Once the two were seated in a private room at a teahouse on West Street, Xing Yuesen called for the waiter to bring a pot of fine tea and three plates of snacks.
Tea drinking nowadays was elegant, with methods like whisked tea and divided tea requiring tea masters to carefully grind tea powder and create artworks of extreme difficulty in a single cup of tea. Those who came to teahouses for tea were mostly scholars and nobles; this was their daily leisure pleasure, watching tea masters demonstrate their exquisite skills until a highly aesthetic cup of fragrant tea was presented before them.
However, Xing Yuesen had ordered a pot of tea. He’d come to the teahouse wanting to have a good, enjoyable chat with Xu Yi and didn’t need a tea master’s service, so he waved his hand and had the waiter quickly go prepare it.
Since last meeting Xu Yi, Xing Yuesen had eagerly anticipated their next encounter. In his heart, Xu Yi was more worth befriending than his classmates.
Thinking this, he acted accordingly.
He chatted quite familiarly with Xu Yi about what had happened after they parted. “Just two days after that day, the quiz topic at the private school happened to be ‘Discussion on Governing the People.’ Because you helped me, I had deep insights on this topic and wrote the essay as if divinely inspired, even placing in the top three…”
He sighed, his eyes showing regret, as if there was something he felt bad about regarding Xu Yi. He slowly said, “Actually, when I brought the prescription home, my father scolded me, saying how could I so easily trust a prescription written by an outsider? What if something went wrong?”
Xu Yi raised an eyebrow and asked with a smile, “Then how did you end up using the prescription?”
“I was clever. I went to find Grandmother.” Xing Yuesen blinked; everything was implied without words.
Grandmother was worried about Grandfather’s condition. Upon hearing of such a prescription, she immediately took it to Doctor Chen… which led to everything that happened afterward.
Understanding the twists and turns, Xu Yi felt somewhat emotional. Fortunately, his prescription had been useful, so Xing Yuesen wouldn’t be disappointed in front of his father or leave an impression of being “overly eager for success and poor at judging character.”
“Brother Xing, that was hard on you.” Xu Yi sincerely raised his teacup.
Xing Yuesen smiled handsomely. “Where was the hardship? I gained so much. Not only a good prescription but also a friend like you.”
Hearing this, Xu Yi smiled.
Good tea paired with good snacks. The Jade Leaf Ever Spring tea at this teahouse truly lived up to being a precious tea. The tea was golden and translucent, tasting sweet and refreshing with a strong lingering sweetness. Paired with sweet mung bean cakes, almond cookies, and savory crispy chicken strips, after a few cups of tea, Xu Yi felt fifty to sixty percent full.
He withdrew his hand from reaching for snacks and asked Xing Yuesen with a smile when his next ten-day leave would be.
Xing Yuesen replied earnestly, “In three more days. I have nothing to attend to that day and was thinking of setting it aside to visit you.”
Xu Yi nodded. “I won’t go to the mountains that day.”
“Where should we arrange to meet?” Xing Yuesen said expectantly. “That day there’s a Peach Blossom Festival at Ganyuan Temple. Many scholars will go for spring outings and scenery viewing. There’s also the Book Forest Garden in the eastern suburbs. The scenery there is nice, a good place for tea. If you don’t like either of those, we could go to the City God Temple. There’ll be a market that day; it should be quite lively.”
He talked at length, then suddenly realized that Xu Yi had “abandoned literature to study medicine.” Would frequenting places scholars and literati often visited now evoke painful memories?
Just as he was about to say something, he saw Xu Yi smile and say, “Let’s go to the City God Temple. I’d like to see what things I might need to buy.”
Xing Yuesen: “I…”
Xu Yi interrupted him. “After the City God Temple, I’d also like to meet your grandfather. Would Brother Xing be willing to show the way?”
Xing Yuesen was grateful. “Of course I would. I’ll tell Grandfather as soon as I get home.”
The two continued chatting for a while. Xing Yuesen still couldn’t hold back and brought out several questions that had been puzzling him lately, asking Xu Yi for his views.
What views could Xu Yi have? Fortunately, he had the original’s memories, plus he’d read many books before. Studying Chinese medicine inevitably involved much classical Chinese, so he was relatively familiar with it.
He spoke fairly, laying out his viewpoints one by one.
Xing Yuesen listened as if enlightened, his mind filled with thoughts like “so there’s this interpretation too,” “why didn’t I think of this,” and “this theme certainly has considerable depth.” Excitedly, he called for the waiter to bring paper and brush, then grabbed Xu Yi’s hand and had him write down what he’d said.
Xu Yi: “…”
Was it too late to take back five, six, seven, eight of his viewpoints?
…
While Xu Yi was writing, Xing Yuesen got up and went downstairs, instructing an idle runner to deliver a message. After finishing, he returned with a joyful mood.
By then, Xu Yi was miserably almost finished writing.
