Chapter 81

Familiar fragrance.

Riding in the ox cart, I finally arrived at the entrance of the Tang Clan, and the first thing I looked for was the grass. "Huh..." I didn't realize it while riding, but as soon as I stepped on the ground, a wave of seasickness hit me. The ground seemed to rush towards my face, and dizziness overwhelmed me. Unable to stand, I had to roll around on the grass. This was the result of three sleepless days on the Blue Dragon train. They say that if you spend a long time on a fishing boat, you get seasick when you step on land. It seems that what I'm experiencing now is exactly that. As I couldn't pull myself together, the leader of the Poison Blood Gang came over and supported me. "Are you alright, Mr. Liu Qingyun?" 'How can I be alright?' I managed to stand up, staggering like a drunk, and the warriors couldn't bear to see me struggle, so they supported me from both sides. As I was led into the Tang Clan compound by the warriors, Grand Uncle and Uncle, who had heard of my arrival, flew over using their lightness kung fu and shouted. "Qingyun, arriving so early! What good fortune!" "Qingyun! Your wife said you would arrive early last night, and indeed, you're here so quickly!" "Grand Uncle, Uncle, have you been well?" "Are you alright? You must have had a hard time coming so quickly!" Both of them seemed worried about me, but they also seemed restless. I quickly asked the warriors for help. "Please move me to a place where I can have a glass of cold water and see Tang Meimei." "Qingyun, take better care of yourself." "Yes, how can you treat patients in such a state?" As expected, they were worried about me, but Grand Uncle led the way, guiding me to Tang Yingying's quarters in front of the warriors. When we arrived at Tang Yingying's quarters, I took a sip of cold water and recalled scenes from medical dramas I had seen in my past life. 'First, touch her forehead, check her pulse, confirm her pupil reaction, look at her tongue, put on a serious thinking face, shake my head, and say, "I'm sorry, I can't..."' The probability of me curing Tang Yingying's illness was almost zero, and there was no way she would miraculously open her eyes and be healed just because I checked her pulse and examined her body. I was just running a simulation to make it look like I was doing something. -Sigh- After sighing, I thought, 'I've grown attached to her, but I hope she doesn't look too pitiful.' As I entered her quarters, my wife, Zhuge Qing, was sitting by Tang Yingying's side, taking care of her. When she saw me enter, she called out happily. "Master, you've arrived!" "Wife, did you have any trouble getting here?" "No, Master, everything was fine." Bowling with bandits didn't count as trouble for her. Since she didn't seem injured, I decided to be relieved and focus on checking on Yingying. Just as I was about to approach the bed cautiously, my wife suddenly stood up and came over. "Grand Uncle and Uncle, since you need to examine Tang Sister's body, would you please wait outside?" My wife, who wasn't asked to do anything, stepped forward like a nurse to stop Grand Uncle and Uncle, who were the Poison King. Surprised, Grand Uncle and Uncle, who were about to enter, stepped back. "W-What? Her body?" "Y-Yes. Let's step back. It seems there are things in Qingyun's medical skills that shouldn't be seen casually, like kung fu." "Yes, I'll assist Master, so don't worry." "Alright, I understand. Qingyun, please take good care of her." "Yes, Grand Uncle." 'What's going on?' Whether Grand Uncle and Uncle were there or not didn't matter, but I was puzzled by my wife's unsolicited actions as I approached Tang Yingying. Fortunately, Tang Yingying didn't look like a patient. She seemed to be sleeping lightly with her eyes closed. Then, my wife's voice came from behind. "Are you starting the treatment now? Pressing her chest... and... kissing her?" "Huh?" Now I realized that my wife had sent Grand Uncle and Uncle away because she thought I might perform CPR or artificial respiration on Tang Yingying, like I did on her. But that was only because I knew her condition and tried it in an emergency. I couldn't do that without knowing what was wrong or if she was in a life-threatening situation. I shook my head and explained to my wife. "No, that's only for someone who has stopped breathing." "I see. That's