When Qi Yue arrived at Qianjin Hall, Liu Pucheng wasn’t there, and neither was Hu San.

“Master has gone to meet friends,” Zhang Tong said.

Qi Yue made an acknowledging sound.

“Hu San went too?” she asked.

“Hu San is at the leather craftsman’s shop in the south of the city. The things you asked for are almost finished,” Zhang Tong smiled.

“That’s quite fast,” Qi Yue said with pleasant surprise, while taking out the questions she had from reading to ask, “I’ll just ask you then.”

Zhang Tong respectfully and carefully explained everything to her one by one. As they were talking, a disciple came running in shouting loudly from outside.

“Senior Brother, severe trauma case.”

Liu Pucheng had trained his disciples well, with everyone having their own duties. The senior brothers in the front hall could handle ordinary ailments, but for serious cases, Liu Pucheng’s personal attention was still needed. This was also what the patients’ families required – generally, those who came here were drawn by Liu Pucheng’s reputation.

With Liu Pucheng absent, the eldest disciple Zhang Tong was in charge.

Qi Yue followed Zhang Tong out. The waiting area in the front hall was already in chaos.

Several men and women surrounded a man in his forties lying on a door plank, crying and talking. The man had bled all over the door plank, and his thick winter trousers had a large tear exposing bloody flesh.

“Gored by a wild boar…”

Seeing Zhang Tong approach, the others quickly made way.

“Physician Liu…” a man rushed over, grabbing Zhang Tong and about to kowtow, “Please save my elder brother.”

Zhang Tong supported him while answering.

“Don’t panic, let me take a look. My master isn’t here,” he replied.

These people were startled to hear this, and hearing the surrounding people address the newcomer as “Senior Brother,” they realized they had mistaken him for someone else.

“You… you’re not Physician Liu?” they asked.

“My master has gone out,” Zhang Tong replied.

A helper brought over basins of salt water and rice wine that had been prepared early. Zhang Tong washed his hands in them in sequence before examining the injured man’s wounds.

The concept of disinfection had been accepted by Qianjin Hall. Qi Yue, who had been watching, nodded approvingly. But it still wasn’t enough. She frowned – if only there were gloves, it would be better.

Could gloves be made somehow…

While she was lost in thought, the crying and wailing here grew louder.

Such a large, deep wound…

“Qi Yueniang… this needs suturing…” Zhang Tong looked up at Qi Yue and said.

Before Qi Yue could respond, the injured man’s family members all looked over with astonished expressions.

They had come seeking Liu Pucheng’s reputation. Liu Pucheng’s absence already made them uneasy, and now seeing this self-proclaimed disciple examine the wound for a long time without treating it, instead turning to ask a woman…

“I’ll do it. You all watch carefully,” Qi Yue said. Suturing wounds wasn’t something one could just learn immediately – it required practice. As Qianjin Hall specialized in treating injuries and trauma, she should really teach them.

As she spoke, she instructed them to prepare more salt water and rice wine.

“I’ll clean the wound first. A’Ru, quickly go back and get my things,” she said.

A’Ru responded and ran out.

“Just the thread…” she thought of something and added, “I used up all of it last time…”

“My master has some here,” Zhang Tong said quickly.

Qi Yue also remembered seeing the thread Liu Pucheng had brought last time. Though she didn’t know what it was made of, it was certainly for suturing.

“Boil it in salt water,” she said.

Zhang Tong immediately went to do it himself.

Here, Qi Yue rolled up her sleeves, washed her hands, but before she could approach the injured man, she was blocked.

“You, what are you, a woman, trying to do?” Two men looked at her warily and shouted.

“I’m going to treat his wound,” Qi Yue said.

Her disinfected hands, held habitually in front of her body, drew even more puzzled stares from these people.

“Where is there a woman who’s a physician…”

“Only midwives, right…”

“Look how strange this woman is…”

The family members whispered among themselves, while looking at Qi Yue with increasingly wary eyes.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m also a physician,” Qi Yue quickly explained, only then realizing they distrusted her unfamiliar face.

This was understandable – even in modern hospitals, many patients came specifically asking for particular doctors.

“If you don’t believe me, ask them,” Qi Yue pointed to everyone present.

The helpers and disciples of Qianjin Hall immediately nodded in a confused chorus.

“Yes, this is Qi Yueniang…”

“…Very capable Qi Yueniang…”

The family members’ expressions remained skeptical.

“Qi Yueniang can perform abdominal surgery to treat wounds…” a disciple squeezed forward and shouted excitedly.

It would have been better if he hadn’t said this. When he did, the family members were startled.

“Sister-in-law, I think the people here have all gone crazy,” a man said quietly to the woman sitting beside the injured man.

The woman nodded, wiping her tears and glancing at Qi Yue.

“How can such a young woman be a physician? Too unreliable…” she muttered, while calling to everyone, “Since Physician Liu isn’t here anyway, let’s go to another place…”

With her words, the family members immediately lifted the injured man and headed outside.

“Hey, hey, I really can treat him,” Qi Yue was somewhat dumbfounded and hurried after them to persuade, “Don’t look at the person, look at the skill. Give it a try.”

“Bah!” A younger woman turned around with red eyes and spat, “Give it a try? This is a life we’re talking about, not something else. Give it a try – you say it so lightly…”

Qi Yue quickly apologized, but the group quickened their pace and hurried out.

Qi Yue sighed, looking disappointed.

