Fellow Disciples

All the children who passed the selection were sent to a small courtyard within the Herb Gathering Hall. The courtyard contained over a dozen large stone houses, specifically designated for the residence of the herb-gathering apprentices.

Ye Qin was led away to bathe, discarded his tattered hemp rags, and changed into a set of coarse cloth robes for new apprentices before being assigned to one of the stone houses in the south courtyard. He collapsed onto his bed and slept for the entire afternoon. It was only at dusk, when the aroma of dinner wafted in, that he was startled awake.

Only then did Ye Qin notice there were four other apprentices in the stone house: two boys and two girls. They were chatting and laughing while eating rice. They were all dressed in coarse cloth robes and had bathed just like Ye Qin, making it impossible to discern their backgrounds.

On the table inside the stone house sat a rice bucket, several large platters of green vegetables, and five sets of bowls and chopsticks. One set was still empty. Realizing it was his, Ye Qin immediately scrambled up and rushed over to grab his bowl and food. If he were any later, he feared all the food would be devoured. After all, having spent twenty-odd days here, almost every child had learned the necessity of fighting for their meals.

Ye Qin was no different; the mere scent of the food was enough to jolt him awake from his dreams.

A tall, sturdy boy with a tiger-like, spirited face saw Ye Qin's anxious expression and pointed at him with a laugh, "Haha, look at how anxious this kid is. No need to scramble, there's plenty of food here. We don't have to eat hard buns or watery porridge that tastes like nothing anymore; now we have brown rice and vegetables, and we can eat our fill. What are we now? We're official disciples of the Herb Gathering Hall. We're destined for greatness, so why would we need to fight over a bit of food?"

"Exactly, be careful not to choke."

A thin, small boy beside him, whose eyes glinted with cleverness, chimed in. The other two girls held their rice bowls and watched Ye Qin with amused smiles, making him feel so ashamed he almost wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground.

However, although Ye Qin felt embarrassed, his hands didn't slow down in the slightest as he shoveled rice into his mouth. He hadn't eaten all day and was famished; even if no one were competing with him, he would still have eaten as quickly as possible.

The two boys were particularly talkative, each taking turns to keep the conversation flowing.

Soon, Ye Qin learned their names from their idle chatter.

The tall, sturdy boy was Yang Yicheng, twelve years old, the son of a local blacksmith in the county town. Having followed his father in smithing since childhood, he had developed a sturdy, muscular frame.

The clever boy was Feng Xiao, eleven years old, the son of a tenant farmer from near the county town. The other two girls, eleven-year-old Qian Ruoxiu and ten-year-old Sun Ying, were also from the county town, where their families worked as tailors and weavers.

Ye Qin was surprised to discover that all four of them were commoners from within or within ten miles of Zhuqi County; not a single one was from the countryside.

Only he had come from a poor, remote backwater hundreds of miles away, deep in the mountains and gullies. Subconsciously, a sense of inferiority welled up within Ye Qin. Compared to his own impoverished origins, the fact that these four lived in the county town meant their family circumstances were already quite decent.

In fact, the recruitment drive for herb-gathering apprentices at the Zhuqi County Herb Gathering Hall only extended to a range of a few dozen miles around the town; they never went to remote rural areas to recruit. If Ye Qin hadn't accidentally overheard the news from the officials at the post station shelter, he likely never would have come to the county town.

"Hey, blank-faced kid, what's your name? How old are you, and where are you from?" Yang Yicheng asked bluntly.

"Ye Qin, eleven years old, from... from a family nearby."

Hearing them all report their names, Ye Qin felt he couldn't hide his own. However, he didn't want them to know he came from such a remote mountain gully, lest he face their discrimination, so he gave a deliberately vague answer. Ten miles counted as nearby, and hundreds of miles also counted as nearby—both were within the scope of Zhuqi County, so he wasn't technically lying.

Yang Yicheng didn't press for details on where exactly Ye Qin was from and laughed, "Ye Qin? Haha, what a strange name. What does that 'Qin' character mean? It's not as good as my name—Yicheng, 'Success in One Go,' haha! My old man is so talented to have given me such a great name; sure enough, I got into the Herb Gathering Hall on the first try."

Feng Xiao awkwardly rubbed his nose; his name, "Xiao" (Small), had no special meaning at all. It was simply because he was the third child in his family—the eldest was Feng Da, the second was Feng Zhong, and he, the third, just happened to get the character for 'small.'

The names of Qian Ruoxiu and Sun Ying had been requested from the scholars at the county academy.

Ye Qin explained timidly, "I don't know what 'Qin' means either. But ten generations ago, my Ye ancestors produced a scholar who left behind a book with words in it, which is still kept on our family's ancestral altar. My father picked a character from that book for me, and it was this 'Qin'."

Yang Yicheng, Feng Xiao, Qian Ruoxiu, and Sun Ying all widened their eyes in astonishment.

The Ye family had actually produced a scholar? Even if it was ten generations ago, that was remarkable; it was a symbol of status and standing, completely different from them, whose ancestors had been commoners for hundreds of generations. They immediately looked at Ye Qin with newfound respect, not daring to underestimate him in the slightest, and even their tone of voice became much more humble. They no longer dared to call him "kid" so casually.

Ye Qin couldn't help but feel secretly amused. His ancestors had indeed produced a scholar, but that was ages ago; now, they were just a poor hunting family in an old mountain gully.

Yang Yicheng and the others began talking about the medicine-testing process, discussing how terrifying it had been. Soon, they realized that all five people living in this stone house had passed the test under Herbalist Wang and were his disciples. They would all be training under him in the future, which was why they had been assigned to the same room.

Yang Yicheng was overjoyed.

"Ha, that means we're all fellow disciples from the same batch, taught by the same master! I'm the oldest, so from now on, I'm your senior brother. A-Qin is second, A-Xiao is third, A-Xiu is fourth, and A-Ying is fifth. That's how it's settled; from now on, we'll address each other as fellow disciples!"

Feng Xiao was somewhat dissatisfied with this ranking. "I'm clearly a few months older than A-Qin, so why am I third?"

"If your ancestors had a scholar, then the second spot would be yours!" Yang Yicheng glared at him, and Feng Xiao immediately had nothing more to say.

Qian Ruoxiu and Sun Ying had no objections, as they were indeed younger.

In less than half a day, the five of them grew familiar with one another, and the initial sense of strangeness vanished. After dark, Yang Yicheng and the others continued to talk excitedly. They spoke of the prestige of the Herb Gathering Hall and the trivial affairs of Zhuqi County. Being locals, they knew a great deal, and being young, they spoke without any reservations. Furthermore, having become apprentices of the Herb Gathering Hall, they felt their futures were boundless and were filled with ambition, eager to show their worth and become people of status.

Ye Qin rarely joined in; he was still a stranger in Zhuqi County and could only listen silently. He didn't have any particular thoughts in his heart right now, other than wanting to earn a living at the Herb Gathering Hall.

Moreover, his thoughts were mostly on Da Niu, and he wondered where he might be now. Once he had the chance, he would definitely go looking for him.

With this thought in mind, he gradually drifted off to sleep.