fit.
Liu Xian’an had never seen such a large carriage before, so he boarded it to take a look around.
Old was old, but the old interior faintly revealed a sincere decoration technique of “trying to appear new.” It could be seen that Shi-daren had indeed done his best with the limited resources.


A-Ning walked over with the luggage in his arms: “What is Young Master smiling at?”

Liu Xian’an wasn’t smiling at anything.
He just felt from this carriage that His Royal Highness Xiao Wang cherished their friendship.
Then he thought of the poets’ descriptions of friendship.
For example, “How many times can you laugh heartily in your life, when you first meet to drink wine, you must get drunk.”[1]

Another example was, “When we meet, we drink happily in the same mood, and the horse is tied to the willow tree under the restaurant.”[2] They were all beautiful and chivalrous scenes, so the regret of saying goodbye was diluted by poetry.
Sitting in the soft carriage, he planned to carefully calculate and investigate where in Baihe City he could find good wine for a drunken reunion.

It would take a while to pack the carriage and horses, and Liu Xian’an was bored waiting, so he took A-Ning to visit Xiao Taohua.
She had recovered very well and was sitting in the courtyard, basking in the sun and helping her mother tidy up some silk threads.
When she saw Liu Xian’an come through the door, she was so happy that she dropped the basket and stood up: “Miracle Doctor Liu.”

The silk threads that Taohua’s mother had finally finished dying were in a mess again.
She laughed and scolded the girl, then rushed to the kitchen to prepare tea and roast chicken, saying that it had just come out of the pot.
The guards from Xiao Wang Palace also followed from afar.
Seeing Taohua only leaning toward Liu Xian’an, smiling so hard that her round eyes turned into crescent moons, they couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.
It was fortunate that Second Young Master Liu did not usually like to go out.
Otherwise, if he got up diligently and rode a horse from east to west, it was likely that everyone from a four-year-old milk baby to a forty-year-old aunt would be unable to escape.
There was no way out for other people.

But in fact, Taohua was not thinking about marrying a beautiful man, but was chatting about practicing medicine.

“You want to be a doctor in the future, that’s great, ah.” A-Ning said with a smile, “Baihe Medical Center has a branch in Chang’an City, and there will be a selection in three months.
They are all children about the same age as you.
If you sign up, you will have a chance to be selected, but studying medicine is very difficult.”

“I’m not afraid of hard work,” Taohua said.
“I just want to cure diseases and save lives like Miracle Doctor Liu and Brother A-Ning.”

Liu Xian’an felt that he was actually not a doctor, let alone a Miracle Doctor, but he didn’t correct her, since he was lazy and couldn’t be bothered to explain.
As for titles, they were vain, empty things.
Humanity-Saving Miracle Doctor or Bloodthirsty Demon, it didn’t matter what people called him.

He didn’t know anything about the selection process of the Baihe Medical Center, and was even unaware until after A-Ning spoke just now that a process existed.
This level of knowledge would certainly be of no assistance to Taohua, so it was all up to A-Ning.
Thus, Second Young Master Liu began to wander off again.
He took out a big, boundless piece of paper in the dreamland and planned to draw a castle of the same size and boundlessness so that he could give it to his Royal Highness Xiao Wang in the future.

Exhausting all of his unrestrained imagination, he made the first careful stroke.
Following his movements, a continuous flow of golden bricks and clear jade tiles fell from the sky, fitting together like a seamless garment.
The high dome blocked the passage of birds, a deep fragrance diffused across the land, and dragons dove and circled around the pillars.
This gorgeous palace was built far away on the top of a mountain, and there was even a very big hot spring inside, like the boundless sea.
If His Royal Highness Xiao Wang wanted to, he could even bathe with Kun and swim with Peng.[3]

Liu Xian’an was quite satisfied with this prototype.
He put his hands behind his back, but before he could take two steps, there was a bang in his ear!

“Miracle Doctor Liu!”


