Ink Burns

Chapter 183 Medical Skills Are Not Bad

Lord Xue.
Now, she only knows two people with the surname Xue.

One is clinging to its older sister, while the other is probably already hard!

Her brother-in-law couldn't come to see her alone, and even if he did, he wouldn't be so ostentatious; Xue Chen—has she come back from the dead?! Or is she faking her death? Or did he already know where she came from, and all these days he's just been playing along to find out what's going on?
Is he trying to scam her?
Sure enough, figuring out acupoints and using someone else to do the dirty work is not a safe approach.

The safest option is to simply and brutally dismember the body into eight pieces, and then finish it off with a final cut to the throat before leaving.

Shui Guang felt a little regretful: After all, it was her first time killing someone and she lacked experience. She would know better in the future.

The water shimmered against the wall, and one could see outside through the gaps in the loosely pasted window paper.

The heavy rain poured down, dense and numerous, like transparent lice growing from the sky.

Lice instantly crawled onto the heads of the two people outside the porch.

There were only two people.

The person knocking on the door was a middle-aged man, dressed in shimmering satin, unlike the villagers and boatmen. Well, it didn't look like a particularly expensive material, at least not as smooth as the fabric Xue Chen was wearing.

The man was pressed anxiously against the door, his back slightly hunched. His face was obscured by the doorway pillar, so his features were not visible. Only his fair complexion and lack of hair and beard were discernible.

There was one more person after that.

Dressed entirely in black, with a cloak covering his face, he appeared somewhat thin and stood silently and alone a meter away.

No, there are more than two people.

Through the rain curtain, the water shimmered and revealed three or four men in black standing guard at the corner of the wall outside Xinglin Hall.

The men in black were in the courtyard, not seeking shelter, and even in the pouring rain, they did not slip under the eaves for shelter.

Could it be the Chang family?! They acted so quickly?! Their reach is so far?! They're so clever?! They've come knocking on our door in just one day?!

Shui Guang's heart skipped a beat. Suppressing her nervousness, she turned to the three loofahs in the room and made a shushing gesture: If it really was the Chang family, at least on the surface, the Chang family couldn't touch her. After all, she was a seventh-rank female official appointed by the imperial court. Without evidence, the Chang family wouldn't dare to act recklessly. But, just because they wouldn't dare to act openly didn't mean they wouldn't dare to play dirty tricks!

"Lord Xue? What Lord Xue? I don't know any Lord Xue!" Shui Guang shouted. "The boat captain of Qiushui Ferry is right next to us, and he has seven or eight minor officials under him!"

The man in the black cloak standing on the outside suddenly went limp, pressing one hand to his chest and the other to the wall, as if he could no longer stand.

The middle-aged man's voice was flustered: "Young Master—" He immediately turned and pounded on the door, his voice extremely low: "Xue Xiao, the Imperial Censor of the Censorate, once petitioned the Six Departments to grant you a position as a seventh-rank female registrar at Qiushui Ferry! Is your surname Wei—!?"

Shui Guang was slightly taken aback.

The man in the black cloak breathed heavily as he shifted his position, exposing his face precisely through the slit in the paper window.

He had a narrow but upright face, deep-set eyes, a high nose, slightly drooping eyelashes, and slightly parted thin lips; he was an extremely handsome but aloof young man.

A fleeting, watery glint crossed the man's lips.

The middle-aged man's voice rose: "Wei Sibu, I'm already being quite respectful by standing here in the corridor and knocking on your door out of respect for Lord Xue Xiao! With your broken door and windows, if I had used even a little force—you'd have to see me today, whether you want to or not—"

Before the middle-aged man could finish speaking, the door creaked open a crack, and an arm reached out from the crack, reaching over the man and forcefully pulling him inside.

A blurry black shadow seemed to flash past the middle-aged man's eyes. He froze, then let out a sharp, piercing yell: "Wei Sibu! Be gentle!"

After pulling the handsome man from the outside into the house, Shui Guang, without waiting for a response, turned to the three silly gourds and quickly instructed them one by one: "Xiao Bai, boil water! Huan Niang, go get the medicine with an umbrella. You can't remember too many, just remember almonds, ephedra, and licorice. Bring it here! Yuan Yuan, open all the doors and windows and fetch two buckets of well water to sprinkle outside the corridor!"

The middle-aged man was still hunched over, blocking the doorway.

Shui Guang stomped her foot and clicked her tongue angrily: "His lips are all purple! Get out of the way!"

The middle-aged man was inexplicably yelled at.

Shui Guang stomped her foot again, her brows furrowed: "Move aside, let him breathe more freely, he'll feel better! —The worst thing for asthma is stuffiness!"

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man finally felt a sense of relief: that damned Mad Dog, though a bit eccentric, was quite good at recommending people—this brat, though seemingly unreliable, was surprisingly accurate in diagnosing illnesses.

Shui Guang looked up at the sky, her round face and eyes showing less of their usual casualness and more of a certainty: "This one."

Shui Guang omitted the title: "My asthma is about to flare up, and there might not be enough time to prepare the medicine. I'll administer acupuncture to relieve the immediate crisis—"

Shui Guang effortlessly ripped off the man's cloak, outer robe, and undergarments, revealing his fair and jade-like upper body.

The man instinctively shrank back.

Shui Guang clicked her tongue again: "This one..." still omitting any formality: "Why are you hiding!"

Shui Guang, having mastered the essence of the village aunties, lifted the man's back with one hand: "If you move again, I'll make you lie down and I'll ride on top of you!"

The man's pupils involuntarily dilated slightly.

Shui Guang turned around, untied the bundle she had just packed and casually placed on the bed, took out a leather bag with a patina, unfolded it to reveal silver needles of varying thicknesses and lengths.

"Wei Sibu!" the middle-aged man screamed again: "Is this...is this needle clean!?"

Shui Guang frowned and looked at the middle-aged man speechlessly.

She had big, round eyes, while the middle-aged man had small, beady eyes. The two stared at each other for a while in a silent and eerie silence.

Shui Guang pouted, resignedly reached out and dragged over the candlestick in the room, removed the paper cover, held the silver needle tip over the fire three times, and then deliberately showed it to the middle-aged man: "Is it okay now?"

The middle-aged man's features scrunched up: "If there's strong liquor, we could put the silver needle into it and let it sit for a while."

The man finally spoke, his voice low and muffled, as if a tightness in his chest and throat was blocking his breath: "It is urgent and expedient."

The middle-aged man lowered his head slightly.

In the blink of an eye, Shui Guang nimbly flipped her hand and, taking advantage of the man's unpreparedness, plunged a silver needle into the Shuihe acupoint on his neck. Several more needles followed, penetrating the Quepen, Qihu, and Wuyi acupoints respectively.

The familiar feeling of suffocation instantly lessened by more than half.

The man took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, his chest rising and falling calmly.

At this time, the acupoints are needled on the back.

The man unconsciously hunched his back, his gaze sweeping calmly across the woman's fluffy head behind him, and said softly, "Much better—Wei Sibu's medical skills are quite good."