The case was very simple.
The plaintiff was Zhang Dabao, on behalf of his family. They lived in Zhang Village, near the capital. When their third son fell ill the month before, he had gone to Daohe Apothecary to see the doctor in charge, who prescribed a dozen doses or so of medicine; but after the child had taken them, his condition had rapidly deteriorated. He had spent the previous night throwing up, and his parents could do nothing as they watched him wither away before their eyes. Zhang Dabao firmly believed the Baohe Apothecary’s physician to be a charlatan, so he’d brought his son, his wife, and three or four friends to block their doors, asking for an explanation. The doctor at Baohe Apothecary claimed that his prescriptions and medicine weren’t the problem; the child’s illness was simply beyond cure, and his family’s improper care had caused his condition to deteriorate. The owner of the apothecary maintained that the other party had deliberately come to cause trouble, planning to show up at the doors with a dying child they’d found somewhere to extort money from the shop.
Mrs. Zhang wiped her tears, crying out, “I’m an ignorant woman, but even wild beasts look after their young. Everyone in a ten-mile radius of Zhang Village knows that my third son is my favorite child. Use him for extortion? I just want my child to get better! And if he can’t, then I want this quack physician to pay with his life.”
“Preposterous!” Chief Lao Yang scolded. “Even for a death caused by malpractice, you must accept the compensation as stated by the law and nothing more. What kind of reasoning is that, a life for a life?”
“How much will they compensate?” Zhang Dabao asked weakly.
His wife furiously slapped him. “Heartless jerk!” she cursed, weeping. “My son isn’t dead yet!”
Zhang Dabao’s eyes were rimmed with red. “Stop putting on airs!” he pressed. “Don’t you know what our life is like? We’ve had drought upon drought, the harvest is ruined. We never know when our next meal will be. These two months of treatment have cost us all our savings for food. And now the doctors all say he won’t make it. Even if we both starve to death, we have to think of his older brothers and his sister!”
The two parents hadn’t waited for anyone’s input before they started fighting. Their friends hastened to intervene and calm them down.
The owner of the Daohe Apothecary walked up to Xia Yujin’s side, shaking his head. “See?” he said. “I told you these poor folks only wanted money.”
“There is no absolute guarantee to cure any ailment,” the physician claimed. “His son had a nasty disease to begin with. Whether the treatment is efficient or not is the heavens’ will.”
They made Xia Yujin’s already dizzy head feel even dizzier. He walked out to the sick child’s side, holding and examining his pale little face, taking his pulse.
Chief Lao Yang followed. “You can cure the sick too, Your Highness?” he asked pleasantly.
Xia Yujin glared at him. “How could I?” he snapped.
Then why the act? Cursing him out in his head, Chief Lao Yang set out to provide him with tried and true solutions to this kind of situation. “In cases like this one, we usually have another doctor look at the prescription and confirm whether or not the child can be saved. If it’s a genuine mistake, we mediate. If the patient’s accusation was malicious, we dole out corporate punishment. If the doctor is at fault, he offers financial compensation.”
The owner of the Baohe Apothecary was holding a few ingots of silver in his hands, wishing to settle the matter in the old fashioned way. But standing in front of him was the prince of Nanping, younger brother to Prince An, who managed the imperial merchants’ office, and husband to the Great General of the nation’s armies. Even if he lacked morals or common sense, he didn’t lack money. If the shop owner wished to bribe him or his staring subordinates in such a public place, he would bring ridicule upon himself.
Without bribery, the case had to be impartially handled.
“Have the other doctors come over,” Xia Yujin said. Then, after some thought, he added, “And some others. The Baohe Apothecary is a first-grade dispensary in the capital. Who knows if those doctors will abuse their position for personal gain.”
The inspectors, as per his orders, brought over four or five doctors. After examining the sick child and the prescription, they all nodded and said that both diagnostic and prescription were correct and appropriate. The attending physician of the Baohe Apothecary was very pleased when he heard it and arrogantly flicked his sleeves. “How could I have diagnosed him wrong? I’ve been a doctor for thirty years!”
The words sent Zhang Dabao into deep despair. Mrs. Zhang cried so much that she couldn’t speak.
A young physician in the crowd couldn’t bear to see them like this. “Since the diagnostic isn’t the problem,” he said, “won’t we check the medicine?”
At his words, Mrs. Zhang took out a small bag, with some black residue inside, and held it out. “Here are the dregs of the decoction. Will you look at it, sir?”
