Chapter 693: Chapter 234 Medicine Man_4
After Lady Yun died, Lu Tong scattered that bag of Golden Qin under the Red Plum Tree before descending the mountain.
Lady Yun was right, no antidote herbs grow on Luomei Peak. Sometimes, fate is sealed from the very beginning.
Lu Tong knelt on the ground, reaching out toward the cluster of pretty little flowers.
They seemed little bigger than the winter jasmine, brilliantly golden, identical to the illustrations in the books. Amidst the snow, the branches were lush, the bright colors trembling ever so slightly in the breeze, illuminating one’s eyes.
Lu Tong gently touched them.
This cluster of flowers, which she thought would never sprout, bloomed on their own after she left and after the wind and snow had filled the air, proudly blooming with vigor beneath the cold wind and snow.
As she looked on, for some unknown reason, her eyes suddenly grew hot, and tears fell.
...
"Snap—"
A crisp sound echoed as she stepped on the snow-broken plum branches on the ground.
Someone walked through the grass behind the house, a silver knife hanging coldly at their waist.
Lu Tong was still fast asleep in the house; Pei Yunmeng did not wake her and went out to check the surroundings.
After a night of snow, Luomei Peak was covered in pure white. Looking from the summit, the expanse was vast, and it was easy for ordinary people to lose their way in the mountains.
The resistance of the constable of Su Nan County, Li Wenhu, to having medical officers enter the mountains was not out of cowardice. In fact, even the Palace Front Office Guards venturing into the snowy mountains would be dangerous.
Yet Lu Tong thrived here as if in her natural element.
Pei Yunmeng wandered casually through the snowfield.
Miss Lu San of Changwu County later became the Female Doctor Seventeen of Su Nan City, with a gap in between that she guarded most cautiously, as if she were keeping a shocking secret that none could glimpse.
In the desolate mountains, the hastily constructed hovel, the narrow bed, the ropes and the marks, he thought he knew her well enough, but now he felt the mysteries only deepened. Without her opening up, he could not enter, the invisible line between the two of them, the knot that kept her from confronting herself at ease.
Pei Yunmeng stopped in his tracks.
Before him lay a large expanse of wild grass.
The wild grass behind the house was chaotic, the heavy snow having pressed the vegetation into a mess. However, amidst the disarray, rows of mounds stood out prominently.
The cold snow covered everything, some lying atop the mounds, making the raised graves all the more noticeable, row upon row, especially clear amid the wild grass.
Pei Yunmeng’s brows gradually furrowed.
This was the house where Lu Tong had once lived.
Behind the house, there were so many alarming graves.
His gaze fell on the most prominent grave in the front.
This grave was different from the others, noticeably wider, with a stone monument on top. The stone was clearly haphazardly chiseled from somewhere outside, uneven, covered in snow.
The young man composed himself, took two steps forward, and reached out to brush the snow off the monument.
The white snow was brushed aside, gradually revealing the engraved lettering.
The lettering was also fuzzy, and the calligraphy was hasty, though familiar—it was Lu Tong’s handwriting—
The grave of my mentor, Mo Ruyun.
Mo Ruyun?
A strange feeling arose in Pei Yunmeng’s heart, the name sounding somewhat familiar.
He looked at the inscription for a while, and as he was about to leave, he suddenly thought of something, abruptly lifting his eyes.
In a flash, someone’s voice resounded in his ear.
"Although Miss Mo of the Mo Family was exceptionally gifted, it was these children she saw as Medicine Men who were key to her miraculous remedies. Those children suffered unspeakably under her, most pitifully, none survived except the new Medicine Man captured."
...
Handfuls of the dazzling Golden Qin were plucked and placed into the bamboo basket.
Lu Tong picked the last cluster of Golden Qin, feeling somewhat pleased.
"No plan of gardening is sure to bloom, but where no pains are taken, the willow will grow." She hadn’t expected that the seeds cast casually under the tree years ago would, after so many years, grow and flower.
The Akebia vines on the mountain had withered, but the Golden Qin had become the new hope. The nature of the Golden Qin could cure fevers and was actually more effective than Akebia vines. Although it was uncertain if it would ultimately be useful for the epidemic, where there is hope, there is everything.
She decided to take all of the Golden Qin back down the mountain, so the trip wouldn’t have been in vain.
Lu Tong carried the basket filled with herbs back to the house and placed it beside the medical kit. Seeing that Pei Yunmeng had not yet returned, she wondered why and was about to call out his name when suddenly through the wooden window, she saw a dim figure standing behind the house.
That place...
Lu Tong’s heart pounded violently.
In an instant, forgetting everything else, she dropped the medical kit and dashed out the door.
Behind the house, the area was covered in white frost. The young man stood amidst the snow, his figure tall and straight, yet in the vast mountains, it seemed so lonely.
Lu Tong stopped behind him.
Hearing her approach, he turned around.
Pei Yunmeng stood before her, his sharp and handsome eyes calmly staring at her, with emotion churning underneath.
Lu Tong’s gaze fell behind him.
There, on Lady Yun’s tombstone, the snow had been brushed aside, her hasty handwriting distinctly legible, like a crude secret painting suddenly unveiled.
Pei Yunmeng stared fixedly at her, stepping toward her with each step.
"Why do you call yourself Seventeen?"
His voice was different from usual, calm, gentle, as if suppressing some emotion, sending a tremor through her.
"Do you push me away because of this?"
He walked up to Lu Tong, dropped his gaze, and slowly spoke.
"Are you, Mo Ruyun’s Medicine Man?"