If you want to open a clinic, then the house can’t be renovated like it was before.
Once the consultation table and the medicine cabinet are set up.
Gu Youyou was on-site directing the bustling renovation, realizing that the work wouldn’t be completed in three days.
She looked at the sizable house, located at a prime street corner, thinking that such a property in Lingnan City must be expensive, and even with money, one might not be able to buy it.
So she looked at Jin Zijin curiously and asked, "Does the Taoist Temple have a good income?"
Jin Zijin was taken aback for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, the Dao Family Tianzong has always had a generous patronage."
"Then why were you so poor in Lotus Village that you lived in a drafty straw hut that hardly kept out the wind?"
"I was just avoiding trouble!" Jin Zijin declared righteously, "I went to Lotus Village on official business. If I’d flaunted my wealth, every household within ten miles would be competing to marry their daughter to me."
Gu Youyou: "..." She remembered how poor it had seemed when she first married over; there was no need to exaggerate that much.
Besides renovating the house, there was another matter—that was to make a signboard.
She felt that since she had acknowledged Dr. Zhou as her teacher and was under the care of Jisheng Hall, there was no need to establish her own practice. So, she immediately had someone make a plaque that read "Jisheng Hall."
At night, Gu Youyou worked by candlelight, not doing anything other than painting a signboard.
Jisheng Hall, with the subtitle in small characters: Lingnan Branch.
After the ink dried, she was very satisfied with the signboard she had painted; all that was left was to find a signboard master to make it the following day.
After putting the paper away, she thought for a moment, then sketched some other things.
Regarding the clinic’s decor, she had some more scientifically minded suggestions.
If they couldn’t be easily explained, they could be drawn.
There were scattered footsteps from outside the courtyard, and Gu Youyou paused her writing.
It wasn’t the delicate steps of the maid Xiaotao, but a man’s, Yue Rujing.
She glanced at Jin Zijin, who had taken off his coat and was leaning against the bedhead reading a book, and wondered why Yue Rujing would come visiting at such a late hour.
The door was not shut, and the lamp was on; Yue Rujing directly entered the room.
Jin Zijin turned his head to look at him, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Good, you haven’t gone to bed!" Yue Rujing cut to the chase and said, "Brother, my father wants to discuss some matters with you."
"Hmm!" Jin Zijin nodded, not asking further, and immediately got up to dress.
"I’ll be out for a while, if I return late you should go to sleep first," Jin Zijin told Gu Youyou.
Gu Youyou smiled slightly and said, "Go ahead, I’ll sleep after I finish drawing."
After they had gone far, Gu Youyou got up and closed the door.
She stood next to the table, pondering for a while, then muttered to herself as if talking to herself, "Nothing during the day, but something needing discussion in the dead of night, really..."
Shaking her head, she hung the wet writing brush on the rack.
"Brother, do you know what my father wants to discuss with you?"
"I know," Jin Zijin said.
"Ah, since you know, then I won’t talk about that. I’ll just tell you about this Gu Youyou, this woman can’t be trusted. Besides looking like a country girl, in what ways does she resemble one?
She can ride a horse, and she rides no worse than I do. Ordinary families don’t let their daughters learn horseback riding. The embroidery she should know, she doesn’t. The guqin, chess, calligraphy, and painting favored by ladies of fine families, she doesn’t know either, but she’s remarkably good at handling a knife fiercely.
I think she’s been specially trained by someone since she was little, and keeping her around is bound to lead to trouble sooner or later. Yes, I know you’re reluctant to kill her. Why not just go along with my father’s wishes this time, and find an excuse to send her away?"