Xia Yujin hurriedly shrank back. “I’m not a doctor, why would I look at it? Hey! Don’t mind the medicine, first check if the child can be saved!”
The physicians looked at the residue of the medicine. Their opinions differed: some said they saw nothing wrong with it, others said it was a little unusual; some said the child could be saved, others that he couldn’t; in the end, it dissolved into a fight for their medical skills as they loudly refused to accept each other’s arguments.
“What are you shouting about?” the Baohe Apothecary’s attending physician roared. “What can be wrong with the medicine? Even if you get Meng Xingde here! He wouldn’t have anything to say about it!”
“Meng Xingde? Good idea,” said Xia Yujin, finally sobering up. He patted Chief Lao Yang’s shoulder. “Go to the Great Hospital, get Lao Meng and bring him back!”
Chief Lao Yang’s face paled. He didn’t move.
Meng Xingde was the most famous doctor in the Great Qin. He worked in the imperial palace; he was haughty and arrogant, and cared for no one except the members of the imperial family. Even if ordinary people wanted to see him, they may not necessarily be able to. And that was saying nothing of getting him there to treat a sick child and help an investigation.
“If I ask you to go, then go!” Xia Yujin said angrily.
“But…” said Chief Lao Yang, “the imperial physician…”
“… is just the imperial physician,” Xia Yujin said disdainfully. “Who does he think he is? I called for him! He’ll come!”
No matter how noble the imperial physicians looked to others, they were merely private servants to the Xia family. If the Empress Dowager’s favorite nephew ordered him to come, how could anyone have any misgivings?
Chief Lao Yang suddenly realized that since Xia Yujin had taken office, his own low status had changed accordingly. His position could not be measured by a simple rank anymore. Unable to hold back his delight, he said, “If the prince of Nanping says he is but a mere imperial physician, then it is so! I’ll fetch him quickly.”
A short while later, carrying his medicine chest on his back and accompanied by three or four imperial physicians, Meng Xingde rushed in, having pressed his sedan chair bearers to run as if they had wings. Disregarding the option to please the other doctors, he pushed everyone aside and stepped forward to nod and bow at Xia Yujin. “You are not in good health, Your Highness. Drink less alcohol.”
Mrs. Zhang stared fixedly as the most famous physician of the whole of the Great Qin came to examine her son. Zhang Dabao subconsciously touched his purse, where he thought there were still three or four copper coins.
Once Xia Yujin finished explaining the situation to Meng Xingde, he also gave Chief Lao Yang a few instructions.
“The prescription isn’t very useful, but suitable on the whole.” Meng Xingde sighed as he looked at him, shaking his head. “The child is weak, and there is slightly too much ephedra. The effects of the drug might be affected, but he should be able to endure it. Maybe he was exposed to a draft during the treatment, and suffered a cold? Which caused his condition to worsen?”
“If I let my child catch a cold, may the heavens strike me lightning!” Mrs. Zhang swore.
Xia Yujin leaned forward. “Can you save him?”
Meng Xingde placed a few acupuncture needles. “I’ll give him dried ginseng first, then prescribe another treatment. Take good care of him, and he should recuperate well.”
The biggest problem with imperial physicians was that they only cared about efficiency and not cost. When he read the bold strokes of the prescription, and its price which could make a healthy person go faint, Zhang Dabao sat down on the ground, breathing heavily. Not understanding, Mrs. Zhang clutched at her husband, weeping and pleading with him to save their son.
Zhang Dabao angrily slapped her. “I could tie you and your daughter together and sell you to a brothel, and I still wouldn’t be able to afford that treatment!” Then he begged Meng Xingde, “Doctor, can you swap the treatment for a cheaper one?”
Meng Xingde had lofty ideals on the art of healing. Showing his contempt for those poor people, he firmly refused to change the prescription.
Xia Yujin, bored, was playing with his fingernails. “Since the Baohe Apothecary wasn’t knowledgeable enough to treat the patient, they must naturally bear the responsibility,” he said. “Imperial Physician Meng honored us by his presence and showed them how to establish a good prescription. We’ll count the ingredients of the prescription as a tuition fee, so it’s only natural that they be the ones paying. Otherwise, I’ll overturn this shop plank by plank and check for any irregularities. It’s always nice to dredge up some ill-gotten gains. It pays for our tea, you see.”
The city censor’s investigators were all rough people. They would make a mess if they were to search the store; it would be another stress for the shop owner.
