After Grain Rain, the capital welcomed the Beginning of Summer.

In the front courtyard of the Ministry of Rites, peonies and hydrangeas bloomed in abundance – reds and purples, brilliant and radiant. The already magnificent mansion seemed to have added a hundred crimson lanterns, with precious colors gleaming everywhere.

Once the rainy season began, the ground in the capital seemed perpetually damp. Jin Xianrong removed his somewhat heavy spring robe and changed into light, cool single-layer clothing. Walking to the front of the house, he used silver tongs to pick up an incense pill from a silver jar, carefully lit it, and moved it to the incense burner.

The incense burner lid was covered, and a thin wisp of blue smoke emerged from the ox head, accompanied by a rich, clear fragrance.

Jin Xianrong bent down, leaned close to take a deep breath, closed his eyes in satisfaction, and carefully savored the taste.

He had barely sampled a few breaths when someone entered from behind.

The newcomer wore luxurious robes and looked slightly weary. Jin Xianrong turned around, made an “oh” sound, then smiled: “Yutai has returned.”

The newcomer was Qi Yutai.

Some days ago, Qi Yutai had felt unwell and taken leave to return home again.

He had been taking leave every few days this year, and Jin Xianrong had long grown accustomed to it. Initially, when Jin Xianrong learned that Qi Yutai was coming to the Ministry of Revenue, he had found it quite surprising, thinking that with the Qi family’s influence, Grand Tutor Qi shouldn’t have arranged such an idle, meaningless position for his son. Looking at it now, Jin Xianrong had to admire this old Grand Tutor’s remarkable foresight.

With Qi Yutai’s sickly constitution, if he were truly assigned any busy duties, wouldn’t that be quite deadly?

Fortunately, the Ministry of Revenue was now like a decoration – whether Qi Yutai was there or not made little difference.

No wonder he could become Grand Tutor – his vision was indeed more far-reaching than others.

Though he thought this way in his heart, his verbal flattery and concern were not lacking. Jin Xianrong smiled: “…Are you completely better this time? You still look a bit tired. Yutai, don’t be too anxious. I can still manage the Ministry’s affairs alone… The urgent matter is to heal your body. If you have any headaches or fevers here, how could I explain it to the Grand Tutor…”

He was always so obsequious. Qi Yutai dealt with him perfunctorily and returned to his own room, plopping down at the desk.

The closed door shut out Jin Xianrong’s flattery and also shut out Qi Yutai’s disdain.

Having been confined at home for several days, he was already in an irritated mood. Upon returning to the Ministry of Rites, Jin Xianrong’s every word was still “Grand Tutor this, Grand Tutor that,” which was particularly annoying. If not for his father watching him closely these days, he should have gone to Fengle Tower to “relax and unwind.”

Qi Yutai felt inexplicably agitated.

That nameless fire was difficult to suppress. He sat up straight and reached for the jar on the desk. When he lifted the silver jar’s lid, he couldn’t help but freeze.

The jar was packed full of Lingxi incense pills, stacked one upon another, piled like a small mountain.

Qi Yutai couldn’t help but look toward the doorway.

In the past, whenever he took leave to return home, within a few days of his return, the silver jar would inevitably be cleaned out completely. Jin Xianrong loved taking small advantages. Lingxi incense was expensive, so he always secretly took a few pills when Qi Yutai wasn’t paying attention, along with the precious tea leaves sent by the Qi family.

Since they had to see each other every day, though Qi Yutai despised such behavior, he never said anything and still allowed it. After all, the Grand Tutor’s Manor didn’t lack silver to buy incense. Using small favors to buy Jin Xianrong’s cooperation and have him provide convenience at the Ministry of Revenue was a profitable business.

He had prepared himself to face an empty jar. Before returning, he had even brought a new jar of Lingxi incense. He never expected that Jin Xianrong had apparently changed his ways – this jar of incense pills hadn’t been touched at all and remained on his desk.

Qi Yutai found it strange and couldn’t help but get up, open the door, and walk to the outer hall.

Jin Xianrong was lying on a redwood reclining chair in the main room, leaning back with a Ministry of Revenue document resting on his knees, half-closing his eyes as he listened to the rain outside the window, looking quite content.

In front of him, on the desk sat a bronze incense burner. A green ox swished its tail, and thin blue smoke emerged from the ox head. Unlike the usual heavy fragrance, this carried a sweet, aromatic scent.

This was not the scent of Lingxi incense.

Qi Yutai was somewhat stunned.

Jin Xianrong, lying in the chair, sensed someone nearby. When he looked up and saw Qi Yutai standing before him, he was startled and nearly fell from the chair: “Yutai, what are you doing?”

