Yan Sanhe had mentally prepared herself to be interrogated, so on the carriage ride over, she asked Pei Yu for advice on some basic medical knowledge.

Who would have known that those two guards barely asked any questions at all. After nodding to Pei Yu, they simply let them through.

“Imperial Physician Pei, why didn’t they check?”

“Look who brought you in!”

After his proud declaration, Pei Yu turned to glance at her. “But the next checkpoint, you’ll have to pass on your own. That person doesn’t care about monk’s face or Buddha’s face—he doesn’t care about anyone’s face.”

As he was speaking, that person had already appeared before them.

Around fifty years old, neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, with ordinary features and unremarkable clothing, standing at the courtyard entrance with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression indifferent.

“That man is called Lu Da, he’s the steward of the Lu Estate.”

Pei Yu silently rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t manage many people, but his temper is quite something.”

Yan Sanhe asked quietly, “Is he related to Lu Shi?”

“Who the hell knows!”

Pei Yu walked forward and nodded to Steward Lu.

Steward Lu’s gaze swept over Yan Sanhe. “Imperial Physician Pei, this person is…”

“A female medical apprentice I’ve taken on. Brought her to see the world.”

Steward Lu’s expression darkened. “Imperial Physician Pei, my master doesn’t have any ‘world’ for your apprentice to see.”

“How is there nothing to see?”

Imperial Physician Pei sneered. “A cold illness that hasn’t been cured after half a month of treatment—that’s quite a ‘world’ to see.”

Yan Sanhe stepped forward, just about to bow and speak, when Imperial Physician Pei reached out and pushed her back.

“What, looking down on my female apprentice? Let me tell you the truth—she can even treat dead people.”

Yan Sanhe: “…”

Didn’t he say this checkpoint was for her to pass on her own? Why won’t he even let her speak?

Steward Lu’s gaze examined Yan Sanhe from top to bottom. After a long moment, he finally nodded.

Just like that, they were through?

Yan Sanhe quickly lowered her brows and eyes, bowing to Steward Lu.

Why bow to him? You should bow to your master—that would be proper.

Pei Yu’s pride surged. “Little Yan, give me some support.”

Little Yan quickly stepped forward to support Pei Yu’s arm, respectfully saying, “Master, please watch your step.”

“Mm!”

The master strutted proudly across the threshold.

After this experience, Yan Sanhe drew another conclusion: Young Master Pei’s habit of being hard-mouthed but soft-hearted was also inherited from his father.

She gently squeezed Pei Yu’s arm: Master, thank you.

Master Pei didn’t even blink.

Thank what? I really can’t help with what comes next—it’ll be up to your own fate!

…

Rooms where seriously ill people lived almost all shared certain characteristics: poor ventilation, stale air, and unpleasant odors.

But the room before them was neither dark nor stuffy nor turbid—in fact, it was quite refreshing.

Yan Sanhe’s gaze immediately fell on the two wide-open windows, and she was surprised to discover a beauty vase sitting on the windowsill with two branches of osmanthus flowers arranged in it.

This person had even more leisurely refinement than Old Master Tang on the mountain.

At this moment, Pei Yu had already walked to the bedside, lifting his robes to sit down. “Lord Lu, extend your hand—I’ll take your pulse.”

Yan Sanhe set down the medicine box and quietly shifted her gaze over.

With this shift, her breathing suddenly stopped.

This was an extremely aged man, with a head of white hair spread out, sunken eye sockets, and drooping, sagging eyelids that covered his entire eyes.

His cheeks had sunken deeply from weight loss, making his cheekbones abnormally prominent; his lips were very thin, so thin they were almost invisible.

Yan Sanhe had seen Lu Shi once during the raid on the Ji family estate and didn’t remember much, but it seemed he hadn’t been this aged at that time.

This was the man Tang Zhiwei liked?

But aside from old age, she couldn’t see anything special about him—he didn’t even have half the grace of Old Master Tang.

Perhaps Yan Sanhe’s gaze was too intense. Lu Shi, who had been lying with his eyes closed while Pei Yu took his pulse, suddenly opened his eyes.

The moment those turbid eyes opened, Yan Sanhe’s heart skipped a beat, and she quickly looked away.

The dark gleam in his eyes was too sharp, not diminished in the slightest by illness, even somewhat making one not dare to meet his gaze directly.

This sharpness was different from the sharpness in Xie Daozhi’s eyes when she first met him.

Xie Daozhi’s sharpness was the sharpness of a superior toward an inferior.

But this person’s…

Was the kind of sharpness that could make you unable to hide anywhere.

After that one glance, Lu Shi quickly closed his eyes again, but Yan Sanhe clearly saw his brow furrow slightly.

Just then, Pei Yu finished taking the pulse. Stroking his sparse beard, he pondered aloud, “Lord Lu’s illness…”

“Will be better soon.”

Lu Shi kept his eyes closed. “Please trouble Imperial Physician Pei to tell His Majesty that this subject will be able to attend court in three more days.”

Upon hearing this, Pei Yu nearly burst into tears of gratitude.

Good heavens, my official hat is saved!

“Congratulations, Lord Lu, your illness is finally improving. I’ll just…”

Imperial Physician Pei’s peripheral vision caught Yan Sanhe, and he changed his words mid-sentence. “Go outside to write a prescription for Lord Lu. Disciple, you stay here and watch over Lord Lu for your master.”

“Yes!”

“Steward Lu, grind the ink.” Pei Yu glanced at Lu Da, wanting to send him out.

“Imperial Physician Pei can do it himself.”

Steward Lu’s eagle eyes stared coldly at Yan Sanhe.

Yan Sanhe immediately understood—this Steward Lu was uneasy about strangers remaining in Lu Shi’s room.

She quickly sent Pei Yu a look, signaling him to go outside first.

Pei Yu had no choice but to turn and go outside.

No matter how much he dragged it out, with Pei Yu’s skill level, a prescription would take at most the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

In other words.

Yan Sanhe only had the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to speak with Lu Shi, and it had to be under Steward Lu’s watchful eyes.

How should she open the conversation?

Should she be direct, or take a roundabout approach?

Yan Sanhe took only one breath to make her decision.

She turned her body to face Steward Lu. “My name is Yan Sanhe. My true identity is someone invited by Water Moon Convent in the western suburbs to…”

Before she could finish, a large hand moved with extreme speed and clamped around Yan Sanhe’s neck.

Yan Sanhe instantly suffocated, her face flushing red, unable to utter a single word.

A miscalculation!

This steward actually knew martial arts—no ordinary person could move their hands that fast.

The hand on her neck tightened more and more. Yan Sanhe’s feet gradually left the ground, darkness closing in before her eyes, but she didn’t struggle. She let that hand, like a pair of tongs, consume the last bit of air in her lungs.

She was gambling.

Gambling that she had been brought in by Pei Yu.

Gambling that this Steward Lu wouldn’t dare kill someone with Pei Yu just a wall away.

“Ah Da!”

With a low call, the hand on her neck suddenly released. Yan Sanhe fell on her bottom to the floor, painfully clutching her neck and coughing.

Each cough seemed to shake from her chest cavity, making Pei Yu outside feel his scalp tingle as he rushed straight in.

“Yan Sanhe, you…”

“Get out!”

Yan Sanhe forcibly swallowed a mouthful of bloody-tasting saliva and snapped at him in a low voice, “This has nothing to do with you!”