It shouldn’t have been a big deal, but the look on the shop owner’s face had become a little strained since Meng Xingde had arrived. When he heard the censor’s words, he had a moment of hesitation, then quickly nodded and bowed. “Exactly. It’s a doctor’s duty to help the dying and heal the injured. Let’s end this matter here. Let’s do what we have to do.”
Hearing his agreeing so readily, Xia Yujin leaned over with a smile, sizing up that fat face for a long time. “Everyone says you’re stingy and have a heart of stone,” he said, pretending to be curious. “That you drive out and beat up poor people who come here seeking help. Why such generosity today? Do you have a guilty conscience?”
The owner of the Baohe Apothecary hated him so much that he wished he could tear him apart with his teeth. “I am merely respecting the prince of Nanping’s orders,” he said with a mournful expression.
“Are you?” Xia Yujin suddenly gave him a sinister smile. “Are you respecting my orders, or selling fake medicine to my face? Since the death of your father last spring, you’ve been going out to dine, drink, gamble and whore! You never stop. I can see you every time I go out for a drink! I heard that you owe your boss some money, so you came up with a scheme. You specifically got some fakes and mixed it up with real medicine, to fool people out of their money. And though a few lives were lost, it’s all been settled by your older sister, who’s the concubine of the city magistrate,[1] hasn’t it?”
The owner of the Baohe Apothecary repeatedly cried out against this unjust accusation.
Xia Yujin scoffed coldly and snapped his fingers, pointing at the inner room.
The fact that Meng Xingde was currently out on a visit to a patient had attracted everyone’s attention. The investigators and the imperial physicians he’d brought over had already received their orders to quietly infiltrate the room, subdue the shop attendant, search the medicine cabinets, and carry out many of the ingredients to throw them outside, on the ground. Among those were sliced ginseng, lingzhi mushrooms, rhinoceros’ horns, and so on, which looked no different from ordinary medicine. After careful examination, however, it turned out that they were mixed with fakes untrained eyes could not discern.
The look on the face of the Baohe Apothecary owner twisted.
There was another commotion. Everyone looked at him with hatred in their eyes.
Xia Yujin, proudly imitating his wife’s imperious bearing, viciously kicked him in the chest, staggered back two steps, and found his footing again. “I just said he doesn’t look like a good person!” he said, flustered. “Why haven’t you seized this wretched thief already? He’s been charged with an ignominious crime by a just and fair official!”
The investigators hurried forward and grasped the shop owner, who was paralyzed on the spot.
“First a hundred hits with the heavy plank!” Xia Yujin righteously called out. “Throw him in jail! May his head fall come autumn!”[2]
Amidst the applause and cheering, Chief Lao Yang was crying out to the prince, who wanted to send people to fetch some bamboo staves, “Stop! The city censor has no authority over punishments, you have to let the city magistrate handle it, you can’t flog him…”
“Why can my wife chop people up, but I can’t?” shouted Xia Yujin. “Get out of here! I absolutely will flog this bastard to death today!”
“Stop! You’re beating the wrong person! Ah, my head!”
Everyone looked away…
The prince hadn’t actually sobered up yet, had he?
On the corner of the street, not far from the Baohe Apothecary, stood two figures shrouded in the shadows, watching the spectacle with great interest.
Qiu Laohu, who had been born poor, couldn’t help admiring it. “General, His Highness knows his stuff! He has a good heart, too.”
“Naturally,” said Ye Zhao.
“You don’t sound surprised, General. Did you know he was like this before?”
“I did.”
“General, His Highness has done a good job, no need to be worried.”
“I wasn’t worried,” said Ye Zhao. “I was just passing by.”
“But we’re going to the Ministry of Rites to discuss the arrival of the prince of Eastern Xia next month, right? The offices of the Ministry of Rites are on the western side of town, but we’ve circled around so much that we’re on East Street now. Are you sure you were really passing by?”
“Right,” Ye Zhao said.
“…”
Seeing several girls making eyes at the corner of the street and suspecting that his wife was tailing him, Xia Yujin fiercely marched over for a closer look, but when the soft wind fell back, Qiu Laohu stood alone in the alleyway, wide-eyed. Bewildered, he looked up at the roof and the treetops. “Your… Your Highness,” he stammered, “I was just passing by.”
Xia Yujin suspiciously looked around, but did not find any trace of Ye Zhao.
Qiu Laohu tried to look as naturally soldierly as possible, the muscles on the back of his hand popping up one after the other.
Looking at the dark and sour expression on his face, Xia Yujin’s heart felt something inexplicable.
Had the attention of the maidens of the capital shifted?
No wonder he didn’t seem as popular as before now that he was married…
The case was very simple.
