By late August, the capital had shed some of its summer heat, but at noon, it was still sweltering.

A line of young eunuchs carried ice basins silently through the side door into the main hall.

Compared to the heat outside, the room was quite cool.

Behind the yellow gauze curtains came the sound of slapping.

A eunuch standing with hands at his sides hurriedly lifted the curtain and entered.

The Emperor, wearing only a light blue cloth robe and reclining sideways on a white jade bed, was throwing memorial after memorial onto the table before him.

The slapping sounds came from this.

The Emperor took his time, one hand propping up his head, the other throwing memorials, and finally he even tried to stack the memorials as he threw them.

His narrow eyes squinted further, and his thin lips pressed tight. Though it was clearly a boring activity, he appeared particularly focused.

The eunuch watching from the side was both amused and exasperated.

“My Majesty…” he bent forward, “on such a hot day, staying cooped up in the room playing with these things—if the Grand Secretaries found out, they’d kneel and lecture and make such a fuss that Your Majesty would get a headache again.”

The Emperor threw the last memorial, also finding it boring, and sat up. His loose cloth robe nearly slipped off, revealing his solid chest.

His imperial throne had been won through mounted warfare. His grandfather, the founding Emperor, had conquered the realm through battle, and his father had also grown up in warfare from childhood. When he was born, his grandfather had already secured the realm, but the martial tradition hadn’t been lost. Therefore, from childhood, besides studying, he had also trained on the drill grounds. Of course, as a precious heir to the imperial family, he naturally couldn’t use real swords and spears, but his physique had been trained to be quite robust.

Emperor Yu of Great Xia stretched his arms and arranged his robes properly.

“How boring,” he said.

“Your Majesty, Consort Dong is fishing at Jade Wave Pool. It’s cool there too. How about we go join in the fun?” the eunuch suggested with a smile.

The Emperor rubbed the corner of his eye.

“Sickeningly sweet, not going,” he said, then lay down again propping his head with his hand in a different direction.

“Then how about listening to Beauty Lian play the zither?” the eunuch suggested again.

“Annoying,” the Emperor answered simply.

The eunuch walked around the table, fanning him gently.

“There are some new birds sent to the Imperial Garden that sing beautifully. Shall this old servant take Your Majesty for a walk to see them?” he said happily again.

The Emperor opened his eyes, seeming interested.

“Right,” he said, waving his hand. “I almost forgot about these fresh things.”

The eunuch breathed a sigh of relief. Serving the Emperor was no easy task, especially this Emperor with his changeable moods.

But finally there was something that interested His Majesty.

Just as he was about to wave his whisk and respond by going to prepare the imperial palanquin, the Emperor continued speaking.

“Go. Have the Imperial Kitchen stew them well and bring them here,” he said.

The eunuch nearly tripped over his own whisk.

He looked at his Majesty in surprise.

“Mm.” The Emperor squinted and thought, then raised his hand again, his wide robe sliding down to reveal his slender arm. “Stew two, and roast two!”

The eunuch nodded.

Well, he should have known this master’s thoughts were different from others.

“Very well,” he responded and bowed to withdraw, only turning around when he reached the gauze curtain.

“Add more Sichuan peppercorns, no scallions…” the Emperor added from behind.

Well, Director of the Salt Bureau, your gift wasn’t sent in vain. His Majesty eating happily is better than just leaving them there.

The eunuch responded loudly and hurried off.

Here, the Emperor looked at the memorials on the table again, sighed, and reached for them.

“How come there are more and more the more I look…” he muttered, then reclined and opened one to read.

At this time, in another room, four or five people were arguing about something.

“Are we really going to submit this memorial?” one of them asked, holding two or three memorials in his hand.

“Better not. What’s so important that it needs to be sent before the Emperor?” someone said.

“What do you mean not important?” others objected, pointing at the memorial. “Yongqing Prefecture is reporting plague!”

“What plague?” the previous person said, flipping through the memorial. “What kind of plague is this… Look, ‘Now there is Lady Qi who has devised countermeasures’… a woman’s countermeasures… what a joke…”

An elderly man who had pushed the door to enter, saw so many people in the room, and immediately withdrew his foot, suddenly stopped.

“Where?” he asked loudly.

His sudden shout startled these people.

“Lord Zhou,” they hurried over to bow.

Zhou Maochun waved impatiently.

“Where?” he asked again.

Where? The people didn’t understand and looked at each other.

“What about Yongqing Prefecture?” Zhou Maochun asked. “A woman?”

He spoke with some excitement.

Anything reported to the Imperial Medical Academy was naturally related to medical matters. Yongqing Prefecture, a woman, medical matters—could it possibly be…

“Oh, my lord, it’s this one. Please take a look,” the person holding the memorial hurriedly presented it respectfully.

Zhou Maochun took it and looked. After one glance, he laughed heartily.

“It’s indeed her!” he laughed.

The others were somewhat baffled by his laughter.

“My lord, do you know her?” one asked tentatively.

“Of course I know her. She’s a divine physician,” Zhou Maochun said, with an expression suggesting they were truly ignorant.

A divine physician?

“Who is she?” they hurried to ask.

“Didn’t you read the memorial?” Zhou Maochun glared. He had been clever since childhood, able to read ten lines at a glance with perfect recall, and daily disliked dealing with stupid people.

