A few months ago, Zheng Xiang left his residence in disguise without informing anyone, choosing to wander alone through the town’s farrs market and inspect whether the policies about the minimum prices for the farrs’ produce were being implented properly or not.
As the one supervising the area under his rule and responsible for sending reports to the Main Palace, Zheng Xiang wanted to ensure that the policies were being implented correctly and that there was no corruption ongoing among the officers in charge of monitoring the execution of state policies in the area.
During his undercover inspection, Zheng Xiang discovered a widespread market monopoly. Despite the state increasing the minimum prices for farrs’ produce, most rchants continued to buy items at the sa low prices as before, which were significantly lower compared to the high quality of the goods that they were purchasing from the farrs.
While Zheng Xiang was disheartened by the sight of people disregarding policies and exploiting impoverished farrs, he noticed a young woman. She wore simple clothes that accentuated her beauty, and despite her delicate appearance, she emanated strength.
Contrary to her outward gentleness and shyness, she engaged in a heated argunt with a rchant who was offering an inadequate price to a farr in exchange for a cart filled with grains.
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The price that the rchant offered to the farr was below the state’s implented minimum price, despite the high quality of the produce. The rchant was exploiting the farr, threatening that no one in the market would buy the produce at a higher price, and the price he was offering was the best one, all while falsely claiming the grains to be of poor quality.
In reality, the produce was of top quality, and the rchant was taking advantage of the farr’s lack of awareness by offering him a lower price.
In a market filled with countless farrs and rchants, where most people turned a blind eye to the monopoly run by the rchants and the exploitation of farrs through low prices, this young woman stood out.
She was the only one speaking against the stubborn, rude rchant, ardently defending the rights of the farr. It was not common to witness a woman intervening in n’s business and challenging their authority. Despite the gathering of onlookers, she bravely confronted the rchant, insisting on a fair price for the farr.
Zheng Xiang, upon witnessing this scenario, was impressed by the woman’s courage. Without revealing his identity, he entered the shop to assist her. Speaking up for the farr and questioning the rchant, he supported the woman’s argunt.
In the end, the rchant, embarrassed by being questioned by a man who appeared scholarly and noble, and threatened him by the state laws, had no choice but to give the farr a fair price.
Zheng Xiang wanted to talk to the woman after helping the farr because it was rare to find a woman who was not only knowledgeable about state affairs and policies but also strong enough to stand up for others. However, when he turned around, she had already disappeared from the shop, leaving the market as if standing up for others was a routine task for her.
She didn’t even wait for the farr to bid her farewell and express gratitude for her help.
What he had initially thought to be the last encounter turned out not to be the final one. The sa day in the evening, when Zheng Liang was returning to the royal residence and walking by an area near the lake and forest, he was bitten by a wild snake that appeared from the wilderness.
At that ti, there was no one in sight since it was almost curfew ti, and everyone had packed up their stalls and left. However, a woman appeared seemingly out of nowhere and tore the hem of her long skirt to wrap above the snake bite on his wounded leg to avoid the poison from spreading further.
While Zheng Xiang lay on the ground with hazy consciousness, the woman carefully examined the snake bite. After a few monts of thought, she started to suck the blood from the wound and spat it on the ground. After repeating this process a few tis, she pulled out a herbal dicinal paste from her bag, which she was carrying on her shoulders, and applied it to the wound.
Her actions were both swift and skilled. Before Zheng Xiang could thank her and learn her na, he lost consciousness.
When he woke up, he was in his chamber, in his bed. Upon asking his guards about the girl who treated him, he found out that they didn’t see any girl in the vicinity, and he was lying alone on the empty road.
After that incident, he tried to look for the woman for months but didn’t hear any news about her. It was as if, after helping him, she vanished into thin air. He did hear that the woman was a wanderer, moving from one place to another and helping people with her dical knowledge.
It was a surprise to him for a woman to not only have dicinal knowledge but also wander alone from village to village to help people. Does she not worry about her safety? he wondered.
He wanted to bring that woman to the royal residence, thank her for her assistance the other day, and also offer her work and boarding so that she didn’t need to wander anymore. To find that woman, he searched the entire town and even checked the nearby villages but couldn’t find a trace of her.
However, who would have thought that the woman he was looking for with such desperation would suddenly appear in front of him as if it was his fate to return to the palace?
"So, she is a nurse. No doubt, her skills were evident when she treated ," Zheng Xiang murmured with a smile. He had initially thought that she knew a few things about dicine, but her joining the Imperial dicine Departnt as a nurse indicated that she must be quite skilled.
After all, not just anyone could join the Imperial dicine Departnt solely based on having so knowledge about dicine.
Thinking about how she was also working at the palace, a smile played on his lips. He gazed at the cooled-down soup and muttered with a subtle smile, "Looks like life at the palace won’t be that boring anymore."
With that, he picked up the bowl and drank the herbal soup in one go. Despite the subtle bitter taste, there was a delightful blend of vegetable broth and chicken soup flavors, making it more palatable and reducing the bitterness.
After finishing it, he smiled and remarked, "It’s delicious," even though he had never been a fan of herbal soup since childhood due to his aversion to the scent of herbal dicine and its inherent bitterness.
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