Wind and rain darkened the sky, mist dampening the lanterns.

The young man knelt with robes hanging down. Accompanying the patter of raindrops beyond the threshold, a whip lashed heavily across his back. The fabric soaked through with a streak of blood, veins bulging slightly at the side of his neck, yet he still endured without uttering a word.

“How did I ever raise a brat like you! Ni Qinglan, tell me, have you forgotten all of our ancestral family laws!” Another lash of the whip struck.

“Forgotten some, not all.”

This statement from the young man clashed completely with his proper and serious tone.

Ni Zhun, already in a fury, turned even more ashen upon hearing this: “What did you say! Do you know what people are saying about you outside? They say you have improper relations with that He Liu Shi, that you two have been exchanging intimacies privately! You’ve completely disgraced the Ni family!”

“He Liu Shi is over thirty years old, our Lan’er is only sixteen. Surely you, Master, don’t believe those rumors too? After childbirth, He Liu Shi’s health has been poor, with continuous discharge of bad blood. Her husband’s family refuses to seek medical treatment for her, so there was no other way…”

“What a fine son you’ve raised!”

Cen Zishu entered supporting herself on the doorframe, her skirts sweeping across the threshold. Before she finished speaking, Ni Zhun turned to glare at her: “He’s a grown man yet dabbles in women’s medicine, and now he even dares to secretly diagnose He Liu Shi’s illness while I’m away, completely disregarding proper boundaries between men and women! Now the He family wants to sue him, saying he committed adultery with He Liu Shi!”

Ni Zhun’s furious roar nearly drowned out the thunder on the horizon. The young girl blocked outside the door by the maid saw Cen Zishu’s apricot-yellow thin skirts lift slightly as she spoke calmly: “Haven’t you already smoothed things over with the county magistrate?”

“Zishu!”

Ni Zhun seemed unable to bear it any longer, unable to face this mother and son who shared identical attitudes. “Do you even know that by treating He Liu Shi, his reputation is ruined!”

“Is it a physician’s duty to refuse to save someone’s life?”

Just as Ni Zhun finished speaking, he heard the young man behind him speak again. Ni Zhun raised his whip and struck him several more times. The sound of the whip scraped against the young girl’s eardrums at the door, yet she didn’t hear Ni Qinglan make a single sound.

Cen Zishu noticed her and glanced at the maid by the door. The maid immediately stepped outside the threshold and picked up the young girl. Before she could open an umbrella and walk into the courtyard, the urgent sound of footsteps splashing through rain grew closer. The maid looked up to see Lao Neizhi, covering his head with one hand, rushing over. Before even reaching the steps, he shouted: “Master! Something terrible has happened!”

Ni Zhun, still angry, turned and scolded: “This household truly has no rules anymore!”

“Master…”

Lao Neizhi flinched, lowering his hand as raindrops pelted his face. “The servant sent out to buy incense and candles said that He Liu Shi, unable to bear her husband’s family’s humiliation, threw herself into the river!”

At these words, Ni Zhun’s hand trembled and the whip fell to the ground.

The night rain intensified. Several cicadas unable to withstand the rain and dew fell beneath the tree shade, unable to make a sound.

The young girl watched the blood-covered young man in the ancestral hall turn his head, fine beads of sweat on his temples and nose bridge. The lamplight revealed his stunned expression.

After a prolonged silence, Ni Zhun looked again at Ni Qinglan kneeling on the ground. The fury on his face had vanished, replaced by a kind of helpless mockery: “Boy, look carefully—did you think that by violating the greatest taboo of physicians, you were saving her or harming her?”

Even Ni Zhun no longer had the strength to beat him.

The night rain continued. Ni Qinglan knelt in the ancestral hall for half the night, his knees numb with barely any feeling left. Suddenly hearing a creaking sound, he came back to his senses. Turning his head casually, the usually unsmiling young man couldn’t help but twitch his lips slightly.

That little girl didn’t have the strength to fully push open the heavy wooden door and could only squeeze in sideways through the not-very-wide gap.

Coming here in the middle of the night, even the ties on her outer garment were fastened incorrectly. Ni Qinglan raised his hand toward her: “A’Xi, come.”

