On New Year’s Eve of the eleventh year of Emperor Guangwu’s reign, outside the walls of Chang’an city, two young ladies wearing vibrant dresses with silver fox capes stood with lanterns in hand. With the help of their maids, they carefully expanded the lantern covers.

Jiang Zhiyi fiddled with her lantern while glancing at Bao Jia’s, noticing seven bold characters written on its surface.

“Elder Sister, these lanterns are meant for blessings and wishes, not for cursing people,” she said.

Bao Jia raised her phoenix-like eyes. “How do you know ‘die alone in solitude’ is a curse? Perhaps someone prefers solitary loneliness?”

“Is there anyone in this world who truly likes to die alone in solitude?”

The two lit their lanterns and watched as they slowly rose into the air with the flames.

Bao Jia stood motionless, watching her lantern drift away in the wind. Whether answering Jiang Zhiyi or speaking to herself, she murmured, “He left for seven years without a word, and has been back in the capital for over a month without setting foot through the Chang’an city gates. If that’s not preferring solitary loneliness, then what is it?”

“I think he’s heard that Elder Sister’s household is now filled with male companions, so he doesn’t want to embarrass himself by visiting.”

“What would a child like you understand? When I first met him, you were only eight years old.”

Jiang Zhiyi pouted, “But I’m grown up now! Please tell me, Elder Sister, what exactly happened between you and Military Physician Li?”

“It’s too long a story. I don’t feel like telling it.”

“Then just tell me the beginning and the end. I can guess the middle myself.”

“Does your Brother A-Ce get pestered by you like this every day?” Bao Jia looked at her with amusement, unable to refuse. After a moment of silence, she looked up at the distant lanterns in the sky and slowly began to speak.

“The beginning wasn’t particularly special. His father worked at the Imperial Medical Office, with decent medical skills and more reliable pulse diagnosis techniques than his colleagues. The imperial harem often requested Dr. Li for pulse diagnosis, and so did I. Once, when I was feeling unwell, I specifically asked for Dr. Li as usual, but was told he was attending to Noble Consort Fan and would be unavailable all day. Normally, it wouldn’t matter to switch physicians, but it was obvious that Noble Consort Fan was deliberately keeping him away. Back then, I was still childish, so I insisted that Dr. Li come to me.”

Jiang Zhiyi understood that Elder Sister Bao Jia had only distanced herself from the Emperor, Empress, and Crown Prince after establishing her household. When she lived in the palace, they must have been on good terms. Noble Consort Fan constantly opposed the Empress, and her son, the Second Prince, was always at odds with the Crown Prince. Elder Sister Bao Jia had sided with the Empress Mother and her brother at that time, and couldn’t tolerate Noble Consort Fan stepping on her.

“You can guess what happened next. Noble Consort Fan, relying on her powerful Fan clan from Hedong, had always been arrogant and domineering in the palace. Dr. Li couldn’t afford to offend her, but he also knew that if he sent another colleague to me, I definitely wouldn’t accept it. So he sent someone special to my palace to apologize.”

“This special person was his son? Was Military Physician Li already working in the palace before coming of age?”

“Half-employed, I suppose. Li Dafeng was then a student at the Imperial Medical Office. He sometimes accompanied physicians on visits, but only to officials’ homes. This was his first time entering the inner palace.”

“How unfortunate for Military Physician Li, encountering trouble on his first visit and learning how deep the waters run in the imperial harem.”

Bao Jia had thought that talking about such old matters would be as tasteless as chewing wax, but with Jiang Zhiyi’s comment, she found herself laughing as she continued: “His nose couldn’t gather any dust; he was too clever for that.”

She vaguely remembered that day when Li Dafeng arrived. She was fuming about Noble Consort Fan while suffering from severe stomach pain. When she heard him calmly announcing himself outside, she threw a teacup from her bed, shattering it right in front of him.

Her maid, Cui Mei, smiled and made excuses, saying her mistress was feeling unwell and irritable.

She had assumed that Dr. Li’s son was sent to be a scapegoat and would be trembling with fear. To her surprise, through the bed curtains, she saw the tall, slender figure bend down to pick up the teacup fragments.

A moment later, a refined male voice sounded from beyond the curtain: “The Princess is suffering from abdominal pain. I was going to inquire about what the Princess has eaten today. It seems the Princess is already showing me what she has been drinking.”

His manner was neither servile nor overbearing, but composed and at ease.

“You Li family members are quite bold. When the father can’t be persuaded to come, the son dares to presume the Princess’s intentions,” she said coldly from behind the curtain.

The person outside remained completely calm: “This humble servant has overstepped. However, when coming here, I reviewed the Princess’s medical records. The Princess is currently in her menstrual period, and this tea is too strong. Drinking it would worsen abdominal pain. Regardless of the reason, the Princess was right to throw it away.”

She was still somewhat modest back then. Hearing older physicians mention menstruation didn’t bother her, but Li Dafeng’s voice was so young, seemingly only a few years older than herself, practically her peer. She felt her face flush, and her anger began to subside.

Cui Mei spoke up, saying she had noted this down, and asked if she wanted Li Dafeng to take her pulse.

“He doesn’t even have an official position yet. What pulse could he diagnose? Tell him to leave,” she impatiently turned away, holding her lower abdomen.

But the person outside persisted: “Princess, this humble servant dares not claim superior medical skills, but since I am here, I should at least take your pulse. Afterward, the Princess can have my prescription verified at the Imperial Medical Office. If there are any errors, you may hold both me and my father accountable.”

At this point in her story, Jiang Zhiyi commented with a smile: “Military Physician Li understood human nature so well at such a young age. No wonder he caught Elder Sister’s eye.”

