“The Dragon Wu Incident? You… you are the rebels from Shen Qingtian’s side!”
The tall man standing before the door was struck as if by lightning, his mind going completely blank.
Before his words even faded, a sharp whistling sound tore through the air.
A head spun several times in the air before crashing heavily to the ground.
“Watch your mouth, vermin. If it weren’t for my master’s mercy back then, none of your noble families behind you would have enjoyed a single day of peace.”
“Now that you’ve gotten used to peaceful days, the scars have healed and the pain is forgotten. Have you forgotten your roots?”
“Truly a dog that can’t stop eating shit…”
“Kill them all. Leave no one alive.”
The leading hooded figure flicked the blood off her blade, then strode straight into the thatched hut.
With her command, the group of hooded figures behind her sprang into action.
In an instant, every person inside the thatched hut had their throats slit cleanly and efficiently.
On the wooden table in the middle of the hut lay the intelligence documents that the noble families’ lackeys had copied.
The leading woman picked them up and flipped through them briefly, paying special attention to anything related to Shen Yu.
Her expression shifted slightly.
She then tucked the documents into a pocket inside her robe.
Only after confirming the intelligence was safely stored did she wave a hand at her subordinates, who were cleaning up the scene.
“We have what we need. Time to return and report. Leave a few agile brothers here to keep watch. The rest of you, follow me back to Qingfeng Village tonight.”
“Make the scene look clean. Prepare the evidence we gathered. Notify the Fenglin Guards. Tell them… there’s high office and rich rewards waiting here. Let them come collect them.”
“Collect all the specially crafted knives Miss used in Mu’en Hall and bring them back. Don’t leave a single trace behind.”
“Yes!”
The hooded figures in the room answered in unison.
Soon, the entire thatched hut was arranged.
Then they gathered together, carefully wiping several bloodstained surgical knives clean before placing them inside their robes.
Carrying the vital intelligence, they quickly vanished into the night.
***
Meanwhile, in the Capital, all Three Great Camps of the Capital mobilized.
Led by Marquis Wuding and Marquis Dingyuan, nearly a thousand armored soldiers stormed straight toward Mu’en Hall.
Another nearly thousand Fenglin Guards scoured the entire capital searching for Cao Xiangning’s whereabouts, while a few, led by Fenglin Guard Thousand-Household Commander Yao Huan, rode fast horses straight for the thatched hut outside the city.
The entire capital was shrouded in dark clouds.
The spies that the noble families had planted in their various businesses also furrowed their brows.
The cold autumn rain, combined with the large-scale mobilization of the Capital Garrison and the Fenglin Guards, had cleared the streets of pedestrians.
Most shops were closed for business.
Only the businesses owned by the noble families remained brightly lit.
These businesses were not just tools for generating silver for the noble families within the capital; they also served to gather intelligence on the Imperial Court’s movements within the city.
Now, all the noble families waited for one piece of news: Shen Yu… was she dead or alive?
As the rising star of the Medical Recruitment Exam, the noble families had dug pits for the exam, but she had single-handedly filled them all in.
She could even cure Baisui Jing.
For her sake, the Emperor had stopped trusting the Imperial Academy of Medicine entirely.
When he caught a common cold, he summoned her to the palace in the middle of the night.
That treatment wasn’t the end of it, but it directly produced a vaccine for Baisui Jing and pills with excellent fever-clearing and detoxifying effects.
The Imperial Court distributed them free of charge to all the people.
How much did this invisibly boost the credibility of the Medical Recruitment Exam?
Before, the noble families had desperately spread rumors that the Empress’s Medical Recruitment Exam was meant to use commoners’ lives as test subjects for the Grand Princess’s medicine.
But under Shen Yu’s knife, those noble family propaganda efforts crumbled on their own.
The Empress, under the banner of “for the sake of the nation and its people,” distributed the Centennial Vaccine everywhere.
She even got vaccinated herself first.
How much did this invisibly increase her credibility in the people’s hearts?
Combined with the newspaper the Fenglin Guards organized, this combination punch left the noble families reeling.
All of this was because of Shen Yu!
As for why it was her?
The newspaper and the free medicine distribution were really just minor nuisances.
The most critical point was that Shen Yu, a commoner doctor, could actually cure Baisui Jing!
That was the most unexpected thing for the noble families…
A person like this, serving the Imperial Power, absolutely could not be allowed to live.
Anyway, she was just a farmer’s daughter, without power or influence, with no background at all.
Killing someone like that was no big deal.
Leaving her alive would only be a thorn in the noble families’ sides.
“Shen Yu!”
The half-open gate of Mu’en Hall was pushed open.
Yun Wei rushed in urgently, a heavy spear nearly thirty catties resting in her hand.
The red tassel, soaked by the rain, hung in strands on the spearhead, as if it were weeping.
“Shen Yu! Are you alright?”
Yun Wei stepped into Mu’en Hall’s courtyard and was stunned.
Three corpses lay in a pool of blood in the small yard.
One of them was even wearing the soft armor of the Fenglin Guards!
Their deaths were all similar: their throats had been slashed open by a sharp blade.
The clean, neat incision surprised even Yun Wei.
It felt familiar… reminiscent of the wound left on her father’s abdomen when Shen Yu had performed surgery on him.
But Yun Wei had no time to spare for the three bodies in the blood.
She rushed toward the main building of Mu’en Hall.
***
Inside, the main room was in utter chaos.
