Bite him to death
With a ‘Click’ the door opened in response to Jin Liuli’s gentle pushing.
Yu Qingluo’s eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at Yu Zuolin who was brought inside by her friend with a deep smile on her face.
Ye Xiudu who was laying on the beauty recliner gave him a glance and immediately frowned.
Yu Zuolin?
Yu Zuolin!!
Unexpectedly, it’s him! How did he show up in Jiang Cheng at this moment?
Was he Yu Qingluo’s enemy?
Yu Zuolin, Yu Household? Yu…? (TL: The Yu in ‘Yu household’, is Yu Zuolin’s surname (于) and the second in ‘Yu…?’ is Yu Qingluo’s surname (玉))
Ye Xiudu’s lips were pressed tightly into a thin line, observing Yu Qingluo’s line of sight made him sink into deep thought. It seemed that he was able to understand some things.
The room was shrouded by a complex atmosphere and as soon as Yu Zuolin stepped into the room, he paused in his steps. He could feel that more than one person was present inside.
Jin Liuli moved a chair and assisted him to sit, then she nodded towards Yu Qingluo before turning around and walking out of the room.
The door was closed and the inside of the room became silent. This silence was absolutely frightening.
Ye Xiudu stared at Yu Qingluo, wanting to see what on earth she was up to, or… how she wanted to deal with Yu Zuolin.
However, Yu Qingluo who was in front of the table only took a square piece of silky white cloth from her sleeves and fastened the corners securely to her hairclip, covering half of her face.
Ye Xiudu lifted a brow inquisitively as he heard her voice, which was pressed into a lower pitch, in sequence: “Where’s Gongzi[1] feeling unwell?”
Yu Zuolin’s body stiffened, opening his mouth in astonishment: “Are you the Ghost Doctor?”
“Right you are.” It seems that he isn’t even able to recognize her voice. That was good, in this way the process should be much more effortless[2] for her.
Yu Zuolin was feeling somewhat incredulous, the Ghost Doctor was a woman? And else, listening to her voice it seemed that she should be young too.
Immediately, he felt the urge to take the blindfold off his eyes as he felt compelled to take a look at the Ghost Doctor’s appearance.
However, just as he was raising his hands to take the blindfolds off Yu Qingluo’s cold voice sounded immediately: “I advise you not to do that.”
Yu Zuolin’s hand halted in the air, he frowned as he asked full of doubt: “Miss, why do you refuse to be seen by others?”
Yu Qingluo laughed chuckled, the melodious sound of her soft laughter made the two men inside of the room move their ears in response at the same time.
“I have never been fond of showing up in public, after all, I’m still a young girl. Wouldn’t it be more troublesome if other people knew how I looked like? And else, when people come to see me it’s only because they seek medical treatment, so, if they knew that I’m actually a woman, and a young woman at that, then they might end up mistrusting me and that would be unfavourable to my ideal of benefiting mankind by helping people in need[3].”
Ye Xiudu couldn’t control his expression as he heard her last sentence. ‘benefiting mankind by helping people in need’? How could she say that without a shred of shame?
Also, since Yu Zuolin was her enemy, then why did she have to speak with such a gentle voice? Such an endearing tone, it was almost like she wanted to ensnare him with her voice.
Ye Xiudu scoffed at her, a smile filled with ridicule manifested on his face.
Yu Qingluo turned her head abruptly and gave Ye Xiudu a death glare. This asshole, didn’t you just say that you wouldn’t meddle? To go and make a sound, are you trying to seek death?[4]
Naturally, Yu Zuolin was able to hear that light snort and was even able to conjecture that it was a man’s sound. He looked unfazed as he raised his deep voice to ask: “Who’s there?”
“It’s my medicine child.” Yu Qingluo stared at Ye Xiudu again, warningly, until he finally went back to lying on the beauty recliner. Then she turned again to face Yu Zuolin and laughingly said: “My[5] medicine boy is lacking decorum, I have let Gongzi see the joke.[6]“
(TL: medicine child is basically a child who acts as an assistant to a doctor/pharmacist, usually in odd jobs or sorting out the herbs. In some more twisted stories, they are also something akin to a lab rat, where they test newly invented concoctions, but this is not that type of novel. So it’s the first type!)
Her manner of speaking and choice of words made Yu Zuolin extremely pleased, thinking that the eccentric Ghost Doctor, as it was passed down by the people, was clearly a fair and considerate woman. He waved his hands at that: “Miss is being too serious, it was me who was too rude when I asked something I shouldn’t have asked.”
Yu Qingluo pursed her lips in a smile: “Gongzi is asking me common questions, how could you be rude? But I have been practising medicine for many years and it’s indeed rare to meet such a polite person like you. There are many people who are unable to understand my aspiration, to the point of even using malicious words against me.”
Ye Xiudu’s face was turning green, he almost couldn’t bear listening anymore and immediately started motioning with his hands to Yu Qingluo that if she kept going on he might strangle her to death.
Yu Qingluo stroked her forehead and had no other choice but to cut short her conversation with Yu Zuolin. Lowering her voice she asked: “I heard that Gongzi spent 10.000 taels just to buy the token. I have really made Gongzi spend a lot of money! I’m not sure just what type of disease would make a person spend so much just to be able to meet with me?”
Yu Zuolin was taken aback for a moment, then he remembered the purpose of his coming and said with a stern semblance: “Miss, I’m not the one who is sick. I only want to invite you to come to the Imperial Capital (帝都) with me to make a house call.”
