After Grain Rain, the capital welcomed the Beginning of Summer.

In the front courtyard of the Court of State Ceremonial, many peonies and hydrangeas had bloomed, red and purple, brilliant as the sunset clouds. The already magnificent mansion seemed to have gained hundreds of crimson lanterns, its precious colors resplendent.

Once the rainy season began, the ground in the capital seemed perpetually wet. Jin Xianrong removed his somewhat heavy spring clothes and changed into light, cool single-layer garments. Walking to the front of the house, he took out an incense ball from a silver container, carefully lit it, and placed it in the incense burner.

The incense burner’s lid was closed, and a thin wisp of blue smoke emerged from the ox head, accompanied by a rich, clear fragrance.

Jin Xianrong bent down, leaned close to take a deep breath, and closed his eyes in satisfaction, savoring the flavor carefully.

He had barely taken a few breaths when someone entered behind him.

The newcomer wore magnificent robes and bore a slightly tired expression. Jin Xianrong turned his head, made an “oh” sound, and then smiled: “Yu Tai has returned.”

The arrival was Qi Yutai.

Some days ago, Qi Yutai had been unwell and had taken leave to return home again.

He had been taking leave to return home every few days throughout the year, and Jin Xianrong had long since grown accustomed to it. When he first learned that Qi Yutai was coming to the Ministry of Revenue, Jin Xianrong found it quite surprising, thinking that with the Qi family’s influence, Grand Tutor Qi shouldn’t have arranged such an empty, idle position for his son. Now looking back, Jin Xianrong couldn’t help but admire the old Grand Tutor’s foresight.

With Qi Yutai’s sickly constitution, wouldn’t it be life-threatening to arrange any busy duties for him?

Fortunately, the Ministry of Revenue was now like a decoration – whether Qi Yutai was there or not made little difference.

No wonder someone could become Grand Tutor; his vision was truly more far-reaching than others.

Though thinking this way internally, his mouth didn’t lack for flattery and concern. Jin Xianrong smiled and said: “…Have you fully recovered this time? You still look somewhat fatigued. Yu Tai, you shouldn’t be too anxious, your brother can still handle the Ministry’s affairs alone… The urgent matter is to heal your body. If you were to get a headache or fever here, how could I explain to the Grand Tutor…”

He fawned like this every time. Qi Yutai perfunctorily dealt with it, returned to his room, and plopped down at the table.

The closed-door blocked out Jin Xianrong’s flattery, as well as Qi Yutai’s disdain.

After being confined at home for several days, his mood was already irritable. Returning to the Court of State Ceremonial only to hear Jin Xianrong constantly mentioning “Grand Tutor” was particularly annoying. If his father hadn’t been watching him so closely these days, he should have gone to Fengle Tower to “relax a bit.”

For no reason, Qi Yutai began to feel irritated.

That nameless fire was difficult to suppress. He sat up straight and reached for the container on the table. When he lifted the silver container’s lid, he was stunned.

The container was filled to the brim with Lingxi incense balls, piled up like a small mountain.

Qi Yutai couldn’t help but look toward the door.

In the past, whenever he took leave to return home, within a few days, of his return, the incense balls in the silver container would certainly have been taken completely clean. Jin Xianrong loved to take small advantages; Lingxi incense was expensive, and he would always steal a few pieces when Qi Yutai wasn’t paying attention, along with the precious tea leaves sent from the Qi family.

Since they had to face each other every day, although Qi Yutai despised such behavior, he never mentioned it explicitly and continued to tacitly allow it. After all, the Grand Tutor’s mansion didn’t lack silver for buying incense, and using small favors to buy Jin Xianrong’s convenience in the Ministry of Revenue occasionally was a profitable business.

He had prepared himself to face an empty container and had even brought a new container of Lingxi incense before returning, but unexpectedly, Jin Xianrong had changed his ways – this container of incense balls hadn’t been touched at all, still sitting on his desk.

Qi Yutai found it strange and couldn’t help but get up to open the door and walk out to the hall.

Jin Xianrong was lying on a redwood recliner in the main room, leaning back with a Ministry of Revenue document across his knees, half-closing his eyes to listen to the rain outside, looking quite content.

In front of him, on the desk sat a copper incense burner. The blue ox swished its tail, its head emitting thin blue smoke, different from the usual heavy fragrance, carrying a sweet and fragrant aroma.

This wasn’t the scent of Lingxi incense.

Qi Yutai was somewhat dazed.

Jin Xianrong, lying in the chair, noticed someone beside him, and when he looked up to see Qi Yutai suddenly standing before him, he was startled and almost fell from the chair, saying: “Yu Tai, what are you doing?”

Qi Yutai came to his senses and pointed at the incense burner on the table: “Vice Minister, you’ve changed your incense?”

