Pei Cijing endured it for over a month.
Inside the Jing'an Courtyard.
Faint soothing incense burned in the bronze censer inside the room. Curling wisps of blue smoke filled the air, giving the entire room a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere.
Shen Ninghuan sat on an embroidered stool by the window, holding a plain white handkerchief, carefully embroidering an orchid.
Cheng Lu sat opposite her, also holding a needle and thread, her head bowed in deep concentration as she embroidered.
Sunlight fell upon the two of them.
It gilded their faces with a faint golden rim.
Shen Ninghuan looked up at Cheng Lu, the corners of her lips curving up slightly with a touch of gratification in her eyes. The effort of the past month or so had not been in vain.
When she first arrived, even Cheng Lu's posture for holding the needle was wrong.
She gripped it tightly, like holding a pen, as if wanting to stab the needle through the cloth and nail it dead. The very first flower she embroidered was crooked and twisted, looking like a caterpillar that had been stepped on.
Looking at it now—
Though the stitches weren't considered fine and dense, they were much smoother. The half-embroidered plum blossom, while its petals weren't round enough, could barely be recognized as a plum blossom and not a furball.
Shen Ninghuan thought of her close best friend, Jiang Tian.
That eldest miss could embroider mandarin ducks into two big fat ducks, and sew a purse into a handbag, even arguing plausibly, "This is a new style, you just don't know how to appreciate it."
Compared to Jiang Tian...
Even though Cheng Lu was a beginner, this level was already considered quite good.
"Sister, your needlework has greatly improved these past few days," Shen Ninghuan said gently, her tone carrying a genuine touch of praise.
Cheng Lu raised her head, a hint of uncertainty on her face. "Really?"
Shen Ninghuan smiled and nodded. "Of course it's true. Needlework isn't something that absolutely must be exquisitely crafted. Being able to embroider a recognizable shape and tell good from bad is enough. After all—"
She paused, a teasing smile surfacing in her eyes.
"It's not as if everyone in this world is an embroidery maid. Take a close childhood friend of mine, for instance; if you let her hold a needle, she could prick her fingers into a sieve."
Cheng Lu couldn't help but curve the corners of her lips. She knew Shen Ninghuan was comforting her.
But she appreciated this comfort.
Over the past month or so, this second sister-in-law had truly treated her with meticulous care.
Clothing, food, housing, and transportation—everything was arranged perfectly. Every afternoon, without fail, she would come to accompany her, teaching her needlework, teaching her how to apply makeup, and teaching her all those feminine matters she should have learned from childhood but never had the chance to.
From her initial unfamiliarity and clumsiness to her current gradual improvement.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Cheng Lu would sometimes even fall into a daze. Was that woman with gentle features and exquisite makeup really her?
"Speaking of which," Shen Ninghuan put down the embroidered handkerchief in her hand and carefully studied Cheng Lu, "Sister's makeup today is even more natural than the past few days."
Compared to needlework, makeup and styling were Shen Ninghuan's main focus.
After all, knowing a person starts with knowing their face. Getting to know someone often begins with their face, looking at their features, and only then moving on to their height, posture, voice, behavior, personality, and way of handling things.
Therefore, makeup appeared exceptionally important.
Through a series of outlining and painting, adjusting the proportions of facial features, and matching with different hairstyles and clothing, one's whole person could be completely refreshed. Cheng Lu couldn't wear a veil to see people all the time, and Shen Ninghuan couldn't help her with her makeup every single time, so she had to become proficient in this skill.
Looking at it now, Cheng Lu still had talent in this area.
She learned quite well!
Cheng Lu also straightened up and looked at herself in the mirror.
Her eyebrows were lightly drawn, curved with a natural arch; the corners of her eyes were shaded with shallow rouge, faint and barely there, yet it added a touch of feminine charm to those originally clear eyes. Her lips were dotted with a bit of red rouge, neither thick nor bright, just moist, like petals kissed by morning dew.
This face.
Compared to the face she had when she was a prince for sixteen years, it clearly had the same features and the same contours, yet through a bit of dressing up, it looked like a completely different person.
"Sister Huan..." Cheng Lu spoke softly, her gaze still falling on the mirror. "You've worked hard these past few days."
Shen Ninghuan smiled and shook her head. "What are you saying? We are sisters of the same family, there's no need to be polite."
