Seeing that another fight was about to break out, the several shop assistants in the apothecary immediately scrambled under the tables, not daring to come out at all. Fortunately, these people were very principled and moral – they only beat the fat shopkeeper and didn’t harm innocent bystanders.
Only after beating the fat shopkeeper until he couldn’t move on the ground did these people finally stop.
“Bah! You bastard, you came at us in the shadows, so we’ll come at you in the open. We beat you fair and square. Don’t think nobody knows about your guilty conscience – Heaven has eyes! This isn’t over, we’ll see how this plays out!” Hu San cursed, spitting on the fat shopkeeper’s body. With a wave of his hand, he led several disciples carrying sticks and left.
The crowd of onlookers outside dispersed with a commotion.
“Help! Violence! Violence! Quick, report to the officials…” the fat shopkeeper moaned, struggling to call out with the help of several assistants who removed the burlap sack from him. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw several constables drinking tea and chatting in the teahouse across the street.
“Officers, officers…” the fat shopkeeper hurriedly called out, supported by his assistants as he stumbled forward. “Someone committed assault…”
The constables looked over casually.
“What assault? In broad daylight, where’s there any assault?” one of them said lazily.
With such a big commotion, how could you not have heard it! The fat shopkeeper trembled with both anger and pain.
“Just now, these people, all these people saw it…” he pointed around at the surroundings.
Hearing this, the constables walked over, drawing the knives from their hands and tapping them against their palms.
“Who among you saw anything?” he asked coldly with a stern face.
The surrounding people were startled. Seeing the constables’ expressions – as if they would immediately strike anyone who dared say they saw anything – they immediately dispersed with a commotion.
“Didn’t see anything, didn’t see anything,” everyone shouted in unison.
Are you all blind…
The fat shopkeeper was thunderstruck.
Those men had swaggered about so brazenly in broad daylight with such a big commotion, and you were all watching the excitement just now – how is it that now you didn’t see anything?
Truly the world is declining and people’s hearts are not what they used to be!
“Have you no conscience!” the fat shopkeeper cried out in anguish. “Have you no humanity!”
“Enough with the howling like a ghost. Disperse, disperse,” the constables waved their hands and shouted.
The street quickly emptied of onlookers. Only the fat shopkeeper remained standing in the street with his bruised face, crooked mouth, and swollen eyes.
“It was Qianjin Hall who did this! I know…” he couldn’t help but shout.
Before his words finished, he saw the constables charging toward him.
“What did you say?” one of them said, his eyes cold and menacing. The other three also surrounded him, trapping the fat shopkeeper in the middle.
The fat shopkeeper shuddered.
He’d heard that the prefect’s son personally threw those troublemaking burly men into prison, and that when this Lady Qi called out, all the young masters in the city would follow her to fight…
If she called out, then his apothecary…
He looked toward his own shop, seeming to already see a pile of rubble before him.
Thinking of it this way, getting a beating was actually the lighter punishment…
“Nothing, nothing. I drank too much and got confused, having delusions. No one beat me. In this broad daylight, all is peaceful and harmonious…” the fat shopkeeper said tremblingly, forcing a smile on his swollen face.
On this side, Hu San had already swaggered back to Qianjin Hall with his men.
“Where did you all go?” Liu Pucheng asked.
“Nothing, nothing,” Hu San said with a grin.
Liu Pucheng was busy and didn’t have time to ask further. He glanced at him and walked away.
Hu San slipped into Qi Yue’s office.
“Master, we beat that bastard as you said. The bastard is like a mute eating bitter herbs – suffering in silence,” he said in a low voice with a laugh.
Qi Yue was writing medical records and snorted with laughter at his words.
“Serves him right,” she said.
Hu San chuckled.
“Master, I thought you’d gone soft…” he said.
Qi Yue spat and laughed.
“I haven’t done anything wrong, why would I go soft?” she laughed. “After bullying me, did he think it would just pass so easily? Does he think I’m someone anyone can step on?”
In the capital, near the imperial palace where idle people were forbidden to approach, government offices were scattered everywhere. Among them, an unremarkable building on the east side bore the three characters “Imperial Medical Academy.”
At this moment, a minor official in government robes walked out. A young servant crouching by the wall corner immediately ran forward.
“Sir, a letter,” he said respectfully.
The minor official tore it open and read it quickly, his expression turning grim.
“You may go,” he said, crumpling the letter in his palm. With that, he turned and went back inside.
“Little Wang!” A man in official robes carrying a medicine box called out when he saw him. “Hurry up and deliver the medicine that the Imperial Incense Bureau requested.”
Wang Qingchun’s face showed no trace of grimness, but was instead humble and amiable as he smiled and bowed respectfully.
“Yes, sir,” he said.