Chapter 130: CH 130

Humans are iron, rice is steel; no matter what you do, you cannot work with an empty belly. Not eating a meal has already made him so hungry; those who could starve themselves were truly ruthless people. Xiao Feng Wu couldn’t be one of those, and especially given how he spent a lot of energy on Qin Ming Yue’s body last night, he felt a bit weakened in the bright and early morning.

There were a total of 32 medicinal shops in Yan Cheng, and most of them had once relied on the Xiao family for their livelihood. Now that the Xiao family crumbled into dust and scattered into the wind, the Min family had taken over their place. Only, this Min family was not at all generous in their actions, gathering all the shops into their hands and buying low, selling high. But due to their family’s status, no one dared to utter a single word of frustration, only able to endure and swallow down their grievances. 

Bright and early in the morning, Xiao Feng Wu dressed up in his full attire and headed to a physician’s store on East Street. In Yan Cheng, there were no end to ability, wealth, and reputation; if there was no Min family’s Qian Jin Tang, then there was the storefront of the Tang family, Xing Lin Ge, and not to speak of the Xiao’s family’s expertise that has been passed down to many a people. It was a bit too pitiful to be here and looking at such a physician’s store where its name couldn’t even rank amongst any of them.

The business plate was very aged, with only three words written on it: Hui Chun Tang. On the pillars whose paint had almost completely faded away was a pair of poems and the red paper they were written on had already corroded, with only the edges left. Xiao Feng Wu fanned away the strong smell of herbal medicine from his nose, and with his eyebrows furrowed and an expression that clearly expressed distaste, he walked in for whatever reason he had on his mind.

“Is there anyone here?”

The fellow who had been napping at the counter jotted awake. Seeing a customer, his chubby face immediately smiled and, faster than an arrow being shot, he opened up the counter latch and rushed over. Pushing up close to Xiao Feng Wu in his eagerness, he said,

“This Lao-ye, where do you feel uncomfortable, come come come, please sit, I will call my master over.”

And then used a cloth to wipe away the dust collected on the chair before yelling loudly and hurriedly towards the inner door, 

“Master! There’s a patient! Come out quick! Come out quick!”

Seeing his enthusiastic yell, who knows how long it has been since this place saw any business. Xiao Feng Wu already regretted coming here, regretted having the sudden motivation to do this at all.

The old and greyed curtain separating the outside and the inside was lifted up by an old wrinkly hand and out came an elderly man with a head full of white hair and a long mustache. In his hands he held an alcohol gourd and with a hoarse voice that sounded like he had drank quite a bit, he said, 

“Mhmm, where are you uncomfortable?”

No one could have expected then that Xiao Feng Wu would rise up from his chair and respectfully give him a bow, 

“Elder Qian, Feng Wu respectfully greets you.”

Qian Lang-zhong1 raised his eyebrow upon hearing him and lifted his pair of hazy eyes to take a look over him in detail, 

“So it is the young boy from the Xiao family. What, what kind of illness is it that you and your family cannot heal?”

“Elder Qian must be joking. Now that I am in a state where it is hard to help myself, I have no other way than to think I had to come to the respectable you to find a living. I even hope that you will not find me annoying.”

This Qian-Lang had received their Xiao family’s help before and had even lost to the Xiao Lao-tai-ye in a battle of medicine. Since then, he has stepped away from the public view, only guarding away a poor and empty physician’s store to live out the rest of his life.  

Time and time again, he would go to the Xiao family to drink some wine, but for whatever reason later on, he had never appeared again.

Qian Lang-zhong took another swig of wine. Seeing Xiao Feng Wu smiling giddily in a manner of humbleness, he blinked and said, 

“I’m only a poor and useless physician, without much business. If you want money, I have none. I cannot afford to hire you.”

Xiao Feng Wu said, 

“As long as you can feed me three meals a day, that will be enough for me. You can think of it as hiring a disciple for free. Whether it is to make medicine or deliver things, I can do anything. If you have money to give me, then give, otherwise if there’s nothing, it will be fine too.”

