Temperatures have cooled slightly, it’s no longer as unbearably hot as a few days ago. Bao Chun took the now healthier looking Ruo Xia for a stroll in Huangfu’s garden, since he said that even sick patients need some form of exercise to be healthy.
Bao Chun carefully shaded Ruo Xia with an umbrella[1] as the two slowly walked over the stone bridge.
“You don’t really come around the garden very often, look over there, when the lotus flower wilts there’ll be lotus seeds.” Bao Chun pointed to the lotus flowers at the centre of the lake, not far from the two of them. “We’ve never tasted lotus seeds before, so it’s good that we can at least see them.”
“Lotus seeds are for wealthy families.” Ruo Xia was in a good mood, and chatted with Bao Chun, “What’s that?”
She pointed to a plant on the other side.
“That’s taro, we’ve eaten them before.” Bao Chun explained patiently, “But that was a long time ago, at the time, you said that you liked how it tasted.” She looked up and saw that Ruo Xia seems to have gotten tired and was squatting on the ground, she hastily asked, “Ruo Xia, are you tired? Do you want to take a break?”
“It’s fine, this garden is so big, last time when we arrived I only caught a quick glimpse of it, but it looks like it’s going to take quite a while for me to see everything here.” Ruo Xia fanned herself using her hand, trying to cool herself.
“It took me several days of looking around to finally see the entire mansion.” Bao Chun pointed to the back of the hill and said, “The scenery over there on the hilltop is more beautiful than any place one can imagine.”
Ruo Xia waved her hand, showing no interest.
“Although the G.o.dly Doctor haven’t been treating me, it seems that my body is becoming better and healthier, I’m no longer easily feverish.” Ruo Xia noticed an obvious change for the better in her body conditions, and thought the G.o.dly Doctor was indeed G.o.dly, simply by breathing the same air as him was able to cure her illness.
“Perhaps it’s because the environment and our diet has improved, that’s why you’ve gotten stronger.” Bao Chun said as she patted her own face. She’s only been here at Huangfu’s for a month, and she’s already gained back several kilos[2] in weight. “Granny Li’s a wonderful cook, making medicinal dishes to supplement the body every few days, Huangfu’s also very particular about eating, there’s always several medicinal ingredients in every dish, so no wonder you are becoming more and more healthy.”
“The Huangfu you are referring to, is he the G.o.dly Doctor?” Ruo Xia asked, raising her thin eyebrows. She was very curious about the G.o.dly Doctor.
“Oh, yeah. There’s also this very good-looking young man in black named Nineteen, you’ve seen him before, he’s the one that brought you into the mansion. Also, the person that feeds us and made sure that we are full every day is Granny Li, she’s really nice.”
Bao Chun thought Ruo Xia was starting to show interest in the people around her, and enthusiastically started to introduce her to all the people in the mansion.
Ruo Xia waved her hand to stop Bao Chun from rambling on excitedly.
“Huangfu is the G.o.dly Doctor’s family name, right? What’s his full name?” She only wanted to ask about the one she was interested in.
Bao Chun paused for a moment, unsure as to why Ruo Xia was only interested in things to do with Huangfu. “I, I don’t know.” Now that she thought about it, she knew very little about Huangfu, not even the most basic thing, his name.
“What does he look like? Is he handsome? Is he good-looking?” Ruo Xia has only seen Huangfu once, the day she came to the mansion, but he was hidden behind white chiffon curtains at the time, it was so blurry that she couldn’t see clearly.
“Very handsome … very good-looking ….” An indescribable feeling of sadness and distress slowly spread in Bao Chun’s heart, she didn’t like how Ruo Xia’s eyes looked at her expectantly, asking her everything about Huangfu.
“And?” Ruo Xia wasn’t satisfied with the five word description of Huangfu that she got from Bao Chun, so she continued asking.
“I don’t know.”
“What about his personality?”
“I … I don’t know.”
