Chapter 6
“How are you feeling? Are you fully recovered now? I don’t see any more signs of a fever.”
The physician kept his eyes closed for a while even after checking Unyeong’s pulse.
When he finally opened them, Seol Jadan asked him a question.
“Well, hmm. I’m not sure.”
This physician, named Son Sewoong, was fairly well known in Hubei as a skilled doctor. But at this moment, he stroked his beard with a troubled expression on his face.
Unyeong had been through this kind of situation countless times.
Though only five or six doctors had been summoned so far in this early stage of her condition, over the next five years, dozens more would come to the Seol family estate.
And every single time a doctor examined her for the first time, they had the same reaction.
They looked puzzled, trying hard to hide their confusion.
“Her energy and blood are twisted…”
Yeah, no. That’s not it. Go back.
“Her pulse is unstable.”
Of course. Isn’t that normal for someone who’s sick?
Unyeong nodded calmly, but Seol Jadan’s face had gone pale. It wasn’t the first time hearing such words, but his reaction was always the same.
“I believe it might be a case of poisoning…”
“Poison? Are you saying our Yeonga has been poisoned?!”
Seol Jadan raised his voice at the word poison.
“The symptoms point in that direction, but nothing is certain. We’ll need to observe her more. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a case in a civilian, not a martial artist, with this kind of disrupted energy and blood flow…”
“Ha…”
Seol Jadan wiped his face with both hands.
Unyeong had seen this reaction from him many times before.
Whenever a physician gave a diagnosis, despair followed. If anyone offered even the slightest bit of hope, he would cling to it.
But in the end, only endless despair remained.
Though it wasn’t certain, he had likely spent a fortune as well.
This physician didn’t seem to be a complete quack, but he clearly didn’t know anything useful.
Perhaps it was only natural that physicians didn’t understand her constitution well.
The symptoms were somewhat similar to poisoning, yet not quite.
Unyeong knew her own condition and what she needed to do to get better. So, that wasn’t the real issue now.
This wasn’t some ordinary illness.
“Physician. May I ask you something?”
“Yes, young miss. Please, go ahead.”
Unyeong called the physician gently, as if being extremely cautious.
Looking at her pale and gaunt face, Physician Son felt a deep sympathy.
He always felt such things when treating patients, but this child was so young. Despite her obvious signs of illness, her beauty couldn’t be hidden, which only made her situation more pitiful.
If she could’ve grown up healthy just for a few more years, even if not the most beautiful in the world, she would’ve surely been known as the fairest in Hubei.
Wasn’t there a saying, “the beautiful die young”?
He even found himself thinking something he shouldn’t—that perhaps the heavens had made her so lovely just to take her back early by giving her such an illness.
Clearing his thoughts upon seeing her serious expression, Physician Son replied with a smile.
“Of course, go ahead.”
“Well, um… can I eat meat?”
For a moment, he thought he’d misheard. After all her suffering, the child was asking whether she could eat meat?
He expected her to ask whether she could recover or how long she might live.
“Meat, you say. Right now, you’re only eating porridge, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Hm… If you can digest it, it should be fine.”
“Really?”
Unyeong’s face lit up at his words, and she looked at her nanny as if to say, “You heard that, right?”
Even in such a serious moment, the nanny found Unyeong adorable and couldn’t help but smile softly.
“But don’t eat too much. Start with small amounts and check how your digestion handles it. I’ll also prescribe some medicine to aid digestion.”
Unyeong didn’t care about the medicine. What mattered was eating meat to build up her body.
“Thank you, physician.”
“Not at all, young miss. Eat plenty of meat and get better soon. Ha ha.”
Unyeong bowed respectfully to the physician. Anyone who allowed her to eat meat was, for now, a good person.
Seol Jadan and the nanny didn’t look too pleased, but Unyeong was happy.
Because now, she could eat meat.
A few days later, Seol Wonpyeong returned to the Seol household and immediately summoned his son, Seol Jadan.
“What did the physician say?”
He asked the question before his son had even taken a seat.
He always maintained a stern expression in front of his granddaughter, Unyeong. Did that child know how much he actually worried about her, despite being so restless?
Seol Jadan sat down with a heavy sigh, forgetting any pretense of formality, and wiped his face.
“Well… the physician said it might be poisoning.”
“Poison? Are you telling me someone in my household was poisoned?!”
Seol Wonpyeong slammed the table in fury, his hand trembling slightly.
Seol Jadan had reacted similarly when he first heard the possibility of poisoning. Wanting to calm his father down, he quickly added more.
“But he said it might not be that. The symptoms are similar, but there’s no clear evidence of actual poisoning.”
“I see…”
Seol Wonpyeong let out a breath of relief.
He had been ready to upend the entire household—but hearing it wasn’t poison was fortunate.
As the patriarch of the Seol family and the head of the Seol Trade Group, Seol Wonpyeong was an exceptional man.
Born with martial talent, though his business acumen outshined it even more.
In the 500 years since the Seol family had settled in Honganhyeon, there had been many great leaders. But few had managed to balance family and commerce so smoothly without any major incidents.
Given how many secrets the family held, maintaining balance between the government and the martial world was no easy feat.
“What else did the physician say?”
“He couldn’t give a definitive diagnosis.”
“Pfft. And these are supposed to be the best physicians in Hubei. Did he have no solutions either?”
“For now, he said to keep monitoring her. The fever might return. And also…”
“Go on.”
“If she doesn’t fully recover and the fever returns, it could be dangerous.”
“Sigh… How could such a young child…”
“He said the key is to prevent the fever from coming back.”
“Of course. If something’s wrong with her organs or meridians, then the fever is a natural result.”
Worry was written all over Seol Wonpyeong’s face.
“He also suggested showing her to martial artists.”
“Martial artists? Why?”
“To see if she was born with a unique constitution. High-level martial masters might perceive something different from ordinary physicians.”
“Hm.”
Seol Wonpyeong fell into thought.
As a supreme martial master himself, he had already examined Unyeong’s body when she was born.
If there had been any abnormalities, he would have noticed then. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check again.
After organizing his thoughts, he stroked his beard and looked at his son.
“What do you think?”
“I think it would be good if you examined her yourself.”
“But… doesn’t she feel uncomfortable around me? Ahem.”
He looked away as he spoke, his voice lacking conviction.
“Still…”
Seol Jadan was just as powerless. He had ignored the child for too long.
When Unyeong was born and his wife died, Seol Jadan had lost his mind. He wandered for months at a time, leaving home. Seol Wonpyeong, for his part, had been busy preserving the family.
By the time Seol Jadan came to his senses, the children had already grown.
Unyeong, having grown up practically alone, was afraid of her grandfather and estranged from her father.
With her heart already closed off, they couldn’t approach her easily. It was a vicious cycle.
Father and son could only look at each other and sigh.
“…In any case, I’ll go see the child. Let’s leave it at that.”
Seol Wonpyeong needed time to prepare himself.
He had faced many storms while leading the family and running the trade group—but facing his own granddaughter was harder than anything.
“That poison… no, never mind. You may leave.”
He’d had a suspicion but stopped himself, knowing it would only reopen his son’s old wounds.
Seol Jadan also knew what his father wanted to say but said nothing more.
He quietly left the patriarch’s chamber.
Seol Jadan stopped in his tracks and looked up at the crescent moon.
He stared at it for a long while.
As the night passed and the moon sank lower, he finally spoke to someone he could no longer see.
“Are you watching, my love? Please… please, protect that child.”
The sky gave no reply.
Only the crescent moon’s light gently illuminated the ground beneath his feet.
