Prime Minister

Chapter 217, Section 216: [A One-Man Show]

Two carriages entered the east gate of the Tongzhi's residence, one after the other.

Xue Huai got off the carriage first and then went to another carriage. Yun'er and the other maids tactfully made way for him.

Shen Qingluan looked at Xue Huai's outstretched hand, hesitated for a moment, but still gently placed her hand on Xue Huai's palm and used it to get out of the car.

The two arrived at the small courtyard on the east side, where Yue Zhenshan, who was waiting there, stepped forward and said without looking at them, "Sir, Doctor Xu has been acting strangely for about an hour. She stopped sitting still and started pacing back and forth in the room. Just now, she suddenly asked to see you, and her expression was quite resolute."

Xue Huai asked in a deep voice, "Has anything unusual happened in the house today?"

Yue Zhenshan solemnly replied, "My lord, everything inside the house is as usual, and there are no outsiders spying on us."

Xue Huai then made a plan in his mind. It seemed that the forces behind Xu Zhiwei had some unknown and mysterious methods, which allowed them to transmit messages without anyone noticing.

He originally thought the other party would use assassination to eliminate Xu Zhiwei, but those people were cautious enough. They expected Xue Huai to lay a trap here, so they did not act rashly, but contacted Xu Zhiwei in an extremely secretive way.

With this in mind, Xue Huai turned to Shen Qingluan and said, "Let's go in."

The guards bowed silently and opened the door, making the already quiet atmosphere in the east courtyard even more oppressive.

The two entered the main room, with only Jiang Sheng following behind them.

Xu Zhiwei stood by the window, dressed in plain clothes. Her figure was even thinner than a month ago, as if a gust of wind could blow her over. However, her back was straight, like a bowstring stretched to its limit, revealing a stubborn desolation.

This scene caused Shen Qingluan's eyes to dim slightly.

Looking back, she and Xu Zhiwei had a close relationship. They were close in age, insightful, and both had pure and kind hearts. Their friendship deepened naturally. However, when Xu Zhiwei handed her that poisoned heart-nourishing pill in the elegant room of Yingyuan, the past could only be the past.

Xue Huai, standing to the side, didn't have many feelings. He and Xu Zhiwei had a bet, and now it seemed that the time to reveal the answer was approaching.

Xu Zhiwei slowly turned around, her once clear and bright eyes now seemingly veiled by a layer of cold mist like that on a lake in late autumn.

She looked at Xue Huai and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Lord Xue."

Xue Huai narrowed his eyes slightly, his tone calm: "What brings Miss Xu to see me?"

Xu Zhiwei did not answer, but walked straight to an inconspicuous rosewood table next to her.

On the table was a brand-new food box—a utensil that Li Shun had bought three days ago. Because it was of good quality and inexpensive, he bought several of them.

Xue Huai and Shen Qingluan then looked at the vermilion lacquered food box with painted patterns.

Shen Qingluan gave a soft "Eh" and said, "The pattern on this food box looks rather unique."

"Unique?"

Xu Zhiwei twitched the corners of her mouth, her smile growing increasingly desolate: "This pattern is called Returning to Dust."

Xue Huai's pupils suddenly contracted.

He was still wondering how the forces behind Jimintang would silence him, but unexpectedly, they used items circulating in the marketplace to send messages.

Jiang Sheng, Qi Qingshi, Bai Cong, and Yue Zhenshan worked together to make the official residence as secure as an iron barrel, so secure that even a bird flying by could be detected. They had thoroughly searched every corner these past few days but found nothing unusual. However, the other party had simply marked the information on the most ordinary objects, waiting for someone who knew their value.

The procurement was innocent, the food box was blameless, but the pattern called "Returning to Dust" was like a poisoned dagger, precisely piercing Xu Zhiwei's heart.

Xue Huai feigned ignorance and calmly asked, "Gui Chen? What do you mean?"

"literal meaning."

Xu Zhiwei spoke slowly, as if recounting someone else's story, and then said, "My aunt once told me that seeing this mark means the end of one's life."

Shen Qingluan frowned. How could there be such a vicious relative in this world?

The aunt forced Xu Zhiwei to poison her, and now that the plot has failed, she is worried that it will implicate her. So she is heartless enough to force Xu Zhiwei to commit suicide.

She looked up and saw Xu Zhiwei standing by the window, her slender figure elongated by the setting sun, casting a shadow on the blue brick ground, looking as forlorn as a lone crane with broken wings.

Xu Zhiwei clearly did not expect that even though she was prepared to die to repay Liu Ying's kindness in raising her, her aunt did not believe her and ultimately used this method to remind her that since she had fallen into Xue Huai's hands, she should take all the secrets to the dust.

She was not afraid of death, but choosing to keep the secret to the death and being forced to die by her closest relatives were two different things.

"Shall we sit down and chat?"

Xue Huai looked at Xu Zhiwei with great sincerity.

Shen Qingluan was filled with sorrow. She could see that Xu Zhiwei was heartbroken and lifeless.

Xu Zhiwei certainly remembered the bet. She glanced thoughtfully at Xue Huai but did not refuse the proposal. The three sat down and remained silent for a moment.

"Miss Xu, things have come to this point, I hope you can remain calm."

Xue Huai did not rush to mention the bet. He softened his tone and said, "If you don't mind, we'd like to hear your story."

Shen Qingluan followed up by saying, "That's right, Sister Xu, your medical skills are so amazing, did you learn from famous doctors since you were a child?"

Xu Zhiwei's fingers unconsciously rubbed the worn seams on her cuffs, as if the rough touch could suppress the bitterness in her throat.

