The soft long hair was lifted by the night wind and gently brushed across the boy's cheek.
Wen Qingci's body temperature is slightly lower than that of ordinary people.
The instant touch not only brought a familiar bitter fragrance, but also an unfamiliar numbing feeling.
They both held their breath at the same moment.
The boy was in the process of growing taller, and his body was covered with a thin layer of powerful muscles.
I didn't feel any pain when I bumped into it, I just felt... dangerous.
Just like a lone wolf, watching him from behind.
The contact lasted only a moment, and Wen Qingci immediately stood firm.
Xie Bufeng placed his hand on his left arm, lending him strength to step out of the shaking boat - after stopping the bleeding last time, Wen Qingci often felt weak in this hand.
In the darkness, Xie Bufeng faintly heard a voice: "Thank you, Your Highness."
“… No problem.”
As he spoke, Xie Bufeng subconsciously held up his arm.
Wen Qingci was thinner than he had imagined.
Even through several layers of clothes, one could vaguely feel the shape of the bones and the cold body temperature.
Ice-like skin and jade-like bones, beautiful yet fragile.
At any moment, there is the danger of being broken.
Xie Bufeng knew that he had never known the seriousness of an incident because he was born without the sense of pain.
He didn't care about this at all in the past, but today he subconsciously slowed down his movements.
Even my breathing slowed down.
Wen Qingci didn't dare to look back. He walked out of the cabin quickly, even using some light skills.
Only when we boarded another ship did we breathe a sigh of relief.
"Mr. Wen, look, these are the herbs we collected." The official beside the second prince trotted over, and his words finally drew Wen Qingci's attention back.
The man held up a lantern, illuminating the small hill of medicinal herbs in front of him.
Wen Qingci frowned and looked forward.
"These two herbs are Astragalus and Atractylodes, both common medicinal herbs for preventing colds." He turned sideways and motioned Xie Bufeng to come over and take a look.
The boy nodded gently.
After saying this, Wen Qingci suddenly became quiet.
With her slender fingers, she gently pushed aside the outermost layer of Astragalus, took out a piece and held it in her hand.
Then he put it to the tip of his nose and sniffed it slowly.
At this moment, everyone on the boat focused their attention on Wen Qingci and subconsciously held their breath.
Several of them were the ones responsible for purchasing the medicinal materials this time.
"The astragalus is moldy." After a few seconds, Wen Qingci took it away from his nose and said lightly.
"The one in my hand isn't very obvious. Look carefully underneath. There should be something that has completely deteriorated."
As soon as he finished speaking, the people guarding here hurriedly followed his instructions, opened up the mountain of medicinal herbs, and took out those at the bottom.
It was different from the Astragalus in Wen Qingci's hand, which seemed to have no problems on the surface.
The astragalus pressed at the bottom of the medicine mountain has already grown black mold spots.
"This, this is indeed... just as Mr. Wen said." The person who brought Wen Qingci over lost all color on his face.
This time, there is no need to smell it; you can see the mold spots and obvious swelling on the medicinal materials with your naked eyes.
"Your Highness, you must be careful to check whether the medicinal materials are moldy, worm-eaten, or have oil loss in the future." Wen Qingci said as he picked out a few herbs with more obvious characteristics from the pile and showed them to Xie Bufeng.
Xie Bufeng couldn't help but frowned slightly.
He didn't know why Wen Qingci reminded him of these things. He only knew that the words of the people around him made his heart feel inexplicably empty.
Wen Qingci, who was concentrating on checking the medicinal materials, didn't notice that with every word he said, the expression of the person in charge of purchasing the medicinal materials became worse.
As they were talking, another small boat came over.
Xie Guanzhi, dressed in a dark purple brocade robe, jumped up without waiting for the wooden planks to be set up.
"What, have you reached a conclusion?" he asked his men.
Before the man could organize his words, Wen Qingci put down the astragalus, raised his eyes and replied: "This batch of medicinal materials are all expired."
When it comes to professional areas, he speaks very directly.
The official in charge of purchasing instantly had beads of sweat on his forehead.
At that moment, Xie Guanzhi's face turned ugly.
It may be understandable that some medicines have problems.
But this batch of drugs all had problems, so there was only one answer left - his own subordinates were enriching themselves and passing off inferior products as good ones.
Wen Qingci's words did not leave any room for recovery.
"You are so bold," Xie Guanzhi looked at the group of people coldly, "You get such a result the first time you do something serious? You are all really good helpers to me." His eyes were full of anger as he spoke.
If Xie Guanzhi hadn't wanted to alarm the emperor, he would have thrown these people into the canal one by one.
Seeing that the Second Prince was angry, those people immediately fell to their knees and begged for mercy.
Without even giving them a glance, Xie Guanzhi walked around them and quickly came to Wen Qingci's side.
