The three apprentices had been born in the same year, the same month, the same day, and at the same hour.
It was as though fate had chosen them all at once, with some special arrangement in mind.
Chen Ji thought of how Old Yao liked to tell fortunes using the six-coin divination method, and of the Stone-Bearing Stake-Embracing Technique that could resist the icy current. He had a feeling that his master still had many secrets.
Could the six-coin divination method in this world really possess the mysterious power to question the heavens above and the Yellow Springs below?
As he pondered this, a middle-aged man in a dark-blue long robe arrived at the door. Liu Quxing hurried to greet him with a smile. "Steward Wang, what brings you to the clinic so late?"
The middle-aged man cupped his hands toward Old Yao. "Imperial Physician Yao, after my old madam ate lunch, she began vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. She's now unconscious in bed. My master sent me to invite you to examine her at home. If you're willing to come, you'll be handsomely rewarded."
Old Yao glanced at him and casually tossed a copper coin six times on the counter. "Earth over fire, Darkening of the Light; wind over lake, Inner Truth... Tonight is not a suitable night to go out. I'm not going."
Chen Ji: Huh?
The steward looked troubled. "Old Master Yao, you're a physician. You should have a healer's compassion. How can you disregard a human life because of some vague and fanciful divination?"
"There are so many physicians in Luo City. What difference does one less make?" Old Yao glared at him. "Your Li Family has always been stingy. Last time you came at night asking for a consultation, you also promised a handsome reward. But after I went to your home, I cured his mother's headache with just one needle. Your old madam thought I'd earned the money too easily and wanted to weasel out of the promised reward. When I left, she actually gave me just two smoked salted fish. Anyone who wants to go can go!"
Steward Wang grew anxious. "Imperial Physician Yao, my old madam is advanced in years. Please be understanding..."
Old Yao stroked his beard. "Don't bring up age. She's more than thirty years younger than me. There's no one in all Luo City who can pull rank on me by claiming to be old."
Steward Wang: "..."
Old Yao waved a hand. "She Dengke, see the guest out!"
After She Dengke saw Steward Wang out, he returned and said to Old Yao, "Master, why won't you let us make house calls? We could earn a tael of silver for each one."
Old Yao cursed angrily, "You've been with me for two years and still can't even read a pulse accurately. If I sent you out to treat someone now, how would that be any different from sending an assassin?"
She Dengke's breath caught. "Master, I have been trying to learn..."
Old Yao raised his hand and whipped She Dengke across the arm with a bamboo strip. "Get lost and make dinner!"
She Dengke hurried toward the back courtyard, with Liu Quxing following behind. One was tall and powerfully built, like an iron tower; the other was thin as a hemp stalk.
Once they reached the back courtyard, She Dengke said in a low voice, "You went too far today. We're fellow apprentices under the same master. You can't mistreat someone like that."
Liu Quxing froze. "I went too far? How did I go too far? His family won't pay his tuition. Surely that's not my fault? Don't forget, Master will only take one personal disciple!"
The aroma of food drifted out of the kitchen. A low dining table and short stools had been set out in the courtyard. Old Yao held a bowl of millet porridge and slowly sipped it around the rim.
A plate of pickles and a plate of tofu sat on the table. She Dengke and Liu Quxing sat upright on their little stools, not daring to pick up their chopsticks until their master had finished eating and wiped his mouth.
Chen Ji couldn't pay his tuition, so he didn't even have a place to sit. He could only stand to one side, gnawing on a coarse-grain flatbread.
There was no telling what wild vegetables had been mixed into the flatbread, and it was hard to swallow. Chen Ji drew a dipperful of water from the water jar and used it to wash the flatbread down. Then he picked up a bucket and a rag and headed for the main hall.
Old Yao glanced at him. "It's already dark, and you're still going to work?"
"I'm afraid I won't finish everything tomorrow, so I got up to wipe the floor first," Chen Ji explained.
Old Yao scratched his eyebrow. "Trying to win sympathy by making yourself suffer? Don't put on that kind of act for me. I won't go soft."
Chen Ji smiled. "I won't, Master. I'll earn the tuition and pay you as soon as I can."
He really did want to stay at the clinic. Whether it was the threat from Bright Rabbit and Cloud Goat or the unsolved mystery of the icy current inside him, he needed to stay here and look for a solution.
Chen Ji set the bucket on the floor, wrung out the rag, and began wiping. But the instant he bent down, the icy current inside him suddenly surged forth without warning!
A bone-deep chill struck him, swiftly draining the warmth from his body.
In the span of just a few breaths, he was trembling all over, as though he were standing in the depths of winter in thin clothes.
What exactly is this icy current? The wronged soul of someone who died? Maybe I can take a look when Master beats one of my senior brothers to death...
Trembling, Chen Ji assumed the stance of the Stone-Bearing Stake-Embracing Technique to suppress the icy current. Strangely, this time it didn't retreat into his dantian. Instead, it continued to rampage through his body, as though searching for something.
Feeling the direction in which the icy current was surging, he looked behind the counter, toward the rows of vermilion medicine cabinets.
What's drawing you? Chen Ji inched toward the cabinets until he pulled open the drawer marked "ginseng"!
Fifty-year-old ginseng. There was only one root in the drawer.
Following the icy current's guidance, Chen Ji reached out and touched the tendrils of the fifty-year-old ginseng. Six tendrils seemed to melt, turning into a transparent liquid that flowed across his palm and finally condensed into a bead the size of his thumb.