Ruo Xia frowned, noticing that Bao Chun seems to be avoiding her questions.
“Fine then, I’ll go and see for myself.” And with that, she got up and walked towards the study. Back when Bao Chun was showing her around the garden she had told her where it was, and the most common place for Huangfu to be was in his study, to the east of here.
“Ruo Xia, let’s not go and bother him ….” Bao Chun hurried after her and called out. Since when did Ruo Xia become so fast, fast enough for her to have a hard time keeping up?
Soon, Ruo Xia disappeared around the corner, and Bao Chun had no choice but to pick up her pace.
“Stop.” Nineteen appeared in front of the study just in time to stop Ruo Xia.
“Is Mister Huangfu inside?” Ruo Xia’s face lit up with a beautiful smile, it’s even prettier now with her healthy rosy cheeks.
Unfortunately, Nineteen completely ignored her smile.
“Nineteen Gong Zi?” Bao Chun had mentioned the name of this cold, indifferent man, Ruo Xia moved her lips, her soft melodic voice rang out between the two of them, but Nineteen was still unmoved.
“Ruo Xia … umm, Nineteen.” Bao Chun followed after Ruo Xia, trying to stop her, but saw Nineteen standing in front of the door.
Nineteen’s eyes landed on Bao Chun, completely ignoring Ruo Xia’s presence. “The Master is inside discussing important matters, it is best that you come back later Miss Bao Chun.”
“We have a guest? Is someone else here seeking treatment?”
“You could say that. But it’s also a very important person.” Although Nineteen’s sentences were short, but he answered Bao Chun’s questions carefully. Ruo Xia stood on the side and saw what happened, feeling extremely displeased.
Bao Chun stood beside Nineteen, trying to quietly stick her head in and take a peek. However, the wooden doors were opened before she got the chance, an extremely well dressed and chubby middle-aged man walked out first, followed by several strong muscular men that appeared to be his bodyguards. Huangfu stepped out along with him, happily grinning.
“G.o.dly Doctor Huangfu, stay, please, no need to see me off!” The middle-aged man respectfully took a bow,[3] his words were full of deep respect for Huangfu.
“You are too kind Cheng w.a.n.g Ye.[4] Nineteen, go and see our guest out.” Huangfu gestured with his hand to let the man go first.
“I’ll be back next year to intrude on your time again Doctor Huangfu.”
The middle-aged man Huangfu referred to as Cheng w.a.n.g Ye pa.s.sed by Ruo Xia and didn’t bother to hide his appreciation for her beauty. Ruo Xia glared at him angrily, then arrogantly looked away.
“My, what a lovely girl, is she the G.o.dly Doctor’s ….”
“Patient.”
“Ohhhhh.” Cheng w.a.n.g Ye dragged his voice and held the tail sound, rudely checking out Ruo Xia’s perfect figure.
Seeing this, Bao Chun leapt in front of Ruo Xia, standing in front of her like a protective mother hen.
“Such a rude little servant girl.” Cheng w.a.n.g Ye humphed slightly, his gaze still on Ruo Xia.
Huangfu frowned inwardly, before he could make sense of his thoughts, he had already pulled Bao Chun behind him.
“This girl here is no servant, she is a very special honoured guest of mine—” He paused, letting Cheng w.a.n.g Ye guess the rest himself.
“Pardon me! Excuse my rudeness!” Upon hearing what Huangfu has said, Cheng w.a.n.g Ye immediately hurried to apologize. Just by seeing how Huangfu shielded her like some sort of treasure, he knew he better not offend that homely looking girl. Not wanting to stay any longer, he quickly left with Nineteen for the stone path leading towards the outside.
“Who was that?” Bao Chun asked with her eyebrows pinched together, repelled by the disgusting way that man was looking at Ruo Xia.
“The Emperor’s younger brother.” Huangfu smirked as he saw Bao Chun’s wide-eyed expression when she heard the true ident.i.ty of his guest.
