“How much longer are you going to keep pretending?”…
“Has the young lady awakened?”
The carriage curtain was lifted, and Nurse Fu peered inside from outside.
Nan Liujing slowly sat up straight, her gaze drifting as she swept a glance outside.
The carriage had stopped at some point, the lantern hanging at its corner swaying in the wind, illuminating the fine, dense rain in the night.
“Have we arrived?”
Her voice was somewhat hoarse.
Nurse Fu responded, casually opening an umbrella and ushering Nan Liujing down.
The mistress and servant returned to Chaoyun Courtyard, where Nurse Fu ordered preparations for hot water and ginger soup. Turning around, she saw Nan Liujing silently carrying a pot of orchid grass out into the rain.
The orchid grass had long withered under the torment of the Wangliang. Nurse Fu had tried many methods to revive it to no avail—what use was bringing it out now?
“It’s useless. It won’t survive.”
Nurse Fu shook her head, urging Nan Liujing to hurry back inside. “What’s falling from the sky is rain, not Celestial Dew…”
“It can survive.”
Nan Liujing was inexplicably certain.
That year, when she found a way out of a desperate situation, it was also on a rainy night like this.
A desolate forest, a graveyard—she, “strangled to death” by Pei Songjun, lay in a burial pit like the other wrongfully killed maidservants.
Her body was stained with others’ blood, her neck marked with bruised fingerprints. A gentle breeze and sweet rain fell from the sky, moistening her hair, eyelashes, and lips. The last remaining breath was nourished by the rain, revived, and surged back through her limbs and bones…
It was also on this rain-soaked night, amidst twists and turns, that she met Pei Liuyu.
Perhaps it was because she was too frightened that night, but her memory of their first meeting had grown hazy.
She couldn’t remember how she escaped down the mountain, nor where she fled to. She only remembered Pei Liuyu appearing before her in white robes, holding an umbrella.
She was rescued by Pei Liuyu and taken to “Xuanpu” to recover—a private garden specially set aside by the Pei family for him to focus on his calligraphy studies, undisturbed.
Only after her injuries had mostly healed did she learn of Pei Liuyu’s identity.
It was truly a twist of fate. Of the two jewels of the Pei family, the elder brother sought her life, while the younger brother became her lifeline.
Pei Liuyu had also inquired about her identity, origins, and why she was gravely injured and appeared in the wilderness that night.
Nan Liujing couldn’t answer, nor did she dare.
Escaped slaves were a serious crime, and harboring them was equally punishable.
If she bluntly revealed that she was a slave of the Xi family in Yuyao, there was no guarantee Pei Liuyu wouldn’t send her back to that living hell…
But she had narrowly escaped death to flee—how could she accept that?!
She refused to accept it!
And so, she lied to Pei Liuyu.
“I don’t remember anything. I don’t know who I am…”
Early the next morning, the first thing Nan Liujing did upon waking was to check on the pot of orchid grass.
“Nurse Fu! Nurse Fu!”
She loudly called for Nurse Fu, pointing out the vibrant green orchid grass dripping with dew for her to see.
Nurse Fu was incredulous. “It really survived?”
“As the saying goes, if one has no intention of dying, heaven will not cut off all paths.”
Nan Liujing was in high spirits, reaching out to touch the leaves, praising its will to survive. “The same goes for orchid grass.”
Nurse Fu was moved but quickly realized something. “Where did the young lady hear this saying? This servant has never heard it before.”
Nan Liujing thought for a moment. “…I made it up.”
As the two were speaking, a maidservant approached with the prepared medicinal decoction, and Nurse Fu urged Nan Liujing to drink it while it was hot.
Nan Liujing took the medicine bowl, raised it, and drank it all in one go without the slightest pause.
“The young lady is truly formidable. Such bitter medicine, even I shudder at the smell.”
The maid looked at her with admiration.
Nan Liujing leaned curiously over the empty bowl and sniffed. “Bitter? Tastes much sweeter than before.”
The maid’s eyes widened in shock.
“The medicine Fifth Lady has drunk is more than the tea you all drink. What’s a little bitterness to her?”
An aged yet robust voice came from the courtyard gate.
