68 City of Shu Qin

[Han Suyin]

After a couple of more days, Suyin recuperated from her shoulder injury. Although it was bruised, she can roam around and help the siblings do the chores around the house. Despite this, Suyin believed that it was time for her to go back home. Although it would be hard to get back to the Long territory without the help of Qin Fuhua, she would probably head back to the Qin manor first. During this time though, Suyin and Zhelan exchanged their knowledge with each other. As time went on Zhelan was impressed at the female's intelligence with medicine.

The past few days, it's been cloudy like this, as if it was going to rain but it didn't. Stubborn, the clouds stayed in the sky until now. The rain was lightly dripping and it became to pour hard. The doors suddenly slammed open, with an injured Zheng An at the door, limping.

Zhelan was studying the poisonous herbs that he had picked up near the mountains near them while Suyin had prepared supper. With Zheng An barging in with an arrow impaled to her right elbow, Suyin and Zhelan quickly dropped their things to help her.

"Jiejie!" Zhelan called out. He took off his clothed gloves that touched the herbs and hurried to his sister's aide as well as Suyin.

"Zheng An!" Suyin hurried to aide Zhelan, who barely could carry his dear sister up.

"I was being chased by some bandits, who stole my money and gear." Zheng An could barely talk. He quickly took her to the bed and laid her there.

Suyin rushed to grab a clean cloth before she could take off the pieces of arrow impaled through her arm.

"Miss Suyin!" Zhelan called to her. She stopped and turned to him, who wanted to stop her from taking out the arrow.

"If we don't take it out now, we don't know whether they poisoned the arrow or not. Regardless, she could get infected."

Zhelan hesitated but nodded his head after Suyin nodded back at him.

"I'm sorry, Zheng An, but this will hurt."

As Suyin pulled out the arrow, Zheng An groaned in pain. Suyin quickly used the clean cloth to wrap her arm so that she wouldn't lose blood. "Herbs..."

Zhelan shook his head. "We don't have any, and there's none nearby us. Just poisonous ones that I cannot combine."

It was a crucial moment, but Suyin took a deep breath to critically think.

"There's some money that we still have left. It should be enough if I go buy it--"

Suyin stopped Zhelan, who was trembling in fear. Maybe it was because the one who was hurt was his sister that he couldn't keep shaking in fear. Fear that his dear older sister will die from bleeding.

"I'll go. Stay with your older sister. I'll try to hurry back." Suyin grabbed a yellow umbrella, hurrying to the gates of Shu Qin.

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[Shu Qin]

For historical purposes, it was known to have one of the best defensive bases due to the emperor living here. Thanks to the Crown Prince's devotion to aiding the military when they are needed, just like the other towns, they are highly secured with a large hefty wall with lots of guards. This is one of the largest cities--larger than the Long clan's home, YuanLong (Where the Emperor of Long resides as well as Suyin). Despite this being one of the biggest cities, there's a rumor that there's a lot of bloodshed going on behind the walls of the Palace because of the Emperor and the Crown Prince's doing, leaving them a bad reputation among the civilians. They rather live in fear, the opposite of YuanLong.

The gates of Shu Qin are open to outsiders, but to get into the city, they have to be checked by the guards numerous times. The gates will close at 8 PM (20:00) and no one could get in and out whether or not they liked it. As the guards like, they have a very strong army there, so it was nearly impossible to get in without being able to get passed by them.

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Suyin was able to reach the walls of Shu Qin. It took her about fifteen minutes, trying to scurry along the pathway and avoid slipping from the mud. Thankfully, the trees helped her block some of the raindrops falling on the dirt pathway to Shu Qin. By foot, it wasn't too far off from where they were at.

As Suyin arrived at the gates, one of the guards stopped her.

"Halt." The guard commanded. Suyin turned to the guard, who didn't make eye contact with her. The guard only stared straight ahead of him.

"To get in, we must search."

Suyin gave him an odd look. What in the world did she have with him that would make it possible that she was going to go in with weapons or something? Although this was the first time she is going to step foot into the city, this was ridiculous.

"Search what?" Suyin had repeated what he had said. The guards pointed at Suyin's umbrella. Although Suyin didn't have time to fight them right now, she needed to get the herbs she needed as soon as possible.

"Here!" Suyin handed the umbrella to the guard, who checked to make sure there would be no hidden weapon or anything. The guard gave her the green light as Suyin was getting wet from the rain. She hurried inside, with the umbrella open again, she was baffled at how large and prosperous the city was.

