Zhang Xiaohua returned the shopkeeper's brush, ink, and other items, then eagerly went to a pharmacy to fill the prescription, never knowing that he had already given himself away before them.
Though the sky had darkened and cooking smoke rose everywhere, many shops had lit their lamps and remained open for customers. The pharmacy was no exception. Naturally, Zhang Xiaohua did not return to the medical hall from earlier, but casually entered another one. The shop assistant was not very busy. Taking the prescription Zhang Xiaohua handed over, he merely frowned slightly, without showing the least surprise. In this market town, while some people came with neatly written prescriptions from physicians, even more came like Zhang Xiaohua—asking someone to copy a prescription for them, or copying it themselves before buying medicine. Zhang Xiaohua's crab-like handwriting could only broaden the assistant's horizons; it served no other purpose at all.
After taking the medicine the assistant had prepared, Zhang Xiaohua paid the silver and left. He casually tossed his "masterpiece" into the shop's rubbish bin. Meanwhile, back at the inn, Nie Qianyu smiled as she explained to the baffled Xiao Juzi, "Xiao Juzi, I have always taught you to pay more attention to the details. You must know that details determine success or failure. Didn't you hear Ren Xiaoyao constantly saying that he had only studied the Three Character Classic for three months? Yet he did not know that his handwriting had exposed an enormous flaw!"
"Really, Miss? I thought his writing was truly terrible. Even copying your characters stroke for stroke, it still looked ugly beyond belief. Did you see that he was faking it?"
"No. Those characters were precisely his true standard. It was because he had not faked them that I could see through him."
"Oh, Miss, please stop