Resplendent – Chapter 456

Chapter 456 – Master?

What?

Young Prince Qing: Why do I feel as if I am being teased? 

No, he shouldn’t think that way; she was only examining his condition. The handsome face hidden beneath the veil was now flushed red, hot enough to fry an egg.

“All right, the lymph nodes aren’t swollen. What about the other symptoms?” Gu Ye remained extremely professional. She was careful not to reveal any other expression that might scare off the patient.

“In the past two days, I’ve had a slight fever, and my joints ache a little,” Young Prince Qing murmured even lower. If it weren’t for Gu Ye’s exceptionally keen hearing, she probably wouldn’t have understood his quiet hums at all.

“Have you noticed syphilitic rashes across your body? The kind that appear as patches, papules, or pustules, widely spread and symmetrical, painless and itch-free?” Gu Ye’s fingers drummed unconsciously on the table.

“I… I don’t think so!” Young Prince Qing said, glancing at her fingers—fair, long, and slender, like newly sprouted bamboo shoots in spring.

“‘I don’t think so’ won’t do! I want a definite answer!” Gu Ye’s voice grew stern. “Go inside and have someone you trust examine your whole body, then report back to me.”

Obediently, Young Prince Qing stood, went inside, removed his clothes, and had his personal attendant carefully check him. When he returned, he said honestly, “There are none of the symptoms you mentioned, doctor.”

“All done!” Gu Ye finished recording the case and casually reassured him, “Your symptoms are much milder than the patient next door. If nothing unexpected happens, you should recover in about half a month.”

She took a syringe from her medicine kit, drew up a dose of penicillin, and performed a skin test on his wrist. Fortunately, there was no allergic reaction.

Standing up, she held the syringe and faced the patient with a deadpan expression: “Take off your pants!”

“WH… WHAT?” Young Prince Qing froze. From beneath the veil, his expression could only be described as horrified. Instinctively, he clutched the waistband of his pants and stumbled backward two steps. He looked like a chaste maiden fiercely defending her virtue.

Gu Ye struggled to suppress a laugh at the sight. Maintaining a poker face, she said seriously, “This medicine must be injected into the gluteal muscle. Right now, in the entire capital, it’s just me and my maid who can do it. You see…” 

Young Prince Qing hesitated for a long time before finally deciding, “Then… there’s no need for you, doctor. Let your maid do it instead!”

Gu Ye shrugged. She went outside and called in Yue Yuan, who had been watching birds in the courtyard. It wasn’t Yue Yuan’s first time giving a muscular injection. She efficiently rolled down the prince’s pants to expose half his buttock, disinfected the area with alcohol, inserted the needle, injected the medicine, and withdrew the needle—all in one smooth motion.

“Press down, silently count to fifty in your head, then remove it.” Yue Yuan disinfected the needle and syringe, and labeled them with the patient’s information. There was no other way. The conditions didn’t allow for one-time use, so sometimes needles and syringes had to be reused.

However, for patients like these two who had highly contagious diseases the needles had to be discarded. Yinzhen Pavilion could manufacture such needles, but the output wasn’t large, so conservation was necessary.

Gu Ye stayed at Princess Anya’s estate until the sun was low, only leaving after managing the patients’ Jarisch-Herxheimer reactions (i.e. reactions to antibiotics). She had been working continuously for three days. Once both patients’ symptoms had improved, she handed the follow-up care over to Yue Yuan and Elder Doctor Liang of Jimin Pharmacy.

Aside from the first day, Elder Doctor Liang stayed involved the whole time, showing no fear of the exhausting work. He also quickly learned how to give intramuscular injections. 

With the senior doctor present, Young Prince Qing felt slightly more at ease. As their symptoms eased day by day, the prince’s spirit gradually recovered, and a sense of renewed vitality radiated from him.

Meanwhile, Gu Ye gained a capable new medicine apprentice: the boy surnamed Lin from the gathering. That day, the Sage Apothecary said Gu Ye could entrust his recruitment as medicine boy to him, which she hadn’t taken seriously at first. Three days later, the boy appeared with his few belongings, repeatedly calling her ‘Master’, leaving Gu Ye momentarily stunned.

Lin Nuo stood nervously at the side entrance of the Duke of Zhen’s Manor, looking up at the small girl who was a head shorter than him, feeling uneasy. 

Could it be that Miss Gu had changed her mind? Did she think he wasn’t qualified to be her apprentice?

Thinking about it, that made sense. At this convention, apothecaries from three major kingdoms and sixteen vassal states had come together, and there were plenty who were far better than he was! Those who wanted to enter the lineage of the Sage Apothecary were countless. Not to mention becoming a medicine apprentice, apothecaries would even fight tooth and nail for the chance to be selected as a menial worker under the Sage’s lineage.

Three days ago, when the Vice President of the Apothecary Guild came to him and asked whether he was willing to serve as Miss Gu’s apprentice, he felt as if a block of gold had fallen from the sky and struck him. He was completely stunned, unable to react for quite a while.

It was only when the vice president impatiently asked him again that he suddenly snapped out of his daze and hurriedly agreed. The apothecaries who had been listening to Miss Gu’s guidance alongside him all looked at him with envy. A few who were familiar with him even came over to congratulate him.

People around him murmured various things. Some said with envy that he was lucky to be chosen by the Sage Apothecary’s direct disciple; some congratulated him and said that although he was only an apprentice now, in the future he might become a disciple of the Sage Apothecary’s lineage; some, speaking with a bit of sourness, wondered why out of so many seeking Miss Gu’s guidance, she had chosen him…

The surrounding voices were chaotic, while inside he was a mix of joy and anxiety. He was delighted that he no longer needed to blindly grope his way forward. He would finally have someone to learn from. But he also worried that he wasn’t capable enough, that Miss Gu might dislike him…

By the time he finished packing his belongings, he felt a bit lost. The vice president had only asked whether he was willing to become Miss Gu’s apprentice, but he never told him where to find her. He first went to the post station to inquire, but it seemed Miss Gu wasn’t staying there. Fortunately, he wasn’t too slow-witted. He waited outside the Jiang family’s residence until Young Master Jiang finally came out.

From him he learned that Miss Gu was actually the daughter the Duke of Zhen had just found and brought back. He then made his hesitant way toward the Duke’s Manor, searching all the way from the eastern part of the city to the western part. By the majestic stone lions at the residence gate, he waited an entire day before he finally saw the carriage bringing Miss Gu home.

Seeing Miss Gu’s familiar slender figure, Lin Nuo let out a small breath of relief and timidly called out, “Master.” He had already asked around. This was how apprentices addressed the apothecaries they followed.

But… the look of shock on Miss Gu’s face immediately shattered his warm, hopeful heart. Could it be that Miss Gu knew nothing about this arrangement? Or had she only said it casually and now regretted it?

Looking at the boy’s bright eyes slowly dimming, Gu Ye hurriedly slapped her forehead and said apologetically, “Look at me! I’ve been so busy these past two days that I nearly forgot about this. You—”