Xie Yushu knew exactly where the clinic was—Su Chi’s stall was set up right in front of it.
Inside the clinic.
At the medicine counter near the entrance, four or five young apprentices were busy filling prescriptions, rushed off their feet. The culprit, Doctor Li, sat at her table taking pulses, her expression a picture of deep, solemn expertise.
“Your condition…” she said to a patient, rattling off a diagnosis with a self-satisfied nod, then waved the grateful patient away with a flourish and called for the next one.
Suddenly, a sturdy arm extended toward her, revealing a pale, smooth wrist for her to examine.
Doctor Li was a little surprised.
Her usual patients were poor folk with thin, stick-like arms. She’d never seen such a healthy, robust arm before. She looked up at the visitor.
The woman before her was stunning—not in a soft, delicate way, but with clear, bold features and flawless brows. She outshone most men. Her clothing suggested she wasn’t short on money.
The next patient was none other than Xie Yushu. She plopped down onto the stool with easy familiarity, presenting her wrist for Doctor Li to feel.
When the three of them had entered, the clinic had already been packed with a long queue. Guizhi, quick-witted and without any instruction from Sun Wuyou, generously distributed silver coins to everyone they cut in front of.
Those who’d been waiting accepted the money without complaint and silently yielded their places.
Doctor Li paused for a moment. Ever the opportunist, seeing a woman of apparent means, she focused with renewed vigilance, pressing two fingers to Xie Yushu’s wrist. After a moment, she smiled politely. “The young lady is in excellent health—no illness at all.”
Xie Yushu nodded—that made sense. She did have the constitution of an ox.
“Doctor Li is quite right,” she agreed. “I am indeed very healthy.”
But then her tone shifted. Her casual demeanor disappeared, replaced by a piercing gaze. “So why is it that you can diagnose me so accurately, yet treat others so carelessly?”
The smile on Doctor Li’s face froze. She recovered quickly. “What are you saying, miss? I don’t understand. I always give my patients my full attention. Accusing me of carelessness is simply unjust.”
“Don’t understand? Then take a look at this.”
Xie Yushu slapped a freshly written prescription onto the table with a loud crack. The noise drew the attention of everyone in the clinic—patients, apprentices, all stopping to stare.
The prescription had been written by Sun Wuyou based on the dregs from the medicine pot. Trusting her medical judgment, Xie Yushu confronted Doctor Li with it.
Doctor Li’s heart skipped a beat. Hesitantly, she picked up the prescription and examined it.
It wasn’t her handwriting, but the herbs listed were indeed from her prescription.
This… wasn’t this the one for that young man from the Su family? How did this woman have it?
Seeing Doctor Li’s face change as expected, Sun Wuyou stepped forward to back Xie Yushu up. Her voice rang out, full of authority: “This prescription was written by Doctor Li. But the herbs listed here don’t match the patient’s condition. The patient suffers from liver qi stagnation, yet you prescribed medicine for blood deficiency and cold-dampness—am I wrong?”
“After such a serious misdiagnosis, you deceived the patient’s family into changing the prescription to even more expensive herbs. Because of your negligence, the patient has been taking the wrong medicine for over a year and his health has steadily declined. And you still claim you don’t understand?”
The crowd, now fully engaged, gasped at this revelation.
Everyone knew Doctor Li was the most skilled physician in town. They’d all come on her reputation, and the clinic was packed every day.
Even the apprentices had stopped their work, staring at their respected mentor in disbelief.
“Do you have any idea how hard that young man’s family has it? Father and son, alone, barely making ends meet—and you’ve been swindling him like this all along!”
Sun Wuyou had learned about Su Chi’s family situation from Xie Yushu just before—she’d remembered every word. The more she thought about it, the more it sickened her. This quack was truly despicable, using people’s life-saving money to recklessly prescribe wrong medicines.
