The night was silent.

It was late, and the lights in the various dormitories of the Imperial Medical Academy had long been extinguished. In the ink-dark sky above, only scattered faint stars remained, but the bright moon in the center was exceptionally brilliant, casting the willows in the small courtyard before the academy hall in a cold, thin silvery glow.

Lin Danqing had gone to fetch water, and Lu Tong, having finished washing up, walked over to sit at the long table in the room.

The dormitory at the Imperial Medical Academy was much better than the one at the Southern Pharmacy. Though the furnishings weren’t particularly luxurious or refined, they were clean and tidy. The writing desk, short couch, wooden cabinet, and bedding were all complete.

Lu Tong and Lin Danqing shared one room, with one person staying in the inner chamber and the other in the outer chamber. This arrangement was specially requested by Lin Danqing from Chang Jin.

Lu Tong bent down and lifted her medicine box onto the table. Opening the box, she didn’t touch the herbs inside but pulled out the small compartment instead. The compartment sprang open, revealing what lay within.

It was a silver ring and a white jade pendant.

The ring had darkened and grown old with time, but the jade pendant remained as lustrous and bright as a new piece, its radiance flowing under the lamplight.

She picked up the jade pendant, her fingertips tracing around the red cord on the jade. The hanging round jade aligned with the bright moon outside the window, gradually revealing the carved patterns on the jade under the moonlight.

It was an image of a scholarly gentleman playing the qin.

The pattern was carved with exceptional beauty and delicacy. Even after many years, it remained lifelike. Under the moonlight, it seemed as if the qin player in the image might step down from the white jade at any moment, carrying his instrument to visit friends or wandering through mountain streams in poetic contemplation.

Lu Tong gazed at it, gradually becoming lost in thought.

Lin Danqing entered from outside carrying a basin of hot water. Seeing Lu Tong sitting at the table with her back to the door, staring blankly, he assumed she was worried about meeting Ji Xun today. He set down the water basin and comforted her: “Sister Lu, though Ji Xun has an eccentric and aloof temperament and occasionally poses difficult problems, his character is without flaw.”

“Don’t worry, he would never cause you trouble without reason.”

“A good person…” Lu Tong murmured.

She certainly knew Ji Xun was a good person.

From past to present, it had always been so.

The gray shadow cast by the round jade in her hand under the lamplight resembled a mass of dim memories, weighing heavily on her heart.

Lu Tong lowered her eyelashes.

She had seen Ji Xun before.

Not in front of the courtyard stone steps tonight, not at Liu’s noodle shop on Sparrow Street, but much earlier.

In Sunan.

…

That was probably four years ago, in the thirty-sixth year of Yongchang.

She had already been learning to identify poisons and medicinal principles with Yunniang, occasionally treating patients who came up the mountain seeking Yunniang’s diagnosis—patients whom Yunniang didn’t want to see were often passed to her for convenience.

However, while treating patients continued, the drug testing had to go on as well.

Perhaps because her body had become largely immune to ordinary poisons after numerous drug tests, the poisons Yunniang newly developed became increasingly fierce. In the past, she only needed two or three days to recover after testing drugs, but now after testing once, sometimes it took an entire month or more to recover.

Lu Tong still remembered it was a spring day in March.

It was another drug test. Yunniang had developed a new poison. After taking it, bone-piercing cold permeated her entire body. Even on the hottest summer days, she couldn’t feel a trace of warmth.

“Silkworms fear cold rain, seedlings fear fire,” Yunniang pondered for a long time before coming up with a satisfactory name. “Let’s call it Cold Silkworm Rain.”

Lu Tong locked herself in the thatched hut on Falling Plum Peak, wrapping herself in layer upon layer of quilts, yet still felt as if she were naked and thrown into an ice cellar in the depths of winter. Her teeth chattered from the cold. For seven days and seven nights, she was like a corpse that hadn’t completely grown cold, or like she had become a spring silkworm being drenched by cold rain. That rain carried corrosive intent, bit by bit freezing her entire body inside and out, from her organs to pieces.

After the seventh day, the cold gradually receded, and she began to feel warmth and cold again, able to move her body.

Yunniang was very satisfied with the new poison, but still needed to improve “Cold Silkworm Rain” further. She told her to go find some fresh corpses.

So Lu Tong went down the mountain, planning to visit the execution ground.

The streets of Sunan were bustling with people and endless carriages. It was spring, and the city’s residents often came out for spring outings.

Perhaps because the cold poison hadn’t completely cleared from her body, even though the sun blazed overhead in March, Lu Tong still couldn’t feel any warmth. Like a frozen body just beginning to stretch and learn to walk again, even her steps were somewhat unsteady.

