Feet stepping on thick snow made crunching sounds.

“Are you cold?” Chang Yuncheng asked.

This was already the fifth time he had asked this question since they dismounted.

“Yes, I’m cold.” Qi Yue rolled her eyes and replied, looking back at him.

Chang Yuncheng hurriedly untied his cloak and wrapped it around her.

The cloak enveloped Qi Yue, almost completely covering her entire body and dragging on the ground.

Chang Yuncheng couldn’t help but laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” Qi Yue glared at him while lifting her skirt and taking a few crunching steps.

Chang Yuncheng’s laughter grew louder.

“You look like a mouse dragging a cloth bag,” he said with great amusement.

Qi Yue was both angry and amused. She really had to hand it to him for coming up with that comparison. Ignoring him, she quickened her pace and walked among the plum grove.

Chang Yuncheng laughed as he followed her.

“This place is really quite nice,” Qi Yue said admiringly.

Chang Yuncheng stood beside her, smiling.

“No wonder Jiang Hai wanted to invite me here to see it,” Qi Yue nodded.

Chang Yuncheng reached out and took her hand.

“I thought of it first,” he said, emphasizing loudly.

Qi Yue looked at him with a smile.

“How did you think of it? At that time, you and I had nothing to do with each other anymore,” she said with a half-smile.

Chang Yuncheng gripped her hand tightly, his gaze looking at the plum branches before them.

“I was always thinking about it,” he said slowly, holding her hand as they walked forward slowly. “I promised you I would accompany you shopping and sightseeing, play the qin for you. Later, although you weren’t there, I remembered it all. Wherever I went, I would think of these things. Every place I visited, I would think about what was fun or beautiful to see there, so that if you came, I could take you there. Here in winter, we can admire the plum blossoms. In Zhangjiakou, in summer we could ride horses on the grasslands…”

Chang Yuncheng’s mind seemed to conjure up that wall separation at the Great Buddha Temple, that feeling of being so close yet so far away. He had thought he would live like this forever.

He stopped speaking and turned around. Qi Yue also stopped and looked up at him with a smile.

He hadn’t expected there would still be such an opportunity.

Chang Yuncheng gripped her hand tightly once more.

Qi Yue sensed the change in his emotions. Although she didn’t quite understand what was happening, she still smiled and squeezed back.

“When it gets warmer, there are several lakes around here. They’re also particularly beautiful,” Chang Yuncheng continued.

As they spoke, they walked hand in hand slowly, leaving two sets of footprints in the snow.

Qi Yue deliberately stepped in Chang Yuncheng’s footprints, walking crookedly, so Chang Yuncheng had to grip her hand firmly.

Chang Yuncheng’s horse quietly followed its master, occasionally lowering its head to snort in the snow.

When they returned home, Zhou Maochun had been waiting with a long face for quite some time. Seeing Chang Yuncheng escorting Qi Yue back, his expression improved slightly.

“If you dare take Yueniang to your place, I’ll dare to tear down your official hall,” he snorted, efficiently driving away Chang Yuncheng, who still wanted to enter the door.

Qi Yue simply washed and changed her clothes and shoes. A’Ru had already brought over a large pile of notebooks and papers.

“Tourniquets, stretchers, first aid kits – everything has been prepared. Only Physician Liu’s hemostatic medicine still isn’t working,” A’Ru said.

Seeing that they were about to begin these boring writing and drawing activities again, Zhou Maochun hurriedly stood up with a bitter expression.

“Yueniang, let’s go back to the capital,” he said pitifully. “If you want to play these exercises, I’ll find people for you to play with back in the capital too.”

Qi Yue put down the book in her hands.

“This isn’t playing,” she smiled.

“If this isn’t playing, what is it?” Zhou Maochun glared.

“This is practicing. Adapting, testing, preparing,” Qi Yue said seriously, looking at him.

“Preparing for what?” Zhou Maochun asked.

“Saving lives,” Qi Yue said, her eyes bright.

Saving lives?

Laughter rang out in the military medical camp.

“You’ve all heard about it?” one military physician laughed.

Around him stood seven or eight dusty military physicians who were removing medicine boxes from their bodies.

“With all this commotion, it would be hard not to hear about it.”

“Right during New Year’s, tormenting those soldiers…”

“Exactly, making people pretend to be injured and dead – isn’t that cursing people? Really inauspicious…”

Everyone chattered away.

“Hey, that Prince’s wife went with you all. Do you think she’s really a divine physician?” those military physicians who hadn’t gone to Pengshan Fort asked curiously.

Someone coughed heavily.

“Is that something we can discuss?” Qiao Minghua walked in, removing the medicine box from his body.

The military physicians were startled and remembered.

They said even the Emperor wanted to summon this divine physician. If the Emperor called her a divine physician, how was it their turn to question anything? Wouldn’t that be seeking death?

Everyone hurriedly patted their chests.

“Well, if that’s the case, let her play however she wants,” everyone said, shaking their heads. Who could argue with someone of that status?

The Prince’s former wife was still a wife, and moreover, she had backing from that imperial physician from the palace. Never mind pretending to be dead or injured – even if she really made you get injured or die, what would be difficult about that?

So these people never treated lives as lives.

Qiao Minghua’s hand gripping the medicine box clenched tightly.

When this woman dared to stay behind during wartime, not only staying but daring to personally treat wounded soldiers, he had thought she was at least different from those physicians who only paid lip service to healing and saving people. But now it seemed she was no different – she just sought greater and more honor, so naturally she had to pay more for it.

Saving lives?

Qiao Minghua gave a cold laugh.

“Sir, sir, someone’s come from above,” an auxiliary soldier rushed in shouting.

