Chapter 4: The Reclusive Expert, Doctor Lin

A nightmare? No, this was a beautiful dream! To be able to hear her parents' voices in a dream, to hear Yu Niang calling her "Miss" again in a dream—this was absolutely a wonderful, magnificent dream. She hoped she would never wake up; she wanted this dream to continue forever.

"Qiu'er, Qiu'er, wake up quickly!"

These were her mother's hands, exactly as they were in her memory. So warm!

"Qiu'er, wake up! Father is here!"

Her father's voice was still as vigorous as ever! It was so good in the dream! Tang Wanqiu kept her eyes tightly shut, unwilling to wake, not daring to wake. She wanted to be close to her two elders in the dream for as long as possible. She was afraid that if she opened her eyes, everything would be gone.

Execution of the entire clan!

Ha! She had compromised herself, playing the part of a loving wife for sixteen years to cooperate with him. And the result was the execution of her entire family! That man—just how black was his heart?

No, he didn't have a heart at all.

Hadn't she known this all along? He married her only because she had a father who could lead armies and two capable brothers.

Because her father and brothers had no intention of participating in that struggle for the throne, and because she was the precious treasure in their palms, whoever married her would gain the support of the Tang family. It was precisely because that man recognized this that he deliberately approached her and seduced her.

Unfortunately, she had been too naive back then. She had been so infatuated by the several carefully planned "chance encounters" and sweet words orchestrated by that man that she lost all sense of direction. She couldn't even listen to her parents' words. Even knowing full well that his household was filled with many women, she was still single-mindedly determined to marry him.

If she hadn't married him, her father and brothers wouldn't have become his assets, and perhaps he wouldn't have become the Emperor. If he couldn't become the Emperor, would the Tang family have avoided this catastrophic disaster?

At this very moment, Tang Wanqiu realized that the person she hated most was not that heartless, unfeeling man, but herself.

It was her ignorance that had caused her family to board Li Song's pirate ship. Yet she had failed to protect them. She had let them...

Why, even after death, could the heart still ache so much?

She did not dare to face the bloody reality of the clan's execution.

"Master, what is wrong with Qiu'er? Why won't she wake up even like this!" Madam Tang looked at her husband anxiously, her heart burning with worry.

General Tang was an expert at warfare and had experience treating external wounds.

However, when it came to these kinds of ailments common to young ladies, he truly did not understand!

Yet, facing his wife's helpless gaze, he naturally could not stand idly by. He glanced at Tang Wanqiu, who lay on the bed with her eyes tightly shut, and paced back and forth anxiously.

Suddenly, as if thinking of something, he abruptly stopped his restless pacing and said to Yu Niang, who was waiting by the bedside, "Yu Niang, go find Physician Lin to come and examine the Miss."

The Physician Lin mentioned by General Tang was named Lin Ye, and he could be considered an extraordinary talent. He was clearly proficient in both literary and military arts, and his medical skills were nothing short of divine. However, he was unwilling to enter officialdom as an officer, nor was he willing to enter the palace as an imperial physician.

In this era, the social hierarchy was centered around officials, farmers, artisans, and merchants. For a medical practitioner, only an imperial physician could stand in the halls of high society. Common physicians were merely itinerant doctors, considered part of the "lower nine classes," possessing no status whatsoever—not even as high as a merchant.

Lin Ye clearly had the potential to become a great scholar of the state, or even a master of the medical world, yet he stubbornly refused.

Instead, with the humble status of an itinerant doctor, he contentedly resided in the General's Manor. He provided medical care for the members of the household, and because of this, he was highly respected and loved by the young and old alike in the manor.

"Yes, General!" Yu Niang took her orders and withdrew to find Physician Lin.