“What … what’s he doing here?” He’s a w.a.n.g Ye!
“Seeking treatment.”
“You … you didn’t make him kneel for three days right?” Bao Chun looked at Huangfu nervously.
“He’s an exception. I rely on him to make a living.” Huangfu didn’t let go of the hand he had on Bao Chun’s right arm, and lead her into the study, Ruo Xia followed behind.
Bao Chun’s questioning eyes begged him for an answer.
“His treatment fees are incredibly high.” Huangfu gave her a sly grin.
Bao Chun swallowed and asked, “How high?”
“High enough for all of us to live lavishly for a whole year without worrying about food or clothes.” Huangfu opened the paper fan in his hand, “Did you actually think that just by hanging around the mansion doing nothing we were able to have all the meat, vegetables and fruits we could eat, and wear all the best clothes? I use my two hands to feed everyone here.” He explained proudly.
The truth is, he was merely using the w.a.n.g Ye’s annual visit to the doctor to cleverly extort money from him with his G.o.dly Doctor t.i.tle. If working just one day out of the 365 days can a.s.sure him a whole year’s worth of luxury then why not?
“I’ve always thought the mansion was self-sustaining ….” But he’s right, she never realized where the food they ate came from, she actually naively thought that the chicken in the medicinal stew was raised by Granny Li, the tender fish were from the lake, and that the veggies were grown from the soil in the garden.
As if able to read Bao Chun’s mind, Huangfu said, “You didn’t think the pearl powder[5] in the tea you drink every night were from the oysters in the lake did you?”
Bao Chun lowered her head and nodded in shame.
Huangfu elegantly rested on his side on the lounge chair, then jokingly poked fun at her again, “It’s a good thing you didn’t believe that pearls were created by a few drops of tears.” His glance momentarily fell on Ruo Xia, who stood behind Bao Chun, but his gaze lazily floated away immediately afterwards.
Ruo Xia’s pretty face was already a vibrant shade of red. She had desperately tried to imagine what Huangfu looked like, but seeing was believing, that handsome face of his was indescribable by mere words, and of course, unable to be portrayed by her imagination
Ruo Xia smiled and curtsied to formally greet Huangfu, saying in her soft voice, “I humbly greet you Gong Zi, wishing you all the fortune and blessings.”[6]
Huangfu raised an eyebrow. He had always disliked women who eagerly showed their liking towards him. Especially coy and pretentious women like her, posturing and posing her body, pretending to be graceful and delicate. It’s too bad that he already knew Liu Ruo Xia’s true natures when she threw a cup and injured Bao Chun.
Just as he was about to stiffen his face and tell Liu Ruo Xia to get the h.e.l.l out of his sight, he caught a glimpse of Bao Chun biting her thin lips, and trying to avoid looking at them, she was fighting back her jealousy!
Interested, Huangfu smiled, pushing back his disgust and dislike of Ruo Xia and answered, “Miss Liu, you are being too polite. Please, have a seat. Bao Chun, go pour us some tea.”
“Thank you Huangfu Gong Zi.” Ruo Xia sat down unceremoniously, while Bao Chun stiffly served the two tea.
“You are looking pretty healthy.” Huangfu casually chatted with Ruo Xia, his eyes glancing over once in a while to the blank and unmoving Bao Chun.
“It’s all due to Gong Zi’s unmatched medical skills, I am extremely grateful.”
Huangfu took the tea Bao Chun had handed him, looking up at her, his hand cupping her’s as he held the tea cup, Bao Chun couldn’t free her hand, so she could only mouth silent words to him to let go.
“Oh no, you are too kind.” Huangfu answered, seeing Bao Chun’s jealousy and smiled with satisfaction.
He’s smiling at her!
Ruo Xia almost went wild with joy from this smile.
Bao Chun almost wept in pain from this smile.
No matter how dense Bao Chun was, she could still see that Ruo Xia liked Huangfu. And Huangfu generously gave her a sunny smile, a smile that she always thought belonged only to her. But now, he has given it to another woman, and that woman was her sister.
