Chapter 448: Chapter 163 Danqing_3
He pointed at the jug in front of him, "This is mine!"
Lu Tong looked at the jug in her arms and then towards Lin Danqing, perplexed, she asked, "What happened?"
"What happened?"
"Why the sudden drinking?"
Lin Danqing blinked her eyes, "No reason at all!"
She sat down at the table, handed Lu Tong a pair of chopsticks, pulled out the jug’s cork with effort, and said with a beaming smile, "We’ve been slaving away at the dical Officer Institute all day and had to eat the bland vegetarian als there, which is really hard. Naturally, we should treat ourselves better."
"I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll treat you."
Lu Tong followed suit and sat down at the table. Watching Lin Danqing’s exuberant deanor, she pondered for a mont and ventured, "Did you make the antidote for ’Shaomu’s Poison’?"
"Cough cough cough—"
Lin Danqing had just put a pickled plum into her mouth when she almost choked on Lu Tong’s words, hastily gulping down so green plum wine to soothe the tickle in her throat. After a mont, she looked at Lu Tong in awe, "Younger Sister Lu, you must have the ability to read minds, right? How do you know everything?"
Lu Tong was sowhat surprised as well.
These days, Lin Danqing had been leaving early and returning late, spending most of her ti, aside from her duties, in the pharmacy behind the house. Lu Tong noticed that the ingredients she was using were no longer solely antidotal, but now included so mildly toxic substances. Lu Tong guessed that her words last ti had an effect, and Lin Danqing was attempting to create an antidote for "Shaomu’s Poison" using the principle of fighting poison with poison.
She did not expect Lin Danqing to have succeeded so quickly.
"However, it’s not exactly that I’ve made the antidote," Lin Danqing said with an embarrassed smile, "I’ve just replaced so of the ingredients because I’m not very familiar with poisons, so I was quite conservative with the changes. Who would have thought—" Her eyes shimred, "the newly developed dicine actually had so effect. Although it can’t fully detoxify, compared to previously being completely ineffective, it already shows so improvent."
"Younger Sister Lu," she grabbed Lu Tong’s hand, her face brimming with joy, "You were right, fighting poison with poison really works!"
She looked very excited.
"I was too fixated on the dical principles of the Imperial dical Bureau; my courage was always too little. However, thanks to your reminder, I’ve sowhat understood the direction for detoxification. Now I have a rough idea, but I still lack a few hard-to-find ingredients. Once I gather all the ingredients and finish writing the formula, you can help
check for any mistakes," Lin Danqing said with a smile.
Lu Tong nodded, "All right."
She knew Lin Danqing was always clever. If it hadn’t been for the spring exam of the Imperial dical Bureau where she, Lu Tong, benefited from a clever move in the Verification Case Study and secured the top spot on the rit list, that place would have actually belonged to Lin Danqing.
Lin Danqing might appear careless and playful, but in reality, she excelled in dical theory, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to decipher the key issue and identify an antidotal thod for "Shaomu’s Poison" in just a few days.
It had started to rain, with fine drops tapping against the window, and even through the glass, the chilly air of the rainy night could be felt. Lu Tong pulled the cork from her jug, and the fragrance of the green plum wine imdiately filled her nostrils.
After so thought, she asked, "But for whom are you really making this antidote?"
Lin Danqing’s movent to pick up food paused.
Lu Tong quietly looked at her.
So desperate, so serious, putting in all her heart and effort, and losing sense of proportion from anxiety—if the person poisoned was not deeply important to her, it would be very hard for her to go to such extents.
The person for whom Lin Danqing was making the antidote must be very important to her.
The lamplight was dim, and the girl, wearing only an inner garnt, lay crookedly on a couch, not saying a word. She silently took a sip of the plum wine in front of her. It seed too sour, souring her eyes into a squint, and it took her a while before she got over the taste and spat out, "That’s nothing special, utterly ordinary, yet they dare to charge
so much silver. It’s not even as good as the sweet syrup from a street vendor!"
Lu Tong remained silent.
Picking up a slice of jellied pork, she stuffed it into her mouth indifferently and said, "It’s my aunt who’s been poisoned."
Aunt?
Lu Tong was slightly astonished.
