50 Can he See?

The Imperial physician pulled at Ming Cheng's eyelids, peering into his eyes as if he could assess the quality of his mind and soul by doing so.

He left them alone soon enough, but not soon enough to leave Ming Cheng completely painless.

His eyes stung and restrained himself from moving his hands up to rub at them as if he were capable of removing the pain that he had been left with.

"Well, the boy does not anything unduly within his eyes, however, his pain tolerance still-"

Ming Cheng ignored what the physician had to say, well aware that his eyes were just fine.

He held himself from clenching his fists and digging his nails into the soft, fleshy palms of his hands for the pain to ground him.

It would be an undue reaction that would have the ghost possibly smite him, and Ming Cheng most certainly did not want that, at this particular moment in time, at this particular place in the world.

The ghost was watching to see whether Ming Cheng would go against her explicit instructions and actions, and the Imperial Physician was examining him for any more symptoms of hearing things that weren't apparently there.

"If he's hearing things, why on earth are you testing his eyes?"

The ghost was acting strange, panicking just like she had been doing before, on the night that Lan Chang had held Ming Cheng close, and she had pulled out all the hairpins in her hair, before vanishing through the doors of the room.

The ghost, if anything, looked even more shaken and panicked now, sitting there with shaking and clutched hands, breathing harshly, and almost seeming as if she were unaware of the world around her.

Her eyes kept darting towards Lan Chang, the Imperial Physician and Ming Cheng, fear obvious on her face.

"A general analysis is still necessary, as you would know if-"

But why was the ghost frightened and looking as if she were about to burst into tears?

Why did a ghost have to be scared of a doctor?

She was a ghost.

The doctor couldn't exactly do anything to her, unless the doctor had someway of vanquishing her and she did not want him to acknowledge her, lest he actually do it and she's forced to move on and leave without doing what she was here for.

"I can see you reaching for a scalpel. If you need blood, use a leech!"

If the Imperial Physician could exorcise the ghost, then Ming Cheng's path just opened up in front of him: he could simply tell the doctor about the ghost, and he would be free, however, if he did such a thing, then there was still a small window of time that he could die from the ghost's wrath if she acted maliciously in response.

Something was going on that Ming Cheng did not know the specifics of, and the current stresses and troubles that the situation was experiencing may compound and end up damaging him, if he told anyone.

But that opened up another question as well.

If the ghost was afraid of the doctor and being discovered, why follow Ming Cheng to the man who could end her?