"What nonsense are you spouting here!"
Liu Ahua was getting carried away. Seeing the crowd gathered around her filled her with an inexplicable pride.
She felt as though she were the center of the world, and all these ignorant people ought to bow at her feet.
As she talked, a sudden pain struck her shoulder. She screamed and turned, only to see a frail old woman standing behind her, her face livid with anger.
"Whose wife are you? How dare you spread rumors here?"
Granny Cui was eighty that year. She had enjoyed a happy childhood, and both her father and mother had passed the highest imperial examination. From a young age, they had told her to study hard so that she could better serve her country someday.
Unfortunately, Granny Cui had never been interested in studying. She preferred clicking away at an abacus.
Her parents had not forced her to settle down and study, either.
After she married, she treated her sons and daughters equally. Unfortunately, they seemed to have inherited her aversion to studying, and every one of them grew drowsy at the sight of a book.
Luckily, two of her grandchildren loved reading, and she paid to send them to the best academy.
Her youngest granddaughter was more interested in medicine. Granny Cui had sent people to make inquiries and learned that although the famous physicians in the Capital took apprentices, whether they taught them any real skills depended on their mood.
She had looked into every famous physician in Capital City before finally finding the most accommodating one. Only after she paid him a large sum did he agree to take her granddaughter as an apprentice.
Her granddaughter had studied under him for three years. Apart from recognizing more medicinal herbs than the average person, she