Because for some reason, you cannot leave written words to answer me, is that it?
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Prince Ning’s consort was, after all, born of a noble family.
Her father was one of the Taifu [Grand Tutors] of the Imperial Academy, and several of her elder brothers also held positions within the court. Though the Prince of Ning’s household had fallen into decline, the Consort of Ning still lived a life of privilege and luxury, surrounded by silks and finery.
It could be said that, since the day of her birth, she had never once suffered such humiliation!
And now, that so-called divine physician actually demanded that she perform three kneelings and nine kowtows just to receive medicine? If this wasn’t deliberate humiliation, then what was?! Not to mention, rumor had it that the divine physician was but a mere youth—a boy no older than her own son! For her to kneel and kowtow before such a greenhorn—how utterly absurd!
Moreover, why was it that those commoners at Yong’an Temple could drink a bowl of porridge for free, and even the noble families of the capital could purchase a packet of medicine for no more than ten taels of silver, yet she alone was made to suffer such humiliation?
Could it be that this young physician bore a grudge against the Prince of Ning’s household? Or perhaps he was acquainted with one of her enemies?
Who could it be? Yet for a time, the Consort of Ning could not guess at all—
Among the noble ladies of the capital, there was naturally a social circle of their own. She was on friendly terms with several of them, which inevitably meant she had offended others. Many disliked her, and those who appeared close and sisterly on the surface but might stab her in the back at any moment were too numerous to count.
Thus, how could she possibly find the slightest clue as to who that young physician truly was?
The Consort of Ning was trembling with fury. Yet when her gaze fell upon Lu Wenxiu, lying on the sickbed with an increasingly ashen face, she gritted her teeth—and finally, with humiliation flooding her face, decided… to obey.
Her voice cold and severe, she ordered all the servants and attendants to hold their tongues. This matter was never to leave the walls of Prince Ning’s residence. Should any whisper of it be heard outside, she would have their tongues cut out upon their return!
At this moment, the Consort of Ning could no longer afford to maintain her usual gentle and dignified image. Enraged and panicked, she drove everyone out, then ordered two maids to help her make preparations.
Yet even though the matter had not yet spread beyond the Prince of Ning’s residence, within the household itself, it was already known to all.
The servants whispered among themselves; those who had long suffered her harsh treatment now felt a trace of schadenfreude stirring in their hearts.
The Old Madam was resting quietly in Mei’an Courtyard, and the Master had been dispatched to remote and impoverished Liuzhou, not yet returned. No one dared to let word of this reach either of their ears.
Meanwhile, Lu Yuan, returning from the Imperial Academy, heard of the incident and immediately grew pale with anger. He hurried off to stop the Consort of Ning. Compared to this humiliating affair spreading beyond their gates, his second brother’s illness was a trivial matter! If word of this reached the outside, where would his mother’s dignity be placed?
And thus, the Prince of Ning’s residence descended into chaos.
Lu Huan did not know why that person wanted him to save Lu Wenxiu, but whoever that person was, they must have had their own purpose. To save Lu Wenxiu was, to him, of no great consequence—and besides, he was mindful of the autumn hunt at Qiuyan Mountain five days hence. If the Prince of Ning’s household were suddenly to hold a funeral, he would certainly be unable to attend.
Therefore, after a brief consideration, he had the steward Wu take a packet of medicine and hang it from the branch of a tree in that grove.
The Consort of Ning changed into an unremarkable black cloak, followed only by her most trusted old nurse. She set out from the most secluded path and, beforehand, ordered the Prince of Ning’s guards to clear away any commoners along the route—lest anyone witness her shameful act.
On the muddy path, she had to kneel every few steps. Her knees, numbed by the biting cold of snow, turned purple; scraped against the hard ground, they began to bleed.
After barely a dozen paces, her pampered body was nearly at its limit.
…Yet she feared that the divine physician might be watching from somewhere nearby. If she did not follow his instructions exactly, she might reach the place only to be denied the medicine.
Thus, the Consort of Ning clenched her teeth tightly and forced herself forward, one painful step at a time.
All the while, she was tormented by the fear that someone might see her. Even though guards were stationed nearby, she still wished she could crawl into a hole in the ground, terrified that anyone might catch sight of this scene of utter disgrace.
Thus, with a blazing fury burning in her chest, the Consort of Ning half-walked, half-knelt, spending several whole shichen [about two hours per shichen] before finally reaching the grove described in the painting.
