"Ashi, what are we going to do now? Mrs. Wuyin just sent someone to spread the word, saying that she asked you to see her after dinner tonight, and you are alone, and I am not allowed to go with you. Kuroko looked at me with a worried face.

"It's a good thing that she wants to see me, what are you doing with a bitter face?"

"I'm afraid ......"

"Afraid of what? Afraid that she will kill me while I am alone? ”

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Don't worry, as long as Prime Minister Qing doesn't die for a day, I don't expect her to have the guts. Both of you will go back for me first, and I will ask you for help later. ”

"We went back, what about you? It's still a few hours before dinner. ”

"I'm going to go around the mountains, and since I'm back, I have to meet the master first."

The courtyard of the kun hexagram is built on the slope of the northern part of the valley, and in late autumn the leaves fall, and the rugged mountain road is paved with layers of fallen leaves. Since the day I left Tianshu, Tianshu gossip and even the whole world have undergone earth-shaking changes, only this majestic Huashan, the mountain road under the feet is still the same as in the past, no matter the years, no matter the personnel. Gardenia, wheat winter, red peony, hook vine, comfrey, when I walked into the medicine garden of Yichen, countless memories came to my face.

"Master, I'm back."

The white medical dust stood in the center of the medicine garden, holding a rusty copper shovel in one hand and a handful of freshly removed weeds in the other. He heard my voice and turned his head slowly, and the old eyes on his ravine-ravined face were almost covered by drooping eyelids.

The doctor is old, and the years in the mountains can't stop a person's aging after all.

"Master, I'm Ah Shi, I'm back." I walked over to Yichen and took the weeds from his hands.

Yichen looked at me for a long time and didn't speak, and his cloudy eyes seemed to be a little confused.

"Master, don't you remember me? You're a pick! I couldn't help but feel nervous when I thought of those rumors about Yichen's old age's dementia, "I ruined your Qilin exhaustion, and let Wuxian feed you a thousand days of drunkenness, and you also sent me the Medicine Sutra and the Poison Sutra, have you forgotten?" I hurriedly pulled off my hairpin and draped it down, trying to make the old doctor remember what I looked like when I studied medicine with him.

Yichen glared at me angrily, and threw the copper shovel to me: "As soon as you come back, you will take the old man as a fool and punish you for pulling out all the weeds in this medicine garden before dinner, not only will you have no food to eat as before." ”

Yichen said harshly, but I shouted happily: "Oh my God, master, you are going to scare me to death." ”

"Afraid of what? I'm afraid that the old man will be confused and can't help you? ”

"Master, you are not old or confused, it is the apprentice who is stupid." I grinned and inserted the copper shovel into the soil, turned around and took off the burden behind me, "Master, I have found a lot of rare herbs in Chudi for more than half a year, and I brought some this time, can you see if there are any that can be used to dispense medicines?" Also, when I first came, I destroyed a large piece of your unicorn, and this time I brought fifteen yuan to compensate you, which is enough for you to use for three years and five years. Oh, and ......"

I spread the contents of the burden in front of the doctor in front of the doctor, and the old man stroked his long beard from the beginning to the end, and at the end he collected the childlike greed, and fiercely told me to pack it, saying that it was useless, and I would desperately slap him as soon as I entered the valley, and there must be something in trouble that I wanted him to help.

According to Ming Yi, Yichen is the old man of Tianshu and the old man of the Zhao family, and he and his family have served the head of the Zhao family for five generations before Tianshu was established. The duty of a retainer is to be loyal to the head of the family, and if the sons, fathers, and grandfathers of a family serve the same family, then their descendants must always be loyal to the family, and even the king has no right to make them rebel against the head of the family.

Loyalty, reputation, and family are more important things to many people than life, and Beru and Mingyi understand their significance, so in their opinion, Yichen is my most trusted and relied on ally in Tianshu. But I don't understand these things, I don't have a home, I don't have a family, I don't know how a man can be unreservedly obedient to someone's son or grandson because his father or grandfather is loyal to that person.

When Yichen was young, he was the personal physician of Zhao Ying's father Zhao Cheng, and after Zhao Cheng's death, he naturally became Zhao Ying's physician. It's just that Zhao Ying believes in witchcraft, and there are already people like Shi Mo who are skilled in witchcraft and medicine, so when he reaches middle age, Yichen is quickly snubbed by him. In the end, Yichen had to open up a small plot of land in the Zhao family, grow his own medicine, test medicine, and treat slaves who could not afford to ask for witches. In this way, twenty years in a flash. It wasn't until later that Little Manu introduced him to Berlu, who in turn recommended him to Tianshu.

During the period when Yichen fell out of favor with Zhao Ying, his originally famous family was also in the twilight of the West Mountain, and he no longer had prestige. Now, if he complains about Zhao Ying's indifference back then, how can he take the risk of helping me keep the Zhao family's foundation?

In the medicine garden, I took out a jade pendant that could represent the identity of the cadre master and showed it to Yichen, and tentatively explained to him the current predicament of the Zhao family. Yichen frowned from beginning to end and said nothing, I looked at his heavy expression, and the more I said the words in my mouth, the more I had no confidence.