Sisters of the same family.
Cheng Lu silently chewed on these words in her heart.
During her sixteen years in the palace, she had also felt the warmth of a family. The Empress had treated her as her own, her Sixth Brother had protected her like a treasure, and as for her twin sister, the bond between them went without saying.
And here...
In this small Jing'an Courtyard, in front of this second sister-in-law, she also experienced the warmth of a home. She seemed no different from before—still a younger sister, someone treated with sincerity, and someone who could still find people to rely on.
"Sister Huan," Cheng Lu raised her head and looked at Shen Ninghuan, her gaze carrying a bit of solemnity. "In three days, Imperial Physician Hua will come to the manor to give me... treatment."
Shen Ninghuan looked at her, looking at the calmness, the certainty, and the faint, irrepressible expectation in those clear eyes.
She reached out.
And gently held Cheng Lu's hand.
That hand was slender and slightly cool, yet steady, without the slightest tremble.
"Rest assured, sister, everything is ready on my end," Shen Ninghuan said warmly, her tone soft yet firm. "Imperial Physician Hua is the head of the Imperial Academy of Medicine. His medical skills are superb, and nothing will go wrong. Besides—"
She paused, a trace of a smile flashing in her eyes.
"Besides, you've also seen the medical manuscripts from a few days ago. They will definitely lend Imperial Physician Hua a helping hand."
Cheng Lu was slightly startled.
She remembered a few days ago when Shen Ninghuan came to the Jing'an Courtyard, holding a thick stack of paper manuscripts. At that time, she asked what it was, and Shen Ninghuan only smiled and said, "It's something prepared for Imperial Physician Hua."
She had looked at them too.
Those manuscripts were packed full of content regarding her condition. It not only included the causes and different symptoms but also how to treat it and how to fully recover.
The content was extremely detailed and accurate.
She had also greatly broadened her horizons. With the research of these predecessors, coupled with Imperial Physician Hua's medical skills and his experience honing his craft in the castration house, restoring her true self shouldn't be a problem.
Cheng Lu lowered her eyes.
A hundred thoughts swirled in her mind.
She knew that in this Marquis's manor, there should only be a few people who knew her true identity.
The first was that Second Young Master Pei, Pei Cijing, whom she had initially thought was "not too smart."
According to her Sixth Brother, it was this person who pointed out her condition at the flower-viewing banquet. He must have seen her condition in a medical book, which was how he saw through her female identity. This led to her subsequent feigned death, escape, and change of name and surname. Her Sixth Brother said he was "perceptive and hid his depths well."
But every time Cheng Lu saw Pei Cijing, all she saw in those bright eyes was a bit of aloof laziness, and a bit of... clear stupidity?
That look in his eyes.
It didn't seem faked.
But if it really was faked...
Cheng Lu nodded secretly in her heart. Then this person was probably truly someone of great wisdom who appeared foolish.
The second person was Sister Huan right in front of her. She was Pei Cijing's wife, of one mind and body with him.
Over the past month or so, she had personally taken care of her, providing for her every need in clothing, food, housing, and transportation.
It was she who came to Jing'an Courtyard on time every afternoon, teaching her needlework and makeup hand in hand; it was she who used those seemingly casual chats to little by little fill her understanding with women's matters she had never encountered before.
Everything she needed and asked for was personally handled by her.
It was impossible for her not to know her true identity.
Previously giving the hand-copied medical book to Imperial Physician Hua, and now bringing it out in the open by saying "prepare for treatment," meant laying everything out in the open without any more concealment.
Thirdly, it should be the Old Madam.
Sixth Brother didn't seem to say it explicitly, but after her "passing," the Empress Mother arranged for her to be sent into the Marquis's Manor. With the Old Madam's experience and methods, it was impossible for her to be completely unaware.
But the Old Madam never came to Jing'an Courtyard.
She merely had someone pass on a message, saying "recuperate well, just say if you need anything."
Cheng Lu knew this was the Old Madam's sense of propriety.
Not asking!
Not disturbing!
That was the best protection!
Because her identity was merely a younger generation relative seeking refuge in the Marquis's Manor, ordering her to be well taken care of was already a sign of importance. If she kept her close at all times, it would cross the line and easily attract attention.
As for the others...
Cheng Lu raised her eyes, her gaze falling on the wisteria trellis outside the window. The flower spikes had withered, leaving only a trellis full of yellowing leaves swaying gently in the breeze.
