“Xuepiao, don’t be scared! If Lord Yu dares to retaliate, Ninth Miss will definitely have the Prince punish him severely.” Xiaomei encouraged.

“He wouldn’t.” Feng Jiu’er glanced back at Yu Jingfeng.

“If he dares do anything to my people, I’ll be the first to not let him off.”

“Of course not, of course not.” Yu Jingfeng shook his head frantically.

Suddenly besieged by so many women, Yu Jingfeng felt more at a loss than if he’d been facing an army of a thousand horses.

“Go on then, Xuepiao, once he’s been punished everyone can rest, it’s getting late.” Feng Jiu’er’s voice rang out again.

“Mm.” Xiao Yingtao looked at Leng Xuepiao and nodded.

Leng Xuepiao took a deep breath, pressed her lips together, and finally spoke.

“His punishment is to sort and grind into powder all the medicinal herbs the pharmacy received today.”

The moment she finished speaking, she got out of bed holding her quilt.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Leng Xuepiao carried her quilt over to stand in front of Yu Jingfeng.

Yu Jingfeng looked at the woman who stood more than a head shorter than himself, and didn’t dare move even a muscle, like a frightened quail.

Suddenly, Leng Xuepiao threw the quilt she was holding at Yu Jingfeng.

“This is dirty because of you. Go wash it clean right now!”

Having dropped that line, Leng Xuepiao turned and walked back to her bed.

She climbed onto the bed, lay down, and turned her back to everyone.

“Everyone go back now, I want to rest.”

Yu Jingfeng looked at the quilt lying on the ground and immediately picked it up.

“Miss Leng, don’t worry, I will definitely wash your quilt clean. I’ll go bring my own quilt over for you right now. Wait for me.”

Yu Jingfeng carried the quilt away.

He decided that from today on, he would properly learn how to take care of a woman.

Whether or not Miss Leng would agree to marry him, he did not want to see that fear fill her bright eyes ever again.

Yu Jingfeng may have run there — he and Feng Jiu’er lived in the same place, and it was some distance from this courtyard — but he came back very quickly regardless.

Those sitting nearby watched him rush back, quilt in his arms, travel-worn, and no one said a word.

Yu Jingfeng glanced at Feng Jiu’er before daring to step forward, coming to the bedside and setting the quilt down.

Leng Xuepiao still kept her original posture, back to everyone, not moving at all.

Yu Jingfeng, somewhat stiffly, laid the quilt down and covered her thin, small frame with it.

What exactly were women made of? Yu Jingfeng still couldn’t understand.

How could they be so delicate? He could kill someone with just one hand.

Sure enough, not every woman was as strong as Ninth Miss — he would have to treat them differently.

After carefully tucking the quilt around Leng Xuepiao, who still hadn’t turned to look at him, Yu Jingfeng turned back to face everyone, cupped his hands in a bow, and took his leave.

His steps were light, but his movements were somewhat stiff, as though he were carrying out some extremely important task.

After Yu Jingfeng left, Xiaomei stood up.

“Ninth Miss, Xiao Yingtao, it seems I misunderstood Lord Yu. Please forgive me.”

“Xiaomei, don’t say things like that, we were just discussing the matter on its own terms.” Xiao Yingtao smiled faintly and stood.

She yawned and turned her head to look at Feng Jiu’er.

“Let’s go, it’s getting late. Go back and rest well, there’s still a lot to do tomorrow.”

“Mm.” Feng Jiu’er stood and looked over at the people in the beds on either side.

“Please look after them.”

Who Feng Jiu’er meant, the two physicians surely knew.

Xuepiao was different from the others — far too withdrawn. What happened today counted as something quite serious for her.

… Ordinarily she simply did what needed doing and slept when it was time to sleep; her days were plain, without the slightest ripple.

Tonight though, she had both been frightened to tears and frightened into fainting.

Perhaps if tonight’s events had happened to someone else, the outcome would have been entirely different.

But as luck would have it, the person Yu Jingfeng had run into was Leng Xuepiao, a woman with a small psychological affliction.

As Feng Jiu’er walked out of the room and turned back to close the door, she glanced once more at Leng Xuepiao.

Was tonight’s incident a blessing or a curse? Who could say for certain?

Perhaps Yu Jingfeng’s intrusion would actually help Xuepiao’s condition.

It wasn’t that Feng Jiu’er had never thought of treating Leng Xuepiao — she simply hadn’t found the right method or opportunity.

Leng Xuepiao’s reaction tonight was exactly what she had hoped to see.

Perhaps, once the first step was taken, a second would follow. If so, all the better.

The next day, Feng Jiu’er went to see Yue Jianfei and Tang Xiaohua, then came once more to the makeshift pharmacy.

Sixty thousand lives were waiting; the matter of Chen Hong could wait a little longer.

The moment Feng Jiu’er arrived at the courtyard, Yu Jingfeng stepped forward and asked, “Ninth Miss, will you be staying here again today?”

“Mm.” Feng Jiu’er lifted her gaze to look at him and nodded. “Xuepiao should be in the main hall. Do you want to go see her?”

“No need.” A somewhat forced smile lifted at the corners of Yu Jingfeng’s mouth. “I need to go grind the medicine.”

“Ninth Miss, whenever you’re about to leave, you must let me know.”

“Mm.” Feng Jiu’er nodded again and waved a hand. “Go on then.”

Yu Jingfeng nodded gravely, turned, and walked off in the other direction.

When Feng Jiu’er walked into the main hall, she found Leng Xuepiao there, sure enough.

Not just her — Xiao Yingtao, Feng Yinan, and Yue Qinchun were there too, along with the other five physicians who had been studying the matter since the day before.

Hearing the door open, everyone glanced back.

“Jiu’er, you’re here.” Xiao Yingtao only glanced at her briefly before turning her attention back. “Yes, and this herb too — Qinchun, write it all down.”

“Jiu’er.”

“Ninth Miss.”

“Ninth Miss.”

Everyone greeted Feng Jiu’er one after another.

“Mm.” Feng Jiu’er nodded and came to stand beside Xiao Yingtao. “So, have you worked out any results?”

The night before, they had settled on the main ingredients needed to produce the antidote, but the exact quantities and many other details still hadn’t been worked out.

For instance, regarding the water to be used — when plain well water would do, and when morning dew was required, and so on.

Successfully developing the antidote would still take a great deal of effort, and would likely involve repeated failures along the way.

Fortunately, Feng Jiu’er understood a great deal about which medicines counteracted each other, so there was no need to use people to test the drugs.

On the rare occasions testing was truly necessary, they only ever used rodents.

“Almost there.” Xiao Yingtao nodded. “Jiu’er, come give us your opinion.”

“We’ve confirmed we’re missing a few of the herbs — I’ve already told Xing Zizhou to send people out to find them.”

“Mm.” Feng Jiu’er sat down and leaned her head over toward Yue Qinchun’s side.

As Xiao Yingtao and the others kept discussing, Feng Jiu’er offered opinions from time to time.

This discussion went on for a full half a day.

It wasn’t until past noon that the hungry group finally emerged from the hall.

A steady “chak, chak, chak” sound had rung out on and off for a long while, and few had paid it any attention.

But when those inside came out, they saw a man sitting on the wooden steps at one side of the courtyard.

He held between both hands a pestle as thick as his own arm, diligently grinding herbs in a stone mortar.

He gave a few thumps of “thunk, thunk,” then began the “chak, chak, chak” grinding again.