Just like that, half a month had passed. Lin Qingyu continued to go to the general’s residence to deliver the antidote. He understood why his father had said that Gu Fuzhou was an enigma. However, Lin Qingyu thought the term “weird” fit him better.
A couple of days earlier, the Imperial Academy of Medicine welcomed a distinguished guest: a famous physician from the South.
Southern physicians were skilled in creating gu. Most citizens in the Central Plains regarded the practice of making gu as sorcery and were terrified even to mention it. It wasn’t sorcery, however. Medicinal ingredients could be divided into helpful and harmful, and the same could be said for gu. Poisonous gu could harm, but helpful gu could treat a patient. Lin Qingyu’s father knew both the benefits and the harm gu could bring, and he’d written to the famed physician from the South, who’d finally accepted the invitation to the Imperial Academy of Medicine to teach its students the art of harnessing gu. Lin Qingyu’s father hoped that the students would learn to use gu to save patients, as well as how to neutralize it.
Though Lin Qingyu had read a lot of medical texts, his understanding of gu was limited to theory. Naturally, he wouldn’t miss the Southern physician’s class at the Imperial Academy of Medicine.
After the class, Lin Qingyu walked out of the room carrying medical books and suddenly heard a whistle. He looked in the direction the sound had come from and saw Gu Fuzhou standing by the railing, smiling and waving at him. The Tianji Guards still trailed behind the general.
Lin Qingyu hurried over. “General, have you come because your heavenly arachnid poisoning is flaring up?”
“No. I visited the palace to report to the crown prince and passed by the Imperial Academy of Medicine. I thought…” Gu Fuzhou smiled, embarrassed, and rubbed the corner of his eye. “Well, I came to pick you up after class.”
Lin Qingyu was surprised. Pick him up after class? He wasn’t a child who’d just started school and needed to be picked up. And how could the general have passed the Imperial Academy of Medicine while going from his residence to the crown prince’s quarters?
Before Lin Qingyu could reply, his hands were suddenly empty. Gu Fuzhou had taken his medical books, the movement natural, as if he normally held books rather than his Qingyun Jiuzhou spear.
“No need to trouble yourself, Great General,” said Lin Qingyu.
“It’s all right. I’m stronger than you, so I should exert myself more than you.” Gu Fuzhou casually flipped through one of the texts. “So what did you learn in class today?”
“General, you probably aren’t interested in medicine.”
Gu Fuzhou smiled. “No, but I’m interested in anything you say, Imperial Physician Lin.”
“We studied gu from the South.”
“Gu? That’s nice. A great beauty like you should make use of that.”
Lin Qingyu paused and stared at Gu Fuzhou probingly.
Gu Fuzhou didn’t notice, though—or maybe he noticed but didn’t acknowledge it. “Speaking of which, I’ve always wanted to burn incense for your late husband. As your godbrother, it’s what I should do.”
Lin Qingyu looked away. “You can go to the marquess of Nan’an’s manor to burn incense for the young marquess, General.”
“Forget about going to his manor,” Gu Fuzhou said. “Why not your place?”
“My residence?”
“You would also have enshrined his tablet in your residence…” Gu Fuzhou paused. “Right?” He didn’t sound confident as he pressed for an answer.
Lin Qingyu had enshrined such a tablet, but it didn’t name Lu Wancheng.
When Gu Fuzhou noticed Lin Qingyu’s ambivalent expression, it set him on edge as well. “You said you like his physique better, but you didn’t even set up a tablet for him?” he teased. “Well, that makes sense. After all, it was a marriage enacted by the emperor. You didn’t truly care much about my difu.”11
“Difu” was yet another weird title he’d come up with.
Lin Qingyu’s logic said that he didn’t need to pay attention to the general’s provocative words. Yet for some reason, when Gu Fuzhou spoke to him in such a tone, he couldn’t help responding: “I do have a tablet for him.”
“Really?” Gu Fuzhou smiled. “Then take me to it, and prove that to me.”
Thinking of the name “Jiang Dazhuang” on the tablet, Lin Qingyu calmly replied, “That’s not very convenient.”
“Why not?” Gu Fuzhou asked, confused.