A-Ning quickly stood up and opened his arms to shield his young master.
“Who are you!”

The Xiao Wang Palace guards also rushed over quickly.

“Miracle Doctor Liu!” The person who came was a woman in her twenties or thirties, holding a baby in her arms.
She knelt down and cried, “Begging the miracle doctor to raise his hand high and give my brother and husband a way to survive!”

Liu Xian’an had just stepped back into the real world from the palace when he suddenly heard this sentence, and didn’t quite understand.
He felt that his hand didn’t seem to be on the head of the other party’s family for him to “lift it high”, so he asked A-Ning to help him up first. 

Taohua moved a bench over for the woman.
Seeing that Liu Xian’an seemed confused and ignorant, she explained in a low voice: “Her husband and brother were also treated on Dakan Mountain because of Gu poison.
They are called Song Ma and Zhou Yuqian.
But later, for some reason, they were sent down the mountain before they were cured by the soldiers and sent to prison.
In the past two days, I heard that they were sent to a quarry for hard labor.”

Song Ma and Zhou Yuqian.
A-Ning had an impression of these two names, and said to Liu Xian’an: “Young Master, that group is the group of smirking ruffians who followed us to the hot springs a while ago.
I also wondered why those people disappeared and asked Brother Qiu, but he said he didn’t know.”

Liu Xian’an looked at the guards of Xiao Wang Palace.

A guard whispered: “It was the prince’s order.”

The woman continued to cry.
She didn’t expect the government to release the men from the quarry, but she begged for the Gu worms to at least be taken out of them, otherwise they may not survive past three months.

The guard stepped forward and asked: “Does the young master want us to send him back to the government office first?”

Liu Xian’an stood up.

Seeing that he appeared to be leaving, the woman suddenly became anxious.
Perhaps because of her despair, or perhaps because of anger, she shouted: “In the eyes of princes and miracle doctors, are the lives of the common people really as cheap as ants?”

Liu Xian’an didn’t look back.
He only stepped past the threshold and said to A-Ning: “Take two disciples from Dakan Mountain and go to the quarry to fetch the Gu worms from those people.”


A-Ning made a sound of agreement and ran back to the government office to find people.

The guards of Xiao Wang Palace exchanged glances, unsure of Liu Xian’an’s mood at this time.
But they figured that the doctor was always kind-hearted and could not bear to see bloody slaughter, so they took the initiative to excuse their prince: “On the battlefield, the life of a military doctor is equivalent to the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and everyone respects them very much.
Second Young Master Liu is to Chixia City what a military doctor is to the Northwest Military Camp.
Those people dared to mock and offend you.
If they were in the army, they would have been dealt with by military law and would not have the chance to work in a quarry.”

“The sight of that woman was really pitiful.” Liu Xian’an walked slowly.
“Since she begged me, I will help her.
But now that I have saved her brother and husband, whether her future will be better or worse because of it is anyone’s guess.
I think it will probably be the latter.”

A guard asked: “How so?”

“She has old scars on her face, hands, and neck.” Liu Xian’an said, “The colors are different shades, so she should have been beaten many times.”

The guard shook his head: “What is the point in saving this sort of man? The right thing to do would be to set off cannons in celebration.”

“Everyone’s wishes are different.” Liu Xian’an gazed at the white clouds in the sky.
“She thinks this is best, so it is her version of the best.
Some silver should be sent to the orphan and widow.”

The guard took out a piece of silver and tossed it over to Tauhua’s mother and beckoned for her to hand it to the woman.

Liu Xian’an hurriedly said: “I meant that I’ll have A-Ning deliver it later.”

“Second Young Master Liu, there is no need for politeness.” The guard said, “The prince has ordered that whatever the young master needs on the journey, the prince’s Xiao Wang Palace will settle the bill.”

Liu Xian’an: “……That’s also fine.”

In the afternoon, Shi Hanhai personally sent them out of the city.

