The man had truly come back to life. Xiao Yingtao later returned with several physicians, and one of them took the man to the triage room.

Jian Yi was still sitting where he had been, staring blankly at the man being carried away.

He had saved someone — saved someone who had already stopped breathing.

So it turned out that he was not only capable of killing; he could, incredibly… incredibly, also save lives.

Jian Yi could not put into words what he was feeling at that moment. All he knew was that when Feng Jiu’er told him to go and bandage another injured patient, he had picked up the golden wound medicine and walked over without a second thought.

It had been an exhausting night — yet it was the most substantial night he had lived through in all his years.

The bridge collapse incident resulted in three deaths and over sixty injuries.

Before dawn, people from the imperial court arrived, though they could do little more than maintain order and offer no real assistance.

By daylight, the patients had largely been settled. Apart from the three who had already died, nearly everyone else was receiving treatment at Tianji Hall.

They had weathered the worst of it for now. Aside from the most critically injured — each accompanied by a physician at all times — the remaining patients were placed in the general wards, with everyone taking turns on watch duty.

Mu Mu had also arrived after midnight, and had immediately joined Qiao Mu in tending to the injured.

Early the next morning, even the palace sent someone. The Emperor, in his concern for the common people, dispatched the Head Eunuch to offer comfort, along with a considerable quantity of medicines from the imperial stores.

Emperor Qiwen certainly knew how to win people’s hearts. Though the medicines sent were ones that the great and powerful had no use for themselves, to ordinary folk, they were fine remedies indeed.

Tianji Hall’s medicine stockpile was running low as well — every little bit helped.

In any case, the situation had stabilized for the time being.

“Come, come, everyone — have some steamed buns first.” Xiao Yingtao led several cooks into the main hall, carrying two large baskets of steamed buns along with two pots of porridge.

From the previous evening until now, whether physicians, patients, or even the families of patients, everyone had been caught up in anxiety, chaos, and frantic work — not a single person had managed even half a sip of water or half a bite of food.

At the sight of steamed buns and hot porridge now, one by one they swallowed hard — they were truly famished.

Xiao Yingtao moved through the crowd distributing buns and hot porridge. Jian Yi had just come out from one of the inner rooms when Xiao Yingtao pressed a bowl of porridge into his hands.

“Wash your hands first, then go get yourself a couple of buns — and take a bowl over to Young Master as well. She must be starving.”

Xiao Yingtao pressed another bowl of porridge into Jian Yi’s hands, then hurried off to distribute food to the others.

When Jian Yi carried the porridge into one of the wards, Feng Jiu’er was removing silver needles from a patient.

The layout of Tianji Hall was unlike anything he had ever seen — not only did it have consultation rooms, but also these wards where multiple beds could be arranged together.

In all his years of life, he had truly never seen a medical hall with wards for patients to stay overnight. It was entirely new to him.

Feng Jiu’er withdrew the silver needles, exchanged a few words with the patient’s family members about what to watch for, then picked up her medicine chest to leave.

Jian Yi was standing in the doorway. Seeing her emerge, he said quickly, “Manager Xiao asked me to bring you something to eat.”

“Good — let me wash my hands first.” Feng Jiu’er was genuinely famished. She stepped aside to wash her hands, then took the bowl of porridge from Jian Yi and immediately drank several mouthfuls.

Jian Yi finished his own bowl of hot porridge in one go, then went to wash his hands as well. He returned with two steamed buns and handed one to Feng Jiu’er.

“I have a question…”

“Go ahead.”

Feng Jiu’er bit into a steamed bun, her words coming out muffled.

Jian Yi asked, “That man last night — he had clearly stopped breathing. Why did you still think he could be saved? And what does ‘shock’ mean?”

“Shock is a type of condition…” Feng Jiu’er thought for a moment, then did her best to explain using the vocabulary of this era: “It is something like a state of false death — the breath suddenly ceases, and if cardiopulmonary resuscitation is not performed quickly to revive the person, they will truly die.”

“Then how could you tell whether he was truly dead or only falsely dead?” Even with his assassin’s senses, he had not been able to detect any sign of life in the man.

If he had ignored the injured man that night, would he not have truly caused someone’s death?

“That comes with experience — once you’ve seen enough cases, you’ll know. If you encounter more situations like this in the future, you’ll gradually be able to tell as well.”

“Understood.”

Jian Yi did not notice that he no longer felt any resistance to the words “in the future.”

After Feng Jiu’er had quickly finished off the meat-filled bun, she took a cup of water from a servant, drank it, and walked away.

The ward next door still needed her attention.

Jian Yi watched her retreating figure, his feelings complicated.

“Does she seem like an unbreakable iron person to you?” Xiao Yingtao was still making her rounds, carrying two bowls of porridge to distribute.

As she passed by and noticed Jian Yi standing there staring at Feng Jiu’er’s retreating figure in a daze, she smiled and said, “That’s just how she is. When she gets busy, she can go three days and three nights without closing her eyes — but I know she gets tired too.”

Wasn’t that stating the obvious? Who wouldn’t get tired?

And yet Feng Jiu gave the impression of someone radiantly energized — clearly having been busy all night, and yet after finishing her buns and porridge, she came alive again.

Xiao Yingtao moved on. Jian Yi remained standing where he was, eyes fixed on the doorway of the ward next door, and absently took a bite of his steamed bun.

Last night he had saved a person. Together with a group of people who were still nearly strangers to him, he had worked busily — busy tending, busy saving, busy doing everything within his power.

When the work was done and he took a bite of his steamed bun, he suddenly found, somehow, that this bite tasted more savory than any steamed bun he had ever eaten before…

In the days that followed, everyone at Tianji Hall was kept relentlessly occupied — Feng Jiu’er most of all. Just as Xiao Yingtao had said, when she was busy, she could go three days and three nights without sleep.

It was not until the morning of the fourth day, when the conditions of nearly all the critically injured patients had stabilized, that Feng Jiu’er finally returned to her bedchamber, washed hastily, and collapsed onto her bed.

Jian Yi was about to bring Feng Jiu’er her morning meal when, before he even reached her door, he heard the sound of snoring coming from within.

The snoring was not loud, but it was distinct — for someone who did not ordinarily snore, snoring at all was a sign of genuine exhaustion.

He looked down at the tray in his hands — Manager Xiao had asked him to deliver the food — but Feng Jiu had finally managed to get some sleep, and waking her now to deliver it seemed far too cruel.

After a moment’s consideration, he turned around and took the food back with him.

There was still work to be done in the main hall. Over the past few days, Jian Yi had settled fully into the rhythm of Tianji Hall.

Spending each day keeping busy alongside everyone else made for a surprisingly fulfilling life, and the troubles that had been plaguing him had quietly slipped away during this time.

Only today, something seemed slightly off in the main hall again.

Jian Yi was in the medicine room helping to decoct medicines when he faintly heard what sounded like a great many people arriving outside.

“I’ll go see what’s happening.” Xiao Yingtao handed the fan she was holding to Jian Yi. “Keep an eye on these pots of medicine for me as well — whatever you do, don’t let them burn.”

With Jian Yi’s acknowledgment, Xiao Yingtao hurried off toward the main hall.