Bao Chun almost wanted to run out of the room screaming, she didn’t want to see the flirtatious glances they were exchanging, she broke away from Huangfu’s grip, and made towards the door.
“Be careful.” Just as she was about to trip on the doorstep, Nineteen, returning from seeing the guest off, came back just in time to grab Bao Chun before she could fall.
Bao Chun held on to him involuntarily, like a piece of life-saving driftwood at sea, and failing to notice Huangfu’s eyes suddenly darkening.
“Nineteen, there is no reason for you to be here, leave.”
Nineteen saw the displeased glances Huangfu was casting him, and sensibly began to leave.
“I’ll go with you.” Bao Chun hastily shouted, her hands never left Nineteen’s arm.
“You, stay.” Huangfu’s face grew darker and darker. She was holding on to another man’s arm wanting to leave him!?
“I want to go with Nineteen … to go weeding.” Bao Chun randomly picked an excuse and started to drag Nineteen out. She’d rather spend days weeding the entire mansion and hillside to not have to stay here and watch them look at each other affectionately.
Huangfu stood up from his chair, and pulled Bao Chun into his arms, “Sure, I’ll go weeding with you! Nineteen, you stay here and chat with Miss Liu.”
“Master ….” Nineteen looked troubled. He has not the slightest bit of good feelings towards Liu Ruo Xia, yet The Master has ordered him to chat with her!?
“Then I’ll stay and keep Ruo Xia company ….” Bao Chun’s objections were drowned out by the slamming doors as Huangfu left with her, her voice getting smaller and farther.
Nineteen and Ruo Xia exchanged glances, then both quietly looked away.
On the other side, an entirely different scene was lively at play.
“Don’t drag me along Huangfu!”
Bao Chun was at a disadvantage due to her short legs, and struggled to match Huangfu’s stride. However, Huangfu’s hand showed no intentions of letting her go, causing her to follow behind him half running and half dragging along.
“What are you so angry about … Huang, Huangfu?” Bao Chun asked as she gasped for air. Why is he angry at her when she’s the one who should be angry at him?
Huangfu turned and knocked her on the head.[7] It’s not good for his health to be angry with someone so dense.
He dragged her to the lakeside and finally let go, then crossed his arms and stared at her, looking displeased.
“I wanted to see your jealous face but ended up getting jealous myself.” Huangfu self-reflected. Since when did he become such an immature hothead?
The reason for why he lost his cool stood with her back to him, gasping for fresh air.
Why is it her? She’s so ordinary, so foolish, so naive, so …. But he only has eyes for her.
Finally able to breath again, Bao Chun found Huangfu blanking out, she raised her hands and waved them around in front of him, “Huangfu? Huangfu? You there?”
In one quick swoop, Huangfu grabbed hold of her wrist and began to suck and nibble at her fingers as punishment.
Bao Chun was ticklish and giggled as she demanded, “No, stop biting … Huangfu, it tickles!”
“Why didn’t you get angry back there?” Huangfu finally let go of her fingers, and laced them through his own, holding on to her hands tightly.
“What do you mean get angry?” Bao Chun asked, all the while knowing the answer. She knew that Huangfu meant when she saw him and Ruo Xia laughing, but she wasn’t angry, she was fearful of the strange feeling she felt in her heart.
“When I was flirting with your sister.” Huangfu reminded her. He went through so much trouble and put on a show for her with her sister, yet she didn’t even react?
“She’s really beautiful, isn’t she?” Bao Chun sat down on the ground along with Huangfu, who wouldn’t let go of her hands. She stared at the sparkling lake water, her expression dimmed, “Ruo Xia was the most beautiful girl in our village, ever since she was fifteen,[8] and of marrying age, the number of suitors that came to our home asking for her hand in marriage almost broke our doorsteps ….”[9]
Back when Ruo Xia was still sickly, she was already stunningly beautiful, not to mention now that she’s healthy.
