Having listened to the story, Gu Youyou could only come to this conclusion: This man is utterly insane.
"To throw people stricken with the epidemic into the army, weakening our own forces and then letting the enemy take advantage of it, he’s capable of such an act. Isn’t this treason? Zijin, he’s committing treasonous acts, and the Emperor doesn’t care?"
"It’s not that he doesn’t care, but rather..." Jin Zijin suddenly let out a wry smile and said in a low voice, "Maybe he’s just a foolish ruler."
She felt it was normal for someone like her, a woman who had traveled through time, to call the Emperor a fool, but hearing such words from Jin Zijin, with his firmly entrenched feudal thinking, was rather shocking.
Well, he was indeed a foolish ruler.
"Knowing that the State Preceptor harbors malicious intentions, the Emperor just lets him have his way?" Gu Youyou asked with a worried expression.
With such an Emperor and such a State Preceptor, Zhuzhao Country might well end up in ruins.
Jin Zijin was taken aback, then rubbed her head and chuckled, "You are smart but still don’t understand the relationship between the State Preceptor and the Imperial Court. There could be a thousand and one bizarre reasons to take a signboard... But no matter how absurd those reasons are, as long as they’re not too excessive, the Emperor will grant them."
Gu Youyou chuckled dryly; she obviously didn’t understand. This odd Taoist, this peculiar Imperial Court.
"So, he’s lost this move but seems to have posed us a new problem in the process. By making me the target of everyone in the medical profession in Lingnan City, does he intend to force us to leave Lingnan?"
"Smart," he said, smiling, "That makes you want to give up running Jisheng Hall, doesn’t it?"
"Ah...?" Gu Youyou looked at him in surprise, then snorted, "How can that be? Hmph, I think he miscalculated again, vastly underestimating Grandmother’s strengths. Even if all those good-for-nothing fighters in Lingnan banded together, they wouldn’t pose any threat to me."
Competition among hospitals was common, pushing into the market, sidelining other rival hospitals, or being sidelined by them. She was all too familiar with this.
"You’re that confident?"
"I’m gifted, Divine Doctor!"
The gift Qin Changlin sent to Gu Youyou was a box of exquisitely packaged lotus seeds.
Considering the season, these were indeed the first batch of lotus seeds to be harvested from Lotus Village.
The lotus seeds were plump, large, and beautiful, presented in a delicate little bamboo basket and sealed with a handkerchief, which had a lotus embroidered on it, hence the fancy gift box.
She couldn’t help but smile. Qin Changlin was thoughtful, often sending her some local specialties.
She wondered if she should send some specialties from Lingnan to Qin Changlin in return.
And to Grandfather as well.
Ah, last time she gathered quite a few snow lotuses, she could make them into medicinal pills and send some over.
Gu Youyou put the basket aside but felt something was amiss.
When Banxia had brought it to her she had opened it and seen an envelope. Later, when she went out to collect the golden signboard, she had forgotten all about it.
Where was the letter?
"Banxia, have you seen the letter in my parcel?"
Banxia, wearing an apron, poked half her body out from the backyard and said, "What letter? Oh, the parcel from Qingshui Town? I don’t know, I never opened it."
Gu Youyou believed Banxia when she said she hadn’t opened it. Could she have seen it wrong?
That seemed impossible; she wasn’t someone with failing sight but was actually quite perceptive.
She looked up towards the upstairs floor, holding the lotus seeds and clambering up the stairs.
"Zijin, have you seen the letter that Qin Changlin sent me?"