Due to the large size of the carriage, they could not take the mountain road and could only travel on the official road, which included some detours.
Second Young Master Liu didn’t care about such things.
In the end, he could lie down at home or lie down in the carriage.
Although the latter was indeed more laborious and prone to causing backaches, there was fortunately no father with a stick scolding people now and then.
Comparing the two, a backache was better than a beating.

Wrapped in a blanket, he turned over comfortably and continued to sleep.


He slept for the whole journey, all the way back to Baihe City.

Everything in the village was as before.
Liu Fushu had taken First Young Master Liu to practice medicine elsewhere, and no other cousins were at home either.
Only Liu-furen and Liu Nanyuan greeted him beamingly and dragged him over to have a look.
Good, he wasn’t thin and his body seemed to be stronger.

Liu-furen glanced around: “Where are the people who escorted you back? Why didn’t you ask them to take a rest?”

A-Ning had offered at least three times, but they still said that they needed to rush to join up with His Royal Highness Xiao Wang without a moment’s delay, so they unloaded the luggage and left in a hurry.

“It doesn’t matter.” Liu Xian’an stretched his waist and walked to his small waterside pavilion.
“When the prince finishes dealing with the trouble at hand, he will come to Baihe Mountain Village again.
It won’t be too late to invite them to drink and rest at that time.”

“Wait a second!” Liu Nanyuan grabbed him.
“Didn’t you say that the prince doesn’t want to marry me? Why would he still come here?”

“Not to marry you.” Liu Xian’an pulled his sleeve back from his younger sister’s hand and patted her on the head with a secretive expression on his face.

Liu Nanyuan looked at his calmly retreating back, then turned her head and said to her mother: “Has my ge been bewitched?”

Liu-furen: “……A-Ning!”

The servant who was about to rub the soles of his feet with oil had no choice but to stand up straight: “Ai!”

He stood on the spot and followed Liu Xian’an’s instructions, telling of all the things that had happened during the trip.
It was actually fine, they just went down to Chixia City with His Royal Highness Xiao Wang.
There happened to be a Gu disaster there, so the young master dispatched more than a hundred disciples from the medical hall in Chang’an City to treat the illness, and it vanished.

Liu-furen complained: “Who asked you about the Gu, I’m asking why the prince suddenly called off the marriage with A-Yuan.
How did Xian’an persuade him?”

“It didn’t take much persuasion,” A-Ning said.
“The young master said that there must be many beautiful girls in Wangcheng, and that our Third Young Lady has a lively personality.
The prince doesn’t like too much noise.
He refused the marriage of the Fei country’s princess because he thought the other party was too noisy.”


“Okay, that’s good.” Liu-furen was relieved, and let the boy go. 

A-Ning ran all the way back to the waterside pavilion and saw that his young master was lying in bed again, so he shook him awake: “I said it just like we discussed.”

Liu Xian’an yawned: “Very good.”

The boy sat on the ground beside him: “But there is one thing I don’t understand, Young Master.
Why didn’t you say that you also cured many people, and even discovered the poison? The Master, the Madam, and the First Young Master would be very happy if they knew the truth.”

“Because it’s troublesome.” Liu Xian’an narrowed his eyes and said, “It would require explaining a lot of things that they might not be able to understand, so it would be very tiring to answer all their questions.”

A-Ning propped up his cheeks and sighed: “Fine, ba, but I still feel it’s a pity.”

Liu Xian’an did not feel that it was a pity.
He got up from his slump: “Let’s go.”

“Go?” A-Ning was puzzled.
“We just came back, where are we going?”

Liu Xian’an picked up a jade fan on the table, opened it with a snap, and said in high spirits: “We’re going to get some good wine.”

 

[1] This is part of a poem by Cen Shen of the Tang dynasty. ⮐

[2] This is taken from “Four Poems for the Youth” by Wang Wei of the Tang dynasty. ⮐

[3] Peng (鹏) is a legendary bird. ⮐

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