As the two were talking, Yuanyuan bounced around a few times and touched Ye Wenxue's nose with her nose.

Ye Wenxue chuckled, pressing her forehead against hers, her face beaming.

Seeing this, Dazhuang decisively stopped arguing with Su Jiu and reached out to hug Yuanyuan, wanting to get close to her.

Ye Wenxue refused, saying, "You haven't showered yet, you can't hug me."

Da Zhuang reluctantly withdrew his hand and went to cook.

Su Jiu quickly leaned closer and whispered her complaint:

"I don't think Xu Lin is a good person; the poison he was given is extremely potent. If it weren't for my superb medical skills, I'm afraid..."

Ye Wenxue pushed the person away: "You can't hold a grudge against Xu Lin just because he provoked you. You are a doctor who saves lives and helps people. You should be more open-minded and kind."

Doesn't Xu Lin know this yet?

The only mistake this honest man made was that, after becoming an official, he killed a corrupt family without getting his hands dirty.

Overall, they are upright and honest.

Even the male protagonist, a newly unified emperor, wanted to bring Xu Lin under his command.

Moreover, she had personally had considerable contact with Xu Lin, and Xu Lin was not the kind of treacherous and wicked person.

Su Jiu almost fell off the stool, and quickly grabbed the table to steady himself: "That's not what I meant. What I meant was... Lan Qing's background is not simple."

Ye Wenxue didn't care about Lan Qing; it was Xu Lin's family matter anyway, as long as it didn't involve her.

"Why do you care so much? Do you even know Lan Qing?"

Su Jiu was taken aback and shook his head: "I don't know him. It's just that... I've been in the deep mountains for too long and I'm a little bored."

Alas, in the past, when he practiced medicine in the mountains, he would never ask about the patient's background or origins.

Sure enough, being cooped up in the mountains for too long makes people a little crazy.

Ye Wenxue glanced at Su Jiu, then moved Yuanyuan in her arms to a more comfortable position. Suddenly, she became curious about Su Jiu's past:

"You really killed someone, just like Xu Lin said?"

She looked Su Jiu, dressed in white and appearing weak and vulnerable, up and down: "Doesn't seem like it..."

Su sat down angrily and remained silent.

Seeing that he was unwilling to talk about it, Ye Wenxue did not press him further. Everyone has an experience that is hard to talk about.

As long as it doesn't harm anyone, it's fine.

Just as Ye Wenxue was about to leave with Yuanyuan in her arms, giving Su Jiu enough space to think, she heard him suddenly speak:

"I didn't kill him."

"Um?"

Ye Wenxue became interested and quickly sat back down.

She suspected that she had been cooped up in the mountains for too long and was getting restless, otherwise why would she be so gossipy?

Su Jiu rolled her eyes at her and repeated, "I didn't kill him. He was already dead when he was brought to my clinic."

Ye Wenxue hadn't read many novels, so her thinking couldn't expand too much; she could only come up with a few ideas:

"Could it be that someone is jealous of your medical skills and is deliberately trying to frame you?"

Su Jiu looked smug. Although it was far from the truth, it could still be considered a compliment.

"Or...did you act too arrogantly and unintentionally offend someone?"

Su Jiu's face fell instantly, and she squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth: "I didn't!"

"Or perhaps, you have an extraordinary background, and that person wants to kill you before you are recognized, to prevent you from going back to seize the family fortune?"

There seems to be such a plot in the original book, but that person is not Su Jiu.

Su Jiu remained expressionless: "How could that be?"

He was annoyed by Ye Wenxue's guess and chuckled, "Keep guessing. I'll come down the mountain when you figure it out."

Ye Wenxue didn't want to guess, so she turned around, picked up Yuanyuan, and went to the kitchen to freeload.

Su Jiu tapped the table lightly with her fingers, finally calming herself down, when she suddenly noticed Sanyuan and Siwang hiding behind the box, their ears perked up: "..."

He grabbed Sanyuan by the ear and pulled him out from behind the box.

"It hurts, Master..."

Siwang quickly stood on tiptoe to grab Su Jiu's hand, hoping to persuade him to release his third brother.

Su Jiu released his grip, his face expressionless: "When did you start hiding here?"

Siwang's eyes darted around, and he was about to lie when Sanyuan spoke up before he could: "We were already here before you arrived."

He glanced furtively at Su Jiu's expression, trying to explain, "We weren't eavesdropping..."

Siwang puffed out his cheeks and added, "Yes, Mr. Su, we didn't hear anything."

These days, Su Jiu is still teaching them to recognize characters and read books, so there's nothing wrong with calling them "teacher".

Si Wang's statement essentially confirmed that the two men had heard the whole thing from beginning to end.

Sanyuan couldn't stop them in time, so he could only try to cover it up: "Master, you came in too quickly, we didn't have time to leave, we didn't mean to eavesdrop."

Su Jiu chuckled and said that he didn't see the two little rascals after returning to the valley.

On second thought, even if he didn't notice, it was impossible for Ye Wenxue not to notice.

After a moment of reminiscence, Ye Wenxue suddenly brought up the past...

It's obvious they're trying to trick him into adding an extra ingredient, Coptis chinensis, to the prescription!

Seeing Su Jiu's contorted expression, Sanyuan grabbed Siwang to prevent him from sneaking away. Unable to contain his curiosity, he whispered:

"Master, I believe you. Someone must be jealous of you to frame you!"

Su Jiu's expression softened; he didn't want to have a bad reputation in front of his apprentice no matter what.

In particular, this apprentice was to his liking.

"There's not much to say about this; it's just some infighting within the sect where members can't stand each other."

Internal strife within the sect?

Sanyuan and Siwang both opened their eyes wide at the same time.

Fearing that Sanyuan might overthink things, Su Jiu sat down again, grabbed a handful of hair in distress, and sighed:

“My father was a highly skilled doctor, and I learned medicine from him from a young age. But he also had more than a dozen apprentices, among whom the most skilled doctor was in charge of my father’s private clinic.”

Unexpectedly, some people, seeing my exceptional talent and handsome appearance, and fearing that I would monopolize the clinic, harbored shady intentions…

The people chasing him were also sent by someone.

To be honest, Su Jiu didn't understand why that person was so persistent.

Could it be... that his reputation, which is renowned in several prefectures, made that person feel threatened?

Sanyuan and Siwang couldn't understand such a profound and complicated story. They frowned and thought for a long time: "Master, how many disciples have you taken in total?"

Sanyuan didn't want the same thing Su Jiu had said to happen to him again.

Su Jiu could naturally see through his thoughts: "You are the only one, there are no other disciples."

He didn't want to become someone's master at such a young age, raising his apprentice with painstaking care of him.

Sanyuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Ye Wenxue, who was eavesdropping outside the window, seemed to be deep in thought.

It seems that person was quite ruthless, killing Su Jiu so badly that his name wasn't even mentioned in the original book.

Little Yuanyuan in her arms had been playing "no talking, no moving" with her mother for a while, but she finally couldn't hold back anymore and rolled over in Ye Wenxue's arms: "Eeya!"

Ye Wenxue realized something was wrong, poked Xiao Yuanyuan's soft face, and quickly ran away with her in her arms.

Su Jiu walked out with a dark face, just in time to see Ye Wenxue's back as she entered the kitchen.

He gritted his teeth, knowing that this person had no good intentions!

Turning around again, the room was empty.

Siwang secretly dragged Sanyuan away to a faraway place.