Up and down the Marquis's Manor, they only treated her as a distant cousin, a pitiful girl who came to recover from an illness.
She had to continue acting.
In front of the Old Madam, the Second Branch family, and the maids and old servants who occasionally passed by—she had to continue being that frail, quiet, and dutiful "Cheng Lu."
But here in Jing'an Courtyard, in front of Sister Huan...
Cheng Lu's lips curled up slightly.
Perhaps, she could relax a bit.
"Sister Huan," she spoke softly, her voice carrying a rare sweetness, "tell me, in three days when Imperial Physician Hua comes, will the treatment... hurt?"
Shen Ninghuan looked at her.
Looking at her slightly lowered face, which carried a bit of cautious anticipation and unconcealable anxiety.
She reached out and gently pulled Cheng Lu into her arms.
"It will hurt." She didn't lie to her, but her tone was as gentle as coaxing a child. "But after the pain, it will never hurt again. From now on, you can gradually show your face outside, live openly as a woman, wear the most beautiful dresses, wear the most exquisite hairpins, and you can—"
She paused, her voice softening even more.
"You can live with dignity, exactly as you wish to be."
Cheng Lu leaned into Shen Ninghuan's embrace, her eyes suddenly growing hot. She lowered her head, burying her face in Shen Ninghuan's shoulder without speaking, but her slightly trembling shoulders betrayed her surging emotions.
Outside the window.
The sunlight was just right.
A gentle breeze blew past, making the trellis of green leaves rustle.
...
Meanwhile.
The Imperial Palace.
The Purifying House.
Hua Yuan stood before the old wooden table that had been used for who knows how many years, slowly turning the thin blade in his hand over the charcoal fire. The blade had been heated to a faint red, the leaping flames casting flickering shadows on his face.
Today was the last day.
Lying on the bed.
This was also the last child who would pass through his hands, and Hua Yuan suddenly felt a bit emotional.
Over the past month or so, no less than seventy or eighty children had passed through his hands.
For every single one, he had used Mafeisan, used golden needles to pierce acupoints to stop bleeding, and used top-grade wound medicine. For every single one, he cut meticulously, sewed meticulously, and bandaged meticulously.
The result was—
Over the past month, all the children who passed through his hands survived.
Not a single one died.
In the history of the Purifying House, this was unprecedented.
After the news spread, the way the eunuchs in the palace looked at him changed.
Whether they were familiar or not, whether they knew him or not, whenever they saw him, their eyes carried an indescribable... reverence?
Hua Yuan remembered a few days ago, an old eunuch who served before the Emperor deliberately took a detour to the Purifying House just to bow to him.
"Imperial Physician Hua," the old eunuch said, his voice shrill but very solemn, "this skill of yours has accumulated great virtue for us rootless people."
Hua Yuan merely smiled at the time and said nothing.
But he knew clearly in his heart.
These children were able to survive not because his medical skills were so brilliant.
It was because the medicine was good.
It was the Mafeisan, the wound medicine, the medicinal materials that only noble people could usually use.
And all these medicines.
Were tacitly approved by the Empress.
Hua Yuan took the blade away from the charcoal fire and examined it closely against the light. The blade reflected his face, with half-white hair and beard, his brows and eyes carved with the traces of time, yet also carrying a satisfaction that others couldn't understand.
Over this past month.
He had performed over seventy or eighty surgeries.
He treated every single case as practice for the major surgery for the Ninth Prince.
The angle of the hand, the force of the knife, how deep to cut, how tightly to stitch, stopping the bleeding quickly, bandaging steadily—
These experiences, which normally would take countless years to accumulate, he had repeatedly practiced, pondered, and refined in just over a month.
Now, his technique was as steady as could be.
Even with his eyes closed, he could accurately find the location of the lesion, avoid those fatal blood vessels, and cleanly cut out everything that needed to be cut in one go.
Hua Yuan took a deep breath.
Hand raised—
Knife fell.
The movement was clean and neat, without a bit of excess.
Excision, hemostasis, suturing, bandaging.
All in one breath.
When he straightened up from beside the child and let out a long breath, the eunuch at the door walked over.
The eunuch was young, in his early twenties, with a fair complexion. He was the very person who had been "supervising" him for the past month.
