“How long have you been studying medicine?”

Lu Tong started, turning to look back.

The young man sat before a small table in the room, vigorously fanning a palm-leaf fan. The medicine pot made bubbling sounds as it boiled, white steam rising to blur his features.

He always brewed medicine for Lu Tong personally.

Ji Xun’s driver had once offered to do it for him, but Ji Xun refused, saying the timing and heat needed for brewing medicine had to be precise, or the medicinal effects would be wrong. He insisted on doing it himself.

Lu Tong couldn’t understand him—a young master who appeared to live in luxury, personally brewing medicine for a stranger he met by chance.

Either Ji Xun had ulterior motives, or he was a foolishly kind-hearted idiot.

After a pause, she said: “I’m not a doctor.”

“When you opened your medical box earlier, I saw mulberry bark thread inside,” Ji Xun lifted the medicine pot’s lid, checked the decoction, and then pushed the lid back on without adding more fuel to the fire.

Lu Tong couldn’t guess what he meant to say, so she could only respond: “I learned a bit here and there from others, but I can hardly be considered skilled in medicine.”

Hearing this, Ji Xun paused briefly.

After a while, he shook his head: “In Sheng Jing, there’s the Imperial Medical Bureau. If you truly want to study medical principles and pharmacology, you could go study there.”

Imperial Medical Bureau?

Lu Tong frowned.

She had never heard this name before, though she could vaguely guess its nature from his words.

Lu Tong found it absurd.

“Young Master Ji jests,” Lu Tong said, “How could someone like me go to such a place?”

She thought this privileged young master had probably never experienced life as a commoner, never knowing how the invisible threshold between commoners and nobles could separate so very much.

“It doesn’t matter,” he remained seated before the medicine stove, speaking softly. “If you come to Sheng Jing in the future, you can seek me out at the Ji residence in Changle Ward.”

He spoke very seriously, not as if joking.

Lu Tong was stunned.

A fallen leaf drifted in through the window, landing on the writing desk. She lowered her head to pick it up, absent-mindedly rolling it between her fingers, feeling her heart was as messy as that willow leaf.

After a while, she said softly: “I won’t go to Sheng Jing.”

Of course, she wouldn’t go to Sheng Jing—she carried poison that Yun Niang had personally planted in her body.

Actually, for just a moment, Lu Tong had thought of asking this young man from Sheng Jing for help, to tell him everything and beg him to help her escape from the swamp.

But in the end, she didn’t.

Ji Xun could detect “Cold Silkworm Rain,” but he hadn’t discovered the earlier poison Yun Niang had planted in her. As long as she wasn’t cured of that poison, she would remain under Yun Niang’s control.

Given Yun Niang’s nature, unless she chose to do so herself, she would never be forced to provide an antidote.

If Lu Tong wanted to return alive to Chang Wu County, she could only stay on Falling Plum Peak and continue waiting for another opportunity.

The willow leaf in her hand had been crumpled beyond recognition. Lu Tong stretched her hand out the window, opened her palm, and the leaf drifted down, swaying until it disappeared.

Ji Xun’s medicine seemed very effective.

The cold poison in Lu Tong’s body grew weaker day by day.

Gradually, she no longer needed to wrap herself in heavy blankets; wearing light clothes didn’t make her feel cold, and sometimes when the sun outside the window was too strong, it even made her feel a bit hot.

“Your poison is cured,” Ji Xun told her.

Lu Tong said: “Thank you.” Then pressed her lips together and added: “I have no silver to pay you.”

“No payment needed.”

He handed Lu Tong a piece of paper, along with several packages of prepared herbs.

“This is the prescription. I’ve never seen the poison you were afflicted with before, so to be safe, I’ve prepared several more doses. It might be better if you continue taking them for a few more days.”

Lu Tong asked him: “You’re leaving?”

Ji Xun nodded: “I’ve delayed here too long.” Then added: “I’ve paid for five more days of lodging, you can rest here longer.”

Lu Tong didn’t speak.

He walked to Lu Tong’s side, where outside the window was a large expanse of verdant green. The young man’s figure was elegant, as fresh as spring moonlight on willows, his gaze like the spring sun on Su Nan’s bridge—warm and gentle.

He said: “Miss Seventeen, in the future, when you’re injured, seek treatment promptly. As a healer, you should understand this principle better than most.”

“After I leave, don’t neglect to treat your illnesses.”

Lu Tong remained silent for a long while before softly responding with an “Mm.”

Early the next morning, Lu Tong woke up but didn’t hear Ji Xun’s usual knock at the door.

