When the morning light was just beginning to break, the Liu residence, quiet and still, suddenly rang with a cheer.
“The master is awake!”
The maids cried out, and the gathered family members hurried over in joyful excitement.
Although Lady Cheng had not been able to cure him, she had warned that the earlier one woke from such an illness, the better the chances of recovery. So the imperial doctor was summoned once more.
After a round of diagnosis and treatment, he did indeed regain consciousness.
Lying on the bed, Secretariat Editor Liu opened his eyes, his gaze cloudy. He seemed to want to turn his head—but couldn’t move.
The hearts of those gathered sank.
It seemed… there had been no real improvement after all.
“Master, Master, do you still recognize me?” several of the women wept as they crowded around.
Secretariat Editor Liu’s eyes were dull, his body trembling. His lips moved slightly, as if trying to speak—but no words came out.
“Doctor Li.”
The doctor, who had spent the night at the Liu residence, heard the commotion and entered from the next room, immediately surrounded by the family members.
“There’s no hope for our master, is there?” they all shouted in unison.
Such words—declaring someone beyond saving—should have been spoken in grief and despair, yet those speaking them now wore expressions of eager joy.
What a strange and twisted world this had become!
Doctor Li nearly stumbled over in shock, his face dark as the bottom of a pot.
Outrageous! These people had clearly called him here just to hear him say those words—
So they could go and fetch that so-called divine doctor!
“He’s beyond saving!” Doctor Li snapped angrily, flinging his sleeves as he turned to leave. “Go find whoever you want to look at him!”
Had this been any other place or time, the family would have been flustered, apologizing and begging him to stay. But instead—
“Quick, quick, hurry and carry the master to Lady Cheng!”
The room erupted into chaos—people shouting, stumbling, pushing and shoving.
Moments later, it all quieted down.
“Master, Master!”
At the doorway, the young apprentice stood holding the medicine chest, looking around for his master. Then he spotted a trembling hand reaching out from beneath the table beside the screen, gripping the edge for support.
“Master!” The boy rushed over and saw his master, who had been knocked over in the earlier chaos. His hairpin had fallen out, and his white hair was in disarray. At the sight, the boy forgot to help him up and instead burst into laughter.
“You wicked little brat!” Doctor Li scolded angrily.
Only then did the boy quickly reach out to help, pulling him up with effort.
“Master, are we still going?” the boy asked.
“We’re going!” Doctor Li shouted, tottering toward the door. “I’m going to report the Liu family—for insulting me! Humiliating me! I’ll resign my post, take off this vermilion robe, and go home to farm!”
At that moment, over at the Yudai Bridge, Cheng Jiao-niang had just finished her meal when Secretariat Editor Liu was carried in.
“Didn’t I already say I couldn’t treat him?” she said.
“Lady Cheng, we beg you—please,” the Liu family members pleaded through their tears. “Even Doctor Li said there’s no hope.”
“You’re worrying too much,” Cheng Jiao-niang replied. “He’s not going to die.”
The Liu family’s faces filled with sorrow.
When told he couldn’t be saved, they were overjoyed;
Now hearing he wouldn’t die, they were utterly heartbroken.
Truly, the world had turned upside down.
As the two sides spoke, Secretariat Editor Liu, lying on the door plank, finally began to regain clarity in his eyes.
Lady Cheng, Lady Cheng, please… save him…
The pleading voices echoed in his ears.
What was going on? What had happened?
Lady Cheng…
Lady Cheng!
“I truly hope Master Liu recovers. Such a good man—I’d really like to rely on him a bit more.”
A hoarse female voice entered his ears.
Secretariat Editor Liu trembled violently as he forced himself to turn his head—only to see a lady kneeling before him.
As if she had heard his movement, the lady turned her head toward him.
It was perhaps the first time Secretariat Editor Liu truly saw her face clearly.
A cyan outer robe over a ruqun skirt, long black hair tied in a single tail behind her head, and delicate, refined features—she was a beauty, an exceptionally beautiful lady. Earlier, he had only been focused on taking the money and hadn’t paid her any mind. Secretariat Editor Liu had always considered himself content and not greedy—but now, taking a proper look at her, he thought perhaps… after taking the wealth, he might keep the person too.
