It was truly a beautiful name.
That was the thought that crossed Qin Jiuye’s mind when Lu Zican spoke.
*Yuan* was a great river to the west; *Zhou* was a boat capable of sailing far. A person with such a name should have been born to wander the world, fading into the verdant mountains and emerald waters. What kind of family had she come from? What had been her state of mind, and what stories had she carried? How had she ultimately become the Old Madam of the Su family, a woman who withered away in a Buddhist hall, barely ever setting foot outside Jiugao City?
Perhaps she, like countless other bright-eyed young girls, had once possessed infinite longing and desire for the future, yearning to travel to distant places and see different sights. But in the end, she had stopped at the high threshold of the Su manor. Her courage had been bent by countless instances of kneeling and lowering her gaze; her vitality had been parched by the barrenness of day-to-day life. She was eventually swallowed by this grand estate, her very name submerged in the shadows of its carved beams and painted rafters, known by no one and cared for by even fewer.
"Miss Qin?"
Qin Jiuye glanced at Lu Zican and finally pulled her thoughts back. She took half a step forward, cleared her throat, and called out.
"He Yuanzhou?"
Perhaps the name had not been uttered for many years, but surely a person could not forget their own name?
Qin Jiuye waited a moment after the first call and then tried again. However, Old Madam Su showed no reaction. she continued her monotonous grinding of teeth, occasionally twitching her nose as if sniffing the scent of a stranger in the air.
Aside from her physical shell, the woman’s behavior was no longer that of a human. Her soul had been consumed; she understood no human speech and possessed only instinct, like some sort of beast.
Qin Jiuye’s heart slowly sank. Her gaze fell upon the woman’s hands. They looked withered yet powerful, with veins bulging beneath thin skin and ten fingernails that had turned black and hardened. They looked capable of significant damage.
Recalling the wound on Kang Renshou’s neck, she wanted to confirm her suspicions.
"I must trouble you two to assist me. I need to see her teeth."
Upon hearing this request, the two soldiers both showed expressions of resistance and impatience.
One could not blame them; in this situation, no one wanted to perform such a thankless task.
Lu Zican understood the situation. In a rare move, he didn't ask questions. Seeing that no one stepped forward, he called in two more young officers. Together with the two soldiers, they moved in to restrain the old woman from all sides, while Lu Zican personally stepped forward to pry open her jaw.
Despite being firmly bound by four iron chains and surrounded by four strong men, He Yuanzhou broke free several times. Her limbs twisted at bizarre angles, and saliva dripped from her constantly snapping mouth. She looked like the nameless nun who had succumbed to internal mania on Bat Mountain—how did she look anything like an inner-court lady who had spent most of her life chanting sutras?
"Be careful, do not let her bite you."
Qin Jiuye called out a warning while waiting for an opportunity. As soon as she found an opening, she hurried forward with the oil lamp. Despite being mentally prepared, she was still startled by the sight.
On the gums where Old Madam Su’s teeth should have already fallen out, two neat rows of teeth now grew. Not only that, but her jaw was blackened, her tongue and gums were swollen, and her two pairs of canines were exceptionally sharp, showing no signs of the wear and tear expected from years of use.
This could only mean one thing: these teeth appeared to be newly grown.
*Hair regrowing after being cut, teeth returning after falling out*—these were the claims most frequently mentioned by those who had attempted to refine elixirs of immortality over the past century. She had always considered such claims to be utter nonsense, yet she never thought she would see it with her own eyes one day.
In the next moment, He Yuanzhou snapped her mouth shut with force. Lu Zican, being the closest, was nearly bitten.
"Grip the skin at the back of her neck; it will save you some effort."
The four soldiers were stunned for a moment, but once they tried it, He Yuanzhou was indeed restrained, and the intensity of her struggling diminished significantly.
"If I had brought more needles, the effect would be even better." Qin Jiuye waved her hand, signaling them not to make a fuss. "Please help me hold her hand down as well. I need to draw some blood."
After the previous display, the soldiers’ resistance to Qin Jiuye’s words suddenly lessened. Without waiting for Lu Zican to urge them, they followed her instructions, pinning He Yuanzhou down and pulling out her left hand.
Qin Jiuye reached up and pulled an ordinary-looking hairpin from her hair. With a twist of her fingers, she removed the head of the pin, revealing a short needle about half an inch long.
Noticing Lu Zican’s inquisitive gaze, she even found the humor to make a joke.
"This is a filiform needle for diagnosis, not some hidden weapon. Do not be nervous, Commander Lu."
With that, Qin Jiuye’s hand rose and fell. The short needle instantly pierced He Yuanzhou’s fingertip, but no blood appeared. She had to apply pressure, squeezing for a long time before a drop of black blood slowly welled up.
That was by no means the color blood should be in a living human body; it looked more like the putrid blood found in a corpse that had been dead for some time.
Qin Jiuye took out a medicine bottle she carried with her and carefully collected the drop of blood. Finally, she quickly checked the woman’s pulse.