After some thought, Lu Tong opened her door and saw that the next room’s door was wide open. When she went in, there was no sign of Ji Xun or his driver, and even their luggage and personal items had disappeared.

Ji Xun had left.

Without saying goodbye, without informing anyone, on this spring morning, perhaps before dawn while she was still sleeping, these two had quietly departed.

Lu Tong stood in the empty room, suddenly feeling an inexplicable sense of loss.

It was strange—when Ji Xun first brought her here, she had been completely unwilling, coldly watching these two bustle about. Yet after half a month, with Ji Xun brewing medicine for her daily, checking her pulse, and caring about her condition—though it was a healer’s concern for a patient, his patience and gentleness made Lu Tong hazily see Lu Rou.

Back in Chang Wu County, when she was sick, Lu Rou had cared for her the same way.

Even though his coolness and detachment, his peculiarity and silence were completely different from Lu Rou.

Or perhaps it was because she had been alone on Falling Plum Peak for too long, and in these years apart from Yun Niang, she hadn’t experienced such close interaction with anyone. This half month without Yun Niang, without poison testing, being cared for and looked after by someone—it was like dozing under a flower trellis on a spring afternoon and unexpectedly tasting a grain of wheat candy. This candy carried the clear bitter scent of medicine, yet unlike in the past, it wasn’t heavy and even produced a faint sweetness.

Lu Tong thought she must have gone too long without experiencing parting, which was why she felt this reluctance now.

“Miss! Miss!”

The innkeeper hurried upstairs, seeing Lu Tong, he finally relaxed: “Good, you’re still here.”

He thrust a round white jade into Lu Tong’s hands.

“Last night, that young master who was staying with you paid all the outstanding room charges, and I kept the jade pendant at home. I meant to return it to him early this morning, but they had already left by dawn.”

“Since you know him, giving this jade to you is the same thing. Please return this jade to that young master—our inn isn’t some disreputable establishment that keeps others’ valuables without a word.”

Lu Tong instinctively looked down.

The white jade in her palm was smooth and cool, just like the young man’s gaze, always seeming unreachable. She lifted the jade pendant by its red cord to look, able to see the carved image of a noble scholar playing the qin.

It suited him perfectly.

Lu Tong clutched the white jade pendant and said to the innkeeper: “I understand.”

Before leaving, Ji Xun had paid for five more days at the inn, so Lu Tong waited there for five more days, waiting for the two to remember the jade pendant and return, so she could give it back to them.

But Ji Xun never came back.

She thought perhaps Ji Xun had forgotten, or remembered but couldn’t be bothered to return for it. He was a young master from a noble family in Sheng Jing; a jade pendant meant nothing to him, just as this encounter in Su Nan was merely an unimportant episode in his complex life.

Like scenery glimpsed while riding past wild lands—seen and forgotten.

She took off the willow-green new dress Ji Xun had bought her, carefully folded it, and put it in her medical box, along with the white jade pendant.

That beautiful dress was suited for spring riverside walks, garden parties in mansion courtyards, restaurants and taverns, street corners, and alleyways…

But it wasn’t suited for the burial ground on Falling Plum Peak, nor the execution grounds filled with blood and severed limbs.

It wasn’t suited for her.

After the final day passed, she went to the execution grounds and then returned to Falling Plum Peak with her medical box. She had thought Yun Niang would be angry, but when Yun Niang saw her return, she merely gave her an interested glance before lowering her head to arrange the herbs in her silver pot.

“How interesting, I heard you were rescued?”

Lu Tong was startled.

Yun Niang had lived in Su Nan for many years. When she learned of this, and how she learned of it, Lu Tong had no idea.

“I thought you might leave with him.”

Lu Tong: “I…”

Yun Niang interrupted her: “He’s the son of the Ji family from Sheng Jing.”

“What a pity. If you had brought him back to Falling Plum Peak, perhaps you two could have kept each other company on the mountain.”

Yun Niang spoke with a smile, her tone somewhat regretful.

But Lu Tong’s scalp tingled.

A faint chill ran down her spine, followed by relief at having escaped disaster. She was grateful she hadn’t dragged Ji Xun into this muddy water.

Yun Niang smoothed her temple hair and went into the small room to make new medicine.

Lu Tong clutched her medical box tightly, feeling the usual lightbox suddenly become heavy.

Later…

She kept that jade pendant, thinking that perhaps one day when she left the mountain and returned to Chang Wu County when everything returned to its original path, the road ahead was long, and there might be a chance to go to Sheng Jing, however slim that chance might be.