Ni Su immediately ran obediently to him and called very softly: “Elder brother.”

Ni Qinglan absent-mindedly hummed in acknowledgment while retying her garment sash, saying: “Why aren’t you sleeping properly? Why come here? Didn’t you say the ancestral hall has many ghosts and you’re very afraid?”

“That’s why I came to keep elder brother company.”

Ni Su dragged over a cushion and squeezed beside him to sit, not daring to look at the rows and rows of dark memorial tablets behind the offering table.

“Elder brother, does it hurt?”

She looked at the blood marks covering Ni Qinglan’s back.

“Only ghosts don’t feel pain.” Ni Qinglan, mature beyond his years, pulled out a piece of sesame candy wrapped in oiled paper from his sleeve and handed it to her. “Take this and go back.”

Ni Su took the sesame candy but broke it in two, stuffing one piece near his mouth, then placing the small pillow she brought under his knees.

“You usually dislike hard pillows. This is the only one that suits you—how can you bear to give it to me?” Ni Qinglan felt warmed, reaching out to pat her head.

“When elder brother is in trouble, naturally I can bear it.”

Ni Su looked up at him: “Nanny Qian says if elder brother admits his mistake, he won’t be beaten.”

Nanny Qian was the servant woman attending Ni Su.

“Does A’Xi also think I was wrong to save someone that day?” Ni Qinglan ate that half piece of sesame candy, his throat raspy from not having water for many hours.

The day Ni Qinglan went outside the city to provide free medical care to common people in nearby villages, He Liu Shi had stumbled along the mountain path to stop his carriage. That woman cried terribly and was in terrible pain, crying out “Sir, save me.”

Every step she took left blood. Ni Su saw the winding trail of blood behind her from inside the carriage and was so frightened she couldn’t eat the pastry held to her mouth.

“She was in great pain, but after elder brother examined her and gave her bitter medicinal juice to drink, she wasn’t in pain anymore.”

Ni Su remembered that woman holding such bitter medicine yet feeling overjoyed, as if drinking honey water.

“But A’Xi,”

Raindrops beat against the window. Ni Qinglan’s voice grew more bewildered. “Did you hear today? She threw herself into the river.”

After all, he was still a sixteen-year-old youth. When facing such matters, Ni Qinglan couldn’t find a calm resolution.

“She wasn’t in pain anymore—why would she die?”

Ni Su was only eight or nine years old and couldn’t yet understand the true meaning of the word “death,” but she knew that when people died, they became those dark, thin memorial tablets behind the offering table in the ancestral hall—only names remained, no voices or faces.

“Because as a man, I diagnosed He Liu Shi’s intimate female ailment.”

“But why can’t men treat women’s illnesses?” Ni Su propped her face on her hands resting on her knees, asking in confusion.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t treat illnesses, but that he couldn’t treat intimate ailments.

But Ni Qinglan had no heart to explain this to his little sister. He lowered his eyes. The swaying tree shadows in the courtyard fell through the window gauze onto the floor tiles before him: “Who knows why.”

The rain continued unabated, falling ceaselessly.

Ni Su looked at her brother’s profile and suddenly stood up.

Ni Qinglan raised his eyes to meet his little sister’s pair of clear, innocent eyes. She was so small, lamplight falling on her shoulders. She said crisply: “Elder brother, I’m a girl. If I learn our family’s skills like you, can I make them stop hurting and prevent them from dying?”

Them.

Ni Qinglan was stunned.

In the ancestral hall on this rainy night, the young man studied his little sister’s tender, pure face. He curved his lips slightly and ruffled her hair: “If A’Xi has such aspirations, they certainly won’t hurt and won’t die.”

The sound of rain gradually receded. With a slap against the window, Ni Su woke with sweat dampening her temples, opening her eyes.

“Miss, did we wake you?” The maid Xing Zhu, who had just fastened the vermillion window, turned back and said softly: “Snow is falling outside. This servant was afraid the northern wind would enter the room. It wouldn’t be good if you caught a chill.”

New Year had just passed. Though it was early spring, the weather showed no signs of warming.

