The snow in the capital stopped at the fifth watch.

After one night, the entire city was covered in white.

The previous night, something unknown had happened in the palace. Early in the morning, the entire city was under martial law, with city garrison patrols going back and forth on West Street.

Master Hu sent a servant from his mansion to Renxin Medical Hall to relay a message to Lu Tong, saying that he had already asked someone to handle the matter of the Imperial Medical Bureau’s spring examination quota and was finding ways to arrange it. News would come back soon, asking Lu Tong to wait patiently.

Lu Tong wrapped several doses of body-nourishing medicinal tea for the servant to take back to Master Hu. Seeing this, A’Cheng asked hesitantly: “Physician Lu, are you really determined to go to the Hanlin Medical Academy?”

The young clerk’s eyes were full of reluctance. Before Lu Tong could answer, Yin Zheng first rubbed A’Cheng’s head and comforted him: “People should strive for higher places.”

A’Cheng lowered his head and spoke gloomily: “Once you two leave, only the shopkeeper and I will be left in the medical hall again.”

Lu Tong and Yin Zheng had been at Renxin Medical Hall for most of the year. Not only A’Cheng and Du Changqing, but everyone on West Street had long grown accustomed to their presence. The thought of their sudden departure felt quite desolate.

Yin Zheng glanced at the door and changed the subject: “But when will the shopkeeper come to the medical hall?”

Ever since learning that Lu Tong wanted to participate in the spring examination, Du Changqing hadn’t come to the medical hall again, only sending A’Cheng to watch the shop. No one had even seen his shadow.

A’Cheng looked nervously at Lu Tong, who was flipping through medical texts, and explained in a low voice: “The shopkeeper is very angry. He cursed until midnight yesterday before stopping. He probably won’t come for the next few days.”

Yin Zheng was startled, pouted, and whispered: “He has quite a temper.”

…

Yazhai Bookstore was located in a dark alley at the end of West Street near Mingqing Road.

The bookstore wasn’t as elegant as its name suggested – at first glance it looked like a dining hall. There were no calligraphy or painting decorations around, with large piles of books casually scattered on the floor inside and in front of the door. The bookstore owner, Luo Dazui, wore a thick coat and sat at the door with his legs crossed, gnawing on duck bones.

It was early morning, still quite early. Yazhai Bookstore hadn’t opened yet. Luo Dazui sat at the bookstore entrance with a charcoal fire at his feet, gnawing on braised duck bones while using an iron skewer to roast sweet potatoes.

The iron skewer was crudely inserted, just stuffed carelessly into the firewood. The burnt fragrant smell mixed with black smoke escaped from deep within the alley.

“Bah bah bah—” Someone walking to the alley entrance was immediately hit in the face by the black smoke from the shop and cursed: “What’s burning?”

Luo Dazui lifted his eyelids and saw a young man in cherry-colored jacket and long robe covering his nose as he walked over, looking like a bright, plump oriole in the snow. He paused and greeted without much enthusiasm: “Shopkeeper Du—”

The visitor was Du Changqing.

Du Changqing walked to the front of Yazhai Bookstore, glanced at the sweet potatoes roasted black in the charcoal fire, and asked: “Roasting cow dung?”

Luo Dazui rolled his eyes at him: “What, want some?”

“You can keep it for yourself.” Du Changqing waved his hand and stepped into the bookstore. “Having a charcoal brazier in a bookstore – aren’t you afraid of setting yourself on fire?”

Luo Dazui turned his head, saw Du Changqing carefully stepping over the piles of books at his feet and standing in the middle of the bookstore, so he put down the iron skewer in his hand, stood up and followed him inside while reminding: “Be careful, don’t step on them and break them for me.”

Du Changqing made a couple of “mm-hmm” sounds, turned around the bookstore twice, then turned back to ask Luo Dazui: “Where do you keep your medical books?”

Luo Dazui frowned and looked at him suspiciously: “You want to buy books?”

