The sun had risen, and rickshaws moved through the streets and alleys. The colorful neon lights that illuminated the city at night had lost their brilliance in the daylight. North City remained as prosperous as ever. Outside the middle school gates, three teenage boys carrying schoolbags walked straight past without so much as a glance toward the entrance.
Of the three, two were dressed casually, their jackets hanging open. Only the tallest boy was neatly dressed. He had handsome, delicate features and walked with both hands tucked into his pockets, his posture lazy and relaxed.
He was none other than Xie Fengxi, the fourth young master of the Xie family, who was about to get married.
With his schoolbag still slung over his shoulder, he strolled leisurely past the school gates without the slightest intention of attending class.
The two boys walking on either side of him were his usual followers.
“Fengxi, what are you going to do? Are you really going to marry Jin Mingzhu?”
“Exactly! Are you actually going to marry a woman older than you? If you get married this young, won’t you be stuck at home all the time?”
“We’re supposed to be progressive young people. We have to break away from outdated traditions! Look at some of our classmates. A few of them have child brides waiting at home, but which of them would ever admit it? They all pretend otherwise, even though everyone knows the truth. If you get married, you’ll probably end up just like them.”
“That’s right! Once Fengxi gets married, don’t tell me he’ll be afraid of his wife! Huh? Hahaha!”
Sunlight spilled across the ground. Xie Fengxi raised his face slightly and curled his lips into a wicked, roguish smile. “Who said I was going to marry Princess Jin?”
The two boys who were always by his side were Zhao Fengnian of Zhengliang Pharmacy and Qin Shan, the son of a money shop manager. Both were the same age as Xie Fengxi. Zhengliang Pharmacy was the predecessor of the Zhengliang Medicinal Cuisine business that Jin Mingzhu would later establish. These boys usually neglected their studies, and fighting and causing trouble were practically everyday occurrences for them.
Hearing Xie Fengxi address Mingzhu as a princess, Zhao Fengnian immediately burst into laughter. “Princess? You’re still calling her a princess? Hahaha! The Qing dynasty has been gone for years! What princess? Would a real princess go out on the street selling tofu? Fengxi, you’re killing me! Hey! Why did you hit me?”
Before he could finish laughing, Xie Fengxi smacked him on the back of the head, sending him stumbling.
“What do you know? You never saw what Prince Shun’s Residence was like in its glory days. Back when Jin Mingzhu rode a foreign-bred horse through the streets, your father might even have knelt before her!”
Zhao Fengnian stumbled, then turned back with a cheeky grin. “Oh? So you’ve seen it yourself? Does that mean you knelt before her too?”
Xie Fengxi raised his eyes. Before he could make a move, Zhao Fengnian had already jumped away and started running. Qin Shan snickered behind them, and the three boys dissolved into laughter and playful scuffling.
After fooling around for a while, Xie Fengxi decided to seek revenge on two local hooligans. The men lived in a dilapidated temple and had no proper occupation. They regularly harassed respectable women and extorted money from passersby in the southern part of the city. Xie Fengxi and his two friends had happened to pass by and ended up fighting them.
The two hooligans were shameless. Everyone in North City knew Xie Fengxi, the city’s notorious little tyrant, so they had followed him back to the Xie residence and caused a scene.
Without bothering to ask what had happened, Xie Fengxi’s father had given him such a vicious beating that his backside was left bruised and swollen. The two hooligans, meanwhile, had actually received some money before leaving. Xie Fengxi wasn’t about to let the matter end there. When he mentioned going after them, Zhao Fengnian came up with an idea.
“Let’s go to our pharmacy and get some laxatives. When we find the right opportunity, we’ll slip them into their wine. Once they drink it, we’ll have a good show to watch.”
Making them suffer from diarrhea would actually be letting them off far too easily.
They wanted to drag the men before the authorities, but they had no evidence. The women who had been harassed refused to testify, which made the matter difficult to pursue.
After discussing it for a while, the three headed toward Zhengliang Pharmacy.
When they arrived, they didn’t dare walk openly through the front entrance because they were skipping school. Instead, they climbed over the wall into the rear courtyard.
Zhao Fengnian led the way. “Follow me. I’ll get some from the back of the shop. I don’t recognize most of the medicines, but I’ve taken laxatives plenty of times before. Be careful, and don’t let anyone see us.”
Xie Fengxi and Qin Shan followed him into a small side room behind the pharmacy. Inside were layers upon layers of small medicine drawers. Qin Shan kept watch by the window while Zhao Fengnian rummaged through them.