Nan Liujing turned to see a gaunt, white-bearded but spirited itinerant physician standing at the entrance of Chaoyun Courtyard, accompanied by a downcast-eyed female apprentice carrying a medicine chest.
“Physician Jiang!”
Nurse Fu happily went to greet him. “When did you return to Jiandu, Physician Jiang?”
“Just yesterday. As agreed, I return every three months to examine Fifth Lady and adjust her prescription. It was about time.”
Physician Jiang walked over with a smile, greeting Nan Liujing. “How have you been lately, Fifth Lady? Have you had any recurrence of your old illness?”
Nan Liujing only replied, “All is well.”
Physician Jiang and his apprentice were invited into the main hall. Nurse Fu instructed the maid to serve tea, then gave a detailed account of Nan Liujing’s condition before withdrawing.
When Physician Jiang conducted examinations, he never allowed anyone to observe—not even Nurse Fu.
Only when the room held just the three of them did Nan Liujing take a seat at the table, raising an eyebrow slightly. “How long are you going to keep up this act, Jiang Ziliu?”
The physician who had been stroking his beard moments earlier lowered his hand and stepped aside. Behind him, the silent female apprentice lifted her head, meeting Nan Liujing’s gaze.
The woman wore simple wooden hairpins and plain clothing, her face free of makeup, and she was slightly older than Nan Liujing.
Compared to Nan Liujing’s exquisitely sculpted features, her own were unremarkable. With downcast eyes, she appeared plain as water, drawing no attention. Yet when she looked over expressionlessly, her entire face took on a gloomy, weary quality, even a sharp, cold beauty that left a deep impression.
Everyone believed the benevolent Physician Jiang was an old man, unaware that the old man was merely an apprentice who could take pulses, while the true miracle-working physician who could revive the dead and regenerate flesh was the inconspicuous Jiang Ziliu by his side.
Usually, while traveling the land, Jiang Ziliu would have Physician Jiang take pulses and prescribe based on the pulse descriptions.
But Nan Liujing’s condition was complex, her pulse unusual—an exception. Jiang Ziliu had to step in personally.
Nan Liujing quickly saw through their reversed master-apprentice relationship, and since then, Jiang Ziliu had stopped pretending in front of her.
“You look well.”
Jiang Ziliu walked forward and sat opposite Nan Liujing.
“Master, please.”
Physician Jiang beside her took the medicine chest, retrieved the pulse pillow, and respectfully placed it before Jiang Ziliu, then discreetly retreated to the doorway.
Nan Liujing rolled up her sleeve and rested her wrist on the pulse pillow. “Any good news from your trip away from the capital this time?”
Jiang Ziliu knew exactly what she was asking but replied casually, “Encountered a village plagued by disease on the way. Dozens of lives, saved them in passing.”
“Every time you say such things with a straight face, it sounds less like saving people and more like casually slaughtering them… you know that, right?”
Jiang Ziliu took her pulse, unmoved. “Still in the mood to belittle me. You don’t look like someone critically ill with little time left.”
Nan Liujing paled. “Am I going to die again?!”
She had just checked her own pulse yesterday and found nothing seriously wrong…
Jiang Ziliu glanced at her. “If you slandered me less, you could live a few more years.”
“…”
After taking her pulse, Jiang Ziliu withdrew her hand and tossed the pulse pillow back into the medicine chest. “Same as before—the pulse is stable but weak. If it were congenital, perhaps it could be strengthened with tonics. But yours is due to poisoning. The lingering toxins are all tangled together, impossible to fully expel. Fortunately, I’ve managed to stabilize them with medicine. Now they counteract each other within your body, so for the time being, they won’t be fatal.”
“I’ve heard this so many times my ears are about to grow calluses.”
Nan Liujing curled her lip. “If Pei Liuyu asks, you…”
“I won’t tell him about your poisoning. My ears are about to grow calluses too.”
Nan Liujing’s face fell, and she said nothing more.
Aside from Jiang Ziliu, no one else knew that her frailty was not innate but the result of poisoning.
