Strong Winds Return Home – Chapter Eighty-Two

Smoke billowed from the kitchens in the small village as every household busied themselves making lunch. There was a woman at the entrance of the village carrying her baby, and when she looked up to see Liu Xianche and his party, she was very pleasantly surprised: “Ah, Miracle Doctor, why are you here? Our shopkeeper has packed up a cartload of New Year’s goods and is about to take it to Liujia Village.” While speaking, she quickly pulled away the baby’s swaddling clothes to show the miracle doctor. There was a splint on the baby’s arm, and the servant boy recognized it at a glance. This was the usual bandaging technique used in Baihe Mountain Village. He was stunned for a moment. “Huh?”

Could it be someone from their own family?

The woman was still talking about the child’s symptoms. Liu Xianche went up to take a look: “Where is the medicine he’s taking?”

“It’s cooking on the stove,” the woman said. “The miracle doctor has been working hard, and must not have eaten anything. My mother-in-law has cooked glutinous pork rice and steamed a lot of rose cakes, all of which are favorites of the doctor. Come and rest at home.”

In the end, she took these men home without any explanation. The servant boy asked in a whisper: “Young Master, look at this bandaging technique, it can’t be…..A-Chang?”

From his standpoint, this was also a reasonable guess, because in the eyes of the vast majority of Baihe Mountain Village disciples, Liu Hengchang was exiled due to embezzlement. His character was not very good, and it was normal for such a person to pretend to be the First Young Master to bluff and deceive if he couldn’t put up with living outside.

However, Liu Xianche knew the truth of the matter. He knew that A-Chang was still lurking within the Baifu Sect at this time, so of course it was impossible for him to come out and pretend to be Liu Xianche. Thus, he kept his composure and didn’t ask any more questions for the time being, just following the woman into a house.

The older children in the courtyard were boiling medicine, which was gurgling in a pot. The smell of the medicine was very light, bitter and fragrant. Liu Xianche carefully looked at the medicine dregs, his brows furrowed. This prescription for healing wounds was drawn up by himself, and compiled into medical books to be distributed free of charge. Anyone could read it, so this wasn’t surprising, but what was strange was that the decrease in dosage for young children was nearly the same as their own process, which was not mentioned in the book.

“Miracle Doctor, what’s wrong? Is there something the matter with this medicine?” Seeing his stern face, the woman also panicked, asking the question cautiously.

“It’s is fine.” Liu Xianche stood up and said, “I’ll just add another medicine. Give me the previous prescription.”

The woman breathed a sigh of relief, and repeatedly agreed to go to the room to get the prescription. Liu Xianche took it in his hand, and the servant also stretched his head out curiously to look at it. He was even more shocked at the sight. This……he swallowed with difficulty, and said hesitantly, why does it seem to be the handwriting of our Second Young Master, ah?

Liu Xian’an’s handwriting was very recognizable, and all the disciples of Baihe Mountain Village could discern it. After all, the second young master only had two major advantages: good looks and good handwriting. Thus, every twelfth lunar month, he was driven to the study by the Village Master to write Spring Festival couplets. His brushstrokes were thin and elegant, full of power and grace, luxurious and romantic, and were very difficult for others to imitate.

A herd of horses was galloping through Liu Xianche’s heart at this moment. In the joyous tumult, he picked up a brush with difficulty and changed a few parts of the prescription, asking: “What about the patients I’ve seen before? Call them all with their prescriptions, don’t waste any time.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” The woman worked quickly, and immediately went to the village to spread the word, shouting that Doctor Liu had come back for a follow-up visit. Taking advantage of this time, the servant asked in disbelief: “Young Master, it can’t really be the Second Young Master, right? The handwriting is indeed his, and the Second Young Master does happen to be in the Southwest at this time, but…..” But the most famous layabout in the whole village couldn’t even remember the names of the medicines. Why would he suddenly change shape in a single shake and treat patients?

Liu Xianche was dizzied by his fragmented thoughts. If you’re asking me, who should I ask? He stared at the prescription in his hand, and the more he looked, the more unbelievable it became. Medical skills were the most impossible thing to achieve overnight. This was too strange. Before he could figure out the ins and outs, the villagers had already lined up with their prescriptions, and some had even brought an extra plate of pastries, all of which were sweet and glutinous. First Young Master Liu was very familiar with these kinds of glutinous rice snacks. His lazy brother was greedy at home, and slept right after eating. He did this several times and had indigestion, moaning and groaning, and all his medicine was poured by Liu Xianche.

