Unexpected Guest
Feng Yu Heng entered the yard while being pushed by the crowd of children. Wang Chuan led others to bring the things off the carriage and brought them into the yard to be distributed to the children. Fu Shan pointed at the group of people standing in the middle of the yard, especially the two children kneeling on the ground, and said: “Imperial daughter, take a look. These are two children that were saved after they fell into the water. They insisted on having the residence taking them in.”
Feng Yu Heng asked Fu Sang, “Are they orphans?”
Fu Sang shook her head and said: “It’s because they aren’t orphans that this problem arose.”
“Not orphans?” Feng Yu Heng was puzzled and took a few steps forward; however, her gaze turned to the few people that were standing next to the two children. She paid extra attention to a noble young man whose body was quite wet. Although he looked to be in quite a bad situation, he still had a bit of the grace of a noble’s son. She just felt that this person looked a bit familiar; however, she could not immediately recall where she had seen him before. That person also wanted to speak with her, but the two kneeling children began to cry and plead, thus he pulled his servants back and gestured for Feng Yu Heng to go ahead. Feng Yu Heng politely nodded to him then asked the two children: “I heard that you two are not orphans? Then why have you requested that we take you in? This place is an orphanage, and all those taken in are without parents.”
She spoke in a gentle tone while stepping forward. Grabbing the two children’s wrists, she checked their pulses. With their bodies soaked on a Winter day, it was clear that they had just been pulled out of the water. For them to have been kneeling on the ground, it would have been odd if they did not catch a cold.
The two children saw that she looked like the master and did not care that Feng Yu Heng was grabbing their wrists, quickly saying: “We’re begging you to take us in. We know that this is an orphanage, but we also heard that this place teaches people medicine, and it’s very famed medicine. Our mother fell ill with a very serious illness, and our family spent all of its money to treat our mother’s illness, and there is no money left for treatment. We’re begging you to take us in and teach us medicine. Let us treat our mother. We can do work for the residence. My younger brother and I are both seven and can do many things. In the future, when we grow up and have earned some money, we will send it here as repayment. We will not stay here for free. We’re begging you!”
While the children were speaking, they kowtowed once more. Feng Yu Heng gave Tian Dong and Fu Sang a look to have them quickly stop the children. She then let go of their wrists and said: “Their bodies are weak, and they have colds. It seems like you fell in the water, right? It’s fortunate that you were pulled out quickly. If you were in there for much longer, perhaps half of your life would be lost.”
Only then did Tian Dong say: “These two children came from the other side of the river up ahead. Part of the river has already frozen. For the sake of taking a shortcut, they took the risk and crossed over the ice; however, they didn’t know that the surface of the ice was not sturdy, and a hole opened up when they reached the middle and swallowed them.” After she finished speaking, she looked to the noble’s child and continued: “It’s fortunate that this kind young sir was passing by on the shore with his attendants. Seeing the two children fall in, he quickly saved them. Otherwise, these two children really would have been out of luck.”
Tian Dong finished speaking her part, and the young man finally spoke up: “These two children have quite sturdy bodies. After being pulled out of the water, they were able to speak. They said that they wanted to come to the other side of the river to go to the residence that teaches medicine. I thought a bit and figured it would be this place, thus I made the decision to bring them here.”
Feng Yu Heng smiled and nodded, saying to the young man: “Many thanks, regardless of the case, it’s two lives. For having a kind heart and saving them, A-Heng is grateful.”
“A-Heng…” The young man pondered for a while then faintly smiled, looking at Feng Yu Heng and not making a sound.
The more that Feng Yu Heng looked at this person, the more she felt he was familiar, but she just could not remember where she had seen him before. At this time, the two kneeling children had already begun shaking; however, they were still persistent in grabbing Feng Yu Heng’s cloak from behind, pleading and begging. Feng Yu Heng was helpless and could only say to Tian Dong: “Take care of arrangements for them first. No matter what the situation, we need to take care of their cold before talking about anything else.” After saying this, she looked at the two children again and said: “It hasn’t been decided that we will take you in. It’s just that your current physical condition will not allow you to continue moving outside. For now, you will be staying here, and we will talk about things later.”
The two children nodded, knowing that continuing to beg would be pointless; moreover, they were also extremely cold. If they continued to kneel, they might die on the spot. Thus they did not object and allowed Tian Dong to have servants bring them inside.
At this time, Wang Chuan’s side had handed off the matter of distributing the gifts to the servants of the residence. She then trotted over to Feng Yu Heng’s side. Taking a look at the soaked but still composed young man, she quickly bowed and saluted: “This servant Wang Chuan greets…”
“There’s no need for miss to be courteous.” Before Wang Chuan could finish speaking, the man quickly spoke up to stop her. At the same time, he stepped forward and helped up the partially bowed Wang Chuan. Shaking his head, he lowered his voice and said: “While moving around outside, let’s not confine ourselves to these rules.”
Once these words came out combined with Wang Chuan’s words and actions, Feng Yu Heng immediately remembered. She could not help but raise a hand and slap herself on the forehead. She just thought to herself that her memory really was extremely poor. How could she have thought of this person before her as a stranger. This was the sixth prince that had not returned to the capital for a long time, and whom she had only met once. This was His Highness Prince Xiang, Xuan Tian Feng! She had actually thought that this was some stranger and had been polite with him this entire time. This truly was… a failure to recognize family.
