C34 Queen for back up

Gu Mingyan's dull personality was rather compatible with Duan Chengxuan.

After a while, Su Yuwan leisurely walked over to Duan Chengxuan's left hand and sat down. His left hand should have been the master's seat, but it was a pity that Gu Mingyan was wholeheartedly focusing on reading the Book of Virtue, sitting right beside him.

Duan Chengxuan, however, frowned without a trace. He was born into the imperial family, so even though he was obedient to Su Yuwan, he could not easily change the imperial family's rules. If the emperor saw that Su Yuwan was like this, then the title of being able to look down on the imperial family would be enough for her to walk to the Celestial Prison.

Taking the medical book in Gu Mingyan's hands in one go really gave Gu Mingyan a scare. She turned her head to look at him, extended her hand to grab the book, and Duan Chengxuan only placed the book further away.

"Hurry up and give me back the book. This is Teacher He's favorite book. If it gets dirty, you'll have to scold me." Gu Mingyan grabbed the book back and arranged it like a treasure.

"Change your position with Wan Er." Duan Chengxuan helped Su Yuwan up, his gaze gentle.

Su Yuwan secretly clenched her teeth, she had just been sitting here hoping to show her status, but she did not expect that Duan Chengxuan was still acting because of the Emperor.

The two of them changed seats, but Gu Mingyan did not dare take out the ancient medicine manual. He poured himself a cup of water and drank it down, his fingertips still trembling, so he placed a pill into the wine and melted it before drinking it.

"Elder Brother Xuan, it's almost noon. Why hasn't the emperor come yet?" Su Yuwan tasted the cold soup. At this time of day, even in the spring, it was still somewhat hot.

"Miss Wan Er, you said it in time." In the distance, a line of people had already walked in, and the emperor was already atop the carriage. Looking from afar, he looked to be quite well-built, only that he was older by quite a bit, and a group of princes had also gathered around the emperor to pay their respects.

Duan Chengxuan stood up and brought the two of them to pay his respects.

The emperor raised his eyes and looked at them, then at Su Yuwan who was beside Duan Chengxuan. He frowned but did not say anything, and only waved his hand.

The emperor's face was casual, but Gu Mingyan could not help but take a few more glances, and just saw the emperor's sickly face, but upon closer inspection, he looked somewhat similar to Duan Chengxuan. The emperor had obviously seen her as well. He brought Empress Xu Shi to the host seat and waited for the eunuchs to complete their etiquette.

Duan Chengxuan didn't need to face Su Yuwan, who was an unreasonable person, at the same time, instructed the people around him to eat more. Even Qing Dai, who had rushed over, couldn't help but remind her: "Princess, you have to roast some more prey later, don't eat too much."

"No problem." Gu Mingyan blinked at her, and only when she came over did she realize that there was one less bag on her waist.

She felt around, wondering if she had dropped it while riding in the woods.

"Yin Qiao, go to the stables and ask them to find my medicine bag. Qing Dai, I gave the wood box to a young master, go get another box from the carriage and give it to Commander Xiao." Gu Mingyan instructed softly.

Su Yuwan listened attentively, but the embroidery beside him looked at it from afar, bent down and pointed out a direction.

On the other side, Assistant Minister of Revenue and his son Guang Xian were sitting there. Guang Xian stared intently at Gu Mingyan, but Su Yuwan simply raised the corner of his mouth, thinking that the person who was in contact with them yesterday had come to report, causing Gu Mingyan and Guang Xian to be in conflict, he shot a glance at Jin Xiu, causing her to nod her head and quickly leave.

In a short while, the three girls beside him all left. Gu Mingyan ate his pastries as he watched the people riding away.

An eunuch walked to his side at an unknown time, "This servant pays his respects to Prince Jing."

Duan Chengxuan waved his hand, and the eunuch walked to Gu Mingyan's side and passed a piece of paper to her: "Princess of Jing, this is the one that Empress Dowager had a servant bring over, he said that you will understand once you see it."

"Alright." Gu Mingyan took the paper and frowned: "I will have to trouble Young Master to go back and tell Empress Dowager that this is a difficult matter. My name is Yun descendant and it is just an empty title, in truth, I have not found such a good formula."

"Princess of Jing is too modest, your servant will return to report to the Empress now." The eunuch looked disappointed.

Gu Mingyan rolled his eyes, but still called the eunuch to stop, and continued to speak: "I hope that eunuch can help me deliver a message, although this matter is impossible now, it is not impossible in the future, I hope that Empress Dowager can remain calm and not be impatient."

"With Princess of Jing's words, I believe that Empress Dowager will be a lot more at ease." The eunuch was immediately beaming with joy as he hurried back to report.

As soon as her father-in-law left, the Queen atop the host seat gave her a slight nod.

Gu Mingyan laughed lightly in reply, and gave the list to Duan Chengxuan under the table.

Duan Chengxuan flipped through the slip of paper and directly returned it to Gu Mingyan's palm, staring at her coldly.

"Prince, don't look at me like that. I just want to add some chips for myself, I'm not really prepared to help Empress Dowager with anything." Gu Mingyan smiled as he crumpled the slip of paper and placed it into his sleeve.

What the Empress Dowager wanted was the secret method to prolong the life of the Yun Family, so that no diseases would invade.

Even though Gu Mingyan had already heard of the secret recipe from external ancestor's father, it was still the last trump card. Naturally, he had to hide it well now, and even Duan Chengxuan was not aware of the medicinal herb on the Hundred Herbs Cliff.

And if she gave this slip of paper to Duan Chengxuan, it would allow Duan Chengxuan to believe her. In the end, she would also let her father-in-law bring over those words, letting the empress believe that she was still useful. The empress would definitely become the backing of Duan Chengxuan for the sake of the prescription.

"Before this, Empress Xu Shi had completely approved of Wan Er marrying this king." Duan Chengxuan looked at her coldly.

"Of course, Miss Wan Er has no power or influence, so after she marries you, she will lose a lot of connections. "But now, the direction of the wind has changed. Your highness, please consider it for yourself." Gu Mingyan returned the hatred without leaving a trace.

Now, as long as she had the secret formula in her hands, no one in power would dare to touch her.

But if she were to one day cure Su Yuwan's illness and retreat from the Duke Palaces unscathed, she would still need to diligently learn medical skills. The reason why she stayed by Duan Chengxuan's side today, was only for these convenience.

"You're quite open-minded."

"Of course, and if I were to pacify the empress like this, the empress would definitely mention me to the emperor in the future. That way, the risk would be much less for Miss Wan Er." Gu Mingyan raised his eyebrows at her as he moved past her and wordlessly gripped the corner of his robe tightly.

Duan Chengxuan felt that the words were reasonable, but how did Gu Mingyan see that the Emperor was extremely dissatisfied with Su Yuwan?

Gu Mingyan seemed to have already known why he asked this, and said in a low voice: "Qi Lin is Sky Flame, One Ba. He was the one who told me that the Emperor had sent someone to assassinate Miss Wan Er, the night before you took her back from your sect."