“Were … you tempted?” She asked in a tiny, uncertain voice.
Huangfu looked incredulous, then smile slightly, “I’ve seen countless beautiful women, if I fall in love every time I see someone like your sister, I’d be busy falling in love left and right.” Speaking of beauties, there were hundreds of beautiful women in his family, not to mention it’s tiring to see beautiful people all the time. “Plus, you are easier on the eyes.”
Bao Chun gave a slight smile, thinking that Huangfu was just comforting her.
Swimming leisurely along the lake were those two fat white geese Bao Chun paid so much attention to.
“Every time Nineteen sees me staring at these two white geese he always kept on reminding me that these two geese belonged to you, and that I shouldn’t get any funny ideas.” She pointed at the white geese and laughed.
“Those two dumb geese aren’t mine, they are my younger sister’s. Little Bao Chun, what do you think of Nineteen?” The first sentence was to answer Bao Chun’s question, the second sentence was what he was trying to get at.
“Nineteen? He’s really nice. Although a little cold, but he’s starting to talk and have conversations with me. If only I could have an older brother like that, that’d be great.”
“An older brother?” Bao Chun only thought of Nineteen as a brother? Huangfu laughed at his own suspicions.
“Yup, I’m the oldest of my siblings, so I’ve always wished for an older brother or sister. Although my little sister Qiu Yue acts more like an older sister than me, we rely on her to make a lot of decisions at home. Did you just say that you have a younger sister?” She’s never heard Huangfu mention his family members, since he brought it up himself, she decided to continue asking.
But it seems Huangfu has no interests in talking about his sister, so she had to find another topic and keep asking.
“How come you never mentioned your sister? Is she married?”
“Who knows.” Huangfu shrugged.
“How come you don’t care about your sister at all?” Bao Chun looked at him suspiciously for a while, then seemed as if she suddenly realized something and asked, “Could it be that she’s not your real sister, that’s why ….”
“Unfortunately, we have the same parents.” He must have suffered ten lifetime’s worth of misfortune to have a sister like her, neither cute nor respectful to her brother.
He looked maliciously at the geese on the lake, turned to Bao Chun and smiled, “Do you want to find out what I use these geese for?”
Seeing Bao Chun nodding, Huangfu plucked off a thick willow branch, skillfully removed the leaves and took out some st.u.r.dy string he was carrying in his sleeve, and tied it to the willow branch.
“Go and fetch me two ginsengs.”[10] He instructed Bao Chun.
Not far in the distance behind a length of fence was the garden planted with ginseng, Bao Chun suspiciously brought back the two precious medicinal plants and watched as Huangfu used the ginsengs as bait, the willow branch as a pole, and started to “fish” for geese.
The geese stretched their necks high into the air, desperately trying to get at the ginseng, struggling to flap their wings, but then looked disappointed when their heavy weight held them down. However, unwilling to give up so easily, they still kept trying to leap for the ginseng. This made for an unusual yet hilarious picture.
“Huang, Huangfu … these two geese, this is how you use them?” Bao Chun stared dumbfounded at the G.o.dly Doctor, who at the moment, looked more like a child excitedly playing.
“That’s right, why else would I help my sister raise them?” Huangfu was busy toying with the poor geese, his usual charming smile now tinged with evilness, his eyes glowed with joy. “Little Bao Chun, do you want to try? It’s quite addictive.”
“No! It’s too mean! Give me the fishing pole! I mean, the geesing pole!” Bao Chun grabbed the willow branch from Huangfu’s hand, took off the ginsengs and threw them over to the two geese. Finally, after being toyed with and tormented for years, those two fat geese finally got to taste the deliciousness of ginseng.
“Aww, now I can’t play with them anymore.” Huangfu pretended to complain and put his head on Bao Chun’s shoulder.
