Chapter 18
The head of the Xiao Family Estate.
His name was Xiao Cheong-ja.
He was none other than Miss Xiao Yanli’s father, and the de facto employer of all of us servants.
For the record, I had never even seen his face before. That was because the head of the estate had been away somewhere else ever since I entered the Xiao Family Estate.
Apparently, the Xiao Family’s main household was originally in Shandong Province.
The Xiao Family’s merchant group, the Seongseong Merchant Group, also mainly operated in areas close to Shandong Province, but this time they had been traveling from place to place while expanding their branches to the south.
I remembered Uncle Hwang telling me that, since there had been quite a lot of work to do, he had been away for quite a long time.
Uncle Hwang had said,
“Our lord is an extraordinary man. He’s a gentleman who places great importance on benevolence, righteousness, and propriety, and he’s broad-minded enough to have many friends among the martial artists of the Central Plains. In particular, it’s famous throughout the martial world that the young master of the Namgung Family formed a sworn brotherhood with our lord!”
Honestly, I only half understood what he was talking about, so I let most of it go in one ear and out the other. All I learned was that he was apparently a very impressive person.
So naturally, I couldn’t help but look forward to meeting him. After all, he was the father of our young lady, the very same Xiao Yanli who was supposedly the “world’s supreme beauty, the most beautiful woman of all time.” Wouldn’t she have inherited some extraordinary looks from her parents?
I excitedly went outside with the steward, expecting to see a handsome man in his prime…
‘Huh?’
I was a little taken aback.
Of course, he was handsome. For a man roughly in his forties, the fact that he wasn’t carrying a belly and had a clean-cut face was more than enough to make him quite respectable. But still.
‘He doesn’t quite look like the young lady’s father….’
I was secretly disappointed when the steward stepped forward to welcome the head of the estate.
“Why did you return without even sending word, my lord? If you had told us in advance, we would have gone out to greet you…”
“Haha, it’s fine. Everyone here knows how busy Steward Jeok is, so how could I order you to come and go as I please? Don’t worry about it.”
“Even so, if the head of the estate calls, I should go. Did you manage to finish your work properly?”
“I’ll tell you about that separately later…. But who is this child?”
At that moment, the head of the estate’s gaze shifted toward me. Nervously, I bowed my head. The steward, who happened to be standing beside me, introduced me.
“This is the child who has recently begun serving the young lady. He is truly an admirable child. He serves the young lady with such devotion that everyone in the Xiao Family Estate speaks unanimously of how remarkable he is…”
The steward continued with a string of flattering words.
He went on and on about how I never spared myself for the young lady, how no one could match my loyalty, and how sincerely I treated her. He kept saying things that were embarrassing just to hear. Yet the head of the estate listened intently. He even let out an exclamation of admiration when the steward mentioned that I had persuaded the young lady to take her medicine.
“Remarkable. That child Ari is exceptionally stubborn and rarely changes her mind, yet you managed to persuade her…”
“Haha…”
“You did well. I entrust Ari to you from now on as well.”
“Yes, sir! Leave it to me!”
I bowed so deeply that I nearly folded in half. The head of the estate gave me a good-natured smile and patted me on the shoulder.
Having received his encouragement, I thought to myself,
‘The head of the estate is actually a really nice person…!’
I was watching the head of the estate’s back as he entered the inner residence, my eyes practically sparkling, when the steward, who was about to follow him, suddenly stopped and asked me,
“But you were about to say something earlier, weren’t you? You said there was something you wanted to ask for…”
Ah, the favor.
“Oh, no, it’s nothing! You need to go see the head of the estate first, don’t you? My request isn’t urgent, so I’ll tell you next time.”
The steward smiled warmly.
“Very well. Be sure to tell me. I’ll be waiting.”
I watched the steward follow the head of the estate, secretly clicking my tongue in disappointment.
Honestly, it was urgent. My mother’s life was at stake; who could possibly have a more urgent matter than me? But this wasn’t exactly the time to grab a busy man and awkwardly blurt it out, either.
I’ll tell him properly next time….
I turned away, consoling myself.
‘But why did the head of the estate come back now?’
I learned the answer not long afterward.
“Isn’t it about time for the young lady’s seizure?”
“Seizure?”
It was while I was eating snacks with Aso.
Because of the head of the estate’s sudden appearance, I had some free time. The young lady had gone to see him, after all.