He looked up to see Xing Yuesen with a brilliant smile, holding the paper whose ink wasn’t yet dry, pinching his beardless chin while shaking his head and reading.
Xu Yi: “…”
After a moment, Xing Yuesen said, “Brother Yi, I have something to give you.”
Xu Yi was puzzled. “What?”
Xing Yuesen put down the paper and took out two banknotes from his sleeve pocket. One banknote was worth five taels; two made ten taels.
He handed the two banknotes to Xu Yi with both hands and set them down.
Xu Yi looked at him and asked, “What is this for?”
Xing Yuesen said, “This is the consultation fee that Grandfather instructed me to give you.”
Xu Yi was surprised. “That’s too much.”
Even though he considered the Xing family a wealthy household, giving ten taels of silver as a consultation fee right away was uncommon.
Xing Yuesen shook his head. “It’s not much. When Grandfather suddenly fell ill years ago, the family spent no less than a hundred strings of cash trying to treat him, yet still couldn’t cure his illness.”
He even felt that ten taels of silver was very little.
“Brother Yi won’t refuse it, will you?” he asked back.
Xu Yi: “…” He’d already copied out the essay; not accepting it would seem unreasonable.
Xu Yi couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, then I’ll accept this consultation fee.”
“There’s more.” Xing Yuesen continued, “I’ve already had someone summon A’Mu. He’ll bring things over.”
Xu Yi didn’t know who A’Mu was. When the person arrived, seeing his clothing and bearing, he realized this teenage boy was Xing Yuesen’s page boy.
A’Mu set down what Xing Yuesen had requested and stood respectfully behind him, though he secretly widened his eyes in curiosity, stealing glances at Xu Yi.
Was this the person the young master called a close friend? He looked so young, about his own age, and wore ordinary long robes not much better than his own.
When Xing Yuesen received the brocade box, he quickly opened it and pushed it toward Xu Yi while watching him.
“This is what Grandfather asked me to bring you. I’d planned to bring it when visiting you during my ten-day leave, but then I thought there’s no time like the present, so I had A’Mu bring it over.”
Inside the brocade box lay a white jade ring with no carvings at all, smooth and lustrous, of good quality. If sold, it would probably fetch more than ten strings of cash.
On the other side was a handwritten copy of an ancient medical text.
For Xu Yi, the ancient medical text was more attractive than the jade ring, causing his words of refusal to stick in his throat, unable to come out for a long time.
Seeing this, Xing Yuesen smiled. He’d known it would be like this. “When an elder bestows something, one cannot refuse. You and I are already good friends, so my grandfather is your elder. He specifically instructed me to give this to you.”
Xu Yi drew in a breath. He must have checked the almanac before going out today; otherwise, how could something more unexpected than winning a prize happen?
The day before, he’d made medicine pills and was so poor he only had a dozen copper coins on him. In the blink of an eye, it seemed he didn’t need to worry about money anymore.
Xu Yi looked at Xing Yuesen, thinking to himself: perhaps he should make free house calls to the Xing family and give them all free full-body checkups?
That way… at least he wouldn’t be taking people’s things for nothing.
However, in the end, he couldn’t turn his thoughts into action because Xing Yuesen simply wouldn’t agree. Have Xu Yi give free consultations and health checkups to those branches of the family? That would give them too much face!
Xu Yi also wasn’t insistent on making free house calls. Whether it was a consultation fee delivered to his door or gifts given in an elder’s name, if he accepted them, at most he’d feel a bit awkward; it wouldn’t trouble his conscience.
…
The next day, he went to Golden Goose Mountain again to gather medicinal herbs. On his way down the mountain, he encountered someone else coming down after gathering herbs.
It was a child around ten years old.
The chilblains on the child’s hands had improved considerably, but his form looked even more emaciated, with deeply sunken sallow cheeks. The basket on his back was very heavy; he had to bend his back to carry it.
Hearing movement, he reacted like a startled fawn, his eyes trembling as he froze, not daring to move. Only after discovering it was a person did he let out a breath and hurry down the mountain.
Xu Yi followed behind the boy with a somber expression, watching him reach the riverbank at the mountain’s base to drink water, then continue on his way without waiting for the ox cart nearby.
Xu Yi got on the ox cart and asked the driver, “Uncle, do you know that child?”
The driver was puzzled. “Which one?”
Xu Yi pointed at the child’s retreating figure.
The driver said “Oh” and said he didn’t know him either, just that he often saw this child coming to the mountains to gather medicinal herbs. However, he never took the cart but instead walked over twenty li to the county seat.
“Looks like a pitiful child. So young and already having to go into the mountains to gather herbs to sell for money. I don’t know what his parents are thinking. Although Golden Goose Mountain has temples and people, the back mountain is dangerous. There are often wild boars attacking people. Even the pilgrims who come to offer incense don’t go to the back mountain…”
Xu Yi was silent.
The place where they dug for medicinal herbs was in the back mountain.