The long street lay silent. Buildings with gray-tiled roofs rose and fell in uneven rows, their upturned eaves like waves in the black ocean of the night, frozen in time.
Old Yao walked slowly ahead with his hands behind his back. Chen Ji followed in silence, with many questions he wanted to ask: Where was Uttarakuru? Did Old Yao know a young man named Li Qingniao? And what were the Forty-Nine Heavens?
But he could only bury those questions in his heart.
Old Yao asked, puzzled, "Usually your mouth flaps like a rag of torn cotton. Why are you so quiet today?"
Chen Ji's heart tightened. "It's still about what happened at the Zhou residence. You told me not to mention it."
Old Yao suddenly asked, "Did you kill someone?"
Chen Ji was silent for a long time. "No."
Old Yao gave a soft scoff and asked no more.
For the rest of the journey, the old man truly never asked about that night again, as though nothing had happened.
After walking for about an hour, Chen Ji finally saw the broad vermilion gates of Prince Jing's Estate in the distance. Guards in iron armor stood before them, halberds in hand, and the stone lions flanking the gates were imposing and domineering.
Two white lanterns hung beneath the gray-tiled eaves, bearing the words "Prince Jing's Estate."
Imperial Physician Yao did not enter through the main gates. Instead, he led Chen Ji around to the side of the estate, where a medical clinic called Great Peace stood right up against its wall.
A couplet flanked the entrance. The first line read, "We cheat neither young nor old"; the second read, "No credit under any circumstances."
Old Yao pushed open the clinic doors and stepped over the high threshold. Inside, a kerosene lamp burned on the long counter.
Outside lay the dark street and the night; inside was a warm orange-red glow. It was as though the world were black and white, and only the clinic had color.
It was also as though, once Chen Ji walked inside, he could find shelter from the wind and rain and attain peace.
Standing inside the door, Old Yao looked back and cast Chen Ji a sidelong glance. "Throw away what you've got in your hand. We don't need that thing in the clinic."
Chen Ji froze, then threw away the shard of porcelain he was still clutching in his palm. Blood remained on it.
He looked at the clinic's high threshold and Old Yao's hunched back. In the end, he stepped inside and shut the door, barring the night outside.
The clinic was a small courtyard compound, separated from the prince's estate by a single wall. A gnarled apricot tree stood in the middle of the courtyard.
A magnificent crow perched at the tip of a branch and flew away when it saw someone approaching.
Old Yao seemed tired. He waved a hand and said, "Go to bed."
But Chen Ji stood where he was, unmoving... Where was he supposed to sleep? There were three rooms in the rear wing of the courtyard, and he did not know which one was the right choice. If he went to the wrong place, he might arouse suspicion.
Seeing that he had not moved, Old Yao turned back suspiciously. "Why aren't you going to bed?"
As soon as he spoke, a tall, thin youth draped in a long robe emerged from the west wing. He looked at Chen Ji with disdain. "Chen Ji, all you did was deliver some medicine. What took you so long? You even made Master go looking for you... Master, you must be tired from walking. I'll heat some water so you can soak your feet before you rest."
Chen Ji silently watched this... senior brother.
How could someone flatter another person in such specific detail?
Old Yao said, "All of you, get to bed. Don't let this delay tomorrow morning's lesson."
"All right," the tall, thin youth said, promptly ducking back into the west wing.
Chen Ji followed him inside. A large communal sleeping platform filled the room. At the far end, a burly figure slept soundly, oblivious to what had just happened outside. The tall, thin senior brother slept in the middle, while Chen Ji's place was by the door.
The wooden windows of the apprentices' sleeping quarters were old and worn, and apart from some basins and jars, there was no other furniture.
In the dim room, the tall, thin senior brother sat on the sleeping platform with a quilt draped around him. His eyes gleamed as he stared at Chen Ji and lowered his voice. "What happened? Why were you gone so long?"
"Nothing happened," Chen Ji said, shaking his head. He wearily crawled beneath his quilt and gazed quietly at the wooden roof beams and the old cobwebs.
The tall, thin senior brother rolled over and lay down, clicking his tongue. "Fine, don't tell me!"
The room fell quiet again, with only the sound of breathing.
Only now could Chen Ji stop and properly consider his situation: would Bright Rabbit and Cloud Goat let him go? Certainly not.
The ability he had displayed that night was not one a medical apprentice could possibly possess, and he had happened to appear in the home of a Jing Dynasty spy. How could those two venomous people not be suspicious?
But why had they let him go? Was it because of his master's status, or did they have some other plan?
Whatever the reason, Chen Ji's best choice now was to stay at the clinic. It stood next to the prince's estate, so whatever they wanted to do, they would probably have to think twice.
As he pondered, Chen Ji's pupils suddenly contracted.
A cold current was spreading from his dantian through his body, devouring the warmth in his muscles, bones, and blood.
It was... a current of ice that had entered his body when Zhou Chengyi died. At the time, he had only felt a chill, as though it were an illusion. Now, it was like a fierce beast trapped inside Chen Ji, furiously searching for an exit but unable to break out of his body.
Thump.