"Miss Qin, is it finished?"
Qin Jiuye slowly withdrew her fingers. Finally making up her mind, she signaled Lu Zican to hold on a bit longer.
"Wait, there is one last thing to confirm."
She turned and walked to the outer room, then lowered the heavy curtain with one hand. She rolled up her left sleeve and took out a small knife, making a small cut on her forearm.
Blood welled up along the blade mark. Lu Zican was somewhat bewildered, but then he saw He Yuanzhou in the iron cage suddenly react differently. Her wide-open mouth emitted constant guttural rasps, and her dilated pupils stared unblinkingly toward the curtain, as if she could see through it.
Qin Jiuye moved her arm back and forth outside the curtain. When she moved to the left, the shadow behind the curtain followed to the left; when she moved to the right, the shadow followed to the right.
As her hypotheses were confirmed one by one, Qin Jiuye pressed a cloth to her wound. Just as she was about to call Lu Zican to the outer room for a detailed discussion, the door behind her was suddenly kicked open from the outside with a loud bang.
The youth’s figure burst in like a plume of smoke, coming straight to her. Without a word, his gaze fell upon the blood on her left hand.
Qin Jiuye felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her head.
*No way.* This fellow wasn't going to have an episode now, was he? It was all her fault for being so focused on diagnosing the case and getting the fee that she had forgotten she was carrying another "patient" with her.
She cursed her luck. Before she could think of a countermeasure, Lu Zican heard the commotion and pulled back the curtain to step out. At the same time, a gust of cool wind blew in from the wide-open door, carrying the damp outdoor air and the faint scent of blood from the outer room into the inner chamber.
The oil lamp placed temporarily on the floor flickered and went out. The inner room went dark, and in the next moment, a massive crash echoed—the sound of the iron cage door being struck.
"Not good..."
Before Qin Jiuye could explain exactly what was not good, a cry of alarm erupted from the young officers inside. In the next instant, a dark shadow accompanied by the piercing screech of grinding iron chains rushed out from the inner room.
He Yuanzhou, with her disheveled hair, had somehow found the strength to snap her own ankle bones. Dragging her two limp feet, which were connected only by flesh and skin, she crawled out on all fours like a beast that had been starved for seven or eight days escaping its cage.
The two chains on her wrists could not restrain her; they were ripped from the pulleys in the ceiling and trailed behind her like tattered rags. The four soldiers inside were thrown into a panic, rushing forward to grab the chains, but He Yuanzhou seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. With a twist of her body, she dodged them and lunged straight for Qin Jiuye.
Lu Zican turned pale with fright. He attempted a grappling move to seize her, but he hadn't expected the old woman—who already had one foot in the grave—to be so agile. He was a step too slow, his fingertips brushing against her cold, dry skin as he watched her pounce toward Qin Jiuye’s position.
Lu Zican’s usually strong heart skipped a beat. For some reason, the young Governor’s instructions from when he took the mission echoed in his ears.
Since he had started his service as a youth, he had never failed a mission. Who would have thought he would fall at the hands of an old woman? How could he face the Governor in the future?
Yet, he saw that the thin woman did not scream or cry out. He wondered if she had been scared witless.
Qin Jiuye was indeed somewhat caught off guard by the situation, but she was no pushover.
In all her years of serving those strange wanderers of the martial world, what kind of dire scenes had she not witnessed? This was just another madwoman. If she couldn't even subdue her own patient, how could she continue to make a living in this trade?
Watching the rapidly approaching figure with flying saliva, Qin Jiuye timed it perfectly and ducked. He Yuanzhou flew right over her. Qin Jiuye immediately grabbed the curtain covering the window and, before the other could scramble up, threw it over her head.
Dazzling sunlight poured in. He Yuanzhou shrieked beneath the curtain, struggling violently, seemingly losing her sense of direction momentarily.
However, after only a moment, she quickly locked onto Qin Jiuye’s position again and charged at her, still draped in the curtain.
Qin Jiuye was close and obviously couldn't meet her head-on. She could only rely on her small, flexible frame to dive under a nearby desk. However, she was not a martial artist after all; her movements lacked the necessary power. With half a leg still exposed, she was about to be caught when a dark shadow rushed out from the side and slammed into He Yuanzhou with all its might.
A dull thud echoed in the room. He Yuanzhou, whom even two or three strong men couldn't hold back, was sent flying into the corner along with the cloth, landing on her back. The youth who had rushed out fared little better, stumbling back five or six steps before he managed to steady himself.
He Yuanzhou howled shrilly, her razor-like fingernails instantly shredding the curtain into pieces. On the other side, Li Qiao stood with a hunched back and bent legs, slowly raising his head. His light brown eyes met the hollow eyes beneath He Yuanzhou’s messy hair; it was as if two fierce beasts were locked in a silent, deadly duel.