She had just walked onto a small bridge not far from the inn when she suddenly heard startled cries accompanied by the sound of horse hooves. She vaguely heard someone behind her urgently shouting: “Hey, what are you doing there? Get out of the way quickly—”

She turned around in confusion and saw a carriage charging straight toward her on the bridge.

In great alarm, Lu Tong instinctively tried to dodge to the side. However, with the remaining poison of “Cold Silkworm Rain” still uncleared and having just endured seven days and nights on the mountain, her body wasn’t agile enough. The speeding carriage barely grazed her body as it rushed past, but Lu Tong was thrown off balance and crashed into the stone beam of the bridge.

“Whoa—”

The driver ahead called out, and the carriage stopped at the bridge head.

The driver didn’t dismount but sat on his horse, turning to look at Lu Tong and shouting loudly: “Are you alright?”

Her ankle was injured from the fall. Lu Tong didn’t feel much pain—sometimes her perception of “pain” was more delayed than ordinary people’s.

She got up from the ground, quickly put her face veil back on properly, bent down to pick up the fallen medicine box, turned and walked away, not wanting to get entangled with strangers.

After taking just two steps, she suddenly heard a voice.

“Wait—”

Lu Tong numbly turned to look, and saw the carriage curtain being lifted and someone stepping down from the carriage.

It was a beautiful spring day.

Green willows and fragrant grass, eastern wind dyeing the willows, all of Sunan bathed in the joy of new spring. On the embankment, female visitors walked together laughing. It had rained the night before, and above and below the bridge, poplar flowers drifted all over the lake.

That young man in green robes walked toward her from this scene of gentle spring beauty, stopping beside Lu Tong. He looked down at Lu Tong, his handsome brow slightly furrowed, asking: “How are you?”

The young man’s voice was very calm, not quite matching his slightly concerned expression.

Lu Tong suddenly snapped back to attention, keeping her head down and saying nothing as she tried to leave.

A green shadow blocked her path.

Lu Tong looked up. The young man in green clothes pressed his lips together, indicating toward her knee area.

There, where broken stones had scraped her clothing when she fell, a patch of hidden red was gradually seeping through.

“You’re bleeding,” he said.

After that, no matter how Lu Tong explained that she didn’t need him to take responsibility and that she had more important matters to attend to, the young man still insisted on taking her to the nearest medical clinic.

Finally, even the driver couldn’t stand it anymore and joined in persuading her: “Miss, please listen to our young master. When my young master gets stubborn, he won’t give up. If you don’t go to the medical clinic today, he could keep you here for an entire day!”

Lu Tong was speechless.

She still had to go to the execution ground to find corpses for Yunniang. Spring wasn’t like harsh winter—if too much time passed, the bodies would rot and decay. She couldn’t delay too long.

She could only reluctantly agree.

The young man and his driver took Lu Tong to a nearby medical clinic.

He didn’t talk much, appearing rather taciturn, and Lu Tong certainly wouldn’t initiate conversation with him. When they reached the clinic, the driver helped her sit down, and the resident physician at the clinic examined the scrape on her leg. Without prescribing medicine, he just gave her a bottle of golden wound medicine.

Lu Tong took the wound medicine and was about to leave when, upon standing up, she suddenly felt dizzy and nearly collapsed to the ground.

A hand reached out from beside her and steadied her.

She said: “Thank you.”

The hand that steadied her was warm, extending from her elbow to her wrist, not letting go for a long time.

Lu Tong sensed something was wrong and abruptly shook off his hand, only to meet the young man’s slightly surprised gaze.

He said: “You’ve been poisoned.”

Lu Tong’s complexion changed slightly.

“Cold Silkworm Rain” had no antidote.

Most of the poisons Yunniang made had no antidotes, yet to avoid her dying immediately from poisoning, she would control the dosage and toxicity just right, keeping it at precisely the right threshold. It would let her experience the agony of poisoning while not allowing her to die in this boundless suffering.

If she could endure this torment, she would live; otherwise, she would die.

She had already survived seven days and seven nights, the most fierce period of “Cold Silkworm Rain.” The remaining poison wouldn’t threaten her life, but it still lurked in her body, waiting for the daily torment of cold rain to pass before gradually merging into her flesh and blood.

She didn’t know the other person knew medicine and could detect something wrong with just a brief pulse check.

Lu Tong tightly gripped the golden wound medicine in her hand, saying quietly: “That’s not the case,” and turned to leave.