“Ah?” Jin Xianrong hadn’t expected him to bring this up and was stunned for a moment before saying: “Yes, I changed it… Yu Tai, does this fragrance smell good?”

Qi Yutai leaned closer and sniffed carefully.

Lingxi incense used expensive materials and was rich and heavy, but perhaps because he had smelled it for many years, even the most stunning fragrance had become ordinary. Jin Xianrong’s new fragrance probably used common materials, seeming somewhat vulgar and cheap at first sniff, but upon careful appreciation, it suddenly felt elegant and sweet, like summer fruits ripened to bursting, particularly refreshing in this rainy season.

Even his earlier irritation dissipated somewhat.

“…It smells good.” Qi Yutai nodded, asking dismissively: “Where did the Vice Minister buy it?”

This incense surely wasn’t as precious as Lingxi incense; perhaps Jin Xianrong had simply bought cheaper incense balls from the Medicine Bureau on a whim to try a different flavor.

Hearing this, Jin Xianrong revealed a mysterious smile.

He coughed lightly and lowered his voice: “This incense is called ‘Pond Spring Grass Dream.'”

“‘Pond Spring Grass Dream’?”

“Youth easily fades while learning is hard to achieve, not an inch of time should be taken lightly. Before realizing the dream of spring grass by the pond, the parasol leaves before the steps already sound of autumn.” He recited several lines while nodding his head, his smile taking on a somewhat sleazy quality, “This incense ball was specially formulated for me by Medical Officer Lu, containing several medicinal ingredients. When men smell this fragrance often, it supplements qi and benefits the blood, good for that thing.”

“Yu Tai,” he patted Qi Yutai’s shoulder, advising earnestly: “You’re young now, you don’t understand, but youth easily fades, you must cherish it.”

Though his words were vague, Qi Yutai understood.

Some days ago, he had heard that Jin Xianrong had developed a kidney abscess, and several medical officers from the Imperial Medical Academy had come in waves. It seemed this new incense ball was formulated by that female medical officer for Jin Xianrong’s kidney abscess.

He should have sneered at such cheap, ordinary incense balls, but inexplicably, Qi Yutai suddenly remembered what that female medical officer had said when he last saw her.

“Lingxi incense calms the spirit and quiets the mind, and can relieve insomnia and sleeplessness, however, long-term use of this fragrance inevitably creates dependence. With prolonged use, it becomes counterproductive.”

“Lord Qi might occasionally try using less of this incense, to avoid addiction and harm to the body.”

Since childhood, what he ate, what he used, and what he did, had all been arranged by his father.

From the major things like the servants around him to minor things like the incense used in his room, all were selected by his father, leaving no room for his own choices.

This shouldn’t have mattered – for people of their noble birth, using the best and most expensive things was always taken for granted.

However, at this moment, seeing Jin Xianrong cherishing his pot of cheap incense, delighted as if holding a treasure, made him feel uncomfortable.

Was this fragrance really that good?

Better than Lingxi incense?

Qi Yutai didn’t know, because from childhood to adulthood, he had only ever used one kind of incense – Lingxi.

Having no choice and being unwilling to choose were two different matters.

He inexplicably began to feel troubled again, as if some annoying mouse was running in his brain, its tiny claws making his heart itch, followed by deeper agitation.

He walked a few steps, suddenly turned back, hesitated for a moment, and spoke to Jin Xianrong: “Vice Minister.”

Jin Xianrong’s smile hadn’t yet faded: “What is it?”

Qi Yutai extended his hand.

“Give me a few pieces too.”

After a pause, he narrowed his eyes: “I want to try them too.”

…

After the Beginning of Summer, once daylight faded, the night rain began to fall steadily.

The faint sound of the night watch drum could be heard outside the Imperial Medical Academy, intermittent.

A figure ran through the rain from the outer corridor, stopping before a room in the dormitory compound, and knocked gently on the door.

Lu Tong opened the door, and Lin Danqing, wearing a raincoat, slipped in from outside.

“What are you doing?” Lu Tong was slightly startled.

“Shh—”

Lin Danqing made a gesture for her to be quiet, and only after closing the door did she speak softly: “Medical Officer Chang is asleep, let’s keep our voices down, don’t let him catch us.” She quickly entered the room, took off her raincoat, walked to the window to close it, put what she was carrying on the long table by the window, and beckoned to Lu Tong: “Look—”

Lu Tong walked over.

Under the dim lamplight on the desk sat a bamboo basket as large as a winnowing fan, and who knows how Lin Danqing had managed to carry it. It was filled to the brim with hot cooked food.

Even Lu Tong was momentarily stunned.

