Chapter 73 - It’s Not An Illness

At Ao Yang's words, both Feng Xi and Ao Wen turned to leave, beginning to dash in the direction of the Feng family residence only to stop at a shouted command. 

"Fairies, wait," Zhang Bai shouted, pausing only long enough to see they'd paused to face him before shouting again. "IF ANY COACHMAN OR CARRIAGE FOR HIRE WILL SEE THESE FAIRIES TO THE FENG HOUSEHOLD RAPIDLY AND SAFELY, THIS YOUNG MASTER WILL NOT FORGET THE FAVOR!" Zhang Bai's bellow echoed off the nearby buildings propelled by not only powerful longs but a hint of his martial cultivation. 

In a flash, one of the men from the crowd at Ao Yang's storefront dashed back across the wet cobblestone street to open the doors of his horse-drawn carriage. "If Young City Lord asks Bin to help Fairies in need, Bin cannot refuse," he said with a sweeping gesture at the open door of his carriage. 

Ao Wen looked at Zhang Bai with genuine appreciation in her eyes before hurrying after Feng Xi. The cramped carriage rocketed through the cobblestone streets, splashing through puddles and scattering people and animals alike as it careened around corners. The coachman drove the horses without regard for those he might upset with his reckless driving, should anyone complain he would simply ask them to take it up with the eldest son of the City Lord, he was certain that he would escape any repercussions for his carelessness at that point. 

Finally arriving at the Feng residence, Ao Wen managed the briefest of thanks for the carriage driver before dashing into the sprawling home behind Feng Xi. 

Feng Xi's steps faltered at her father's bed chamber door. Even braced for the worst, the sight of his anguished face wrenched her soul as she rushed inside. Feng Lieren lay contorted amid sweat-soaked sheets, skin blanched bone-white. Once keen eyes resembled bruises in their dark hollows,lids screwed shut as the proud man resisted the pain wracking his body. His robust frame seemed shrunken as though flesh melted from previously sturdy bones.

At Feng Xi's gasp, Feng Lieren's head turned gingerly towards her. Fresh spasms elicited another chocked off cry through clenched teeth. She shuddered hearing the grating rasp of splintering bone within his heaving chest. When the agonized tremors eased, her father peered through a haze of torment, recognition flitting across his ravaged face.

"My bright Xi'er...you're home..." The hoarse whisper trailed into vicious coughs that wracked his body anew. She winced seeing deep crimson flecks stain his pale lips. That beloved voice which once told inspiring tales of danger and adventure at her childhood bedside now emerged feebler than a newborn's mewling cries. His broad shoulders could scarce inflate for the next labored breath before deflating with pitiful swiftness.

Tears blurred Feng Xi's vision, coursing unheeded down hollow cheeks. She sank numbly onto the mattress edge, clasping one huge hand marred by protruding veins. Its ferocious strength tempered by a archer's precision was reduced to a limp cluster of twigs in her trembling grip. The inclination of his head nuzzled weakly against her wrist like an affectionate hound too spent to do more. Never had she felt so helpless sharing the same room as the indomitable pillar of the Feng family.

"Father...just hold on...Wen will know how to heal this..." She stroked matted hair back from his clammy brow, hiding torment beneath a brave smile. Seeing him attempt an answering grin which became a tortured grimace, Feng Xi buried her face in coarse sheets to muffle a soul-deep keen of grief.

In one corner of the room, an exhausted Yu Kexin roused at the sound of Feng Xi's voice, her eyes puffy from tears with dark circles under them from lack of sleep. "Xi'er," she said softly. 

"Mother," Feng Xi responded refusing to move from her father's bedside, afraid that he had few moments remaining. "Wen, you have to help," she pleaded. 

"I know," Ao Wen said, struggling to summon the calm she'd possessed when walking into medical tents filled with tens or even hundreds of plague victims. A physician's detachment was vital to accurate diagnosis and treatment and right now, Feng Lieren and Feng Xi needed the best physician Ao Wen could be. It was easy to think, even easy to say, but confronted by the expressions of pain on Feng Lieren's face and the clear emotional torment gripping Feng Xi it was hard to be detached. "Xi, I need your help, your father needs your help," she said, falling back on one of Senior Brother Huang's lessons. Give the family tasks to anchor their minds in things that will help. Prevent them from fixating on what they can't change by giving them something that they can change. "Mother Yu," Ao Wen continued, addressing Yu Kexin in a fashion similar to how Feng Xi addressed her own mother. "I need your help too. I have questions that Father Feng can't answer like this and I need you to speak for him. Can you do that for me?"

"You can really help?" Yu Kexin said, holding back her desire to hope. "Alchemy Novice Wu Lin has already said that the best we can hope for is that this illness passes leaving him crippled," she choked out. 

"Then Wu Lin is an idiot," Ao Wen snapped before her voice turned gentle. "Xi, I know you don't want to leave right now but I'm going to get to work. I need you to send a message to Tao Juan, tell him that if I have my silver needles by the time sun sets, I'll ensure his breakthrough to Soldier by the end of the year. After that, I need you to play a soothing song for your father. I don't have medicines to dull his pain but your music can so I need you to do that for me. Can you do those things for me?"

"I can," Feng Xi said, looking at her father one last time through misty eyes. "You'll be better soon Father. Wen saved Tang Jin from the curse of the Rage Queen, she can save you from this," she said before laying her father's frail hand on the bed and rushing from the room. 

"Mother Yu," Ao Wen continued. "I'm afraid I'll need you to assist me in many things," she said with a gesture at her immobilized arm. "If you can roll up my right sleeve and pin it back for me, then bring three basins of clean water for me. I need help washing up with one of them, I also need one of the basins to be white so I can observe the color of things dripped into it. If you have a silver cup or goblet, that would also be helpful. Can you do those things for me?" She repeated what she'd said to Feng Xi, stressing that she needed these things to be done for her. A list of tasks would pull the mind onto a focused track and it would make it easier to ask her questions as she worked if Yu Kexin was focused. 

"I can do that," Yu Kexin said, wiping tears from her eyes as she left the room. 

Once both women had left the room, Ao Wen moved to Feng Lieren's side, eyes flicking in the beginnings of an examination. The blood vessels of his eyes had become engorged, almost like they were clogged and all of his veins stood up starkly on his skin as though his blood had become thicker than it should be. "Purplish veins," Ao Wen muttered, "but it's not Yin aura, this is more ordinary," she continued as her eyes roamed further. "Split finger nails, but they're reddish," her voice trailed off, a dark suspicion starting to form in her mind. Moving to the foot of the bed she gently lifted the blankets to look at his feet before her expression clouded. 

"Little Wen," Feng Lieren weekly muttered. "Care for Xi'er…" he tried to force out only to break off in a fresh suputter of pain wracked coughing that produced more dark crimson flecks of blood. 

"Father Feng," Ao Wen said in a firm determined voice, setting her fingers gently on his chest. "You're not sick. You've been poisoned," she spat. "You will hold your wife and daughter again, my word as a Holy Healer on it," she said fiercely.