Qi Yutai came to his senses and pointed at the incense burner on the desk: “Minister, you’ve changed incense?”

“Ah?” Jin Xianrong hadn’t expected him to bring this up. He paused, then said: “Yes, I changed it… Yutai, does this incense smell good?”

Qi Yutai leaned closer and sniffed carefully.

Lingxi incense used expensive materials and was rich and heavy, but perhaps after smelling it for years, even the most amazing fragrance had become ordinary. Jin Xianrong’s incense should use common materials. At first sniff it seemed somewhat vulgar and cheap, but upon careful consideration, it immediately felt elegant and sweet, like summer fruits ripened to perfection, appearing particularly fresh in this rainy season.

Even his recent irritation was dispelled somewhat.

“…It smells good.” Qi Yutai nodded, asking nonchalantly: “Where did you buy it?”

This incense surely wasn’t as precious as Lingxi incense. Jin Xianrong had probably bought cheaper incense pills from a medicine shop on a whim to change the flavor.

Upon hearing this, Jin Xianrong revealed a mysterious smile.

He cleared his throat and lowered his voice: “This incense is called ‘Pond Spring Grass Dream.'”

“‘Pond Spring Grass Dream’?”

“Youth passes easily while learning is hard to achieve, not one inch of time should be taken lightly. Before awakening from the pond spring grass dream, autumn sounds are already among the front steps’ parasol leaves.” He recited while shaking his head, his smile taking on a somewhat lewd quality. “This is an incense pill specially formulated for me by Medical Official Lu. It contains several medicinal herbs. When men smell this incense frequently, it supplements qi and benefits blood, good for that thing.”

“Yutai ah,” he patted Qi Yutai’s shoulder and earnestly advised: “You’re young now and don’t understand, but youth passes easily – you must treasure it.”

Though he spoke vaguely, Qi Yutai understood.

He had heard some days ago that Jin Xianrong had developed a kidney abscess, and several waves of medical officials from the Imperial Medical Academy had come. It seemed this new incense pill was formulated by that female medical official for Jin Xianrong’s kidney condition.

He should have sneered at the cheap, common incense pills, but somehow, Qi Yutai inexplicably remembered what that female medical official had said when he last saw her.

“Lingxi incense calms the spirit and settles qi, and can alleviate insomnia and sleeplessness. However, long-term use of this incense inevitably creates dependence. With prolonged use, it actually becomes counterproductive.”

“Lord Qi might also try using this incense less frequently to avoid addiction that harms the body.”

From childhood to adulthood, what he ate, used, and did was entirely arranged by his father.

From the servants and attendants around him to the incense used in his room – everything was chosen by his father, leaving no room for his own choices.

This was nothing unusual. For someone of their noble birth, using the best and most expensive things was always natural.

However, at this moment, seeing Jin Xianrong holding his jar of cheap incense with such delight, treasuring it like a precious object, somehow made him feel uncomfortable.

Was this incense really that good?

Better than Lingxi incense?

Qi Yutai didn’t know, because from childhood to adulthood, he had only ever used Lingxi incense.

Having no choice and being unwilling to choose were two entirely different things.

He inexplicably began feeling restless again, as if some annoying little mouse was running around in his brain, its tiny claws making his heart itch, followed by deeper irritation.

He walked a few steps, then suddenly turned back and hesitantly spoke to Jin Xianrong: “Minister.”

Jin Xianrong’s smile hadn’t yet faded: “What is it?”

Qi Yutai extended his hand.

“Give me a few pills too.”

After a pause, he squinted: “I want to try them too.”

…

After the Beginning of Summer, as soon as daylight passed, night rain began pattering down.

The sound of night watch drums could faintly be heard outside the Imperial Medical Academy, intermittent and broken.

A figure ran through the rain from the outer corridor, stopping at the door of a room in the dormitory quarters and gently knocking.

Lu Tong opened the door, and Lin Danqing, wearing a rain cloak, slipped in from outside.

“What are you doing?” Lu Tong was slightly stunned.

“Shh—”

Lin Danqing made a silencing gesture toward her, closing the door before whispering: “Medical Director Chang is asleep. Let’s keep our voices down so he doesn’t catch us.” She quickly entered the room, removed her rain cloak, went to the window to close it, and placed what she was carrying on the long table by the window, beckoning to Lu Tong: “Look—”

Lu Tong walked over.

Under the dim lamplight on the desk sat a bamboo basket as large as a winnowing basket. She didn’t know how Lin Danqing had managed to carry it – it was packed full of hot cooked food.

Even Lu Tong was momentarily stunned.

The Imperial Medical Academy’s meals were plain, and Lin Danqing was picky, often secretly buying late-night snacks from outside. But fearing discovery by Chang Jin, she usually only brought small items like pancakes and pastries. Never had there been such a scene as tonight – it was practically setting up a banquet table in the dormitory.