With nothing to do, Xie Fengxi leaned against the doorway and looked around casually.
The side room connected to the pharmacy at the front, so sounds from the main shop occasionally drifted through. He was thoroughly bored when he suddenly heard a familiar woman’s voice coming from the front.
“How much fritillaria should be taken each day? It’s for a child.”
Xie Fengxi’s eyes shifted. He quickly approached the partition leading to the front room and lifted the cloth curtain with his fingers. Through the narrow gap, he could see Jin Mingzhu holding a packet of medicine in one hand as she spoke to the pharmacy’s doctor.
She had a full, shapely figure and very fair skin.
With her delicate, beautiful features, she had been a pretty little girl even in childhood. Now that she had grown into a young woman, she possessed an even more striking beauty, with an air of refinement and nobility.
The young man tilted his head slightly, carefully studying her expression. After having her engagement broken off, she showed no signs of dejection or despair. On the contrary, she looked as though she had deliberately dressed up. Her complexion was excellent, and she appeared both delicate and beautiful.
While he watched, the doctor continued speaking to Mingzhu. “Is Xiaofeng coughing? Just remember not to give her more than fifteen grams a day. You can also simmer some white pear with rock sugar for her.”
Jin Mingzhu immediately thanked him and was about to leave when the pharmacy’s front door opened and a man and woman entered.
What an unfortunate coincidence.
They were Lu Mingshu and Jin Shuyao.
The complicated romantic entanglement among the three had already become common knowledge throughout North City, and Xie Fengxi had heard something about it. Although he was young, he knew that Jin Mingzhu’s engagement to Lu Mingshu had been broken off because of Jin Shuyao. He couldn’t help watching more closely.
Clearly, Jin Mingzhu hadn’t expected to encounter them here, because she seemed momentarily stunned.
Xie Fengxi was still watching her when Zhao Fengnian finally found the laxatives. Curious, he leaned over to take a look as well. The moment he spotted Mingzhu, he grinned. “Hey, isn’t that your… Mmph! Mmph!”
Before he could finish, Xie Fengxi clamped a hand over his mouth and nose and dragged him backward.
The curtain fell back into place, completely blocking their view of the people in the front room. Zhao Fengnian struggled as Xie Fengxi dragged him away. Only when they reached the side room did he finally manage to push Xie Fengxi’s hand away and straighten up.
“Xie Fengxi, what are you doing?”
Xie Fengxi brushed the dust from his clothes. “Have you forgotten what we came here for? If someone catches you, do you think you’ll be able to get away?”
Zhao Fengnian immediately lost his bluster. “Right, right! You’re right. Come on, let’s hurry to the ruined temple and find those two hooligans.”
As he spoke, he pushed Qin Shan toward the exit. Xie Fengxi walked behind them. When he reached the side room’s doorway, he turned back for another glance. They were too far away now, and he couldn’t hear anything from the front. He hesitated briefly, then, seeing Zhao Fengnian and Qin Shan getting farther ahead, hurried after them.
Xiaofeng had developed a slight cough, so Jin Mingzhu had come to the pharmacy to buy medicine. She had an unusually deep attachment to Zhengliang Pharmacy.
In her previous life, after she brought the runaway Lu Mingshu home, she had carefully nursed him for some time. He had fallen seriously ill and remained bedridden, and it was because of this that she first became involved with Zhengliang Pharmacy. She had studied medicinal cuisine under an experienced master and later started from nothing, borrowing money to open a medicinal cuisine establishment and reviving the Lu family’s fortunes.
Zhengliang Pharmacy was the predecessor of the medicinal cuisine pharmacy she had established. In this lifetime, she hadn’t studied medicine under Doctor Zhao, but seeing the elderly doctor again still filled her with affection.
As luck would have it, she had barely exchanged a few words with him when she encountered Lu Mingshu and Jin Shuyao.
Lu Mingshu had been pulled into the pharmacy by Jin Shuyao. The moment he saw Mingzhu, he stopped in his tracks.
Jin Shuyao wore a white Western-style dress and thick-heeled leather shoes. She walked with her chin slightly raised, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. “Mingzhu! What a coincidence, running into you here! Have you come to buy medicine?”
Their families’ princely residences had once maintained some contact, so Mingzhu and Jin Shuyao could be considered acquaintances.
