The door was pushed open.
Shen Ling'er stood at the door with her medicine box on her back and a medicine bowl in her hand. The wind outside made her skirt stick to her calves.
As she entered, she first looked at Gu Moran's face, then at the two envelopes on the table.
One of them wasn't fully closed yet.
A corner of the paper peeked out, revealing two characters illuminated by the lamplight.
Wen Heng.
That's her mother's name.
Shen Ling'er stopped in her tracks.
The image flashed into my mind.
When she was little, she asked her grandfather for the first time why everyone else had parents, but she didn't have any.
Grandpa locked the medicine box three times, coaxed her with sweet cakes, and told her that her parents were highly skilled doctors who traveled far and wide.
She kept asking why she wasn't taken along.
Elder Shen didn't answer, but instead stuffed a piece of sweet cake into her mouth.
That sweet cake was so sweet that she remembered it for many years.
Shen Ling'er placed the medicine bowl on the table.
A soft sound came from the bottom of the bowl, and a bitter taste rose from the steam.
"Husband, are you hiding something from me again?"
Gu Moran pressed the cover down half an inch under his sleeve.
There are too many troubles in the palace; I'm afraid you'd find them annoying.
Shen Ling'er took two steps forward.
Her gaze fell on Gu Moran's face, pointing to the corner of the paper.
" Wen Heng is my mother's name."
Gu Moran did not respond.
Shen Ling'er reached out to take the paper.
Gu Moran it down first.
Two hands touched through a thin piece of paper.
Shen Ling'er looked up.
" Gu Moran, let go."
Gu Moran looked at her face.
She didn't cry or make a scene.
The more this is the case, the less one can bear to tell her the truth.
" Ling'er, there's blood on this paper."
"I'm studying medicine, I'm not afraid."
She stared at him.
"Give me."
Gu Moran did not relax.
Shen Ling'er didn't try to snatch it; she just stopped there.
Those eyes remained fixed on Gu Moran.
He still wouldn't let go.
Shen Ling'er didn't make a fuss as usual.
She turned around, opened the medicine box, and took out an old copper bell from the bottom.
The copper bell was small and dark in color; the clapper was long gone.
She swayed slightly.
There was no sound from inside.
"Grandpa said this was a peace bell my parents left me before they went on their travels."
She placed the copper bell on the table.
He told me to hang it in my medicine kit for safe house calls.
She looked up at him.
"Since my mother's name is on this piece of paper, then tell me, why won't you let me see it?"
Gu Moran pressed the confession down with his palm.
The lamp wick in the room crackled softly as it burned, and the smell of old wax mingled with the bitterness of the medicine, making one's chest feel heavy and suffocated.
Shen Ling'er has grown up and has the right to know the truth.
Gu Moran pushed the confession over.
" Ling'er, calm down and watch again."
Shen Ling'er pulled the paper closer.
The fingertip touched the bloodstain on the paper without avoiding it.
She read very slowly.
The steam in the medicine bowl dissipated, the bitterness subsided, and the wind from outside seeped in through the crack in the door, making the edges of the paper tremble.
Her hand stopped when she read the line "one peace bell was lost".
When she read the inscription "the old furnace number inside the bell," she picked up the copper bell.
"Old furnace number?"
Her voice was dry.
Gu Moran looked at the bronze bell.
A system panel suddenly popped up at the edge of the field of view.
[Old copper bell: Remnants of fire marks from the palace's alchemy furnace remain on the inner wall.]
[The year of the pyrotechnic mark matches the date of the old furnace recorded in Tao Wujiu's confession.]
[Related characters: Shen Zhiheng, Wen Heng, Shen Huaishan.]
[Risk Warning: The revelation of the truth will trigger significant emotional fluctuations in Shen Ling'er, and the Elder Shen storyline will soon begin.]
Gu Moran did not touch the copper bell.
This is more than just evidence.
This was the answer Shen Ling'er had been waiting for for many years.
Can you verify it?
Shen Ling'er looked down at the inner wall of the copper bell.
There was old rust there, and only a dark ring was visible to the naked eye.
She bit her lip, opened the medicine box, took out a packet of fine powder, and scraped off a bit of copper rust with a silver spoon.
The powder fell.
A drop of clear water.
The patina slowly receded, revealing a shallow ring of fire marks on the inner wall.
The furnace number is incomplete.
But the edges are still there.
The silver spoon in Shen Ling'er's hand stopped at the edge of the bowl.
The powder was spilled on the table, leaving a small white patch.
She recognized the brand.
In the old-style alchemy furnaces of the palace, the furnace number would be branded on the inner wall of the vessel.
Traditional folk medicine stoves do not have this rule or this technique.
"This is from the palace."
She put the copper bell back on the table.
The old object, now missing its clapper, struck the wooden surface with a dull thud.
Gu Moran did not answer.
Shen Ling'er looked up at him.
But Grandpa said it was left to me by my parents.
"So, my parents weren't traveling."
"They've been to the palace."
Gu Moran's Adam's apple bobbed.
That's what it says on the confession.
Shen Ling'er lowered her head again and looked at it repeatedly.
When she read the line "By secret order, I entered the alchemy furnace to verify the elixir of immortality," she lowered her shoulders slightly.
When she read the part about "persuading to stop the use of imperial medicine," she pressed her fingertip against the corner of the paper.
When she read the phrase "fire broke out in the alchemy furnace room," she gripped the copper bell with her other hand.
The copper bell remained silent.
Her hand didn't loosen its grip.
Finally, she saw that sentence.
The body was secretly escorted out of the palace by eunuchs and was not buried in the Shen Family.
Shen Ling'er sat there, motionless.
The medicine box was open, the silver spoon was on the table, and medicine powder was scattered around.
All she could think of was the image of Elder Shen locking up his medicine box back then.
Three locks.
A piece of sweet cake.
A phrase describing traveling abroad.
She slowly raised her head.
Her eyes were red, but she didn't shed a tear.
Gu Moran.
"So my parents died a long time ago, right?"
"My grandfather has always known, hasn't he?"
Gu Moran did not reply, and Shen Ling'er's tears were already streaming down her face.
Scenes from all those years flashed before her eyes.
Grandpa kept telling her that.
My parents were skilled doctors and never idle; they traveled all over the country treating patients.
If the journey is long and the mountains and rivers are high, the letter will arrive later.
If plague or famine strikes, it is normal to not return home for many years.
Every time Grandpa got to this part of the story, he would pound the pestle loudly in the mortar.
A good doctor goes wherever they can to save lives; they don't just run home every day.
She was sitting on the doorstep, holding a sweet cake in her hands, with powdered sugar on her lips.
She asked, "When exactly are Father and Mother coming back?"
Grandpa was pounding medicine with his back to her.
"When you can distinguish between Coptis chinensis and licorice."
Later she figured it out.
My parents didn't come back.
Grandpa added that he would wait until she was able to make house calls on her own.
Later, she was able to make house calls.
My parents haven't come back yet.
Year after year, quite a few letters have arrived from afar.
The letter described a place with abundant rainfall, a place with good yams, a place where patients were difficult to treat, and a child in a small village whose fever had subsided.
Not a single person asked her if she had grown taller.
She even tried to find excuses for them back then.
Doctors are busy.
Saving lives is the priority.
Now those letters are unfolding in my mind one by one, the handwriting neat, the names of the medicines detailed, even the weather is described accurately.
The more accurate the prediction, the more it reveals another aspect.
Elder Shen sat alone under the lamp, writing out the prescription and then writing a letter home for his son and daughter-in-law.
The lie has been going on for over a decade.
To create a complete family for her.