The Imperial Medical Academy’s food was plain, and Lin Danqing was picky, often secretly buying some night snacks from outside to eat, but fearing discovery by Chang Jin, these were usually just small items like marrow pastries and desserts. How could it compare to tonight’s display, which was practically setting up a feast in the dormitory?

Lin Danqing didn’t notice Lu Tong’s expression and excitedly pulled out stack after stack of cooked food from the bamboo basket – braised beef, spicy pig’s feet, pork aspic, sesame chicken skin, salted peanuts… they were all drinking snacks. Finally, she pulled out two small jars with red paper labels.

She held up one jar in each hand, raising them high to show Lu Tong: “Plum wine from Shengxing Wine House! I specially had someone queue for an hour to buy these, just the runner’s fee cost half a string of silver! It’s precious – tonight, one jar each for you and me!”

Lu Tong: “…”

‘Brewing wine with green plums, competing for freshness’ – the fifth month was exactly when green plums ripened. Shengxing Wine House’s plum wine was in such high demand they couldn’t keep up with orders, yet unexpectedly here were two jars.

Lin Danqing pushed one jar of plum wine into Lu Tong’s arms, rather forcefully: “This is yours.”

Then pointed to the jar in front of herself: “This is mine!”

Lu Tong looked at the wine jar in her arms, then at Lin Danqing, asking in confusion: “What happened?”

“What do you mean what happened?”

“Why suddenly drink wine?”

Lin Danqing blinked: “No reason!”

She sat down at the table, gave Lu Tong a pair of chopsticks, forcefully pulled out her jar’s cork, and said with a smile: “We work ourselves to death at the Medical Academy during the day, and still have to eat those bland vegetarian dishes. It’s too hard. Naturally, we should treat ourselves better.”

“I’m in a good mood today, my treat.”

Lu Tong sat down at the table as well, looking at Lin Danqing’s animated expression, thought for a moment, and said: “You’ve made the antidote for ‘Eye-shooter’?”

“Cough cough cough—”

Lin Danqing had just put a preserved plum in her mouth and almost choked on Lu Tong’s words. She hurriedly drank some plum wine to suppress the tickle in her throat. After a while, she looked at Lu Tong in amazement: “Little Sister Lu, do you have mind-reading abilities? How do you know everything?”

Lu Tong was also somewhat surprised.

These days Lin Danqing had been leaving early and returning late, spending most of her time in the rear courtyard’s medicine room except when on duty. Lu Tong had noticed that the medicinal ingredients she used were no longer all detoxifying herbs, but had changed to some mildly toxic substances. She guessed that her previous words had taken effect, and Lin Danqing was trying to create an antidote for “Eye-shooter” using poison to counter poison.

She hadn’t expected her to succeed so quickly.

“However, it’s not that I’ve made the antidote,” Lin Danqing smiled sheepishly. “I just changed several of the ingredients. Because I’m not very familiar with poisons, I was conservative with the substitutions, but who knew—” her eyes flickered, “the newly made medicine had some effect. Although it can’t completely detoxify, compared to having no effect at all before, there’s already some improvement.”

“Little Sister Lu,” she grabbed Lu Tong’s hand, her joy evident in her words, “you were right, using poison to counter poison works!”

She looked very excited.

“Previously I was too fixated on the Imperial Medical Bureau’s medical principles, I was ultimately too timid. But after your reminder this time, I think I understand the direction for detoxification. Now I have a good grasp of it, I just lack several hard-to-find medicinal ingredients. Once I find all those ingredients and write up the prescription, Little Sister Lu, please help me check if there are any errors,” Lin Danqing said with a smile.

Lu Tong nodded: “Alright.”

She knew Lin Danqing had always been clever. If it hadn’t been for that Imperial Medical Bureau spring examination where she had found a clever approach in the ‘case analysis’ section and gained an early advantage, the first place on the red list should have been Lin Danqing’s.

Though Lin Danqing appeared casual and playful on the surface, she was extremely talented in medical principles, otherwise, she wouldn’t have understood the key points and found the detoxification method for “Eye-shooter” in just these few short days.

It was raining, fine drops hitting the window, the cold of the rainy night penetrating even through the window. Lu Tong pulled out the cork of the jar in front of her, and the fragrance of plum wine immediately filled her nostrils.

She thought for a moment, then spoke: “But who exactly are you making this antidote for?”

Lin Danqing’s chopsticks paused mid-motion.

Lu Tong quietly watched her.

Such urgency, such seriousness, using all one’s heart and methods, being so anxious as to lose proportion – unless the poisoned person had a deep relationship with oneself, it would be difficult to go to such lengths.

The person Lin Danqing was trying to detoxify must be very important to her.

