nucmednet Chapter 15 Moving into Qiushui Pavilion
Chapter 15 Moving into Qiushui Pavilion
Xiao Han remained expressionless and coldly replied, "No."
"Cheapskate."
“Then let him take me,” Long Chuqing pointed at Qingying, “He brought me back, so he has to take responsibility for taking me back.”
Xiao Han slightly raised his eyelids: "Back where? To Yuexi Tower?"
At this moment, Qingying said, "Miss Long, you don't need to go back there."
If they hadn't brought it up, Long Chuqing really wouldn't have thought of going to Yuexi Tower first to find Feifeng. However, he was currently unable to move around easily and couldn't take any rash actions.
The truth is, words beat the brain. "You've redeemed me, I have nowhere to go now, you have to take responsibility for me," Long Chuqing said to Qingying.
Qingying was startled, her eyes widened, and she hurriedly explained, "Miss, you can't joke like that. You are free now."
Qingying secretly groaned. Why was he being asked to take responsibility? Why was he being dragged into this again? He didn't want to get involved.
Just kidding, Miss Long is practically the prince's woman now. How could he possibly take on any responsibility in front of the prince? He doesn't want to live anymore. He felt a chill run down his spine.
He also secretly glanced at Xiao Han, and seeing that his face was calm, he breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the prince was not angry.
At least in the eyes of a few insiders, Miss Long and the Prince had a one-night stand.
Xiao Han looked helpless, seeing that the conversation was going further and further off track: "Didn't you say last night that you were going to sell medicine to me?"
"I'm not selling anymore. I'm not short of money now," Long Chuqing muttered to herself, but she didn't say it aloud.
"You know perfectly well that I don't have any medicine on me right now, yet you still ask."
"If you don't have anywhere to go for the time being, you can stay at the Prince's Mansion and make medicine for me. I will provide the medicinal materials, and you will make the medicine. I will pay you half of the labor cost based on the price you previously sold one bottle."
Long Chuqing started to think seriously. No, no, I'm injured right now. I just want to lie down and recover. I don't want to work.
She also thought that when she was making medicine for him, she should use some good medicine for herself and keep some on hand. Now that her movements were restricted and inconvenient, she thought that there might be someone to take care of her here. She weighed the pros and cons in her mind.
Seeing that she had been thinking for a long time and looked conflicted, Xiao Han asked, "Hmm... what's your decision?"
"Divide it 40/60, you get 40% and I get 60%."
"The medicinal herbs were all supplied by me, so why should they be split 40/60? What's the reason?"
Long Chuqing glanced at him and explained gently, "The expensive part of a prescription isn't the herbs, but the formula. I could have charged you 70% of the price."
"Also, I can sell you the medicine at a friendly price, but it will be calculated based on the price of my finished medicine. The 20% discount I mentioned last night is no longer valid. After all, I'm working while injured, so please consider it! Otherwise, you might think I'm ripping you off."
Xiao Han pondered for a moment: "Deal."
Upon hearing this, Long Chuqing added, "Then could you help me prepare a clean and bright room? If possible, I would also like to have a few sets of clothes to change into, preferably in simple colors and solid colors."
Xiao Han looked at Qingying beside him: "Did you hear what Miss Long just said?"
"I will make arrangements for Miss Long." Qingying hurriedly agreed, thankfully he changed the subject, otherwise he would have been in trouble.
After giving his instructions, Xiao Han and Qing Tong left first.
Qingying gestured to Long Chuqing, "Miss Long, please come with me."
Long Chuqing, leaning on her cane, followed Qingying back. As they passed a corridor, she pointed to a pavilion and asked, "Is anyone living in the courtyard with the pavilion on the south side?"
Qingying looked in the direction she pointed. "That's Qiushui Pavilion. No one lives there. Would you like to stay there, young lady?"
"Hmm, is that alright? If so, I'll stay there."
"Okay, but it's been a long time since anyone has lived there, so it might be a bit old and not as comfortable as the other courtyards. Do you still want to stay there?"
"Can I go take a look?"
"of course can."
After saying that, Qingying led her towards Qiushui Pavilion.
"This is the manor's garden. You can come here to sit when you have nothing to do." Qingying thoughtfully introduced the garden to her along the way.
Long Chuqing glanced around and saw that there was a pavilion, a rockery and a fish pond in the garden. There were many magnolia trees, cherry trees, crabapple trees and many other flowers and plants. Now that it was late September, the most beautiful flowers were the chrysanthemums, and there was a gardener tending to them.