Bao Jia scoffed lightly. Naturally, after he said that, how could she not give it a try? She allowed him to diagnose her pulse using the silk thread method. To her surprise, he not only prescribed medication for her symptoms but also added a long-term dietary therapy regimen specifically for her cold womb condition. Later, when she showed it to the Imperial Physician who attended her father, even he praised it endlessly, saying how promising the younger generation was.

She wasn’t convinced, thinking it was just a coincidence, and insisted on testing Li Dafeng’s medical skills again. A few days later, she specifically requested him for another consultation.

When Li Dafeng came to her palace the second time, Cui Mei politely offered him tea, saying that his previous prescription had been extremely effective, and the Princess had great confidence in him, which is why she had called for him today when feeling unwell.

Li Dafeng once again diagnosed her pulse using the silk thread method, but behind the thick bed curtain, she had secretly tied the other end of the thread to the leg of a pregnant cat, just waiting for Li Dafeng to break into a cold sweat.

Unexpectedly, after a moment’s contemplation, the person outside spoke without the slightest tremor in his voice: “Congratulations, Princess, this is a pregnancy pulse.”

“How dare you!” Cui Mei angrily rebuked him. “The Princess is not yet married and has just finished her monthly cycle. How could there be a pregnancy pulse? Are you recklessly damaging the Princess’s reputation?”

Li Dafeng bowed respectfully outside: “This humble servant was not referring to the Princess, but to the Princess’s beloved pet. Congratulations, Princess, this cat is carrying three kittens. The Princess will have new playmates next month.”

Behind the curtain, she felt the cat’s round belly in astonishment, trying hard to determine exactly how many kittens it was carrying, but couldn’t tell.

Li Dafeng continued confidently: “If the Princess wishes to know the specific condition of these three kittens, you could move the thread up half an inch, so this humble servant can diagnose more accurately.”

She was completely speechless behind the curtain.

In truth, she had never intended to target the Li family, knowing the root cause was Noble Consort Fan. The Li family was innocent. It was just that during Li Dafeng’s first apologetic visit, he showed no fear of her, and she merely wanted to humble him a bit.

As a result, after that incident, the story of Li Dafeng diagnosing the cat’s pulse spread throughout the palace. By the following month, many consorts and princesses came to see if her cat had indeed given birth to three kittens. When they saw it truly was three, she had not only failed to humble Li Dafeng but had instead made him famous.

Afterward, other consorts and princesses in the palace occasionally requested Dr. Li to bring Li Dafeng along for consultations.

At first when she heard about this, she paid no attention and didn’t want to play those tricks and embarrass herself again, so she put him out of her mind.

A few days later, her cat became weak after giving birth and looked unnaturally listless. She summoned a palace veterinarian to examine the cat, but after two days of treatment, there was no improvement. The cat couldn’t eat anything and grew even weaker.

After changing veterinarians three times with no success, Cui Mei remembered Li Dafeng and wondered if he might have a solution since he could diagnose a cat’s pulse.

Thinking it was worth a try, even as a last resort, she sent someone to request Li Dafeng’s presence. Coincidentally, she was informed that Li Dafeng was in the palace of her third sister, Noble Consort Fan’s daughter.

She heard that during that period, the Third Princess had been complaining of headaches and fevers every few days, and it wasn’t the first time she had summoned Li Dafeng.

Were the Fan family members deliberately working against her? Fuming with anger, she cradled the cat in swaddling clothes and took her sedan chair to her third sister’s palace.

It was in her third sister’s bedchamber, when the eunuch loudly announced “Princess Bao Jia has arrived” and Li Dafeng turned around, that she saw his face for the first time outside the curtain—

A high-bridged nose, peach blossom eyes, a face as if powdered, with thick eyebrows and thin lips.

At first glance, she understood why her third sister complained of headaches and fevers every few days—they must have been feigned.

With such a face, who wouldn’t pretend to be ill?

Li Dafeng turned his head and met her appraising gaze. After a moment, he lowered his eyes and bowed to her: “This humble servant pays respects to the Princess.”

“Elder Sister, why have you come? I just have a minor illness. There’s no need for Elder Sister to personally visit me…” A “weak” female voice came from behind the bed curtain.

“Third Sister, no need to flatter yourself. I didn’t come for you.” She gestured behind her, signaling Cui Mei to bring forward the cat in swaddling clothes, then turned to Li Dafeng, “Come, take a look at my cat’s illness.”

From behind the curtain came her third sister’s incredulous voice: “Elder Sister, I’m still ill, and you bring a cat to interrupt my consultation? Are you trying to humiliate me?”

“You expert pretender had better shut your mouth. Let me advise you, Third Sister, pretending to be ill might eventually become real. Try to accumulate some virtue.”

Her third sister became agitated and pulled open the bed curtain, exclaiming: “Young Master Li, I invited you here. If you dare to attend to someone else, you’ll be breaking the rules of the Imperial Medical Office. I will punish you for this!”

Young Master Li—they were already on such familiar terms.

She, the elder sister, wasn’t even engaged yet, and her younger sister was already seeking out suitors.

She smiled at Li Dafeng: “But my cat isn’t another ‘person,’ Young Master Li, wouldn’t you agree?”

If at that moment Li Dafeng had politely declined using the excuse of “first come, first served” and worldly-wise continued to attend to her third sister, she probably wouldn’t have taken an interest in him.

But he took the cat from Cui Mei’s arms, lowered his head to examine the cat’s neck, seemingly startled by its condition. Without even acknowledging her third sister, and forgetting to use honorifics with her, he frowned and asked: “What happened? Tell me.”

At that moment, she thought, though her third sister lacked character, she certainly had good taste.