The delicate cannon fodder is stunning, saving the male supporting role but getting teased instead

Yan Yintian pondered for a moment and asked, "Do you trust your maid so much? If her medical skills are fake, you might die if you go there."

Yan Heng looked at Yan Yintian and said, "Father, I trust my judgment. I have asked Imperial Physician Wang to try the prescription. He found five people with serious illnesses, and their conditions were all under control after taking the medicine. Moreover, Wenrou's own father has now recovered. This shows that this prescription is indeed miraculous."

Yan Yintian couldn't help but take it seriously when he heard this. The affairs in the southwest were also a thorn in his heart. If it was not controlled properly, it would most likely cause a large-scale plague, the number of refugees would increase, and eventually lead to a rebellion.

He frowned, but finally agreed: "Okay, I agree that you can go to the southwest, but the person who harmed you before has not been caught yet. You will go secretly this time and tell others that you are still imprisoned. Bring Doctor Wang and your little maid with you when you go to the southwest."

Yan Heng nodded, his father and he had the same idea.

Yan Yintian looked at the thin Yan Heng and said, "I just wanted to protect you by taking advantage of the situation, but I didn't expect that those servants would really take advantage of the situation and starve you into this state. The road to the southwest this time will not be safe, so you must protect yourself well. Since your little palace maid is so good at medicine, you should take her with you and let her help you with your mania." Yan Yintian gave worried instructions. At this time, he was a father, not an emperor.

Yan Heng nodded and comforted him, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will definitely come back safely." As for the dryness, His Majesty reminded him that he could ask the little palace maid to help him take a look.

"Hmm." Wenrou placed her fingers gently on Yan Heng's pulse, frowning, as if thinking seriously.

"How is it?" Yan Heng couldn't help asking when he saw her expression.

"Your Highness's pulse is like pressing the strings of a musical instrument, straight and long. This is a string pulse, indicating that Your Highness has strong liver fire. However..." Wenrou continued to feel Yan Heng's pulse.

"But what?" Yan Heng also frowned. What Wenrou said was also mentioned by the imperial physician when he examined her before.

"Your Highness's pulse is very chaotic. You can faintly feel a rapid and slippery pulse. It is full of evil energy and seems to have heat and poison." Wenrou continued.

What Wenrou said was something the imperial physician had never mentioned before. So Yan Heng continued to ask, "Are you saying I'm poisoned?"

Wenrou nodded and recalled, "Your Majesty has bloodshot eyes, a red tongue with a greasy yellow coating, and is sweating and fatigued. These are all signs of fire poison."

Yan Heng frowned tightly and said to Zhang Ji, "Call Doctor Wang over and don't let anyone find out." If he was poisoned, there must be someone who poisoned him, and they couldn't alert the enemy now.

A short while later, Doctor Wang, disguised as a young eunuch, was brought in by Zhang Ji. Yan Heng told Doctor Wang his gentle diagnosis. He was startled and hurried forward to take Yan Heng's pulse. He had always been specialized in treating Yan Heng's dryness. If Yan Heng was truly poisoned, then his treatment would be inadequate, a situation that could result in death. At this thought, Doctor Wang broke out in a cold sweat, his hand trembling as he took the patient's pulse.

This time, Doctor Wang took Yan Heng's pulse for a full half hour. Until Yan Heng became impatient, he knelt down and said, "Your Highness, please forgive me. Your pulse is indeed as Miss Wen said, but it is very hidden. My medical skills are not as good as Miss Wen's. It is only now that I dare to confirm it with Miss Wen's guidance." Doctor Wang buried his face deep in the ground, trembling all over, and seemed extremely scared.

Yan Heng ignored Doctor Wang and turned to Wen Rou, "Do you know how to cure my poison?"

"I've heard about this poison from the people of Dianyun. They're good at using poison, and fire poison is one of them. Your Highness must have been poisoned for quite some time. To detoxify, you need multiple treatments at the same time. Oral decoctions, medicinal baths, and acupuncture." Wenrou explained.

"Can you possibly solve it?" Yan Heng asked the question he was most concerned about.

Wenrou nodded and gave an affirmative answer: "I can try."

"Okay, if you can detoxify me, I'll reward you handsomely. Also, I need you to investigate the source of the poison," Yan Heng said, narrowing his eyes. He'd been experiencing dryness symptoms since five years ago, proving this man had been poisoning him since then, demonstrating his deep scheming.

"Logically speaking, His Highness has been poisoned for a long time, but after I came to the East Palace, I felt that His Highness's dryness didn't seem to be obvious. The only explanation is that His Highness hasn't been in contact with poisons for a while." Wenrou thought for a while and guessed.

"My mania has indeed improved a lot recently. It seems that it has improved since I was confined." Yan Heng couldn't help but sigh. He didn't expect that being confined actually saved him.

Yan Heng did not punish Doctor Wang. Doctor Wang was the late queen's man. For his mother's sake, Yan Heng only allowed Doctor Wang to catch the poisoner and make amends.

Catching the murderer would take time, but their trip to the southwest was already set. Yan Heng would travel incognito, posing as a wealthy businessman, Doctor Wang as the housekeeper, and Zhang Ji and his guards as wealthy merchants. As for Wen Rou, since she had to provide Yan Heng with medicinal baths and needed to stay with him at night, she disguised herself as the businessman's wife.

In this way, the group secretly left the capital and headed southwest.

Meanwhile, the situation in the southwest was not optimistic. When Yan Jin and Shangguan Qing arrived, they discovered that the disease was more serious than they had imagined, and the city was littered with corpses.

Fortunately, Shangguan Qing had prepared masks in advance, so no one was infected for the time being. Shangguan Qing had dared to come to the southwest because the symptoms of the ailment were similar to those of a cold. She had happened to have seen a recipe for a traditional Chinese medicine for colds, so she offered it to the Fifth Prince to help him cure the ailment. She also hoped to gain fame for this achievement. After all, as a concubine, it would have been difficult for her to ascend to the throne of empress without a highly regarded reputation.

Unexpectedly, Shangguan Qing's medicine, while able to slightly alleviate the disease, could not cure it. The disease soon developed into a large-scale plague.

Yan Jin frowned and sat with everyone in the prefect's residence to discuss solutions.

"Your Highness, some sick people have been taken into centralized care as Miss Shangguan said, but this is not a solution. More and more people are dying. Moreover, we have only captured some of the sick. Many refugees saw the soldiers arresting people and ran out of the city overnight. I am afraid that the surrounding cities will not be spared either." The prefect sighed and said in a heavy tone.

Shangguan Qing pursed her lips upon hearing this, a flicker of fear in her eyes. Just as confident as she had been then, so terrified she was now. Back in the modern era, she was just an ordinary white-collar worker, and had never experienced anything so terrifying. She kept pondering modern solutions, when suddenly her eyes lit up and she said, "Your Highness, this has become a plague. It's probably difficult for us to resolve it alone. Why not just seal off the city? We can return to the capital, announce it to the world, and consult renowned doctors!"