The several people were both amused and exasperated.

“We did read it,” they couldn’t be impolite, so they said.

“You read it and still ask,” Zhou Maochun said, taking the memorial and turning to leave.

The people hurried to call him back.

“My lord, where are you going?” they asked.

“To send it to His Majesty. Such a big matter, why waste time?” Zhou Maochun said.

“My lord, my lord,” they hurried to catch up and stop him. “This, this hasn’t been deliberated yet… we absolutely cannot disturb His Majesty.”

It should be deliberated first, then sent to the Cabinet, then deliberated again, before finally reaching His Majesty’s eyes. How could it be sent over rashly? The exact situation hadn’t even been clarified yet.

“Deliberate what? If Lady Qi says it’s plague, then it’s plague,” Zhou Maochun said with glaring eyes, patting the memorial in his hand. “Lady Qi’s words still need deliberation?”

With that, he took the memorial and hurried away, looking like he was really heading toward the palace.

The people stood dumbfounded in place.

Why didn’t Lady Qi’s words need deliberation?

And also…

“Who is Lady Qi?” one said blankly.

Yes, who was Lady Qi? They looked at each other in bewilderment.

A gust of wind blew. Qi Yue sneezed.

“It’s going to rain,” A’Ru said.

Qi Yue nodded and continued walking along the path without speaking.

“A’Hao said the Second Madam has been to the house many times, going every day to cry, wanting to come find you,” A’Ru changed the subject.

“That won’t do. Her health is too weak; she can’t come here,” Qi Yue said.

A’Ru nodded.

As they spoke, they had walked to the lakeside.

Just as Wang Qiao’er had said, the best scenery of this estate was this lake.

Qi Yue looked at the lake surface.

“Also, you still refuse to enter the city, don’t you? Many people want to drag Wang Qingchun out of prison and make him kneel at the city gate to welcome you into the city…” A’Ru continued with a smile.

Qi Yue smiled slightly.

“It’s not because of Wang Qingchun. I just…” she said, seeming not to know how to express it, just not wanting to enter the city.

Why she didn’t want to, she didn’t know herself…

Or rather, she didn’t want to go anywhere…

“What’s wrong with you? You seem…” A’Ru hesitated before asking her doubt.

Logically, these past few days should have been happy events. The people believed her words, the government also believed and promptly intervened firmly, epidemic prevention, isolation, and treatment proceeded effectively. Although people still died in the end, overall, this epidemic had been controlled.

Qi Yue didn’t speak, her gaze fixed on the lake surface.

She hadn’t expected so many people would die, especially when she clearly knew how to treat them.

As a doctor in a modern hospital, she had almost never faced such large-scale human death, except for natural disasters, man-made calamities, earthquakes, car accidents, and other things beyond human power.

Infectious diseases, in modern medical science and technology, rarely caused such large-scale death anymore.

“A’Ru, I’m always very tired. Very… afraid…” Qi Yue said, her gaze still on the lake surface. “I… am not from your place… I’m alone… I know what I can do. But I also seem unable to do anything. If I don’t act, I feel guilty. If I do act, I fear it’s all in vain. I reach out my hands, seeming to have everything under control, but everything is like quicksand that can’t be grasped… A’Ru, sometimes when I stand before you all, I feel like I want to go mad. The words I say, the things I do, those habits of mine that never needed much explanation, yet I have to repeat and explain countless times. But still, you and I seem separated by a layer of gauze…”

As she spoke, she stretched out her hand. Rain droplets had begun to fall, dancing in her palm.

“I shout and scream, wanting to tear apart this layer of gauze. So at that time, I said such extreme and harsh words. I’ve had enough, I can’t stand it…” she murmured.

A’Ru was already crying uncontrollably.

Qi Yue looked at the lake surface, reached up to untie her clothes, and before A’Ru could react, took a few steps and jumped into the lake water.

A’Ru’s scream accompanied the splash of water.

Seeing the woman disappear from the water surface in an instant, she felt her legs go weak and couldn’t make a sound.

Time seemed to pass for a lifetime, then she saw the woman’s head emerge from the lake surface, followed by her arms, drawing beautiful curves, flowing like a fish before disappearing into the water again.

A’Ru sat on the ground gradually coming to her senses, feeling like her whole person had come back to life.

Qi Yue took a breath and dove underwater, beginning to swim vigorously. The cumbersome skirt was untied by her, wearing only the undergarments she had designed for A’Hao to make. Gradually becoming one with the water, her whole body relaxed.

She kept swimming, as if she had returned to the swimming pool she often visited.

“Yue’er, go for it! Break the record!”

Faintly in her ears was her father’s voice. Through the rippling water surface, she seemed to see her father standing by the poolside.

“What record is she going to break?” came the laughter of her mother and sister from nearby. “With her dog paddle, what record could she break?”

“Break her own record,” her father laughed.

Before Qi Yue’s eyes, the lake water flowed, and in her ears came applause that seemed both near and far.

“Break your own record! Go for it!”

“Break last time’s record!”

Go for it! she shouted in her heart, once again speeding up and swimming out.

The fine rain threads became large raindrops, chaotically striking the lake surface, soon creating a vast expanse of mist.