After a long while, she finally raised her eyes, her voice like a stream steeped in autumn frost, clear and slow: "I have no father or mother, I was an abandoned baby picked up by my aunt from the snow. She said that in the twelfth lunar month that year, the canal was so frozen that horses could run on it, and I cried until I was barely alive in my swaddling clothes, with half a faded peace buckle stuffed in my arms. Before I was seven years old, I lived in the back alley of the City God Temple in Hangzhou. At that time, Jimintang was just starting out, and my aunt was already working very hard, but she still took great care of me, so in my heart she was no different from my own mother."

Shen Qingluan sighed silently. Although she couldn't fully empathize, she understood how cruel her aunt's decision must be for Xu Zhiwei.

"I started learning to read from the 'Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold'."

Xu Zhiwei's tone finally softened, and she slowly said, "My aunt invited Dr. Meng from Jimintang to teach me. Dr. Meng had a strange temper and disliked my weak wrists, so he made me go up the mountain to collect dew every day at dawn. Only the dew that fell and did not disperse could be used as a medicinal ingredient. Once, while climbing to pick dendrobium, I accidentally fell into a thicket of thorns. Dr. Meng scolded me for being stupid, but he spent the whole night flipping through the pharmacopoeia and made me a scar-removing ointment."

Xue Huai's eyes flickered slightly. He had heard Ye Qing mention the Jade Complexion Cream from Jimintang. After the scars on the faces of poor women were smoothed out by this cream, they would often kneel in front of the hall and kowtow.

"When I was fifteen, an epidemic broke out in Jiaxing after the flood."

Xu Zhiwei's gaze drifted to the window, as if looking through time to that devastated land. "My aunt took me to treat patients. There weren't enough tents, so the patients could only lie in the mud waiting to die. When I was giving acupuncture to a child with a high fever and convulsions to bring down the fever, his mother suddenly grabbed my wrist and cried for help. Her fingernails dug into my flesh, and it hurt a lot... Fortunately, the child survived. Later, his mother brought a basket of wild shepherd's purse, saying it was the last bit of green leaves on the riverbank."

"Later, black spot disease appeared in the epidemic area. Patients were covered in sores and would die within five days. Old Meng tried all the ancient remedies to no avail, and his hair turned white overnight. I stayed in the morgue for a long time and found very fine insect bite marks behind the ears of the deceased."

She raised her hand and drew a line on the table, her eyes brightening slightly: "It turns out that water fleas have burrowed into the bloodstream. I used neem bark mixed with realgar wine to fumigate the affected area, and the eggs were wiped out in half a month."

Shen Qingluan sincerely praised, "Sister Xu, you are really amazing."

Xu Zhiwei looked at her with a complicated expression, and then said, "Although I have never had the protection of my parents since I was a child, my aunt has been very good to me. I don't need to worry about anything else. My food, clothing, and shelter are all taken care of. I only need to focus on treating people's illnesses. In fact, I have only done this one thing in my life."

As soon as he finished speaking, a thick silence fell over the room.

The setting sun outside the window cast its afterglow on Xu Zhiwei's pale cheeks, outlining an almost transparent contour.

Xue Huai and Shen Qingluan listened quietly without interrupting.

"I thought that doing just this one thing in my life would be enough: to heal the sick and save lives. That is my wish."

Xu Zhiwei's gaze slowly shifted to the vermilion food box, as if she were staring at her own fate. She said with a slight sneer, "My aunt taught me benevolence and skill, and the name of Jimintang is also about helping the world and bringing peace to the people. I tried my best to do this good deed to the extreme, only in this way could I repay my aunt's kindness in raising me and forget my rootless and drifting origins. But now it seems that everything was a carefully planned arrangement."

“I practice calligraphy, study medicine, and save lives. Every step I take is on a pre-designed stone slab.”

"I live like a storybook written by someone else, even the title of 'miracle doctor' is just a pre-set footnote, just to make the reputation of Jimintang more famous."

"It turns out that I have only done this one thing in my entire life."

Xu Zhiwei murmured, her voice as soft as a sigh, yet filled with an almost cold calm: "Something that others have already written the beginning and the end of, and that I am the one to take the stage."

She slightly raised her chin, revealing her slender, fair neck. There was no anger or grief in her eyes, only a sense of resignation after everything had settled.

The vermilion lacquered food box that Liu Ying managed to bring in made her realize that she was just one of the signs erected by Jimintang, and a useless object that would soon be erased.

She felt that this ending was acceptable, because she was originally an abandoned baby picked up by Liu Ying, and should have died in the snowstorm nineteen years ago. Now, by returning this life to the other party, she could settle this karmic debt.

Shen Qingluan felt a pang of pity. Xu Zhiwei had fallen into a state of complete collapse of her faith and life. At this moment, she was probably truly seeking death because she felt that everything she had done was meaningless.

Xue Huai gazed into Xu Zhiwei's eyes and sighed softly, "Miss Xu, could you answer a question for me?"

"Naturally."

Xu Zhiwei said calmly, "I lost that bet, Lord Xue, please feel free to ask."

"It has nothing to do with the bet."

Xue Huai shook his head and said seriously, "You just talked about many things from the past, but do you still remember how many people you've saved?"

Xu Zhiwei looked at him, puzzled.

Xue Huai's gaze seemed to penetrate her heart as he said, "Perhaps everything you experienced was fake, but one thing is definitely true: the gratitude of the patients who were saved because of you, just like the wild shepherd's purse that woman gave you."

Xu Zhiwei was stunned.

(End of this chapter)