Chapter 34 Carving Characters All male courtesans must have characters carved on their bodies

“I’m glad Your Highness doesn’t find it distasteful.” Qiu Shuzhi lowered her eyes with a smile.

Yue Guanyi’s ear tips swelled as red as blood-dripped jade. How could he find the ginger soup personally prepared by Qiu Niang distasteful?

“The doctor instructed that Your Highness should not be exposed to wind now. Please rest here first, and when your condition stabilizes, I’ll arrange a carriage to send you back to the palace.”

Yue Guanyi’s smile froze slightly. Did Qiu Shuzhi’s words mean she still intended to send him away?

“Alright,” he nodded with difficulty.

“In that case, Your Highness, please rest well. I won’t disturb you further.”

As Qiu Shuzhi slowly retreated from the room, the tightly closed chamber instantly fell into boundless silence. Darkness continuously encroached from all sides, and the heart that had just been warmed by Qiu Shuzhi cooled bit by bit.

“Chang’an!” he called out in a deep voice.

“This humble servant is here.”

“Open the windows!”

Chang’an’s eyes widened in shock, “Your Highness, you just fell into the water, and your hair is still wet. The wind will harm your body now.”

He knew that Yue Guanyi had practiced martial arts for years and had an extraordinary physique. The pitiful, haggard, and delicate appearance just now was all an act to arouse Qiu Shuzhi’s sympathy.

But his fall into the water was real, and a strong wind was blowing outside. Even Yue Guanyi might not be able to withstand it.

“Open them all!” he roared, a hint of sharpness in his eyes.

Chang’an helplessly opened all the windows. A draft swept through, the long curtains moved with the wind, and howling cold air surged in, instantly chilling the room to ice.

Yue Guanyi clenched his fists tightly, threw off the blanket covering him, and wearing only a plain white single garment, stepped barefoot onto the ice-cold floor. The long wind ruffled his messy hair, his face pale and gaunt, his figure as thin as paper that could break with a gust of wind.

“Your Highness……” Chang’an’s eyes were full of worry.

Yue Guanyi stood quietly by the window, his whole body trembling slightly, yet seeming not to feel the slightest cold, a smile of determination on his lips.

That evening, a servant hurriedly reported: The Crown Prince had suddenly developed a high fever.

Qiu Shuzhi quickly sent someone to the palace to request an imperial physician, then rushed to Yue Guanyi’s room.

Yue Guanyi lay weakly on the bed, his face pale, lips white without a trace of color, eyes tinged with a sickly red. His heavy breathing rose and fell like mountains, his face full of illness.

There was no thermometer here, and she didn’t know how high Yue Guanyi’s fever had risen, but his current state was definitely not feigned.

“Your Highness-” Qiu Shuzhi held his burning hand, sitting by the bed full of concern.

“Lady Qiu-” Yue Guanyi smiled weakly, “I’ve caused you trouble.”

Qiu Shuzhi shook her head. She was the one who should say she’d caused trouble. For Yue Guanyi, this should have been an undeserved disaster, yet not only did he not blame her in the slightest, he was even apologizing to her, deepening her sense of guilt towards him.

“Your Highness, don’t leave tonight. Stay at my residence. I’ve already sent someone to the palace to request an imperial physician. You will surely get better.” She gripped his hand tightly, feeling for the first time how dry and hot his palm was.

His hand wasn’t delicately pampered, but rather slightly rough, with a thin layer of calluses on his palm and fingertips. She’d heard he had once been sold to a brothel… He must have suffered a lot.

When she was young, she had also saved a young boy who was about to be sold to a brothel and deflowered. That boy was only about 10 or 11 years old at the time, an age that in modern society would be equivalent to a fifth-grade elementary school student, yet he was to endure such cruel torment.

Qiu Shuzhi couldn’t bear it and intervened to save him.

But she was still a step too late. Males sold into brothels all had to have the character for ‘slave’ carved on their bodies, similar to the ancient character for ‘prostitute’, permanently relegating them to the lowly class with no hope of ever rising above it. It was the same for that boy, except the character ‘slave’ was only half carved when she called for it to stop and rescued him.

Even though it was only half carved, that half-branded mark of lowliness would be a shadow over his entire life.

She had wanted to take him into her household as a servant, but at that time she was even younger than him. Although her mother and father approved of her good deed, they absolutely would not allow this boy with half a ‘slave’ character carved on him to enter the household, tarnishing the Qiu family’s pure reputation.

Moreover, the madam of the brothel opened her mouth wide like a lion, demanding 500 taels of silver as a redemption fee. The Qiu family was already in decline at that time and couldn’t possibly spend 500 taels of silver to buy a boy of lowly status.

She had no choice but to give up, only paying the madam some money to keep him under her mother’s name, becoming a private male courtesan nominally raised in the brothel by her mother, to ensure he wouldn’t be violated by other women before coming of age.

From then on, he was raised in the brothel. She heard that because of his stubborn personality, he refused to learn the techniques for serving women like other male courtesans, and even tried to escape, but was caught and beaten nearly to death by the madam.

Come to think of it, Yue Guanyi’s personality was quite similar to his, both stubborn and determined, refusing to submit.

She wondered how that little boy was doing now?

Three years later, that little boy suddenly disappeared from the brothel. For a time, she thought he had been beaten to death by the brothel madam and even sent people to search for him.

Later, the Qiu family fell into decline, and the matter was left unresolved.

She didn’t have much interaction with that little boy, and the events of over a decade ago were too distant. She could no longer remember exactly what he looked like.