“Here, here, it’s ready!” Zhang Tong ran out excitedly carrying a box of thread still steaming, shouting.

Before he finished speaking, he saw the empty waiting area and stood there stunned.

“Where is everyone?” he asked.

“They… wouldn’t let Qi Yueniang treat him…” a disciple said awkwardly.

Zhang Tong couldn’t help but feel frustrated.

“This… this really…” he stammered, not knowing what to say.

Here, Qi Yue turned around and shrugged.

“Well, whether they let me treat him or not doesn’t matter. It’s the patient’s choice after all. No matter who they find, as long as he can be cured, that’s good,” she smiled, while looking at the disciples in the hall. A thought flashed through her mind, “I’ll teach you all suturing techniques.”

These people were those who regularly came into contact with patients, these people were familiar to those seeking medical treatment. This way, with more trust and more opportunities, they could reduce the patients’ suffering by one degree.

Hearing Qi Yue say this, everyone in the hall was stunned.

Even the helpers picking herbs were dazed. The entire Qianjin Hall fell silent.

“What’s wrong?” Qi Yue was startled and looked at everyone in confusion.

“Qi Yueniang, you said you’d teach us suturing techniques?” a disciple asked boldly.

“Yes, what’s wrong?” she asked, then smiled, “Don’t be afraid. This is actually quite simple. Just practice more and you’ll get it. It’s not difficult. Much, much easier than learning traditional Chinese medicine…”

As her words fell, everyone was certain they hadn’t misheard, and suddenly the place erupted in excitement.

“Thank you, Qi Yueniang…”

“No, we should call her Master…”

When Hu San entered Qianjin Hall carrying a box, he heard everyone shouting “Master,” then saw the woman standing where everyone was bowing in unison.

“Don’t call her that randomly!” Hu San was startled and jumped over in two or three steps, stretching out his hand to block in front of Qi Yue, glaring like a small beast protecting its food, “This is my master! Don’t shout randomly!”

Qi Yue laughed heartily, the laughter warming her heart.

“You all prepare some leather,” Qi Yue told everyone what they needed to prepare, “Then each person should prepare some needles… needles… Hu San…”

Hu San, who had been sitting behind everyone with a sullen face and somewhat sulking, quickly responded loudly when he heard his name and stood up, sticking out his non-existent belly.

“Take these needles of mine,” Qi Yue took out several suturing needles of different functions from the medical bag A’Ru had brought, “Find a place to have them forged, then make a set for each person.”

These instruments… Hu San couldn’t help but become so nervous and excited he couldn’t breathe.

He reached out with trembling hands to take them.

“Master…” he murmured, unable to say anything else.

“Oh, here’s the money,” Qi Yue said again, reaching for the money pouch from A’Ru and stuffing it into Hu San’s hands.

“Master, Master, I dare not…”

“Master, we’ll pay for it ourselves…”

Everyone shouted in confusion, some taking out money from their bodies to hand over.

“Keep your money to support your families,” Qi Yue smiled, “Besides, this isn’t my money anyway. Might as well spend it…”

She lowered her voice for this last sentence, and only A’Ru heard it.

A’Ru was slightly startled. Was it because of this that she always seemed so carefree and indifferent? To her, everything about the marquis household was… ultimately insignificant.

“Master,” some of the younger disciples were almost choking up, “The skills you teach us will feed our families for a lifetime.”

After Qi Yue left, the disciples of Qianjin Hall immediately surrounded Hu San.

“Step back, step back, stay away,” Hu San clutched the needles tightly to his chest, not caring if they pricked him, while making stopping gestures with one hand toward everyone, “If you damage them, your lives couldn’t compensate…”

Everyone quickly stepped back a bit.

“Hu San, we’ll just look…” someone said with a smile.

“Looking is not allowed either,” Hu San said in a drawn-out tone, glaring, and simply tucked the suturing needles into his shirt. Then thinking of something, he looked around at everyone, “I have something to say up front…”

Everyone looked at him with some excitement, not knowing what important matter this kid had to announce.

“Although we all call her Master, I’m the eldest senior brother, and you all have to call me Senior Brother,” Hu San shouted loudly with a serious expression.

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

This kid was actually concerned about this…

“Do I have to call you Senior Brother too?” Zhang Tong snorted and looked at him with his hands behind his back.

Hu San immediately grinned at him.

“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare. You’re my senior brother…” he smiled.

“What about me?”

“Hu San, you dare to make me call you Senior Brother…”

“Exactly, what makes you think you can…”

“Let’s reorganize, reorganize…”

Qianjin Hall was filled with laughter and noise, but the eldest senior brother Zhang Tong, who usually insisted on order, didn’t stop his junior brothers. Instead, he stood aside watching with a smile.

When Chang Yuncheng stepped through the door, he saw lights on in the room, with a woman’s silhouette cast on the window frame.

However, by now he no longer thought this woman was staying up waiting for her husband to return.

“Lord.”

The maids all bowed, lifted the curtain, and Qiu Xiang followed him in to take his cloak.

Warm air hit his face inside the room. Otherwise, it wasn’t much different from before – there wasn’t that cloying fragrance that places with women usually had.

Chang Yuncheng walked straight into his bedroom.

“You’re back,” Qi Yue’s voice sounded from behind.

Chang Yuncheng paused in his steps, said nothing, dismissed Qiu Xiang and closed the bedroom door.