“A house call? At the imperial capital?”
“I know that my request is somewhat excessive. But this because I have been left with no other choice, so I hope that Miss will fulfil my request.”
Yu Qingluo raised her eyebrows, took two sips of her cup and then paused as if she was putting his request into consideration.
Yu Zuolin silently stared at her, feeling a bit unsettled. Both his hands tightly clasping on his knees. (ED: His eyes were still covered, the author really expressed that he stared at her but probably meant that he was facing her)
After some time, he heard Yu Qingluo ask in a low voice: “Gongzi, who am I going to be diagnosing?”
“It’s my… my little sister. She has been in poor health as of late and has no energy all day long. Her face is pale and, occasionally, she coughs up some blood. The doctors in the capital who examined her have said that they cannot identify what kind of ailment she has. Life is short, so I have come to seek your assistance, Ghost Doctor. Therefore, I have set on a journey towards these lands in hope that Miss would follow me back to the Capital.”
‘Little Sister?’ Yu Qingluo’s lips curved into a mocking smile.
Since when Li Ranran became his younger sister? Could it be that she wasn’t his wife?
“Gongzi… you have a kind soul. Your younger sister is so lucky for having such a considerate older brother like yourself.” Yu Qingluo rolled her eyes at her own words, enduring the wave of nausea that she felt as she forced herself to finish her sentence.
Yu Zuolin’s lips moved, he laughed: “Does Miss agree?”
Yu Qingluo raised her eyebrows. She was about to speak when Ye Xiudu couldn’t bear but interrupt her, sarcastically saying: “Our Miss still has unfinished business in Jiang Cheng, so she has no time to follow you back to the Imperial Capital.”
“Ye…” Yu Qingluo turned her head abruptly, she really felt like jumping on him and bitting him to death.
Yu Zuolin frowned: “Does Miss have unfinished business? What kind of matters are these? Maybe I could be of help”
Ye Xiudu coldly smiled: “This Yu household’s Gongzi is really enthusiastic. He is barely aware of what kind of place Jiang Cheng, such a small city is, yet offers his hand to help.”
Yu Qingluo managed to squeeze out a smile as she walked towards Ye Xiudu and pinched him. Then, she walked back to her original spot and smiled: “It’s nothing big, I can deal with it in a few days. Gongzi cares so much about his family members, so how could I let Gongzi down?”
“Then, Miss is…” Yu Zuolin was overjoyed, he didn’t expect things to go this smoothly.
“Gongzi can go back to the Capital first, then wait there for me to finish my business in here and I’ll naturally go to the capital too.” Yu Qingluo said slowly, then walked towards Ye Xiudu’s side and pulled him up, dragging him down until she finally pushed him out of the door, then she turned towards Yu Zuolin to speak: “Since things have come to this, then I’ll let Shopkeeper Jin send you…”
“We have a problem! Someone broke into the backyard and is trying to harm the Ghost Doctor. Fast! Someone protect the Ghost Doctor!!”
At this moment, there was an alarming shout coming from a place ahead of theirs, followed by a racket outside that seemed to be coming their way.
Yu Qingluo’s lips hooked up…
Translated by C, The Apostle of Coffee
Edited by NoveLeo, Life is a Drama
Translator’s Notes
[1] 公子 (gongzi) – ‘Mister, Son’ Since the translation would be a bit weird, I prefer using the Pinyin for this. It’s basically a form of addressing a younger man, usually the son of an official. It’s the male version of 小姐, which can be translated as ‘miss’. But translating Gongzi into ‘mister’… I think it’s still far off the true-er idea of this word.
[2] 辛苦 – xingku – Basically it means ‘bitter’. But in the Chinese language, you see the usage for this word to characterize ‘hard work’ or when you feel you are inconveniencing someone to do something for you. You are recognizing that they gave their efforts for some cause, you can use for studying and working, for example. If you are learning Chinese that’s a good word to have in your vocab list!
[3] 济世救人 – This is not a Chengyu, but rather 济世 (benefit mankind, do good to society) + 救人 (help/ save people from distress). I changed the last bit to ‘people in need’ just so we could be more specific. Nannan and YQL just love to exaggerate a lot about their deeds.
[4] Another useful expression! ‘找死’ – to seek death/ ‘do you want to die?’. It can be literally that, like… a person who crosses the streets without checking if the light is red or a person who starts poking at a giant, man-eating alligator… they seek death. Or it can have a more figurative meaning like… You accidentally break your mother’s favourite mug. And now… you are screwed. In breaking that mug you were seeking death.
[5] Yas, this chapter has lots of notes for learners. So, here she doesn’t use ‘mine’ (我的）, she uses ‘my family’s’ (我家) which can be translated roughly as ‘mine’ but the tone implies the closeness of their relationship, it means that he is part of a social circle in her life which includes people next to her. You can see this type of usage when people are talking about their children, their loved ones, pets, people they love in a romantic way… etc.
[6] 让…见笑了 – the meaning is closer to ‘ I have made a fool of me in front of you’. But if you translate it literally its ‘I have let… see the joke’, if this was a Palace Harem story this might be used in a hundred ways, but for us common folk it has such a meaning: ‘To let someone see something you consider to be embarrassing’ – but this level of embarrassment is way below the embarrassment one has to feel to be considered to ‘lose face’. Usually, this expression is used to defuse a situation. It’s like when we say ‘oops, my bad!’ to downplay a potentially embarrassing situation.
Obviously Too Busy to Translate 
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