Spilled medicinal herbs and shattered bottles and jars were everywhere, along with horrifying bloodstains!
Shen Yu lay collapsed in the middle of that pile of debris.
Beside her lay a tall man covered in blood, wearing soft armor.
One look was enough to tell he was also from the Fenglin Guards!
Why would the Fenglin Guards be trying to assassinate Shen Yu?
Yun Wei couldn’t think about it.
She called out Shen Yu’s name, and before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face.
Yun Wei remembered clearly that since her three older brothers had died, she had never shed a single tear.
But now…
Tears the size of beans rolled down her pretty face, mixing with the cold rain, soaking the makeup at the corners of her eyes.
It made it look as though she were crying tears of blood.
There was a pitiful charm to it, mixed with a hint of tragic beauty.
She was truly scared.
She had only just started to like Shen Yu not long ago, but now Shen Yu…
“Shen Yu! Shen Yu… wake up! Don’t scare me!”
At this moment, Yun Wei wanted to slap herself.
Why had she left tonight?
If she had stayed by Shen Yu’s side, wouldn’t she have avoided danger?
Shen Yu lay weakly in Yun Wei’s arms, her pretty face pale, several obvious wounds on her body making Yun Wei gasp.
But thankfully, the visible wounds were mostly non-fatal.
It was just that she was covered in blood.
Yun Wei couldn’t tell if she had internal injuries.
It was precisely because they understood this and felt powerless that they were seething with rage.
Shen Yu’s actions had already made these two marquises recognize her from the bottom of their hearts as an absolutely outstanding physician.
She came from a humble background, had no desires, and sought only one thing: the well-being of the world.
And yet, such a good physician, one who could heal people and even heal the nation, had become a thorn in the side of those dogs from the noble families.
They even brazenly wanted her dead!
“This is an outrage! An absolute outrage! I’m going to see His Majesty right now! Even if it kills me, I will demand justice for Imperial Physician Shen!”
Marquis Wuding’s face was green with rage.
Shen Yu was his savior!
How could he stand by and watch his benefactor meet such an end!?
“Shen Yu… don’t scare me. Please, open your eyes and look at me. I’m begging you. If you just open your eyes and look at me, I’ll do anything you want…”
“How can I live without you?”
Marquis Wuding’s heart ached.
Especially when he saw his precious daughter Yun Wei, who had never even whimpered when a sword pierced her shoulder, now hugging Shen Yu and weeping as if her heart were breaking.
Rage! Rage! And more rage! Endless rage!
Marquis Wuding even wished he could grab his sword right now, just like that old fox Shen Qingtian during the Dragon Wu Incident…
“The Fenglin Guards have a traitor. Don’t worry about me. Go back and protect Her Majesty and the Grand Princess. The ones who want to kill me… are the Li Clan of Taoguan, the Cui Clan of Yanghe, and the Wu Clan of Guangling. They bribed the Fenglin Guards to have me killed.”
“They said that His Majesty’s illness doesn’t need me to treat. That I can’t cure His Majesty, and I can’t cure the Grand Princess either. Whether His Majesty and the Princess are healthy or not… depends on them, the noble families.”
“My existence ruins their plans. They oppose the Medical Recruitment Exam. They oppose His Majesty. This isn’t just about killing me; it’s rebellion. They want to cut off the people’s lifeline, cut off His Majesty’s great cause…”
“I’m useless. Utterly useless. Yun Wei… the vaccine, has the vaccine been distributed to the people?”
The moment Shen Yu said this, everyone present fell silent.
Her words effectively and permanently sealed the doom of these three noble families.
And this charge was heavy enough to crush these noble families that had existed for centuries, propped up by wealthy merchants, scholar-officials, and even high-ranking court officials.
“Rebellion! This is rebellion!”
Once the charge of rebellion was confirmed, it meant the execution of nine generations.
Especially since these were noble families the Emperor had long wanted to crush.
Eliminating three at once, scattering their resources and reshuffling the deck, would make the Emperor laugh in his dreams.
Given the current situation—the capital, the Imperial Palace, the heart of the Son of Heaven’s domain, the Medical Recruitment Exam, the rising new top scholar, her assassination and severe injury, the Fenglin Guards colluding with the noble families—this chain of events was enough to put immense pressure on even these two marquises, who had seen it all before.
Noble families colluding with the Son of Heaven’s own eyes and ears, within the very domain under the Son of Heaven’s feet, to assassinate a commoner-born, clean-handed Medical Recruitment Exam top scholar!?
And this top scholar wasn’t just deeply trusted by the Empress, capable of curing the Grand Princess’s stubborn disease, but she also had the gratitude of two core military nobles: Marquis Dingyuan and Marquis Wuding.
Most importantly… she had no desires.
She only wanted to save people.
She could have used the vaccine and the detoxifying pills to become famous across the land and fill her coffers.
But she didn’t.
She was completely selfless, sharing the vaccine and pills with the world in the Empress’s name.
She said…
‘I eat the sovereign’s grain, so I must be loyal to the sovereign’s cause. His Majesty cares for the world. As a minister, I have no reason to hoard what I know. The formulas for this vaccine and the detoxifying pills can be taken by me, Shen Yu, or by the entire world…’
She gave the Empress face, she gave the Imperial Court face.
She turned the public opinion around for the Medical Recruitment Exam, and at the same time, she carved out a path of survival for the people in the face of a great plague.