“What hateful thing has your sister ever done to you that made you torment even her pets?” Bao Chun felt bad for those two geese. Geese are for eating, not playing, how could he be so wasteful?
“Our hatred runs deep. You know over there—” Huangfu pointed to a corner of the medicinal herb garden to the east of them, where a plot of soil peeked out from the green plants surrounding it, “Do you know what used to be there?”
Bao Chun shook her head, “I thought that was for some new medicinal herbs you were going to plant.”
“Chi Shao,[11] bitter in taste, slightly cold properties, heat-clearing and blood-cooling, promotes circulation to resolve blood stasis. Used for warm-heat disease, high fevers, macula, frenetic blood heat, vomiting of blood, sores and painful swelling.” Huangfu told her the name of a medicinal herb and its properties, seeing the confusion in Bao Chun’s eyes, he slowly started to explain. “The Huangfu clan has always named their children after medicinal plants, that unworthy sister of mine is named Huangfu Chi Shao, which is why I won’t plant her namesake where I live.”
Bao Chun’s eyes lit up and hurried to ask a question that she’s been itching to ask for quite some time, “Then is your name also a medicinal plant? What’s your full name?”
“You really want to know?” Huangfu smiled, deeply pleased with her question.
Bao Chun nodded with intense interest.
“Okay, let me show you something.” Huangfu didn’t tell her right away, instead he pulled Bao Chun up from the gra.s.s and took her to the medicinal herb garden. He dug up a plain-looking plant with brownish-yellow roots, covered in white dusts, and looked a little like the ginger used in cooking.
He handed the plant to Bao Chun, “Spicy and bitter in taste, warm properties. Can dry dampness and invigorate the spleen, dispel wind-dampness, and brighten the eyes. Used for wind-damp arthralgia, joint pains, and wind-cold dampness headaches. This plant, is my namesake.”
Bao Chun frowned slightly. The only medicinal plants she knows are Dang Gui,[12] ginseng, and goji berries,[13] the rest are just weeds to her.
“You’re name is … Huangfu Ginger?” Judging from its appearance, the plant she’s holding looks just like ginger. “This name, this name … is a little … special!” Bao Chun carefully chose her words, afraid that she might hurt Huangfu’s feelings. But this name is just so awful sounding!
Huangfu narrowed his eyes, “Are you trying to make me poison you? Who uses ginger as their name!?”[14]
That little idiot!
“You mean I guessed wrong?” Bao Chun saw a change in Huangfu’s expression, so she carefully asked again.
“In my study there is a cabinet full of prescriptions and medical masterpiece books, you can easily find the CORRECT NAME FOR THIS.” Huangfu gritted his teeth and stressed the last four words.
“Huh?! You don’t mean that you want me to look it up myself and find out your name do you?” Bao Chun asked feeling a little hopeless. She knew so few words, how is she going to find it?
Huangfu nodded and added, “Of course you don’t have to look it up, since you always called me Huangfu, so it doesn’t really matter whether or not you know my name. Nineteen and Granny Li never knew my name either, so you don’t ….” He pretended to shrug like it was nothing.
“I’ll look it up! I’ll look it up!” Bao Chun clutched the ginger-looking plant in her hands and held it close to her heart.
This is too alluring to pa.s.s up! She could be the only person in the mansion to know his full name!
“Are there people in your family named Huangfu Dang Gui and Huangfu Ginseng?” Bao Chun asked Huangfu as a joke, not expecting him to nod in reply.
I wonder what those two guys called Dang Gui and Ginseng will think if we cut up the Dang Gui and ginseng, add eight bowls of water and boiled it down to one bowl of medicine? Bao Chun thought sympathetically.
Bao Chun held the plant in her hands and started to sniff at it left and right.
Huangfu playfully twirled around strands of silver hair fallen over his shoulders, he’s really looking forward to the moment when Bao Chun is able to call out his name. But it will take several months for the illiterate Little Bao Chun to finish memorizing San Zi Jing.[15]
Teaching her to read should also be fun and full of challenges.