Unlike the other cities, this city was built with glamor. All buildings were either built of stone or dark brown wood-- one of the strongest for common buildings. Imagine what the Palace would look like!

Suyin snapped back to reality because it wasn't time for her to get indulged. She needed to find an herbal shop so that she could buy the prescriptions needed.

There was a large shop, with a chinese frame written, "Herbal shop." Of course, Suyin walked right in without hesistating. It wasn't busy, probably because of the rain, so Suyin was one of the two customers that waited for their turn to buy some dried herbs.

As the customer in front of Suyin finished their shopping, Suyin took a step ahead in front of the counter, looking at the large wooden cabinets filled with different types of herbs.

The herbalist was too busy cleaning out the counter, barely noticing Suyin from the corner of his eyes until he stopped cleaning, realizing that she was a woman.

"What? Are you here to fetch something?" The herbalist said in an insolent tone.

"I..." Suyin clenched her fist, biting her tongue for such an attitude this man had. If only she didn't have to come in and ask in a hurry, she'd fight back if she could. "I'm here to get some herbs."

The herbalist looked around the age of mid-forties, with a beard growing on his face which made him look older than he is. He glanced at Suyin, who then gave the herbalist a strange look.

"Do you not have a prescription? You can't come in without one." He sighed, in irritation.

As if Suyin had known that they needed a prescription! Suyin felt her pockets, then smiled at the herbalist. "I forgot to bring it, it seems! I'll be back!"

Suyin hurried out, scrunching her nose with an upset look on her face. There was no way that she could possibly get the herbs now!

"Think Suyin. Think!" Suyin whispered to herself in her head, closing her eyes. Maybe there was something that she could do in order to get the herbs quickly back to Zheng An.

At an inn next door, a drunken man came out, stumbling out with a couple of the servants pulling him out.

"You shhttouupid people! I will get ctoouu all." The drunken man wanted to get back inside, stumbling all over poor skinny servants who tried to drag the 200-pound man (90kg) out of the inn.

Maybe it was possible that they had some ink and paper that Suyin could borrow in there. Suyin had thought about it for a moment but as the rain continued to pour in hard.

Suyin quickly ran into the inn, looking around. It seemed as though most of the workers were dealing with the men at the table the drunken man was at, so the inn counter was left unoccupied. Maybe it was just enough time for Suyin so that she can write the prescriptions down on paper.

Standing behind the entrance door, trying to make a run to the counter, she took the chance when no one was looking and grabbed a piece of paper and ink and a brush. Luckily, someone had already grounded some ink already, so Suyin did her best to quickly write up the prescription herbs so that she can hand it to that snobby herbalist a couple of doors down from the inn.

At the end of the prescription, Suyin hesitated for a second, debating whether she should write a prescriber's name on it. That herbalist would definitely not let her off the hook if it was just plain paper without someone asking for it.

"Sorry." Suyin had whispered to herself, apologizing in advance, stroking the characters of her mentor down. "Wansun."

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Suyin hurried back, barely enough time before she could get caught by the workers at the inn, and returned to the herbalist in the shop.

"Ah, you're back?" The herbalist asked, not even looking at the female. Suyin nodded, biting her lips this time. Deep down in her mind, Suyin was already throwing a fist at the herbalist for being such a jerk.

"Here." Suyin had given the herbalist the paper, hoping that it'll pass just enough.

"PLEASE GODS." Suyin had pleaded in her head, hoping that the herbalist didn't question a single thing.

"Hm." The herbalist took a long look at the paper, then nodded his head.

"I--Uh. Happened to pass by the town before heading back to Wansun's manor. He had asked me to bring some of these herbs back home." Suyin quickly explained. The herbalist was skeptical at first, then turned his back around.

He walked towards the cabinets and grabbed the prescribed herbs for Suyin. Wrapped neatly and separately in brown paper bags and a thin, brown rope, he placed it on the counter.

"Thank you." Suyin quickly handed the herbalist the money and grabbed the herbs, dashing outside of the shop. Suyin opened her umbrella again, this time, dashing back to the gates.

Although it was raining, people seemed to have been lining up for someone's arrival. Suyin was far too busy to take a glance or see who it was, only passing by the carriage, carrying Qin Fuhua inside of an elegant, black and gold carriage with a large army. Following the carriage, a smaller one was in the back, carrying Areum and Wu Fei.

"I'll hurry back and help cure you, Zheng An!" Suyin said to herself, rushing down behind the people watching the arrival of the Prince of Qin.