Seeing Ni Su nestled in her bedding without answering, Xing Zhu came to the bedside with concern: “Miss, what’s wrong?”

“I dreamed of elder brother.”

Ni Su seemed to just wake fully. She rubbed her eyes and sat up.

Xing Zhu quickly took clothing from the wooden rack to attend to Ni Su. “The winter examinations passed two months ago. With our young master’s abilities, he’s certain to have passed. Perhaps news will arrive soon!”

From Yun Jing to Que County was a good two months’ journey. News didn’t travel quickly. Ni Qinglan had left Que County for nearly half a year, and letters sent back numbered only two.

Fully dressed and washed, Ni Su had just stepped out of her room when Lao Neizhi came hunched from the moon gate wrapped with green branches. Not bothering to wipe his sweat, he said: “Miss, Second Master and his family have arrived. Madam wants you to stay in your room.”

With that, he waved for the servants below to stuff the food box into Xing Zhu’s hands, then added: “Madam won’t be taking breakfast with you either.”

“What is Second Master coming here for at this hour?” Xing Zhu frowned and muttered.

Lao Neizhi only listened to Madam’s words. Seeing he didn’t respond, Ni Su knew Second Uncle’s visit boded ill; otherwise, Mother wouldn’t have told her to stay in her room.

Green bamboo stood alone and clear by the courtyard wall. Spring snow drifted through the hall like fine dust. Cen Zishu sat upright in the hall. The servant woman Nanny Qian by her side timely offered a bowl of tea. She took it but didn’t drink, the bowl warming her palms while her voice remained clear, cold, and flat: “So early in the morning when it’s cold, Second Brother brings his whole household to this widow’s courtyard—do you pity the coldness here and want to add some liveliness?”

“Sister-in-law, we were busy during New Year and didn’t gather as a family. Today we came to make up for celebrating the New Year together. What do you think?” That Ni family Second Master, Ni Zong, rolled his eyes without speaking. Liu Shi, sitting beside him holding a tea bowl, always wore a smiling face. Unable to bear the room growing cold like this, she quickly spoke in a pleasant manner. But when she turned her face, she saw Ni Zong glaring fiercely at her.

Liu Shi froze and lowered her head without speaking.

Cen Zishu watched coldly and spoke slowly: “Things here have always been simple. We haven’t prepared anything special. I don’t know if you and sister-in-law are accustomed to such fare.”

Liu Shi glanced at Ni Zong, considering whether she should respond, when she saw Ni Zong stand up and set down his tea bowl. “Sister-in-law, why don’t I see my little niece?”

“Miss developed a fever before dawn. After taking medicine, she’s still sleeping now,” Nanny Qian said.

“A fever?”

Ni Zong stroked his beard. “What a coincidence—as soon as we arrive, she falls ill.”

“What kind of talk is that, Second Master?” Nanny Qian cleared away Cen Zishu’s half-warm tea. “If Miss weren’t ill, she would certainly come out to receive guests.”

The words “receive guests” were meant to remind Ni Zong that the second branch and first branch had long since divided the family.

Ni Zong snorted coldly, glancing at her sideways but speaking to Cen Zishu: “Sister-in-law, if you ask me, you’re far too benevolent and lenient. Not only do the old servants around you have no manners, even my niece is becoming increasingly improper.”

“Do you know what Ni Su has been doing outside?” Ni Zong paced back and forth several steps. “She associates with those lowly midwives! What kind of family are we? What is her status? So lacking in self-respect—sister-in-law, tell me, if word spreads, what will people think of the Ni family?”

“Second Master must provide evidence when speaking. You can’t just slander our miss without proof,” Nanny Qian spoke up again since Cen Zishu remained silent.

“Who’s slandering her without proof? Sister-in-law can have her come out and ask her yourself—did she go to Zao Hua Village yesterday? And did she help a farm woman give birth together with a midwife at a farmer’s home?” Ni Zong ignored the old servant, staring at Cen Zishu. “Sister-in-law, if you ask me, why would a concubine-born daughter like this be worth protecting? Her mother died before you acknowledged her as your own—surely you don’t really treat her as your own flesh and blood?”