Meng Qi regrets.
Meng Qi certainly didn’t intend to eavesdrop.
Just as he was about to enter the room, he suddenly heard the voice of Yan Chen coming from inside, causing him to pause.
Curiosity about Yan Chen’s situation was only natural, and it was an opportune moment to listen in.
If he were a true gentleman, he would have left on his own at this point.
Remaining silent was important, as disturbing the conversation inside would be impolite.
Whether intentional or unintentional, peeking into someone’s privacy while they were confiding in another person and expressing their trust was a rude intrusion. What kind of behavior would that be?
Meng Qi, although not a gentleman, wouldn’t engage in such actions.
Moreover, he had experienced accidentally overhearing conversations in corners too many times, so he didn’t feel much guilt in his heart.
— It’s all due to his true form causing trouble.
In the past, he always unintentionally overheard secrets. As a sand rat, what more could Meng Qi do besides hiding himself more securely? Should he transform back into a human form and tell those people that he was here first, and they shouldn’t have private conversations in secluded corners, putting him in a difficult position?
Meng Qi couldn’t do that. Over time, he had learned too many secrets.
Some secrets were not worth mentioning, such as who was being cuckolded or who didn’t like whom.
But there were secrets that were of great importance, such as betrayal and treason!
During the Chu dynasty, the Court Scholar was not actively involved in court affairs, yet few dared to provoke him, as Imperial Teacher Meng seemed to possess an uncanny ability to know what others didn’t and to understand what even capable individuals couldn’t comprehend.
He anticipated the enemy’s moves on the battlefield and had an unparalleled insight into human nature.
There were even rumors that Imperial Teacher Meng was skilled in the art of controlling ghosts and had a dozen servant ghosts by his side. Although he couldn’t kill someone from a thousand miles away with a flying sword, knowing what was happening a thousand miles away was as easy as turning his hand.
Once these rumors spread, the Bao Guo Temple in Taijing, where incense was most prosperous, was almost overrun by powerful and influential families.
People came seeking scriptures, seeking magical tools, and even requesting the return of Buddha statues to enshrine in their homes…
Some even went to Taoist temples to request peach-shaped talismans and hang copper mirrors. The seven paintings of “Zhong Kui Capturing Ghosts” by famous artists of the previous dynasty received great acclaim in Taijing. Not only were they sold at high prices, but they were also seen as substantial gifts to be presented on special occasions.
As the rumors grew, no one dared to speak to Meng Qi directly about these matters, but the fat rat could hear everything.
At that time, Imperial Teacher Meng took a liking to General Song’s garden.
It was designed to resemble the landscapes of the Jiangnan region, with artificial mountains made of Taihu stones. The rockeries are interconnected, with deep caves and passages connecting each other. Next to the rockeries was a lake, and the lakeside was covered in carefully selected white sand that extended all the way to the base of the rockeries.
General Song was also an old friend of Meng Qi’s and one of the founding heroes of the country.
Meng Qi had visited the garden once and fell in love with it. But because it belonged to a friend, he endured and endured. Finally, one day, when General Song invited everyone to his mansion for a feast and his old friends drank themselves into a stupor, Meng Qi pretended to be drunk and waited until the servants and maidservants retired before transforming back to his true form and sneaking out of the room. Taking advantage of the cover of night, he rolled around in the white sand by the lake several times.
During this time, a parrot hanging from the corridor of the waterside pavilion caught sight of the sand rat and let out a startled cry.
These beautiful birds had chains on their legs, fastened to exquisite bird stands.
They could flutter a few times but couldn’t fly away.
On the bird stands, there was food and water. Startled by the commotion, the parrot flapped its wings in a frenzy, causing a plump pine nut to fall from the sky and land on the fat rat’s head.
Clutching the pine nut and not knowing what to do, the fat rat suddenly saw a patrolling servant approaching with a lantern. The fat rat immediately hid in the hole it had just dug and listened to the gossip.
The sand rat’s mood was very complex. Holding the pine nut, it thought, what ghosts and monsters are they talking about? If all the world’s secrets could be buried in one’s stomach and not spoken aloud, there wouldn’t be so much trouble. Besides, it hadn’t been spreading the secrets it heard everywhere. It was simply that before the secrets were exposed, it had been cautious, and after they were exposed, it wasn’t particularly surprising.