The woman before her, dressed in even finer clothes, was publicly confronting her in front of a full clinic. Outside, curious onlookers craned their necks to see the spectacle, all eyes fixed on her, waiting to see what she’d say next. Doctor Li’s composed demeanor had long since crumbled.
In her daily practice, everyone treated her with respect, addressing her politely as “Doctor Li.” Now, being dressed down by two young women in front of everyone—how could she swallow that?
Doctor Li refused to back down. She was confident in her medical skills. She snorted disdainfully at Sun Wuyou, flinging her sleeve in a dramatic gesture, and snapped, “And who are you? An inexperienced little girl daring to question my prescription?”
Guizhi, of course, wouldn’t stand for that. She stormed up to Doctor Li and said with contempt, “Our young miss is the Fifth Miss of the Sun family—”
Before she could finish, Sun Wuyou pulled her back and whispered earnestly, “Guizhi, don’t bother telling a quack like her who we are—it would only shame our family.”
Guizhi huffed and rolled her eyes at Doctor Li. “Yes, miss.”
The mistress and servant’s coordinated act nearly made Doctor Li faint from rage—how dare they call her a quack?
But then she caught the word “Sun family.” It sounded familiar somehow.
She couldn’t dwell on it now. She straightened her back and declared righteously, “You can say whatever you want when the patient isn’t here. This prescription isn’t in my handwriting. For all I know, the three of you conspired to frame me. My clinic is always full—jealous rivals might have sent you to slander me. What can I do?”
“You hear of thieves every day, but you never hear of people having to guard against thieves every day,” she said, sounding utterly wronged, playing to the crowd.
Her stance was simple: the patient wasn’t there, the prescription wasn’t in her handwriting, and there was no proof. Who’s to say they weren’t sent by a rival clinic to ruin her reputation and steal her business?
Doctor Li turned the tables, accusing the three of wrongdoing.
Xie Yushu wasn’t fazed. She’d expected this old fox to deny everything. She deliberately raised the stakes: “Since you insist on arguing so unreasonably, we’ll wait right here for that young man from the Su family. He’ll be coming to this clinic anyway—I’m his neighbor, and he asked me to come reason with you first.”
At those words, Doctor Li’s palms grew sweaty. Her eyes darted nervously.
The young man from the Su family was a regular at her clinic—many of her apprentices recognized him. And since he sold buns outside her door, even more people had seen him. If they confronted each other face-to-face, she really wouldn’t stand a chance.
This was trouble…
Doctor Li regretted it bitterly, mentally slapping her own thigh.
She shouldn’t have been so careless—just a quick glance at the father and she’d scribbled out a prescription. Then, knowing the son had a stall and some income, she’d added a couple of expensive herbs to line her pockets. Now she was in deep trouble.
Her expression shifted instantly. She turned to Xie Yushu with a placating smile. “Perhaps… perhaps I made a slight error in my prescription. I admit it. What kind of compensation would you like?”
At the mention of compensation, Sun Wuyou stepped in. She was an expert in this area.
She knew the price of every herb, understood the toll a long illness took on the body, and could calculate the cost of nutritional supplements. After a quick whispered calculation with Guizhi, they settled on a figure.
Sun Wuyou held up a number with her hand and declared firmly, “At least eight guan in compensation.”
“Eight guan?! You’re robbing me!” Doctor Li’s eyes bulged as she shouted.
Before getting off the cart, Su Chi had given them an estimate of how much he’d spent on Wang Wen’s medicine over the years. Sun Wuyou laid out the compensation item by item.
Even the onlookers were shocked by the amount. The Su family had been paying that much for medicine? Far more than any of them paid.
Doctor Li must have been lining her pockets quite handsomely.
That poor young man—no wonder he worked so hard at his stall every day.
Doctor Li had thought to settle with a small payout, but these women were demanding eight guan in silver—and throwing in costs for supplements and lost farming income on top of that.