As the saying went, one shouldn’t strike someone who greeted them with a smile. Mingzhu nodded slightly. “It certainly is a coincidence. I didn’t expect to see you two here either. What brings you to the pharmacy? Are you buying medicine? Is someone ill?”
Lu Mingshu had been carefully observing Mingzhu’s expression. Seeing her steer the conversation toward an ordinary topic, he followed her lead. “It’s nothing. We were just passing by, and Shuyao said she wanted to come inside and have a look.”
Why would anyone enter a pharmacy for no reason?
Mingzhu assumed he was simply making conversation and didn’t think much of it. “I see. Well, carry on, then. I’ll head home first.”
Both of them were behaving very politely.
Jin Shuyao noticed how stiff Lu Mingshu was. She turned and gave him a little push, smiling as she spoke. “Look at the two of you! All you’ve done is break off an engagement. It’s not as though you’ll never see each other again. North City isn’t that big, and you’re bound to run into each other. Wouldn’t it be awkward if you kept acting like this? There’s really nothing to be upset about! Yours was a feudal arranged marriage, and neither of you had any real feelings for the other anyway. I’ve actually rescued both of you from it, you know!”
Having been exposed to Western ideas, Jin Shuyao had always been rather conceited.
Anyone who didn’t know the circumstances might genuinely believe she had rescued two unfortunate people from the misery of an arranged marriage!
Although Jin Shuyao’s words sounded like a joke, they were inappropriate. After all these years, Lu Mingshu wasn’t entirely unaware of Jin Mingzhu’s feelings for him. Almost instinctively, he glanced at Shuyao. “Stop talking.”
Jin Shuyao stepped forward and hooked her arm through his. Doing so in front of Mingzhu was nothing more than an attempt to show off. “Mingzhu is a reasonable person, so stop acting like that. Didn’t we come here today for something important? Hurry up and take a look at this pharmacy. See whether it could be converted into a medicinal cuisine establishment. Zhengliang Pharmacy is the only one of its kind in North City. If you take it over and turn it into a medicinal cuisine business, I’m sure you could make it flourish.”
The moment she said those words, Mingzhu raised her eyes.
It was obvious that Jin Shuyao had brought Lu Mingshu to Zhengliang Pharmacy for a reason. At this point in time, medicinal cuisine was not yet popular in North City, and Zhengliang Pharmacy was still struggling to survive. Anyone who could suggest turning it into Zhengliang Medicinal Cuisine must have returned to the present from the future.
Jin Shuyao possessed knowledge of the future, but she didn’t know the true history of the Lu family’s business. Zhengliang Medicinal Cuisine had originally been created entirely through Mingzhu’s own efforts.
Suspicion rose in Jin Mingzhu’s heart, making her even more cautious in her words and actions. She looked at Lu Mingshu, her gaze resting on him as she spoke. “It’s fine. She’s right. You never had any real feelings for me in the first place. I’ve been the only one holding on to this relationship, and it’s time I let go. This really has nothing to do with anyone else. It’s simply a matter between you and me. Perhaps it’s a good thing that we won’t become husband and wife.”
Lu Mingshu was speechless.
Carrying her packet of medicine, Mingzhu walked past him. “You two have a good relationship, so I wish you happiness. I only hope you won’t regret it someday.”
With that, she said goodbye to the elderly Doctor Zhao and left ahead of them.
After leaving Zhengliang Pharmacy, Mingzhu continued thinking about the business. By the time she returned home, the sun was already high in the sky. A bag had been placed on the table, and the entire family was sitting around it, staring at it.
Jin Mingzhu handed the packet of medicine to Jin Tianjiao, then walked over and lifted the bag slightly. Its contents clinked together. They were clearly silver dollars.
Xu Yao sighed. “The Xie family is in such a hurry! They’ve told us to start making preparations. Apparently, there’s a rare auspicious date seven days from now, and they want you two to get married then.”
Mingzhu didn’t think much of it and nodded. “Then let’s hold the wedding. Perhaps Xie Qinglin’s health really is poor, and they need an auspicious marriage to bring him some good fortune. He’s well-mannered, educated, and a scholar. I rather like him.”
Xu Yao looked as though she wanted to say something, but in the end, she said nothing. She merely gestured toward the bag of money. “Fine, fine! If we’re going to have a wedding, then we’ll have one.”
Mingzhu turned and sat down, pulling her younger sister into her arms. She affectionately teased and played with the little girl, paying almost no attention to the matter of her impending marriage.