a relief, no, a big deal, no, I see." [Tsk] My wife blushed slightly, perhaps embarrassed by her own question, and I smiled. I thought I heard a small sigh from the bed, but when I checked, Tang Yingying was still motionless. "W-What's wrong?" My wife, stuttering slightly, asked why I was looking at Tang Yingying. I sat on the chair where she had been sitting and replied. "Nothing, I must have heard something wrong. I thought I heard a sound." Sitting on the chair, I started to pretend to take Tang Yingying's pulse, as I had simulated in my mind before entering. To deceive someone, you must first deceive yourself. I needed to show my wife that I was doing something to examine Tang Yingying. When I grabbed her wrist, I wasn't a doctor, so I didn't know anything. I only felt that her wrist was slender and her skin was soft, and that if she grabbed my throat with that wrist, I might die. When I touched her forehead, her temperature wasn't particularly high. Just in case, I checked her neck to see if she had any allergies like my wife, but there was nothing unusual. I forced one of her eyelids open to check her pupils, but her eyes were blankly staring at the ceiling. Finally, when I opened her mouth to check her tongue, a familiar fragrance started to fill my nose. 'Huh? What's this familiar fragrance?' A very familiar scent. As I followed the scent with my nose, my wife's voice, stuttering and sounding flustered, came from behind. "Master, what's going on?" I stopped following the scent and looked at my wife. "I'm sensing a familiar fragrance. It's definitely the smell of a patient..." The smell of a patient was definitely there. It was the smell of a medicinal cake I had made. If asked when I made it, it was the medicinal cake I gave Tang Yingying as a gift before going to Dongjing. I was sure the smell of the medicinal cake I detected on Tang Yingying was the one I made because, while making the cake, I added sugar for flavor and a bit of cinnamon to mask the flour's natural smell. The smell of the fried flour and the hidden cinnamon. Also, when frying, I mixed rapeseed oil and sesame oil, so the medicinal cake had a distinct sesame oil aroma. There was no doubt it was the medicinal cake I made. Two questions came to mind with the smell of the medicinal cake. Why was the smell of the medicinal cake coming from Tang Yingying, who had been unconscious for days? And why was I smelling the medicinal cake I had given her a long time ago, when she, a food lover, would have eaten it all by now? With these questions in mind, I brought my nose closer to Tang Yingying's face, where the scent was stronger. My wife, in a tone and manner reminiscent of a third-rate drama actor, exclaimed in surprise. "O-Oh, T-Tang Sister, her eyelids, they're moving." Her tone was like reading from an elementary school textbook. 'What's going on?' Feeling something was off, I turned my head to look at Tang Yingying, who was lying down. She was blushing from her neck to her face and trembling her eyes. Then, she slowly opened her eyes. "Huh?! Tang Meimei? Are you awake?! Tang Meimei? Can you recognize me?!" Despite the strange thoughts, I asked a few questions to check her condition since she had been bedridden for days. Tang Yingying's mouth slowly opened, and with a sweet smell, a tone like reading from an elementary school textbook came out. "L-Liu, you... saved... me..." I couldn't help but look back and forth between my wife and Tang Yingying. 'Is this some kind of tongue-stiffening infectious disease?' *** A little while later, the commotion inside caught the attention of Uncle and Grand Uncle outside. They must have heard the sounds inside. "W-What's going on? C-Can we come in?" "Qingyun, what happened? Did Yingying open her eyes?" Unable to hold back any longer, they burst into the room, their faces full of surprise. Seeing Tang Yingying lying on the bed with her eyes open, they rushed to her side and started shouting. "Yingying, it's Grandpa. Can you recognize me?" "Yingying? Are you awake?" In response to their questions, Tang Yingying, like a protagonist in a romance novel, turned her head to one side and answered in a weak voice, creating an atmosphere of a pitiful flower. "G-Grandpa, Father..." "Yes! What happened to you, girl?!" "It's a relief you can recognize people. It's a relief you're awake!" Then, my wife