The two sides reached an impasse. Doctor Li, being the shrewd fox she was, would only agree to compensate for the cost of the incorrectly prescribed herbs—around three guan—and refused everything else.
After a long silence, Xie Yushu spoke up, her words landing on Doctor Li’s ears like a thunderbolt: “According to the laws of our dynasty, if a physician’s misdiagnosis causes a patient’s condition to worsen, they must compensate for the patient’s medicine costs, recuperation expenses, and lost wages from being unable to work.”
“Otherwise, the penalty ranges from flogging to imprisonment.”
Doctor Li was genuinely startled—there was actually such a law, and it carried such harsh penalties?
Her face turned pale and flushed in turn. Her hands clenched tightly beneath her sleeves. She didn’t speak, only glared hatefully at the three before her.
“If Doctor Li refuses to pay, that’s fine too. I’ll just have to go to the county and find a reputable litigator to file a lawsuit against you. In the end, you’ll be the one who loses.” Xie Yushu said it with an air of ease.
Gritting her teeth, Doctor Li finally relented: “I’ll pay!”
The three of them walked out of the clinic, their faces much lighter. Sun Wuyou and Guizhi, in particular, wore innocent smiles—this was the first time they’d helped a patient beyond just treating them.
After the excitement subsided, Sun Wuyou asked curiously, “Xie Da, does our dynasty really have such a law?”
Xie Yushu gave a sly smile. “Of course not. I just made it up to fool her. Besides, if such a law really existed, wouldn’t doctors be too afraid to treat anyone?”
“That’s true.” Sun Wuyou thought it over and agreed. Such a law would be unreasonable.
The biggest misunderstanding people had about healers was treating them like miracle workers—if a patient couldn’t be saved, it must be because the healer didn’t try hard enough. [Note]
If every mistake led to severe punishment, who would dare to practice medicine? One wrong diagnosis could ruin them forever.
The thought made Sun Wuyou shudder.
Xie Yushu figured Su Chi wouldn’t be back from Bailian Town so soon. She felt a little guilty toward the two lively mistress and servant—they’d been dragged away right at mealtime and hadn’t eaten yet. To make up for it, she took them to a restaurant and ordered several good dishes.
Halfway through the meal, after Sun Wuyou had finally taken the edge off her hunger, she found the leisure to ask Xie Yushu something that was still puzzling her.
“Xie Da, what exactly is your relationship with that young man from the Su family? I feel like you two…”
She trailed off, searching for the right word to describe their relationship.
Xie Yushu shot her a sidelong glance. This woman was far too curious.
Still, she decided to explain—otherwise, Sun Wuyou would never let it go. “He’s a good person—kind, hardworking, and his cooking is miles better than mine. He’s a wonderful neighbor.”
“You know me—I’m kind-hearted. I went to a lot of trouble for that young man He Chao too.”
“Is that so?” Sun Wuyou took a sip of soup, her eyes sneaking a glance at Xie Yushu. She felt like there was something Xie Da was covering up with that second sentence.
What was it?
She thought of the Su family young man’s delicate, gentle features. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off—her thick nerves finally connected the dots about matters between men and women.
Then Sun Wuyou laughed softly and nudged Xie Yushu’s arm with her elbow. “You wouldn’t happen to have taken a liking to him, would you?”
“Xie Da, at your age, you really should—”
Before she could finish the word “should,” Xie Yushu stuffed a large meatball into Sun Wuyou’s mouth, effectively shutting her up.
Xie Yushu kept her face neutral as she continued eating. “Nothing of the sort. He’s just a neighbor. Eat up—the food’s getting cold.”
“Mmff—” Sun Wuyou tried to say something through the meatball, but no one paid her any attention.
Guizhi, meanwhile, kept eating steadily. Watching the two of them, she silently sighed to herself:
Really, miss—even I, who’s several years younger, can see it. It’s so obvious, and you still had to ask out loud, making Miss Xie too embarrassed to answer.
Sigh.
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