Moreover, many things were not solely heard by the fat rat but were deduced. If this was what it meant to keep ghosts, then wouldn’t all those famous strategists in history have kept a group of ghosts?
Not to mention that Meng Qi was not a strategist in the Chu Imperial court.
To pacify the world and usher in a prosperous era… the fourteen founding heroes of the Chu Dynasty were not ordinary individuals.
There was the Duke of Jingyuan, a Confucian general with strategic wisdom and undefeated in battle, as well as the valiant general who stood above the three armies and could enter and exit enemy lines as if in an uninhabited place.
There was Prime Minister Deng, skilled in managing political affairs, as well as capable ministers who filled the national treasury within a few years through resource conservation and revenue generation.
Among them were also talented scholars who could eloquently write essays, their words causing enemy generals from the Chen Dynasty to die of anger on the battlefield. Even if the Chu Dynasty fell and turned into a handful of yellow soil, their ambitions, and their lives would be immortalized through the poems, essays, and strategies they penned, passed down through the ages.
Compared to them, Meng Qi was nothing special.
As his memories as the Imperial Teacher fully returned and he transformed into a fat rat twice, Meng Qi felt that there was nothing in this world that could surprise him anymore.
However, when he heard Yan Cen recount his background, his breathing skipped a beat.
It was because of this that he was discovered by Mo Li.
Otherwise, with Meng Qi’s transcendent temperament, blending into everything around him, even if he eavesdropped, no one would be able to detect him, not even the martial arts masters standing behind him.
Of course, Yan Cen’s martial arts were slightly inferior, so he didn’t hear it.
Now that Yan Cen had left, Meng Qi was caught in the act by Mo Li and could only sigh before entering the room.
“Physician, I…”
Before Meng Qi could apologize, Mo Li interrupted, “Don’t speak of this matter to anyone.”
Meng Qi naturally knew that the best way to keep a secret was to remain silent, but he still had questions in his mind.
Mo Li went to check the medicine pot on the stove. With his keen senses, Meng Qi didn’t miss even the insects in the corner. Once he confirmed there was no one eavesdropping, he approached the stove and whispered, “How did you know that Yan Cen fears turning into a woman?”
Mo Li glanced at him but remained silent.
Meng Qi endured the bitter smell of the medicine and moved closer.
“I feel that there’s something suspicious about Yan Cen’s identity. Do you think an ordinary Physician could identify his illness?”
Of course not, that’s why Mo Li asked Yan Cen if he had seen renowned Physicians.
If he could afford to consult renowned Physicians and sorcerers, his family’s conditions shouldn’t be bad.
“He said that after he was born, his father threw him to the ground. The servants or relatives in the family, out of gratitude to his mother, sent him away. So when he sought medical treatment, it must have been after he left home and entrusted himself to a high monk… and he also learned martial arts. Is it because the high monk was highly skilled, or because the people who sent him away were capable?”
Meng Qi had many doubts in his mind, but Mo Li remained noncommittal. For him, Yan Cen’s true identity was of no concern.
Meng Qi also realized this and couldn’t help but smile. “I apologize for my habit of analyzing someone when their identity seems suspicious.”
Seeing someone with a dubious identity made him want to analyze them.
Mo Li glanced at the medicine soup in the pot and whispered, “Meng, your illness hasn’t fully recovered. Don’t exert yourself too much.”
“On the contrary, I’m concerned that you’re working too hard,” Meng Qi replied.
Meng Qi thought that Yan Cen’s unique physique and the difficulty in prescribing medicine must have been occupying Mo Li’s mind. While a dedicated Physician treating patients is attractive, Meng Qi felt a slight reluctance to make the physician worry about other patients’ conditions.
“I’ve inquired a bit around Shimo Mountain stronghold, but there is no news,” Meng Qi said.
“No rush. People in the stronghold won’t divulge much in front of outsiders,” Mo Li replied.
Mo Li glanced at Meng Qi, who was on the verge of placing his hand on his waist.
So dishonest, not as honest as a sand mouse.
He would be much more settled if he were tucked inside the cup.
Mo Li moved aside slightly and began to calm the emotionally unstable patient.
“Yan Cen’s intestinal abscess is not difficult to treat, and it won’t strain me,” Mo Li assured him.
