Chapter 562: Words appear on the blank stele (1/2)

Chapter 562: Words appear on the blank stele

Little Qi ran nonstop as soon as he left the gates of the medical academy, not daring to hesitate a second. He had no idea where he was going beyond away. He only dared to stop and rest once he made it into the forest. But he didn’t even get to sit down before he collapsed to the ground from exhaustion.

Silence surrounded him on all sides. There was nothing but the sound of his own labored breathing and the strange calls of insects nearby. Little Qi was already on edge, so the noise only made him instinctively hold his breath. He followed the source of the sound with his eyes until he saw a man around 40-years-old crouched in the grasses nearby, smiling at him.

Little Qi prepared to bolt, but the man quickly grabbed him. “Little Qi, I’m Uncle Luo, ah! Did you forget?”

This man was none other than Luo Zuishan.

Little Qi didn’t remember him at all. Since he couldn’t break free, he simply bit down harshly on Luo Zuishan’s wrist, paining the man so much that his heart shook. Still, there was no time for that now.

“Little Qi, hurry and come with me. The Head Elder’s sent men to capture you back!”

“Did you really forget me, Little Qi? I’m Uncle Luo, ah. Three years ago, you gave me a pill that saved my wife’s life.”

Little Qi finally recalled something from his words and followed the trail of thought back through his memories. At that time, Luo Zuishan had come to Head Elder Ling’s courtyard to beg for medicine. Head Elder Ling wrote a prescription for him to take to Medicine City’s Council of Elders so they could supply him the ingredients, but Luo Zuishan was too much of an unimportant figure to even have the right to beg the Council for medicine. He ended up kneeling for Head Elder Ling to appear on behalf of him, but it was too inconvenient for the man, who refused him.

Little Qi happened run out after Luo Zuishan instead and give him a single pill without a word. Because of that simple act, Luo Zuishan received a debt of gratitude.

“Hurry and come with me. I know you were wronged,” Luo Zuishan said sincerely.

Wronged… Grief suddenly flooded through Little Qi’s heart. He stopped hesitating and followed Luo Zuishan to flee. Not long after they left, the Head Elder’s men came looking. Unfortunately, they scoured the entire forest without finding a trace of Little Qi. Both Academy Head Gu and Head Elder Ling panicked and sent more men to search for three days and three nights, but all in vain. Neither of them could predict that Little Qi hadn’t gone anywhere at all, but was hiding right in the medical academy.

Luo Zuishan had said that the most dangerous place was also the safest one. He didn’t tell anyone about Little Qi’s whereabouts, not even his own wife. He washed and cleaned up Little Qi and helped tied up his hair, before giving him a set of clothes and treating his injuries. Only then did he discover that Little Qi not only had marks from the eggs and stones, but various scars and bruises of different sizes, some newer than the rest. There was no place on his body that wasn’t unmarked, and even his fingernails had been ruined.

Luo Zuishan had been keeping tabs on Little Qi’s developments over the past few years. Once he heard that the boy had been accused of larceny, his first reaction was that something was up. But when he tried to look into the details, e found nothing. He wasn’t concerned with the real reasons behind Little Qi’s expulsion anymore. He only knew that no matter what Little Qi did, Head Elder Ling would never let him escape so easily after making such a fuss in public. It wasn’t just him. Everyone in the medical community would have their eyes on this child!

Little Qi was a rarely-seen genius. His talent for discovering and creating new things in medicine was unimaginable. Looking at his scar-ridden body, Luo Zuishan only felt his heart ache. He shook his head and muttered, “The Head Elder and the rest…beat you?”

It wasn’t just beatings.

But Little Qi kept his head down and didn’t say a word.

A complicated look flitted across Luo Zuishan’s eyes. After a long silence, he asked, “Child, once events gloss over, I’ll send you off to Medicine City. With your skills, you won’t need to worry about starving to death. But whatever happens, you can’t let anyone that you’re Little Qi from Medical City, understood?”

Little Qi still didn’t speak.

Afraid that his state was still unstable, Luo Zuishan didn’t dare to pry too much. But by the next day, he lost track of Little Qi altogether. The only thing left was a handwritten note. Little Qi had stolen all of the silver in his house as payment for the medicine in the past. In the future, the two of them wouldn’t owe each other anything. Luo Zuishan was both helpless and worried, but he didn’t dare alert anyone. He could only search for the child in secret on his own.

But Little Qi had left Medical City that very night to move towards Medicine City…

—

A chilly wind rose in the night, causing Gu Qishao to curl up in his perch on the tree branch as he slept uneasily. The moonlight illuminated his face, making him seem more handsome than usual. He tossed and turned a few times before groggily opening his eyes. As he stared at the moon above him, then the surroundings about him, he subconsciously wiped his eyes and felt something cold and wet.