He took a deep breath as if he had made up his mind, gritted his teeth and said, "This time when I buy medicine—"
From childhood to adulthood, the second prince has never begged anyone, let alone submitted to anything.
Having said that, he got stuck here, not knowing how to proceed.
Wen Qingci lowered his eyes and smiled, saying calmly: "I will rewrite a prescription, and Your Highness can buy new ones according to it. If you have any concerns, you can let me check the herbs one by one."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Second Prince's kneeling subordinate suddenly raised his eyes and looked deeply at Wen Qingci, then lowered his head again and looked at the floor.
"Minding other people's business, what? Have you finally realized that Xie Bufeng is useless and are trying to curry favor with the Second Prince?"
"Damn it."
His eyes were full of resentment and hatred.
If Wen Qingci hadn't interfered, he might have been able to get away with this matter.
Xie Guanzhi didn’t know much about medicinal herbs and could only identify those that were obviously spoiled.
At that time, I will just say that some of the medicinal materials have deteriorated and that I was cheated by the merchants.
But now, the world's miraculous doctor said with certainty that all the medicinal materials were expired and had problems, so of course Xie Guanzhi would choose to believe him.
Xie Bufeng, who was standing on one side of the cabin leaning against it, suddenly turned his gaze over.
Damn
The amber pupils were like knives, slashing towards the man's neck.
Finally, he slowly closed his eyes and smiled.
In the end, Xie Guanzhi still suppressed the matter.
In the early morning, he sent people to follow the prescription given by Wen Qingci and leave the canal to buy medicine from the towns along the way.
And his subordinates discovered that Wen Qingci was not joking when he said before. He stayed on the boat where the medicine was stored, checking the purchased herbs one by one, watching them put into the warehouse, and then packing them together according to the prescription.
Everyone on the boat was on edge that day.
Until a scream broke the silence on the boat.
"Something happened, something happened—"
The attendant who was in charge of carrying the medicine stumbled to the front of the cabin and shouted, "Someone jumped into the river out of fear of punishment!"
Then the boatman was seen using a long pole to pull the man's body out of the canal.
The second prince who was on the boat recognized the man at a glance - he was the one who bought expired medicinal herbs and knelt down to beg for mercy...
It's really unlucky that something like this happened while on patrol.
He quickly ordered: "Wrap it in a straw mat and send it ashore first. Keep a low profile and this matter must not reach His Majesty's ears." The young man's face was full of disgust.
"Yes, Your Highness." The subordinate responded quickly.
In this chaos, Xie Guanzhi saw that the back of the corpse's neck seemed to be dark purple.
He seemed to have been knocked unconscious and thrown overboard.
Thinking of this, the Second Prince felt a chill on his back, and then he subconsciously pursed his lips.
The situation today is special and we are unable to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.
On the surface, Xie Guanzhi could only treat it as a simple accident.
But the heart was tightly entangled at this moment.
This prince, who was used to being high and mighty, now had the illusion that he was just a prey.
In a trance, there seemed to be a pair of eyes, watching everyone here...
—
In the evening, stop the boat.
The accompanying trackers also stopped at the shore to rest.
A medicine ship sailed from the middle of the river to the shore.
The cabin was filled with inspected and packaged medicines.
"Come over here and get the medicine..." The second prince's attendant said loudly after getting off the boat, "Hurry up and distribute it. We'll boil it tonight!"
"Yes, sir!" The leading tracker hurried forward and led others to distribute the medicine.
After pulling the oars for a whole day, people were already exhausted and didn't even have the strength to walk.
His movements of taking the medicine seemed particularly heavy.
The servant looked around and suddenly his eyes fell on a corner not far away, then frowned.
"What's the situation with those people?" he asked.
The beach of the Yinchuan Grand Canal is full of gravel and mud.
There were several trackers lying on the shore, with only a thin coarse cloth sheet under them.
Several people were lying there motionless. If he hadn't coughed suddenly every once in a while, he would have thought they were corpses.
"Oh... they accidentally fell and choked on water," the leading tracker raised his eyelids and glanced over there and said, "After tonight, we will send them back home and replace them tomorrow." His face was full of numbness.
As soon as the words fell, someone suddenly asked: "Send it back home, then what?"
The man's voice was clear and soft, which was out of tune with the scenery here.
The tracker didn't think much and answered directly: "Lie down at home for two days. If you are lucky, you will get better naturally. If you are unlucky, you might even die." There was no fluctuation in his tone when he spoke.
Of course there is no cure for the disease.
To put it bluntly, going home means waiting to die and relying on luck.
Hearing this, the people on the boat couldn't help but frown slightly.
The tracker lying on the ground groaned in pain.
He tried to pull the bed sheet to cover himself with trembling hands, but his arms kept shaking and he couldn't lift anything.