"Master, that's all I want, can you help me?" I asked in a whisper.

"That's all?" Yichen asked.

"Well, that's all, the rest of the apprentices will arrange it themselves." I took a deep breath and waited for his final decision.

"Okay, it's not too early today, you go down the mountain first!" Yichen took the water cup from my hand and raised his hand to point to the exit of the medicine garden.

My heart slammed and I called out urgently: "Master! ”

"Let's go down the mountain early, don't call Wuyin to regret it again. After the sunrise tomorrow, you will go up the mountain again, and I will give you what you want. ”

"Master, did you promise me?" Surprised and delighted, I grabbed Yichen's hand.

"I'm not very old, but my ears are more than my old man's!" The doctor bent his waist and slowly moved out of the medicine garden.

I stretched out my hand to support him, and said with a humble heart: "Master, there are actually other things that the apprentice has to do. You've helped me fight against Wuyin this time, and if I mess up in the future, I'm afraid Tianshu won't be able to tolerate you anymore. ”

"Can't tolerate me? Hahaha, it's not easy for me to find a place to stay when I'm an old bone? Dig a pit and lie down in it for five hundred years. Yichen smiled and sent me all the way down the mountain.

"Master, don't send it, the apprentice will come to see you tomorrow." I said goodbye to the doctor and jumped down the dirt slope. At this time, Yichen, who was standing on the slope, suddenly stopped me: "Girl, you ...... Wait a minute! He squatted down tremblingly and tried to reach the end of the cane under the dirt slope, and when I saw this, I quickly stretched out my hand to stop him: "Master, don't come down, I'll just go up!" I hurriedly jumped up the dirt slope with my hands propped up.

"Tomorrow, at the beginning of the day, the master can come to Kungua to get what you ordered, but after the matter is completed, the old man also has a request, and I hope the master can agree." After I stood firm, Yichen suddenly raised his hand and saluted me respectfully.

"Master, what are you doing here? Just say whatever you want. I was stunned and hurriedly helped him up.

"Chen heard that the head of the family in the Zhao Mansion has been seriously ill and bedridden for a year, if the situation of Tianshu is stable after a month, I dare to ask the master of the cadre to leave Tianshu and enter Jiang for the treatment of the head of the family." Yichen broke away from my hand and saluted again.

Is he going to Xinjiang to see Zhao Ying? I thought he was going to hate him...... I looked at the goosebumps in front of me, the snow-covered medical dust, and my throat was blocked and I couldn't say a word for a long time.

"The old man had never studied witchcraft, nor did he know how to perform astrology, but he knew how to cure the sick and save people, how to administer medicine and detoxify. The head of the family is now seriously ill, and it is the best policy to ask for medical medicine in time. Since the age of fifteen, Chen has been planting medicines, testing medicines, and treating people's diseases, and has written five volumes of medicine scriptures in 60 years, and every prescription in the medicine scriptures can eliminate diseases and pain. If the head of the family can give me a chance this time, I will surely let him know that the magic of medicine is far superior to witchcraft. ”

"Master......" I looked at the pale medical dust in front of me, thinking of the witch doctor Ji in the Zhao Mansion who was going to use a chick dog to "move the omen" for Bolu, and I couldn't help but sigh in my heart. The magic of witchcraft is a void thing, and over the years, I have deceived the Jin people to respect me as a god son, relying on Shi Mo's eccentricity, the prescription of the doctor and a little slippery head of myself. Poor Yichen has been buried in his head for 60 years, and he has the medical skills of a living dead and white bones, but he can't ask for a chance to see a doctor for the head of the family.

"Master, leave this matter to me, you can start packing up the baggage of the trip now, and I will send you to Xinjiang in January."

After saying goodbye to the doctor, I ran and jumped down the mountain. When we arrived in the valley, although it was not yet dark, the lights were already lit up in front of the doors of the courtyards along the way, and in the courtyard separated by a wall, the pots and spoons were tinkling, as if it was time for dinner.

There's no time left, and I'm going to see the five tones in half an hour anyway!

I trotted back to the deserted trigram. There were no lights to guide the way, and there was no hot meal, so I couldn't boil the water because of the urgency of time, so I had to fetch two buckets of ice water to freshen myself up and down.

The water from the well in late autumn poured on my body was a bone-piercing pain, and I gritted my teeth to wipe the last drops of water on my body, and carefully put on the witch robe that Mingyi had given me. The blue-purple brocade is the base, the white silk embroidered with gold silk and cloud pattern is the edge, and the ink-colored dragon with more than one zhang long wraps around the waist from the hem and opens its eyes and sticks out its tongue, leading its neck to the sky. Trembling, shivering, my heart beating wildly is because of the cold? Fear? Or excited?

In the dim light, I held the plain pattern mirror with patina, and covered my sleepless fatigue for half a month with fat powder. Painting eyebrows, dyeing rouge, dotting red lips, the first time I dressed up since the wedding, it was actually for a woman, a woman who wanted to deal with me quickly.