In an instant, the icy current inside his body was drawn out, every last trace of it!
Huh?
What's this thing for?
Chen Ji picked up the bead and examined it closely. Inside the transparent bead, a thin wisp of snake-shaped mist seemed to be constantly swimming about.
He wondered whether he should eat the bead, but then another thought occurred to him: if he ate it, wouldn't the icy current return to his body?
Chen Ji tucked the bead into his sleeve and looked down at the old ginseng root. Its once fairly abundant tendrils were now nearly half gone...
Will Master notice something's wrong? With how stingy he is, if he discovers the old ginseng's appearance has been ruined, how much more will I have to pay him?! Will he just throw me straight out of the clinic?!
The thought startled Chen Ji, and he immediately found the clinic's inventory ledger. He turned to the page for the old ginseng: "One fifty-year-old ginseng root, three qian, fourteen tendrils."
One qian was about three grams in weight. The ledger was far too detailed. As soon as Old Yao checked the inventory, he was certain to notice the problem with the old ginseng.
Frowning, he closed the drawer. He had no idea how often Old Yao checked the inventory, but he had to resolve this problem before the next time the old man did.
Still, the more pressing problem was right in front of him: tomorrow's examination of his studies.
After wiping the floor, Chen Ji didn't go back to sleep. Instead, he found the General Outline of Medicine and began reading. Although it was a little late to start learning from scratch now, he had to learn it sooner or later.
Every day sooner that he learned it was one less day of brutal beatings.
Just then, faint footsteps came from the back courtyard. Chen Ji put the General Outline of Medicine away under the counter.
He turned to look and saw Liu Quxing, a padded jacket draped over his shoulders, craning his neck as he secretly watched him.
"Senior Brother, why are you awake?"
"I got up to piss and came to check on you." Liu Quxing crept over furtively. "There's something I have to tell you, or my conscience won't be at ease."
"What is it?"
Liu Quxing said, "When I asked you to help with the work today, I really did want to give you a hand. Otherwise, if you can't pay your tuition, Master really will send you home. Don't listen to She Dengke's nonsense. I meant no harm."
Chen Ji smiled. "Don't worry, Senior Brother Liu. I know you meant well."
"All right, as long as you know I meant well." Liu Quxing went back to the room with the padded jacket over his shoulders. She Dengke was still snoring.
He shook She Dengke. "Wake up! Wake up!"
There was no response.
Liu Quxing tried again. "Wake up! Chen Ji is secretly reviewing his lessons!"
She Dengke shot upright. "What?!"
Liu Quxing hurriedly changed the subject. "I just got up to piss and thought I'd go see why Chen Ji hadn't come back to sleep. But I found him secretly reading while we were asleep!"
She Dengke was shocked. "How despicable?!"
"Isn't he? How about we start studying too?"
She Dengke grew impatient. "What's there to study in the middle of the night? Go to sleep! And you're not fucking allowed to study either!"
"Yeah! No studying! Sleep!"
In the middle of the night, She Dengke woke up needing to piss. He sat up and saw that, at some point, he had been left alone in the room.
The tall, sturdy youth rose suspiciously, threw on a long robe, and walked into the courtyard. He discovered an orange-red glow coming from the kitchen.
He pushed open the door and saw none other than Liu Quxing, a padded jacket draped over his shoulders, sitting on a little stool beside the stove. A lamp fueled by leftover cooking grease was lit, and he held a book on the pathology of cold damage...
"You little fucker!" She Dengke clapped a hand over Liu Quxing's mouth and started beating him.
While he was beating him, a girl carrying a lantern hurried to the clinic's entrance and called out loudly, "Imperial Physician Yao! Imperial Physician Yao!"
Three characters were written on the white paper lantern: "Prince Jing's Estate."
The girl's cries drew the attention of everyone in the clinic. She Dengke stopped beating Liu Quxing and ran outside.
He reached the main hall and opened the door. "Chunhua, why have you come in the middle of the night?"
Chunhua looked to be eighteen or nineteen. She wore a bright green jacket and skirt and had delicate, lovely features. She said urgently, "She Dengke, where is Imperial Physician Yao?"
Only then did Old Yao saunter over. With his hands behind his back, he asked slowly, "What's wrong?"
Chunhua hurriedly said, "Something has happened to my lady. Please come and see her quickly."
Everyone looked at Old Yao, who fell silent for a moment. "Tonight is not a suitable night to go out. I'm not going."
Chen Ji: Huh?
Wasn't this an imperial clinic assigned specifically to Prince Jing's Estate?
Chunhua was so anxious that her forehead was covered in sweat. She hurriedly signaled She Dengke with her eyes, asking him to speak up for her.
She Dengke quickly said, "Master, it's past midnight. It's a new day. Why don't you cast another divination?"
Old Yao glanced at him. "Then I'll cast another one."
As he spoke, he took a copper coin from his sleeve and tossed it six times, muttering under his breath, "At the dawn of creation, firm and yielding first meet, and difficulty is born. Moving amid danger, water over thunder, Difficulty at the Beginning..."
Old Yao's expression changed drastically. "Great misfortune! Not going, not going. Now I definitely can't go!"
Chunhua was so anxious she was about to cry. "Imperial Physician Yao, if I can't bring back a physician, I'll die when I return."
She Dengke stepped forward. "Master, if you really don't want to go, I'll go!"
Old Yao pondered for a moment. "...Chen Ji, you go."
Chen Ji: "Huh? Me?"