“But he has two sets of organs. Regarding the intestinal abscess, is it a single location or…” Meng Qi was interrupted by Mo Li, who shook his head and said, “He only has two hearts and three lungs. Other organs are the same as an ordinary person. There is no talk of two sets of organs.”
Meng Qi was stunned. He remembered that Mo Li had mentioned it differently before.
He had mentioned the difference between male and female organs and reassured Yan Cen. Was it all nonsense?
“Yan Cen has a heart condition. Being born with such uniqueness has already subjected him to criticism. His thin and delicate arm, feminine appearance, and the extra heart make people in the countryside, who are not well-versed in medicine, mistake him for a pregnant woman dressed as a man. I can guess why he doesn’t want to see a Physician. What do you think he would believe if sudden, unbearable abdominal pain persists if it’s not due to poisoning?”
“Well…”
According to folklore and tales of supernatural beings, there are stories of men giving birth to children, but those are all about ghostly fetuses that drain the host’s flesh and blood in order to be born. Yan Cen used similar explanations, dreaming of a blood clot breaking through his abdomen.
This is just an excuse. Yan Cen’s true fear is that he will inexplicably give birth to a child.
Men cannot give birth.
Men cannot turn into women.
Women cannot conceive without engaging in sexual intercourse with men. But what if a man has both male and female organs? Yan Cen, lacking medical knowledge, grew more afraid as he contemplated it. Additionally, every time he visited a Physician, he was mistaken for a pregnant woman. It was impossible for him not to have a heart condition.
“Heart conditions are difficult to cure. Even if I were to tell him that he doesn’t have female organs, he would still have nightmares. It might be better to follow his line of thinking and tell him that his unborn sibling is a brother, not a sister,” Mo Li suggested.
Meng Qi listened thoughtfully. From Mo Li’s approach, it was clear that the Physician had concerns about revealing the truth, fearing it might trigger Yan Cen’s condition.
Though he had his own thoughts, Meng Qi didn’t show any sign of them. He smiled and said, “So, Physician, are you making it up, or did you genuinely determine the sex based on the length of the arm bones?”
“This is due to the fact that the twins did not fully develop inside the mother’s womb. I don’t need to determine it,” Mo Li replied confidently, without even looking up. “Have you ever considered, Meng, why some twins look completely identical while others have different appearances? What is the reason behind this?”
Meng Qi was stumped.
In fact, there is a misconception among people that twins always look exactly the same, but that’s not the case. Among Meng Qi’s old friends, there was a pair of brothers who were born at the same time to the same parents, but their heights and appearances were different.
Meng Qi thought to himself in frustration that if he had known his future beloved would be a Physician, he would have studied more medical books no matter what.
As the esteemed Court Scholar, the Grandmaster who was once hailed as someone who knew everything about the world, being repeatedly caught off guard like this was truly embarrassing.
On the other hand, Mo Li’s remark was just a casual statement, devoid of any smugness. Everyone has their own area of expertise, and there were certainly things that Mo Li might not be as familiar with as Meng Qi.
“Twins who have completely identical appearances are almost always siblings, while those who look different may be of the same gender or even fraternal twins,” Mo Li explained. “Master Qin, who traveled around the world, naturally examined the pulses of many pregnant women. Some twins showed clear signs from the beginning, while others did not. Some even had only one placenta detected by internal energy, but gave birth to two identical infants.”
“Yan Cen’s condition, like his, can only occur in twins who have completely identical appearances,” Mo Li continued, walking to the table with the medicine pot, sighing inwardly.
Born with differences, does that equate to a crime?
Among the patients observed by Qin Lu, none of them lived past the age of eight. While their conditions were certainly related to their physical differences, many were also drowned as monsters upon birth. But the case of Yan Cen, an adult with such a condition, was unheard of.
Author’s Note:
Conjoined twins are always identical twins.
Identical twins are of the same sex. If there is one male and one female, the female is infertile.
So, second-in-command, you really won’t be able to have children…
——————–
Servant: Have you heard? Today, Master Meng, who visited our residence, keeps a group of ghosts at his home! He uses these ghosts to gather secret information about the officials, both civilian and military.
Chubby Rat: …
I’m so scared that I dropped my pine nut.
