When the sky began to glimmer with dawn, Qi Yue awakened. To be precise, she hadn’t really slept much at all—not because of any sorrow, but because of this girl beside her…
The curtain outside the partition moved slightly, and Cui Zhi quietly peeked her head in to look. Seeing that it was silent inside, she tiptoed over and lifted the bed curtain.
“Ah!” She cried out in fright.
Qi Yue laughed heartily.
Cui Zhi was both flustered and embarrassed, at a complete loss.
“Alright, stop tormenting yourself. Go get some sleep,” Qi Yue said with a smile, getting down from the bed.
Cui Zhi followed with a red face.
“This servant will attend to Miss’s washing and dressing,” she said.
Qi Yue said nothing, letting her bustle about.
The Wang family’s matron had already prepared breakfast. Though it couldn’t compare to the Marquis residence’s lavish fare, it was still light and palatable. Qi Yue had a good appetite and ate an extra bowl of rice.
In the courtyard, Yuan Bao was again holding a broom, sweeping. Qi Yue stepped out the door and stretched her arms and legs.
“I’m going to work. You all stay home,” she said, lifting her feet to step out.
Going to work?
Cui Zhi was puzzled but hurried to follow.
“Are you coming with me?” Qi Yue looked at her with a smile.
“Yes, this servant came specifically to attend to Miss,” Cui Zhi said.
Still guarding against me committing suicide.
Qi Yue nodded and said nothing more.
Another day’s work began at Qianjin Hall.
Seeing Qi Yue enter, the disciples respectfully bowed in greeting.
Hu San was the first to rush out. Seeing the girl behind Qi Yue, he paused.
“Didn’t Sister A’Ru come because she had something to do?” he couldn’t help asking, looking at this unfamiliar girl.
After entering, the girl felt very uncomfortable. Why were there so many men here, and they were all looking at her so brazenly…
Qi Yue simply said yes and didn’t elaborate.
Liu Pucheng came out upon hearing the commotion. The two had just greeted each other when there was a sudden commotion outside.
“Doctor, doctor, save us!”
Four or five men rushed in carrying a door panel.
The men’s bodies, faces, and hands were covered in blood and dirt. They looked utterly disheveled, and the man on the door panel was even more covered in a mixture of dirt and blood, letting out continuous wails.
Cui Zhi had never seen such a thing. Frightened, she screamed and hid in a corner.
“What kind of injury is it?” Qi Yue stopped talking and asked loudly.
“A house collapsed and crushed him,” the arrivals shouted.
“…Prepare for emergency treatment.”
With Qi Yue’s words, the partitioned emergency area immediately became busy—sterilizing, brewing medicinal soup, fetching clothes, gloves, and instruments—busy but orderly.
Cui Zhi stood in the corner, hearing the continuous wails and smelling the bloody scent, so frightened that her legs cramped.
“Miss Qi…” Unable to see Qi Yue, she couldn’t help calling out, boldly craning her neck to look into the crowd.
She saw a woman wearing a gown and mask, her blood-covered hands reaching out to pry open the bloody wound on the injured person’s leg.
“Spray bottle. Deep irrigation—the wound contamination is too severe…” she said.
Cui Zhi felt her eyes go black and knew nothing more.
When she woke up again, she found herself lying on a bed, with a strange smell in her nostrils—not fragrant, but medicinal.
Cui Zhi sat up abruptly, remembering where she was.
Cui Zhi hurriedly got up and opened the door. The noise from outside drifted in.
“…The most urgent issue now is preventing infection,” Qi Yue said, removing her mask.
Liu Pucheng nodded.
“This person is too severely injured,” he also frowned.
The injured person’s family members stood nearby. Hearing this, they were about to kneel.
“Divine physician, Madam,” they called out, “you must save him. He has elderly parents above and young children below. The whole family depends on him alone. If something happens to him, the whole family won’t be able to survive.”
Word had spread throughout the city that Qianjin Hall had a divine physician woman who could perform surgery. So whenever they saw a woman, they knew who she was.
The incident when hunters first came and refused treatment because she was a woman would absolutely never happen now. On the contrary, everyone would be overjoyed to see Qi Yue there.
Qi Yue hurried to help them up.
“I will naturally do my best,” she said.