Lin Danqing didn’t notice Lu Tong’s expression and excitedly reached into the bamboo basket to pull out plates of cooked food: cooked beef, spicy trotters, pork aspic, hemp-flavored chicken skin, salted peanuts… all were drinking accompaniments. Finally, she pulled out two small jars with red paper labels.

She held up the two small jars, one in each hand, showing them to Lu Tong: “Green plum wine from Shengxing Winery! I specifically had someone wait in line for an hour to buy these. Just the errand fee cost half a string of cash! So precious – tonight you and I will have one jar each!”

Lu Tong: “…”

Boiling green plums with wine to compete with spring’s freshness – May was when green plums ripened. Shengxing Winery’s green plum wine was in short supply, and she hadn’t expected to see two jars right here.

Lin Danqing stuffed one jar of green plum wine into Lu Tong’s arms, looking rather domineering: “This one is yours.”

She pointed to the jar in front of herself: “This one is mine!”

Lu Tong looked at the wine jar in her arms, then at Lin Danqing, asking in confusion: “What happened?”

“What do you mean what happened?”

“Why the sudden drinking?”

Lin Danqing blinked: “No particular reason!”

She sat down at the table, gave Lu Tong a pair of chopsticks, forcefully pulled out the wine stopper from the jar mouth, and smiled: “We work ourselves to death at the Imperial Medical Academy during the day and still have to eat the academy’s bland, tasteless vegetarian dishes. It’s too hard. Naturally we should treat ourselves better.”

“I’m in a good mood today – my treat.”

Lu Tong also sat down at the table. Looking at Lin Danqing’s high-spirited appearance, she thought for a moment and said: “You’ve created an antidote for ‘Arrow-Shot Eyes’?”

“Cough, cough, cough—”

Lin Danqing had just put a green bean in her mouth and nearly choked on Lu Tong’s words, hurriedly drinking some green plum wine to suppress the tickling in her throat. After a while, she looked at Lu Tong in amazement: “Sister Lu, do you have mind-reading abilities? How do you know everything?”

Lu Tong was also somewhat surprised.

These past days, Lin Danqing had been leaving early and returning late. Apart from her official duties, she spent most of her time in the medicine rooms behind the forest. Lu Tong had noticed that the medicinal materials she used for making medicine were no longer all detoxifying herbs but included some mildly toxic substances. She figured her previous words had taken effect and Lin Danqing was trying to create an antidote for “Arrow-Shot Eyes” using the method of fighting poison with poison.

She hadn’t expected Lin Danqing to succeed so quickly.

“However, it’s not exactly that I’ve created an antidote.” Lin Danqing smiled embarrassedly. “I just changed a few medicinal ingredients. Because I’m not very familiar with toxic substances, the herbs I substituted were rather conservative. Who knew—” her eyes flickered, “the newly made medicine actually has some effect. Though it can’t completely detoxify, compared to being completely useless before, there’s already some improvement.”

“Sister Lu,” she grabbed Lu Tong’s hand, joy overflowing in her expression, “you were right – fighting poison with poison really works!”

She looked very excited.

“Originally I was too fixated on the Imperial Medical Bureau’s medical principles and was ultimately too timid. However, through your reminder this time, I roughly understand the direction for detoxification. Now I have a general idea – I just lack a few hard-to-find medicinal materials. Once I gather all those herbs and write out the prescription, Sister Lu, please help me check for any errors or omissions.” Lin Danqing said with a smile.

Lu Tong nodded: “Good.”

She knew Lin Danqing had always been clever. In fact, if not for taking advantage in the ‘symptom verification’ section during the Imperial Medical Bureau spring examination and gaining the upper hand, the first place on the red list should have actually gone to Lin Danqing.

Though Lin Danqing appeared carefree and playful on the surface, she was actually extremely outstanding in medical principles. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have grasped the key points and found the detoxification method for “Arrow-Shot Eyes” in just these few days.

It was raining, fine droplets tapping the window. Even through the glass, one could feel the chill of the rainy night. Lu Tong pulled out the wine stopper from her jar, and the fragrance of green plum wine immediately filled her nostrils.

She thought for a moment and asked: “But who exactly are you making this antidote for?”

Lin Danqing’s chopsticks paused mid-reach.

Lu Tong quietly watched her.

Such urgency, such seriousness, using all her heart and methods, gaining and losing to the point of losing her composure – if the poisoned person didn’t have a close relationship with her, it would be difficult to achieve such dedication.

The person Lin Danqing was detoxifying must be very important to her.

