Their daughter disguised herself as a young manservant and secretly hid in the herb-gathering team to escape. By the time Bai Zhenshan discovered it, the group had already traveled five hundred li forward.

Bai Zhenshan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He wanted to send her back, but she pressed a carving knife against her own throat, coldly biting out two words:

“Send me!”

In the letter Bai Zhenshan wrote to him, he said—

“Master, this child doesn’t even fear death. Better to let her have her way.”

This indulgence lasted four years.

Bai Zhenshan sent a letter every half month. In four years, that girl only wrote one letter, containing only one line—

Father, Mother, your daughter is well. Don’t worry.

Four years later, when their daughter returned, even her eyes were different from before. Her speech and actions were a hundred times more composed than previously.

Even if you jumped around anxiously beside her, at most she’d lift her eyelids and glance at you indifferently.

As for medical skills?

The Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles technique alone was beyond even his reach.

The key to the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles lay in needle use.

One inch deeper or shallower in needle depth, one degree heavier or lighter in force—the effects would all be different.

Their daughter didn’t keep secrets. Upon returning, she taught him the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles.

Unfortunately, his needle technique was still a bit inferior to his daughter’s.

Later, from Bai Zhenshan’s mouth, he learned that during those four years, she’d stopped carving wood and begun carving seals from stone, even producing quite impressive results.

Shen Wei looked at the calluses covering his daughter’s hands and couldn’t help but sigh with emotion: The effortless grace of needle insertion was backed by painstaking effort.

When asked about her experiences during those four years, she only said four words: “Apprenticed to learn skills.”

Nothing else would she say.

It was Bai Zhenshan who told him their daughter had studied in the mountains for two years, then spent another two years running around with him all over the land.

Wherever they went, she’d disguise herself as a patient and seek out local physicians.

If the physician had ordinary skills, she’d see them once and leave.

If the physician had exceptional skills, she’d disguise herself three times.

She most loved rural physicians in the mountains and fields, saying rural physicians used folk methods that looked unrefined but were most practical, without any showy flourishes.

Finally, Bai Zhenshan let out the same sigh as him—

“Master, if only she were a boy! The Shen family would be number one in the capital!”

“If I’d known, I shouldn’t have let Lady Pu go to any Taoist temple when pregnant with this child. Why bear a daughter?”

Even though so many years had passed, what Shen Wei regretted most was still this matter.

In the main hall, silence fell.

Xie Zhifei and Pei Xiao exchanged glances, both simultaneously thinking: Good thing Hero Li wasn’t here. Otherwise, hearing these words, she’d have started berating him directly.

After the two exchanged looks, they turned to look at Yan Sanhe, only to see her face very calm.

Calm?

Yan Sanhe’s anger was buried in her heart.

Before resolving the Ji family’s heart demon, she’d told the Ji family to find someone called Li Buyan. She hadn’t specified whether this Li Buyan was male or female…

As a result, they’d searched according to male.

Just as this world couldn’t believe Li Buyan was a woman, no one believed that Yan Sanhe, who performed spirit transference and resolved demons for the dead, was also a woman.

Naturally, this world also couldn’t tolerate a woman with exceptional medical skills.

They’d only lament: Why isn’t she a son? If only she were a son!

“What happened after she returned?”

Yan Sanhe asked flatly: “What else occurred?”

“After she returned, through fortunate circumstances, she saved a noble person from the palace.”

Shen Wei said slowly: “Later she was invited to the palace to serve as a female physician. Still later, she entered the Crown Prince’s residence.”

Yan Sanhe shook her head almost imperceptibly.

When reaching the critical point, this old man stopped telling the truth.

“Who did she save? What method did she use?”

Shen Wei’s entire expression changed. “Miss Yan, must you ask so meticulously?”

“It’s not me asking. It’s those wronged souls asking.”

“She saved… saved the Late Crown Prince’s legitimate son, using the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles.”

“Strange.”

Yan Sanhe deliberately made a “tsk” sound. “How would people in the palace know the old imperial physician’s daughter could use the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles?”

“I said it.”

Shen Wei’s head drooped. “I was the one who said she could use the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles.”

“Why would you say that?” Yan Sanhe suddenly asked.

The Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles could save lives, but if not done properly, one’s own life could be sacrificed.

Shen Duruo was the Shen family’s only daughter. No matter how benevolent Shen Wei’s physician’s heart was, he couldn’t possibly let his daughter take such a risk.

If she couldn’t save the patient, not only would Shen Duruo lose her life, the Shen family would suffer as well.

Moreover, Pei Yu said he was on good terms with Prince Zhao.

“I… I didn’t want her to practice medicine.”

His daughter Shen Wei, the Shen family’s only miss—twenty years old and still unmarried was one thing, but to also show her face in public? Did the Shen family want any dignity left?

What would relatives, friends, and colleagues say?

“Wrong. Old Imperial Physician, you’re still not telling the truth.”

Yan Sanhe said without mercy: “When she left that note and ran off with Bai Zhenshan, the Shen family’s dignity was already gone.”

“You…”

“If you don’t tell the truth, Zhu Yuanmo and I will have no way to explain the causes and consequences to those wronged souls.”

Yan Sanhe was quite skilled at frightening people: “Right now those wronged souls are still in that courtyard. If they come looking for the Shen residence later…”

Shen Wei’s breathing suddenly became rapid, making wheezing sounds from his mouth.

“Just now you said you harmed her, harmed the Shen family.”

Yan Sanhe’s gaze was sharp. “Old Imperial Physician, with matters at this point, are you still hiding things? Do you want to harm the Shen family again?”

Shen Wei seemed to have his throat gripped, forcing out words one by one.

“I said it deliberately.”

“What was your deliberate purpose?”

Shen Wei lowered his head in shame: “I wanted her to help the Shen family.”

As these words fell, all four people in the room were somewhat shocked. Shouldn’t it have been for Prince Zhao’s grand enterprise?

All eyes focused on Yan Sanhe.

Yan Sanhe pressed her hand downward, indicating they should hold their fire and listen to how he’d continue.

Shen Wei’s expression showed considerable pain.

“I have four sons, but not one person, not one person could steadily take over the Shen family business.”

The eldest had some talent, but his temperament was too lively—from childhood he couldn’t settle down.

The second not only lacked talent but also refused to work hard.

The third and fourth’s aptitude was too poor—neither was material for becoming an imperial physician.

Whenever Shen Wei thought about this, he worried so much he couldn’t sleep at night.

Though he had a position at the Imperial Medical Academy, without successors, it was all for naught. One day he’d grow old and die.

Medical families emphasized inheritance.

Like the Pei family—every generation always had an outstanding person to shoulder the burden.

The previous generation was Pei Yu.

The next generation was Pei Jing.

Even though Pei Jing was born of a concubine, his father had long been paving the way for him to enter the Imperial Medical Academy.

Everyone in the capital knew the Pei family had a Young Physician Pei with extraordinary medical skills who would inherit his father’s profession in the future.

Since his sons weren’t suitable, he looked for prospects among his grandsons.

Who knew that after observation, those grandsons couldn’t even compare to their fathers—they simply weren’t cut out for studying medicine.

All the Shen family’s good fortune seemed to have fallen on their youngest daughter alone.

But how could a woman shoulder the family business?