Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: One Melody
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Wi Sowol left the syphilis ward first.
Inside, due to the fumigation, the rotten, fishy stench of syphilis mingled with the sickly sweet smell of mercury.
It was a stench no one would want to keep breathing in.
Hwangbo Yun, emerging from the ward, lightly circulated her qi to summon a breeze that swept the smell away.
Wi Sowol started to mimic her but stopped midway.
For Wi Sowol, it was as natural as breathing—a habit that slipped out reflexively.
Noticing this, Hwangbo Yun handed back the beak mask and blew away the odor clinging to Wi Sowol's body as well.
The three returned to the main hall in silence.
Wi Sowol had a whirlwind of thoughts swirling in her mind, while Hwangbo Yun felt a heavy ache in her chest from the horrific scene she'd just witnessed.
As the two girls sat lost in their respective reveries,
Ryu Yeonseo briefly stepped out and returned, sharing tea among them.
"Here, have some. It's called Cloud Mist Tea."
Hwangbo Yun, who had been sitting with a darkened expression, managed a faint smile and feigned familiarity.
"The tea said to have been savored by the Great Sage Equaling Heaven himself. I gratefully accept."
"You know your teas. Its smooth flavor is exquisite, and its fragrant aroma is perfect for masking medicinal odors."
It was an extravagantly expensive luxury good, to be sure.
But it was Ryu Yeonseo's one and only indulgence.
Hwangbo Yun upheld the refined tea ceremony with unexpected propriety, subtly revealing her noble upbringing.
Wi Sowol, on the other hand, had always treated tea as little more than watered-down inn swill for quenching thirst, so she gulped it down without a second thought.
"Ugh...!"
"Oh dear. It must be scalding hot. You must have a lot on your mind."
No, that wasn't it.
Hot drinks were nothing to Wi Sowol—even boiling lava wouldn't faze her.
In her past life, at least.
She'd been so deep in concentration that she'd momentarily forgotten her constitution.
It had been nearly two years since her regression, yet the ingrained habits of her previous life still clung to her body.
She consciously kept them in check, so they rarely showed.
In any case, Wi Sowol drained her cup in one go without so much as a "delicious" and plunged straight into the main topic.
"How is the treatment progressing? I caught whiffs of cinnabar and arsenic frost from outside."
Cinnabar was a mercury ore, while arsenic frost was a powder obtained by calcining arsenopyrite.
They carried a distinctive smell from the refining process into medicine.
At Wi Sowol's question, Ryu Yeonseo answered candidly.
Both cinnabar and arsenic were highly toxic, but they had legitimate medicinal uses, so there was no need to shy away.
"Indeed. We're basing it on ointments using live milk, supplemented by fumigation and moxibustion. We're avoiding diaphoresis and purgation."
"Live milk... from the Secret Records of Syphilis?"
Ryu Yeonseo nodded approvingly as Wi Sowol pinpointed the medical text she'd studied.
A fitting disciple of the Weird Physician.
"Exactly."
Honestly, she wouldn't have been disappointed if Wi Sowol hadn't known—even outright.
The Secret Records of Syphilis was the newest of the new, published just a few years ago.
Moreover, it originated from Zhejiang Province.
It would have been unreasonable to criticize her for being uninformed or slow on the news.
Thus, Wi Sowol's mastery of it—even the arts of her master, the Weird Physician who taught her—were all the more astonishing.
Though to Ryu Yeonseo, it was hardly news.
"Has that person ever shared his insights on syphilis with you?"
Ryu Yeonseo asked with eager anticipation, but unfortunately, Wi Sowol's answer was negative.
Syphilis spread with terrifying speed.
In just over twenty years since it reached the western edges, it had crossed the Central Plains to the eastern seas.
Yet it hadn't fully ravaged north of the Yangtze.
The Weird Physician in the north rarely encountered it.
He'd read the Secret Records simply because it was the latest medical text.
Not out of any particular need.
Merely because Wi Sowol had mentioned heading south, he'd lectured her on it once.
The issue was that even the Weird Physician lacked proper clinical experience.
If the master was like that, how could the disciple be any different?
"No."
"...I see."
Ryu Yeonseo tried to play it off, but her disappointment was plain.
Less at the Weird Physician himself, more a despair at the situation.
The patients' prognoses must not have been promising.
That struck Wi Sowol as a bit odd.
Ryu Yeonseo's treatments were undoubtedly excellent.
Appropriate, with no major flaws thus far.
But coldly speaking, anyone could do that much.
Anyone with basic medical knowledge, dexterity, and a reading of the Secret Records.
Even without being a physician.
Anyone could read a book and follow instructions.