The noisy room fell quiet.

A military officer strutted in with his belly out and chest puffed, looking up arrogantly.

“Lady Qi wants to bring people to see the wounded soldiers. You’d better serve her well,” he said loudly.

At these words, the entire room erupted in an uproar.

What?

From far away outside the wounded soldiers’ courtyard, one could smell the putrid odor – partly from injuries and illness, partly because they were all men, so sanitary conditions were not worth mentioning.

“Lady Qi, please,” a military physician said flatly, walking into the courtyard and casually pushing open a room door.

Cursing and shouting immediately came from inside the room.

“Scared me to death!”

Qi Yue looked back at her disciples.

“These people are all very irritable due to their physical disabilities and pain,” she said in a low voice. “Basically, once they’re carried down, this outcome is predetermined, so they won’t be like the patients you usually encounter who show you reverence and plead with you, because they no longer have hope or expectations.”

The disciples responded solemnly, their expressions becoming even more serious.

The military physician beside them curled his lips.

Nobles sure knew how to talk – otherwise they wouldn’t be nobles. These people really couldn’t learn it.

Unfortunately, knowing how to talk was useless here.

Coming to observe these wounded soldiers’ injuries – they really had some nerve to think of that.

“This one was wounded in the legs by a blade. The blade was contaminated with horse manure and other filth, so the toxicity easily penetrates the internal organs. We could only amputate the leg to save his life,” the military physician said, pointing to a wounded soldier.

As he spoke, he reached to lift the soldier’s blanket.

The wounded soldier grabbed the blanket, looking at these people defensively.

He recognized Qi Yue and knew she had cured one of his fellow wounded soldiers, so he refrained from cursing.

With the wounded soldier uncooperative, the military physician said nothing.

“Let us see your wound,” Qi Yue said.

“Look at my wound – can you cure me?” the wounded soldier asked.

Qi Yue shook her head.

“We cannot cure you,” she said. “But perhaps we can prevent more people from suffering the torment of injuries like yours.”

The wounded soldier looked at her with surprise.

No one had ever said such words before.

Could soldiers avoid the torment of injury and pain?

Someone actually dared to say such words!

Outside the door, Qiao Minghua gave a cold laugh and walked away.

Because of Qi Yue’s words and her previous prestige in saving that near-death wounded soldier, the Qianjin Hall disciples’ observation of the wounded soldiers’ camp went smoothly.

After observing the wounded soldiers’ camp and letting the disciples initially understand what kinds of injuries were caused on the battlefield, they conducted another exercise.

This exercise, because news had spread early, attracted not only soldiers but many civilians to watch. Naturally, everyone from the military medical camp came too. Seeing that strange and chaotic scene, everyone laughed until they doubled over.

“What kind of spectacle is this?”

“I heard she’s the wife of General Wu Lue.”

“No, she’s the former wife.”

“Ha, no wonder – what man would want such a crazy wife?”

“This is too outrageous. How can she torment the soldiers like this? They still have to fight battles.”

“Exactly, the period from New Year’s to early spring is the most dangerous time each year. What if something happens to the soldiers after all this commotion?”

Although no one dared to speak openly due to Chang Yuncheng and Zhou Maochun’s status, such discussions grew more frequent in private.

The garrison commander couldn’t help but tactfully remind Chang Yuncheng.

He had thought this Lady Qi was just playing around and would get tired and stop after once or twice. He hadn’t expected her to become addicted to it. This was a border fortress after all – if something went wrong, these nobles would just pat their bottoms and leave, while he would be left to clean up the mess and face the consequences.

“I heard Lord Zhou is eager to leave. Why don’t you also persuade Lady Qi? After all, the Emperor has issued an edict – don’t delay important matters,” the garrison general said.

Eager to leave? Chang Yuncheng hated hearing this most of all. He never wanted Qi Yue to leave.

“Then let’s send Lord Zhou away first,” he said happily.

The garrison commander looked helpless.

Send him away? That Lord Zhou was guarding Lady Qi like a hawk. Never mind leaving – he wouldn’t even agree to visit other people’s homes. They all understood clearly that unless this Lady Qi said she was leaving, that Lord Zhou would absolutely never leave.

“By the way, they’ve prepared some tourniquets. Commander, please distribute them to each soldier. When they receive them, Yueniang and her people will explain how to use them,” Chang Yuncheng added.

The garrison commander deeply regretted making this trip.

Tourniquets – what ghostly things were those?

How unlucky to encounter this troublesome deity. It seemed he couldn’t escape disaster this time.

It was all his fault for not intercepting this Prince’s wife at the city gate from the beginning and properly hosting her with good food and drink. Then there wouldn’t have been all this messy business of treating patients, meeting military physicians, getting into disputes, and competing out of spite!

The garrison commander walked away dejectedly and full of worry.

The Qianjin Hall disciples naturally knew about this gossip. Along with those exercises, they too had become celebrities in Wei City, with people pointing and laughing wherever they went. They also noticed the coldness of the military physicians at the medical camp, but they didn’t care, because their master didn’t care. Since their master didn’t care, what did they have to care about?

“Do you really think that with all your commotion, you can save people and save lives?” a military physician couldn’t help asking several disciples.

The disciples looked at him strangely.

“Of course,” one of them said.

“Why?” the military physician asked with a laugh.

“Because we’re Qianjin Hall,” they replied in unison.

What kind of ridiculous reason was that? The military physician was dumbfounded.

Qi Yue and her people didn’t care about this gossip, but someone did care, and cared very much.

Although Zhou Maochun was keeping watch, these controversial matters were still written up in documents and sent by express horse to the capital.