Chapter 503: Chapter 180 Teacher_4
Her shadow fell into his eyes, stirring up ripples of lamplight, and Lu Tong suddenly started, subconsciously avoiding his gaze, yet her eyes followed the bridge of his nose and landed on the corner of his lips.
She had always known that Pei Yunmeng was good-looking.
His was the kind of face universally favored by men and women, young and old alike, with exquisitely handsome features and a spirited look in his eyes, devoid of any powder or rouge. He usually wore a faint smile that made him appear bright and warm as a gentle breeze, but without the smile, the dimples unseen, his lips ruddy and well-defined, he seemed especially enticing.
In the beautiful night, the scent of flowers was overwhelming.
She tilted her head up slightly and leaned closer to him, able to catch the faint cold fragrance emanating from his body, almost intangible.
Pei Yunmeng lowered his gaze upon her, seeming to notice her fleeting distraction, and suddenly smiled meaningfully, saying, "Doctor Lu, do you perhaps want to..."
Lu Tong’s eyelashes fluttered.
In the air, the cold scent of flowers became suddenly passionate, slowly rippling out under the lamplight.
The young man leaned in close, his dark eyes sparkling like stars, his smile bright on his lips, as he leisurely spoke the rest of his sentence.
"...take liberties with me?"
Lu Tong: "..."
Whatever breeze, whatever ripples, disappeared without a trace in an instant, and Lu Tong dropped the bamboo slip in her hand, saying coldly, "Do it yourself."
He couldn’t help but laugh again, a look of pleasure in his eyes.
Pei Yunmeng took the bamboo slip, wiped it twice casually, and, as if something occurred to him, looked at Lu Tong.
"Doctor Lu," he said, "may I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"The epidemic in Changwu County years ago, after which you disappeared, were you really kidnapped by human traffickers?"
Lu Tong hadn’t expected him to ask this and was momentarily stunned.
Pei Yunmeng watched her in silence.
Qingfeng had found out that in the thirty-second year of Yongchang, a great epidemic had struck Changwu County.
The epidemic came on furiously, with almost every household in the county experiencing death.
Yet the Lu Family had emerged from that epidemic completely unscathed.
Since there were very few survivors of that great epidemic, and most of the Lu Family’s neighbors were no longer among the living, it was extremely difficult for Qingfeng to gather information on "Lu Min."
The insiders he found claimed that the Lu Family asserted their Third Young Lady had been kidnapped by traffickers after the epidemic, and her whereabouts remained unknown to this day. However, children taken by traffickers often met tragic fates, yet Lu Tong reappeared before the public seven years later, her exceptional medical skills impossible to ignore, causing many to link her to the Lu Family’s unscathed survival from the epidemic seven years prior.
He had wanted to ask Lu Tong a long time ago, but felt that inquiring into someone’s secrets was ultimately inappropriate, especially since Lu Tong was someone with strong defenses.
Now that he knew about the past at the Su Nan Execution Ground, they were essentially old acquaintances. Moreover, their current relationship, at least compared to the initial hostility, had improved significantly.
What he couldn’t ask in the past, he might now try to ask.
"The one who took you, was it the master who taught you medicine?"
After a long while, Lu Tong hummed an affirmation.
"Since it was your master," he asked, "why didn’t you inform your family when you left?"
Those seeking news had said that the Lu Family, years after Lu Min’s disappearance, had never given up the search for their missing daughter, firmly believing that one day they would find her. Out of sheer exhaustion, the Lu parents, still in their prime years, had turned grey and aged far beyond their peers.
Actually, upon closer thought, the matter wasn’t hard to guess.
Xiao Zhufeng said to him, "It seems the situation is quite clear. Seven years ago, during the Changwu County epidemic, a divine physician passed through and perhaps, valuing Lu Min’s exceptional talent, wished to take her as a disciple, using saving the Lu Family as a condition to take her away."
He felt something was wrong, "To take a disciple should be done openly, why then in secret and without a word."
"Legendary healers all have their quirks," Xiao Zhufeng said nonchalantly, "perhaps fearing the Lu Family would be reluctant to part with their younger daughter, so they took her away secretly."
It seemed to make sense.
But Pei Yunmeng always felt there was something not quite right about it.
He couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong, only that his intuition told him even the most eccentric healer wouldn’t be so careless when taking on an apprentice.
Besides, years ago, when Lu Tong was only nine years old, there had been no mention of her having a profound understanding of medicine, and the Lu Family had no doctor. Where then did the notion of an inborn exceptional talent come from?
Mystery upon mystery.
The bamboo strip was placed back on the table, and the white porcelain medicine bottle gleamed under the lamplight.
The young man’s words were calm and mild, yet they made Lu Tong’s eyelashes tremble.
Why not say a word?
When leaving Changwu County, there had been so many opportunities, so why had there been no chance to say a word?
She clenched her fingers tightly, the tips digging deeply into her palm.
Suddenly, the shadowy figure of Lady Yun wearing a veil appeared before her eyes.
She sat in the horse carriage, her pale skirt blending into the snow outside.
The young Lu Tong looked uneasily at her: "Miss, before we leave, could I say goodbye to my parents?"
The veiled lady seemed to smile: "No, you can’t."
She said, "This is a secret between you and me. Your parents only need to take the antidote for seven days, and the plague will be eliminated. But if you reveal this secret, on the last day, the antidote will become poison, and not one of your four family members will survive."
"Do you understand?"
Lu Tong shivered.
Afterward, she faithfully followed Lady Yun’s instructions, preparing the medicine daily for her family to take. Her parents had been suspicious, but she merely said it was from the county lord’s charity to the poor. At that time, her parents and siblings had been too ill to leave their beds, and even though they were doubtful, they couldn’t verify it.
However, the open sores did stop spreading, and no new pustules appeared, as if the plague had reluctantly retreated.
Lady Yun hadn’t lied to her.
The young Lu Tong was relieved, yet she calculated in her heart. Since Lady Yun said the antidote would become poison on the seventh day, Lu Tong would keep silent for the first six days. Then, on the seventh day, after watching her parents take the antidote, she would confess everything.
She just wanted to say goodbye; her sudden disappearance would worry her family otherwise.
On the sixth day, after giving her family the antidote, Lu Tong went to the city gate to get the herbs for the seventh day from Lady Yun. Lady Yun had her climb into the carriage and handed her a cup of hot tea. She drank it without suspicion and, when she woke up, she was far away, no longer within the familiar streets of Changwu County.
She pulled back the carriage curtain, aghast at the unfamiliar scenery outside: "Didn’t you say...we had to take the antidote for seven days?"
The woman in front of her had now taken off her veil, revealing a face as delicate and fair as jade, and said, "Six days is enough."
She couldn’t believe it: "You lied to me?"
"Yes," the woman replied, smiling as she did when indulging the naive words of a child, gently stroking her head in a tone so tender it was nearly sinister.
"Otherwise, you would have had the chance to tell them, wouldn’t you?"
The departure was so sudden, leaving her no time to prepare. She sat dazed in the carriage, momentarily forgetting how to react, until Lady Yun reached out, pulled down the curtain, and all the wild grasses and frosted branches, the deep smoke and vast waters were hidden from view.
Only the woman’s smile remained, watching her.
"Little girl," she said, "this is called ’regret.’"