“She’s that awesome.” Li Qing felt wistful as he told Qi Qingyao about Su Hexiao. They had also searched for Su Hexiao for four years, to no avail.
“Why is she so famous when no one’s managed to find her?” Qi Qingyao muttered.
Li Qing thought about it for a while. “Probably because she treated the current emperor of Beiliang ten years ago?”
“She treated the emperor of Beiliang?” An imperial physician, huh?
Li Qing explained, “The young emperor hadn’t ascended to the throne yet back then. The old emperor liked him, but the young emperor’s body was in bad condition due to how he was poisoned as a kid. For that, the emperor visited the temple of the Koi Fish God and prayed. Unexpectedly, he met a divine physician named Su Hexiao there, who healed him. The ailment the emperor was suffering from was very complicated, and the other physicians in Beiliang had no idea what to do about it. The palace also sought out physicians from other countries in the continent, but their efforts were in vain. It was… kind of like the situation the Heir is in now. Nevertheless, Su Hexiao succeeded in treating the little emperor! From then on, she became famous in the land. She disappeared, but her fame still remains. Rumor says that four years ago, she appeared again in Qingzhou City, saved Zhu Yutian, the little overlord of Jiangzhou, and then proceeded to vanished again…”
“What a mysterious and awesome story!” Qi Qingyao was amazed.
Li Qing asked, “Why did you ask about her?”
Qi Qingyao replied, “To learn something new.”
With that, Qi Qingyao turned back and reentered the room. Heir Pei was still nattering on about how awesome Divine Physician Su was. He stared at Qi Qingyao with admiration on his face, and he called after Qi Qingyao with a voice that caused goosebumps to break out on her skin, “Miss Su~”
Qi Qingyao was disgusted by his gaze and his choice of honorifics. She waved her hand.
“Okay, enough. Don’t call me Miss Su, it makes me feel nauseous.”
Heir Pei pursed his lips. His gaze was still filled with admiration.
Qi Qingyao knew that he had mistaken her as the real Su Hexiao. She pressed at her temple with a finger and pursed her lips, deep in thought. After half a second, she turned to Heir Pei and said nonchalantly, “I’ll tell you the truth. I’m not a Divine Physician or anything like that. I said that to appease Li Qing so that I could come treat you and earn some money. Su Hexiao’s just a fake name I made up, I didn’t expect to share a name with the Mysterious Divine Physician Su Hexiao. This is really a beautiful mess of a misunderstanding, and that’s all that there is to it!”
Heir Pei looked determined. “I don’t believe you!”
“Why not?” Qi Qingyao shrugged.
“You healed me. That’s enough proof.” Heir Pei said determinedly.
Qi Qingyao rolled her eyes. “Proof, what proof? I healed you because I’m intelligent!”
Heir Pei paused. “Who are you, then? What’s your name?”
Qi Qingyao massaged her aching forehead and told him everything. “I told you my name’s Su Hexiao because I didn’t want you to remember me. I didn’t expect there to be another Su Hexiao who’s so damn famous. My name is actually Qi Qingyao, I’m from the village nearby. I got pregnant without being married and I now have three children. They’re all around the age of three. Li Qing knows about this. They now live in one of the side rooms. You can go meet them. They look incredibly like me. If you don’t believe me, you can investigate me. With how capable you are, Heir Pei, it should be an easy job.”
“…”
Heir Pei looked at her as she told her story with conviction. She did not look like she was kidding.
Li Qing had told him before that she had three children… And that she had a pair of strange men — who wore a bull-head mask and a horse-face mask respectively — with her all the time.
Heir Pei did not ask any more questions. He had Qi Qingyao return to her rooms, and once Qi Qingyao left, he waved Li Qing over. He asked Li Qing to perform an errand for him, and Li Qing went to start the investigation immediately after he received his orders.