Having determined the treatnt plan, Lu Tong once again fell into a deep sleep. Lin Danqing looked toward Pei Yunng to the side, "Marshal Pei, please step aside."
Pei Yunng did not move, his gaze lowered toward the person on the bed.
These past days, he had stayed by Lu Tong’s side without leaving.
dical Officers who treat patients often see life and death partings; people of affection find it hard to stay together. Parting in life brings regret, and death’s separation bears sorrow. She had read so many tales, with good endings and bad, all but a few brief sentences. Yet now, here in this dim silence, watching the solitary figure’s silent back, she also felt sad.
She did not know what the young Commander was thinking at this mont, but his lowered brows and eyes, the gaze fixed on the person in bed was so intensely calm, like a beloved object slowly drifting away from oneself, bewildered and powerless, frail unlike any other day.
The sound of the door opening ca from behind, and the dical Officers entered in succession. Treating Lu Tong was not a task for one; Ji Xun, Chang Jin, and several other dical Officers all had to be present.
Chang Jin approached Pei Yunng and sighed, "Sir, please step aside."
At these words, Pei Yunng ca to his senses, took another look at the person on the bed, stood up in silence, and turned to leave the room.
The doors closed behind him as he stepped out of the courtyard.
On the day of winter solstice, the great snow blanketed the earth from the sky; the fields were a silvery white intermixed with a light rain, coldly soaking through clothes.
He walked on silently, and before he knew it, he had arrived at the dilapidated temple at the execution ground.
The patients from the Plague Hospital had all been moved to a warr dye house; the old temple had returned to its forr desolate state, standing alone in the rain and snow.
He pushed the door and entered.
The temple, bustling just days ago, was abruptly deserted, leaving only a few burned-out fire pots of Atractylodes Macrocephala in the corner. An oil lamp lay overturned in front of the offering table, with only a shallow wick left. He lit it with a fire starter, and the dim yellow lamp light imdiately enveloped the old temple.
The offering table had been moved aside, revealing the earthen wall behind. On the wall, the trace of an old "debt slip" was deeply etched, clearly visible in the lamplight.
Pei Yunng bent over, his fingertips grazing the engraved characters on the wall.
The sa characters he and Lu Tong had written here many years ago.
Back then, he was the patient, and she was the Doctor. She stitched his wounds—crude but effective. Now she had beco the patient, and he could do nothing at all.
It was ironic; Lu Tong had been a dicine Man, a Healer, but never a patient. The concoctions she had ingested were for testing poisons. Now, taking dicine for the first ti as a patient, common redies no longer had any effect on her.
Fate plays with people.
Pei Yunng lifted his eyelids.
The idol, whose face was blurred by the rain on the offering table above, watched him silently. Just as it did years ago, just as it would years later—in front of the gods and buddhas, humans seed as insignificant as ants, as fragile as a blade of grass.
He never believed in gods or buddhas. Since his mother passed away, he wandered the outside world, experiencing fate and human tribulations, which bestowed on him strength and indifference. He had long since stopped believing that there is anything other than oneself that could save oneself in this world. However, at this mont, looking up at the blurred idol overhead, he slowly knelt down on the mat.
His hands ca together in a gesture of prayer, kneeling devoutly.
According to legend, the gods and buddhas are greedy for bribes and never grant blessings without cause. What they give to a person, they take away sothing equally valuable in exchange. Sooner or later, it’s a fair trade.
"The gods above, ghosts and spirits are hard to deceive."
He bowed his head, his voice calm.
"I, Pei Yunng, am willing to trade one life for another, to exchange for Lu Tong’s peaceful lifeti."
...
The heavy snow from Su Nan whirled over broad rivers and streams, and by the ti the light wind carried it to Shengjing, it had turned into a steady fall of poplar catkins.
In the courtyard of the West Street Benevolent Heart dical Hall, lanterns were hung in the plum tree.
Ah Cheng carried hot fernted rice wine from the kitchen into the inner shop, and Yin Zheng ladled wine into bowls for everyone.
Tonight was winter solstice, and it was the custom in Shengjing City to eat sweet dumplings and drink rice wine. Du Changqing had been making arrangents since yesterday with Miao Liangfang and Ah Cheng to prepare the al. After closing up for the night, they would have a late-night al in the dical Hall.
"Co," Du Changqing was the first to hold up his bowl and stand up to speak, "Today the winter solstice passes, and soon we’ll be celebrating the new year, toasting to our gathering for another year. May we continue to gather, year after year."
Though his toast was not particularly impressive, everyone gave him face, clinking their bowls with his in perfunctory response.
Ah Cheng picked up a dumpling; the dumplings had thin skins filled with thick sesa and peanut stuffing, fragrant and chewy, jointly prepared by Yin Zheng and Miao Liangfang. Ah Cheng took a bite, "So sweet!"
"I added the candied osmanthus left over from Mid-Autumn Festival." Yin Zheng smiled warmly, "It’s a recipe Sister Song taught . If Miss was here, she would surely eat a big bowl..."
Her words abruptly stopped, and there was a brief pause at the table, as everyone was taken aback.
Lu Tong had been gone from Shengjing City to Su Nan for quite a long ti now.
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