Chronology of a Hundred Herbs

CHAPTER 12: Orphan II

Physician Qi paused at Wan Fu Lina’s words, before he suddenly recalled that period of time — the two of them had a lot of comments about Hua Rong Yue.

Back then, Hua Rong Yue had not revealed his most reliable side yet, and Physician Qi and Hua Rong Yue couldn’t help but bring up topics related to him behind his back. Physician Qi started off first by thinking that he was a young master from a rich family that had escaped his family. As a physician, there were times when Physician Qi would have to make house visits for medical appointments. 

Rich families and normal families had different approaches when it came to health concerns. People from an average background would need to visit the physician themselves; someone from a more wealthy standing would need the physician to visit the residence personally instead. Physician Qi had met a variety of socially established and wealthy individuals. Hence the moment he first saw Hua Rong Yue, he felt that the latter seemed to have came from that kind of background. It was perhaps more of a gut feeling for him. 

Afterwards however, when they learnt that Hua Rong Yue was too capable, and was even more reliable than Wan Fu Lian and Physician Qi himself, so he forgot about this little episode all together. 

Now that Wan Fu Lian brought it up, he suddenly recalled this. 

”Aye, say.” Physician Qi suddenly made a bold guess, even his expression became strange. Wan Fu Lian looked at the expression on his face, feeling a little unsettled as she asked, “Shi, shifu*, what did you think of?”

* shifu means teacher/master

Physician Qi seemed to hesitate because of the new conclusion that he had arrived at earlier. Despite so, he still gingerly gestured at her to lean in, and spoke softly into her ear: “Say… do you think he’s one of those disciples from a wulin clan?” 

Wan Fu Lian inhaled deeply at his remark as well. Immediately after, realisation seemed to have dawned on her. 

Wulin clan was quite an all-encomapssing and general term. A simple example would be — “XX Hills”. This would usually be how people announced their backgrounds when doing an introduction. If someone were to start off with such an intro, that person most likely would have hailed from a wulin clan. As for the status of said person’s clan, it would depend on what was the “XX” name stated. 

If XX was something like Clear Wing, or Willow, even though the name was quite lofty, it wasn’t particularly iconic, these were the typical nobility clans. But if it was something like Million Plums, then you’d probably need to kneel the moment they introduce themselves. If it was a Peerless, you better make a run for it the moment you hear that.

If XX was Hidden Blade, you better get yourself a husky to defend yourself.

You see, the jianghu had all sorts of little pieces of knowledge that could save you your life if you came across it. Over time, these pieces of information would gradually accumulate. 

However, civilians and individuals that roam the jianghu were after all worlds apart. There were some things that jianghu roamers were crystal clear about, and there would be things that they would also keep at the top of their minds; however to an average civilian, these information were very distant to them. After ruminating for a long while, Physician Qi did not manage to identify exactly which clan Hua Rong Yue hailed from, or rather, it was more accurate to say that Physician Qi wasn’t completely familiar with the variety of clans in the jianghu.

Wan Fu Lian seemed to be more familiar with such information, but most of these were things that she had encountered when reading the illustration boooks. If she were to treat the fiction that she’d read as a reality, and verbalise it before two other people that were evidently more seasoned than herself, she would be the awkward one instead. 

Hua Rong Yue was skilled, well-read and elegant, at the same time gentle and warm. From this perspective, Hua Rong Yue was indeed quite a model figure. After making such a comparison, Wan Fu Lian and Physician Qi suddenly felt that they must be pretty close to the truth. Even though he may be affliated with the wulin, but he must also still be a young master from some established family.  

At that, their gazes immediately changed. ♢ CHRONOLOGY OF A HUNDRED HERBS, CHAPTER 12 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM ♢ 

After half a day of discussion between Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian, at the end of the day, their conclusions were only still assumptions. On the other side, as Yan Sheng chatted with Hua Rong Yue, their topic slowly turned in this direction 

“Do you have friends?”

Hua Rong Yue recalled Yi Ling Long’s social network and relationships, and replied frankly: “Yes I do, but not a lot.”

“What about your family?”

This was the topic that Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian had been discussing earlier. At Yan Sheng’s questions, their curiousity too peaked, and stuck out their ears to eavesdrop on the conversation. They were waiting for Hua Rong Yue’s following answers, would he indeed be a young master of some skilled and established wulin clan.

