Chapter 463: Chapter 168 Ji Xun’s Apology_3
"Yes."
He looked at Lu Tong, "Since that’s the case, why didn’t you explain yourself at the entrance of the dical Officer Institute that day?"
Explain?
He spoke with such seriousness and righteousness, as if her explanation would lead him to believe her, which made Lu Tong feel an absurd sense of ridicule.
After a long silence, she finally spoke.
"Actually, there’s no need to explain. If it were a common dical Officer, they probably wouldn’t have added Hongfangxu to Vice Minister Jin’s prescription—Doctor Ji’s criticism of
being overeager for success is not wrong."
She looked up, her tone sowhat cold.
"It’s just that Vice Minister Jin is even more overeager for success than I am."
Using Hongfangxu as a catalyst in Jin Xianrong’s dication was indeed more potent than using the gentler dicines from the dical Officer Institute. She had clearly inford of the pros and cons early on, confident that this man, whose brains were in his belt, would not be able to stop once he tasted a bit of the benefit.
It was asking too much of a pleasure-seeking man to consider the troubles that might arise decades later—after all, Jin Xianrong’s own father had died in bed.
So things simply did not need to be concealed.
Ji Xun shook his head in disagreent, "What about all those rumors then?"
Lady Dong had stopped his carriage on his way ho and spoken to him, her words implying that he had a special relationship with Lu Tong since he had put her at the top of the red list. Envoy Cui Min had also probed him, suggesting that it was Lu Tong herself who had spread those words.
He understood how difficult it was for a commoner, and that in the dical Officer Institute, seeking support for oneself was understandable. As such, he had not exposed her deliberately, but still, he did not like such opportunistic behavior.
However, after the recent incident with Hongfangxu, Ji Xun was beginning to doubt.
He asked Lu Tong, "Did you really spread those rumors yourself?"
"Ptui," a laugh burst forth.
The woman in front of him seed to find his question highly amusing, and she actually let out a laugh, though her laughter seed chilly.
"Rumors say that Doctor Ji has a close relationship with
and personally selected
as the top of the spring examination red list. Yet, as soon as I entered the dical Officer Institute, I was assigned to the Western Pharmacy Room, and then to serve Lord Jin."
She looked at Ji Xun with an air of mockery.
"People say one can bully others with power, but it seems Doctor Ji’s power isn’t very effective."
The words were sharp and grating, causing Ji Xun to frown. For the first ti, he was caught off guard by such impertinent sarcasm.
The woman in front of him appeared calm and spoke evenly; he wasn’t used to socializing and usually saw people in a simple light, but he found her quite complex.
The evening dew grew heavier, and the grass leaves in the courtyard rustled in the night wind.
After a long while, Ji Xun shook his head slightly and said softly, "I’m sorry."
Whatever kind of person Lu Tong was, speculating about others and slandering them was always wrong. He had wrongfully judged her without proper investigation, which was not the conduct of a gentleman.
Lu Tong felt a jolt in her heart.
After a mont of silence, she shook her head mockingly, "I’ve long forgotten about what happened earlier."
"Doctor Ji," she took a step back, looking at him politely, "I don’t care about what others say, and I won’t take this to heart. So there’s no need for you to apologize to ."
"In this world, so practice dicine to save lives and benefit all, but others do it just to feed themselves and climb the ladder, desiring to earn so silver."
"That’s the kind of person I am."
With these words, she nodded slightly at him and left with her dicine box on her back.
The shadows under the eaves returned to being just two.
Ji Xun stood for a while, then picked up his lantern to leave.
The young attendant couldn’t help asking, "Is that it?"
"What else should it be?"
"Young Master, shouldn’t you buy sothing for Doctor Lu to apologize?"
Ji Xun was puzzled, "Didn’t she say she doesn’t care about others’ words and has already forgotten what happened before?"
The boy looked at him for a long ti, eventually unable to help but hold his forehead.
"You can’t possibly believe what a lady says!"
...
After leaving the pharmacy, Lu Tong returned to her lodging.
A lamp was lit in the room. She sat down at the table and took out several dical books from the drawer. Thinking back on the recent events, she was still sowhat unsettled.
Lin Danqing entered from the outside and placed so bought plum and ginger on the table, calling Lu Tong over to eat.
After the embarrassnt of getting drunk a few days ago had passed, Lin Danqing reverted to her usual deanor, or even went beyond it. Previously, to maintain appearances, she behaved cheerfully and generously, but now she cursed the Envoy and her colleagues behind closed doors without any restraint.
It was as if she had given up all pretense.
Lu Tong didn’t feel like eating, so Lin Danqing started eating by herself, saying, "I just saw Doctor Ji talking to you at the pharmacy door; why has he been talking to you so much lately?"
Ji Xun was rare to visit the dical Officer Institute, and even rarer to initiate conversation with anyone—he was known to be very aloof. Lin Danqing, having bumped into him talking with Lu Tong twice in a row, couldn’t help but suspect, "Does he have an ulterior motive with you too?"
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