The Doctor once again strengthened his resolve and quickened his pace toward the Dumb House. He took a deep breath and pushed open that carved door, only to see someone wearing an old-fashioned Zhongshan suit sitting quietly behind the counter. Upon hearing the door, the person looked up at him.

Such a scene left the Doctor somewhat stunned and confused, but when he clearly saw the other person’s appearance, he couldn’t help feeling immensely disappointed.

“Welcome… so you came.” Lu Zigang put away the fake welcoming smile on his face and carefully laid the book in his hands flat on the counter. It was an ancient text, and although he possessed memories from his past life, reading traditional Chinese characters was still somewhat difficult.

“I came.” The Doctor wasn’t polite with him either. He sat in the yellow rosewood official’s hat chair and grabbed the teapot from the counter, pouring tea directly into his mouth. The hot tea in the pot was just the right temperature, warming the Doctor’s somewhat frozen body. Speaking of which, it was strange – though the Dumb House had no air conditioning installed, it was warm in winter and cool in summer, extremely comfortable.

Lu Zigang wrinkled his nose in disgust at the Doctor’s crude tea-drinking habits, thinking to himself: this guy had been dragged around and cultivated by the Boss for three or four years – how had he not absorbed even a bit of refined elegance? At least he could fake it to fool people like himself!

“Tch, not as good as what the Boss brews.” The Doctor, completely unaware of Lu Zigang’s mental complaints, finished all the tea in the pot and smacked his lips to comment.

Lu Zigang’s face darkened briefly, deciding not to bother with this guy. He put the thread-bound book into a brocade box, touched the longevity lock under his shirt at his chest, and calmly announced: “By the way, I plan to stop using the Luoshu Nine Stars Compass from now on.”

“Ah?” The Doctor was startled and quickly asked, “Did you find a more reliable compass? That’s great – saves us from wandering around different dynasties. Well, though seeing the Boss from the past is nice, not being able to approach and greet him is quite painful!”

“There are no other compasses.” Lu Zigang turned to look at the Doctor, speaking frankly.

“…Then are there other ways to find the Boss’s whereabouts?” The Doctor pushed his glasses up his nose bridge, sensing something strange about Lu Zigang’s attitude today, causing his smile to stiffen.

“No.” Lu Zigang spread his hands, indicating his helplessness. “Actually, the idea of wanting to bring the Boss back was wrong from the start. The Boss’s message to me was to help him mind the store – there’s no need to insist on finding him and bringing him back.”

“…That’s not the truth.” The Doctor put away his smile, examining Lu Zigang before him with the sharp gaze used for looking at X-rays. “What did you do?”

Lu Zigang pressed his lips together, thinking of those jade jump-off bracelets he had carefully carved. They were probably on some ancient artifact scholar’s desk right now, with their final destination being some museum display case. Before his eyes kept appearing that beautiful face’s final smile looking at him, as if carved into his heart, never to be erased.

He didn’t know what kind of feeling this was, but he felt he’d rather forget it.

How ridiculous – he had originally wanted to dispel the past-life resentment tangled in his mind, but it seemed he had instead trapped himself in a cocoon.

“I didn’t do anything.” Lu Zigang took a deep breath and rarely offered advice: “Haven’t you been promoted to full doctor? I can guess how heavy the burden and pressure of cardiothoracic surgery is even without experiencing it. You’ve barely come to the Dumb House a few times this past month. Look at your complexion – in the hospital, you probably look more like a seriously ill patient. Forget the Boss and live well. He’s almost an omnipotent person. I don’t think there’s any need to worry about him. Maybe one day he’ll just return as if nothing happened.”

The Doctor looked down at his hands – these hands that remained steady even when cutting blood vessels of the human body’s most important organs were now trembling slightly.

Lu Zigang actually didn’t understand the Doctor’s persistence. Whether in his past life or this life, the Boss he had encountered was someone he looked up to, who didn’t need anyone’s companionship or salvation.

“That’s not right.”

The Doctor’s voice was somewhat unclear. Lu Zigang was startled and instinctively asked: “Not right about what?”

The Doctor clenched his still-trembling hands, not knowing how to express the emotions rising from his heart.

That person had lived alone and strong for over two thousand years. Though he seemed omnipotent, his heart was actually extremely fragile. Although searching for Fu Su’s reincarnations had been the reason the Boss could endure all along, that person loved from the bottom of his heart those objects that had various joys, sorrows, and emotions but couldn’t speak of them.

If… if even the Dumb House could be entrusted to others, then it meant he had truly abandoned everything and might very well never return…

That person… was actually just like those speechless antiques – no matter how much suffering and sorrow he had, he would only bury it in his heart and never speak of it…

“It’s not what you think.” The Doctor raised his head again, this time speaking much louder, with restless anxiety.

He always felt that the Boss’s departure without a word would put him in great danger, or perhaps something had happened to Fu Su and the Boss might not want to continue living. That person already had world-weary thoughts… The more the Doctor thought, the more agitated he became, but when he met Lu Zigang’s bewildered gaze, he couldn’t help feeling dejected.

This person didn’t understand the Boss at all – there was no way to communicate! Thinking of how Lu Zigang was making excuses to refuse searching for the Boss, the Doctor suddenly felt his blood rushing, stood up angrily and slammed the counter, questioning impolitely: “Why won’t you look for the Boss? Is it because with the Boss gone, you can embezzle all the antiques in the Dumb House?”

Lu Zigang’s handsome face changed, his gaze immediately becoming sharp.

This was simply an insult to him! If not for the Boss’s message asking him to come take care of the Dumb House, why would he have quit his well-paid, promising job at the National Museum? What standing did this person have to accuse him?