But she was pulled back by a hand.

The young man frowned at her, slowly repeating: “You’ve been poisoned.”

His voice was certain.

The place where he grasped her suddenly became burning hot, as if the most shameful part she had always wanted to hide was being exposed. She wanted to break free, but the remaining poison of “Cold Silkworm Rain” still made her very weak, and even her resistance seemed somewhat powerless.

The young man called over the resident physician at the clinic to check Lu Tong’s pulse. After examining her for a long time, the physician looked troubled and said: “This… forgive this old man’s incompetence, I really cannot detect any signs of poisoning in this young lady.”

Both of them were stunned at the same time.

Yunniang’s use of poisons was masterful. If she wanted to hide them, even the most skilled physicians in the world would find it difficult to detect any clues. “Cold Silkworm Rain” was no exception.

What surprised Lu Tong was that while the old physician at the clinic couldn’t detect signs of poisoning, this young man who appeared to be only seventeen or eighteen years old could see through it at a glance. His understanding of medical principles and pharmacology was probably among the world’s finest.

She said solemnly: “If that’s the case, the young master must be mistaken.” After speaking, she tried to leave again.

But the young man blocked her again, this time with some reproach in his voice: “Why do you always want to leave?” He said coldly: “As a physician, there’s absolutely no reason to let a patient leave.”

“Since he cannot treat it, I will.”

Lu Tong was astonished.

Actually, during those years, being ground down by Yunniang on the mountain had worn away most of her temperament, making it difficult for anything to stir waves in her heart. Yet oddly, in front of this young man in green, she felt a rare moment of panic. She tried her best to explain to him that she wasn’t poisoned and had more important matters to attend to, but he seemed determined to play the role of a healing bodhisattva to the end, insisting on curing her completely.

“If I’m late returning, my parents will worry,” Lu Tong said.

The young man nodded: “That’s indeed so.” The next moment, he looked at Lu Tong: “Where is your home? I’ll explain personally to your honorable father and mother.”

Lu Tong: “…”

She naturally couldn’t take him back with her, or Yunniang might use him as the next test subject for her drugs.

Seeing Lu Tong remain silent, he took it upon himself to bring Lu Tong to a nearby inn.

“If you want to send word to your family, just tell me, and they can come here to accompany you.”

Lu Tong pressed her lips together: “That’s not necessary.”

She thought this person might just be acting on a momentary whim, unable to contain his overflowing kindness. When night came and they were all asleep, she could secretly leave then.

Lu Tong thought this way, but didn’t expect the other’s persistence to far exceed her imagination. The driver accompanying the young man seemed to have martial arts skills, with extremely keen ears. The moment she opened the door just a crack at night, he pursued her.

It was as if he was deliberately watching her.

Lu Tong had never met such a person. She wondered if he intended to abduct her. In the brothels of Sunan city, many girls had been trafficked by kidnappers when they were young and fallen into prostitution. In the mass graves of Falling Plum Peak, there were often bodies of courtesans who had contracted diseases and been abandoned. She had buried many such corpses.

But if he wanted to abduct her, why go to such trouble? Why keep her in an inn and waste money?

Unable to figure it out, Lu Tong simply stopped thinking about it. She decided to wait and see. If these two really had ill intentions, she would poison them with the toxins in her medicine box.

But these two were genuinely treating her illness.

The driver bought various medicinal materials according to what the young man in green had written. The young man studied prescriptions and ground medicines in the room, brewing medicine for her to drink every day.

Lu Tong didn’t really care whether the medicine was poisoned or not—ordinary poisons couldn’t harm her anyway.

She just found this taste a bit novel. She had taken poison more days than medicine. Poison was no different from ordinary food to her. This was the first time in years that someone had worked so hard to detoxify her.

The young man’s driver pulled him outside the door, and Lu Tong overheard their conversation. The driver lowered his voice: “Young master, we’ve already stayed in Sunan for half a month. Master has already written urging us to return.”

“Her poison isn’t completely cleared yet. Wait a bit longer.”

“But… we didn’t bring much silver when we left. It’s enough for the return journey, but the medicinal materials you buy daily are precious. The person Master sent to deliver the silver notes hasn’t arrived yet… If this continues, we won’t have enough for travel expenses back.”

There was long silence outside.

After a while, the young man’s voice sounded: “Take this and pawn it to them.”

“Young master, that’s your jade pendant!”

Lu Tong was startled.

The person’s tone remained calm as he urged: “Go quickly and return quickly.”

Lu Tong sat back by the window just before the door was pushed open, pretending to look nonchalant. The young man frowned at her: “You heard everything?”