Her former master’s family was the Yuyao Xi clan, a once-reclusive medical family hidden in the mountains. A century ago, the clan’s ancestor, Xi Hong, emerged to save the world, practicing medicine and dispensing remedies amid the chaos of war, preaching and spreading his teachings. He was revered by the displaced masses as a Bodhisattva of salvation. As Xi Hong’s followers grew, his declaration of “heaven’s mandate” also made the Helan clan the people’s favored choice.
Thus, after the Helan clan unified the realm, Xi Hong was enshrined as the State Preceptor, a title passed down through generations.
However, after Xi Hong’s death, the Xi clan declined rapidly, retaining only the title of State Preceptor. It wasn’t until recent years, when internal strife erupted within the imperial family and war broke out again, that the Xi clan once more stepped forward to combat epidemics and practice medicine, saving the life of the current emperor. Through this merit of aiding the dragon, they regained their former prominence.
Yet, despite being this benevolent medical family—deeply trusted by the people, hailed as national guardians of health, publicly compassionate and skilled, treating the poor and dispensing medicine without charge, always at the forefront during epidemics and famines—they secretly imprisoned numerous Medicine Slaves in the South Courtyard of their rear mountain. They forced bowl after bowl of decoctions down the slaves’ throats: first potent poisons and harsh medicines, then antidotes and beneficial remedies, thus using one’s own spear against one’s own shield—if the slave didn’t survive, they gained a sinister poison; if they lived, they obtained a priceless prescription.
Day after day, at the cost of countless lives, the Xi clan acquired various “miraculous formulas”…
Nan Liujing was one such Medicine Slave.
Over those years, subjected to bowl after bowl of various poisons and antidotes, merely surviving with a breath was already a stroke of immense luck amid misfortune. She had thought she would eventually die from the Xi family’s medicinal decoctions, like the other Medicine Slaves. Unexpectedly, chaos later erupted in the South Courtyard, and she seized the chance to escape, only to stumble by accident into the family head’s banquet, where she encountered Pei Songjun…
Later, although Pei Liuyu saved her life, those chaotic toxins remained within her body, lingering like vengeful spirits.
“Actually, there’s some good news.”
Seeing Nan Liujing’s despondency, Jiang Ziliu took a sip of tea and said lightly, “It seems a Jade Marrow Grass has appeared in Jiandu.”
Nan Liujing snapped back to attention, her eyes widening as she looked at her. “Really?!”
Jiang Ziliu had once said that only Jade Marrow Grass could cure her poisoning.
“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“Don’t get too excited yet—it’s just hearsay.”
Jiang Ziliu set down her teacup. “Moreover, that place is a dragon’s pool and tiger’s den.”
Still, at least there was hope.
Nan Liujing’s spirits lifted, and she eagerly pressed Jiang Ziliu for more details, but Jiang Ziliu refused to say anything further.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll go test the waters first.”
Jiang Ziliu packed up his medicine chest and left, “By the way, if I don’t show up in three days, remember to come collect my body.”
“…”
Jiang Ziliu was highly skilled in medicine, but his words were often unreliable.
Sometimes, Nan Liujing couldn’t tell whether he was joking or speaking seriously, so she didn’t take his last remark to heart.
Until three days later, when Jiang Ziliu truly didn’t return for the follow-up appointment.
Jiang Ziliu traveled far and wide, with no fixed residence. Whenever he returned to Jiandu, he stayed in Yongfu Alley in the southern city.
The southern area was far from the palace, desolate and chaotic, mostly inhabited by impoverished commoners. Jiang Ziliu kept a small clinic here, and whenever he returned, he would practice medicine and dispense treatments.
Nan Liujing waited until dark, but there was still no sign of Jiang Ziliu. She could no longer sit still.
She sent Nurse Fu to inform Pei Liuyu while taking two Nan family guards with her, rushing to Yongfu Alley.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Ziliu’s clinic was locked. Nan Liujing knocked for a while, but there was no response from inside.
“Are you looking for Physician Jiang?”
Someone passing by the clinic kindly said, “Physician Jiang hasn’t returned. This door has been locked for the past two days.”
Another person added, “That can’t be. I think I saw Physician Jiang’s apprentice yesterday. Right at the alley entrance by the lake…”
Nan Liujing immediately ordered one guard to follow that person to the lake, while she herself went around to the back door of the clinic.
