help chime in from time to time. She was the eighth prince’s birth mother. That she helped speak up at this time was something that people could understand.
Feng Yu Heng had already stood up, but now, she sat back down on her chair and leaned back. Crossing her arms across her chest, she looked to be more idle than anyone else. It was only when the officials could truly no longer continue their complaints that they ceased their cries. Instead, they angrily looked toward Feng Yu Heng. Only then did she shrug and smile: “Tired? There’s tea on the tables. My lords, wet your throats a bit first.”
Xuan Tian Ge also helped from the side: “What are you all standing there for? Go and bring some new tea for the lords!”
The eighth prince laughed and said: “Younger sister is using the same tricks again. You’ve just been with Ming’er for too long and have learned to avoid major responsibilities by focusing on the smaller ones. This is not good.”
Feng Yu Heng laughed but did not speak glibly. Instead, she asked: “Your Highness the eighth prince, where did you meet these Persians? You just said that these people were dancing in a small desert country?”
The eighth prince nodded: “That’s indeed correct.”
“Oh.” Feng Yu Heng pondered for a while then turned to ask the dancer: “Do you have a leader? Step forward and speak with me.” She asked for a long time but nobody replied, thus she added: “Oh, pretending not to understand the Da Shun language is fine. Medical practitioner, you know the Da Shun language, so I will ask you. Do you spend most of your time in the South performing?”
The medical practitioner did not understand and replied honestly: “That’s right, they are traveling dancers, and I am the doctor that accompanies them.”
“Oh.” Feng Yu Heng nodded and kept an even tone, “Traveling dancers, then as their doctor, you should be quite familiar with them, right? What is their family situation? Do they rely on their dancing to support themselves and their family or are they considered a type of power in Persia? Do they have financial support?”
The medical practitioner was stunned then smiled bitterly: “Imperial Daughter, what sort of good family would send their children to become dancers?! They are all poorer people that could not continue to live in Persia. They truly have no other choice but to risk their lives and come over in a large boat to Da Shun. Even this old one was extremely poor in Persia. Even with medical abilities, I nearly starved to death a few times. But Da Shun does not really like our Persian dance, thus we chose to go to Gu Shu.”
Feng Yu Heng understood what he meant. The people of Da Shun were relatively conservative, and the clothes that the Persian dancers wore were very difficult for the people to accept. As for the people in the desert, they were a bit less restrained and would accept it more easily.
Of course, this was not the problem that she was considering. Hearing what the doctor had said, Feng Yu Heng suddenly laughed. While laughing, she said to the eighth prince, Xuan Tian Mo: “Your Highness really is funny. A group of poor dancers and a poor doctor are the lowest class of citizen in Persia. They are people that were on the verge of starving to death in Persia’s borders. You brought these sorts of people into the imperial palace and before Father Emperor and said that they can represent Persia? Represent Persia’s situation? Represent Persia’s medical techniques?” As she spoke, she faced the officials and raised her voice to say: “Are there any imperial physicians present?”
Someone immediately stepped forward and saluted to Feng Yu Heng.
Feng Yu Heng nodded, “You are national doctors. If this imperial daughter says that your medical ability is on the same level as a doctor that had to travel around barefoot, would you be happy? Oh, and it’s the type that cannot rely on medicine to provide for themselves and needed to travel with a group of poor dancers to have food to eat. If this sort of barefoot doctor went around saying that they represented you, would you be happy? They don’t know your medical techniques yet go around saying that you don’t know anything. Would you be happy?”
The imperial physicians shook their heads, expressing their discontent. Someone else said: “If our medical ability really was that low and terrible, we could not enter Da Shun’s imperial palace, much less being able to examine His Majesty and the imperial concubines.”
“That’s right, is this not a joke? Government officials have their imperial examinations, and military officials have their tests. Our imperial physicians’ group is not one that just anyone can join. Only with much testing and choosing are people allowed in.”
Without a need for Feng Yu Heng to say anything, the imperial physicians began to disdain the Persian medical practitioner, “A Persian medical practitioner nearly starved to death in his own country, yet he has the nerve to come to Da Shun’s imperial palace to call himself a doctor? With just your abilities, who could you possibly treat?”
“Scram back to your Persia! Don’t lose face and be a nuisance here!”
Feng Yu Heng just watched the imperial physicians vent their anger. When they slightly calmed down a bit, she then said to the eighth prince: “Your Highness also heard it. This is the Persian medical practitioner and the group of Persian dancers that you thought represented Persia? Is that not the same as randomly picking some dancers from Da Shun that are traveling around to represent Da Shun? As long as they don’t know about it, have never seen it nor heard about it, does that mean that Da Shun does not have it? Your Highness, you just wanted to find a Persian medical practitioner to come and oppose me. Most importantly, should you not have found a Persian imperial physician? What sort of situation is this? Not to mention the eccentric that I took as a master, but even my grandfather Yao Xian and these imperial physicians, his medical ability is not even close to them. Your Highness, you’ve underestimated my Da Shun far too much!”
These words finally caused a change in Xuan Tian Mo’s expression, as a slight gloominess appeared on his face. But it only lasted for a brief instant, as he very quickly adjusted then said to Feng Yu Heng: “Not to mention whether or not they represent Persia, but you just mentioned your master. Then could imperial daughter say who he is?”
“Alright!” Feng Yu Heng then randomly threw out a name in Persian. Of course, she was speaking in modern Persian, but she had done her best to choose a more ancient-sounding name that would allow the Persian to understand. It was a very unique name; however, the Persian would recognize it. Feng Yu Heng was indeed familiar with their language.
The Persian doctor subconsciously said: “Imperial Daughter knows Persian?”
Feng Yu Heng rolled her eyes, “What a joke. My master was Persian. Even if I could not speak fluently, I can still manage. To this old doctor, I will not trouble you. I will just tell you that your medical abilities are far beneath my master’s medical abilities. The things that I learned from the Persian that I accepted as my master, it’s natural that you would not know them.”
The medical practitioner continued to argue: “Even if I do not know how, I should have heard about it!”
Before Feng Yu Heng replied, an imperial physician from below loudly said: “This old one has family secrets when it comes to medicine. In the entirety of Da Shun, only this old one knows about it. What is it, if a common doctor hasn’t heard of it, it can be said that Da Shun does not know how to do it?”
These words could not be refuted by that doctor. He also knew that it was as Feng Yu Heng had said. They could not represent Persia. Back in the South, the eighth prince had told him about Feng Yu Heng’s medical abilities, and he had felt shocked. He knew that he had never heard about them, but after thinking about it now, if one of the national physicians in the palace heard about it, perhaps he would lose his head because who knew if it was a national secret.
In an instant, the Persian medical practitioner had lost his momentum and quietly took a couple steps back…