She spoke up with a bit of embarrassment and said to the sixth prince: “Sixth brother, don’t blame me. My memory is truly not too good and was actually unable to recognize sixth brother.”
With her calling him sixth brother, Fu Sang, who was still around, was given a shock. Fu Sang was all too clear on what sort of person Feng Yu Heng was. She naturally had a very clear understanding of Feng Yu Heng’s family. With the words sixth brother coming out of her mouth, Fu Sang immediately thought of two people. One was the Yao family’s sixth son, Feng Yu Heng’s sixth cousin, and the other was the imperial family’s sixth prince. She did as His Highness the ninth prince did and called him sixth brother, and the Yao family’s son was always in the capital. It was impossible that Feng Yu Heng would fail to recognize him. Only the sixth prince, who was often not in the capital, might not be recognized. With things like this, the one before them was the current sixth prince!
Fu Sang was given a start and quickly followed Wang Chuan in saluting; however, she also recalled the sixth prince’s words, thus she did not say anything. Her attitude, however, became more respectful.
Feng Yu Heng was unable to recognize him, but Wang Chuan had grown up in the Yu Palace. It was natural that she would not fail to recognize him. The person that had come was indeed the current sixth prince, His Highness Prince Xian, Xuan Tian Feng.
Seeing that Feng Yu Heng finally remembered him, Xuan Tian Feng smiled bitterly then shook his head and said to Feng Yu Heng: “I do not blame younger sister. We only saw each other once two years earlier. I was always away and have not returned to the capital in a long time.”
“The border regions are busy, and sixth brother has been stationed out there. You have truly worked hard over these years.” She chatted idly then looked at the sixth prince’s wet body and quickly said: “Sixth brother, quickly bring your people inside to get changed. The days are cold. You must not get sick.” After saying this, she said to Wang Chuan: “Bring sixth brother inside.”
Wang Chuan nodded and quietly said: “Your Highness, follow this servant to the backyard.”
Xuan Tian Feng also knew that this wet appearance was improper, thus he nodded and did not say anything. Bringing his servants, he followed Wang Chuan. Only then did Feng Yu Heng order the servants in the residence to prepare some warm tea and have the doctor present go and examine the patient, fearing that Xuan Tian Feng would end up sick because of this matter.
Seeing that everything that needed to be ordered was taken care of, Fu Sang let out a sigh of relief and said to Feng Yu Heng: “This servant really was scared to death. Who knew that the young man that looks like a scholar would actually be His Highness the sixth prince. It’s fortunate that Imperial Daughter came; otherwise, this servant really would not know how to handle it.”
Feng Yu Heng was also surprised but was not scared. She told Fu Sang: “If I did not come, I think that he would not have exposed his identity. There’s no need to take this to heart. As for those two children, have them recover inside for a while and drink some warm tea. Once their health has improved a bit, we must determine where their family is living. Then immediately send someone to their home. With the new year, it would not be good for the children to have run off on their own, leaving the family to worry with the new year just two days away.”
Fu Sang nodded and asked: “Then should the two children be brought back too?”
“Let’s see based on their health! If their health permits, it would be best to bring them back, but if they are weak, you must keep them back to let them recover. Falling into an icy lake on this sort of day is nothing to play around with. There are many things that will appear after the fact. Have the doctor keep a close eye on them tonight. It’s most likely that they will run a fever.”
Fu Sang said: “Imperial Daughter, don’t worry. This servant will definitely do a good job.” After saying this, she sighed once more, “In truth, this was not the first time that this sort of thing has happened. There are always people leading children here, asking for them to be taught about medicine, and they have all been sent back. There are some from the capital, thus we recommended that they go to Hundred Herb Hall to learn. Those from the outside can only return with regrets. After all, our place also has limited space. Teaching medicine is one aspect, but we also need to take care of orphans. We truly can’t take care of all of the children with families. But those two from today ran here on their own, and this is the first time that has happened.”
This was the first time that Feng Yu Heng had heard that this residence would have this sort of situation occur, but to speak from the heart, this was a good thing. With more people conscious of medicine and having a desire for medical knowledge, this was what she had been hoping for. But it was just as Fu Sang had said. The residence’s space was limited. With it being full of orphans, to then keep the children that have families, it was a bit difficult.
But it was not as if there were no solutions. She thought a bit then said to Fu Sang: “Once the new year celebrations have passed, I will go and check in with Hundred Herb Hall and have them send some doctors that have finished their schooling to the outer provinces to private schools to teach medicine. We can discuss with the private schools about opening these sorts of classes, or we can lease land from the schools. It’s fine if we spend a bit of money. You also need to choose some people from this side. It will mostly be to teach nursing practices. When the time comes, work with the doctors to teach. Like this, more people will be able to accept the wholehearted medicine that we emphasize. More people will be able to choose how they will plan for their lives, and it will make it easier for us to find good medical talent.”
She had thought of a new point and could not help but wonder and even fantasize about the day that the modern medicine that she founded would be able to exist like in the 21st century. With specialized schools being opened, all of the children that want to learn medicine would be able to enter, and they would all be able to learn about advanced medical techniques.
At this time, the sixth prince, Xuan Tian Feng, was coming back from the backyard. He happened to see Feng Yu Heng speak with her eyes lighting up and a face of brilliance. He could not help but freeze in place and watch the girl from far away with a thumping heart that could not be mentioned…