Chapter 72
Chapter 72
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Poison Flower
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'Oh no. This isn't good.'
Huang Bo-yun knew exactly what kind of expression that woman was wearing.
He'd seen it once before, with his own eyes.
Right there at the Twin Blossoms Pavilion.
Gangneung's top courtesan, Lady Hwang Yun—her encounter had been brief but intense.
The face of a furious wife storming in to berate the courtesan who'd bewitched her husband.
It matched the woman's expression now, at least in part.
Not perfectly, but enough to glimpse the emotions simmering beneath.
Wi Sowol was currently unable to channel her internal energy.
Here, it fell to Huang Bo-yun to protect her.
He heightened his tension, ready to strike at any moment,
while focusing his keen senses to catch even the slightest twitch from the woman.
In the midst of this, Wi Sowol answered the woman's question.
"Not my daughter. My disciple."
For a split second, the focus vanished from the woman's eyes, then snapped back.
She raised her arm.
Huang Bo-yun's body jerked in reflex.
Should he block it?
If Huang Bo-yun willed it, stopping that arm would be child's play.
But seeing Wi Sowol show no sign of defense, he halted his extending hand.
The woman's hand grasped Wi Sowol's veil.
Wi Sowol felt the tremor in her fingers.
What could make her so tense?
Her eyes shook even harder, brimming with desperate longing.
The veil lifted.
Wi Sowol's gaze, which had stared straight at the woman from the start, met hers.
Wi Sowol saw her own reflection in the woman's eyes.
And beyond it, the relief spreading through her heart.
The face that had seemed so venomous softened like melting frost.
The woman gave a wistful, poignant smile laced with bitterness.
It carried a hint of serene detachment.
"I see. Good enough. Worthy... of taking as a disciple."
She murmured to herself, as if sorting her own feelings, then spoke in a somewhat relieved tone.
"Even that eunuch... no, forget I said that."
She hastily retracted the words that had slipped out unbidden.
But they'd already been heard.
Instead of continuing the conversation, the woman decided to change venues.
"Haah. Come in for now. Seems we have much to discuss."
Wi Sowol followed right behind her.
But with Huang Bo-yun still standing frozen, she had to backtrack a step.
"What are you doing? Come on."
"Y-yeah, right."
Even as Wi Sowol grabbed his collar and dragged him along, Huang Bo-yun's mind was fixed on the woman's earlier words.
A eunuch...?
Never seen one myself, but Sowol's master must be such a pitiful fellow.
The door was narrower than those of neighboring houses, but the interior was surprisingly spacious.
Aside from that, it looked much like any ordinary home.
At least, if you glanced casually.
It was a traditional siheyuan style that stretched from northern China to the south, blended with the distinctive Gan school architecture of Jiangxi Province.
The roof sloped to channel rainwater into the central courtyard—a four-waters-returning-to-the-hall design.
And to handle pooling water, the ground level was sunken lower than the surroundings.
Even the roof was double-layered, topped with horsehead firewalls for fire protection.
Overall, it fostered a profound sense of isolation from the outside world.
Designed to draw everything inward.
Rainwater, scents, sounds.
Wi Sowol had caught the faint whiff of arsenic and mercury from beyond the gate because her senses were so acute.
Not even the subtlest lingering trace escaped her.
"Fascinating, isn't it?"
The woman had noticed Wi Sowol examining the house's layout.
Without even turning her head—how?
This time, even Wi Sowol was a bit startled.
"My ears are sharp. This way."
She casually revealed her method and led them to a room.
The heart of the home for receiving guests: the main hall.
There, Wi Sowol uncovered another secret.
A draft whispered into the eastern chamber, where it should have been sealed tight.
Faint, but unmistakable—hinting at space beyond.
'A three-depth siheyuan.'
The house's blueprint sketched itself in Wi Sowol's mind.
The basic siheyuan was rectangular, with one building per cardinal direction.
This house advanced further.
Behind the main women's quarters, it extended into a rear garden and rear examination room.
This was a three-depth siheyuan.
Common folk rarely lived in even basic siheyuans.
Ordinary homes were three-sided courtyards.
A four-sided one marked middling status; adding a drooping flower gate made it solidly middle-class.
A three-depth version could belong to a fallen scholar family.
But beyond the wealth, Wi Sowol first discerned the purpose from the overall structure.
'Thoroughly concealed.'
"Tea?"
"No need."
"Suit yourself. I won't poison it, at least."
Huang Bo-yun barely restrained himself from leaping up.
Too blatant.
A clear hint that she knew of Wi Sowol's poisoning.
The air grew taut once more as the woman continued.
"But Ma Yu-seung didn't send you for me to cure your poison, did he?"
Her tone brimmed with certainty that he hadn't.
"He'd have detoxed you himself, by hook or by crook. No way he couldn't."
