Married Thrice to Salted Fish

Chapter 3

Lin Qingyu got up and left. The patient himself has lost all desire to live, so what did he have to worry about? The sooner Lu Wancheng died, the sooner he could return to the Lin Residence.

Lin Qingyu went to the study. He came to the Nan’an Hou Mansion with only two boxes of things. One box contained clothing, and the other contained medical books. According to the rules of the Hou Mansion, he could bring two dowry maids with him. But he wasn’t used to being served by a woman. When he was in the Lin Residence, he’d had one page who grew up with him, who joined him in his studies and reading.

It wasn’t some glorious thing to be married as a male wife. He didn’t want his little page to enter the Hou Mansion as “dowry.” And so he came to Hou Mansion alone, with probably only this one box of medical books to keep him company in the future.

Among medical books, there were many ancient ones that he had yet to read. He didn’t know, there may be records of cases similar to Lu Wancheng’s in these ancient books. Lin Qingyu immersed himself in his reading and finally calmed down.

When he was in school, his classmates thought that medical books were boring and complicated. Reading just three pages was enough to get them sleeping. But for Lin Qingyu, those novels his schoolmates yearned for weren’t even a tenth as interesting as medical books. He, like his father, had a highly-retentive memory. What his classmates took a day memorize, he needed only to read once to be able to memorize and recite backwards.

His father was once of a mind to have him take the imperial examination, but he just wanted to be a medical officer. He liked the feeling of a patient getting better under his own hands. He wanted to enter the Imperial Hospital, where famous doctors from all over the world gathered. He wanted to hone his medical skills with them, to find cures for all kinds of intractable diseases, and to help the people.

He could have. He almost could have.

“Shaojun.”

The voice did not sound like that of a servant girl’s. Lin Qingyu looked up. Sure enough, it was the momo who kept pestering him to change his way of address. It was said that her surname was Liu.

Lin Qingyu said coldly, “What?”

Liu momo was all smiles. “Shaojun, it’s time to eat.”

Lin Qingyu didn’t have any appetite at all, but these dogs in the Nan’an Hou Mansion weren’t worth harming his body over. “Bring the food, I’ll eat in the study.”

Liu momo waved her hands again and again. “This is cannot be, Shaojun.”

Lin Qingyu frowned, “Why can it not be? Does the Hou Mansion’s rules say ‘no eating in the study’?”

“That is not the case. It is the madam’s order. It was because of the Chong Xi that our Young Master got his life back. Shaojun is the Young Master’s lucky star. You must stay together so that the Young Master’s illness can heal faster.”

To refute such remarks would only make him appear stupid. If a Chong Xi really could cure diseases, what need would Dayu have for doctors? Why would the court go to such great lengths to train medical officers? If you get sick, then just get married; then everything would be fine and well with the world.

Lin Qingyu looked at Liu momo and asked, “Momo, how old will you be this year?”

Liu momo didn’t know what Lin Qingyu intended by asking this question. Nevertheless, she still smiled and said, “This old woman is fifty and two.”

“A fifty-two year old who looks like forty-two. I might not necessarily live to reach fifty-two. Momo is very lucky. You should be the one to take care of the young master, that way he would heal even faster.”