Chapter 75: Chapter 56 Xianxian_3
"The lady said that drinking the medicinal tea would slim you down, of course it could."
Du Changqing waved his hand, "However, I originally thought that only women in Shengjing cared about beauty, never expecting that men would feel the same."
Lu Tong said, "It might not be about loving beauty, after all, public opinion is to be feared." She pulled the withered pomegranate branch out from the flowerpot, "Regardless of men and women, nobody likes to be the subject of gossip behind their backs."
"You make a good point." Du Changqing nodded, watching Lu Tong, and suddenly asked, "Doctor Lu, had you made this medicinal tea before?"
Lu Tong raised her eyes.
Du Changqing touched his nose, "Otherwise, how could you be so certain of the tea’s potent effects? I haven’t seen you test it with anyone."
Lu Tong gathered the withered pomegranate branches together and said, "I have made it." Then she looked up, meeting the shining eyes of the three people in the room.
She paused and after thinking for a while, she slowly began, "When I was studying medicine with my master, perhaps five or six years ago, a lady came to my master wanting him to concoct a miracle medicine that could slim her figure."
Lu Tong sat down on a chair, still clutching the pomegranate branch in her hand.
"This lady and her husband were childhood sweethearts, harmonious as the qin and the se in their youth, having children together. According to her, when she was young, she was slender and beautiful. However, due to managing the household over the years, she found it difficult to take care of herself. Thus, when she came to her senses, she realized she had aged, her beauty faded, and her figure had become bloated, a sight unbearable to behold."
The three people in the room didn’t speak, quietly listening to her story.
"Her husband intended to take a young concubine, who was pretty and delicate, her movements graceful and light, a stark contrast to her own heavyset figure."
"She harbored both hate and love for her husband; hatred because he was heartlessly unfaithful, despising the wife who had devoted years of her life to him, yet she still loved him for retaining a hint of his old affection for her, as the concubine he intended to take resembled her own self at the age of eighteen in both looks and behavior."
"Therefore, she sought my master, hoping he could create a miracle medicine for her that, once taken, would make her waist as slender as a willow, in hopes of recapturing her husband’s heart."
"My master assigned this task to me, instructing me to create the medicine for her."
The light within the room was dim, and the wind from the courtyard, separated by the felt curtains, blew the flames to the brink of collapsing.
Lu Tong’s gaze gradually became distant.
She still remembered what that woman looked like, dressed in an old soy-colored gown, stained with much mud due to slippery paths on Luomei Peak on a rainy day; it was obvious she had fallen on the road. The woman had pulled out a silver box from her bosom, inside, the silver ingot was polished to a shine, still warm to the touch.
The weary woman gazed at Lady Yun as if looking at all the hope in the world.
However, Lady Yun’s consultation fee was exorbitant, a mere hundred taels of silver was not enough to commission Lady Yun’s services to concoct the medicine.
Rejected flatly by Lady Yun, the woman seemed to lose all her spirit, collapsing into dejection. Lu Tong, standing aside, felt her own heart being tugged at.
Perhaps noticing the sympathy in Lu Tong’s eyes, Lady Yun glanced at her with a smile, "Although I cannot make the medicine for you, this girl here might. Why not ask her?"
The woman was taken aback, her gaze shifting subconsciously to Lu Tong, hope rising in her eyes once more.
With such a look directed at her, it was hard to say no. After struggling for a long time, Lu Tong finally nodded with difficulty, "I... I’ll try."
She accepted the woman’s consultation fee and began to laboriously prepare the medicine for her, poring over countless medical texts, tasting numerous medicinal brews herself, even dreaming of them at night. Lady Yun observed her efforts with keen interest, her gaze indecipherable.
Until later...
"What happened next?" Ah Cheng, completely engrossed, saw that Lu Tong had stopped and couldn’t help but ask.
Lu Tong came out of her reverie, pausing, then said, "Then, I completed the medicine and handed it over to her."
"Did she become very beautiful after drinking the tea? Did her husband change his mind afterwards?" The attendant was anxious.
Lu Tong was silent for a moment, "No."
Ah Cheng was taken aback.