After a moment of silence, Lu Tong finally spoke: “Why are you saving me?”

Lu Tong couldn’t understand this person.

From occasional conversations between the driver and him, she roughly knew he was a young master from the capital, just passing through on his way back to the capital. He should come from a wealthy family. Though the robes he wore were simple in style, the brocade and embroidery were of such luxurious refinement that even the best clothing shops in Sunan couldn’t produce them.

He was also very polite, with elegant mannerisms befitting a young master from an aristocratic family, like a green crane flying down from the clouds, standing among chickens with an incompatible aloofness.

He didn’t speak, so Lu Tong continued: “You and I are just strangers who met by chance. Whether I’m poisoned or not has nothing to do with you. Why do you want to save me?”

Lu Tong didn’t understand. If it was the momentary compassion of a noble’s son, half a month had passed—enough time for interest to wane. He should be tired of this “helping strangers in need” performance. Why was he still so persistent?

“Physicians treat illness—that’s natural law.” He glanced lightly at Lu Tong’s medicine box in the corner and said: “You’re also a physician. Don’t you understand this?”

Lu Tong’s heart tightened.

She had never opened that medicine box in front of him, nor had she ever mentioned her identity.

“I saw you take your own pulse.” As if seeing her confusion, the young man explained proactively.

Lu Tong didn’t know what to say and could only respond with a dry acknowledgment.

He carefully sorted through the new medicinal materials the driver had brought, saying as he worked: “You’ve lived here for half a month, and I still don’t know your name. What are you called?”

The medicinal materials spread out in clusters, dust dancing in the golden sunlight. Perhaps because the cold poison in her body was mostly cleared, Lu Tong actually felt the cold sunlight had some warmth.

She kept her head down, fine sweat appearing on her nose tip under the face veil from this warmth, and said softly: “Seventeen.”

Seventeen—this name was obviously not real, but he only paused slightly and didn’t ask further, saying: “My name is Ji Xun.”

Ji Xun…

Lu Tong silently repeated this name twice in her heart.

Ji Xun was a strange person.

He never asked about Lu Tong’s affairs.

Lu Tong had lived in the inn for more than ten days. No one came looking for her, and she didn’t go home. Ordinary people would have long been curious about her origins, but Ji Xun never mentioned it.

He didn’t ask where Lu Tong came from, didn’t ask why she was poisoned, and wasn’t even slightly interested in Lu Tong’s appearance beneath her face veil. He seemed indifferent to everything around him.

But he was also very considerate.

Every day he borrowed the inn’s stove to carefully brew medicine, watching Lu Tong drink it before checking her pulse to see if she was improving.

He even had the driver buy Lu Tong a dress.

Lu Tong’s old clothes had been torn by broken stones when she fell, leaving an unsightly tear at the knee. So Ji Xun had the driver buy a new dress—a beautiful embroidered flower dress in the color of spring willow leaves, a fresh and vibrant color full of life.

Lu Tong took off her face veil at night when everyone was asleep, changed into that dress, and stared blankly at the unfamiliar girl in the mirror.

No mud from picking medicinal herbs, no layers of mismatched cloth wrapped around her ill-fitting body, no rotting smell from collecting corpses in the mass graves…

She looked like an ordinary thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl.

If she hadn’t left her parents, if she were still beside her siblings, the Third Miss Lu of Changwu County would look just like this now.

The next morning when Lu Tong got up, someone knocked on the door.

She opened the door to find Ji Xun and the driver standing outside.

The driver stared in surprise at the dress Lu Tong wore, seeming amazed that today’s Lu Tong was different from usual.

Lu Tong felt somewhat uncomfortable, but Ji Xun acted as if he hadn’t noticed, walking past her into the room and directly taking out the stove and medicine pot to begin brewing medicine.

The driver went out, and Lu Tong silently walked to sit at the long table by the window.

Ji Xun had no sense of propriety between men and women, perhaps because she was just a commoner from Sunan, not a wealthy family’s precious daughter with many rules to follow.

Or perhaps it was because Ji Xun, being a physician, was not bound by such proprieties—physicians never worried about such things between men and women.

Lu Tong looked out the window.

The arched bridge at the inn’s entrance was planted full of new willows. Looking down from above, the lake water and long embankment showed a stretch of new green. Further away was the peak shadow of Falling Plum Peak hidden in clouds—spring mountains verdant, spring water rippling.

Lu Tong was absorbed in the view when she suddenly heard Ji Xun’s voice beside her.

He asked: “How long have you been studying medicine?”