The water in this section of the Yinchuan Grand Canal is full of mud, especially near the bank.
The trackers carried ropes on their backs and marched forward in the water in a line with difficulty.
After he fell down, the people around him were afraid that he would be trampled by the people behind him and did not dare to help him easily.
So the exhausted trackers could only rely on their own strength to struggle to roll out of the team, and then use the last bit of strength to stand up and head towards the shore.
Perhaps those who can lie here and be sent home are already lucky ones.
"Master Wen?!"
The second prince's entourage exclaimed, but before he could go over to stop him, the imperial physician in a moon-white robe had already walked down from the boat.
Soon after, Xie Bufeng also got off the boat.
"Please be careful, the ground is all muddy..." As he said this, the servant reached out to help Wen Qingci.
"No need." The imperial physician waved his hand to refuse.
The mud on the bank of the Yinchuan Grand Canal splashed onto Wen Qingci's clothes in an instant.
But he, who was a bit of a germaphobe, didn't even frown today.
Wen Qingci seemed not to notice the surroundings as he stepped on the mud and walked to the tracker lying on the ground.
Wen Qingci glanced at him, then turned to the people who had come down from the boat with him and said, "Help them up first and find a clean place to put them down."
“Yes…” The well-dressed servant lifted the man up reluctantly and placed him on the bluestone on the shore.
They didn't understand what Wen Qingci was going to do this time.
But this time, the doubts in my heart did not last long.
As soon as they put the person down, Wen Qingci also came over.
Then, something unexpected happened...
The imperial physician, dressed in moon-white, seemed not to notice the mud on the boat trackers' bodies.
He simply stretched out his fingers and gently pressed them against the other's wrist.
Is Wen Qingci taking the pulse of the boatman
This scene made all the servants who came with him stunned.
Who in Taishu Palace has not heard of the three words "Wen Qing Ci"
Everyone knew that he was highly regarded by the emperor, and his daily work was to diagnose the emperor's pulse and treat his illnesses.
Even though Wen Qingci was no longer an "imperial physician", he was already a third-rank Hanlin - a high-ranking official among high-ranking officials!
But today.
He actually treated these boat trackers? !
The person following Wen Qingci couldn't help but blink heavily to make sure whether the scene before his eyes was an illusion.
Although the servants had already placed the person on the large bluestone, Wen Qingci still couldn't avoid bending down when taking the person's pulse.
The moon-white top that was originally spotless was now covered in mud.
But this not only did not make him embarrassed, but made the cinnabar between Wen Qingci's eyebrows even more dazzling.
He was like someone who had walked down from heaven.
This whole scene fell into Xie Bufeng's eyes.
In a trance, the young man actually felt that... even the endless waves of the Yinchuan Grand Canal seemed to have calmed down a little along with Wen Qingci's movements.
The imperial physician did not slack off in the slightest because of his patient's humble status.
After carefully taking the patient's pulse, Wen Qingci took out a wooden stethoscope from the medicine box and placed it on the patient's chest and lungs - this was a stethoscope he made himself.
After listening carefully for a while, he finally put the things in his hand back into the medicine box, and then quickly wrote the prescription.
From beginning to end, Wen Qingci didn't say a word.
Although the boat trackers were still unclear about his specific identity, this did not prevent them from seeing Wen Qingci's intentions.
"Ahem... Mr. Imperial Physician," one of the boat trackers who was in a better condition tried to speak, "No, ahem... There's no need to bother."
Hearing this, Wen Qingci finally put down the pen in his hand: "Why?"
He couldn't help but purse his lips, and the usual smile on his face disappeared at some point.
Although the trackers do not understand "medical skills" or "first aid", they have common sense and experience accumulated over the years.
After the trackers reached shore, their companions immediately squeezed most of the water out of their lungs.
Surgery is not possible in this era, but the medicines prescribed by Wen Qingci are all for clearing the lungs and preventing infection. As long as you take them well, you don't have to wait to die as they say.
After hearing Wen Qingci's question, the boatman who had just spoken couldn't help but laugh a few times, then said with a cough in a somewhat helpless tone: "Ahem... Ahem, you wrote this prescription, and I, we can't afford it either."
Wen Qingci's hand holding the pen paused.
After he traveled through the book, the people around him were all dignitaries.
To the point that Wen Qingci almost forgot that most people of this era could not afford medical treatment or medicine.
"It doesn't matter," Wen Qingci picked up the pen again, smiled faintly and said, "I'll write down a few more names of medical clinics, and you can go directly to get the medicine with the prescription."
—He wrote down the names of several pharmacies in the Valley of Divine Medicine.
The original owner did the same thing when he was studying water plague.
Wen Qingci's words not only stunned the trackers lying on the rocks, but also made everyone around him look at him.
There was an instant of silence here.