At that time, she could go see the Imperial Medical Bureau Ji Xun had mentioned, and if she had the chance to meet him again, personally return this round jade pendant to him…

“Sister Lu,” Lin Danqing’s urging voice came from behind, “It’s late, quickly get to bed, we need to rise early tomorrow.”

The room’s lamplight flickered, dispersing Su Nan’s spring warmth, leaving only the cold of the long night.

Lu Tong put the white jade back into her medical box and packed it away.

“Coming.”

…

The moon fell on the pond outside the window, like a piece of cold jade.

In the room, the medicine apprentice spoke in surprise: “She’s the domineering resident physician that young master met before at the Prepared Medicine Office?”

Ji Xun nodded.

He remembered now why Lu Tong’s face had seemed so familiar—not because of their recent chance meeting on Sparrow Street, but from earlier.

They had already met once before at the Prepared Medicine Office in Sheng Jing.

At that time, he had gone to deliver medical registers when a woman had burst in aggressively with guards from the Minister of State Ceremonies’ wife. He had been behind a screen, listening to Lu Tong speak with Lou Si, the Medicine Verification Official.

Though her tone was gentle, it concealed needles, every word relying on the Minister of State Ceremonies’ authority to pressure others.

Lou Si feared the Dong family’s power and ultimately made accommodations.

This had made him dislike her.

As a healer, having an impure heart and only knowing how to rely on power damaged medical ethics.

But he hadn’t paid much attention then—such matters in Sheng Jing’s medical halls had their regulators. No matter how great the Minister of State Ceremonies’ power was, they couldn’t act too outrageously.

The second time he heard Lu Tong’s name was regarding a medicinal tea in Sheng Jing called “Slender.”

This medicinal tea was very popular among noble ladies in Sheng Jing. He was usually immersed in medical principles and deaf to outside matters, but hearing of this aroused his curiosity.

Ji Xun had someone buy two portions of the medicinal tea for examination. It was indeed a brilliant formula, but somewhat overbearing and forceful in its use of ingredients.

The third time he heard Lu Tong’s name was during the Imperial Medical Bureau’s spring examination. He had personally set the questions, and in the diagnostics section, all the students’ answers were painfully inadequate except for one perfect paper.

That person was this year’s top scorer on the Imperial Medical Bureau’s spring examination honor roll, a commoner physician.

Ji Xun had been busy treating the elderly official at the Censorate for the past two months, so he hadn’t seen what Doctor Lu looked like. Only tonight did he realize this new female physician was the same domineering resident physician he had encountered at the Prepared Medicine Office.

The medicine apprentice remembered something and reminded him: “Speaking of which, young master, when you met Madam Dong a few days ago, she spoke to you with hidden meaning. Now back at the Medical Office, there are rumors everywhere that you highly praise that female physician, even Director Cui says so… Could it be that she spread these words herself to establish a connection with you?”

Madam Dong, wife of the Minister of State Ceremonies, had no previous dealings with Ji Xun, but when they happened to meet on the road this time, she unexpectedly stopped her carriage to speak with him. Her words, both directly and indirectly, were about how he had chosen Lu Tong as the top scorer in the spring examination, saying it was rare to see him appreciate someone so much, and so on.

The words were nonsensical and somewhat sarcastic; Ji Xun didn’t quite understand.

After returning to the Medical Office, there were rumors everywhere that he greatly appreciated Lu Tong.

But he hadn’t even met Lu Tong yet.

The Imperial Medical Office had indeed had such physicians before who borrowed others’ authority to show off. If these words were spread by Lu Tong herself, her thoughts would be quite deep.

“Mind your words.”

Ji Xun lightly rebuked: “Without evidence, do not defame others’ words and actions.”

The medicine apprentice quickly fell silent.

Ji Xun shook his head.

Whether these words came from Lu Tong or not, he would keep his distance from her. He had always despised power struggles. Lu Tong had just entered the Medical Office and had already stirred up so much controversy—getting close to her would naturally invite much gossip.

He had no desire to become entangled in others’ disputes.

In the pond, a red carp secretly surfaced, its tail fin lightly swishing, shattering the cold moon in the water.

Ji Xun’s brows furrowed tightly.

He had no interest in Lu Tong’s past.

He was just puzzled.

Earlier, when he saw the two collecting medicines in front of the pharmacy, in Lu Tong’s medicine basket, he had glimpsed something among the broken leaves and branches.

Was that…

Red Fragrant Silk?

