Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Shen Lian, puzzled, exchanged a glance with his young male concubine, who looked like he'd just swallowed a firecracker.

Finally, he zeroed in on the unavoidable key point.

The young male concubine kept going on and on about "pick any restaurant," but it didn't seem like he actually wanted to drag Shen Lian to another fancy high-end meal.

Because of what had happened before, every time the young male concubine mentioned "pick any," Shen Lian's mind flashed back to that sky-high bill.

So he'd been deliberately tuning out Dian Xia's endless "pick any, pick any."

Until now, when Dian Xia brought up "Brother Lu picked any and didn't get his fill."

Shen Lian suddenly realized—this guy seemed to be blaming him for letting another brother pick the tavern he was treating at.

In fact, Lu Huaizhi had been on duty that day. He'd only escorted Shen Lian home to let his dad know he was safe and then left. He never even asked Shen Lian to buy him a meal.

Shen Lian's eyes went wide as he stared at the young male concubine: "How did you know I was planning to let Commander Lu pick out a tavern for a meal?"

"Ha." Xie Yuan straightened up, shook his head disdainfully, and shot a sideways glance at the young imperial physician before correcting him: "Your Brother Lu is the Deputy Guard Commander, not the Guard Commander. Those two are worlds apart. You need at least a second-class merit citation to be promoted to Guard Commander."

Shen Lian tipped his chin up, squeezed his eyes shut, and shook his head as he launched into his rant: "Ugh, you're so damn nitpicky! Why aren't you this nitpicky about the stuff that actually matters?! You've gotta stick your nose into how old Prince Qi is! You've gotta stick your nose into how many troops Prince Qi takes into battle! I'm just doing my friend a solid and calling him Guard Commander—is that not allowed?! What the hell is there for you to be so nitpicky about?!"

Xie Yuan: "The difference is huge."

"Fine!" Shen Lian said. "So how'd you know I was planning to buy Deputy Guard Commander Lu a meal?"

Xie Yuan cocked his head and tapped his ear: "I heard it."

Shen Lian's huffy expression slowly turned into surprise. "You... you went to the government office that night too?"

A moment of silence.

The young male concubine's disdainful look had a flicker of awkwardness, like he was embarrassed to admit it.

"You went too?" Shen Lian's voice got shaky and choked up. "Didn't you already send someone riding ahead to tip off the Lord Prefect? Why did you still come in person?"

He'd personally come to protect him? So beneath that willful, arrogant exterior, the young male concubine was actually worried about Shen Lian's safety.

Xie Yuan leaned in, looking dead serious, and murmured: "I saved you. You owe me, and you should've paid up right then and there. The one who got to pick any tavern should've been me. But you ran off with some grunt from the garrison."

The shock and gratitude in Shen Lian's heart evaporated on the spot.

"Lu Huaizhi is the Deputy Guard Commander!" Shen Lian argued on behalf of the only actual human among his two saviors: "Even if he's not the Guard Commander, he's hardly some errand boy, right? You can't call him an errand boy just because he swiped a free meal out from under you. Lu Huaizhi is young and accomplished, and he's already got serious clout in the garrison at his age. He's definitely a big deal."

Xie Yuan shot back: "What big shot gets sent to arrest an 8th-rank imperial physician? Even village-massacring bandits don't rate a big shot's attention."

"I can't stand you!" Shen Lian burst out laughing, then quickly choked it back.

He couldn't get on the young male concubine's wavelength.

The young male concubine's priorities were just too weird.

If he kept arguing and correcting every little thing, they'd never get anywhere.

Shen Lian put on his straight-A student logic to spell it out for the young male concubine: "Even if, for argument's sake, Brother Lu really were an errand boy—or even a commoner—he risked his own neck, deliberately stalled for time, and took a detour to get me to Prince Xi for help. Doesn't that still make him my savior? After I got out safe and sound, it's only natural I'd offer to buy him a meal, right? Since you saw us, why didn't you just come over and join us? If I'd known you'd made it in time, I'd have definitely invited you to eat with us too! Why didn't you holler at me?"

Xie Yuan said: "Me, the Princess Consort of Xi, sitting at the same table as some grunt from the garrison?"

"Dian Xia!" Shen Lian opened his mouth, then shut it.

He wanted to tell the young male concubine to watch his mouth.

But this was a feudal dynasty, where rank and status were everything.

Forcing this era's mindset to change seemed like overstepping his bounds, especially with a hothead of a young male concubine like this one.