"Okay, just go to the place I wrote to get the medicine... It will be the same if you encounter a situation like this again." Wen Qingci handed the prescription in his hand to the leading tracker.
The boatman, whose face was numb just now, began to tremble uncontrollably the moment he took the prescription.
"—I would like to thank the imperial physician for his great kindness!" After saying this, he knelt on the ground with a plop.
It was not until his knees were scratched by the stones on the ground that he was sure that what he saw was not a dream.
There really was an imperial physician from the palace who came to treat these boat trackers!
He even paid for the medical expenses.
Thinking of this, the tracker immediately kowtowed.
As a modern man, Wen Qingci is never used to being polite.
Seeing this, he quickly stepped back half a step and asked someone to help the trackers on the ground up.
But he was not the only one who heard Wen Qing's words.
Seeing that everyone was about to salute him, Wen Qingci quickly gave a few more instructions, then turned around and got on the boat and entered the cabin.
The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the river.
The moon-white figure, like a god descending from the earth, blended into the twilight.
It was not until he sat in the boat that Wen Qingci realized belatedly that the moment he entered the boat, he subconsciously held the hand that Xie Bufeng extended to him.
"Your Highness, are your clothes dirty?" Wen Qingci frowned and looked at the young man with a little apology.
Unexpectedly, Xie Bufeng just stood there and looked at him silently.
After a few seconds, the boy suddenly asked: "Why do you want to help them?"
Wen Qingci couldn't help but pause.
As a medical student, he couldn't just stand by and watch someone die.
From the beginning to the end, it seemed that the option of "not saving" had never occurred to him.
In addition, Wen Qingci also believed that if the person standing here today was the original owner, he might do the same.
—The thick stack of notes on water plague left by the original owner were a summary of his many years of medical experience.
In order to write down the notes, he didn't know how many ordinary people he saved.
At the same time, a number of corpses were dissected.
The golden afterglow shone through the boat window onto Wen Qingci's body.
He narrowed his eyes, lowered his eyes and smiled: "The Qihuang Dao is equal, just like life and death are equal."
"Today I am interested in their illnesses, so I am helping them. It has nothing to do with their status. Whether they are high-ranking officials or common people, they are just patients in my eyes."
Wen Qingci's tone was exceptionally frank.
After saying that, he smiled and looked at Xie Bufeng.
In an instant, Xie Bufeng suddenly understood a problem -
Everyone in this world has got the cause and effect of Wen Qingci wrong.
Wen Qingci cured diseases and saved lives without seeking any "profit".
What he wanted was to "cure diseases and save lives" itself.
Wen Qingci is the only "strange" person Xie Bufeng has ever met in his life.
If it were a few months ago, the young man living in the Suzhou Imperial Mausoleum would definitely be disdainful of this and even think he was stupid.
But at this moment... Xie Bufeng couldn't help but be attracted by the person in front of him.
Just like a seed buried deep underground, it also wants to break through the shackles of the soil, struggling upwards to see the sun.
The boat swayed and gently moved towards the center of the river.
Wen Qingci was so busy with the medicinal materials that he hardly slept the entire day.
He was so tired that he couldn't help but lower his head and cough a few times.
And Xie Bufeng's heart actually sank with these coughs.
The cold wind blew in through the open cabin door.
As if possessed by a ghost, Xie Bufeng took two steps to the side, blocking all the cold wind from the Yinchuan Grand Canal behind himself.
Seeing this, Wen Qingci subconsciously looked up and looked towards Xie Bufeng.
The glow of the sunset and the ripples on the canal all filled Wen Qingci's eyes.
Lighting up those dark eyes.
At the same moment... the words that Wen Qingci said not long ago suddenly appeared in Xie Bufeng's mind.
"Loving the same sex is not a pastime or entertainment, but something we are born with..."
Wen Qingci's words are like a spell.
It has been lingering in Xie Bufeng's mind.
But the boy, who had always been daring and reckless, never dared to think about it.
Until this moment, I was awakened by these eyes.
A crazy and absurd idea suddenly occurred to him:
Men and men can also be together.
So... what about Wen Qingci
Will he be with men
The next moment, Xie Bufeng suddenly clenched his teeth and looked away.
The boy who lives in the voice of disgust can't help but think -
Wen Qingci is devoted to medicine. If he knew what he was thinking just now, he would definitely be disgusted by his dirty thoughts at that moment.
"What's wrong, Your Highness?" Wen Qingci saw that something was wrong with Xie Bufeng and couldn't help but ask.
"I'm fine." After saying this, Xie Bufeng quickly walked out of the cabin and stood outside.
The cold wind blew, chilling him to the bone, but it did not take away the momentary madness in the boy's heart.
It even made him think...
Wen Qingci only spoke those words to himself.
And only I can see such elegant words.
(End of this chapter)