Lin Qianqing, looking all secretive, pulled Gu Youyou aside and asked, "How come I just saw that despicable Concubine Du?"
Gu Youyou choked on her words at that remark and said, "You are a lady of high society, so guard your speech a bit more tightly. Calling someone a ’despicable person,’ is that something you should say?"
"That’s why I said it so quietly!" Lin Qianqing declared with a sense of justified righteousness.
Well, it seems we’re just digging holes for each other.
"Let’s see how auntie’s going to deal with us tonight."
Lin Qianqing hummed indifferently, "If I were afraid of her punishment, I would have already become that well-mannered, knowledgeable young lady. Hey, what illness does Concubine Du have that she came to you for treatment?"
"Oh!" Gu Youyou said indifferently, "Concubine Du cannot have children; it’s said that her body was injured a few years ago when she fell into the water."
Lin Qianqing was slightly startled, "So did you treat her?"
"Ouch, why did you treat her? She deserves to be childless."
"I am a doctor; it wouldn’t be right not to cure a disease I can cure."
"You... oh, it’s so satisfying that she can’t have children!"
Gu Youyou tilted her head and gave a secretive smile, saying, "I had to treat her, I couldn’t just ruin my own reputation. But... I did trick her a bit."
"How did you trick her?" Lin Qianqing’s eyes brightened.
Gu Youyou lowered her voice and revealed the last condition she had imposed, forbidding Concubine Du from sharing a bed with Young Master Jie.
After hearing this, Lin Qianqing laughed heartily, "Then she’s ruined. In a year or two, ah, with Young Master Jie being such a lecher, by the time her illness is cured, the flower she’s offering might have already wilted. Cousin, your move is so satisfying."
Gu Youyou laughed for a while and then sighed, "Ah, what a pity for Miss Du, she seems like a good person. But it’s alright, I heard she’s come to terms with it and is planning to separate from Young Master Jie."
"What? Miss Du is planning to separate from Young Master Jie?" Lin Qianqing didn’t think this was good news. Although she wasn’t as pedantic as the other young ladies, she was, after all, a proper woman.
"What does she plan to do then? A woman separating from her husband, it’s almost the same as being cast aside," she said worriedly.
Gu Youyou replied, "That’s still better than staying in the Jie Residence. With her appearance, she wouldn’t last long there."
"That’s also true." Lin Qianqing nodded and said, "If she can look on the bright side, leaving the Jie Residence and wandering the world, then that would truly be an enviable and beautiful thing."
As she spoke, her eyes shone with excitement and longing.
It was only then that Gu Youyou realized, this young mistress yearned for freedom, aspiring to a life unbounded by restrictions. However, being born in the household of a high-ranking official in Beijing, she was destined to be nothing more than a well-mannered little lady.
Someone knocked on the door from outside, followed by the voice of Shopkeeper Hu.
"Doctor Gu, there is another patient specifically asking for you; nothing we say seems to make a difference."
Gu Youyou only conducted four hours of consultation per day, and those four hours were already over for today, but there were always patients who insisted on seeing her.
Usually, Shopkeeper Hu would explain the situation clearly to such visitors, and most of them would understand, leaving behind only a few who refused to go and insisted on waiting for her.
Gu Youyou sighed and went out nonetheless.
If it weren’t for a particularly troublesome patient, Shopkeeper Hu wouldn’t have broken this rule.
A man dressed very plainly, not much different from the clerks at the pastry shop across the street, yet he had an extraordinarily distinctive face. Even though he tried to disguise it with a beard, Gu Youyou recognized him at a glance.
"What illness do you need to see a doctor for? Come with me."