So why had the Weird Physician specifically sent her to meet Ryu Yeonseo in Nanchang County?
Simply hoping his disciple would tie up his unfinished past ties?
No, that can't be.
The Weird Physician wasn't the type.
He was a man who, even on his deathbed, would untangle his own knots.
When Wi Sowol avenged him in his stead, his greater pain wasn't the thrill of vengeance denied, but the grief of staining his disciple's hands with blood.
A man like that wouldn't dump his ties on his disciple now.
"Let me be frank."
"Hm?"
"I never heard about you from my master. I only learned the name Clear Sound Jade Girl after arriving in Nanchang County. All he told me was the place name."
Eh? Is it okay to say that outright?
Hwangbo Yun didn't voice it, but her wide eyes said as much.
Undeterred by the gaze, Wi Sowol pressed on.
"I still don't know why Master mentioned Nanchang County, whether it points to you, or why he wanted me to find you."
Ryu Yeonseo sat straight, her eyes lightly downcast in half-lidded reminiscence.
A common expression when recalling the past.
From this, Wi Sowol gleaned that the bond between her master and Ryu Yeonseo ran deep.
"If you tell me, I'll help you in turn. With me here, even if the Namgung Clan discovers this place, there'll be no issues."
Clink.
Wi Sowol placed her chair token on the table.
Not to brag.
Simply proof of her utility.
Frankly, flaunting it would be laughable.
Ryu Yeonseo's treatments in the syphilis ward were impeccably clean; with her theoretical grasp, she could pass the spring examinations handily right now.
In the worst case, she'd handle it herself—face punishment and prepare for exams, or be taken under a wing by someone who recognized her talent.
But Wi Sowol offered value all the same.
She could bypass needless hurdles and safeguard her freedom.
Hwangbo Yun's eyes darted back and forth between Wi Sowol and Ryu Yeonseo.
Silence stretched in the quiet room.
Hwangbo Yun wrestled fiercely with the urge to intervene herself right then.
Fortunately, she didn't need to.
"Ten years."
Ryu Yeonseo's lips parted.
"It's already been ten years since then."
Hwangbo Yun's eyes sparkled, gulping as she leaned in, sensing a tale of deep, sticky history unfolding.
Such an intriguing story—how could the supreme eavesdropper of countless courtesans' romances in Gangneung let it pass?
That was when it happened.
Click-clang-ding-ding—
A hinge creaked open, accompanied by a small bell chime.
One might startle at the sudden sound, but no one here did.
The homeowner Ryu Yeonseo naturally knew its source.
And Hwangbo Yun had a similar device in her own home.
It was a clock.
A mechanical one that chimed at set hours.
A Western artifact brought alongside syphilis.
She resented them for spreading the disease, but saw no need to reject their ingenious devices outright—that was Ryu Yeonseo's view.
If handing over the clock could eradicate syphilis too, she'd do it in a heartbeat.
But such miracles didn't happen.
"You're not startled by the clock."
"We have one imported via the Silk Road as well."
"I figured as much."
Wi Sowol had never used one personally but knew the gist.
And flinching at a mere chime would shame her past life's experiences.
"Time's gotten away from us. All the better."
Ryu Yeonseo rose.
"Seeing is believing. I'll show you what that person wanted you to see."
She gestured for them to follow.
Then corrected herself.
"Actually, that saying might not hold this time."
In her hand was an instrument: a huqin.
With two strings, called the erhu, commonly used in the south and nicknamed the southern hu.
The patients' faces lit up as Ryu Yeonseo entered the syphilis ward with the southern hu in hand.
Wi Sowol finally understood why these sufferers of a hellish disease still had the composure to pity others.
A beautiful melody filled the ward.
It was as if flowers bloomed from her fingertips.
The crystalline resonance from mere friction of bow on two strings was unbelievable.
"Clear Sound Jade Girl..."
Hwangbo Yun murmured the moniker unconsciously.
One understood instantly why it fit.
A celestial maiden producing pure, pristine tones.
A shamaness descended from heaven to cradle the suffering women at society's fringes.
Like a gandharva from Buddhist lore.
The medicinal scent on her body was the fragrance of compassion for the sick and afflicted.
The heavenly music from her hands caressed the wounded like merciful fingers.
Smiles softened the faces strained by syphilis.
When the performance ended,
Wi Sowol noticed vibrant life force surging through their bodies, far stronger than before.
A mystical phenomenon akin to a miracle.
Wi Sowol named the power behind this miracle.
"Sound Arts."
Ryu Yeonseo was a master of sound arts.
She was a song physician who had pioneered the new frontier of musical therapy.