By the time she arrived, her hair was in disarray, and her cloak was soiled and stained—she looked entirely like a village woman, with none of the usual poise or dignity of the calculating, noble Consort of Ning.
───♡───
When the Consort of Ning set out to retrieve the medicine, Lu Huan had no interest in witnessing her pitiful state. He busied himself with his own affairs instead.
But outside the screen, Su Xi deliberately used her final unlock attempt to open that forest path. Munching on popcorn as she watched, she saw the Consort of Ning perform her three kneelings and nine kowtows until her face turned pale and her breath came in gasps, nearly falling into a ditch—screaming for her old nurse to pull her out. Su Xi couldn’t help bursting into laughter.
The joy in her heart was utterly exhilarating—she had finally helped her Zai Zai get some revenge! Those whip marks on her Zai Zai’s back still hadn’t been repaid by this Consort of Ning!
She and her Zai Zai had indeed kept their word: after the Consort of Ning struggled through that torturous journey, she would finally find the packet of medicine waiting for her.
The grove was utterly deserted.
The Consort of Ning, accompanied by her guards, had been seething with anger in her heart—if that so-called young divine physician dared wait for her in the forest, he would never escape her grasp! But to her surprise, there was no one there—only the medicine.
The Consort of Ning had half-expected this. A person capable of humiliating the Prince of Ning’s household in such a way would naturally not reveal himself easily. Yet to suffer such outrageous humiliation and have no way to strike back—it was as if she had punched into cotton, leaving a heavy, stifling fury lodged in her chest with nowhere to vent.
In a fit of rage, she immediately ordered her long-waiting sedan chair to come forward so they could return to the manor as fast as possible.
“…This humiliation will be avenged.” Supported as she climbed into the sedan, her fingers clenched around that packet of medicine in bitter humiliation, her teeth grinding as she spat out the words.
───♡───
After returning with the medicine, the Consort of Ning had the household doctor examine it. Confirming that it was indeed a prescription for wind-cold, her fury gradually gave way to relief. She quickly ordered the servants to decoct the medicine and feed it to Lu Wenxiu.
The medicine was exceedingly bitter. Even in his coma, Lu Wenxiu nearly vomited it out.
The veins at the Consort of Ning’s temples throbbed violently. Terrified that even a single drop of the medicine she had obtained through such humiliation might go to waste, she helped the servants hold down his neck and forced it down his throat.
After drinking it, Lu Wenxiu’s severe wind-cold illness did show improvement the following day… yet somehow, though the cold symptoms eased, he began suffering from relentless diarrhea—rushing to the latrine for three days straight.
And because his illness had dragged on so long, his body was already terribly weakened.
He could barely take a few steps without panting, practically reduced to a useless shell.
When the imperial physicians came to check on him, they concluded that he likely would not be able to leave his bed for the next six months—his body would require slow, careful recuperation.
Upon hearing this, the Consort of Ning’s face turned ashen. All these blows combined made her look as though she had aged ten years overnight.
Of course, all that would be a matter for later.
───♡───
The next day, Steward Wu received a letter.
It was an invitation from the Assistant Minister of Revenue in the capital, requesting a meeting with the young divine physician.
The Assistant Minister was a clever man. Somehow, he had heard that the young divine physician had first appeared at Yong’an Temple, where the one organizing the porridge relief effort had been Zhong Ganping. He thus speculated that Zhong Ganping might know something.
Zhong Ganping, receiving the letter but not knowing how to reach the mysterious young physician, could only turn to Steward Wu.
After passing through several hands, the identity of the young physician still remained shrouded in mystery. When Lu Huan finally received the letter from Steward Wu and unfolded it to read—
On Su Xi’s side, the system issued the fifth main quest.
> “Please accept Main Quest 5 (Beginner): Establish ties with the Assistant Minister of Revenue and become one of his trusted aides.”
Su Xi, seeing that the point reward was so small, immediately knew this mission would be relatively easy.
After all, among the thirteen packets of medicine her Zai Zai had distributed earlier, one had saved the Assistant Minister of Revenue’s beloved youngest daughter. That girl was the apple of his eye—having her life saved, he would naturally be endlessly grateful.
Her Zai Zai practically didn’t need to do anything; simply showing up for the meeting would be enough to gain the Assistant Minister’s acquaintance.
Su Xi opened the minister’s profile and discovered that this man happened to be an old rival of the Prince of Ning’s household.