With no work to do if I wasn’t attending to the young lady’s medicine, I had been slacking off when I ran into Aso.
I stuffed a bite of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into my mouth. Seeing me finish it, Aso handed me another piece and continued speaking.
“Come to think of it, you wouldn’t know. This time, you haven’t been here long enough. The young lady has a seizure once every six months.”
“Once every six months?”
“Yeah. It used to happen once a year, but the interval kept getting shorter and eventually became six months. Probably… she had one right before you came here? I remember that time too.”
“…….”
“Everyone gets nervous when that day comes. The young lady’s seizures have been getting worse as the years go by. That’s why we servants say that the young lady is crossing the Life-and-Death Gate. We wonder whether she’ll survive this seizure and make it through, or whether she’ll pass away.”
“…Is it really that bad?”
“Of course. There were even rumors before that the young lady wouldn’t live past fifteen. And you treated her like that without even knowing?”
Ah, no. I had no idea it was that serious. She was so energetic whenever she went on a rampage that….
Then, all at once, the fact that the young lady was terminally ill struck me with full force. She was in a situation similar to my mother’s. She, too, was dying little by little as the days passed. Still, there was one thing that made her situation better. She knew the way to treat it, after all.
That was…
‘Yes. This is it!’
I hurriedly stood up. Aso looked at me while peeling the bamboo leaf.
“What? Why are you doing that again? Where are you going?”
“Yeah, I just thought of something.”
“Again? You’re always suddenly remembering something and suddenly running off somewhere. So what is it this time? You’re not going to tell me even if I ask, are you?”
“Come on, no. It’s just…”
I swallowed nervously before asking,
“Where is Physician Jeong again?”
***
I hurried toward Sonangwon.
Naturally, I assumed the physician would be at the pharmacy, so I headed there first, only to find nothing. The physician had already been summoned to Sonangwon by the head of the estate.
I anxiously lingered around Sonangwon, waiting for the physician. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before I spotted him coming out after finishing his examination.
I raised my hand high.
“Physician Jeong…!”
The physician and I already knew each other to some extent. After all, I had gotten injured so many times since I began serving the young lady.
We had grown close enough to speak comfortably after I visited him every day to have my wounds treated and exchanged a few words with him each time.
The physician turned his head at the sudden shout. When he spotted me, his eyes widened.
“Oh? What brings you here? You haven’t been coming by much lately…. Did you hurt yourself somewhere again?”
“No, no. It’s not me…. Did the young lady receive a proper examination? Is she all right?”
“Haha, you rascal. Is that why you came? The young lady is… well, she isn’t doing well. If anything, I feel troubled that I’ve only caused the head of the estate more worry.”
“I actually have something I’d like to tell you about that…”
I headed toward the pharmacy with the physician, talking about this and that along the way.
When we arrived at the pharmacy, I immediately got to the point.
I told him what I knew from the original story, the method for alleviating the young lady’s illness, as though I had heard about it somewhere.
At first, the physician listened to me without much thought, but eventually he began paying close attention and let out a quiet exclamation of admiration.
“Oh! What a novel perspective! So it isn’t that she lacks yang energy, but rather that her body is overflowing with yin energy to the point that it’s on the verge of bursting… How did you come to know of such a method?”
“My mother is sick too, you know. While going around looking for physicians, I happened to meet an herbalist. I asked him about various things, and I remembered something he told me.”
“Hmm, if that is the theory, then such a prescription does make sense. Using medicine that disperses the energy in order to drain away the energy filling the body…”
I looked at the physician with hopeful eyes.
“If we use that method, wouldn’t the young lady’s condition improve as well? Even this seizure….”
But my hope didn’t last long.
“That would be difficult.”
“Pardon?”
The physician sighed deeply and shook his head.
“I understand what you’re saying. But as the herbalist told you, that would only be a temporary measure. If the young lady’s body really is suffering because it is filled with too much energy, then in order to calm the seizure, you would have to drain a great deal of that energy all at once.”
“Th-then isn’t there some kind of herb that can do that? An herb that can drain a large amount of energy all at once….”
“There isn’t. Ordinary herbs can only nourish the body or gradually disperse a little of its harmful energy. The only things capable of moving a great amount of energy within the body all at once are spiritual medicines, medicines imbued with the energy of Heaven and Earth.”
“…….”
“Unless you can obtain one…”
The physician let out a lament.
“There will be no way.”
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