Chapter 206: 270. Examination

Yoshika immediately pushed her mind to the limit with Absolute Awareness and examined the old doctor with her domain. Nothing. She could barely make out the faint impression of his aura, even more faded and weak than Jung’s. The same went for the other two, though Yi Lan’s was strong and healthy—a good sign of potential. Still, none of them had awakened—they were all undoubtedly mortal.

She extended her aura to encompass the entire house, sweeping her senses across every square inch of the place in search of anything amiss. Still nothing. A few herbs, and especially the concoction simmering away in the kitchen had stronger qi presences, but nothing that would indicate an artifact that might have given them away.

He hadn’t outed them as cultivators, then. Probably not as foreigners either, since there was no reason he would have been able to see through the illusion. At best he was guessing based on something they’d said or done, but he wasn’t certain. He felt certain, but Yoshika was well familiar with people being overconfident about their conclusions.

Less than a second had passed by the time Yoshika finished her analysis, and Jia betrayed no emotion as she smiled awkwardly.

“Um, pardon me? I’m not sure I understand.”

Play dumb. Let the man talk on his own. She needed to know how and why he suspected them before she could convince him otherwise. Luo Huang scoffed.

“Hmph! You smelled my pipe from across the room despite the fact that my wife is stinking up the entire neighborhood by screwing up my damn mixture, you’re far too composed for a bunch of young girls dressed the way you are, and Wu Yuan suspects you. I trust her judgment. You aren’t who you say you are—so who are you?”

Jia fought back a scowl. What a frustrating argument! There was almost no basis in it—he went entirely by feeling and accidentally stumbled into the right answer. The most insulting part was the fact that it was exactly the same way she did things. She was starting to understand why it annoyed people so much when she did it.

“My disgust was at the habit, not the smell. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m not sure what you mean about composure, though. Would you prefer if I were a stuttering wreck? Or if I cringed away under your gaze, like your apprentice does?”

Yi Lan winced as she overheard the last part, entering the room with Master Luo’s tea and placing it down in front of him. He accepted it with a smile.

“Thank you, dear. Now if you don’t mind, the mixture needs about a quarter bucket of water and two sprigs of the yellow grass. Bottom left side of the tall cupboard.”

“Yes, master.”

Luo turned back to Jia and took a sip of his tea as Yi Lan rushed off to follow his instructions.

“She’s not my apprentice, just a servant girl to help out with some of the chores.”

Jia didn’t dignify that with a response.

“Regardless, our plight is genuine. Distrust us all you want, but my sister needs help. If you cannot or will not help us, then I won’t bother you further, but I don’t think you’d be willing to entertain us thus far if you were so unwilling.”

Luo Huang locked eyes with Jia, but she refused to wilt under his hard gaze. Finally, he glanced over at Jung and took another hit from his pipe.

“Tsk, she looks fine to me. What are the symptoms?”

Jia let out a relieved sigh and gave Jung an encouraging nod as her big sister cleared her throat. The ball was in her court now.

“Fatigue for one. I’m exhausted by as little as just a few hours of activity. Frequent fevers, shortness of breath, reduced appetite—at my worst, I would experience sharp pains in my chest and abdomen, as well as coughing fits and vomiting if I tried to eat.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow incredulously.

“By the Emperor, woman, you make it sound as if you’re on your deathbed. Yet, here you are to tell me about it. You’re either lying or not telling me something.”

Jung glanced at Jia.

“Well, I was. On my deathbed, that is. Maybe even moments away from death before I was rescued.”

Wu Yuan’s eyes sharpened and she sat forward.

“Rescued? By whom?”

Jung smiled and shook her head.

“I shouldn’t say, but they healed me. Except, they said that they were only able to treat the symptoms, and that I would need a more experienced healer to treat the cause. Which has brought me here, to you, in the hopes that you can cure me—or at least buy me more time to find someone who can.”

Wu Yuan crossed her arms and sat back in her seat, unsatisfied. Master Luo squinted his eyes and looked Jung up and down as he took a drag from his pipe.

“He’s still around, then, eh? Your unnamed benefactor. A cultivator, obviously—if what you say is true I doubt any healer would have been able to save you. Still giving you regular treatments, or you’d never have made it this far.”

Jung didn’t respond, but the doctor scoffed.

“I’m right. How long can you last without your pet cultivator topping you off?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I—”

“A week at most. Maybe two with the right care, but she loses consciousness after a few days either way.”

Eui’s interruption drew the attention of the entire room, but especially Wu Yuan who narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“And you are...?”

“Jing Yi.”

Wu Yuan scoffed.

“You know that’s not what I'm asking. What’s your connection to all this, and why are you so confident in your answer?”

Eui smirked sardonically.

“I won’t waste your time with words you have no intention of hearing. Go on, then. You’re not done interrogating Li Zhen, are you?”

Luo Huang sighed, tapping his finger on the table as he swept a searching gaze across the four girls.

“This stinks worse than Wu Yuan’s sloppy elixir. But damn the Emperor if this isn’t the most interesting thing that this shitty town has ever brought me.”

Wu Yuan whirled on her husband with an incredulous expression.

“Luo Huang, you can’t seriously be—”

“Yi Lan! Get the fluid kit from upstairs—the good one—and bring it to the patient room.”

The doctor’s apprentice bowed and took off while the old man stood up and stretched out his crackling joints.

“The rest of you follow me. I’ll take a look—just a look, mind. And you’re paying top dollar—I assume your cultivator boyfriend can afford it.”

He began to walk towards a back room, but Wu Yuan hurriedly circled around to block the way, fixing him with an angry glare.

“Huang, please think this through. The sects—”

“Have already taken everything that matters from me. What have we left to lose, Yuan?”

There was a brief flash of pain on Wu Yuan’s face before she relented with a sad smile.