As soon as the words left the Doctor’s mouth, he knew he had said the wrong thing. Seeing Lu Zigang press his lips together, face pale and full of anger but saying nothing, he couldn’t find words to smooth things over.

Just when the atmosphere was extremely awkward, the carved door opened with a creak.

A hoarse voice came with laughter: “Oh my, what are you all arguing about? Who wants to embezzle the Dumb House? Please donate it all to the museum! I beg you! I must beg you!”

The Doctor rubbed his slightly aching temples and sighed: “It’s all my loose tongue. Museum Director Uncle, don’t add to the chaos. Didn’t you go to Kunming for recuperation? Are you back because you’re better? Do you want me to arrange another check-up at the hospital?”

The newcomer was the Museum Director who hadn’t visited the Dumb House in a long time. This gentleman looked somewhat older than before the New Year. This time he had changed to a chicken-wing wood dragon-bone walking stick, giving him an elegant bearing that others couldn’t match.

“Old problems with my legs and feet – don’t trouble yourself.” The Director smiled cheerfully, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting a strange light as he raised his head. He smiled and asked Lu Zigang behind the counter: “Little Lu, how did you end up minding the store? Where’s the Boss? Come, explain it to your uncle.”

Lu Zigang’s expression softened somewhat due to the Director’s interruption, but he still looked at the Doctor with an indifferent gaze.

The Doctor knew that with the Director here today, there was no hope of discussing the compass matter. Moreover, his mental state really wasn’t good – staying longer would probably offend everyone completely. He could only sigh: “I’ll come again another day. I won’t change my mind about that matter.” With that, he turned and left without any pause.

“Eh? What matter, Little Lu? Tell me quickly!” The Director was greatly interested in gossip and persistently asked.

Lu Zigang watched the Doctor’s figure disappear around the street corner through the wooden carved window lattice, and only then did his fist, which had been tightly clenched under the counter, slowly relax.

He looked down at the crescent-shaped marks his nails had made in his palm and smiled: “Nothing serious, really. It’ll be resolved soon.”

“Bizi, is there anything that can make people forget memories?” Fu Su took off the long robe he was wearing and changed into a shirt and jeans for going out, asking seemingly casually.

“There are many, but they generally make people forget all past events completely, like newborn babies. I rarely use this kind – it’s more like harming people.” The Boss said flatly. He had already packed his things and originally wanted to help Fu Su dress, but the latter refused. Thinking about it, though his Highness wore long robes when staying indoors this year, he had lived in modern society for a while before – how could he not know how to wear modern clothes?

“Then is there anything that can make people retain most memories but specifically forget one person who appeared in their life?” Fu Su slowly buttoned his shirt. His movements were gentle and efficient, revealing enviable elegance from his hair to his fingertips.

The Boss squinted and thought, then honestly said: “There is indeed. Mix someone’s hair into Hengwu incense, light it and let the person smell it, and you can erase that person’s traces from their memory.”

“Hengwu incense?” Fu Su raised an eyebrow. “What kind of incense is this? It actually has such effects?”

“In the north there is a beautiful lady, peerless and independent. One glance topples a city, another glance topples a nation.”

The Boss’s melodious voice echoed in the alchemy chamber, as if recalling something in his words. After a long while, he smiled faintly: “The peerless beauty described in this poem is Emperor Wu of Han’s Consort Li.”

Fu Su had thoroughly read history books and smiled upon hearing this: “The woman who wouldn’t let Liu Che see her sickly appearance before dying, later making Emperor Wu of Han, who had seen all the world’s beauties, unable to forget her. She was quite cunning.”

“Exactly that Consort Li. After her death, Emperor Wu of Han once dreamed of her entering his dreams and giving him Hengwu incense. When Emperor Wu woke, he searched everywhere but couldn’t find it, yet smelled a fragrance that lasted endlessly.”

“Actually, that wasn’t Emperor Wu of Han dreaming – it was Empress Wei who, wanting Emperor Wu to forget Consort Li, deliberately lit Hengwu incense. But Consort Li had calculated everything – how could she possibly let Empress Wei get her real hair? After this dream, Emperor Wu became even more obsessively longing for her.”

“This could make for quite a dramatic palace intrigue series. So, you also have that Hengwu incense?”

The Boss went over to adjust Fu Su’s collar and handed him the cashmere sweater nearby: “I only have a small piece of Hengwu incense. After so long, it’s already become powder. In the past, if I wanted someone to forget me, I’d burn a furnace of Hengwu incense for them, while I’d smell prepared Hengwu incense pills so I wouldn’t be affected.”

Fu Su touched his shoulder-length hair, half-jokingly saying: “This is troublesome. Even if you mixed this body’s hair into Hengwu incense for you to smell, it’s not my real body – you still couldn’t forget me.”

The Boss smiled even more fakely. How could he not know what Fu Su was thinking? Since he had asked so clearly, he was naturally warning him not to use it on him. The Boss reached out and removed the mask from Fu Su’s face, then combed down his overly long bangs to cover the burned half of his face.

The intense gaze persisted. The Boss sighed softly and, meeting Fu Su’s serious eyes, had to promise: “I know your concerns. Don’t worry, I won’t burn Hengwu incense again.”

Fu Su smiled with satisfaction. He really feared the Boss would make some life-for-life exchange and finally light a furnace of Hengwu incense to make him forget completely.

For some people, forgetting might be a good choice, but doing so without their knowledge would be quite unfair.

Acting under the banner of thinking it’s good for others, making decisions for them without their knowledge – this is simply well-intentioned meddling that causes harm.