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

When Yang Hu returned to the three-courtyard house in the east of the city, it was already almost dark.

He took the small, gilded box from the Wei family mansion to the table and opened it.

A thousand taels of pure silver, the deeds to two shops, and the deed to a small three-courtyard house in the west of the city were all revealed together.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Lu Rou was the first to react.

Picking up the contracts and lighting the candle, one after another, the woman's eyes, so familiar with accounting, shone brighter and brighter.

"These two shops on the south side of the city are in the busiest part of the street," she said excitedly, pointing with her finger. "The rent alone is enough to support our clinic for most of the summer, and then there's this house... Husband, we've really struck it rich!"

She looked happy as she spoke.

From a lowly maidservant who used to wait for her master's orders to now managing affairs for this family, Lu Rou's hands are becoming more and more confident.

Lu Yan did not look at the silver.

He examined the house deed from the west side of the city for a long time, then looked at Yang Hu with a complex expression on his handsome face.

"Young master, you've traded your life for this strike!"

Her tone was light and airy.

"Yan'er doesn't want the money or the courtyard. She only hopes that in the future, whether the young master is practicing medicine or doing other things, he can live a more stable life and not risk his life so recklessly."

After all, she came from the Duke's mansion.

These material possessions meant nothing to her; what mattered to her was the man who had risked his life for her.

Yang Hu felt a warmth in his heart, but he still spoke fearlessly.

Don't worry, I don't do business that loses money.

Liu Ye was squatting on the doorframe, gnawing on a freshly roasted rabbit leg, showing little interest in the silver contracts on the table.

"This mansion is quite large."

She took a bite of meat, her eyes bright, looking at them like a clear spring.

"The walls in the city courtyards are too high; it's like being in prison inside. Not even a pheasant can fly there. How can I neglect my medicinal herb garden?"

Yang Hu chuckled.

"I'll still leave the herb garden to you. The one in the west of the city is a bit closer to the city gate, making it easier to go into the mountains to pick the herbs."

Liu Ye grinned, revealing two small tiger teeth.

Things are finally a little better with that big house.

Only Qin Ying remained silent.

Standing in the lamplight, his eyes lingered on the house deed for a moment, then looked outside as if he were contemplating something.

The houses in the west of the city had their backs to the Wei family's territory, with a main street leading out and two alleys running alongside them on either side.

She finally spoke, her tone carrying the scrutinizing quality typical of soldiers.

"We can advance or retreat, and it's a better place to defend."

She's a real soldier.

When looking at a house, the first thing to consider is not its size, but whether it can provide adequate shelter.

Yang Hu knew it just by looking at her.

What she really meant was that she was worried their identities would be harder to conceal if they moved to another home.

"Even if you move there, you'll still be a smeared medicine boy!" he said. "In this city, every person who recognizes you is a potential calamity!"

Qin Ying didn't say anything, but her body, which had been upright for a while, slumped down a little.

Her life is here... in this courtyard, someone remembers it for her.

Three days later, the Yang family moved away.

The houses in the west of the city, with their three courtyards, were many times more spacious and beautiful than the small courtyards in the east of the city.

The front yard was used as a pharmacy, with three beds and a large pharmacy set up in a very casual manner.

The courtyard behind where people live is quiet and elegant, with pavilions and terraces.

Lu Yan guarded the pharmacy, putting away the precious herbs and attaching small labels; Lu Rou was planning the new items and keeping a clear account.

Liu Ye planted a plot of land behind the house, intending to grow commonly used medicinal herbs. Even the new apprentice, Aji, was assigned a small side room and happily ran around everywhere.

On the day of the move, we held several tables of food and drinks, inviting familiar neighbors, Old Master Sun, and Old Scar from the south of the city.

The fire was blazing on the dining table, filling the air with smoke.

Old Manager Sun stroked his beard, downed three large cups in a row, and said with a flushed face, "I've been a businessman for decades, and I've seen at least eighty, if not a hundred, doctors. But Dr. Yang is the first one who can cure you after cutting open your abdomen and removing your intestines. From now on, I'll do business with you in this city!"

Old Scar, a man with a face full of scars who usually roamed the south of the city, surprisingly offered Yang Hu a bowl of wine on this day, saying in a deep voice, "I, Old Scar, am going to befriend Doctor Yang! From now on, anyone in or outside the city who dares to touch a single hair on your head can come and ask my brothers if it's alright!"

Yang Hu thanked them one by one.

He looked at the people in the room.

From a dilapidated courtyard in a remote village to a large mansion in the city;

From an empty-handed itinerant doctor to a legendary physician known throughout the city as Doctor Yang.

And just like that, the days passed by in a single step.

Since curing Old Master Wei's illness, the reputation of "Doctor Yang of the East City" has been firmly established in the city.

The line of patients seeking treatment stretched all the way to the alley entrance.

Before dawn, patients would come to see the doctor. Aji was busy sorting and dispensing medicine at the front, while Yang Hu sat behind him. One patient after another came, sometimes for most of the day.

The story was being told on the streets and in teahouses.

"I heard that Doctor Yang from the east of the city has moved to a large courtyard in the west of the city as a reward from Old Master Wei."

"That's right. A miracle doctor who can open up a person's chest and bring them back to life would be truly heartless if he lived in a dilapidated house."

"My second son had a sudden infantile convulsion last year, and he cured him with just one acupuncture treatment. A doctor like that, you wouldn't complain about having a huge yard!"

Those whose lives he saved all gave Dr. Yang a thumbs up when they spoke of him:

Moreover, all those bastards who used to look down on a small-time quack doctor have changed their tune.

Some people presented plaques to him, some came with invitations hoping to make his acquaintance, and even some officials and businessmen took the opportunity of seeing him to strike up a conversation with this miracle doctor.

In the south of the city, a retired registrar personally wrote a plaque inscribed with "Miraculous Healing" and sent it over.

The owner of a large silk shop in the city, carrying a thick bundle of gifts, opened the door and immediately announced that he would be buying Yang's business for wound medicine from now on.

Three months ago, these people would never have had the chance to deal with this itinerant doctor.

Yang Hu accepted all comers, but he wasn't in a hurry to flatter or fawn over them.

Sitting at the examination table, he examines patients and prescribes medicine.

While listening to these people gossiping without showing any emotion:

What is the relationship between them?

Who has powerful backers?

The vast network of relationships in the city slowly surfaced before him through a series of invitations to visit his door.

On this day, another person who looked like a manager came to deliver a letter.

The man spoke politely, saying he was asking for a pulse reading for a high-ranking official in the city.

Yang Hu put down his pen and watched the steward study the document carefully without making a sound.

Yang Hu casually asked: What brings that gentleman here?

The steward stammered, but the words that slipped out of his mouth unintentionally mentioned a few times: "The Prefectural Governor's Office... the Prefectural Governor's Office."

Yang Hu's hand holding the pen remained completely still.

A smile appeared on his face:

But the secret hidden in his heart caused his taut heartstrings to tremble slightly.

The water in the Wei residence is connected to the Prefectural Magistrate's residence!

Now, the Prefectural Magistrate's Office has appeared among these invitations to visit!

The thread he had been secretly searching for—the one who secretly sent military rations and weapons out and wrote living people as dead—seemed to be getting closer and closer to him, thanks to his sudden fame!

The person he was looking for had actually been entangled with him, a well-known and respectable figure in the city, from the very beginning!

His target is inside the city!

Little did he know that as he rose to fame and gradually closed the net along this secret line, in another secluded mansion in the west of the city, the very people he was targeting were actually planning to come knocking on his door with the women in his courtyard!