Chapter 349 - 306: Waiting for Someone
Chapter 349: Chapter 306: Waiting for Someone
By mid-August, the all-important "double rush" season in the rural South was finally over. The early rice was harvested, the late rice was planted, the grain was dried and stored, the public grain tax was paid, and the surplus was sold. After harvesting the corn and hoeing the bean fields, everyone could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The children could now focus on their summer homework in preparation for the new semester.
Xiao Man had already received her acceptance letter from the Beijing Medical College, but she was in no hurry to head to Beijing. She went to the post office and called the Tang Mansion, the Gu Mansion, and Mr. Tang to explain. She told them she had some things to take care of in the South and would naturally head over when the semester started.
Everyone was understanding. Grandpa Gu told her to take her time and handle her business. While others had to take a week-long train ride, she could get there in half a day on a military plane.
In truth, Xiao Man didn’t have anything particularly urgent to do. She was just living her life as usual at home in Gongdao Village. Besides managing her space, cultivating in secret, learning some basic Spells, reading, and practicing calligraphy, she helped Grandma with chores every day, tended to the herb room, and went with Grandpa to inspect the herb gardens, weeding and loosening the soil. When she had free time, she would cover a shift for Mo Chengfu at the village clinic and treat patients. Occasionally, she and a few friends would go up the mountain to gather wild fruits or cut bundles of firewood, treating it like a game. Grandpa didn’t have time to chop firewood on the mountain, and he wouldn’t let Grandma cut grass, so they just bought it. He had Zheng Shaolian bring his big truck to a nearby commune’s tree farm to buy two truckloads of branches and stumps. After bringing it back, they chopped it and stacked it in a corner of the yard like a small mountain. It was used for boiling water, cooking meals, and simmering pig feed, and it lasted for a very long time.
Hearing that Xiao Man was delaying her trip to Beijing, a few of her teachers in Ping County Town grew anxious. They sent Teacher Yu by car to find out what was going on. Since she had already been accepted, it would be a good idea to go early and get familiar with the school. Xiao Man had no choice but to explain the situation to Teacher Yu, who then left, relieved.
Guan Ailan and the others were touched and asked Xiao Man if she was staying because she couldn’t bear to leave them. Xiao Man laughed. "Don’t flatter yourselves. I’m waiting for someone!"
She was indeed waiting for someone: the direct descendants of Imperial Doctor Sun.
Xiao Man explained her reasoning to her Grandpa and Grandma: with the Reform and Opening-Up, the country’s doors were now open. Imperial Doctor Sun’s direct descendants would likely return soon, and it would be time to return the Sun’s Medical Books.
After Elder Sun passed away, Grandpa went to that large, crowded courtyard three or four more times to sell herbs. After that, he stopped going, preferring to sell to the state-run purchasing station, even if it meant earning less money. As for the reason, Grandpa found it a bit embarrassing to explain. Over a hundred people lived in that courtyard, all depending on the Sun Family for their livelihood, but probably fewer than thirty of them were actually named Sun. Yet, they were divided into four or five different factions. Every time he brought herbs in, different groups would try to pull him in their direction. Grandpa was caught in the middle. Not wanting to offend anyone, he eventually decided it was best to just stop going.
There was another reason: he never saw the kind, smiling Eldest Sister-in-law Sun, Shaoyao, again. He heard she had returned to her family’s home in the North. Grandpa felt the courtyard had suddenly become a strange and unfamiliar place, so he decided not to go back for the time being and to see how things developed later.
But as for whether Elder Sun’s body was buried in the South or the North, Grandpa was never able to find out.
’The Sun Family, an aristocratic family of medicine with a legacy spanning hundreds of years, still couldn’t avoid the chaos of its descendants scheming and fighting amongst themselves.’
’People are such contradictions. Those without sons long for one to carry on the family line, and they think the more sons, the better—more branches on the family tree means more blessings. But when it comes time to divide the family fortune, any perceived inequality leads to discord and fights. And as parents and elders, it’s rare for them to treat everyone perfectly equally. Just like Elder Sun. In the final moments of his life, his thought was still to hide the medical books passed down from their ancestors, saving them for his direct descendants!’