Yazhai Bookstore had been open on West Street for many years. Except for when Du Changqing was young and brought here by Old Master Du to buy some copybooks, he never set foot in this place. In his words, this place had too much moldy paper smell that made people dizzy and nauseous when they entered. As a result, Luo Dazui never gave him a pleasant look.

Du Changqing didn’t notice the bookstore owner’s displeasure and stroked his chin: “Isn’t there going to be an Imperial Medical Bureau spring examination next year? Do you have any medical texts or pharmaceutical theories in your bookstore that spring examination students buy to study? Bring them out for me to see.”

There were many merchants doing business on West Street, but refined scholars like Master Hu who enjoyed poetry and literature were rare. The reason Luo Dazui’s bookstore could survive until now was mostly by relying on those students taking the imperial examinations.

Those students always came to buy examination papers and books prepared for the imperial examinations. Later, Yazhai Bookstore stopped displaying poetry collections and literary works, instead displaying more policy essay books specifically prepared for the imperial examinations.

Du Changqing was also here to try his luck.

The duck bone gnawing motion paused. Luo Dazui looked him up and down: “The damn sun must be rising from the west – when did you decide to study hard too?”

Du Changqing said irritably: “When did I say it was for me to read? It’s for my friend!”

“You have such an ambitious friend?”

Du Changqing angrily asked: “Do you have them or not?”

Luo Dazui wiped the duck oil from his hands and pointed toward the inside of the bookstore: “They’re all over there.”

Du Changqing walked to the bookshelf Luo Dazui had pointed to.

This bookshelf wasn’t large, and compared to the policy essay books, there were surprisingly few medical books – so sparse they couldn’t even fill one row.

Du Changqing picked up one book. The medical text looked very old, as if it hadn’t been read in a long time, with a thin layer of dust accumulated on it.

After blowing the dust off the cover, Du Changqing asked: “Why are there so few?”

Luo Dazui shrugged: “Many medical books in the city are collected in the Imperial Medical Bureau’s library. Not many have flowed out. This is quite complete.”

In the Liang Dynasty’s medical arts and theories, apart from students at the Imperial Medical Bureau who had specialized teachers to instruct them in medical theory, most civilian physicians relied entirely on generation-by-generation teaching from old doctors passing down experience. This was also why most of the skilled miracle doctors among common people were white-haired elderly men.

Experience always required time to accumulate.

Ordinary physicians didn’t have the Imperial Medical Bureau teachers’ careful instruction and summarized medical theories from all nine specialties – they relied entirely on masters and their own slow exploration. A good medical text was very precious and difficult to circulate in the market.

The few medical theory books on Yazhai Bookstore’s shelf were actually just some basic medical theories, not particularly sophisticated.

Du Changqing frowned and looked for a long while, finally gave up helplessly, and gathered all the remaining medical texts from the shelf, slapping them on the counter: “How much silver?”

Luo Dazui glanced over: “Two taels.”

“Two taels?” Du Changqing jumped three feet high: “Why don’t you just go rob people!”

“If you think it’s expensive, don’t buy.” Luo Dazui took the books and methodically placed them back on the bookshelf one by one. “Scholarly items – where can you find cheap goods?”

Seeing this, Du Changqing snatched the medical texts back from the other’s hands while pulling out a broken piece of silver from his chest and throwing it on the table, cursing: “Who said I wouldn’t buy? Selling just these few broken books for two taels – your heart is too black. No way, you have to throw in something extra for this young master!”

Luo Dazui’s face showed disdain.

Du Changqing pestered him with soft and hard tactics.

Finally unable to stand Du Changqing following him around in the bookstore affecting business, Luo Dazui helplessly got up and walked into the room, rummaging through a pile of miscellaneous books in the corner and found a stack of disheveled scrolls.

Du Changqing asked suspiciously: “What is this?”

“Didn’t you want something extra?” Luo Dazui pressed the scrolls into Du Changqing’s arms along with the previous medical texts, while pushing Du Changqing toward the door. “This is the ‘Capital Imperial Medical Bureau Spring Examination Historical Questions and Detailed Solutions.’ With this, you’re sure to be the top scorer in this year’s spring examination!”