*To deal with a crazed monster, one really must use such crazed methods.*
The young officers who witnessed this were all stunned for a moment, and Lu Zican was equally dumbfounded.
It was one thing for the boy not to dodge or hide during their previous fight, but to use the same tactic against such a half-human, half-ghost lunatic—was this kid a fool?!
However, he immediately realized something. From his brief and humiliating encounter the other day, he knew that if the boy wanted to kill He Yuanzhou, he certainly had the means. But whether He Yuanzhou’s body would remain intact was another story. Since he had come with his "sister" for a medical consultation, and the illness hadn't been figured out yet, he naturally couldn't kill the patient first. Otherwise, there would be endless trouble, and the medical fee would certainly vanish.
He Yuanzhou’s jaw trembled, emitting that eerie tooth-grinding sound again. Her limbs tensed as she prepared for the next round of attacks. Seeing this, Lu Zican snapped back to his senses. He grabbed a nearby long bench, gave a loud shout, and charged forward, pinning her down with the weight of the bench.
He Yuanzhou struggled desperately between the four legs of the bench. The young officers swarmed forward and, using every ounce of their strength, finally managed to drag her back into the cage.
This time, the chains were increased to five, making the arrangement identical to the one on the Su family’s boat that day.
With an extra chain around her neck, He Yuanzhou continued to struggle, the iron chains clashing against the cage bars with enough force to strike sparks.
Lu Zican hurriedly lowered the curtain and walked quickly to Qin Jiuye. His beard trembled as he asked, "Is Miss Qin injured?"
Qin Jiuye had just crawled out from under the table. As she patted the dust off her clothes and before she could answer, her left hand was lifted by Li Qiao.
"Why does Commander Lu ask what he already knows?"
Lu Zican was speechless. Qin Jiuye quickly pulled her hand back and explained.
"This was necessary for the diagnosis; it has nothing to do with him." After saying this, she looked at Lu Zican again. "I was reckless. I was so focused on seeking proof that I neglected the preparations. Fortunately, you heroes are strong and sturdy—truly much more useful than that pharmacy boy of mine at Guoran Hall."
Having said that, she looked around the room full of burly men and actually managed a few laughs.
Li Qiao frowned. He clearly didn't understand what was funny about this, nor could he understand why a proper medical consultation required shedding blood.
Inside the cage, He Yuanzhou started another commotion. Seeing this, Qin Jiuye spoke up at the right time.
"I am truly fine. If Commander Lu is worried, it would be safer to go in and check."
Recalling the scene just now, Lu Zican was indeed uneasy. He nodded and went behind the curtain to help.
Once his figure disappeared behind the curtain, Qin Jiuye immediately lowered her voice and asked Li Qiao, "Weren't you standing outside? Why did you suddenly burst in? You nearly ruined everything."
The youth paused, seemingly recalling the scene from a moment ago. After a long while, he spoke truthfully.
"I smelled your blood..."
Before he could finish, Qin Jiuye clamped her hand over his mouth.
She glanced toward the curtain, confirming that the men were busy cleaning up and hadn't noticed what they were saying. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and release Li Qiao.
"Forget it. We'll talk when we get back."
The youth looked at her, then at the iron cage behind the curtain.
"Did Sister diagnose anything?"
Qin Jiuye fell silent for a moment.
In truth, whether it was the visual inspection just now or the initial check of He Yuanzhou’s pulse, she felt an indescribable sense of familiarity.
She knew that deep down, she already had a concrete hypothesis, but she was somewhat afraid to face the possibility.
As she hesitated, Lu Zican’s voice rang out again.
"Has Miss Qin thought of something?"
He had finished tidying up and walked over holding a broken copper lock.
Qin Jiuye looked up and smiled.
"It's nothing. I ate little this morning and I'm feeling a bit hungry now."
Lu Zican didn't doubt her and said readily, "Wait just a moment and the back courtyard will serve a meal. Why don't you join us for a simple meal, Miss Qin? We can also discuss the results of the consultation."
Qin Jiuye nodded and whispered a few precautions to Lu Zican. Lu Zican turned to inform the guards one by one, then inspected the pulleys on the iron cage again, grumbling about needing to call a craftsman into the manor for repairs.
The polite smile slowly faded from Qin Jiuye’s face, replaced by a lingering sense of hidden dread.
The abnormal changes in sight and hearing, the superhuman regenerative abilities, and the keen perception and frantic craving for fresh blood...
The changes occurring in He Yuanzhou gave her a strangely familiar feeling.
*No way? It couldn't be...*
Glancing at the beautiful, handsome face of the youth beside her, Qin Jiuye looked back one last time at He Yuanzhou’s hideous face in the cage.
The Su family had deprived her of her name, and now this strange illness had deprived her of her body. Now that she was trapped in this iron cage, when would she finally finish this life of being deprived?
Qin Jiuye let out a long sigh. Ultimately, she suppressed the unease in her heart for the time being and followed Lu Zican out of the room.
***