"Indeed, after drinking the tea, she slimmed down significantly, from behind one couldn’t tell her from an unmarried young girl. However, her husband didn’t change his mind and still took the young concubine."
"How could that be?" Ah Cheng couldn’t help but exclaim indignantly, "She had become beautiful, how could her husband still take a concubine?"
Yin Zheng sneered, "She just lost some weight, but after all, she’s no match for the allure of a new face. Besides, men are such creatures that even if they find a fairy, it doesn’t stop them from changing hearts. Can mere medicinal tea win them back? When those who serve with beauty fade, love slackens, and once love wanes, grace ends. How can a young couple compare to the novelty and excitement of something fresh?"
"Agreed," Du Changqing nodded. "Men are no good; once they’ve taken a concubine, they should stop pretending to care about old affections."
Ah Cheng felt disheartened, "How can it be like this..." Then he looked up at Lu Tong and asked, "What happened to that lady afterward?"
"I don’t know." After a long time, Lu Tong finally said, "I never saw her again."
"Ah." Ah Cheng sighed deeply, his expression filled with regret; this wasn’t the ending he had hoped for.
After listening to a story that wasn’t very cheerful, the joy of earning silver that everyone had felt earlier had dimmed considerably. After discussing in the shop what medicinal teas to make and sell in the coming days, Du Changqing took Ah Cheng and left.
Yin Zheng bustled in the courtyard, sorting out the medicinal herbs needed for that night, organizing them in a bamboo basket.
Lu Tong returned to the small courtyard, where the shadow of the plum tree fell upon the table. A small bundle of withered pomegranate branches lay on the table, gaunt and stark.
Lu Tong adjusted the wick of the lamp and placed the small bundle of withered branches on top of the oil lamp. The flame made a crackling sound as it burned, and a whiff of scorched odor emerged from the lamp, abruptly shattering the night’s tranquility.
She lowered her eyes.
In fact, she had seen that woman again later.
After thinning from the medicinal tea, the woman returned to Luomei Peak, and Lu Tong saw her once more. She was no longer bloated but could even be called frail. Her withered body swayed in her robes like a dried pomegranate branch, devoid of vibrant flowers, only shriveled and lifeless.
Even though she had gotten what she wanted, her gaze seemed more desperate than before.
She presented all her silver, hoping Lady Yun would create a miraculous elixir to turn back her age, wishing to return to her former self.
But where in this world could one find such a miraculous youth-restoring elixir?
Lady Yun smiled and pushed back the woman’s hand, which clutched the silver.
The woman’s face turned ashen.
"Actually, it needn’t be so complicated. If you wish to win back your husband’s heart, it’s quite simple."
Lady Yun reached out, passing a snow-white porcelain jar and whispered into the woman’s ear, "Here is a tasteless, colorless poison. Used continuously for a month, the person will certainly die, and no one will notice."
Lady Yun let go, looking down gently at the bewildered woman, and softly said, "Once he’s dead, he won’t be changing his heart anymore."
Lu Tong stood behind the house, watching the woman gripping the porcelain jar in her hand, staggering down the mountain.
A month later, Lu Tong heard that a woman in the town at the base of the mountain had poisoned her husband and then jumped into a well to her death. She ran back to the house, where Lady Yun was cooking wine-steamed chicken. The kitchen was filled with the scent of fine wine and steamed chicken, but Lu Tong felt the urge to retch.
Lady Yun turned around with chopsticks in hand, looking at her with a beaming smile, as if watching a clumsy, amusing farce. Finally, she asked, "Do you see it clearly now?"
Lu Tong didn’t answer.
"The medicine doesn’t cure people, but poison can," Lady Yun said indifferently.
The medicine doesn’t cure people, but the poison indeed can.
Above the flickering flame, the last pomegranate branch had burned to ash, leaving the table covered in charred remains, unrecognizable from its former glory.
Yin Zheng called out from the courtyard, "Miss, I’ve sorted the herbs."
Lu Tong responded, cleaned up the ashes, and walked out of the house with the oil lamp.
Pitiful are those who have been misled by a slender waist...
Perhaps Xianxian was not a remedy but a poison.
Just like herself, she was never truly a doctor who saved lives and provided aid.