The back door was also closed. After hesitating for only a moment, Nan Liujing took two steps back and said, “Kick the door open.”
The guard kicked the door open, and a cloud of dust rushed out.
Nan Liujing didn’t waste any time and hurried inside. The clinic was pitch dark, with no one around. She tentatively called out a couple of times.
Suddenly, a dull thud sounded not far away.
She quickly followed the noise, “Jiang Ziliu!”
Behind the medicine cabinet, a woman in simple clothes and a wooden hairpin was slumped in the corner, clutching her abdomen. Her face was deathly pale, and she looked utterly disheveled.
“…If you’d come any later, were you really planning to collect my body?”
Jiang Ziliu cursed weakly.
Nan Liujing’s expression changed abruptly, “Nonsense! If I had to collect your body today, it wouldn’t be long before Pei Liuyu had to collect mine!”
She reached out to help Jiang Ziliu up, but her strength was too weak. She had to let go and let the guard behind her assist.
Only when Jiang Ziliu stood up did Nan Liujing notice the deep red stain seeping through the cloth skirt beneath her palm. Her heart skipped a beat, “How did you get injured like this?!”
“Someone tried to silence me… I’ve already bandaged it…”
“Where’s your apprentice?”
“I told him to leave Jiandu and hide for a while two days ago. These people are after me, they won’t chase him.”
Jiang Ziliu was sweating cold beads on her forehead and spoke briefly, “No more questions, let’s go…”
Nan Liujing didn’t delay any further. As they were about to leave, an idea struck her. She pulled out the wooden hairpin from Jiang Ziliu’s hair and took off her own veil hat.
The white gauze of the veil hat hung down to her waist. Placing it on Jiang Ziliu’s head, it nearly covered half of her body.
“Let’s go.”
The roads in the southern city were narrow, and carriages couldn’t enter. They had to pass through the streets and alleys before they could board a carriage back to the estate.
The three of them had barely stepped out of the clinic when several dark figures swiftly emerged from the shadows and began following them.
Nan Liujing glanced back. These people were dressed like ruffians, but they didn’t seem that simple. Their footsteps grew faster, and their hands reached toward their waists, revealing clear murderous intent.
“You’ve really gotten yourself into trouble this time, Jiang Ziliu…”
She muttered through gritted teeth.
Beneath the veil, Jiang Ziliu said weakly, “Do you think I did this for anyone else…”
Nan Liujing paused for a moment, then pushed the guard at the fork in the road, “You take her and go first!”
Immediately turning around, she parted ways with them and ran up the rugged stone steps.
She had tied her hair with Jiang Ziliu’s wooden hairpin and deliberately hunched over, her steps unsteady.
In the darkness, her silhouette looked almost indistinguishable from the real thing, and sure enough, the sound of footsteps began chasing after her.
Nan Liujing hadn’t run far before she started shouting for help, but there wasn’t a single person at the top of the stone steps.
Heaven wouldn’t answer, earth wouldn’t respond!
The footsteps grew closer and closer, and she could already see the elongated shadows of those people stretching toward her feet. Panicking, Nan Liujing suddenly missed a step, her entire body plummeting down the stone steps like a kite with its string cut—
Her pupils contracted sharply.
Suddenly, a dark figure appeared before her.
A swift rush of wind brushed past her ear, followed by the sharp ring of a blade being drawn from its sheath.
Under the moonlight, a cold gleam flashed, tracing along her waist.
The icy chill of the blade pierced through her clothing, pressing firmly against her lower back, halting her fall.
Nan Liujing’s eyes widened abruptly.
The newcomer stood on the steps, clad in dark black Hu-style clothing, wearing a patterned gold belt, his figure tall and straight, with broad shoulders and a strong waist. His face was silhouetted against the light, sharply defined with shifting shadows, making his eyes appear even colder, more sinister and intimidating.
“Xiao…”
Nan Liujing parted her lips, but a metallic taste rose in her throat, allowing only a single word to escape.
In the next instant, the blade behind her trembled heavily.
She was flung back from the edge of the fall, her body pitching forward, her hand grasping onto a cold vambrace.