The plaintiff was Zhang Dabao, on behalf of his family. They lived in Zhang Village, near the capital. When their third son fell ill the month before, he had gone to Daohe Apothecary to see the doctor in charge, who prescribed a dozen doses or so of medicine; but after the child had taken them, his condition had rapidly deteriorated. He had spent the previous night throwing up, and his parents could do nothing as they watched him wither away before their eyes. Zhang Dabao firmly believed the Baohe Apothecary’s physician to be a charlatan, so he’d brought his son, his wife, and three or four friends to block their doors, asking for an explanation. The doctor at Baohe Apothecary claimed that his prescriptions and medicine weren’t the problem; the child’s illness was simply beyond cure, and his family’s improper care had caused his condition to deteriorate. The owner of the apothecary maintained that the other party had deliberately come to cause trouble, planning to show up at the doors with a dying child they’d found somewhere to extort money from the shop.
Mrs. Zhang wiped her tears, crying out, “I’m an ignorant woman, but even wild beasts look after their young. Everyone in a ten-mile radius of Zhang Village knows that my third son is my favorite child. Use him for extortion? I just want my child to get better! And if he can’t, then I want this quack physician to pay with his life.”
“Preposterous!” Chief Lao Yang scolded. “Even for a death caused by malpractice, you must accept the compensation as stated by the law and nothing more. What kind of reasoning is that, a life for a life?”
“How much will they compensate?” Zhang Dabao asked weakly.
His wife furiously slapped him. “Heartless jerk!” she cursed, weeping. “My son isn’t dead yet!”
Zhang Dabao’s eyes were rimmed with red. “Stop putting on airs!” he pressed. “Don’t you know what our life is like? We’ve had drought upon drought, the harvest is ruined. We never know when our next meal will be. These two months of treatment have cost us all our savings for food. And now the doctors all say he won’t make it. Even if we both starve to death, we have to think of his older brothers and his sister!”
The two parents hadn’t waited for anyone’s input before they started fighting. Their friends hastened to intervene and calm them down.
The owner of the Daohe Apothecary walked up to Xia Yujin’s side, shaking his head. “See?” he said. “I told you these poor folks only wanted money.”
“There is no absolute guarantee to cure any ailment,” the physician claimed. “His son had a nasty disease to begin with. Whether the treatment is efficient or not is the heavens’ will.”
They made Xia Yujin’s already dizzy head feel even dizzier. He walked out to the sick child’s side, holding and examining his pale little face, taking his pulse.
Chief Lao Yang followed. “You can cure the sick too, Your Highness?” he asked pleasantly.
Xia Yujin glared at him. “How could I?” he snapped.
Then why the act? Cursing him out in his head, Chief Lao Yang set out to provide him with tried and true solutions to this kind of situation. “In cases like this one, we usually have another doctor look at the prescription and confirm whether or not the child can be saved. If it’s a genuine mistake, we mediate. If the patient’s accusation was malicious, we dole out corporate punishment. If the doctor is at fault, he offers financial compensation.”
The owner of the Baohe Apothecary was holding a few ingots of silver in his hands, wishing to settle the matter in the old fashioned way. But standing in front of him was the prince of Nanping, younger brother to Prince An, who managed the imperial merchants’ office, and husband to the Great General of the nation’s armies. Even if he lacked morals or common sense, he didn’t lack money. If the shop owner wished to bribe him or his staring subordinates in such a public place, he would bring ridicule upon himself.
Without bribery, the case had to be impartially handled.
“Have the other doctors come over,” Xia Yujin said. Then, after some thought, he added, “And some others. The Baohe Apothecary is a first-grade dispensary in the capital. Who knows if those doctors will abuse their position for personal gain.”
The inspectors, as per his orders, brought over four or five doctors. After examining the sick child and the prescription, they all nodded and said that both diagnostic and prescription were correct and appropriate. The attending physician of the Baohe Apothecary was very pleased when he heard it and arrogantly flicked his sleeves. “How could I have diagnosed him wrong? I’ve been a doctor for thirty years!”
The words sent Zhang Dabao into deep despair. Mrs. Zhang cried so much that she couldn’t speak.
A young physician in the crowd couldn’t bear to see them like this. “Since the diagnostic isn’t the problem,” he said, “won’t we check the medicine?”
At his words, Mrs. Zhang took out a small bag, with some black residue inside, and held it out. “Here are the dregs of the decoction. Will you look at it, sir?”