“Really?” Du Changqing still didn’t believe it. “Who wrote it? Are you fooling this young master?”

The snow outside was deep. Luo Dazui stood at the bookstore entrance and winked at him with a smile: “Yes.”

Immediately after, with a “bang,” he closed the door.

Du Changqing: “…Bad luck!”

…

The snow in the capital accumulated half a foot on West Street, enough to block passing carriages. In wealthy noble residences, it became decorative icing on the cake.

In the Grand Tutor’s mansion, plum branches by the artificial hill were covered with deep snow. The flower branches couldn’t bear the accumulated heavy snow and rustled as they fell into the pond below. The golden carp in the pond moved slightly, their long tails creating a glimmer of light in the ripples.

An elderly man stood in the pavilion, raising his head to gaze into the distance.

After the snow, the capital was vast and boundless. To the east was the direction of the imperial city. The vermillion walls showed a bright shadow under the gray pale clouds, then were quickly covered by deeper silver-white.

The old man lowered his head and coughed softly twice.

Last night an assassin had broken into the palace gates attempting to assassinate the Eastern Palace, but the assassin escaped right under the guards’ noses. Today the city was under martial law, the Son of Heaven was furious, and the court was in chaos. Grand Tutor Qi Qing had taken leave a few days ago due to catching a cold, barely avoiding this storm.

The steward approached from behind, helped Grand Tutor Qi put on his cloak, and said with hands lowered: “Master, news has come from the palace that His Highness the Crown Prince was frightened last night and is bedridden. His Majesty urgently summoned all the palace guard divisions to enter the palace.”

“His Majesty’s actions back then were ultimately too ruthless, so naturally he’s now guilty and afraid.” The old man withdrew his gaze and sighed: “These are troubled times.”

The steward said: “This servant has already given instructions as master ordered – the young master and young lady are not to leave the mansion for the next few days.”

Grand Tutor Qi nodded: “The city is not peaceful. It’s better to be cautious.”

Perhaps mentioning Qi Yutai reminded the steward of something. After a pause, the steward looked at the person before him and said in a low voice: “There’s another matter, master. About the Ke family’s virtuous woman that you previously asked someone to investigate – there’s been progress.”

As soon as these words were spoken, Qi Qing’s previously unmovable figure moved slightly.

“How so?” After a long while, he asked.

The steward bowed even lower and answered gently: “The Ke family’s virtuous woman was named Lu Rou. She wasn’t a local of the capital, but lived in Changwu County. The investigator reported that Lu Rou’s parents had both passed away, and her brother Lu Qian was imprisoned a year ago when he came to the capital for stealing people’s property and insulting his parents, and was executed.

“Besides this, the Lu family has had no other relatives coming and going over these years.”

“Oh? They’re all dead?”

“Yes, but master, this servant also discovered one thing…”

Qi Qing’s expression paused.

“Changwu County had a plague eight years ago. Almost all the good people in the entire county couldn’t escape, but somehow the Lu family was very lucky – all four family members survived well.”

The steward said: “This matter is strange. The Lu family was poor, and very few people in all of Changwu County survived, yet the Lu family lost not a single person. However, the plague in Changwu County was fierce that year, killing almost everyone. Those who knew about the Lu family’s past are all gone. According to neighbors who moved there later, nothing suspicious could be heard.”

Those who knew the Lu family’s past were all dead, so naturally no useful information could be extracted.

Long silence.

Qi Qing pondered for a moment: “The Lu family has no other relatives?”

The steward shook his head, then looked at Grand Tutor Qi: “Master suspects…”

“The Lu family is completely extinct. If someone wanted to use the Lu family as a weapon, they would necessarily need to find living relatives of the Lu family. Moreover…”

Qi Qing said indifferently: “In ancient times, filial sons avenged their fathers. If descendants of the Lu family are still alive in this world, they definitely won’t let this matter rest.”

He turned around, his full head of silver hair blending with the long snow behind him.

“Perhaps there are still fish that escaped the net,” he said.