Meng Qi regrets.
Meng Qi certainly didn’t intend to eavesdrop.
Just as he was about to enter the room, he suddenly heard the voice of Yan Chen coming from inside, causing him to pause.
Curiosity about Yan Chen’s situation was only natural, and it was an opportune moment to listen in.
If he were a true gentleman, he would have left on his own at this point.
Remaining silent was important, as disturbing the conversation inside would be impolite.
Whether intentional or unintentional, peeking into someone’s privacy while they were confiding in another person and expressing their trust was a rude intrusion. What kind of behavior would that be?
Meng Qi, although not a gentleman, wouldn’t engage in such actions.
Moreover, he had experienced accidentally overhearing conversations in corners too many times, so he didn’t feel much guilt in his heart.
— It’s all due to his true form causing trouble.
In the past, he always unintentionally overheard secrets. As a sand rat, what more could Meng Qi do besides hiding himself more securely? Should he transform back into a human form and tell those people that he was here first, and they shouldn’t have private conversations in secluded corners, putting him in a difficult position?
Meng Qi couldn’t do that. Over time, he had learned too many secrets.
Some secrets were not worth mentioning, such as who was being cuckolded or who didn’t like whom.
But there were secrets that were of great importance, such as betrayal and treason!
During the Chu dynasty, the Court Scholar was not actively involved in court affairs, yet few dared to provoke him, as Imperial Teacher Meng seemed to possess an uncanny ability to know what others didn’t and to understand what even capable individuals couldn’t comprehend.
He anticipated the enemy’s moves on the battlefield and had an unparalleled insight into human nature.
There were even rumors that Imperial Teacher Meng was skilled in the art of controlling ghosts and had a dozen servant ghosts by his side. Although he couldn’t kill someone from a thousand miles away with a flying sword, knowing what was happening a thousand miles away was as easy as turning his hand.
Once these rumors spread, the Bao Guo Temple in Taijing, where incense was most prosperous, was almost overrun by powerful and influential families.
People came seeking scriptures, seeking magical tools, and even requesting the return of Buddha statues to enshrine in their homes…
Some even went to Taoist temples to request peach-shaped talismans and hang copper mirrors. The seven paintings of “Zhong Kui Capturing Ghosts” by famous artists of the previous dynasty received great acclaim in Taijing. Not only were they sold at high prices, but they were also seen as substantial gifts to be presented on special occasions.
As the rumors grew, no one dared to speak to Meng Qi directly about these matters, but the fat rat could hear everything.
At that time, Imperial Teacher Meng took a liking to General Song’s garden.
It was designed to resemble the landscapes of the Jiangnan region, with artificial mountains made of Taihu stones. The rockeries are interconnected, with deep caves and passages connecting each other. Next to the rockeries was a lake, and the lakeside was covered in carefully selected white sand that extended all the way to the base of the rockeries.
General Song was also an old friend of Meng Qi’s and one of the founding heroes of the country.
Meng Qi had visited the garden once and fell in love with it. But because it belonged to a friend, he endured and endured. Finally, one day, when General Song invited everyone to his mansion for a feast and his old friends drank themselves into a stupor, Meng Qi pretended to be drunk and waited until the servants and maidservants retired before transforming back to his true form and sneaking out of the room. Taking advantage of the cover of night, he rolled around in the white sand by the lake several times.
During this time, a parrot hanging from the corridor of the waterside pavilion caught sight of the sand rat and let out a startled cry.
These beautiful birds had chains on their legs, fastened to exquisite bird stands.
They could flutter a few times but couldn’t fly away.
On the bird stands, there was food and water. Startled by the commotion, the parrot flapped its wings in a frenzy, causing a plump pine nut to fall from the sky and land on the fat rat’s head.
Clutching the pine nut and not knowing what to do, the fat rat suddenly saw a patrolling servant approaching with a lantern. The fat rat immediately hid in the hole it had just dug and listened to the gossip.
The sand rat’s mood was very complex. Holding the pine nut, it thought, what ghosts and monsters are they talking about? If all the world’s secrets could be buried in one’s stomach and not spoken aloud, there wouldn’t be so much trouble. Besides, it hadn’t been spreading the secrets it heard everywhere. It was simply that before the secrets were exposed, it had been cautious, and after they were exposed, it wasn’t particularly surprising.