Out of habit, Huangfu fiddled with the silver hair by his neck, and inadvertently caught a glimpse of his right palm, surprised to find streaks of blood secreting from his scabbed over knife scar!
His expression changed, then pressed his fingers above his right vein— d.a.m.n it!
Huangfu secretly clenched his teeth and calculated the days …. No, how could he have forgotten such an important hour!
He spent too much time worrying about Bao Chun!
“Little Bao Chun, go back to my room with me.” He appeared calm, the most important thing now is to not fall down here!
Bao Chun looked up with her little puzzled face, “Why?” Because good girls don’t easily go into rooms with guys.
“Don’t ask now, I ….” Huangfu covered his mouth, and forced down the warm liquid in his throat.
“Huh? What’s wrong? You are sweating a lot!” Bao Chun was utterly confused, Huangfu was so healthy and lively just a minute ago, but now he’s pale as a ghost! The star-shaped pattern branded between his brows turned from its original pinkish hue to an alarming shade of crimson, like blood ,ready to burst through, it’s the only bit of colour on his ashen face!
Bao Chun tried to wipe away the cold sweat on his forehead with her sleeve.
Huangfu put his arm around her shoulder, half of his weight weighed almost entirely on Bao Chun’s body. Bao Chun sensed that something was wrong with him, so while Huangfu was still conscious, she tightly gripped his wrist that draped over her shoulder with one hand, and held him by the waist with the other, then hurried to get him back to his room.
What exactly happened? Why did it happen so suddenly that it caught her off guard?
She could feel his body becoming frighteningly cold, he felt like a piece of ice!
They’ve only managed to walk under the roof before Huangfu lost consciousness and fell entirely onto her body. Unable to bear his full weight, both he and Bao Chun dropped to the ground. Bao Chun got up and was about to pull him up, when she realized drops of blood falling to the ground, like blossoming crimson flowers.
Bao Chun saw the blood was flowing out almost endlessly from Huangfu’s mouth, staining the light blue gown that he always wore, yet more and more blood was flowing out rapidly.
With no time to think and scream, Bao Chun half held and half dragged the unconscious Huangfu to the front of his room, then immediately turned and darted towards the main house.
“Nineteen!” Bao Chun ran as she wiped the tears from her eyes, screaming hysterically for the only person who could help her now.
Nineteen wasn’t in the study. Nor the kitchen! Nor in the alchemy room![16] Nor the pavilion at the centre of the lake!
He’s not even in his room!
Bao Chun lost count of how many times she fell and got up again, her voice was hoa.r.s.e from shouting, but she still wouldn’t stop calling out Nineteen’s name.
“Miss Bao Chun!” Nineteen had heard her calling out to him repeatedly, but she kept on running in the opposite direction of him, so it took some time for him to find her. “What happened!?”
Bao Chun heard Nineteen’s voice, her legs gave out and fell to the ground.
“Huangfu, he, Huangfu is puking blood … no! He’s spurting blood! He’s in front of his room—”
Translator’s Notes:
Ok, the hardest thing about this chapter was checking and reading up on Chinese medicine, but I have always wanted to know about them so it was pretty interesting! Also, OMG most numbers of footnotes per chapter @[email protected] I went a little overboard with my “lectures”, professor bearbear likes to lecture. I actually finished translating this two days ago, but I was distracted while editing and I had my seminar on human trafficking and s.e.xual violence to finish up so it took a while for me to finish editing. But here it is!~ I laughed my a.s.s off at Huangfu Ginger xD
Also, I know this isn’t AT ALL how Qiu Yue looks like according to the description of her, but I have always in my head imagined Qiu Yue to be like this —>LINK and —>LINK. I have no idea why.
WordPress messed up my publishing timestamp … oh well, by the way, I’m thinking of doing another HBMJTT today, let’s see if I have time.
