A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

That afternoon, an unexpected person suddenly appeared at the clinic.

A short, stout man, with a large belly, wearing a brand-new but ill-fitting silk robe, swayed and squeezed in. As soon as he entered, he began to shout and yell at the top of his lungs:

"Oh, my dear Dr. Yang, I've finally found you!"

Yang Hu looked up and stared blankly for a moment.

Fatty Wang!

That scoundrel from Maocao Village. Back then, Yang Hu had just arrived in the village begging for food. This guy would come to the clinic every few days to take advantage of people, charging extra for the scales. Later, he slept with some thugs from the West Camp, trying to get revenge. Yang Hu pressed his pressure points with two fingers, and Yang Hu was unable to get up for a long time. He would never forget that feeling.

It's been over a year since we last met, and I never expected this guy to come to the city.

"Master Wang?" Yang Hu put down the pulse pillow, a half-smile on his face. "What brings you here?"

When Fatty Wang saw Yang Hu's two hands, his neck involuntarily shrank. It was those two fingers that had pinned him down, leaving him lying on the ground unable to get up for a long time. He would remember that feeling for the rest of his life.

He chuckled dryly twice, then leaned closer and rubbed his hands together. He hadn't dared to utter a single word about how he had taken advantage of the situation and brought in the thugs from the western garrison to cause trouble.

"Sigh, why bring up those old grievances!" Fatty Wang grinned, leaning closer, his enthusiasm for the stock market unchanged. "Dr. Yang is now a miracle doctor in the city! Back in the village, I used to tell people that Dr. Yang was a real hidden talent, full of extraordinary abilities, and he was bound to succeed sooner or later. See, I was absolutely right!"

He looked around, surveying the front shop and back yard, the shop assistants and apprentices, his eyes practically popping out of his head.

"I can't stay in the village any longer!" he sighed, then changed the subject. "I think with such a big operation like Doctor Yang's, there's always a need for someone to run errands. I, Wang, may not be good at much else, but I know every shop in and out of town. Just give me a bite to eat, and I'll stay with you and get by!"

In other words, they come to seek refuge and benefit from the situation.

Yang Hu knew what was going on.

This man was quick-witted, thick-skinned, and greedy for money. He ran errands, buying things from the outside world and negotiating prices with shopkeepers. He did a good job with odd jobs. But there was one thing that was most important.

This person's mouth is not reliable.

Back in the village, Fatty Wang was never one to keep a secret. Whatever was going on in someone's family, whatever was being said, it would be known to everyone in the village in no time.

Yang Hu is petty.

"There are people running around doing chores!" he said slowly. "But in our clinic, especially in the back courtyard, not a single word can be leaked. If you think you can keep your mouth shut, then stay. If you can't, you'd better hurry back to the village."

"We can hold it, we can hold it!" Fatty Wang patted his chest. "My mouth, Wang's, is the most reliable!"

Yang Hu didn't say anything more and just let him do the errands for purchasing.

The other day, Fatty Wang was doing quite well. He quickly learned the ins and outs of the big pharmacies and rice shops in the city, and was able to negotiate down prices. With Lu Rou keeping the accounts, it saved him a lot of trouble.

But in just these past few days, Fatty Wang, unable to keep a secret any longer, finally opened his mouth.

That day, I was drinking with a porter I knew at a tavern near the entrance.

After drinking, he became more talkative and started praising how he had managed to befriend a renowned doctor in the east of the city.

"Look at my Dr. Yang!" Fatty Wang spat as he chewed on a meat bone. "Tsk tsk, the front and back rooms are quite large! Hehe, just look at those beautiful women, there are at least several!"

There was some commotion around, so they told him to explain in detail.

Fatty Wang had a few drinks, and the more he drank, the more he talked.

"That guy who makes medicine looks like a scholar, I wonder where he comes from? He's making those little abacuses so fast." He chuckled lewdly in a low voice, "And that guy who can hunt rabbits, he's really handsome."