Qian Lang-zhong sat down and crossed his legs. He didn’t say anything for a while. In the end, he patted his empty alcohol gourd and said, 

“When your grandfather had taught you the art of healing, you had despised a patient’s stank, not willing to touch a side of healing. Look at you, aren’t you still going back onto this path…… fine, since I have drank so much good wine from your family, it should be time for me to repay it back and take you in as like a disciple. If there are patients, then there will be pay; if there are none, then there won’t be any. But at the very least, three meals a day and shelter can still be provided.”

Xiao Feng Wu was satisfied, 

“Thank you Master.”

Qian Lang-zhong shook his head and didn’t acknowledge his reference call. He poked his chubby and confused disciple who was looking from the sidelines with a wrinkly old finger, 

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“This is De Gui, this old man’s disciple. Not a good one at all, ah, not good at all.”

And then dragged his sandals against the ground with his hands behind his back, returning back inside.

De Gui was blanked out, not understanding how his master had suddenly taken in another disciple. Xiao Feng Wu was not one to be shy and pushed up his sleeves to head inside to grab some water from the well and clean his hands. 

Then he went into the kitchen to grab two mantous made from harsh grains, before saying to Qian Lang-zhong sleeping on the rocking chair, 

“Starting from today, it will be up to you to care for this young disciple’s food.”

Qian Lang-zhong answered him back by snoring, looking to be sleeping quite well.

Xiao Feng Wu walked back into the main hall, and seeing De Gui mashing seeds in a medicine roller2, he asked as he ate, 

When he got back, it was just twilight. Zong Bo was making dinner in the kitchen as Qin Ming Yue was dressed in his acting clothes, practicing << Qiannü’s Soul Leaves Her Body >>3. His body was long and lean, and he looked so lonely and full of regret and hatred. ‘Ye ye ah ah’, as he sang, with his sleeves looking so gentle and soft, as if they had a soul in his hands.

Xiao Feng Wu pushed the door open and he was unexpectedly slapped across the face by Qin Ming Yue’s water sleeves. Seeing that it was Xiao Feng Wu, Qin Ming Yue quickly pulled his sleeves back. He lightly ‘hmph’ed at Xiao Feng Wu before turning away to head back into the house, taking off his clothes and dropping them onto a folding screen.

Xiao Feng Wu’s face was still aching in pain and his nose was still caught up in the scent of perfume. Upon seeing this, he slightly raised his eyebrows and followed behind. Seeing Qin Ming Yue sit in front of the mirror and not talking, he crossed his legs and said, 

“I have never seen you in a good mood every time I come back.”

Qin Ming Yue looked at the mirror and found that his face really did not have a pleasant expression and he stared back at Xiao Feng Wu, 

“You think this is a brothel? Coming and leaving as you wish, while I still have to be here to smile at you.”

Xiao Feng Wu couldn’t stop his mouth, 

“If this is a brothel, what are you?”

The moment these words left his mouth, he knew he shouldn’t have said them. He waited for Qin Ming Yue to blow up, but the other gave no reaction at all. The only action he took was to walk closer to Xiao Feng Wu to grab his sleeves and sniff a few times. Only when he confirmed that there was no scent of perfume did he go sit back down.

Qin Ming Yue said, 

“Full of the scent of herbal medicine. What did you head to the apothecary for today?”

Xiao Feng Wu really wanted to compliment him, 

“Your nose is even better than a dog’s.”

Qin Ming Yue ignored him and said,

“Your family’s been involved in the medicinal business since long ago and I could already guess that what you can do is only in this kind of business.”

Notes:

*1 Lang-zhong: This is similar to Lang which was referenced before but with “zhong” added to the end. It can also reference the same thing (like gentleman/someone “respectable” (but in Xiao Feng Wu’s case, had also been used to humiliate him) and some other references like official, but mostly as a doctor/physician.

*2 medicine roller:

*3 Qiannü’s Soul Leaves Her Body: Might be more well known as the film A Chinese Ghost Story.

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