Before it snowed, the sky was a leaden color. I don't know exactly when it started, but snowflakes began to fall silently. At first, the snow was not heavy or dense, falling lightly like willow catkins, or like a white swan gently shaking its wings, with tiny feathers drifting down.
When Meng Zhelan got up early to go to the clinic, she found the streets covered with a thick layer of snow, so deep that it went over her ankles. Luckily, there were snow shovelers on the street, and she paid them fifty coins to clear the path from the restaurant entrance to the back gate.
Walking on the snow-covered streets after ten years, she couldn't help but recall her days in Kyoto, building snowmen with her parents in the yard, eating warm potstickers, and listening to their gentle voices. Now, her mother was long gone, her father was missing, and everything had changed.
When she arrived at the clinic, there were already many people waiting in line. She came over to help with the consultations. She had obtained her medical license through her father while she was in Yunnan and Sichuan. There were many more patients with typhoid fever today, and she and Dr. Liu were busy all morning before they finished seeing all the patients.
The pills she made sold quite well, especially the Angong Pill and the Rejuvenating Pill. Taking advantage of her free time, she went to her alchemy workshop again. The beautiful and refined young woman was just the beginning of her budding youth. But Meng Zhelan had no romantic thoughts; her only desire was to find her father and secure her livelihood so she could have a better future.
Just as she was waiting for the pills to be ready, Bao Ge'er arrived, saying that a distinguished person who had been poisoned had come to the clinic. After instructing Bao Ge'er to watch the furnace, Meng Zhelan hurried to the front hall.
On the sickbed lay a man dressed in an indigo brocade robe. His eyes were closed, and pain was falling on him like hail, making him feel as if he were about to be destroyed by the agony.
The man in black paced anxiously to the side. When he saw Meng Zhelan approaching, he said anxiously, "Doctor, please take a look at my young master. He suddenly became like this half an hour ago."
Meng Zhelan approached and saw that the man's face was ashen and his lips were black. She quickly put a small pill in the man's mouth and took his pulse.
The man in the brocade robe had an irregular pulse, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, with the pulse stopping temporarily after four to seven beats, repeating the cycle. He also experienced some complications, including rapid breathing.
Meng Zhelan immediately took out silver needles and performed the Thirteen Strange Needles technique. The man rolled over and vomited a large pool of black blood. His face seemed less ashen than before, and his lips gradually returned to normal.
He quickly wrote out a prescription and handed it to Doctor Liu. "Doctor Liu, get this medicine ready and brew it immediately. The other prescription is for a medicinal bath; have someone boil the water." Doctor Liu dashed out like the wind. Time was of the essence; not a moment could be wasted.
The man in the brocade robe vomited black blood and then fainted. Seeing that his face was gradually turning red, she felt relieved. She put her hand on his pulse again and looked at his features, suddenly realizing that he seemed familiar. She couldn't remember him for a moment, and seeing that he was alright, she was about to go and check on the preparations for the medicinal bath.
Just then, Lu Yi rushed into the bathhouse, shouting in a panic, "Lu Er, how is the young master?" When he saw Meng Zhelan come out of the ward, he was stunned. "Miss Meng, what are you doing here? Did you save my young master?"
Meng Zhelan then remembered this loud and boisterous guard. It turned out that this nobleman had been treated on the way to the capital. What a wonderful coincidence!
“Your young master is out of danger. The poison has been neutralized, and he is no longer in any immediate danger. Now, let him soak in the medicinal bath after the water is boiled,” Meng Zhelan said calmly, pointing to the ward inside. “Bring him over later, and I’ll go check on how the medicine is being prepared.”
Lu Yi almost knelt before Meng Zhelan, but luckily he encountered Doctor Meng again. He dared not linger for a moment, and seeing that Prince An was safe and sound, he let out a deep breath. The prince had already been humiliated enough, and yet someone had tried to kill him. Thinking of how those assassins had committed suicide by poison after being captured, the hatred in his eyes seemed to want to tear them to pieces.
The Prince An, stripped naked, sat in the bathtub, the brownish medicinal liquid covering almost his entire body, with only his shoulders and above exposed. Lu Er was supporting the Prince An, preventing him from sinking further. Although he had regained consciousness, he was still unable to control his body.
"After the young master finishes his medicinal bath, give him his medicine and he can go to sleep. We'll leave when he wakes up tomorrow. I'm sorry to trouble you to rest here tonight. I'll go home now. If there's anything that Doctor Liu can't handle, please have him come to me."
Meng Zhelan explained some details to the two of them through the screen, then packed up and went back.
Winter nights come early, and the houses are all bundled up tightly, pitch black, with only a faint candlelight peeking through the gaps in the curtains. The lanterns in front of the restaurants outside are already lit, and pedestrians hurry by, perhaps to avoid the winter chill, or perhaps to get back to their own warm homes.
When Meng Zhelan returned to the restaurant, there were only a few customers. After she had dinner, Li Xi asked her to go to the backyard.
"Lan'er, the weather is getting colder and colder, and business isn't as good as before. How about we make some hot pot? Eating some hot pot on such a cold day is especially warming," Li Xi thought of hot pot from later generations, her mouth watering for miles. Unfortunately, chili peppers weren't in season yet, so they could only make some clear broth hot pot.
“Okay, whatever you say, Xi’er. I’ll pay for it, okay? We’ll go to the market tomorrow and see what we can buy.” Meng Zhelan knew that Li Xi always had some strange ideas, but she always trusted Li Xi without reservation.
The room was filled with the smell of medicinal herbs, which made Prince An feel somewhat uncomfortable. In the middle of the night, he was able to move his hands and feet again: "Lu Yi, where is Doctor Meng?" His expression was unclear.
This time he didn't fall into a deep sleep, but the poison made him unable to control his body. He wanted to grab Meng Zhelan and ask her if they had met somewhere before, and why images of her kept appearing in his mind.
"Your Highness, Doctor Meng went home after seeing that you were alright. She should come again tomorrow. Doctor Liu said that Miss Meng is the owner of the clinic and has excellent medical skills," Lu Yi said, fearing that Prince An would summon him to find Doctor Meng.
"Understood. Have someone go back to the manor and fetch me two sets of clothes." He really couldn't stand the strong smell of medicine on him. Since that was the case, he wouldn't disturb Miss Meng's rest any longer. Now that he knew her whereabouts, there was plenty of time; he could always find some clues.
The medication made him drift off to sleep again, and in his dream, he saw Meng Zhelan, crying out for help from the abyss. Why did his heart ache so much? Seeing the woman in his dream falling into the abyss, his heart felt as if it were being torn apart, the pain so intense that he could barely cry, and he could only sob uncontrollably.
A suffocating sensation jolted him awake, his eyes streaked with tears. It was the same dream again; Prince An couldn't fall back asleep for a long time…
He thought he would see Meng Zhelan at dawn, but half a day passed and she still hadn't come.
...
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