Gaoshan Town.
Zhao Xiu was sitting in a medical hut run by the Yue people, with crushed herbs pressed against his chest. The herbs burned his chest and caused a burning pain. When the pain passed, he felt a chill, which made him very unhappy.
The Yue doctor did not understand Chinese. After talking to him for a while, he pulled him into the medicine room, asked him to take off his clothes and lie on a bed stretched with hemp ropes - let's call it a bed for now.
Afterwards, the doctor brought a lid that was as tall as a person and made of bamboo strips and rice dumplings leaves, and covered Zhao Xiu with only his head exposed.
He was a little panicked.
"What is this for?"
The doctor continued to talk incoherently, but he didn't understand a word. The attendant roughly understood, "He said he wanted to cleanse you of the filth and poison."
"How do I get rid of it?"
"Steam?"
After saying that, the doctor took some herbs and put them into three ceramic basins, then lit them. He then sprinkled some unknown foam on them. The foam extinguished the flames, leaving only bursts of white smoke.
He brought the pottery basin under Zhao Xiu, and the rising white smoke immediately enveloped Zhao Xiu, choking him and making him cry.
"Hey, t-will this work?"
"It should be useful. This medicine house was already there when we passed by here three years ago. I think it must have some function, otherwise it would have collapsed long ago."
Zhao Xiu believed it for the time being, but the more she smoked, the more dizzy she felt. Finally, she could not hold on any longer, closed her eyes, and passed out.
"Hiss." After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Xiu was awakened by a stinging pain under his nose.
"Master, are you awake?" The attendant leaned forward and asked with concern, "How do you feel?"
"Where am I?"
"In the clinic, the doctor is about to give you an injection, please don't move."
Zhao Xiu rolled his eyes and finally saw clearly that besides his followers, there was also a Han man in his forties who was pricking him with a silver needle.
"Weren't you in the medicine house just now? Why are you here?"
"This..." The follower looked guilty.
The doctor rubbed the needle into the acupuncture point and said slowly, "That Vietnamese doctor is just a scoundrel. At most, he can only treat injuries caused by falls. You have such serious internal injuries, and you dare let him do this?"
Zhao Xiu looked at his followers, "Didn't you say he was effective?"
The follower chuckled twice and looked away.
After the doctor gave him acupuncture, Zhao Xiu felt a little weak. His attendant brought him a bowl of warm water to drink, and he slowly regained his strength.
"It's best to rest your wound." The doctor brought a box of ointment and had his attendant apply it to the bruise. He continued, "This injury wasn't serious to begin with, it's been delayed until it became like this."
Zhao Xiu smiled bitterly, "I have to keep going, so I don't have time to rest."
"Young man, don't you value your life?" the doctor sighed, then went to prescribe medicine for him. "Baoyuan Dan, take one pill daily, and apply a plaster every two days. Burn it before applying. Drink plenty of water, and work less..."
This seemed like nonsense to him, so the doctor stopped talking. After a moment, he said, "It's best to come back here tomorrow for another injection."
"Thank you, doctor." Zhao Xiu asked his attendant to find some clothes for him to wear. Then he walked to the counter and asked, "How much is the consultation fee?"
"Two taels of silver." In Gaoshan Town, only silver or Yue coins are accepted.
Zhao Xiu touched his waist but couldn't find his purse. He asked his attendant, "Where's my purse?"
The attendant was stunned. When he and the Yue doctor carried Zhao Xiu over, they just wrapped him in clothes and didn't pay attention to the purse.
"It must have been left in the medicine room. I'll go back and get it right away."
"Wait!" Zhao Xiu felt around his waist and said with a pale face, "My Jade Tiger is gone too!"
The two men quickly rushed back to the medicine house, but saw black smoke coming out of it from afar. They originally thought that the Vietnamese doctor was fumigating again, but when they got closer, they found that the medicine house was on fire.
Zhao Xiu squeezed into the crowd and saw the Vietnamese doctor sitting on the ground crying and muttering something.
He hurriedly pulled him up and asked, "Have you seen my purse and jade tiger?"
The Vietnamese doctor waved his hands and said something incoherent to him, but he couldn't understand.
Zhao Xiu was anxious. He grabbed him and shook him, demanding, "What nonsense are you talking about? Where are my purse and jade tiger?"
The Vietnamese doctor started talking nonsense again, and a spectator who spoke Vietnamese explained for him: "He said he didn't see it, and it might have fallen into the medicine room."
Zhao Xiu pushed the Yue doctor away and shouted, "Why don't you put out the fire?"
There was little water in Gaoshan Town, and the fire was so fierce, how could they put out the fire? In the end, they could only watch the medicine house turn into a pile of ashes.
The attendant called other members of the caravan to search in the ashes, but the fire was so fierce that even if the jade tiger had fallen into the medicine hut, how could it be picked up?
After searching the medicine house thoroughly, they found nothing.
Zhao Xiu's face was covered in black ash, and he stared at the pile of ash in a daze.
It’s over now. Without Yu Hu, how can he prove his identity?
At this moment, the people he arranged to wait for Lou Yunchun at the town entrance came and said that Lou Yunchun had arrived.
It seems that Yu Hu cannot be found. The only thing I can do now is to meet with Lou Yunchun first and then discuss countermeasures.
"Walk."
Zhao Xiu left with the caravan.
The Vietnamese doctor watched him walk away, then exchanged glances with the onlooker in the crowd, each of them smiling. After the onlookers dispersed, the two of them gathered together and carefully examined the jade tiger.
"This is a real treasure."
"It's really a good thing. Even if I have to sacrifice my medicine house for it, it's not a loss."
"How much is your shabby medicine house worth?"
Both of them spoke Chinese.
Doctor Yue glanced toward the street, then carefully tucked the jade tiger into his arms and said, "We have to get rid of this thing as quickly as possible, but we can't let anyone see it."
"Let's make it clear first. The purse is yours, and the money Yuhu got is split equally between us."
"When did you get less money?"
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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