Then he lowered his voice even further: "But the most eerie one is the other one, always smearing ash and acting like a servant. She's clearly not ordinary; that body, that sway of her waist, that glance she gives you—it can make you dizzy from head to toe. I'm telling you, that woman is definitely not an ordinary woman; she's… a female general with a sword!"

The words "female general with a sword" drifted out amidst the noise of the tavern.

A seemingly inconspicuous tea drinker next to him trembled slightly in the hand holding his teacup.

The man put down his teacup, paid silently, and left the tavern, heading west towards the city.

His steps were not hurried, so as not to disturb anyone, and the words of the "female general with a sword" had been firmly imprinted in his mind.

Fatty Wang continued talking, completely oblivious to everything else.

The news reached Yang Hu's ears within a few days.

It was someone who recited it to Liu Ye when she was asking around outside, and she learned it from them.

Her face looked terrible.

"That fat Wang, he talks a lot of nonsense in the tavern," she said. "He talked about a few people in the courtyard, even Qin Ying... he said she was like a 'female general with a sword.'"

Yang Hu's face darkened.

Seriously, this mouth just won't do.

Everything else was fine; the revelation of Lu Yan, Lu Rou, and Liu Ye's identities wasn't a big deal. But Qin Ying was different. "Dead people." This was a secret that couldn't be touched.

The phrase "female general with a knife" might just be a drunken joke to the average person, but to those who are always watching this courtyard, waiting for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow, it's a lifeline.

The eyes of those people staring at us from across the street, the sinister hand of the Zhao family in the west of the city, the dog under the wall of the prefectural magistrate's mansion... if any of them heard this, it wouldn't necessarily be a good thing.

Yang Hu immediately summoned Fatty Wang over.

This time, there was no beating around the bush. He straightened his face and started to break down the usual lines used to deliver a surprise attack.

Back in the village, he was good at intimidating people, and he could even kill them with his "beating the mountain to scare the tiger" technique. Now, he knows even better how to pick on their nerves.

"What you said, what you said at the tavern today." Yang Hu stared at him, his voice neither loud nor soft, but audible.

It smacked him repeatedly.

"Especially the last sentence, 'The female general with a knife,'" "If this gets out to the wrong people, they'll lose their heads." "It won't just be your head, it will be everyone in this courtyard's heads."

Wang Pangzi sobered up considerably after drinking so much, and with a thud, he prepared to kneel down.

"I... I was just bragging... Dr. Yang, I won't do it again."

"Remember this," Yang Hu said, "What happens in the yard is a secret you must keep to yourself. If even a single word leaks out, you can forget about eating my food!"

Fatty Wang nodded, trembling like a leaf.

That night, after hearing about Liu Ye's story, Qin Ying stopped wiping her knife.

"Just a drunken remark." Her voice was somewhat cold, yet deeper than usual. "But drunken words can be hurtful. I've seen too many deadly things happen in the army, not because the enemy pried them out, but because of their own loose tongues that let the cat out of the bag."

She didn't say anything more, but Yang Hu understood what she meant. She had gone to great lengths to protect her life, and now, because of this Fatty Wang's boastful words, her life was hanging in the balance again.

After chasing away Fatty Wang and offering some words of comfort to Qin Ying, Yang Hu stood alone in the corridor for a long time.

The reprimand was given, but words spoken are like water spilled; they cannot be taken back.

At that moment, countless ears heard the phrase "female general with a sword," and it's unknown whose heart it touched.

He remembered what Fatty Wang had casually mentioned: things hadn't been peaceful in Xiying these past few days, with reports of defeats coming to the village every day. He couldn't stay in the village any longer, so he came to the county town.

Yang Hu wrote these words down.

The border is not peaceful, and that secret grain transport line may become active again. The secret in the courtyard, which has only been kept secret for a year, has now been exposed by a restless mouth at this critical juncture.

The wind blew in.

Yang Hu stared at the half-open door diagonally opposite him, his expression growing heavy.

Did that tea drinker who leisurely left the tavern and went to the west of the city hand those words to someone else at this moment?