Moreover, many things were not solely heard by the fat rat but were deduced. If this was what it meant to keep ghosts, then wouldn’t all those famous strategists in history have kept a group of ghosts?
Not to mention that Meng Qi was not a strategist in the Chu Imperial court.
To pacify the world and usher in a prosperous era… the fourteen founding heroes of the Chu Dynasty were not ordinary individuals.
There was the Duke of Jingyuan, a Confucian general with strategic wisdom and undefeated in battle, as well as the valiant general who stood above the three armies and could enter and exit enemy lines as if in an uninhabited place.
There was Prime Minister Deng, skilled in managing political affairs, as well as capable ministers who filled the national treasury within a few years through resource conservation and revenue generation.
Among them were also talented scholars who could eloquently write essays, their words causing enemy generals from the Chen Dynasty to die of anger on the battlefield. Even if the Chu Dynasty fell and turned into a handful of yellow soil, their ambitions, and their lives would be immortalized through the poems, essays, and strategies they penned, passed down through the ages.
Compared to them, Meng Qi was nothing special.
As his memories as the Imperial Teacher fully returned and he transformed into a fat rat twice, Meng Qi felt that there was nothing in this world that could surprise him anymore.
However, when he heard Yan Cen recount his background, his breathing skipped a beat.
It was because of this that he was discovered by Mo Li.
Otherwise, with Meng Qi’s transcendent temperament, blending into everything around him, even if he eavesdropped, no one would be able to detect him, not even the martial arts masters standing behind him.
Of course, Yan Cen’s martial arts were slightly inferior, so he didn’t hear it.
Now that Yan Cen had left, Meng Qi was caught in the act by Mo Li and could only sigh before entering the room.
“Physician, I…”
Before Meng Qi could apologize, Mo Li interrupted, “Don’t speak of this matter to anyone.”
Meng Qi naturally knew that the best way to keep a secret was to remain silent, but he still had questions in his mind.
Mo Li went to check the medicine pot on the stove. With his keen senses, Meng Qi didn’t miss even the insects in the corner. Once he confirmed there was no one eavesdropping, he approached the stove and whispered, “How did you know that Yan Cen fears turning into a woman?”
Mo Li glanced at him but remained silent.
Meng Qi endured the bitter smell of the medicine and moved closer.
“I feel that there’s something suspicious about Yan Cen’s identity. Do you think an ordinary Physician could identify his illness?”
Of course not, that’s why Mo Li asked Yan Cen if he had seen renowned Physicians.
If he could afford to consult renowned Physicians and sorcerers, his family’s conditions shouldn’t be bad.
“He said that after he was born, his father threw him to the ground. The servants or relatives in the family, out of gratitude to his mother, sent him away. So when he sought medical treatment, it must have been after he left home and entrusted himself to a high monk… and he also learned martial arts. Is it because the high monk was highly skilled, or because the people who sent him away were capable?”
Meng Qi had many doubts in his mind, but Mo Li remained noncommittal. For him, Yan Cen’s true identity was of no concern.
Meng Qi also realized this and couldn’t help but smile. “I apologize for my habit of analyzing someone when their identity seems suspicious.”
Seeing someone with a dubious identity made him want to analyze them.
Mo Li glanced at the medicine soup in the pot and whispered, “Meng, your illness hasn’t fully recovered. Don’t exert yourself too much.”
“On the contrary, I’m concerned that you’re working too hard,” Meng Qi replied.
Meng Qi thought that Yan Cen’s unique physique and the difficulty in prescribing medicine must have been occupying Mo Li’s mind. While a dedicated Physician treating patients is attractive, Meng Qi felt a slight reluctance to make the physician worry about other patients’ conditions.
“I’ve inquired a bit around Shimo Mountain stronghold, but there is no news,” Meng Qi said.
“No rush. People in the stronghold won’t divulge much in front of outsiders,” Mo Li replied.
Mo Li glanced at Meng Qi, who was on the verge of placing his hand on his waist.
So dishonest, not as honest as a sand mouse.
He would be much more settled if he were tucked inside the cup.
Mo Li moved aside slightly and began to calm the emotionally unstable patient.
“Yan Cen’s intestinal abscess is not difficult to treat, and it won’t strain me,” Mo Li assured him.