She didn’t even know his real name, only remembering that his stage name in the brothel was Yan Nu (Charming Slave).

Qiu Shuzhi still remembered that in her occasional conversations with him, she could always see the scars all over his body, evidence of the brothel madam’s methods of torture. Yue Guanyi had also once been sold into a brothel.

Being sold into a brothel like merchandise and having characters carved on his body, such humiliation must have been worse than death for a noble prince. How did he endure it?

The ‘slave’ character was always carved below the collarbone, near the chest. Did he keep this brand, or cut it out along with the flesh?

“Lady Qiu-” A weak, trembling voice pulled her from her memories. She met Yue Guanyi’s slightly reddened eyes. “Lady Qiu… I feel so unwell.”

“Don’t be afraid, Your Highness. You’ll feel better soon. The imperial physician will be here shortly.” Qiu Shuzhi snapped back to reality, taking up the wet cloth soaked in the water basin beside her, wringing it out, and wiping the cold sweat that had broken out on his forehead.

“Qiu Niang, Qiu Niang,” the hoarse voice called her name dazedly. His eyelids drooped sickly, yet he still forced himself to look at her, unwilling to close his eyes.

His entire body felt as if it had been crushed by a cart wheel, not a single part unscathed. Even breathing took all his strength.

“Qiu Niang, it hurts so much!” He hooked his powerless fingers onto the hem of her clothes. The pain like fire couldn’t compare to seeing the panic of concern in Qiu Shuzhi’s eyes at this moment.

Pain and love intertwined and entangled. His scheme succeeded at this moment. The secret and fallen chasm within him was filled, as if he had been lifted to the high clouds. The fierce fire muddled his thoughts into chaos. His five senses, his limbs, every pore of his body was irrigated with thick satisfaction.

“I’m here, I’m here.” Qiu Shuzhi gripped his hand in return.

His whole body burned so hot that even his bones seemed about to be incinerated to ash, yet his forehead was as cold as a block of ice, so cold it would freeze at a touch. From Yue Guanyi’s mumbling tone, she could clearly sense that his consciousness was about to blur.

“Where is the imperial physician! Why haven’t they arrived yet!” Qiu Shuzhi shouted towards the door, losing her composure for the first time.

Chang’an anxiously looked out towards the door. He was even more worried in his heart. Others didn’t know, but he knew best.

Yue Guanyi had been blinded by Qiu Shuzhi, abandoning his pampered life as the Crown Prince, instead gambling with his life, using his body as a tool to curry favor, in exchange for her paltry pity.

“They’re here, they’re here!” Chang’an saw in the distance the imperial physician in the attire of the Imperial Medical Academy entering the courtyard surrounded by a group of people.

Qiu Shuzhi grabbed the imperial physician, heedlessly pulling her to Yue Guanyi’s bedside. “His Highness’s mind is already unclear. Whatever method you use, you must cure him! Quickly!”

The imperial physician trembled at Qiu Shuzhi’s tone. She had always heard that Lady Qiu was one of the rare good-tempered officials in court. When she suddenly got angry, it was quite frightening.

The imperial physician took his pulse: “His Highness’s pulse is chaotic and disordered, his breath weak. He has developed a rare high fever.”

“Is there a way to treat it?” she asked anxiously.

The imperial physician nodded: “This lowly one will go prepare the medicine now. As long as he can get through tonight, there will be no great danger.”

Qiu Shuzhi finally breathed a sigh of relief: “Then I’ll trouble the imperial physician.”

She instructed the servants to follow the imperial physician closely to prepare and decoct the medicine, not to be neglectful for even a quarter of an hour.

As for herself, she stayed by Yue Guanyi’s side without leaving a step, lest any other mishap occur.

Yue Guanyi gradually became confused, burning with fever and muddled. His hoarse voice kept calling her name incessantly, his hand tightly gripping her sleeve, unwilling to let go.

Only after a bowl of medicinal soup went down did his temperature gradually decrease.

Qiu Shuzhi watched over him, not daring to close her eyes. Having returned to normal body temperature after such an ordeal, he had fallen into a deep sleep. He looked very docile when sleeping, his thick eyelashes casting a shadow under his eyes, the corners of his eyes tinged with a slight peach blossom red. Without his usual sharp and fierce gaze, he had gained a serene and gentle quality.

“Qiu Niang-” He suddenly murmured in his sleep.

Qiu Shuzhi was startled, then shook her head with a faint smile.

He seemed to be dreaming of something happy, his lips unconsciously curling upwards even in his dream. His body moved unconsciously, his collar slightly open, revealing his delicate collarbone and a large patch of skin below it.

Below his collarbone, a mark clearly carved by a knife tip was visible. The knife wound had healed, but the scar remained.

Under the snow-white collar, that scar was particularly eye-catching and jarring. From what could be seen, it was clearly the character for ‘woman’ without a doubt.

Qiu Shuzhi felt a twinge of heartache. The part hidden by the collar, without having to guess, must be the character for ‘again’, which together would form the character for ‘slave’.

This insulting word would be unbearable for any man, let alone a prince.

She reached out her hand, intending to cover the carved characters at his collarbone, but unexpectedly, Yue Guanyi suddenly moved at this moment. Her fingers, which were about to tidy his collar, instead pulled his neckline further open, completely exposing the carved characters below his collarbone to her view.

Qiu Shuzhi’s breath suddenly stopped, her gaze falling on his body trembling in disbelief.

Below his collarbone, carved was not the character for ‘slave’, but ‘Shu’.