Upon arriving at Qiushui Pavilion, she looked around and found it to be somewhat old. However, once cleaned and tidied up, it should be fine, and overall she was quite satisfied.
Qiushui Pavilion is not large. It has a small courtyard, a two-story pavilion, and two rooms on the ground floor. One room is a living room, and the other is empty. She plans to have them convert it into a pharmacy. There are two side rooms next to the ground floor, as well as a small kitchen and a washroom.
“I’ll stay here, on the second floor,” Long Chuqing said to Qingying beside him with satisfaction.
"Okay, I'll arrange for someone to clean up in a bit. I'll take you to have lunch first."
Long Chuqing thought for a moment and said to Qingying, "In a moment, you prepare pen, ink, paper and inkstone. I will write down the things needed to make medicine and the medicinal materials for you."
After making arrangements for Long Chuqing, Qingying left. He went to Qinli Courtyard and informed Xiao Han about Long Chuqing's move into Qiushui Pavilion.
Xiao Han sat in the study and listened to Qingying's report: "Isn't the environment of Lanxi Courtyard better? Didn't you take her to see it?"
"Miss Long requested it herself, saying she wanted to live in the attic."
Xiao Han didn't say anything upon hearing this, agreed, and waved for Qingying to leave.
He leaned back in his chair, pondering, "Living in the attic? Doesn't she know she has a broken leg? When she thought about living in the attic, did she even consider the problem of her mobility issues?"
Was it just a momentary impulse, a sudden whim? How was she going to go up and down the stairs? It must be hilarious. He imagined the scene and smiled helplessly.
When Qingying brought the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, she had already eaten, so he helped her grind the ink.
Long Chuqing picked up a pen, dipped it in ink, and wrote down: Coptis chinensis, Rehmannia glutinosa, Bupleurum chinense, Astragalus membranaceus, Taraxacum mongolicum, Schisandra chinensis, Saposhnikovia divaricata, Poria cocos, Ginseng, and Deer antler.
Qingying stood to the side, looking on in confusion, hesitant to speak, "Miss Long, what are you writing? I can't understand it at all?"
He looked at the strange characters he had never seen before and asked them questions out of curiosity.
Upon hearing this, Long Chuqing turned around and saw his puzzled expression. After looking at the list of medicinal herbs she had written down, she immediately realized what he meant and quickly wrote them down in simplified Chinese characters.
For most of the past few decades, she has lived in modern times, so she writes with ease. Occasionally, she will visit ancient times, but she will not stay for long before returning to modern times. When the incident happened in the Southern Jin Dynasty, she only stayed there for a little over a month.
She quickly crossed it out and asked awkwardly, "What font do you usually use?"
Qingying described a type of font used in this era.
"Sigh... Look how confused I am, I guess it's because I bumped my head a few days ago and it's still not healed."
Then, using the font of that era, he wrote two large pages of densely packed names of medicinal herbs, plus a sheet of materials needed for making medicine, such as shelves, tables, bottles, and jars...
Qingying left with the three written tasks. Long Chuqing sat bored on the veranda, propping her cheek up and staring blankly at the sky. Occasionally, someone would pass by, or peek inside from the doorway.
At Qiushui Pavilion, Qingying arranged for more than twenty servants to clean and tidy up, and to get it done as quickly as possible. They worked together to remove weeds, dust, wipe things down, and move furniture.
This afternoon, all the servants in the Prince's mansion were whispering and gossiping among themselves.
Rumors are circulating that a young lady will be staying at Qiushui Pavilion, something that has never happened since the establishment of the manor. In the past, apart from his mother and Consort Shu, the prince never allowed any outside women to stay overnight in the manor.
This happened so suddenly, without any prior warning, which inevitably raises suspicions.
In a certain courtyard, servants were secretly gossiping.
“I saw her around noon! She was walking out of the corridor when I happened to pass by.”
“I saw him too, he was in the corridor, and he even asked me for directions.”
"I've never seen it before, what does it look like?"
She was dressed in all black, her hair was all tied up, and she was very beautiful, but it was a pity that she was lame.
"Ah! Is he a cripple?"
“She is lame, I saw it too, she was using a cane! I also heard that she came out of Qinli Courtyard at noon.”
"Ah... really?" everyone exclaimed.
"I just don't know when they went in."
"Do you think it's possible that she was in Qinli Courtyard last night?"
"Shh..." she glanced around, "This is not a place for discussion."
"Let's disperse, let's disperse!" The crowd scattered in a flurry.