Chen Ji heard his blood rushing like an avalanche, as though what flowed through his veins was no longer blood, but crushed ice.
It was as if a sword lay hidden inside his thin body, or a dragon that had existed for thousands of years. Chen Ji felt as though he were in a dark, deep pool, being dragged helplessly to the bottom by a hand.
The cold pierced to the bone.
Chen Ji struggled to turn his head and look at the others in the room, only to find them sleeping soundly, unaware of anything. He wrapped the quilt tightly around himself, but the chill came from within, and even covering himself entirely with the quilt did no good.
Could Zhou Chengyi's vengeful spirit be haunting him?
Gradually, before he could make sense of it, he curled into a ball and sank into a stupor.
He did not know how much time passed before a clear cockcrow rang out from the distant horizon. The sound seemed to pierce layer upon layer of thin mist, tearing it to shreds.
Chen Ji woke with a start and sat up in bed, breathing greedily, as though he had just been pulled from the water.
His hands and feet were ice-cold. What had just happened was no dream; the icy current was still raging.
Outside the window, the faint sunlight was blocked by the white paper covering, leaving the room dim.
Beside him, his two fellow apprentices were still sleeping side by side with their heads under their quilts. The cockcrow seemed not to have affected them, and they continued snoring.
As Chen Ji sat there in a daze, the door creaked open.
His master, Old Yao, stood in the doorway holding a bamboo switch. His face was full of disdain as he said, "Still not up after the cock's crowed? People who know you would know you're apprentices. Those who don't would think you were the eldest legitimate sons of some great family."
As he spoke, he swung the bamboo switch at them.
Chen Ji struggled out of bed, pulled on his clothes, and dodged to one side. "Master, I'm already up!"
Seeing this, Old Yao went after the others. Wails rang out as the two fellow apprentices clutched their heads and scurried about under the blows. "Master, stop hitting us! We're up, we're up!"
But no matter how the two dodged, the bamboo switch always landed squarely on them. The hunched little old man was already ninety-two, yet he was remarkably nimble.
Old Yao waved the bamboo switch and drove the three of them into the courtyard. "Stance training!" he said coldly.
Chen Ji had thought the morning lesson at the imperial physician's clinic would involve reciting medical texts. He had not expected stance training.
He turned to look and saw his two fellow apprentices assume strange poses at the same time. It was not a horse stance; it looked more like someone climbing a mountain ridge with a boulder on his shoulders.
Before he could copy them, the bamboo switch landed on him with a sharp crack. The instant it touched his body, pain seemed to explode from between his bones.
The piercing pain, along with the cold and weakness, nearly made Chen Ji faint on the spot. He copied his two fellow apprentices and assumed the stance, while Old Yao sneered, "Don't act weak with me. It won't work. And don't think I won't beat you just because you flatter me."
As he spoke, the switch landed on the tall, thin senior brother. "Liu Quxing, wasn't I talking about you? What the hell kind of stance is that?"
Liu Quxing's voice was thick with tears. "Master, aren't we studying medicine? Why do we have to practice this every day?"
Old Yao sneered and struck him again with the switch. "You dare talk back? Heaven has three treasures: the sun, the moon, and the stars. Man has three treasures: essence, Qi, and spirit! Without essence, Qi, and spirit, you won't succeed at learning anything!"
In just a quarter of an hour, the three apprentices were howling like ghosts and wolves under the switch. It was Chen Ji's first time being physically punished, and he took more blows than either of his two brothers because he was the least familiar with the stance.
But.
At one point during the stance training, a warm current welled up from behind Chen Ji's waist, slowly counteracting the cold from the previous night.
The warm current came and went... or rather, when his stance was correct, it arose; when it was wrong, it did not.
Chen Ji adjusted his stance by feel. Whenever a warm current welled up behind his waist, he held the pose without moving. It was as though someone had prepared the answer for him, and all he had to do was trace it.
Old Yao came over to him then, intending to casually strike him with the switch, only to find that Chen Ji's stance was perfectly correct. With his hand raised, he had no reason to bring it down...
After that, Old Yao stopped looking at him altogether and whipped only the other two apprentices.
Chen Ji did not know what was special about the stance that allowed it to counteract the icy current. He quietly observed his fellow apprentices; they did not seem to feel there was anything beneficial about the training.
Could he be the only one who could feel the warm current?
Half an hour passed. The icy current in Chen Ji's body was suppressed and returned to his dantian, where it lay motionless. He breathed a sigh of relief. If the icy current had continued raging, it was hard to say whether he would have survived the day.
Old Yao sneered. "All right, that's the end of this morning's lesson. Chen Ji has improved."
The three apprentices grimaced as they rubbed their injuries. If they took off their clothes now, their bodies would surely be covered in bruises.
"Hurry up and get to the main hall entrance and wait for your families. Today's the day you pay your tuition. If I don't see the money, you'll pack your bedding and go straight home!" Old Yao said coldly. "Chen Ji, remember to ask for the money when your family gets here. The medicine lost last night cost three hundred and twenty wen, and you can't be a single wen short."
Chen Ji froze for a moment.
Family...
He had a family in this world?