Chapter 140: Enemies On A Narrow Road
“Doctor… Doctor…” A familiar voice rang out. “Come quickly and see how he is.”
Su Yaoguang heard the voice and looked over, seeing Teacher Wang from the academy running into the temple with two bailiffs carrying a sick person.
The two bailiffs carrying the sick person ran panting for breath. As soon as they entered the temple, they lost their strength all at once and put down the stretcher they were carrying.
Bang! The stretcher hit the ground heavily.
“Slow down, be gentle…” Teacher Wang was so angry his voice broke. “Doctor, where is the doctor? Come quickly and take a look.”
Jiang Jing squeezed into the crowd and said, “I am the doctor. What happened?”
“Come quickly and see him. His situation is not good.” Teacher Wang pointed at the person on the stretcher. “He is the scholar from our academy with the best opportunity to pass the imperial examination. There cannot be any mishap.”
Su Yaoguang saw Xiao Yanci lying there with a face full of red rashes, purple lips, and extremely weak breathing.
When the government office required all the sick people to gather, she had already anticipated seeing Xiao Yanci. But it had only been a few hours since she last saw him—how did he end up looking half-dead like this?
Jiang Jing knew Su Yaoguang disliked Xiao Yanci, so after recognizing him, she did not immediately check his pulse but looked toward Su Yaoguang instead.
Su Yaoguang said, “You treat him. You can’t ruin your reputation.”
As a doctor, if Jiang Jing refused to save him, not only would Teacher Wang’s saliva drown her, but she would also lose the trust of the patients on site.
Jiang Jing took Xiao Yanci’s pulse and frowned. “What exactly did he eat? How did he get poisoned?”
Teacher Wang’s face was grim. “He took in a refugee, and that refugee took personal care of him and gave him tonic. But not long after eating it here, his female cousin sent him more tonic. After taking both tonics, he soon started shouting nonstop about abdominal pain, and then he became like this.”
“The so-called tonics actually have medicinal effects too. His body is clearly extremely weak, yet he downed bowl after bowl, and the two tonics clash with each other.”
Su Yaoguang’s face showed undisguised delight at his misfortune.
She nudged Zhou Wangshu beside her and said, “See? The most unbearable is the kindness of a beauty.”
Zhou Wangshu rolled his eyes. “What does this have to do with me? When I was sick, you ate meat and I drank porridge, you ate meat and I ate vegetables, you ate meat and I ate…”
Su Yaoguang covered his mouth. “No need to say more. I get how you feel. Later, older sister will make roasted meat for you, but you can’t eat too much. Your body is still very weak right now.”
“I’m not weak.”
“Yes, you are strong, you are not weak.” Su Yaoguang was sarcastic.
Xiao Yanci vaguely heard Su Yaoguang’s voice.
—Husband, why did you drink so much?
—I cooked hangover soup for you. Will you drink some?
—Husband, don’t worry. You are so capable; no problem can stump you.
Xiao Yanci seemed to see Su Yaoguang waiting at the courtyard entrance, trotting up to welcome him when she saw him return home.
At that time, Su Yaoguang had already become a noblewoman of the capital city for him. But those eyes were still so clear, full of complete trust in him.
In her previous life, she had arranged everything for him. He only needed to focus on studying, without worrying about anything else. Why in this life did he face illness and all sorts of misfortunes again?
Xiao Yanci struggled to open his eyes, searching for Su Yaoguang’s figure in the crowd. He spotted her at once, chatting and laughing with Zhou Wangshu, paying no attention to him who was sick.
“Xiao Gege…” Jiang Yihuan followed over and threw herself in front of Xiao Yanci, saying heartbrokenly, “You absolutely cannot have anything happen to you. If something happens to you, what will I do?”
“You came at the right time.” Jiang Jing said, “He is poisoned and needs someone to take care of him. You stay to care for him; that will be perfect.”
“Poisoned? How did he get poisoned? It must be that Wen Shi. She poisoned Xiao Gege. That vicious woman—Xiao Gege kindly took her in, and she actually harmed him.”
“I did not.” Wen Shi also squeezed over. “What I gave Young Master Xiao to eat were all top-quality tonics. On the contrary, you gave Young Master Xiao duck blood and chicken blood, saying it would dispel bad luck.”
The two women started arguing right in front of Xiao Yanci.
“Enough.” Teacher Wang said coldly, “We do not need you here. All of you leave. Before Xiao Ci recovers, none of you are allowed to come over.”
“Xiao Gege (Young Master Xiao)…” The two women were unwilling to leave and looked at Xiao Yanci with resentful eyes.
After going through this, Xiao Yanci was truly fed up with these two women fighting over him like a trophy. Most importantly, if this continued, he did not know if he could live until the imperial examination.
“There are sick people everywhere here. It is not good for you to stay. Be careful not to catch the illness.” Xiao Yanci said weakly, “Listen to the teacher. You go back first. We will talk about other matters after I recover.”
“Why aren’t you leaving yet?” Teacher Wang said with a cold face.
Jiang Yihuan and Wen Shi had no choice but to leave.
As they left, they looked back three steps at a time, reluctant to part from Xiao Yanci, lingering and affectionate.
Teacher Wang saw Zhou Wangshu and said to him, “Wangshu, you are his classmate and from the same hometown. I entrust him to you. You must take good care of him.”
“Teacher, that won’t do.” Su Yaoguang said, “Our Wangshu has a weak body and has not fully recovered. If he overworks himself, his body won’t hold up. But do not worry. We have many people here to help. He will take medicine when it’s time like the other patients, eat when it’s time to eat, and will not go hungry or be neglected.”
Hearing Su Yaoguang’s words, Teacher Wang felt relieved.
He also did not dare stay here long, after all, many sick people were gathered here.
Jiang Jing said his situation was special and arranged a separate room for him. Only after the poison in his body was cleared could the others be arranged there.
Su Yaoguang was the person in charge here. No matter how much she did not want to deal with him, once it involved her domain, she could not be willful. She originally planned to personally pick a room for him, but Zhou Wangshu took over the work.
She had many things to do and soon forgot about this matter. When she next heard news about Xiao Yanci, it was that Xiao Yanci had tried to bribe the young monk with money and was angrily scolded by the young monk.
“Benefactor, you are a patient, and others are patients too. This room is perfectly fine—why can’t you stay here?” The young monk said angrily, “Also, you can say you are donating incense money; that is for Buddha and Bodhisattva, not for buying candy for me to eat. We monks refrain from greed, yet you try to make me break my precepts.”
Seeing so many people gathered here watching his embarrassment, Xiao Yanci flushed red and said weakly, “I just feel this place is not conducive to my recuperation. My illness needs quiet rest.”
“You are poisoned and need to expel the toxin, so you have to go to the outhouse frequently. This zen room is close to the outhouse—what is wrong with this arrangement? See, you still have a room all to yourself.” The person at the doorway said.
