Snow was beginning to flutter from the sky again.
Qi Qingyao felt a little cold, so she blew some warm air into her hands. However, her breath was not that hot either. She pressed her lips and smiled, looking at the tips of her hair as they began to freeze over.
The weather was cold, but she did not want to go inside.
That was the sight that greeted Jiang Yeqian when he pushed open the door and stepped inside.
The girl sat on a red wooden chair, a fur coat embroidered with peonies around her shoulders. Her side profile looked calm, with an air of solemnity and loneliness, but her gaze was especially gentle as she looked up at the moon.
Before he realized what was happening, Jiang Yeqian found himself walking up to her back. Qi Qingyao turned around and their eyes met.
As they held their gazes…
Jiang Yeqian looked away awkwardly, saying in a low voice, “You didn’t dry your hair. It’s freezing over.”
“Right.” Qi Qingyao pulled back her gaze too, turning back to look at the moon.
Jiang Yeqian said, “That’s bad for your health.”
“I want to see the snow.” Qi Qingyao had no intention of going inside, so her tone was obstinate.
“…” She was such a stubborn woman!
Jiang Yeqian went into his own room and grabbed a cotton handkerchief, putting it over her head. Qi Qingyao paused, but then the corners of her lips curved slightly. Nevertheless, she did not say anything.
Jiang Yeqian turned and left, asking a maid in the mansion for a hot water bottle. When the maid found out that the miraculous physician wanted it, she gave it to him without a second thought.
Jiang Yeqian brought the steaming hot water bottle and stuffed it into Qi Qingyao’s hands roughly.
His tone was harsh too as he said,
“You’re watching the snow in the middle of winter? Do you want to freeze to death?”
Qi Qingyao looked at the hot water bottle in her hands and listened to his nonsense trash talk at odds with his actions. She frowned, then smiled.
After a moment, she heard something from the chihuahua gate. When she turned to look, she saw young Si Jin, emerging from the door dripping wet from head to toe. He looked like he was just fished out of a lake.
“Didn’t you dry yourself after coming out of the hot spring?” Qi Qingyao asked in shock.
“Uh…”
Si Jin smiled at her blankly.
Could he tell her that he just came out of the pond? No way.
The next morning…
As soon as Qi Qingyao got up, Li Qing reported to her.
“The Lord Heir threw up all the medicine he drank, madam physician!”
“He threw it up?” Qi Qingyao was perplexed. As she followed Li Qing through the plum blossom courtyard, she said, “He’s in worse shape than I thought.”
She entered his room without an ounce of hesitation, giving Heir Pei a nasty shock. He was about to yell at her about minding their chastity, but she immediately turned up his eyelids to check his pupils and forced him to open his mouth so she could look at his tongue. She even checked his pulse in no time at all.
She did everything so quickly and mercilessly that Hair Pei was stunned into silence.
Finally, Qi Qingyao waved her hand confidently. “Bring me some silver needles.”
“…”
Li Qing paused and then hurriedly went to get a set of silver needles. A question sat unasked on his tongue, though. Every physician had a set of silver needles on them at all times, right? So why did this lady physician have no equipment at all on her…?
Qi Qingyao took the set of needles from him and unrolled it. After that, she looked up and told Pei Fengtang,
“Take off your coat first. I’ll apply the needles to your back and try to get your organs back in order.”
For some reason, Heir Pei was a little intimidated by this young lady physician. He glared at her but was too scared to say anything, turning his back toward her. Li Qing pulled his Lord Heir’s clothes down.
Qi Qingyao looked at his fair back. Without even raising her eyelids, she calmly toasted the needles over a flame before quickly applying them to his skin.
“Do you even know how to… cough cough…”
“Of course I do!”
As soon as the first needle entered his body, Heir Pei felt the blood in his body go wild. He could not help but cough a few times, and his throat felt especially itchy after he coughed. By the time the third and fourth needles went in, his throat grew unbearably itchier, and his coughing became worse. At the fifth needle, he could not hold it in anymore, vomiting out a mouthful of black blood.