Chapter 2
Chapter 2
My father was the head of the Imperial Medical Academy, and our family had been masters of medicine for generations.
But I was the black sheep of the family.
I had no interest in healing people. Instead, I spent every day in the backyard using piles of medicinal herbs to refine all sorts of poisons.
When the plague broke out, I used my concoctions to poison the rats. For a time, our courtyard was littered with their carcasses.
To outsiders, it was a gruesome sight, and they called me a freak. Only Elder Sister defended me.
She said, “While the plague rages, preventing its spread is just as important as treating the infected. By poisoning the rats, Ah Yun is performing a great service.”
She was seventeen then, already a renowned female physician. She had saved countless lives during the plague, earning her immense prestige.
Yet, some still questioned her: “Doctor Song, your sister is poisoning rats today, but tomorrow she will be poisoning people.”
Elder Sister shook her head. “Ah Yun would never use medicine to poison people.”
She added, “Medicinal herbs are merely plants grown from sunlight and dew. They can be medicine or poison; it all depends on the goodness or malice in one’s heart.
“Besides, no matter how potent a poison Ah Yun creates, I will always be able to craft the corresponding antidote.”
After that, no one questioned me again. Everyone knew that Elder Sister possessed peerless medical skills and a benevolent heart; no matter what trouble I caused, she would always be there to clean up my mess.
Elder Sister was five years older than me, and I could never surpass her.
In my stubbornness, I once tried to refine all sorts of strange and exotic poisons, hoping to leave her stumped.
She would only offer a faint smile, and within a few days, she would produce the antidote.
I had no choice but to admit defeat.
When she was nineteen, Elder Sister completed her training. Her reputation surpassed our father’s, and she officially took up the family mantle, beginning to attend to the Empress Dowager and the Emperor.
That same year, I grew weary of the perpetually stifling and somber atmosphere of the capital. I packed a small bundle and ran away.
I left on my own, but rumors spread through the city that I had eloped with some scoundrel.
Elder Sister caught up to me on a fast horse. Just as I thought she was going to drag me back, she handed me a package filled with heavy silver and banknotes.
It was her entire life savings.
With tears in her eyes, she turned her horse around. “Ah Yun, go and see the free mountains and rivers beyond the capital for me.”
Only then did I realize, albeit vaguely, that Elder Sister also yearned for freedom.
But as the eldest daughter of our house, she had to shoulder the responsibility.
And so, she spent her youth within the high palace walls, fulfilling her duties as an imperial physician.
Elder Sister performed her duties exceptionally well.
Once, the Noble Consort was injured while accompanying the Emperor on a hunt, and her wound became infected.
Elder Sister did not shy away from the filth or the exhaustion; she personally sucked the pus and blood from the wound to treat it.
In just over a month, the Noble Consort’s wound healed. Her skin was as smooth as before, without a single scar left behind.
The Emperor was delighted. During a visit to the Noble Consort, he praised her:
“They say a physician has the touch of life; Doctor Song truly has a pair of wonderful hands.”
As he spoke, his gaze lingered on my sister’s hands.
Elder Sister did indeed have beautiful hands.
Her wrists were like white jade and her fingers like tender scallion shoots. Holding a medicine bowl-the dark liquid contrasting against the snow-white porcelain-she was a sight to behold.
The smile on the Noble Consort’s face faltered for a moment.
After the Emperor left, she summoned Elder Sister to check her pulse again.
As soon as Elder Sister entered Wanchun Palace, she was pinned down by eunuchs and palace maids.
The Noble Consort sat on her couch, her eyes filled with loathing. “You wench, using medical treatment as an excuse to find ways to seduce the Emperor.
“Someone, cut off her hands!”
The blade rose and fell. Elder Sister fainted instantly from the pain.
The Noble Consort looked coldly at my sister collapsed on the floor, then curled her lips into a cruel, vivid smile. “Doesn’t everyone say Doctor Song’s medical skills are unsurpassed? Surely a minor ailment like severed hands won’t defeat you.
“Then please, Doctor Song, heal yourself.”
The Noble Consort locked Elder Sister in a side hall, providing neither water nor medicine.
Within a few hours, Elder Sister bled to death.
The Noble Consort then feigned a great fright and reported to the Emperor that Doctor Song had attempted to poison her during the pulse reading, and her servants had cut off the doctor’s hands in a moment of desperation.
The Emperor had always doted on the Noble Consort. Seeing her weeping like a pear blossom in the rain, he flew into a rage and ordered the execution of hundreds of members of the Song family.
The only survivor was the younger daughter who had “eloped” and vanished months prior.
When the news reached me, I had already arrived at the ferry crossing. I was only one step away from seeing the free mountains and rivers Elder Sister had longed for.
The boatman asked me, “Miss, aren’t you going?”
I remained silent for a long time before lighting the letter with a fire starter. The ashes fell into the lake.
“I’m not going anymore,” I said.
Six months later, I entered the palace under the name Liu Ying.
Elder Sister, I no longer want freedom.
You, the only one who could neutralize my poisons, are gone.
Now, there is no one in this world who can stop me.