HE With the Cold Male Protagonist C67

Chapter 67: Opening the Apothecary, Building the Waterworks

“No, it was witnessed by these eyes alone. He departed together with those unable to muster the silver and was taken away with them,” the messenger reported cautiously, recounting every detail of the scene.

Qin Chunquan and Dong Chengying exchanged a glance, and at once their spirits soared, as though their meridians had been opened; even their eyes crinkled with laughter.

“So, some hand has at last moved against him? That scourge has finally been removed!”

“Likely he offended too many, and someone contrived his downfall.” Qin had indeed considered consigning the fellow to dig the flood channel, yet with silver in lieu of service, that brat had never seemed short of coin, making it difficult to carry out.

“Now that he is gone, his workshop can scarcely endure!” Dong rubbed his hands together, eager to set about seizing Jichun for himself.

When the boy returned—if he ever returned—to find his workshop empty, the sight would be priceless. No, let him never return at all.

The messenger wiped cold sweat from his brow and added timidly, “Only… only it seemed to me, perhaps, that Master Jiang went of his own will?”

“What?”

He hastened to explain, “Perhaps I misheard. For who would be so foolish as to consign himself to such labour? This is no gold mine.”

Qin paused, frowning. Baiye truly had no reason to go of his own accord—unless he had lost his senses.

“And the task I set you? Have you bribed the folk of Qingshui Village?”

“We—disguised ourselves as lenders, offering low or no interest, that we might gain leverage. But we discovered…”

“Discovered what? Out with it, cease your dithering!” Dong snapped. Of late, Baiye had so vexed him that his head and chest ached; nothing pleased him more than hearing ill of him.

“The people of Qingshui had no need of our silver. First, the head tax was suddenly reduced to but fifteen taels—many could gather it. Second, those tied to the workshop or close to the Jiang family borrowed directly of Jiang Baiye’s household. None would trust strangers such as us.”

“There had been more than half the village who could not possibly pay. We had their agreement. Yet once Baiye was led away with the constables, none resisted. None borrowed. They all followed meekly.”

What they dared not say was that the scene had been uncanny. Those taken did not wail nor struggle, but seemed relieved, some even cheerful—as though bound for a spring outing, not back-breaking labour.

“So in the end, naught was accomplished. Worthless curs!” Qin spat, yet unease stirred within him. “Did the He family aid him again? Jiang Baiye could never reach this point unaided!”

His thoughts turned to Vice-Prefect Chen’s sudden change of manner. “It all comes back to that Prefect Yan. When the decree recalling Doctor Hu arrives, he too shall feel the lash!”

Qin seethed. Hailing from the capital, he feared no petty provincial official. Prefect Yan had stood on the brink of promotion; now this affair might see him mired here for years, or even dispatched to some desolate post.

“Keep watch upon the He household. Seek other chances in Qingshui. At the worst, seize Jichun’s craftsmen, put them to the question, and wring out their secrets by force!”

They fancied Baiye’s departure their opportunity, never dreaming he had already entrusted his workshop to He Lin and the He family’s eldest son, He Jun—a man of swift action and unyielding reliability.

Meanwhile, Prefect Yan himself was in no danger. For Jiang Yueming, spurred by Baiye’s provocation and desperate for his life, had laid bare every crime, submitting a blood-soaked memorial of confession.

With that thread to follow, the Prefect rooted out remnants of bandits, unmasking Doctor Hu’s further misdeeds. Hu was seized, not slain but led away in chains, to serve in the capital under sentence.

At once the headquarters of Shanyi Hall was thrown into uproar, scrambling to purchase his release.

But rumours spread with lightning speed: in Yuzhou, a certain apothecary named Huichun Hall had within its walls a physician capable of treating the very malady that plagued a noble consort within the palace.

Eager ears carried the tale swiftly to court. Already patients with similar symptoms had found relief there. Even had it been mere rumour, men would hasten to investigate, for to please such exalted patronage was reward enough.

Thus, when the lady and her sponsors recommended Huichun’s physician for the palace, even Master He, though confident in success, trembled as he journeyed with his brothers to Yuzhou, fearful that the slightest misstep might doom the clan.

Half a month later, before Shanyi could react, Huichun’s physician had completed most of the treatment. The results were manifest, and the Dragon Throne rejoiced!

Rewards poured forth like spring rain.

With imperial favour secured, Master He proudly established a branch of Huichun in the very capital itself.

Shanyi could not endure it. Qin Chunquan, bleeding coin and pride in Xuānhe, was recalled in haste, returning to the capital in disgrace—only to witness Huichun opening its grandest hall in the most splendid quarter of the eastern city.