In the dim lamplight, the girl wearing only her middle garments lounged on the low couch, not speaking, silently taking a sip of the plum wine in front of her. The wine seemed too sour, making her eyes squint, and only after a while did she recover, spitting out: “It’s nothing special, just ordinary, yet they dare charge me so much silver, not even as good as the sweet syrup from the street stalls that costs three copper plates!”

Lu Tong remained silent.

She picked up a piece of pork aspic and stuffed it in her mouth, saying carelessly: “It’s my concubine aunt who was poisoned.”

Concubine aunt?

Lu Tong was slightly surprised.

Lin Danqing laughed, propped her chin on her hand, and sighed: “Surprising, isn’t it? I’m a daughter of a concubine.”

Lu Tong moved her lips but ultimately said nothing.

Lin Danqing was enthusiastic and cheerful, straightforward and bright, crying when she wanted to cry and laughing when she wanted to laugh. Everyone at the Medical Academy treated her well, and Lu Tong had always thought it was because her father had been a Medical Officer that everyone doted on her. Only a family that didn’t lack love could raise such a bright, sun-like daughter.

But she hadn’t expected Lin Danqing to be a concubine’s daughter.

“My concubine aunt was a dancing girl given to my father by others. My mother is from an official family, and I have two legitimate elder brothers above me. I’m the youngest daughter in the family.” Lin Danqing extended her chopsticks, poking at a slice of braised beef, staring at that piece of beef for a long time.

“My father is a good person, and also a good father, but not a good husband.” She thought for a moment, then shook her head: “No, he should count as a good husband, but he’s only my ‘mother’s’ husband. In his eyes, my concubine aunt is a low-status concubine, a ‘gift’ accepted when he couldn’t refuse a friend’s earnest offer.”

“My concubine aunt came from a poor background, was sold by my maternal grandfather to slave traders, and sent to the Central Plains. Because of her beauty, she was eventually bought by a wealthy family, carefully raised, and given to my father as a gift of friendship.”

Lu Tong remained silent.

In the households of high officials, it was common to give beautiful women gifts to express goodwill.

“When my concubine aunt was sold back then, she accidentally ingested the ‘Eye-shooter’ poison while resisting the slave traders. At first, there were no symptoms, but several years after giving birth to me, symptoms gradually appeared. My father tried to detoxify her, but South Border poisons are numerous in variety, and my father’s medical skills were only mediocre even in the Medical Academy. After many years without a cure, concubine aunt’s eyes grew dimmer day by day, and whenever the poison flared up, her eyes would be in unbearable pain.”

Lu Tong asked: “So you studied medicine to cure your concubine aunt’s poison?”

Lin Danqing let out a laugh.

She said: “Little Sister Lu, have you heard of a healer’s curse?”

“What curse?”

Lin Danqing spoke softly: “Those who study medicine can never save the ones they most want to save.”

Lu Tong’s heart trembled.

Lin Danqing threw back her head and took a drink of wine, her gaze somewhat hazy in the night.

“At first, I did indeed study medicine because I wanted to detoxify concubine aunt.”

“I thought, since my father couldn’t cure her, I would do it myself. After all, I had learned to read in school, and our home didn’t lack medical books, so there was no harm in studying.”

“My father and mother never cared about these things of mine.”

The plum wine was too sour, so sour it left a bitter taste in the mouth. Lin Danqing raised her hand, wiping away the wine at the corner of her lips with the back of her hand.

The Lin family was different from other noble households.

Although she was a concubine’s daughter, she had never suffered any harsh treatment. There was also no life-and-death scheming between her mother and concubine aunt. Others all said that they mother and daughter had received incredible good fortune to encounter such a kind-hearted family.

But Lin Danqing didn’t think so.

More than kindness and tolerance, she felt it was a kind of disregard.

A disregard for unimportant matters and people, like keeping pet cats and dogs.

Though her mother and legitimate brothers never treated her harshly, they weren’t particularly close to her either, as if separated by a faint membrane.

This was understandable – anyone would find it difficult to be completely without prejudice toward someone who had taken away the love of their husband and father.

But her father was also distant from her.

He would ask about Lin Danqing’s recent food and clothing, and whether she needed any money, but he wouldn’t spend time with her as he did with her two brothers. Just as he would instruct the servants to take good care of the sick concubine aunt, but was unwilling to put effort into researching an antidote for ‘Eye-shooter’ for her – even though he was a doctor.

People’s love is generally very obvious – they care about those they love.

The father didn’t love her mother and daughter.

“Before I came of age, I heard father intended to arrange a marriage for me.”

“The other party’s character and family background were both clean, everyone who knew the details said it was a good match, but I felt afraid.”

After being silent for a long time, Lin Danqing spoke.

“I was afraid that if I left, concubine aunt would be all alone.”