Chapter 450: Chapter 164 Sisters_2
Her classmates all envied her for having such a good father.
She smiled brightly and gladly accepted everything.
"Actually, when I told you before that I was jealous of you, it wasn’t a lie," Lin Danqing lifted her head and earnestly said to Lu Tong.
Lu Tong looked at her.
"Before you showed up, I had been studying at the Imperial Medical Bureau for three years and was first in every exam. I thought I would also be the top of the spring exam’s red list at the Imperial Medical Bureau, but then you came out of nowhere,"
Lin Danqing said, frustrated.
Just because she couldn’t get the first place on the spring exam’s red list, her father was somewhat critical of her. Although he didn’t say it outright, his gaze was tinged with disappointment.
"What do I care?" Lin Danqing spat out, possibly tipsy from the green plum wine, and began to speak more recklessly, "He never got first during his years at the Imperial Medical Bureau, and he has been serving at the Medical Officer Institute for so long without any notable achievements, why should he be disappointed in me? I am not even disappointed in him yet!"
Lu Tong couldn’t help but laugh.
Lin Danqing glanced at her and sighed, "Well, actually, when I first joined the Medical Officer Institute, I deliberately got close to you. I wanted to see where I fell short. If you know yourself and your enemy, you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. You beat me once, but you can’t beat me every time,"
"Who knew—"
She drew out the words, "good heavens, you’re even more miserable than me!"
She actually approached Lu Tong with full hostility, even though she pretended to be very enthusiastic and helpful.
However, Lu Tong’s situation turned out to be unexpectedly terrible.
Right after joining the Medical Officer Institute, she was assigned to pull red fuzz in the Southern Pharmacy, and after returning from the Southern Pharmacy, she was assigned to that old lecher, Jin Xianrong.
Any discerning person could see that Lu Tong was clearly being targeted.
With such a harsh treatment, Lin Danqing felt too guilty to continue targeting her.
Even those hostile little schemes seemed shameful.
"Later I thought, you are being suppressed by the Medical Officer Institute, so you’re not a match for me. Why should I take you as my rival? It would be an inglorious victory. Besides," she blinked, "you also told me the antidote for ’shooting pupils’."
Lu Tong shook her head, "The antidote was made by you, it has nothing to do with me."
"But you pointed me in the right direction!" Lin Danqing pushed the wine jar in front of Lu Tong towards her, "So I have invited you for a drink to express my thanks! Why won’t you drink?"
Lu Tong: "..."
She picked up the wine jar and also took a sip.
Very sour.
But Lin Danqing seemed satisfied.
In the windy and rainy night, with hot green plum wine and a table full of hot dishes, her hair, usually tied up high, was now completely let down, cascading over her shoulders as she leaned against the low couch like the young sisters who used to whisper on the bed.
She picked up a peanut and tossed it into her mouth, "Actually, I don’t like having a break every ten days."
"If it wasn’t for my aunt, I wouldn’t want to go home at all. I don’t want to see my father or my two legitimate brothers."
"They always ask me irrelevant questions."
Who else has come to the Medical Officer Institute, have I met any new officials while on duty, whether my relationships with the other Envoys have grown closer, whether I can catch the favor of the ladies from the back palace...
The casual conversations after returning home were nothing but another form of exam practice.
"Don’t be fooled by the big and small bags of snacks and clothes I bring back to the dormitory after the break; I’d rather have your green-shelled eggs," Lin Danqing said, poking at the peanuts on her plate with her chopsticks. The peanuts, round and smooth, were scattered everywhere by her careless prodding.
"That day during the break, when I said you could come to my house if you had nowhere to go, I was actually scared you would agree."
"You’re so smart, if you had come to my house, you would have realized immediately that I’m not as good as others say... How embarrassing would that be! Fortunately, you refused."
Lin Danqing burped from the alcohol and looked at Lu Tong, asking, "Younger Sister Lu, now that I’ve told you all this, will you look down on me?"
The rain outside the window continued unabated, and Lu Tong said, "It won’t."