The reason was simple: many years ago, Prince Ning had taken a fancy to the daughter of a regional governor. The young lady, famed throughout the capital for her beauty, eventually became the wife of this very Assistant Minister. Prince Ning had been furious—ever since then, whenever the two men met, jealousy and resentment burned between them.
And since the Consort of Ning was far less beautiful than that governor’s daughter, she had also grown especially bitter and jealous over the matter.
From then on, enmity formed between the two households.
Yet in recent years, while the Prince of Ning’s residence declined, the Assistant Minister’s fortunes had soared. Just days ago, he had been promoted to Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue—a full first-rank official. More than that, his eldest daughter, sent into the palace, had become the Emperor’s most favored concubine.
Thus, within the court, none dared show him disrespect.
In short, the Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue was now a man of the highest rank, backed by both the Fifth Prince and a royal concubine—one of the most powerful figures in the capital.
In his letter, he had expressed profound gratitude and addressed the young divine physician with utmost respect, clearly valuing him highly.
There could be no harm in establishing a connection.
That was Su Xi’s thought—and evidently, her Zai Zai Lu Huan thought the same. After frowning at the letter for a brief moment, he folded it and burned it.
He returned to the firewood courtyard and instructed Guard Bing to take advantage of the current chaos in the manor—under cover of night, move all the chickens and crops from his yard to the estate outside the city. Then he donned a traveling cloak, pulled the hood low over his face, and prepared to attend the meeting.
To show his sincerity, the Assistant Minister had chosen Zhong Ganping’s residence as the meeting place, bringing along neither guards nor servants.
Su Xi, watching from outside the screen, saw her Zai Zai heading out and was about to follow—only to find the screen wouldn’t move.
She hadn’t unlocked Zhong Ganping’s residence!
And she had already used up all her unlock attempts—the last one wasted on that little forest outside the city, just to watch the Consort of Ning perform her three kneelings and nine kowtows!
The system suddenly said, “Who told you to be so childish, insisting on watching the Consort of Ning kneel in person?”
Su Xi: “Shut up.”
Tears of frustration welled in her eyes. Unable to follow to Zhong Ganping’s estate and see what her Zai Zai would discuss with the Minister of Revenue, she could only log off first, planning to come back online once he returned that evening.
Before logging off, she switched the screen to her Zai Zai’s room.
In a hollowed-out space inside one of the table legs, barely noticeable to the eye, she searched and found a tiny box.
Although ever since the Old Madam’s decree no one had come near this courtyard, her Zai Zai remained extremely cautious. Fearing that their method of communication might be discovered, he had once written her a note and agreed to hide it inside this table leg, sealed behind a wooden panel so that it wouldn’t be found easily.
And ever since last night—when he discovered that by asking questions and placing the brush in different positions, he could communicate with her—it was as though he had opened the door to a new world. He nearly wanted to ask her hundreds of questions at once. Yet perhaps out of restraint, he had not asked that many.
Now, on the small sheet of paper left inside the little box, there were two questions written.
——“I have, as promised, saved Lu Wenxiu. Though this act was not of my own will, if it makes you happy, then that is enough. If you are happy, place the brush on the left side of the inkstone.”
Su Xi blinked in confusion.
Since when did her Zai Zai start caring about whether she was happy or not—about her feelings at all? That wasn’t supposed to happen, was it? Or… was he actually asking for praise?
A scene flashed quickly through her mind: that day when her Zai Zai had rescued the concubine’s daughter by the stream. He hadn’t received a single word of praise afterward. Though his face hadn’t changed much, he had gone back to the firewood courtyard alone, his brows furrowed, wearing that quiet, sulky bun-faced expression of his.
…Right. Ever since he was little, no matter what he did—no matter how much better he was than Lu Yuan or Lu Wenxiu—no one had ever praised him.
Su Xi couldn’t bear to think about it. She hurriedly grabbed every single brush on Zai Zai’s desk and even bought another one from the system store, tossing them all onto the left side of the inkstone.
Twelve brushes in total.
Happy happy—Mama is very happy! Happy × 12!
The second note contained another question.
——“If you find this question difficult to answer, you need not reply. But if I am not mistaken—you can recognize words, and you can write. You are also willing to communicate with me, yet for some reason, you cannot leave written words to answer me, is that it?”
The note had clearly been written that morning. The strokes were slow and deliberate, as though he had weighed each word carefully in thought.
When Su Xi read that question, her eyelids twitched violently.
…Her Zai Zai had already guessed almost everything! The level of human-like reasoning in this AI simulation was downright terrifying.
