Chapter 11: The Dispensary

After helping Yueli finish breakfast, Qingyun tidied up their empty food boxes and carried them to the courtyard gate.

She had assumed she would do the same as yesterday evening and leave them on the stone platform for Huzi to collect, but the moment she reached the entrance, she saw that dark, sturdy figure already waiting there.

“Eh?” Qingyun asked, somewhat surprised. “Huzi? Did we not agree that I could simply leave them outside? Why have you come so early?”

Seeing her come out, Huzi habitually scratched his head and explained in his usual simple manner, “It was Steward Huang.”

“He came looking for me just now and said the dispensary is short-handed today and cannot manage the work. He told me to call you over to help. And also... also to take you around and let you learn the routes to the main places in the residence.”

At those words, Qingyun’s heart gave a slight jolt.

Help out at the dispensary? And walk around the residence to learn the way? In truth, she would rather have remained in that remote little courtyard. On the one hand, she could continue trying to cultivate. On the other, she could avoid unnecessary trouble.

But she also understood clearly that she was only a servant now. Steward Huang’s arrangements were orders. She had no room to refuse.

“So that is how it is. I understand.” She nodded, suppressing that trace of reluctance. “Wait a moment. I will change into something more convenient for work.”

She quickly returned to the side room and changed into her oldest yet most durable plain coarse-cloth outfit. She tightened her hair again as well, making sure it was neat and practical. Then she hurried back to the entrance and said to the waiting Huzi, “Let us go. Thank you for leading the way.”

“Mm.” Huzi answered and turned to walk in front. His pace was not fast, as though he were deliberately making sure Qingyun could keep up.

One after the other, the two of them walked through the corridors and stone paths of the Bai Residence in the morning light.

The dawn shone over the exquisite pavilions and towers, making it feel like an entirely different world from that desolate little courtyard last night. From time to time, servants and maids hurried past. At most they spared the pair a glance, but asked nothing.

As they walked, Huzi began carrying out his duty of “introducing” the place.

Pointing toward a distant cluster of courtyards that looked still more secluded, and where the guards were visibly stricter, he lowered his voice slightly.

“See over there? The place with the high walls and guards standing at the gate—that is the main courtyard where the Master and Madam live. You must never go near it under ordinary circumstances. Without being summoned, even poking your head out for a few extra looks could get you punished.”

Then he pointed in another direction, where the buildings were even more refined, and where the outline of a practice ground and study could vaguely be seen.

“That is where the Eldest Young Master, Young Master Haotian, lives. The rules there are about the same as the main courtyard. If you are not one of the servants assigned there, you cannot go in as you please.”

“That side connected to the garden is the guest courtyard... over there are the side courtyards where the concubines live... that place is the storeroom, an important area, and the watch there is even stricter...”

Huzi was not a man of many words, and his explanations were dry and plain, without embellishment, but what he pointed out was clear enough.

Qingyun listened in silence, and once again marveled inwardly at the sheer size of the Bai Residence and the harsh rigidity of its hierarchy.

And this was only one part of the inner residence. It truly deserved its reputation as one of the foremost families in Maolong City. They were rich and powerful to the very extreme.

After walking for roughly a quarter of an hour, they arrived at a relatively separate courtyard where a faint medicinal fragrance hung in the air.

Above the gate hung a plaque bearing the words “Dispensary.”

Inside, people came and went, and it was much busier than the places they had passed earlier. Alongside the scent of medicine lingered the smell of fresh earth and drying herbs.

Huzi led Qingyun straight to an elderly man who was directing several servant lads as they carried medicinal materials.

The old man wore the attire of a steward in dark gray. His face was stern, and his eyes were sharp.

“Steward Liu, I have brought her over,” Huzi said respectfully.

The man called Steward Liu first let his gaze fall on Huzi, grunted once in acknowledgment, and only then swept Qingyun with a glance so swift it was almost perfunctory.

There was no warmth in that gaze. It was as though he were looking at a newly acquired tool.

He did not ask Qingyun’s name or background at all. Instead, in a tone tinged with impatience, he directly ordered,

“That is enough. Huzi, go teach her to identify the herbs. After that, the two of you are to sort the several large bundles that were delivered this morning according to type and place them into the corresponding medicine cabinets. Move quickly. Another batch must still be processed this afternoon.”

“Yes, Steward Liu,” Huzi answered obediently.

Once Steward Liu turned away to busy himself elsewhere, Huzi drew Qingyun over to the several large bundles of loose medicinal herbs stacked beneath the eaves.

These herbs still carried dew and dirt on them, clearly having been freshly gathered or recently purchased.

Huzi untied one of the cloth sacks, revealing a jumble of various leaves, roots, and stems inside.

He picked up one herb whose leaves were a pale green with clear veins, then said to Qingyun, “Look, this kind is Azure Spirit Grass. The leaves are this color, and it does not have much of a special smell. It goes in the second row, cabinet number two.”

Then he picked up a small flower that gave off a cool, clear fragrance. “This is Heavenly Fragrance Flower. Its scent is very distinctive, so you cannot mix it up. It goes in the eighth row, cabinet number eight.”

“This is Three-Leaf Spirit-Calming Grass. Its leaves split into three... it goes in cabinet number five.”

“This is the rootstock of the Ironbone Vine. It is very hard... it goes in cabinet number eleven.”

“This is...”

Huzi did not speak quickly. Each time he picked up a different herb, he pointed out its key features and where it was to be stored.

Though there were many kinds of herbs, most of them were not particularly rare, and their characteristics were fairly obvious.

Qingyun focused her mind, looked carefully, and memorized them in earnest.

Her mind had always been mature, and her memory was not poor to begin with. And after the initial step of drawing qi into her body last night, although her cultivation was still so meager as to be almost negligible, her spirit had become clearer and more focused than before.

After Huzi explained them once, the appearance, smell, and features of those herbs, along with the cabinet numbers corresponding to each, were imprinted in her mind as clearly as though they had been carved there.

When Huzi finished explaining the dozen or so herbs in the sack before him and was about to go back through them all again for Qingyun, she spoke up.

“Huzi, I have remembered them all. Azure Spirit Grass, cabinet number two; Heavenly Fragrance Flower, cabinet number eight; Three-Leaf Spirit-Calming Grass, cabinet number five; Ironbone Vine rootstock, cabinet number eleven...”

She recited them back smoothly, without missing a single one, even listing them in the same order Huzi had picked them up.

When Huzi heard this, obvious astonishment appeared on his dark face.

He stared at Qingyun with widened eyes, as though he had never expected that this newly arrived maid, who looked so slight and small, would have such a good memory. He opened his mouth and said somewhat blankly,

“You... you remembered them all? That is amazing... When I was learning this before, Steward Liu made me recite them three times before I remembered everything...”

Qingyun had just been about to casually explain that her memory was fairly decent when, before the words could leave her mouth, something strange suddenly happened!

A clear, pleasant voice rang directly in the depths of her mind without the slightest warning. Its tone was extremely similar to the lively female voice she had heard before from the one calling itself the “Immortal Seeker System.”

【Detected faint ‘Spirit Source’ fluctuations. Source: the three stalks of ‘Azure Spirit Grass’ ahead (approximately eight to ten years old). Absorb?】