— a young master of a wulin clan aye, this background setting was much more exciting than a regular young master from a rich family no?

Hua Rong Yue on this side however was really quite speechless. Even though Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian were tucked in one corner whispering away did they really think she wouldn’t be able to hear them. She reckoned that their words would have entered Yan Sheng’s ears too without fail. 

She saw it crystal clear, when Physician Qi mentioned “wulin clan”, Yan Sheng’s eyebrows evidently raised; his gaze trained on her also seemed to become a little more critical, as though he was trying to figure her out. 

Hua Rong Yue was quite helpless about Yan Sheng’s subtle change in attitude. He musn’t have believed them must he?

“Do you do calligraphy and painting?” Yan Sheng asked. 

Hua Rong Yue immediately caught Yan Sheng’s train of thought. Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian wouldn’t be so familiar with the jianghu scene, but Yan Sheng was different.

He must have immediately scrolled through his knowledge of all the wulin clans in the jianghu, and filtered out individuals that would match Hua Rong Yue’s age, identity, appearance, skills and all that, and arrived at a certain conclusion. 

— the eldest son of the Spirit Jade Hills, Ji Ming Yu. 

Ji Ming Yu went missing around a year ago. Before he went missing, he was probably the cream of the crop of his generation, his knowledge, skills, appearance were among the best of others his age. Spirit Jade Hills was also a famous clan in the jianghu that specialised in using blades. Till date, people still do not know why Ji Ming Yu disappeared. It was as though an unsolved mystery. But one thing the people in the jianghu did know about Spirit Jade Hills was that those that hailed from this clan were very well-read in literature and well-educated about the arts. 

However, Hua Rong Yue knew exactly what happened to him. Ji Ming Yu was already dead. Someone had came to Heaven’s Will Tower and paid a huge sum to have Ji Ming Yu killed. By the time Hua Rong Yue heard of this mission, Ji Ming Yu was beyond saving. 

Not long after, the party that killed Ji Ming Yu was also killed off by his own enemy. This was the jianghu, and it had been this way since the ancient times. 

Hua Rong Yue looked at the cup in her hands. It was warm in her fingers. Ji Ming Yu… was indeed quite a decent and appropriate identity. 

Their age matched, their demeanour was similar, and not a lot of people knew Ji Ming Yu. Only the Master of the Hills was left in the Spirit Jade Hills, and he didn’t leave his hills often. This place was also very far away from Spirit Jade Hills. The killer that had finished Ji Ming Yu had died as well. In other words, there would be no one around here that would be able to recognise who the real Ji Ming Yu was. 

Yan Sheng observed Hua Rong Yue for a while. The latter had an indescribable steadiness to him, and the way he carried himself gave others around him an impression that he was reliable and trustworthy.

Even if they don expensive, majestic and solemn clothing, some people would appear shallow and trivial, the gravity brought about by the attire was superficial; but Hua Rong Yue was different.

Thanks to Yi Ling Long’s unreal height, her cool and calm features, all Hua Rong Yue had to do was to stand there, and she would seem as though she could carry the entire sky with her shoulders. This kind of aura was very rare, so Yan Sheng had figured that Hua Rong Yue must have an above-average background.

Yan Sheng wouldn’t be particularly surprised if Hua Rong Yue did turn out to be a young master of some noble family.

After a while, Hua Rong Yu smiled instead: “I know what you’re thinking, but I’m an orphan, I was abandoned after I was born.”

At the unexpected reply, Yan Sheng paused for a moment; Hua Rong Yue’s answer deviated completely from his initial assumption. Even Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian that were eavesdropping on their conversation paused at Hua Rong Yue’s reply.

But based on Yan Sheng’s past experience, he could feel that Hua Rong Yue was not lying, and this had him very surprised. However having considered Hua Rong Yue’s feelings, Yan Sheng did not reveal his reaction. 

Hua Rong Yue was very calm and open about it, but Yan Sheng couldn’t help but overthink the situation. 

He wasn’t so focused on Hua Rong Yue’s identity, rather, his mind was on something else.

This was indeed a strange but curious world. He’d seen many offsprings of officials and noblemen, many of which were utterly rotten and hopeless. The person sitting opposite him however felt steadfast and had an air of majesty to him even; if Hua Rong Yue didn’t say it himself, Yan Sheng would never have thought that he was an orphan abandoned at birth. 

— Aura was really not something that you could get just because you wanted it.