“But he has two sets of organs. Regarding the intestinal abscess, is it a single location or…” Meng Qi was interrupted by Mo Li, who shook his head and said, “He only has two hearts and three lungs. Other organs are the same as an ordinary person. There is no talk of two sets of organs.”
Meng Qi was stunned. He remembered that Mo Li had mentioned it differently before.
He had mentioned the difference between male and female organs and reassured Yan Cen. Was it all nonsense?
“Yan Cen has a heart condition. Being born with such uniqueness has already subjected him to criticism. His thin and delicate arm, feminine appearance, and the extra heart make people in the countryside, who are not well-versed in medicine, mistake him for a pregnant woman dressed as a man. I can guess why he doesn’t want to see a Physician. What do you think he would believe if sudden, unbearable abdominal pain persists if it’s not due to poisoning?”
“Well…”
According to folklore and tales of supernatural beings, there are stories of men giving birth to children, but those are all about ghostly fetuses that drain the host’s flesh and blood in order to be born. Yan Cen used similar explanations, dreaming of a blood clot breaking through his abdomen.
This is just an excuse. Yan Cen’s true fear is that he will inexplicably give birth to a child.
Men cannot give birth.
Men cannot turn into women.
Women cannot conceive without engaging in sexual intercourse with men. But what if a man has both male and female organs? Yan Cen, lacking medical knowledge, grew more afraid as he contemplated it. Additionally, every time he visited a Physician, he was mistaken for a pregnant woman. It was impossible for him not to have a heart condition.
“Heart conditions are difficult to cure. Even if I were to tell him that he doesn’t have female organs, he would still have nightmares. It might be better to follow his line of thinking and tell him that his unborn sibling is a brother, not a sister,” Mo Li suggested.
Meng Qi listened thoughtfully. From Mo Li’s approach, it was clear that the Physician had concerns about revealing the truth, fearing it might trigger Yan Cen’s condition.
Though he had his own thoughts, Meng Qi didn’t show any sign of them. He smiled and said, “So, Physician, are you making it up, or did you genuinely determine the sex based on the length of the arm bones?”
“This is due to the fact that the twins did not fully develop inside the mother’s womb. I don’t need to determine it,” Mo Li replied confidently, without even looking up. “Have you ever considered, Meng, why some twins look completely identical while others have different appearances? What is the reason behind this?”
Meng Qi was stumped.
In fact, there is a misconception among people that twins always look exactly the same, but that’s not the case. Among Meng Qi’s old friends, there was a pair of brothers who were born at the same time to the same parents, but their heights and appearances were different.
Meng Qi thought to himself in frustration that if he had known his future beloved would be a Physician, he would have studied more medical books no matter what.
As the esteemed Court Scholar, the Grandmaster who was once hailed as someone who knew everything about the world, being repeatedly caught off guard like this was truly embarrassing.
On the other hand, Mo Li’s remark was just a casual statement, devoid of any smugness. Everyone has their own area of expertise, and there were certainly things that Mo Li might not be as familiar with as Meng Qi.
“Twins who have completely identical appearances are almost always siblings, while those who look different may be of the same gender or even fraternal twins,” Mo Li explained. “Master Qin, who traveled around the world, naturally examined the pulses of many pregnant women. Some twins showed clear signs from the beginning, while others did not. Some even had only one placenta detected by internal energy, but gave birth to two identical infants.”
“Yan Cen’s condition, like his, can only occur in twins who have completely identical appearances,” Mo Li continued, walking to the table with the medicine pot, sighing inwardly.
Born with differences, does that equate to a crime?
Among the patients observed by Qin Lu, none of them lived past the age of eight. While their conditions were certainly related to their physical differences, many were also drowned as monsters upon birth. But the case of Yan Cen, an adult with such a condition, was unheard of.
Author’s Note:
Conjoined twins are always identical twins.
Identical twins are of the same sex. If there is one male and one female, the female is infertile.
So, second-in-command, you really won’t be able to have children…
——————–
Servant: Have you heard? Today, Master Meng, who visited our residence, keeps a group of ghosts at his home! He uses these ghosts to gather secret information about the officials, both civilian and military.
Chubby Rat: …
I’m so scared that I dropped my pine nut.
