Chapter 277: Chapter 115: The Nameless Expert_2
All the wound medicines for their Palace Front Office were distributed by the Imperial Apothecary. For someone like Pei Yunmeng, who worked inside the Imperial Court, the rewards included specially concocted medicines by the Imperial Physicians, boasting extraordinary effectiveness.
But the medicine bottle in his hand was plain, obviously not a product from inside the Palace.
Pei Yunmeng glanced at him, snatched back the medicine bottle, and snorted, "Fifty taels of silver, no need to waste it."
"Fifty taels?" Xiao Zhufeng frowned, "Were you scammed?"
Pei Yunmeng couldn’t be bothered to talk with him.
Xiao Zhufeng didn’t mind, leaning against the table watching Pei Yunmeng rewrap his wound with a clean cloth, commenting, "The stitching isn’t very good."
Pei Yunmeng followed his gaze to his own shoulder, where a new wound was scabbing over, revealing an old scar underneath. It stretched like a long centipede clinging to his skin, spreading backward, looking frighteningly fierce.
Pei Yunmeng’s gaze gradually drifted into the distance.
Back then, he passed through Su Nan and was hunted down, hiding at an execution ground. He encountered a strange little girl in a pile of corpses.
She claimed to be a doctor, yet scavenged corpses, appearing timid yet daring enough to dig out a corpse’s heart and lungs with her own hands. Finally, she self-deceptively bowed to the corpses, begging for peace, hoping the dead would not haunt her.
At that time, he had just been stabbed by his own people, barely clinging to life. Though alert like a trapped beast, he couldn’t help but be amused by her absurd actions. Later, he forced her to save him and stitch his wounds, vaguely recalling her reluctant demeanor, possibly deliberate or accidental, leaving an ugly scar on his shoulder and back.
Many details, actually, Pei Yunmeng himself couldn’t remember well. He only remembered it was a rare snowstorm in Su Nan City in ten years, a dim light flickering in a deserted temple. She asked him for medical fees while he had only a silver ring left on him, representing his mission identity.
The girl didn’t know the value of the silver ring, reluctantly accepting it, yet still forced him to write a "debt note" on the temple wall.
He barely remembered the specific content of the debt note, likely just stating how much medical fee he owed her in vague terms, finally signed as "Seventeen."
Seventeen, obviously not a real name at first listen.
The little girl looked only eleven or twelve, yet had reasons to hide her identity, indicating the difficulty of the world.
He didn’t ask much, just as she didn’t delve into his origins. As travelers meeting by chance, there was no need to know each other’s past or future.
Someone beside him spoke, interrupting his thoughts.
Xiao Zhufeng asked, "Was it Lu Tong who helped you the night something happened in the Palace?"
Pei Yunmeng paused, nodding, "Yes."
"It was too risky," Xiao Zhufeng disapproved, "If she reported you to the Imperial Court now, you’d be doomed."
Pei Yunmeng smiled, "She has her own troubles and won’t court disaster herself at this time."
He recalled the two large jars of poison Lu Tong kept in the small kitchen and her adept dealings with Shen Fengying, his eyes gradually growing cold.
This Doctor Lu seemed to have many secrets, having killed people, accused without changing her expression. Even though he intruded uninvited that night, forcing her to "comply with him," after the initial surprise, she naturally accepted.
As if immersed in her own world, indifferent to everything around her.
People solely immersed in their own world must have their own matters to attend to.
What exactly did she want to do?
Xiao Zhufeng glanced at him, "By the way, I just heard some news."
"What’s that?"
"A few days ago, a servant of the Minister of Imperial Treasury went to West Street causing trouble, claiming that the resident female doctor at Renxin Medical Hall seduced Young Master Dong."
Pei Yunmeng sneered, pouring tea from the teapot on the table, "The Dong Family really knows how to flatter themselves."
To someone like Lu Tong, he was no different from "a piece of pork buried under a tree." Young Master Dong probably wasn’t worth as much as pork in the eyes of Doctor Lu.
"It caused quite a stir, and many people on West Street heard it. They say that Doctor Lu used Dong Lin to bribe people within the Medical Practice to participate in the Imperial Medical Bureau’s Spring Exam this year."
Upon hearing this, Pei Yunmeng paused his tea-pouring action, looking up at Xiao Zhufeng, "Spring Exam?"
Xiao Zhufeng shrugged, "Looks like that’s the doctor’s objective."
Participating in the Imperial Medical Bureau’s Spring Exam was nothing more than aiming to join the Hanlin Medical Officer Institute to become a Medical Officer after passing it. Being a Medical Officer sounded prestigious, but perhaps wasn’t as free as working in a small medical hall on West Street. Apparently, Lu Tong wasn’t someone who cared about fame and fortune.
The only possible reason was that she wanted to enter the Palace rightfully.
Xiao Zhufeng said, "Earlier, you guessed she belonged to the Third Prince, but now we can rule that out. If it were the Third Prince, there’d be no need for such convoluted means to send her into the Palace."