…

After several spring rains, the weather grew warmer day by day.

In the early morning, children began flying kites along the riverside embankment in Sheng Jing, and swallow kites often hung caught in the threads on the willow trees on both banks.

Outside Jin Xianrong’s courtyard at the Jin residence, a beautifully dressed woman clutching a handkerchief tried to rush into the courtyard but was stopped by Jin Xianrong’s servant.

“Concubine Yao, you cannot go in—”

“Why can’t I go in?” Concubine Yao stamped her foot, looking inside furiously. “Since master became unwell, he hasn’t visited my courtyard. It’s been even worse these past two weeks—he won’t even see anyone.”

The servant wiped his sweat: “Master is truly ill, the physician is examining him inside…”

“What physician!” Concubine Yao sneered, “My maids all saw—it was a young beauty!”

“Master brought her into the room, and in less than three months he’s already tired of me, oh, why is my fate so bitter…” Concubine Yao began crying with loud sobs, then cursed: “Where did this vixen come from? Before, although there were many people in the mansion, at least the master would spend one night a month in my chambers. But since she came, it’s been half a month, and he won’t even come out…”

“What decent person would behave so shamelessly? Aren’t they afraid of choking?”

“…”

The commotion at the courtyard entrance drifted faintly through the door to the ears of those inside.

At the low table, Jin Xianrong sat formally, a bead of sweat slowly rolling down his forehead.

This Concubine Yao had originally been invited as part of a theater troupe to sing and entertain his mother.

Concubine Yao didn’t want to suffer the hardships of the theater troupe, and Jin Xianrong coveted her beauty. One thing led to another, and the two became involved.

But heaven was blind—he had taken Concubine Yao less than a month before falling ill, neglecting her for so long that she naturally became suspicious.

Concubine Yao had previously performed male martial roles in the theater troupe, with a loud, clear voice. Now that she was crying at the door, it was impossible to pretend not to hear.

Jin Xianrong anxiously looked toward the person in the room.

At the table, Lu Tong was seriously grinding medicine with her silver mortar.

The beauty kept her eyes lowered, her features like a painting. That light water-blue dress made her seem like an orchid in a secluded valley, stealing one’s breath. Just looking at her made one’s mind wander. Her hands were as delicate as white scallions, holding the silver medicine pestle, dainty and lovely.

The next moment, the beauty raised her eyes, expressionlessly pulling out what appeared to be pig lungs or something similar from the ceramic jar, bloody and dripping, throwing it all into the silver mortar.

“Clang clang clang—”

The silver hammer fell, and the splashing blood made Jin Xianrong’s lower abdomen go cold.

He felt as if certain parts of himself were being chopped up by that silver hammer.

His previous wandering thoughts instantly vanished. Jin Xianrong tightly gripped his knees, sitting rigid and docile.

It had been seven days since Doctor Lu first came to diagnose him.

During these seven days, Lu Tong had come several more times.

Her demeanor was cold, her expression calm, showing no other expression each time she came to examine him.

At first, Jin Xianrong had harbored wishful thoughts because of her extraordinary beauty, wanting to flirt with her, but each attempt at flirtation was like playing the lute to a cow—whether malicious or subtle, this female physician showed no reaction to hearing them. She neither panicked nor showed shyness, as cold as a block of wood.

Instead, Jin Xianrong had been frightened by this woman’s words several times.

She said: “Acupuncture and medicine can easily go wrong. Lord Jin had better cooperate, otherwise, one wrong step and future medicines will be ineffective.”

This was a threat… this was a threat!

But Jin Xianrong was very affected by her threats.

Especially when Lu Tong found pig kidneys, cow kidneys, and sheep kidneys from somewhere, put them in the ceramic jar, and sliced the kidney capsules paper-thin in front of him before throwing them into the medicine pot to pound into pieces—it was hard not to think she was killing the chicken to warn the monkey… or rather, killing kidneys to warn people.

Such behavior, no matter how beautiful the first impression, was likely tainted with a bloody color.

Nauseating.

The sound of the medicine hammer striking the pot stopped.

Lu Tong scooped the bloody mess from the pot into a porcelain bowl, covered it with a lid, and looked at Jin Xianrong.

“Lord Jin, today’s poultice is ready.” After a pause, Lu Tong looked at him: “Would your lordship like this official to apply it for you?”

“No need!”

Jin Xianrong flatly refused, then seemed to realize his refusal was too quick and appeared deliberate, hurriedly adding with a dry laugh: “How could I trouble Doctor Lu? The servants can do it for me.”