Reincarnation and Rebirth

"What exactly happened?" After everyone left, Lin Nanxing sat on the edge of the bed and asked.

"Sigh, you shouldn't get involved in palace affairs."

Lin Nanxing's eyes darkened. "She's attacked you again?"

"Nanxing, if—I mean if something really happens to me, Zeyang, please..."

"Stop talking nonsense. You'll be fine. I'm telling you, you should wake up. If it weren't for that person, Zeyang's parents wouldn't have died so young."

"Sigh, do you think I don't know? But this is something our Zhu family owes her."

"Then after all these years, you've done so many things against your conscience for her, it's time to even things out."

"Nanxing, you don't understand. Right now, it's not like I can just walk away unscathed."

Upon hearing this, Lin Nanxing couldn't continue speaking. Yes, after so many years, even if this old friend wasn't involved voluntarily, there would always be something that person had to hold against him regarding the sordid affairs in the palace.

But he couldn't bear to watch his old friend die. "Tell me clearly what happened this time. Maybe I can help you."

“Nanxing, you know why I was so against you joining the Imperial Hospital back then, and why I forced you to leave the army after Zeyang’s father passed away. I didn’t want you to get involved in such dirty things. Before Master passed away, he repeatedly told me to take good care of you junior brothers. Now, you are my only junior brother, and I don’t want you to be in danger.”

"What's that on your inner thigh?" Lin Nanxing subconsciously thought that it might be a tumor, and that his senior brother knew about the condition and felt that he didn't have much time left, which was why he said these things.

To everyone's surprise, Zhu Hongqi's expression changed. "How did you know?"

Lin Nanxing subconsciously didn't want to say that the little girl had noticed, "I was stitching up your wound, so of course I could see it."

Zhu Hongqi's eyes were filled with inquiry, but in the end, he chose to believe his junior brother, "Nanxing, don't ask anymore."

"But……"

"Master, something terrible has happened! Someone has sent a message saying that the young master is in their hands and they want you to hand over what they want."

Zhu Hongqi's expression changed drastically. "Quick, give me the letter."

The shopkeeper hurriedly handed over the letter. "When the old master was injured and unconscious, my servants brought the letter over, and I just casually put it on the counter. I only found it when I went to settle the money for Miss Su. I'm worried about whether the old master and young master will be alright. It's all my fault. I should have checked the letter first."

Zhu Hongqi opened the letter with trembling hands. "This is not your fault. Go down."

After reading the contents of the letter, he struggled to get up, disregarding the risk of his wound reopening.

"Are you out of your mind?" Lin Nanxing scolded.

“I can’t let them touch Zeyang. He’s the only son left in our Zhu family. If something happens to him, how can I face our ancestors?”

"So what do you plan to do? What do they want, Senior Brother? If you still consider me one of your own, tell me the truth. I watched Zeyang grow up, and his father even went to war with me. Don't you believe me?"

“Nanxing, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that if you get involved in this matter…”

"I'm all alone, what am I afraid of?"

"Besides, given your current condition, going there would be tantamount to suicide."

Zhu Hongqi then realized that apart from the slight abnormality at the wound site, the rest of his body was just as it had been before the injury. Moreover, some of his old ailments, such as hand tremors and shoulder pain, seemed to have disappeared.

"Nanxing, is that little girl you're looking for the descendant of some kind of miracle doctor?"

Lin Nanxing was taken aback. "What time is it? You still have the mood to study medicine?"

"No, I just feel that the medicine she gave me is unusual. Apart from the pain in my wound, I don't have any other symptoms. Also, do you remember when I was poisoned before? I would feel dizzy and lightheaded, but I didn't have any symptoms even when I was so emotional just now. Nanxing, I think that girl is unusual."

"However, now is not the time to dwell on this. Nanxing, do you remember the secret manual that Master gave me before he passed away?"

Lin Nanxing nodded. "Master said he only figured out half of it. There were some difficult characters that he couldn't understand. Could this be related to Zeyang's abduction?"

"Nanxing, I didn't want to tell you, but since you're not afraid..."

"Alright, senior brother, stop beating around the bush. Tell me and see if I can help you. If it's because of the secretary left behind by our master, then I can't stand idly by, since it's a matter for our sect."

"Okay, you guessed right. They came for that book of secrets. Somehow, that person found out about its existence and forced me to hand it over. But I accidentally discovered that it was actually from the Purple Flame Kingdom."

"What? You mean the Empress Dowager..."

"Yes, after I learned about this, I knew that this book absolutely could not fall into their hands. That's why I resigned from my post in court, and the emperor granted my request. I just didn't expect them to be so unscrupulous as to send people to intercept and kill me on the road."

"So what do you want to do now?"

"Nanxing, is that Miss Su reliable?"

"You're thinking?"

Zhu Hongqi nodded. "I know this might harm the girl, but it's the safest method right now. She's not related to us, so no one will suspect anything if we hand her over. My master and I have been studying this secret manual for decades, and we still haven't been able to fully decipher it. But just some of the formulas alone could save many people. So I don't want this secret manual to fall into other people's hands. Nanxing, do you think Miss Su is reliable?"

Lin Nanxing lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then said, "That girl has changed since she hit her head, but she's absolutely reliable. However, this matter is of great importance. We can't deceive her for our own selfish reasons and drag a perfectly good girl into this mess. Besides, without this book, how will you exchange it for Zeyang?"

"Don't worry about that, I have a way."

Lin Nanxing knew her senior brother too well. "Senior brother, you absolutely mustn't. If Zeyang finds out that you're offering your life for his, he definitely won't agree. If something happens to you because of him, how will he live on his own in the future?"

"Nanxing, stop trying to persuade me. Go get a knife and take the books off my thigh first."

"What?" Lin Nanxing jumped up in shock. "You mean, what you have isn't some incurable disease, but rather... books?"

Zhu Hongqi gave a bleak smile, "Otherwise, how could I still be alive?"

After much hesitation, Lin Nanxing finally said, "It seems that Miss Su's medical skills are indeed superior to mine."

"What do you mean?"

"She just took your pulse and said there's a foreign object on your thigh."

Zhu Hongqi was taken aback, then forced a bitter smile. “Indeed, that girl is more suitable to have this secretary than you or I. Nanxing, since you trust that girl, and your senior brother trusts her too, call her in. I’ll ask her in person if she’s willing to become my disciple. That way, I can hand over the book to her and not fail my master’s instructions.”

"it is good."