Xia Yujin hurriedly shrank back. “I’m not a doctor, why would I look at it? Hey! Don’t mind the medicine, first check if the child can be saved!”
The physicians looked at the residue of the medicine. Their opinions differed: some said they saw nothing wrong with it, others said it was a little unusual; some said the child could be saved, others that he couldn’t; in the end, it dissolved into a fight for their medical skills as they loudly refused to accept each other’s arguments.
“What are you shouting about?” the Baohe Apothecary’s attending physician roared. “What can be wrong with the medicine? Even if you get Meng Xingde here! He wouldn’t have anything to say about it!”
“Meng Xingde? Good idea,” said Xia Yujin, finally sobering up. He patted Chief Lao Yang’s shoulder. “Go to the Great Hospital, get Lao Meng and bring him back!”
Chief Lao Yang’s face paled. He didn’t move.
Meng Xingde was the most famous doctor in the Great Qin. He worked in the imperial palace; he was haughty and arrogant, and cared for no one except the members of the imperial family. Even if ordinary people wanted to see him, they may not necessarily be able to. And that was saying nothing of getting him there to treat a sick child and help an investigation.
“If I ask you to go, then go!” Xia Yujin said angrily.
“But…” said Chief Lao Yang, “the imperial physician…”
“… is just the imperial physician,” Xia Yujin said disdainfully. “Who does he think he is? I called for him! He’ll come!”
No matter how noble the imperial physicians looked to others, they were merely private servants to the Xia family. If the Empress Dowager’s favorite nephew ordered him to come, how could anyone have any misgivings?
Chief Lao Yang suddenly realized that since Xia Yujin had taken office, his own low status had changed accordingly. His position could not be measured by a simple rank anymore. Unable to hold back his delight, he said, “If the prince of Nanping says he is but a mere imperial physician, then it is so! I’ll fetch him quickly.”
A short while later, carrying his medicine chest on his back and accompanied by three or four imperial physicians, Meng Xingde rushed in, having pressed his sedan chair bearers to run as if they had wings. Disregarding the option to please the other doctors, he pushed everyone aside and stepped forward to nod and bow at Xia Yujin. “You are not in good health, Your Highness. Drink less alcohol.”
Mrs. Zhang stared fixedly as the most famous physician of the whole of the Great Qin came to examine her son. Zhang Dabao subconsciously touched his purse, where he thought there were still three or four copper coins.
Once Xia Yujin finished explaining the situation to Meng Xingde, he also gave Chief Lao Yang a few instructions.
“The prescription isn’t very useful, but suitable on the whole.” Meng Xingde sighed as he looked at him, shaking his head. “The child is weak, and there is slightly too much ephedra. The effects of the drug might be affected, but he should be able to endure it. Maybe he was exposed to a draft during the treatment, and suffered a cold? Which caused his condition to worsen?”
“If I let my child catch a cold, may the heavens strike me lightning!” Mrs. Zhang swore.
Xia Yujin leaned forward. “Can you save him?”
Meng Xingde placed a few acupuncture needles. “I’ll give him dried ginseng first, then prescribe another treatment. Take good care of him, and he should recuperate well.”
The biggest problem with imperial physicians was that they only cared about efficiency and not cost. When he read the bold strokes of the prescription, and its price which could make a healthy person go faint, Zhang Dabao sat down on the ground, breathing heavily. Not understanding, Mrs. Zhang clutched at her husband, weeping and pleading with him to save their son.
Zhang Dabao angrily slapped her. “I could tie you and your daughter together and sell you to a brothel, and I still wouldn’t be able to afford that treatment!” Then he begged Meng Xingde, “Doctor, can you swap the treatment for a cheaper one?”
Meng Xingde had lofty ideals on the art of healing. Showing his contempt for those poor people, he firmly refused to change the prescription.
Xia Yujin, bored, was playing with his fingernails. “Since the Baohe Apothecary wasn’t knowledgeable enough to treat the patient, they must naturally bear the responsibility,” he said. “Imperial Physician Meng honored us by his presence and showed them how to establish a good prescription. We’ll count the ingredients of the prescription as a tuition fee, so it’s only natural that they be the ones paying. Otherwise, I’ll overturn this shop plank by plank and check for any irregularities. It’s always nice to dredge up some ill-gotten gains. It pays for our tea, you see.”
The city censor’s investigators were all rough people. They would make a mess if they were to search the store; it would be another stress for the shop owner.