’Then again, maybe I’m overthinking it. It’s possible the Sun Family has an ancestral rule: the core teachings can only be passed down to direct descendants.’
Xiao Man sometimes thought about that old man with the vacant, rigid gaze. He had so readily given her the medical texts, treasured for hundreds of years, and the golden and silver needles that symbolized the authority of an Imperial Physician. It was only after she refused them that he said, "I’m just lending them to you. When the time comes, please return them to my direct descendants!"
’Was he so certain I would refuse? What if I had just been a real eleven-year-old girl and had ignorantly and impolitely accepted them? What would he have done then? Would he have died of anxiety on the spot? Or perhaps the shock would have jolted him back to health, leaving him to beat his chest in endless regret?’
Xiao Man couldn’t help but chuckle at her own thought experiment.
’The old grow shrewd. Imperial Doctor Sun was able to see past the surface to the essence of things, to know that I was no ordinary girl. That I could protect the medical books and would return them intact... it’s truly uncanny! It’s just a shame his fate wasn’t strong enough. He didn’t live to meet me a second time. If I had given him a little of the Space Spirit Spring, he probably could have lived a few more years.’
Although Xiao Man had the help of the Black Mountain Spirit Lord, who had embedded a Jade Scroll of medical classics into her Divine Sense that she gradually assimilated as her own knowledge, and though she could diagnose illnesses with her Divine Sense and even bring the dying back from the brink of death if necessary—making her a miracle doctor—she wouldn’t even need to study hard once she entered medical college, just coast through to get a diploma. But she hadn’t known she would have such a fortunate encounter back then. At the time, she had been genuinely captivated by the Sun Family’s medical legacy. She truly had earned Elder Sun’s favor, receiving the medical books and Golden Needle from him and borrowing Imperial Doctor Sun’s name to treat Mr. Gu in Beijing. No matter how you looked at it, she owed Elder Sun a great debt of gratitude. She absolutely had to properly return this set of medical books and the golden and silver needles to his direct descendants. And she would have to find a chance to visit Elder Sun’s grave to pay her respects.
As for everything else, there was no need for Xiao Man to do anything. The Sun Family had a deep foundation, and their descendants were more than capable. According to what she knew from her past life, Sun Medical would grow into a massive enterprise with immense wealth and influence. The small fortune Xiao Man had accumulated would be like a speck of dust in comparison.
If the direct descendants of the Sun Family wanted to find Xiao Man to retrieve the books, they would be led by Eldest Sister-in-law Sun. She knew Grandpa’s home address. Of course, other members of the Sun family knew it too. However, they would never have imagined that Elder Sun had entrusted the true legacy of his medical books to the granddaughter of Mo Amu, a man who only occasionally came to the city to sell herbs.
Xiao Man waited until August 20th, but the direct descendants of the Sun Family never appeared. Instead, Tang Qingyun arrived.
Before the college entrance exams, Tang Qingyun had visited Xiao Man in Ping County Town. At the time, he was tan and thin, with a haggard expression. Xiao Man didn’t talk with him much, nor did she want to know what he had been up to. He left her some money, and she accepted it. In return, she gave him two jars of assorted pickles, a bamboo tube of tea leaves, a cloth bag of dried fruit, and a bottle of ten Nourishing Yuan Pills.
The pickles were to be eaten with rice. The tea was to counteract the toxins from smoking. Chewing on the dried fruit could help him cut down on smoking. Grandma Tang had said he actually loved snacks. The Nourishing Yuan Pills were for him to take for now, to clear his meridians and strengthen his body. In the future, Hao Hao would pass on the Body Refining Techniques to him.
As for Mr. Tang, during the New Year, Xiao Man had already helped him with Bone Marrow Cleansing and Tendon Forging and guided him through Energy Introduction to begin his Cultivation.
’Tang Qingyun was, after all, part of the Tang Family. He was her grandparents’ son and Hao Hao’s father. Even if I didn’t want to acknowledge him, I’d still have to call him Uncle. Even if it was just for the sake of other family members, I couldn’t just ignore his health.’