Yu Bu'e had no idea why meeting Luo Feixuan's gaze made him nervous.
It was like getting caught after doing something bad.
Luo Feixuan glanced in the direction Song Ziyu had left, her tone betraying no emotion.
"Actually, you have a point. If she hadn't worn a cheongsam, you wouldn't have noticed what a great figure she had!"
"Mm... that's true!"
Luo Feixuan's expression turned cold.
"All right, come with me."
With that, she turned and left, unable to get the insults she wanted to say out of her mouth...
Yu Bu'e was still wondering why Luo Feixuan had shown up after school when she didn't seem to have attended classes that day.
Had she come specifically to see him?
He followed Luo Feixuan across the road and got into a black Bentley.
"Huh? You got a new car?"
Then he looked toward the front and grew even more surprised.
"A new driver, too?"
Luo Feixuan glanced at him and gave a soft huff, then watched him out of the corner of her eye.
He ran his hand over the seat and clicked his tongue twice.
"Nice! This seat is so comfortable! Classmate Luo, your life is my dream!"
Luo Feixuan: "..."
She wondered whether she hadn't made her displeasure obvious enough.
"By the way, where are we going?" Yu Bu'e finally got around to asking the important question.
"Only now do you think to ask? Hah, I'm going to sell you to a rich woman. Better get ready for the steel wool she'll use on you," Luo Feixuan snapped.
Yu Bu'e looked at her in bewilderment.
He seemed unable to believe those words had come from the mouth of Luo, the school beauty.
She blushed a little herself, hastily looking away and changing the subject. "You'll find out soon. Get some rest first."
Yu Bu'e nodded and turned to look at the scenery outside the window.
Nearly an hour later, the Bentley turned into a dim alley.
It was dark by then, and the alley's dull yellow streetlights were spaced far apart.
Low buildings surrounded them, and the sewer beside them gave off an unpleasant smell.
As a born-and-bred resident of Fish City, Yu Bu'e naturally knew this was the old district.
Following Luo Feixuan, he ducked into another narrow alley.
Old single-story houses lined both sides, their age plain to see. The ground underfoot was riddled with potholes, making it easy to imagine what the place looked like when it rained.
After walking a little over twenty meters, Luo Feixuan stopped. "We're here."
Yu Bu'e turned to look. The weathered wooden doors were mottled with age, their two halves weren't even the same height, and the frame had warped.
Someone had used a calligraphy brush to write "Medical clinic" from right to left across the double doors.
He looked back and forth, struggling to understand why anyone would open a clinic in a place like this.
Before he could speak, Luo Feixuan had already climbed the steps and knocked gently on the door.
Before long, footsteps sounded inside, followed by the noise of a stiff door bolt being yanked open.
The wooden door opened to reveal a girl with an oval face. She looked about sixteen or seventeen, stood roughly 165 centimeters tall, and wore a gray side-fastening shirt and cloth shoes.
Her eyes immediately lit up at the sight of her visitors. She hurried over the threshold and caught Luo Feixuan by the hand.
"Feixuan! What brings you here?"
"I came to see Grandpa Guan. Has he gone to bed?"
"Not yet! Come on in!"
The two seemed very familiar with each other. The girl glanced back at Yu Bu'e, curiosity in her eyes.
"Feixuan, who's this? Your boyfriend?"
Luo Feixuan glanced back at Yu Bu'e and gave a soft huff.
"Just a classmate."
"Oh, okay!"
Yu Bu'e looked around as they crossed the front courtyard. A water vat stood in the middle, and a raised flower bed built against the courtyard wall held quite a few plants.
When they entered one of the single-story rooms, the first thing he saw was a cabinet of medicine drawers set against the wall.
There were also plenty of medicine stoves and pots beside it, with a long table in the middle. Everything looked rather old.
Several certificates hung on the wall amid the peeling plaster, all bearing the name "Guan Jinchu." Beside them were several commemorative banners.
[Healing the world, a peerless master of Chinese medicine]
[Thank you, Elder Guan, for saving my sorry hide]
[Your healing hands work miracles, Dr. Guan!]
The corner of Yu Bu'e's mouth twitched.
"Wait here, Feixuan. I'll go get Grandpa!"
With that, the girl went out through the back door.
Only then did Yu Bu'e ask, "Classmate Luo, why did you bring me here?"
"People come here either for treatment or to pick up medicine!"
"But I'm not sick..." Yu Bu'e thought that, at most, he'd been needing to pee a little more often over the past two days.
"It's for Body-Tempering Medicine," Luo Feixuan said irritably.
Realization dawned on Yu Bu'e.
"Are you sure we should buy it here?" He trusted Luo Feixuan, but this place looked... a little off.
Luo Feixuan lowered her voice. "Elder Guan is a good friend of my maternal grandfather. Not only is he a brilliant doctor, he's also an outstanding Pill Alchemist.
"He just has a bad temper, so watch what you say. Whatever you do, don't offend him. He's usually hard to track down, and he just happens to have returned to Fish City these past few days."
Just as she finished speaking, an old man with a coat draped over his shoulders ambled in, followed by the girl from earlier.
"Grandpa Guan!" Luo Feixuan hurried forward.
The old man looked about seventy. His hair was silver, his posture straight, and he was full of vigor. His eyes in particular were remarkably clear, without the slightest trace of cloudiness.
He looked at Luo Feixuan, smiling and nodding gently, before turning to Yu Bu'e.
"When Jinchu said you'd brought a boy, I didn't believe her. Our little girl really has grown up."
Luo Feixuan looked a little embarrassed. "He's my classmate. We'd like you to prepare some Body-Tempering Medicine for his medicinal bath, Grandpa Guan."
Yu Bu'e hurried forward, his tone respectful. "Hello, Grandpa Guan."
The old man looked at Yu Bu'e and nodded slightly, then sat behind the long table.
"Come here. Sit down."
Yu Bu'e immediately stepped forward and sat opposite him.
"Hold out your hand."
Yu Bu'e obediently rested his right forearm on the cushion on the table.
The old man gripped his wrist firmly, though it seemed less like taking his pulse and more like feeling his bones.
Yu Bu'e wasn't sure whether he was imagining it, but his arm seemed to grow slightly warm.
Just as he tried to focus on the sensation, the old man let go, stood up, took out some mulberry-bark paper, and opened the medicine drawers to gather the ingredients.
Yu Bu'e glanced at the small balance beside him and asked quietly, "Do you really not need to weigh anything?"
"Grandpa always measures his herbs by the handful! That balance is for me," the oval-faced girl said at once.
Yu Bu'e could only nod. Whatever works. Just don't kill me.
After working for a while, the old man tossed two packets of medicine onto the table.
"One packet per use, ten days apart. Pay up!"
Yu Bu'e quickly took out his phone and aimed it at the QR code stuck to the lower-left corner of the table.
"Just give me a million," the old man added.
Yu Bu'e was about to enter the amount when he jerked his head up, eyes wide. "How much?!"
"One million. Is that a lot?" The old man was growing impatient.
"..." Yu Bu'e sighed. "Sir, how about turning on the lights? This place... is far too shady."
"..." The old man coughed softly. "Then look up. Is it darker than my face right now?"
Before you continue