At first, the way the eunuch looked at him was arrogant, contemptuous, carrying a bit of amusement at watching a good show.
Later, it gradually turned into astonishment.
Then, it became complex.
Now—
The eunuch walked up to him, cleared his throat, and took out a roll of bright yellow silk from his sleeve.
"Hua Yuan, receive the decree—"
Hua Yuan was slightly startled, and then knelt down.
The eunuch unfurled the silk, his shrill voice echoing in the Purifying House: "By the Empress's decree: The Head of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, Hua Yuan, lacking in medical skill and delaying the Ninth Prince's treatment, is punished by being sent to the Purifying House as a warning to others. Now that a full month has passed, Hua Yuan has sincerely repented, strictly fulfilled his duties, and won the deep praise of the palace servants."
"He is hereby pardoned and reinstated to the Imperial Academy of Medicine effective immediately, retaining his position as Head. Respect this."
Hua Yuan bowed deeply: "This subject thanks the Empress for her grace."
The eunuch put away the silk, stepped forward, and personally helped Hua Yuan up.
"Imperial Physician Hua," he said with a smile, though his tone was somewhat complex, "congratulations. A month of hardship has finally come to an end. Once you return to the Imperial Academy of Medicine, you will still be the Head, still the national physician serving the nobles. This fortune of yours is something others cannot envy."
Hua Yuan stood up, patted the dust off his knees, and smiled slightly.
"Thank you, Eunuch, for your care these past days."
The eunuch waved his hand, but his gaze fell on the few children being carried out, a trace of complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
"Imperial Physician Hua," he suddenly lowered his voice, his tone tinged with deep emotion. "Your skills are truly... unparalleled. For over a month, not a single child who passed through your hands has died. Word of this has spread throughout the entire palace."
"Those little brats have incredibly good luck."
"To be here while you are stationed in the Purification Room, to have access to such fine medicine, to... sigh."
He let out a sigh and said no more.
But Hua Yuan understood. This attendant had also entered the palace through castration, yet back then, no one had given him an anesthetic brew for the pain, nor applied premium salves for his recovery.
Hua Yuan looked at him, his eyes flickering slightly.
"Eunuch," he spoke softly, "everyone has their own destiny."
"Those children are indeed fortunate to have met with this timing. But aren't you currently serving right by Her Majesty the Empress's side? That is a position others can only envy."
The attendant paused for a moment, then smiled.
"You are absolutely right, Imperial Physician Hua." He cupped his hands in a respectful salute. "Then allow me to escort you out of the palace. In the future, I will still need to rely on your care and guidance."
Hua Yuan smiled and nodded.
The two of them walked out of the Purification Room, one following the other.
The moment he stepped past the courtyard gate, Hua Yuan glanced back.
The small courtyard with its blue bricks and gray tiles stood quietly in the afternoon sunlight. The old, crooked locust tree remained there, its branches and leaves sparse, yet stretching outward with stubborn vitality.
Over a month.
He had stayed here for over a month.
In the eyes of outsiders, this was a punishment, a humiliation, a period of unspeakable suffering. Not only was he doing dirty work, but it was also a stain on his karma.
But Hua Yuan knew clearly in his heart—
This had been the most fulfilling and rewarding month of his forty years of practicing medicine.
Those children were lucky to have encountered him.
But what about him?
The corners of Hua Yuan's lips curled up slightly.
He was also lucky to have encountered these children.
If not for this, where else could he have found so many opportunities for hands-on practice? Where else could he have turned all those theoretical concepts on paper into reality? Where else could he have accumulated the experience of dozens of surgeries, honing his techniques to absolute perfection?
You are not the fish, so how can you know the joy of the fish?
Others saw him as being punished, but he...
He reveled in it.
"Imperial Physician Hua?" Seeing him stop, the attendant turned back and called out.
Hua Yuan withdrew his gaze and stepped forward.
"Let us go," he said. His voice carried a touch of relief, a hint of satisfaction, and an underlying meaning that others could not comprehend.
The two figures gradually faded into the distance along the narrow palace corridor.
Behind them, the courtyard gates of the Purification Room slowly closed.
With a muffled creak.
It severed the world inside from the world outside.
Meanwhile, Hua Yuan's aged silhouette, treading through the afternoon sunlight, walked step by step toward where he was truly meant to be. It was finally time to make his move!