"Really?"
"Really."
Lin Danqing was delighted and raised the wine jar to gently clink it against Lu Tong’s, exclaiming, "What a good sister!" She tilted her head and took a big gulp, making a grimace from the astringency.
Lu Tong watched her silently.
She knew Lin Danqing was always smart.
Though this girl appeared bright and cheerful on the outside, seeming rather careless, she was actually thoughtful and cleverly maintained good relationships with everyone at the Medical Officer Institute. Chief Physician Chang Jin was old-fashioned and proper, yet Lin Danqing would often buy late-night snacks behind his back, and when Chang Jin saw this, he would scold her verbally but never really got mad at her. Cui Min, who was as petty and narrow-minded as they come, was sometimes provoked by Lin Danqing’s remarks but never actually made things difficult for her.
Lin Danqing skillfully navigated among these people, maintaining a balance. Her forthrightness and cheerfulness seemed somewhat incongruously overlaid, but tonight, the answer had been found.
Brightness and cheerfulness were her mask.
Underneath that ever‑ready smile, her true feelings were of discontent and gloom.
This was the real Lin Danqing.
There was not much Green Plum Wine left in the jar; she set it down hard on the table, leaned in toward Lu Tong with an air of mystery, and whispered, "Younger Sister Lu, let me tell you, I have a wish."
Lu Tong: "What wish?"
"I," she pointed to herself with a boastful air, and blurted out, "want to become an Envoy!"
"An Envoy?"
Lin Danqing chuckled, propping up her cheek, and murmured vaguely, "Originally, I wanted to be an Envoy for my aunt. As long as I became a high official, my father would naturally not dare to treat me negligently, and I wouldn’t have to marry; I could just spend my life with my aunt."
"But it’s not like that now."
"Now, I want to be an Envoy for the sake of all the people."
Her expression changed abruptly, and she slammed her hand on the table. The dishes on the table also rattled, and she raged, "Look at the group of people at the Medical Officer Institute now, puffed chests and potbellies, pointing fingers and acting as though they know everything, hardly taking medical cases seriously. You, with your real expertise, get sent to pluck poisonous herbs at the Southern Pharmacy; and Cao Huai, who ranked at the bottom in the Imperial Medical Bureau’s spring exams, gets a cushy job."
"What kind of messed up world is this! That Cui Min, who is himself from a commoner background and rose up, actually suppresses commoners like this."
"If I become an Envoy, I’ll naturally select the worthy, no matter if they are commoners or high officials; treat everyone impartially, with the capable on top! The Medical Officer Institute is for saving people, not for networking and climbing social ladders. I want to give commoners all over the world a chance to fight for fairness!"
The rain kept falling, with nothing but the persistent sound of rain in the vast world.
After finishing the last of the Green Plum Wine, Lin Danqing looked at Lu Tong; she was so drunk she could barely keep her eyes open, yet the corners of her mouth still habitually curled into a slight smile, "If I become the Chief Court Envoy someday, Younger Sister Lu, you can be the Vice Director..." She shook her head again, "No, that’s not right, your medical skills surpass mine; you should be the Chief Court Envoy, and I’ll be the Vice Director..."
"The two of us combined, emerging triumphant together."
Her voice gradually became softer.
"How about that?"
Lu Tong: "Okay."
Lin Danqing gave her a thumbs-up, "...Good sister." She then staggered to pick up the wine jar, pretending to clink it with Lu Tong’s, "Here’s to us becoming Envoys!"
As Lu Tong bowed her head to grab the neck of the jar, before she could raise it—
With a loud "thump,"
Lin Danqing collapsed onto the table, sound asleep.
The wine jar rolled off, clattering on the mat by her feet, and the room fell back into silence.
Lu Tong held the heavy wine jar, and after a long while, she lowered her head and silently took a sip.
The plum wine was sour and astringent, sweet to the taste, but swallowing it down was all bitterness.
Outside the window, the rain thinned and the wind picked up.