Chapter 83 An Invisible Hand (1/2)

The morning of September 14, 1228 of the Ziyun Era.

“Big Brother Zhou.”

This would be the third time that Zhou Donghuang was visiting the patriarch of the Yang family Yang Yunji to purge the poison from his body, and the young lady had arrived early in the morning to look for him.

At the sound of her voice, Zhou Donghuang left his room and left with the young lady for Yang Yunji’s accommodation.

“Eh? Where’s Third Uncle?”

The young lady was surprised at not seeing the third master of the Yang family, Yang Yunchong, as he would normally be around.

“I have sent your Third Uncle on some errands, he’ll only be back in several days’ time,” said the patriarch of the Yang family Yang Yunji with an affable expression. He had come out of his room to welcome Zhou Donghuang.

He looked at Zhou Donghuang and bowed and raised his arm to usher Zhou Donghuang into the room. “Medicine Master Zhou, after you.”

“Mm.”

Zhou Donghuang nodded and led the way into the room. Yang Yunji and the young lady followed him in.

Less than half a day later, Zhou Donghuang had completed yet another round of acupuncture on Yang Yunji.

“Tomorrow, I will come over to perform the last round of acupuncture, and the poison in your body will be completely purged. At that point, you will only need to consume the medicine prepared with my formula for two days while you recover, and your body will recover completely to its prior state,” Zhou Donghuang said.

“Many thanks to Medicine Master Zhou.”

Yang Yunji thanked him profusely.

Half of Yang Yunji’s remaining white hair had turned black, and there were almost no more wrinkles on his face, making him look just over fifty years old at most.

From the appearance of a roughly seventy-year-old man just three short days before, he now looked just over fifty. If this became widely known, it would shock many people.

…

Not long after Zhou Donghuang returned and just as he was about to start practicing, the young lady came over again with a foul expression.

“Zixi, what’s wrong?”

“Big Brother Zhou, I just ran into two elders of the Yang family and overheard them discussing the matter of Uncle regaining his youth.” The young lady said in a low voice, “They said it was that Medicine Master Xiao Chen who purged the poison from Uncle. But it is undeniably Big Brother Zhou who helped Uncle get rid of the poison, so how could they give Xiao Chen the credit?I explained it to them, but they did not believe it. They said that a youth like you could not possibly have the ability to purge the poison from Uncle’s body.

“I asked them where they heard this news, and they said that they heard it from other elders… I got to the root of the matter and searched out the elder who spread the news, and do you know what he said? He said it was what my First Uncle himself told him!”

“How is that possible?”

“So I went to look for First Uncle… and true enough, he said that he had never said such a thing, he told everyone that it was Big Brother Zhou who helped him purge the poison.”

After saying this, the young lady was still in a huff, but she still managed to console Zhou Donghuang at the same time. “Don’t worry, Big Brother Zhou, First Uncle said that he will severely punish the elder who spread the lie!”

“Zixi, you came… just because of this?”

Zhou Donghuang shook his head with a smile, thinking that she was making a mountain out of a molehill. To him, this was just a small matter of no consequence.

Even if the patriarch of the Yang family Yang Yunji himself refused to acknowledge his efforts and instead attributed it to someone else, he would not have minded. Why would he care about rumors started by a Yang family elder?

This was because he had decided to treat the patriarch of the Yang family only because of the ten-year survival weed.

“Big Brother Zhou, don’t you feel exasperated?” the young lady asked angrily.

“Hmm, it really is exasperating.”

Zhou Donghuang nodded with a slight smile and looked at the young lady with a gaze that had become more tender than before without him realizing it.

Although he did not care about such things, the concern the young lady showed inexplicably caused waves of warmth to wash over his heart.

“Big Brother Zhou, First Uncle did not know about this, please don’t be angry with him,” the young lady said softly, looking timidly at Zhou Donghuang.

“Don’t worry.”

Zhou Donghuang nodded.

The young lady exhaled in relief at his reply and bade him farewell with a smile. “Big Brother Zhou, then I shan’t bother you further… I’ll come over tomorrow morning!

After the young lady left, Zhou Donghuang returned to his room and resumed practicing. He only stopped the next morning when he left his room to wait for the young lady in the courtyard.

“Big Brother Zhou.”

Once she arrived, Zhou Donghuang left with her to look for the patriarch of the Yang family Yang Yunji.

Half a day later, Zhou Donghuang packed up the golden needles and told Yang Yunji, “Patriarch Yang, the poison in your body has already been completely purged.”

The wrinkles on Yang Yunji’s face were gone, and not a strand of white hair remained. He had recovered his original appearance, and after staring at himself in the mirror for a long while, he finally recovered his wits.

“Many thanks to Medicine Master Zhou.”

Seeing that the poison had all been purged, Yang Yunji looked at Zhou Donghuang with a nod, not bowing in thanks as he had the previous day.

The young lady standing to the side frowned at this, thinking that her uncle was being rude. But Zhou Donghuang did not seem to mind, and looking at the golden needles in the brocaded box, he said to Yang Yunji, “Patriarch Yang, this set of golden needles will not be used by the Yang family anyway, so how about giving them to me?”

Although there were thirty-six golden needles, they were extremely light and not worth much. If Zhou Donghuang wanted a set, he would only have to instruct Fu to get one for him.

However, since it was right there, he was happy to save the trouble.

“Medicine Master Zhou, I would like to examine these golden needles, so I’m afraid I cannot give them to you,” Yang Yunji said flatly.

Zhou Donghuang was startled by the reply, but he immediately put down the brocaded box. “In that case, never mind.”

This time, the young lady could no longer stand it and said to Yang Yunji, “First Uncle, since Big Brother Zhou wants these golden needles, why don’t you just give them to him?”

At the same time, the young lady was confused as to why it seemed that her first uncle seemed a totally different person that day?

“Zixi, your first uncle has his own plans.”