“Doctor, your medicine is really amazing.” The person at the front gave a thumbs up and shouted, “I drank it and was just fine!”

Liu Xianche temporarily gathered his thoughts and said: “Tell me about the symptoms again.”

The man subconsciously lowered his voice as he responded, wondering at the same time, why does the miracle doctor seem more serious than the previous two days?

Liu Xianche looked at the patients one by one, checked the prescriptions one by one, and found no major mistakes, only a few sporadic additions or subtractions of the dosages. When the last villager left, Liu Xianche put down the brush in his hand, stood up, and said expressionlessly: “Let’s go!”

The woman in the kitchen chased after the sound, both hands covered in glutinous rice flour, and said anxiously: “Why is the miracle doctor going? Your favorite sweets are still hot!”

But the team of horses was sharp like an arrow, far away down the bend of the green mountain.

. . . . . . .

In Liuja Village, Liu Xian’an was eating extremely sweet pastries. A-Ning reminded his young master that he couldn’t eat any more, the prince ordered that the young master could only eat three pieces at most per day.

“If you don’t tell, nobody will know.” Liu Xian’an gave him half of it as hush money.

A-Ning’s brow and nose wrinkled up: “I don’t want it, it’s not easy to digest.”

Liu Xian’an turned a deaf ear and continued to eat snacks, wandering around the village in a big robe and making himself a living target. Seeing that it would be New Year’s Eve the next day, but people from the Baifu Sect had not come to kidnap him for a long time, he was also rather downtrodden, because it was quite boring to stay here all the time.

A-Ning sighed. The young master was capable of having a boring day. Who was the one who could sleep all day and find sleeping very interesting? Could it be that with His Royal Highness Xiao Wang there, he didn’t even bother to visit the Three Thousand Worlds anymore?

The master and servant wandered around the village for more than half a circle, but waited in vain for the cult assassin, so they had to resentfully return to their rooms. The guards of Xiao Wang Manor who were protecting him in the dark did not dare relax, and remained scattered around the village. They thought that they would get nothing again today, and never expected that there would actually be movement.

At sunset, a group of people appeared at the entrance of the village. The leader was wearing a blue cloak and a silver fox fur cap, with most of his face covered. There were quite a few followers, including servants, and they didn’t look like assassins, let alone kidnappers. An Imperial guard disguised as a villager stood in the way, knocking on a pipe bowl as he asked: “Who are you looking for?”

“We’re looking for the miracle doctor,” Liu Xianche said coldly. “I need treatment.”

“Follow me.” The Imperial guard turned to the side, motioning for everyone to follow.

Perhaps because the patient’s attitude was like that of an ancestor, unlike ordinary villagers who smiled anxiously, it seemed as if he was going to the door to collect a debt. So he looked back again, but still couldn’t see the person’s face clearly. He only saw a pointed chin and thin lips pressed into a line.

This looked familiar, but not familiar. In short, it was strange. He raised his vigilance, but in the shadows, someone had already rushed to report to Liang Shu.

Liu Xian’an was sitting in the room, changing the dressing for an uncle who had a broken leg. The uncle was hard of hearing and couldn’t hear the doctor’s words clearly, so his cooperation was extremely poor and it took him a long time to lift his leg. It was still out of position, but Liu Xian’an couldn’t be bothered with it anymore, and worked hard to loosen the splint for him.  He tried to apply the medicine sideways and re-wrap the bandages, but couldn’t find the right position for a long time, sweating in vain. He was about to call A-Ning to help when another pair of white hands suddenly appeared, took the bandage, and pulled it back hard, drawing an “urk” out of the uncle, who nearly stopped breathing.

Liu Xian’an looked sideways.

Liu Xianche looked back at him.

Liu Xian’an gasped, his eyes as wide as A-Ning’s. Seeing that the situation wasn’t good, the Imperial guard at the side saw Liu Xian’an’s expression and stepped forward to arrest this person, but Liu Xian’an waved him away desperately.

“…….”

Liu Xianche didn’t say a word. He bandaged the injured man’s leg, instructing in a cold voice, “If this happens again in the future, don’t be soft-handed, otherwise you won’t be able to finish bandaging in half an hour.”

