Water Mirrored Moon - 水鏡月

Part IV - The Western Emerald: 66. Wrong Medicine*

"What are you trying to do, you old tiger?" Yang Ming Xi muttered to himself, as he unstopped a small bottle and sniffed at it. Shaking his head, he plugged it again, put it aside, and then shifted the stool so that he could pull out the drawer just above the one he'd been looking in.

Standing in his new medicine room, Yang Ming Xi could feel the tentative and nervous gaze of the young and gangly doctor that had been sent to him by his former student and current head of the Imperial College of Physicians, Chen Li. The young man was deplorably plain, but he had the most unusually bushy eyebrows. When they smashed together, Yang Ming Xi was reminded of a thick brown caterpillar.

Hmph!

"What did you say your name was again?" he barked, pulling the drawer toward him and peering in. "Aahh! This one," he muttered.

The young man bowed again.

"Grandmaster Yang, I am called Song Qi."

Yang Ming Xi turned, and looked him up and down with his eyebrows raised.

"Ennn. The name suits you*. Good. Good. So...is your master well?" he grunted, turning back to his work. Climbing down with an envelope in hand, he emptied its contents onto a scale on his mixing table. Carefully separating the other herbs, he measured out each type onto individual sheets of paper, carefully checking the scales twice before moving from one to the other. The young doctor watched appreciatively, recognizing hands that moved with the sure efficiency of long practice.

"Thank you, Grandmaster. Master is very well," said the young man, with a small smile.

"Oh? If he is well, then why is he asking me to write this prescription?" Yang Ming Xi snorted. "I can tell that the symptoms are recorded accurately, but that is not sufficient. I know he knows this too, but in order for me to ensure that I have correctly diagnosed the condition, I need to read the patient's pulse and properly observe him. If I cannot get the dosage right, then I might harm the patient. Asking me to do this...what is your master thinking, eh?"

The young doctor looked sheepish and then cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Master didn't say anything to me. He only instructed me to describe the symptoms and ask for your help in making the prescription. I was to do this secretly..."

"That bastard..."

Aghast, the young doctor recoiled with a grimace of surprise.

"Ah no, no, you're misunderstanding...I'm not talking about Chen Li. I mean the Emperor," Yang Ming Xi smiled kindly, eyes bending into pleasant crescents.

The look on the young doctor's face went from frozen astonishment to confused horror. Sucking in a breath, he looked like he was about to faint. Cursing the emperor was a capital offence.

Yang Ming Xi's smile became razor sharp.