Just perhaps…
The beauty looked straight at him, her gaze unwavering. Her eyes were large and bright—so bright, in fact, that the black of her pupils seemed even darker, like a deep, bottomless swamp, sending a chill straight to his heart.
“It wasn’t easy for me to gain a foothold in the capital. I don’t want to see it all vanish like smoke,” the lady said slowly. “Master Liu, you know this in your heart too, don’t you?”
It had taken great effort to establish herself—she couldn’t let anyone take that away.
If someone wanted to destroy her, then she would destroy them first.
It was her! It was her all along!
No wonder he’d felt something was off—something had been wrong!
When things feel wrong, they are wrong. But he had let his guard down, simply because she was a young woman, a so-called fool.
That fool from Jiang–zhou!
“Jiang-zhou… fool…”
Secretariat Editor Liu screamed in his heart, but when the words reached his lips, they came out as a muddled, slurred four-character murmur.
“Look, he can make sounds now,” Cheng Jiao-niang said with a faint smile, still looking at Secretariat Editor Liu. “This illness won’t take your life after all. A good sign—a very good sign.”
A good sign? A good sign?!
Secretariat Editor Liu wanted to get up, to shout, to curse—he wanted to unleash all his emotions without restraint.
But then he realized… he couldn’t move.
Fear, rage, and despair surged over him all at once—so overwhelming it nearly suffocated him.
“Kill her!”
He finally managed to lift his trembling hand and, with great effort, pointed it at Cheng Jiao-niang, shouting hoarsely and incoherently.
This time, those nearby heard him clearly.
The members of the Liu family looked a bit awkward. Cheng Jiao-niang, however, remained calm, slowly sitting up straight.
“The master must be delirious from his illness,” one of the Liu family members said quickly, with a hint of pleading in their voice. “Lady Cheng, are you truly unable to treat him? We’ll pay anything—whatever it takes.”
“If it could earn money, do you think I wouldn’t take it?” Cheng Jiao-niang shook her head, withdrawing her gaze from Secretariat Editor Liu and turning to the family. She lowered her head and offered a respectful bow.
“But if it is not fated, then no amount of effort can change it.”
The Liu family looked utterly disappointed—yet powerless to do anything.
“However,” Cheng Jiao-niang continued, turning her head to look at Secretariat Editor Liu, “although I cannot cure him, I know a little—this kind of illness requires calm rest and keeping one’s spirits light. Only then can the recovery be swift. Otherwise…”
She shook her head as she spoke.
“The condition will only worsen,” she said.
Keep one’s spirits light?
Secretariat Editor Liu looked at the girl, his slurred curses growing more indistinct. Finally, his hand dropped, and he fainted.
In just one day and night, Secretariat Editor Liu—who rarely even caught a cold—had fainted twice. The difference was that the first time was from great joy; this time, it was from anger.
Chaos erupted immediately in the main hall—but still, there was no sadness.
“Lady Cheng! This time he’s going to die, right? Can you save him?”
Amid the commotion, many people shouted loudly, their voices tinged with a strange excitement.
What kind of situation was this?!
Jin Ge’er, standing in the courtyard, couldn’t help but rub his nose. The capital was truly a bizarre place—he was definitely learning something new.
Old Master Chen couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Keep one’s spirits light?” he repeated, laughing heartily again. “That’s a cruel, poisonous thing to say! Holding in anger and resentment until you become a cripple—how can anyone keep their spirits light like that? Even the greatest immortal couldn’t do it!”
Chen Shao laughed along, but his smile was forced and strange.
“It’s actually kind of pitiful,” he hesitated before saying, “A perfectly healthy person suddenly like this… it might be better if the illness progressed slowly, so at least the mind could prepare. This is just… just too much to bear…”
People are truly fragile. They may seem to be riding high on the winds of fortune, unstoppable and carefree—but just the slightest touch of a tiny finger, and a person shatters like a clay doll.
That finger is like an unpredictable fate, whose touch no one knows when it will fall upon themselves. The unknown is the most terrifying.
This girl is becoming just like that finger that decides people’s fates.
With her gentle touch, from Jiang-zhou to the capital, countless lives have been changed in an instant.
Isn’t a person like that… a little terrifying?