"Speak up if you've got something to say," Xie Yuan pressed. "I need to get going. You want me to go handle official business while I'm this pissed off?"

Shen Lian blinked, and then it hit him. "You're waiting for me to make you feel better? I thought you were worried about my White Immortal Powder not selling!"

Xie Yuan answered fiercely: "If you make me feel better, other problems might just resolve themselves."

Shen Lian truly had no idea what to do with him. "I don't need you to solve my problems, but I really don't want you to be upset because of me. If you want me to treat you to a meal at any restaurant you pick, of course I'd still agree—but it can't exceed what I can afford, or else in the end you'll end up paying again. You're smart enough to see that coming. Are you just doing this to scare me and waste your own money?"

Shen Lian took a deep breath and continued earnestly: "To be honest, even when you paid, it broke my heart. Don't laugh at me, but after that meal on the mountain, I had dreams for several nights in a row where, at the moment of paying, I grabbed you and ran, trying to save you that hundred-plus taels. In the dreams, I kept being chased until I woke up."

Xie Yuan was stunned.

He straightened up and looked away, then turned back to Shen Lian after a moment: "Lord Shen really does spend his thoughts on places that are both unexpected and utterly useless."

Shen Lian retorted: "On the contrary, I think the things you care about are the unexpected ones. May I ask, Dian Xia, what use is your obsession with the right to pick any restaurant?"

Xie Yuan: "..."

Of course, it was to prove who the young imperial physician cared about most among his brothers.

Anyone who entered Prince Qi's domain had to devote their whole heart to His Highness Prince Qi.

When he was young, the Prince's mother wasn't even allowed to keep a cat.

And the young imperial physician was still treating a grunt to meals.

Even gifting two bottles of the extremely slow-to-produce White Immortal Powder.

The young imperial physician wouldn't even compensate him.

Xie Yuan said with a sour face: "I'm leaving."

"Alright, go handle your business then." Shen Lian pulled a small bundle from his sleeve pocket: "These are the medicinal powders I prepared for you. I'll put them in your room when I get back."

Hope reignited in Xie Yuan's eyes: "Is this the White Immortal Powder?"

Shen Lian said: "This is a secret formula for kidney tonics."

Xie Yuan closed his eyes in despair.

Shen Lian wanted to mention that the raw materials for this bundle cost more than the two bottles of White Immortal Powder, and that he'd carefully prepared it too, but he felt awkward bragging about those few taels of silver. Discussing money between brothers was too impersonal.

So he just instructed: "I only made this little bit in my spare time. Don't tell Song Jin—keep it for yourself. The usage instructions are all written inside. No need to brew it, and I've removed the bitterness. Remember to read it carefully when you get back. Also, my clan's spring sacrifice—you can really eat as much as you want there. If you're interested, you're welcome to come join. It's at the end of this month."

Returning home in the evening, Shen Lian went to the market and bought another large batch of materials for making equipment.

He couldn't keep producing only three bottles a month. If a rush order for hundreds of bottles really came in, he'd be losing out big time without stock on hand.

If he'd had stock when the Imperial Guard had placed their order, he wouldn't have been stood up.

He needed to handcraft a larger set of pharmaceutical equipment.

That night, he worked until the third watch, watching over the raw materials as they purified while busily polishing the new equipment on the other side.

Only when his eyes were too tired to stay open did he pause all work, wash up, and lie down on the bed.

He was so exhausted he could fall asleep the second his head hit the pillow, but then something popped into his head, and he opened the system mall again.

He glanced at the poleless centrifuge and vacuum condensation extraction tower on the shelf, clicking on the details to check the capacity specs.

Doing the math in his head, if he could exchange for these two devices, one batch of medicinal powder would fill about nine bottles, and the production cycle could be shortened to seven days.

But when would he ever be able to afford the fifty-thousand-per-unit minimum?

He glanced at the popularity points in the upper-left corner, which hadn't budged in ages.

Shen Lian suddenly sat up straight.

The female-channel points had actually jumped to 37,912.

The joy points he'd spent on a refresh had also recovered.

Why were these points so all over the place?

Either they didn't move at all, or they shot straight up.

Also, next to the female-channel points number, there was now a small gray question mark.

Could he finally figure out how the points increased?

Shen Lian mentally clicked the question mark.

What popped up was a detailed breakdown of the point gains.

Mixed in among a bunch of golden +1029, +2318, and +862 were three green -1821, -287, and -4192.

Wait.

