Down to Business (III)

The orange sky of the evening sunset welcomed the entire Kingdom of Xin Li.

Royal Physician Centre

Physician Jin was sitting in his office room in deep thoughts.

A knock came from the door, but he did not respond.

Another round of knocks came but still no answer.

In the end, a small figure came walking inside with a tray in his hand. Ah Bao walked inside very carefully not to disturb his master, but who would get away from his master's sharp senses.

"Oh, Ah Bao. Thank you." Despite being in deep thoughts, once another presence was felt in the room, the Royal Physician kept his manners and turned to give thanks to his small assistant.

"Physician, what are you thinking about? Do you need someone to listen to it?" From the moment the Physician returned from the Empress' palace, the physician had kept himself inside his office and did not come out until evening. Worried for the physician, Ah Bao had to come and make sure that the Physician was still alright.

"I'm alright, Ah Bao. Just something to think of." Even Physician Jin's answer was much weaker than usual.

However, Ah Bao knew it was a sign for him to leave the Physician alone, "Then, Ah Bao will take my leave. Don't forget to eat your food and sleep, physician."

Physician Jin nodded in silence.

Soon, the door was closed once again.

....You would have to choose which side you are going to take…his debt that he could never pay off...

Those few words had been ringing inside his head since he had returned back from Kunning Palace.

...A choice? Taking sides?

...Debt? I'm afraid no one would be able to pay that off.

Physician Jin shook his head.

...He refused to do so.

...The Empress...there was one thing for sure, she really went to recuperate herself in the mountains, but that place…

...Sigh, he was probably thinking too much. How could she know of that place.

Once again, he shook his head.

...This time, since there was no harm to anyone, he would not expose this. However, once he found out that there was more to this, he would not hesitate to disclose this.

...Hm, but first, it seemed...he would have to take a visit at Bai Long Qin and his medicine house.

...What a cunning fox...it seemed, his brother had married a hard person to deal with, sigh.

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"Achoo!" Hui Lan sneezed like it was the end of the world. Her hands that had covered her sneeze went to the bowl of water beside her as she washed it off.

"Are you alright?" Su Rong walked in with a tray of food for her friend. She placed the tray down on the table before walking towards the window, "I'll close this window for you."

"Can you leave one open for me? I want some fresh air." Hui Lan spoke while her eyes were still focused on the book that was in her hand. The Empress of Kunning Palace was sitting with her arms resting on a pillow while she was leisurely reading a rather old looking book.

She had already changed her clothes from the afternoon into a simple white robe. Yet, the simplicity did not reduce her natural beauty. Meanwhile, her long silky hair was let loose flowing alongside her.

"If you weren't married to the Emperor, then I would have thought you would want to marry all your books." Su Rong complained as her friend had not left her distant from this book since the moment Physician Jin had left.

Hui Lan completely ignored Su Rong's comment and acted as if she was busy reading the book. Just hearing about the Emperor, she just wanted to throw those words out of the window.

"Ey, do you really think that the Physician Jin would not tell the Emperor about you?" Su Rong made her way to sit in front of Hui Lan.

On the other hand, Hui Lan simply flipped the page over before speaking casually, "Su Juo is already watching him right?"

"En." Su Rong nodded.

"Then, we'll hear from him." Hui Lan brushed the topic off so easily.

"Ah? So you're not really sure at all are you?" Su Rong was speechless.

To that Hui Lan slowly looked up from her book and smiled sneakily, "En."

"You ah!?"

"Well, I had to do something…" Hui Lan shrugged.

Su Rong held onto her head like she had a headache. Her friend, since she had been near death, it seemed she wanted to live her life dangerously from now on ah...Then, Su Rong seemed to have remembered something, "Ah that's right, the Empress Dowager came today and said that tomorrow, the Royal architect would come over to inspect the reconstruction of Kunning palace. However, you'll probably have to act like you are sick as well."

Hui Lan nodded along while her eyes were still focused on her book, "That isn't too hard."

"Well, you'll be locked up inside for the entire day." Su Rong quickly put that fact out for her friend to realise.

"Tomorrow?" Hui Lan finally looked up from her book.

Su Rong nodded firmly.

Hui Lan thought about something for a brief moment before opening her lips, "Su Rong, how much money do I have?" Hui Lan asked seriously.

"Money? Why are you asking about it?" Su Rong felt like whatever was to come from Hui Lan was not a good idea.

"Nothing much, just in case we have to pay them." Hui Lan quickly averted Su Rong's thoughts.

To think about it again, Su Rong nodded along. At first, she had thought that Hui Lan would do something else with the only money they had left for something else, but it was a relief that what she was thinking was not what Hui Lan was thinking.

Su Rong then went to a drawer before pulling the whole drawer out which revealed a decent size hole in the whole. The young court lady then reached out for a box of something heavy before putting the drawer back into its same place and went over to the owner of it, "Here. I made this secret hole while you were away." Su Rong then put the treasure box down, "This box should be enough."

Hui Lan slowly opened the treasure box and before her eyes were a stack of gold pieces in it. Her eyes seemed to be glistening as she saw the amount of gold in front of her, "Whoa, how many more boxes do we have?" Hui Lan could not help but ask.

"Around 5 more." Su Rong replied straight away.

"That should be enough." Hui Lan nodded.

