Chapter 15: Getting Medical Treatment Depends on Your Appearance
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Tang Chaoyao turned to look at Ah Nan.
“Your master clearly looks as though he has no desire to live. What are you so anxious about?”
The man in the wooden wheelchair was permeated from head to toe with an aura of death.
He was not even eager to see a physician when he fell ill. If that was not a wish to die, then what was?
Although Ah Nan disliked what Tang Chaoyao had said, he still bowed respectfully.
“Second Miss Tang, please examine our lord.”
The prince was not unwilling to seek treatment. It was simply that years of taking medicinal decoctions had long since worn away his patience.
They had traveled across the length and breadth of the realm, encountering disappointment so often that they had stopped daring to hope.
Yet from beginning to end, they still wished for the prince to recover.
With merely a glance, Tang Chaoyao could already tell most of what was wrong with his body.
Unless his condition had been deliberately caused, there might truly be a sliver of hope.
Tang Chaoyao did not look at Ah Nan. Instead, she turned around, folded her arms across her chest, and raised her brows at the man in the wheelchair.
Her meaning was unmistakable: if he wanted her to treat him, he would have to remove his mask.
Prince Lin found this little Taoist nun extremely interesting.
She had actually thought of such a method to force him to take off his mask.
But what harm was there in letting her look?
A long, jade-like hand moved directly to the mask.
Tang Chaoyao felt a little envious as she watched.
Then she looked down at her own short, chubby hands.
Was Heaven not being a little too unfair?
The mask was slowly removed.
His brows and eyes were like a painting. Though the description was somewhat unsuitable for a man, she could think of no better words.
His eyes were not large, yet they seemed to contain the stars. Years of torment from illness had veiled them in a thin mist, making them impossible to see clearly while provoking the desire to peer deeper within.
His thin lips were faintly pale, tinged with a trace of purple. That should have been the result of poisoning.
Tang Chaoyao stared for a moment, slightly lost in thought.
The man’s voice drew her back to reality.
“Second Miss Tang, you are practically drooling.”
Tang Chaoyao instinctively touched the corner of her mouth, only to find nothing there.
She immediately realized that the man before her had teased her.
She was not angry. Instead, she flashed him a broad grin.
“As the saying goes, food and beauty are both natural human desires. You are so handsome—I like looking at you.”
Prince Lin had never encountered such a blunt woman before, much less one who was a little Taoist nun.
Yet he felt no aversion.
Instead, he found her refreshingly forthright, unlike the affected women of the capital.
“Then, Second Miss Tang, what have you seen from my face?”
Tang Chaoyao failed to understand his meaning for a moment and answered honestly.
“That you are handsome.”
Ah Nan decided that Second Miss Tang truly was just as the rumors described—a fearless little menace.
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How could a young lady say absolutely anything she pleased?
Strangely enough, however, he saw his prince smile.
That faintly lifted corner of the lips—he could not have imagined it, could he?
Tang Chaoyao had already realized what he had meant, but she felt no embarrassment.
Since the other man was so beautiful, she would treat him.
She had already accepted the payment, after all.
Before Ah Nan could react, Tang Chaoyao had walked past him, pulled over a stool, and sat down directly opposite the prince.
He wanted to step forward and stop her. Strangers had never been permitted to approach the prince.
But then Tang Chaoyao had already spoken.
“Extend your hand.”
Her tone was not polite in the slightest!
And yet his prince actually cooperated. He extended his hand and even rolled up his own sleeve.
Her pale, delicate fingers touched his icy wrist.
The warmth of her touch stirred Prince Lin’s heart like a breeze brushing across it.
He could not describe the feeling.
Then he looked at the exquisite little face before him.
She wore no makeup, yet her beauty was pure and striking.
That girl had called him handsome, but she herself was also exceptionally beautiful.
And when she took his pulse, the casual air she had shown earlier had vanished.
She was wholly focused, her eyes slightly closed, her feather-like lashes casting a shadow beneath them.
Prince Lin had never studied a woman so closely before.