What the heck deducted 4,192 points from him at once!

In other words, without those deductions, he'd almost have enough points to buy one of the devices.

What had Long Aotian done to him!

The exhilarating surge in points, now tainted by those green deductions, left Shen Lian with mixed feelings.

At least he could confirm that the female-channel popularity points would still spike occasionally.

That meant he could significantly boost production without hiring workers.

Shen Lian closed the interface, feeling pleased, and slept soundly through the night.

The next day, right after work, he went to Xinglin Studio to restock, planning to stock up on raw materials in one go and start production as soon as the new equipment was assembled.

Unexpectedly, Xinglin Studio was out of stock on several core raw materials due to supplier issues.

Although buying elsewhere would cost more, Shen Lian, being cautious and worried these herbs might be out of stock everywhere, still went down the street asking prices at various medicine shops.

At two shops, as soon as the clerks heard which herbs he wanted, they went to get the manager.

The manager eyed Shen Lian warily, then waved a hand and said, "Our shop doesn't sell these herbs."

Not out of stock—refusing to sell.

Shen Lian found it strange.

Riding his little donkey, he went down a few more streets.

At the sixth shop, the clerk actually pulled a scroll from a drawer, unrolled it to look at the person drawn on it, then compared it to Shen Lian's face before firmly saying they didn't sell those herbs.

It couldn't have been more obvious.

The medicine shops in the capital seemed to be joining forces to cut off his supply chain.

The arrogant face of Manager Dehui flashed through his mind.

These petty people, no longer daring to cause trouble openly, had started playing dirty.

But this move was way too stupid.

The next day at the Imperial Medical Institute, Shen Lian found time to seek out the young medical assistant A Ji in the pharmacy and asked him to buy the materials on his behalf.

He didn't buy all the materials from the same shop—he specifically requested one type from each store.

Sure enough, he got all the herbs without a problem.

But this method had its risks.

The unscrupulous shop managers bullied the weak and feared the strong, and Shen Lian worried that A Ji's repeated purchases of such precious herbs would draw attention from the various shops.

If anyone found out he was Shen Lian's friend, it might bring trouble and retaliation down on young A Ji.

After much thought, if he could source directly from the Imperial Medical Institute's procurement channels, he wouldn't have to worry about being cut off.

But this required approval from the higher-ups.

Cui Hongjin definitely wouldn't help.

Ever since Shen Lian had given Zhao Canghai credit during the reward at the morning court, Cui Hongjin had worn a sour face every time he saw him.

Zhao Canghai now stood on equal footing with Cui Hongjin, but his attitude toward Shen Lian was the complete opposite.

Old Zhao treated Shen Lian almost like a peer, often discussing medical theory with him.

Even a socially awkward guy had to steel himself in ancient times.

One day, after privately discussing medical theory, Shen Lian braced himself, cupped his fists, and asked Zhao Canghai for help purchasing those herbs at a markup through the procurement department.

Zhao Canghai was taken aback. Seeing the young man's ears turning red with embarrassment, he felt both pity and delight.

Finally, Shen Lian had come to him for help.

Zhao Canghai had worked at the Imperial Medical Institute for decades and had been suppressed by Cui Hongjin for just as long.

He'd thought his career would end as Deputy Director.

But unexpectedly, when Shen Lian received the reward at court, he'd given most of the credit for saving the foreign envoy to Zhao Canghai.

As a result, Zhao Canghai was exceptionally promoted to Director, no longer having to grovel under Cui Hongjin's scrutiny.

He'd always wanted to repay this kindness, but Shen Lian wasn't good at socializing and tended to silently bear his troubles alone.

Today, he finally managed to seize the chance.

Zhao Canghai did not ask Shen Lian why he wanted to purchase these expensive medicinal materials, but instead asked why Shen Lian wanted to buy them at a markup through the Imperial Hospital.

It would be much more expensive this way, as the folk pharmacies sold them cheaper.

That comment clearly showed he genuinely cared about Shen Lian's interests.

After a brief thought, Shen Lian confessed that he wanted to privately develop some medicines to sell to the public to supplement his household income. However, after taking a job from the Imperial Guard, he had offended the Dehui Pharmacy, and all the major pharmacies in the capital refused to supply him with these raw materials.

Old Zhao, quick to anger, flew into a rage upon hearing this: "What kind of prestigious medical hall dares to offend someone from our Imperial Hospital? Don't they want the palace's business anymore? Don't worry, after work tonight, I'll accompany you to pay them a visit!"