“Only each other, you worthless lump.”

Luo Huang’s grin didn’t betray the powerful sense of loss that Jia sensed as he took one last drag from his pipe before handing it to his wife.

“Well if I’m ever to be rid of this old crone on my back, I suppose I’d better hurry up and get started.”

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“Tsk, I suppose so. And my potions aren’t that bad.”

The doctor scoffed and retreated through the doorway without another word, leaving Wu Yuan to scowl after him. She turned on the rest of the girls and jerked her head to the side.

“Well, go on, then. You’d better be worth it.”

Jia bowed gratefully before following after the doctor, wondering what she’d just witnessed.

 

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The patient room was filled with incense, surgical tools, and medicines of all kinds tucked away into little drawers all surrounding a single raised bed. Despite the strong smelling medicines, Jia could detect the faintest hint of blood lingering on the air, though it was extremely old.

“Miss Li Zhen, sit up on the bed please.”

Jung complied, and the doctor spent the better part of fifteen minutes poking and prodding, asking various arcane questions about how she felt about this or that until Yi Lan arrived with a set of expensive looking glass containers.

“Ah, good, about time. Just set it down there. I don’t think I’ll need you for anything else right now, so go make sure my wife doesn’t sabotage that batch any more than she already has.”

Yi Lan bowed.

“Yes, master!”

Jia watched curiously as she ran off—quite a busy girl.

“What is she making anyway? It didn’t smell like something fit for consumption.”

Master Luo snorted.

“It’s not. Just a simple all-purpose salve for cuts, bruises, and burns. Helps keep minor wounds from festering. Open your mouth, Miss Li Zhen.”

Jung complied without question as the doctor used a pair of metal forceps to grab what looked like a tiny ball of raw cotton and held it out as if he was feeding it to a baby.

“Hold this in your mouth and let it get wet with your spit. Don’t swallow it.”

A few moments later, he retrieved the wet cotton ball with the forceps and dropped it into one of the glass containers. He then did the same thing again, only this time by sticking the ball of cotton up Jung’s nose—causing her to sneeze—and was just about to go for her ears when Jia lurched forward.

“Wait! Is that really necessary? I don’t think you’re going to find the problem there, do you?”

Luo Huang gave her a confused look.

“Are you the doctor, or am I? You’d be surprised what kind of things can show up where you least expect it.”

“It’s just...Li Zhen doesn’t like it when people touch her ears—she’s always been weird about it. Could you maybe come back to it later if your other tests don’t help?”

The doctor narrowed his eyes, slowly turning to Jung, who played along by covering her ear and leaning away.

“Fine, whatever. Miss, I’m going to make a very small cut on your forearm, don’t panic please.”

Jung winced as the doctor made a tiny, precise incision on her arm, soaking another cotton ball in blood and tossing it into a third glass container before quickly slathering a foul smelling goop over the wound that stopped it from bleeding any further.

“Just one more.”

This time he handed the forceps to Jung, with a fresh cotton ball still pinched between its tips.

“You need to pee on this one. There’s a toilet down the hall—ask Yi Lan if you get lost.”

Jung shrugged and accepted it, but the other three girls glared at the doctor as she left. He scoffed.

“Don’t look at me like that. It’s important.”

A few moments later, Jung returned, dropping the now soaked cotton ball into the waiting glass receptacle without prompting.

“Any other fluids you need from me, doctor?”

“No, that will do for now. Yi Lan!”

The apprentice appeared from around the corner, where she’d been waiting out of sight.

“Yes master?”

“Boiling water.”

Yi Lan quickly fetched the kettle, which she’d already boiled in anticipation of the request, and the doctor poured a small portion into each of the glass containers. If Jia didn’t know any better she’d think he was making tea—the thought nearly made her gag.

They watched as the doctor fussed over the glass containers, adding little droplets and frowning as the mixtures slowly changed color. Each reagent he added seemed to bother him more than the last, and he’d occasionally bark out an order for Yi Lan to fetch something or other from his ‘personal supply.’

Nearly an hour later, the doctor finally gave up. Most of the containers had all turned similar shades of dark blue, except for the one with Jung’s blood, which had gone pitch black. Luo Huang frowned at the results.

“Miss Li Zhen, please undress and lie face down.”

“Wait, hold on!”

Jung was already halfway to complying in the time it took Jia to utter her protest, but paused to look askance at her.

“What?”

“Don’t you think you’re taking this a bit too far doctor?”

He snorted dismissively.

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, and there’s three of you here to ensure I don’t do anything untoward. I need to check her qi flow, which means acupuncture needles, which means she undresses. This is not up for debate.”

Jia hesitated. It wasn’t out of embarrassment that she’d tried to stop Jung from undressing. While most people might assume that Lee Jung’s spiritual expression stopped at her tall brown rabbit ears, Jia had seen her naked before—taken baths together with her when they were still young children. Jung had a tail. A tiny triangular tuft of fur that jutted out from her tailbone—hardly anything at all, and the source of some embarrassment when she was younger.

As small as it was, Jia wouldn’t be able to hide it with illusions if Jung undressed. She wracked her brain for a good excuse.

“At least let her keep her underclothes on.”

Luo Huang pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned.

“Emperor strike me down. Miss Li Meili, enough. Your sister has quite possibly the deadliest congenital blood disease I’ve ever witnessed, and if she weren’t a beastkin it would have killed her before she even reached her twenties. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do, but I won’t be able to try if you keep obstructing me!”

All four women froze at the doctor’s words. He knew. Jia didn’t sense even a hint of uncertainty from him. She didn’t know how he’d figured them out, but their identities were compromised. The moment stretched on in tense silence until it was broken by Jung, who’s horror was directed at something else entirely.

“Did you just say ‘congenital’?”