Lin Danqing smiled faintly, propped her cheek with her hand and sighed, "Surprised, aren’t you? I am a concubine-born daughter of the family."
Lu Tong moved her lips but ended up saying nothing at all.
Lin Danqing was warm and straightforward, generous and radiant, expressing her emotions freely, whether she wanted to cry or laugh. Everyone at the dical Officer Institute treated her well, and Lu Tong had always thought that it was because Lin Danqing’s father had been an Imperial dical Officer that she was so adored. Only a family that was not lacking in love could raise such a bright and sunny daughter.
But it turned out Lin Danqing was actually a bastard daughter.
"My aunt was a dancing girl given to my father by soone else. My mother is a young lady from an official’s family, and I have two legitimate brothers above . I’m the youngest daughter in the family," Lin Danqing extended her chopsticks, poked a piece of cooked beef, and stared at it for a long ti.
"My father is a good man, and a good father, but not a good husband," she thought for a mont, then shook her head, "No, he should be considered a good husband, but he was only ’my mother’s’ husband. In his eyes, my aunt was a lowly servant concubine, a ’gift’ from a friend that he couldn’t refuse because of politeness."
"My aunt ca from poverty, sold by my maternal grandfather to a broker to be sent to the Central Plains, and because she was born well, she was ultimately bought by a wealthy family, raised carefully, and given to my father as a human sentint gift."
Lu Tong fell silent.
In the households of high officials, it was common to exchange beauties to express one’s feelings.
"When my aunt was sold, she resisted the broker and accidentally ingested the ’Eye-blinding’ poison. There were no signs at first, but a few years after I was born, symptoms gradually appeared. My father tried to detoxify her, but there are many types of poisons in the Southern Borderlands, and my father’s dical skills in the dical Officer Institute could only be considered diocre; for many years there was no solution, and my aunt’s vision beca increasingly blurry, suffering unbearable pain in both eyes whenever the poison acted up."
Lu Tong asked, "So you studied dicine to detoxify your aunt?"
Lin Danqing laughed with a "pfft."
She said, "Younger Sister Lu, have you ever heard of a curse for healers?"
"What curse?"
Lin Danqing spoke softly, "Those who study dicine can never save the one they truly wish to save."
Lu Tong’s heart trembled.
Lin Danqing tilted her head back and took a swig of alcohol, her gaze a bit misty under the night sky.
"At first, I indeed studied dicine because I wanted to find an antidote for my aunt," she said.
"I thought since my father couldn’t cure her, then I would cure her myself. Anyway, I learned to read in school, and our family wasn’t short of dical books; learning a bit couldn’t hurt."
"My father and mother never cared about such matters for ."
Green plum wine is too sour, sour enough to make the mouth bitter, Lin Danqing reached out a hand and brushed away the alcohol stains at the corner of her mouth.
The Lin Family was different from other aristocratic families.
Although she was a bastard daughter, she had never suffered any mistreatnt. There was no deathly struggle between her mother and aunt either. People said that she and her mother were extrely lucky to have encountered such a generous family.
But Lin Danqing didn’t see it that way.
More than generosity or tolerance, she felt it was mostly a kind of disregard.
A disregard for those deed unimportant, like for a pet cat or dog.
Although her mother and legitimate brothers never mistreated her, they also didn’t show her much affection, as if separated by a thin, invisible barrier.
This was not unreasonable; it’s difficult for anyone to be completely free of resentnt towards soone who diverts a husband’s or a father’s love.
But her father also treated her indifferently.
He would ask about Lin Danqing’s recent food and clothing, whether she needed any silver, but he wouldn’t accompany her for an extended ti as he would with his two sons. Just as he would instruct the servants to take good care of the sick aunt, but unwilling to devote himself to developing an antidote for the ’Eye-blinding’ poison—even though he himself was a doctor.
Love in people is usually very clear; one loves those they pay attention to.
Her father didn’t love them, mother and daughter.
"Before I ca of age, I heard that my father intended to arrange a matrimonial match for ."
"The match had a good reputation and family background; those who knew the inside story all said it was a good match, but I felt afraid."
After a long silence, Lin Danqing spoke.
"I’m afraid that once I’m gone, my aunt will be left all alone."
Reviews
All reviews (0)