Su Rong tilted her head, "Enough for what?"

Hui Lan looked up and smiled until her eyes were in a shape of a crescent moon, "Enough for me to survive."

Su Rong shook her head, "Of course ah, even though this palace isn't the best place, but they don't forget to give your monthly allowances along with a few gifts. It's a shame that all the gifts were burnt in the fire, but since you're alive, it doesn't really matter."

Hui Lan nodded in agreement before speaking, "I'm going to take a nap first. When Niang comes, tell me!" Not only speaking, Hui Lan went to her temporarily bed and fell asleep right away.

"But your food…? Sigh."

...What was she in a hurry for ah?

Su Rong could not help but shake her head.

...

Nightfall

Another evening had passed and Night had crept its way in.

A figure in black moved along the night like strokes of shadow.

Yi Qin who had been standing afar hiding furrowed his brows. He blinked once but that row of shadow was...gone.

...Huh? Was he too tired that he was seeing things?

It was already too late and a dark shadow had already seeped inside of the tearoom. Inside, a lady in white robes was sleeping in her bed soundly.

The dark figure made their way towards the lady in the bed, closer and closer.

"Hui Lan." A soft came from the figure.

"Hui Lan." Once again, the figure called out to the lady on the bed, but the lady did not move.

The figure nudged on the lady's shoulder, but there was no response.

In the end, they began to shake Hui Lan who was sleeping.

Immediately, Hui Lan's eyes popped open.

"It's me." The figure in black pulled down the cover over their face before Hui Lan would alert others.

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"Niang?" Hui Lan exclaimed softly.

"Hm, seems you're preparing yourself by sleeping huh?" Feng Furen teased.

"I really do think I needed it." Hui Lan smiled.

"Fine, fine. Let's go then, shall we." Feng Furen could not do anything with this girl at all…

Hui Lan nodded enthusiastically.

Soon, a figure in white and a figure in black went out from the back windows without anyone knowing.

Meanwhile, from the Emperor's shadow guard's point of view, Yi Qin could only see the front view of the palace. It was a shame that their guard on the Empress was lenient due to their underestimation of a sick person.

Feng Furen took Hui Lan around and showed the entire palace for her daughter. The elder took Hui Lan to an enclosed tower and stood together on its rooftop.

There, they could both see the entire palace and to Hui Lan's surprise, the palace was very unlike how other palaces were. There were countless of lakes and groups of woods around different areas. Then on one side, there was a small mountain, small compared to Mt. Yun, that stood tall and high in the palace. The palace was like a kingdom of its own.

From there, Feng Furen pointed out what was what and where Hui Lan could practise herself.

Although there would be guards from time to time, since the security to get in the palace was already strict, hardly anyone could ever enter the palace with the exception of masters like Feng Furen. The guards would take rounds going around with the torch fires from one place to another.

After the introduction, the two finally made their way to one of the woods that was the densest and had no torch fires seen from above.

Then, right away they began their lesson from they were left off.

"Do you still remember this?" Feng Furen asked after she had shown the move to Hui Lan.

Hui Lan smiled, "I remember it from the bottom of my heart."

"Good. Now, watch again and follow me." Feng Furen showed it once again before instructing Hui Lan to do it.

"Good."

"One more."

"Again."

"Again."

Feng Furen had her hands behind her back as she watched every time Hui Lan practised the movements out. They were practising parts of the 1st move and bit by bit they went.

After some time, Feng Furen could see that Hui Lan was ready to do the first move in one go.

"Instead of placing your legs like that, try this." Feng Furen then showed Hui Lan the steps again.

Hui Lan watched Feng Furen's every step carefully and memorised it. With the images from the Shadow book, she cooperated Feng Furen's steps and guidance with the images she saw and got a better idea of how to execute it.

"Your turn. This time, do it all at once." Feng Furen stopped and let Hui Lan practise it.

Hui Lan had been waiting for the signal to come. The young lady in her white robes nodded. She took one step forward and the rest was history…

At first, she started out slow, but the more she repeated the same steps, her pace grew faster and soon it was as if she was dancing with the wind.

Hui Lan was carried away with how ecstatic she felt from moving so fast in a long time.

Before Feng Furen's eyes, white strokes of shadow were moving in front of her. These were the fundamental movements of the Yin Ying move, but Hui Lan was able to memorise and implement it after a few days.

If it was not gifted, then she would have struggled more.

Not only did Hui Lan enjoy it, but a wide smile was revealed on her face. She had never felt this content with herself in a long time.

Feng Furen gasped. "Jie…" Nevertheless, she quickly shook her head...her sister was not here...but Hui Lan reminded so much of her own sister.

However, just as Hui Lan twirled and ran, her body finally reached its limit.

She fell down onto the ground that was covered with autumn leaves that had fallen. Fortunately, the ground was full of soft leaves but it was also good that she had her hand to support her from hitting her head on the ground.

Although she had fallen, the smile did not fade away from her face. Her heart was beating fast and she was panting heavily, but the smile was still there.

...Sigh…

...That was enough for today...but it was the best.

Hui Lan made up her mind and steadied herself to get up.

However, just as she was about to get up, a big hand was hanging in the air in front of her.

Slowly, her cat-like eyes looked up from the hand in front of her to the owner of the hand.

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!??