In the dim lamplight, the girl wearing only an inner garment leaned against the low couch, saying nothing, silently drinking a sip of plum wine. The plum wine seemed too sour, making her eyes squint. It took a while before she recovered, spitting out: “Not that great either, quite ordinary. How dare they charge me so much silver – not as good as the sweet syrup sold for three copper coins on the street!”

Lu Tong remained silent.

She picked up a piece of pork aspic and put it in her mouth, saying nonchalantly: “My concubine mother was poisoned.”

Concubine mother?

Lu Tong was slightly surprised.

Lin Danqing smiled and sighed while propping her chin: “Didn’t expect that, did you? I’m a concubine’s daughter in the family.”

Lu Tong moved her lips but ultimately said nothing.

Lin Danqing was enthusiastic and cheerful, generous and bright, crying when she wanted to cry and laughing when she wanted to laugh. The people at the Imperial Medical Academy treated her well too. Lu Tong had always thought Lin Danqing was beloved because her father had been a Medical Official Director, and only such a family lacking nothing in love could raise such a daughter as bright as the sun.

But she hadn’t expected Lin Danqing to be a concubine’s daughter.

“My concubine mother was a dancer given to my father by someone else. My mother is from an official family, and I have two legitimate older brothers above me. I’m the youngest daughter in the family.” Lin Danqing reached out with her chopsticks and poked at a piece of cooked beef, staring at it for a long time.

“My father is a good man and a good father, but not a good husband.” She thought for a moment, then shook her head: “No, he should be considered a good husband – he’s just only my ‘mother’s’ husband. In his eyes, my concubine mother is a low-status concubine, a ‘gift’ received reluctantly from a friend’s generous offer.”

“My concubine mother came from poverty, sold by my maternal grandfather to human traffickers and brought to the Central Plains. Because of her beauty, she was eventually bought by a wealthy family, carefully raised, and given as a gift to my father.”

Lu Tong remained silent.

In the mansions of hereditary high officials, exchanging beautiful women as expressions of goodwill was common.

“When my concubine mother was sold, she once accidentally consumed ‘Arrow-Shot Eyes’ poison while resisting the traffickers. Initially there were no symptoms, but several years after giving birth to me, she gradually showed signs. My father tried to detoxify her, but Southern Border poisons are numerous and varied, and my father’s medical skills could only be considered mediocre even within the Imperial Medical Academy. After years without success, my concubine mother’s eyesight deteriorated day by day. Whenever the poison flared up, her eyes would be in unbearable pain.”

Lu Tong asked: “So you studied medicine to cure your concubine mother’s poison?”

Lin Danqing laughed with a “pff” sound.

She said: “Sister Lu, have you ever heard of a physician’s curse?”

“What curse?”

Lin Danqing spoke softly: “Those who study medicine can never save the person they most want to save.”

Lu Tong’s heart trembled.

Lin Danqing tilted her head back and took a gulp of wine, her gaze somewhat hazy in the night.

“At first, I indeed studied medicine because I wanted to cure my concubine mother’s poison.”

“I thought, since my father couldn’t cure it, then I would cure it myself. After all, I had learned to read at school, and our family didn’t lack medical books, so studying couldn’t hurt.”

“My father and mother never cared about these things of mine.”

The green plum wine was too sour, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. Lin Danqing reached out and wiped the wine stains from the corner of her lips with the back of her hand.

The Lin family was different from other prestigious households.

Though she was a concubine’s daughter, she had never suffered any particular mistreatment. There was no deadly scheming between her mother and concubine mother either. Others said they mother and daughter had received twelve parts good fortune to encounter such a reasonable family.

But Lin Danqing didn’t think so.

Rather than being reasonable and tolerant, she believed it was more a kind of indifference – the kind of indifference one shows toward unimportant people and things, like keeping pet cats and dogs.

Though her mother and legitimate brothers never mistreated her, they weren’t particularly close to her either, as if separated by a thin, faint barrier.

This was understandable – anyone would find it difficult to feel no resentment toward those who had taken away a husband’s and father’s affection.

But her father was also indifferent toward her.

He would ask how Lin Danqing’s food and clothing were lately, whether she needed any silver, but he wouldn’t accompany her for long periods as he did with her two brothers. Just as he would instruct servants to take good care of the sick concubine mother, he was unwilling to take the trouble to develop an antidote for “Arrow-Shot Eyes” for her sake – even though he himself was a doctor.

People’s love was generally quite obvious – whoever he cared about, he loved.

Her father didn’t love them, mother and daughter.

“Before my coming of age ceremony, I heard that father intended to arrange a marriage for me.”

“The other party’s character and family background were both respectable. Everyone who knew the details said it was a good match, but I felt afraid.”

After a long silence, Lin Danqing spoke.

“I was afraid that if I left, my concubine mother would be all alone.”