They were very near one another. He could even clearly see the fine, downy hairs on her face.
Ah Nan felt that the atmosphere between his prince and Second Miss Tang was somewhat strange.
But he could not say precisely what was strange about it.
In the end, he attributed it to the fact that the prince had never been so intimate with a woman before, and that it was simply unfamiliar to watch.
Although the prince was that person’s younger brother, he was only twenty-six years old.
Because of his illness, he had never married a princess consort.
Within Prince Lin’s residence, there were hardly any maids.
There were scarcely even enough female rats to count.
When Tang Chaoyao opened her eyes, she happened to meet the man’s deep gaze.
She instinctively said, “The poison in your body has nearly begun to affect your eyes. Within three months, the layer of white haze in your eyes will cause you to go completely blind.”
Ah Nan was stunned by her words.
The white haze in the prince’s eyes had appeared only recently.
Ah Bei had examined him but found no explanation.
Fortunately, the prince had said that he felt no discomfort.
Now Second Miss Tang was saying that his master was about to go blind.
Prince Lin had originally intended only to give it a try. He had not expected Tang Chaoyao’s medical skills to be truly so remarkable.
Could it be that Divine Physician Feng had remained hidden all this time precisely to lead him to this woman?
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His eyesight had indeed been worsening recently. He simply did not wish his subordinates to worry, so he had kept it hidden.
Since Ah Bei had been unable to discover anything, telling them would only have added to their troubles.
Tang Chaoyao rose and walked to a writing desk nearby, where she sat down.
She looked at Ah Nan, who was still standing there stupidly.
“What are you waiting for? Come grind the ink!”
Only then did Ah Nan recover and hurry over.
He saw Tang Chaoyao pick up the writing brush his prince habitually used.
He instinctively looked toward the prince. Seeing that Prince Lin said nothing, Ah Nan suppressed the urge to stop her.
“I have one rule. Once my patients begin taking the prescription I have given them, they cannot take medicine prescribed by anyone else at the same time. If anything goes wrong, I accept no responsibility.”
As she spoke, Tang Chaoyao began writing on the white paper.
Ah Nan asked directly, “Second Miss Tang, do you mean that you can cure our lord’s illness?”
Tang Chaoyao rolled her eyes.
“If I could not cure him, why would I be writing a prescription?”
This was the first time Ah Nan had heard anyone claim they could treat his master’s illness. His heart filled with excitement.
“Second Miss Tang, rest assured. As long as you can cure our lord, this subordinate absolutely will not let him take any other medicine.”
Tang Chaoyao said nothing. Even if he did, it would not matter. When the time came, the one to suffer would be their master anyway.
“Second Miss Tang is so young, yet already possesses such extraordinary medical skill. May I ask whom you studied under?”
Tang Chaoyao did not even raise her head as she answered the man’s sudden question.
“An old Taoist from a rundown temple.”
The corner of Prince Lin’s mouth curled upward, but he said nothing more.
Only after Tang Chaoyao finished writing a prescription did she toss it to Ah Nan and rise.
“This is the prescription for the first course of treatment. In a month, we will continue with the next course.”
Ah Nan looked at the atrocious handwriting, and the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Was this truly the twin sister of the renowned First Miss Tang, whose reputation had spread throughout the capital despite living in Huai City?
Was the difference between them really so great?
Tang Chaoyao knew that her handwriting was unattractive, but it was not that terrible, was it?
The last time she had written a prescription for her mother, her mother had not shown such an expression of disgust.
Seeing the little girl puff out her cheeks again, Prince Lin changed the subject.
“Then I shall trouble Second Miss Tang.”
Tang Chaoyao waved a hand.
She had seen enough of his face and finished examining his illness. There was no reason for her to remain.
Only after Tang Chaoyao had left did Prince Lin take the prescription.
The handwriting did indeed resemble the scratches of a dog.
However, since she was Divine Physician Feng’s disciple, perhaps the prescription could truly cure his illness.
For the first time in many years, a light called hope seemed to appear in Prince Lin’s darkened eyes.
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