She muttered self-mockingly.
Wi Sowol hadn't said a word, yet the woman spun her own tale to conclusion.
"You came knowing me, but formal introductions are proper now."
No.
I don't, actually.
Honestly, without stumbling on the name Azure Echo Jade Maiden by chance, I'd still be lost.
Yet the woman seemed convinced Wi Sowol had gotten directions from the Weird Physician himself to find her hideout.
Hard to correct her now.
She was clearly delighted that Ma Yu-seung remembered her, barely hiding her smile.
Huang Bo-yun strained his facial muscles to stay expressionless.
"Liu Yeon-seo. Also called the Azure Echo Jade Maiden, but that's a burdensome title—ignore it."
She nodded at Wi Sowol, as if passing the turn.
"Wi Sowol, disciple of Ma Yu-seung in the healing arts."
"I'm Sowol's friend, Huang Bo-yun. I've met the Weird Physician master too!"
"I see. Makes sense. I heard he's in Shaanxi now. But Huang... from Gansu?"
"Spot on. And for the record, Sowol's from the same area as me. Hometown pals."
Huang Bo-yun jumped in amiably.
Liu Yeon-seo seemed to warm to him, her tone easing further.
"Titles are too much, name too soon. Just call me Elder Aunt."
"Nah, Elder Aunt sounds too old for you. Big Sis fits better, no?"
"...Hm. My age fits, but my standing..."
She trailed off, glancing slyly at Wi Sowol before finishing.
"Anyway, Elder Aunt it is."
"If that's easier."
Wi Sowol cared little for Big Sis or Elder Aunt.
Her focus had already shifted away from Liu Yeon-seo.
Her eyes kept flicking east—to the eastern chamber.
No, more than flicking; she stared openly.
"Young Mistress Wi?"
"Using the rear examination room as a ward?"
"Yes."
"As I thought."
Wi Sowol was now certain: the house was designed to hide whatever happened in that rear garden.
And why Liu Yeon-seo needed such measures.
Overkill for merely dodging Nangong World scrutiny.
One reason.
"You're no licensed physician."
Liu Yeon-seo differed from the Weird Physician or Wi Sowol.
She'd never formally studied medicine, worked in a healer's house, or sat the imperial exams—now open to women too.
Her skills were her own unique craft.
Thus.
"True."
Liu Yeon-seo was a quack.
"I'm a drug granny."
Before the imperial medical reforms.
Since Emperor Hongwu, founder of the dynasty, quacks had been shunned.
Hongwu, who rose from abject poverty, must have grown sick of charlatan healers peddling folk superstitions during his hardscrabble days.
Later, the reforms under the third emperor outlawed the Three Aunts and Six Grannies outright, yet women still sought them out.
Even scholar households called in steady grannies for births when no proper midwife was available.
Medicine had systematized for men to meet demand, but midwives lagged far behind.
Wi Sowol didn't judge it harshly.
The issue was that many Three Aunts and Six Grannies lacked even basic internal medicine knowledge, as the Weird Physician often decried.
Erroneous knowledge bred innocent victims.
And saving those victims was virtuous work.
"Going to report me?"
"Hardly."
This was someone the Weird Physician himself had pointed her to.
Quack or not, she was a cut above.
"Just curious how you treat the patients inside."
Perhaps seeing echoes of the Weird Physician in her.
Liu Yeon-seo readily offered to show the rear garden—something she'd never reveal otherwise.
"All right?"
"I'm the one who should beg a look. His disciple, you say? I'll expect great things. Follow me."
She guided them with graceful poise.
In her movements, Wi Sowol and Huang Bo-yun glimpsed her past.
'A courtesan, once.'
That explained hiding in the red-light alleys.
And why her patients were mostly women—courtesans, chiefly.
Entering the rear garden, the faint sweet rot and garlic-sharp tang grew distinct.
Mercury and arsenic.
Wi Sowol handed Huang Bo-yun her beak mask.
After fitting the beak mask onto Huang Bo-yun, Wi Sowol entered the rear examination room.
The patients lying on the sickbeds looked at her with pity.
She was so small, like a child—what a poor girl, ending up here… sympathy filled their eyes.
But when Wi Sowol approached without hesitation and began inspecting their sores, they realized their mistake, and their gazes turned cautious.
Wi Sowol frowned at the inflamed ulcers mottling the courtesans’ skin.
It was her first time seeing it, which only made the shock greater.
“This is… syphilis?”
“Yes. Exactly.”
Once, it had been called celestial pox.
But upon realizing it differed from the familiar sores of the Central Plains,
it was renamed poplar measles, its origins traced to the West.
After people endured its horrors—far surpassing ordinary sores—
the Central Plains gave it yet another name.
Syphilis.
The poison flower that bloomed to kill.