As always, please like, comment, and follow if you’ve enjoyed reading!~ Ciao! <>
1 Just thought that for your own interests, you might like to see what a traditional Chinese umbrella looked like, the girl in the image is how I imagine Ruo Xia to be, but her personality’s WAY nicer than Ruo Xia’s! Click here to see —>LINK. If you want to see a bunch of different Chinese umbrellas click here —>LINK or here —>LINK. Or read about the wiki here —>LINK.
2 It originally said several 斤 jīn, which is a Chinese unit of measurement for weight, it’s roughly 0.6 grams, but I usually treat it like half a kilogram. Read about the wiki here —>LINK.
3 The original words were 揖身, which means to bow. The bow here isn’t the kowtow that people do when they beg, not the bow you take when you exit the stage, it’s a special type of bowing that’s actually a form of salute, called 作揖 zuò yī. You’ve seen it a bunch of times if you follow any ancient Chinese drama. Click the link here to see what it looks like —>LINK. Just like wearing a kimono, left and right matters, but I can’t remember which hand is supposed to be on top.
4 In Chinese it says 王爷 wáng ye, is the t.i.tle used to address the Emperor’s brothers, or certain other men in the ranks of n.o.bility.
5 Pearl powder or 珍珠粉 is made from ground up pearls, the texture of it is similar to flour. It has a long history of being used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It also has whitening and brightening properties, so it is often ingested or applied to the face for cosmetic purposes. Click here to see what it looks like —>LINK or read the Chinese wiki on it here —>LINK.
6 Ruo Xia said to Huangfu “奴家拜见公子万福” she referred to herself as 奴家 nú jiā which is a term young women used to refer to themselves as back in the old times, using this term usually shows they are more feminine and girlish. It is made up of the characters for 奴 slave/servant and 家 home. Another term that is similar to 奴家 is 小女子 xiǎo nǚ zǐ, which is used to a similar effect and literally translates to “little woman” xD yeah I know!
7 Don’t worry, it’s not domestic violence, put down the phone you’ve picked up xD it’s not what it seems like. The action is called 爆栗, which literally translates to “exploding chestnuts” it’s a knock on the head that is loud but not necessarily painful. The loud sound is apparently reminiscent of the sound you hear when you cook chestnuts in hot sand (yum) and the exploding sounds you hear when the chestnuts open up.
8 It originally says 及笄 jí jī, which means for a girl to become fifteen years of age. 笄 jī is the hairpin people back in the olden times used to hold up their hair, the ceremony for a girl to pin up her hair is a coming-of-age ceremony, signifying she is of marrying age. Notice, it is 及笄 and not 及笈!
9 Almost breaking one’s doorsteps or 踏破门槛 is an expression for when so many people come to your place for whatever reason, they’ve worn out the doorsteps to the point of breaking.
10 Ginseng or 人参 rén shēn. Click here to see it —>LINK.
11 Chi Shao or 赤芍 chì sháo. Click here to see it —>LINK.
12 Dang Gui or 当归 dāng guī. Click here to see it —>LINK.
13 Goji berries or 枸杞 gǒu qǐ. Click here to see it —>LINK.
14 Her name is Ginger —>LINK, you know, from As Told By Ginger?
15 San Zi Jing or 三字经, also called the Three Character Cla.s.sic and Trimetric Cla.s.sic is one of the many Chinese cla.s.sics that was taught to children to help them learn to read and write. It was written in triplets of characters for easy memorization. Please read more about it here —>LINK, it’s very interesting so I recommend reading it from here —>LINK or here —>LINK.
16 No, it’s not cool Fullmetal Alchemist alchemy, it’s not even the cool “let’s get rich and get gold alchemy”. The alchemy room in Huangfu’s mansion is used to create 丹药 a form of medicine made from alchemy. This alchemy is specifically called Chinese alchemy, read about it here —>LINK. If you want to see what an alchemy room looks like then here is it—>LINK, focus on the first two rows of pictures