The guards lit the lamps, and Lu Xun came over and crouched before Lu Li.
By the faint light, Lu Xun saw Lu Li's eyes half-closed, both hands clamped hard over his abdomen. His pallid face was twisted in particular agony.
"Lu Li, what's wrong with you?" Lu Xun was visibly tense.
Lu Li was a junior member of Lu Xun's clan. Chosen as Lu Xun's personal attendant for his quick wits, he had followed the army for three years and had only just reached adulthood. Lu Xun treated him as his own son and had always looked after him closely.
Hearing the call, Lu Li hazily opened his eyes. "Grand Viceroy, this subordinate was struck by unbearable abdominal pain in the night. I endured it for half an hour, but truly could not bear it any longer before making a sound. I never meant to disturb you."
"Foolishness. How can you endure an illness in silence? You should have told me sooner. Did you eat something indiscriminately? Are you feeling any better now?" Lu Xun was well-read in the classics and had some knowledge of medicine as well. But when he took Lu Li's pulse, sweat abruptly beaded on his brow.
Lu Li was in the prime of youth; his pulse should have been like the surging Yangtze River beyond the tent. Yet what Lu Xun felt was a tiny stream on the verge of drying up. In alarm, he used his fingers to pry open Lu Li's slightly parted eyelids, only to see the signs of a life about to end.
"This... this subordinate didn't eat anything carelessly. Perhaps it was the... wine from tonight..." Lu Li gasped heavily and pointed with all his strength toward Lu Xun's bed.
Cold sweat ran down Lu Xun's back. The wine