Half the capital turned out to see. Nobles thronged amidst the crowd.

For this was no common apothecary, but the only one graced by the Emperor’s own hand. In modern terms, it bore the golden seal of official sanction, a mark Shanyi Hall had never attained.

None dared touch Huichun now; its backer was the mightiest of all.

Master He and his brothers, radiant, hung the Emperor’s inscribed plaque and couplets with their own hands, grinning from ear to ear.

“Today, our Xuānhe Huichun Hall opens its grandest branch in the capital. We beg your continued patronage.”

“Who would not?” murmured the crowd. With the Emperor’s inscription, this Huichun must truly be extraordinary.

“As a hall of healing, we shall not betray the name ‘Return to Spring.’ We vow to save every life within our power, to ease suffering, to keep our fees modest, that none shall be denied medicine by poverty.”

His words were earnest, and hearts were moved. Rare indeed was such a vow. Few great halls dared it.

And many noted—was this not a challenge to Shanyi itself? Shanyi, infamous for its exorbitant fees, its doors open only to the rich and powerful, while common folk languished outside.

At that moment, no one desired Huichun’s success more than the people.

Firecrackers thundered, scarlet paper rained from the sky, children laughing as they scrambled for sweets and lucky coins.

Master He himself seized handfuls of copper and scattered them. Adults too joined in the scramble, laughing. His largesse astonished all.

The hall gleamed with golden plaque, wide doors, and spotless floors. None doubted a new giant was rising in Great Ning.

From a distance, watching all, Qin Chunquan nearly fainted.

When he gathered himself, sifted the news, and pieced it together, he spat blood in fury.

“Jiang Baiye! Jiang Baiye!”

While he knew nothing, Baiye and Huichun had wrought a transformation. Their rise was unstoppable; he could move against them no more.

Meanwhile, countless mouths repeated that single name—until the man himself sneezed several times.

Baiye rubbed his nose and laughed. “Who thinks of me so intently? So intently that it stirs my spirit.”

“What is it, Brother Jiang? Autumn’s chill bites deep. Do clothe yourself warmly. Were you to fall ill, how could we continue this work?” cried several foremen, fine figures of men, each holding a humble steamed bun.

“It is nothing.” Baiye sniffed. Indeed, a touch of cold gnawed at him. A month of toil in wind and rain, surveying and calculating without cease, had wearied his frame.

Yet the results were glorious. By his aid, the difficulty of constructing the flood channel had been lessened by more than a degree, the pace quickened, the labour spared.

For Baiye had not come merely to dig. From the moment the constables led him away, Engineer Liu—who admired him greatly—had drawn him into the prefecture’s central design team.

With prodigious skill in calculation and knowledge of hydraulics far beyond the age, he was soon advanced to the imperial engineers’ corps, entrusted with vital designs.

Though he knew little more than the fundamentals, he had Liu and Sanzi as his assistants. Moreover, he had seen with modern eyes the wonders of the Dujiangyan and Lingqu, and had read of Li Bing and Guo Shoujing. Above all, with mathematics and physics of another world, he solved in moments problems others could not unravel in days.

Yet beyond all these, he possessed a weapon most enviable.

Climbing from the channel, he clapped his hands free of dust. “I shall away to supper.”

At once the men’s eyes glistened with longing.

For what they envied most was not his brilliant mind, but the fact that even amidst such harsh toil, he never failed to feast well.

“How I miss Brother Jiang’s cooking.”

“Ha! You ate his noodle soup but this very morn!”

“And I his braised pork last eve!”

Those who had gone without wept broad tears. Yet even to breathe the fragrance of his fare made their cold buns taste sweet.

“Tell me, who was that within the carriage? Brother Jiang seems strangely close to him.”

“I glimpsed him—fair beyond compare. Likely a fellow villager, for the folk all greeted him so warmly.”

Thus they whispered, while Baiye, on his way to the carriage, was greeted on every side—by those he had rescued, by labourers whose burden he had lightened, above all by the folk of Qingshui, who now blessed the choice they had made.

Once they had missed the chance to join his workshop. Now, by following him to labour, they had spared their households much silver.

And though they had toiled a month on the channel, it had not been unbearable. With fair rewards—grain, coin, clothing, shoes—they worked with spirit. The overseers, cheered by progress, had foregone their usual beatings.

All knew it was Baiye’s measures that had made it so.

And so, wherever he walked, he was greeted with respect: “Master Jiang.”

He nodded lightly, passed quickly on, and reached the carriage. Before lifting the curtain, his eyes were already alight with joy.