It shouldn’t have been a big deal, but the look on the shop owner’s face had become a little strained since Meng Xingde had arrived. When he heard the censor’s words, he had a moment of hesitation, then quickly nodded and bowed. “Exactly. It’s a doctor’s duty to help the dying and heal the injured. Let’s end this matter here. Let’s do what we have to do.”
Hearing his agreeing so readily, Xia Yujin leaned over with a smile, sizing up that fat face for a long time. “Everyone says you’re stingy and have a heart of stone,” he said, pretending to be curious. “That you drive out and beat up poor people who come here seeking help. Why such generosity today? Do you have a guilty conscience?”
The owner of the Baohe Apothecary hated him so much that he wished he could tear him apart with his teeth. “I am merely respecting the prince of Nanping’s orders,” he said with a mournful expression.
“Are you?” Xia Yujin suddenly gave him a sinister smile. “Are you respecting my orders, or selling fake medicine to my face? Since the death of your father last spring, you’ve been going out to dine, drink, gamble and whore! You never stop. I can see you every time I go out for a drink! I heard that you owe your boss some money, so you came up with a scheme. You specifically got some fakes and mixed it up with real medicine, to fool people out of their money. And though a few lives were lost, it’s all been settled by your older sister, who’s the concubine of the city magistrate,[1] hasn’t it?”
The owner of the Baohe Apothecary repeatedly cried out against this unjust accusation.
Xia Yujin scoffed coldly and snapped his fingers, pointing at the inner room.
The fact that Meng Xingde was currently out on a visit to a patient had attracted everyone’s attention. The investigators and the imperial physicians he’d brought over had already received their orders to quietly infiltrate the room, subdue the shop attendant, search the medicine cabinets, and carry out many of the ingredients to throw them outside, on the ground. Among those were sliced ginseng, lingzhi mushrooms, rhinoceros’ horns, and so on, which looked no different from ordinary medicine. After careful examination, however, it turned out that they were mixed with fakes untrained eyes could not discern.
The look on the face of the Baohe Apothecary owner twisted.
There was another commotion. Everyone looked at him with hatred in their eyes.
Xia Yujin, proudly imitating his wife’s imperious bearing, viciously kicked him in the chest, staggered back two steps, and found his footing again. “I just said he doesn’t look like a good person!” he said, flustered. “Why haven’t you seized this wretched thief already? He’s been charged with an ignominious crime by a just and fair official!”
The investigators hurried forward and grasped the shop owner, who was paralyzed on the spot.
“First a hundred hits with the heavy plank!” Xia Yujin righteously called out. “Throw him in jail! May his head fall come autumn!”[2]
Amidst the applause and cheering, Chief Lao Yang was crying out to the prince, who wanted to send people to fetch some bamboo staves, “Stop! The city censor has no authority over punishments, you have to let the city magistrate handle it, you can’t flog him…”
“Why can my wife chop people up, but I can’t?” shouted Xia Yujin. “Get out of here! I absolutely will flog this bastard to death today!”
“Stop! You’re beating the wrong person! Ah, my head!”
Everyone looked away…
The prince hadn’t actually sobered up yet, had he?
On the corner of the street, not far from the Baohe Apothecary, stood two figures shrouded in the shadows, watching the spectacle with great interest.
Qiu Laohu, who had been born poor, couldn’t help admiring it. “General, His Highness knows his stuff! He has a good heart, too.”
“Naturally,” said Ye Zhao.
“You don’t sound surprised, General. Did you know he was like this before?”
“I did.”
“General, His Highness has done a good job, no need to be worried.”
“I wasn’t worried,” said Ye Zhao. “I was just passing by.”
“But we’re going to the Ministry of Rites to discuss the arrival of the prince of Eastern Xia next month, right? The offices of the Ministry of Rites are on the western side of town, but we’ve circled around so much that we’re on East Street now. Are you sure you were really passing by?”
“Right,” Ye Zhao said.
“…”
Seeing several girls making eyes at the corner of the street and suspecting that his wife was tailing him, Xia Yujin fiercely marched over for a closer look, but when the soft wind fell back, Qiu Laohu stood alone in the alleyway, wide-eyed. Bewildered, he looked up at the roof and the treetops. “Your… Your Highness,” he stammered, “I was just passing by.”
Xia Yujin suspiciously looked around, but did not find any trace of Ye Zhao.
Qiu Laohu tried to look as naturally soldierly as possible, the muscles on the back of his hand popping up one after the other.
Looking at the dark and sour expression on his face, Xia Yujin’s heart felt something inexplicable.
Had the attention of the maidens of the capital shifted?
No wonder he didn’t seem as popular as before now that he was married…