“I know, but I don’t have much strength,” Liu Xian’an argued.

You know it now, but at home you just said you didn’t know to every question. Liu Xianche said to the wounded man: “It’s done. Get out.”

The wounded man was also shocked by his natural debt collector aura. He didn’t even dare to lift his head, and dragged his crutches as he moved outside, shambling like the living dead. Liu Xianche took off his hood and cloak, and the Imperial guard finally got a clear view of his face. This time, it was his turn to gasp. A-Ning dropped the basin in his hands on the ground with a bang, turned around, and ran outside without saying a word.

Where was he going?

To report the military situation to His Royal Highness Xiao Wang.

“Your Highness, Your Highness, Your Highness!” A-Ning said, out of breath, “The First Young Master is really here!”

Inside the room.

Liu Xian’an said: “Da-ge.”

Liu Xianche sat on a chair. “What is going on?”

“The prince wants to use this method to lure out the Baifu Sect’s assassin,” Liu Xian’an explained. “They have always wanted to catch a doctor from Baihe Mountain Village to treat Feng Xiaojin, and Da-ge has the best medical skills in our family, so I just pretended for a few days.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.” Liu Xianche took a stack of prescriptions from his sleeve. “Did you prescribe all of these?”

Liu Xian’an nodded: “Yes.”

“No one helped you?”

“En.”

“When did you secretly learn it?”

“It wasn’t secretly.”

After all, when he was a child, Second Young Master Liu hid in the library and flipped pages like cutting noodles, and the entire village knew about it. Liu Xian’an said: “I said I had read them all, but nobody believed me.” This was not my problem, but your problem.

Liu Xianche looked at the little brother before him and experienced the rare emotion of “shock.” There was a ringing in his ears, as if the world was collapsing. He said in disbelief: “So you memorized all the medical books at that time, but kept it a secret for so many years?”

It was not a lie. After all, no one came to ask him, and there was no shortage of doctors in the village. Liu Xian’an felt that under such circumstances, wasn’t it reasonable for him to hide away and sleep in the waterside pavilion? After all, treating patients was not something he had to do, and it was more comfortable to sleep.

Liu Xianche ignored his rebuttal, and casually pulled a ruler from a cloth basket: “Hold out your hand.”

Liu Xian’an: “…….”

He honestly suffered three blows, and was inwardly distressed to have his hand beaten as soon as they met.

Liu Xianche asked: “Do you know why I beat you?”

Liu Xian’an: “Because I pretended to be Da-ge.”

Pa!

Liu Xian’an corrected himself in a timely manner: “Because I clearly have medical skills, but concealed it for many years.”

In the end, another smack of the ruler descended and he gasped in pain.

Liu Xianche said: “I beat you because you prescribed a wrong prescription in Xiaozhao Village.”

When Liu Xian’an heard this, he couldn’t care less about the pain, and picked up the stack of prescriptions to check. Liu Xianche said: “If you can’t discover where the error is, you may continue to come to me to receive punishment until you find it.”

Liu Xian’an went through the prescriptions one by one until he found a mistake, a mistake that shouldn’t have happened. He wanted to use the excuse that he was so busy that day that he lost his head, but when the words came to his lips, he remembered the family motto his father chanted every day and obediently stretched out his hand. In terms of medical skills, Baihe Mountain Village had always been strict with its disciples, and Liu Xianche was even stricter among them. He beat the ruler so hard that a thin red mark swelled up on his slender white palm. Then he put the ruler aside and said: “Remember this lesson and be more careful in the future.”

Liu Xian’an let out a “wu,” and gingerly rubbed his hand behind his back.

Liu Xianche stared at this sad face that was the same as his own. It hurt to stare at it, but he still wanted to laugh. He took out some ointment from his sleeve: “That’s all. Sit down and I’ll apply medicine.”

There were footsteps in the courtyard.

Liu Xian’an said: “The prince has come.”

As soon as Liang Shu stepped through the courtyard gate, he saw a person walking out the door with a cold expression and a slightly furrowed brow.

Immediately afterwards, another head slowly stuck out around the door frame.

Liang Shu: “……..”


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Chapter Eighty-One << Table of Contents >> Chapter Eighty-Three

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