My Lady Always Lacks Ambition

Shengjing is a place rife with the powerful and the haughty; the offspring of the privileged roam far and wide, and the man before us is yet another example. He is Qi Yunmin, the Third Prince of the Saint, and at merely seventeen years old, he is brash and obnoxious compared to his two older brothers, who are already preparing to take up official duties in the court, exemplars of dignity and people’s favor. His persona is that of a conceited and boisterous Prince, causing trouble all day long.
Before Lu Xun could open his mouth, Manager Bai already stepped forward with a smiling face, saying: “Let the Third Prince know that the Junior Temple Master is our Changsheng Temple’s specially hired doctor. If you want to invite someone from us, you still need to get a token and wait for your number to be called.”
In other words: on my turf, in my Changsheng Hall, I call the shots, not your place to run wild and act like the boss!
“You count as what…” The Third Prince glared over arrogantly, but the word “scallion” stuck in his throat, and his face changed slightly.
The other person was clearly smiling, but that smile did not reach his eyes. For some reason, his pupils seemed – perhaps it was an illusion – to have, for an instant, turned vertical, casting a sinister, cold glint.
The Third Prince blinked, and upon closer inspection, the other was still smiling his black-and-white eyes unchanged, but his heart was pounding fast.
“Can you stop smiling?” He stiffened his legs and took two steps back, rubbing his arms. That smile gave him the feeling of being entwined by a venomous snake, cold and slimy.
The Third Prince shivered involuntarily.
Qin Liuxi noticed the leak of Manager Bai’s aura and sent out a spell to cover it up, saying: “Old Bai, go to the back hall and see that mother and son, give them a Pei Yuan Pill to take, and put it on Young Master Lu’s tab.”
“Alright, this old fellow is on it.” Manager Bai revealed a sincere smile, took the elixir from the cabinet, and gracefully made his way to the back hall.
Lu Xun watched Manager Bai disappear behind the curtain, his clenched hand and tense body relaxing. Just now, for an instant, he sensed tremendous danger, an atmosphere of terror.
They say the Boss of Changsheng Hall is a person from the Martial World, then this manager… too?
Martial World inhabitant Manager Bai walked to the back hall, where an ignorant insect flew into his path. He extended his tongue, wrapping it around the bug and pulling it into his mouth, the insect instantly corroding with a snort.
Ignorant of death.
If it weren’t for the young ancestor holding him back, he would have taught that irreverent brat a lesson. Alas, having been a pharmacy manager for so long, his temper has become too docile, not suitable at all!
Lu Xun exhaled a breath and said to the Third Prince: “What’s with you? Don’t you know there’s a proper manner to asking someone for help? This is a doctor!”
A doctor, capable of saving lives or taking them!
Are you stupid?
The Third Prince shrunk a bit, his arrogance tempered as he said: “Isn’t it because I couldn’t ask properly?”
Couldn’t ask properly so you don’t have another plan?
You’re even dressed in old clothes, pretending to be poor at free medical clinics!
“Looking at you now, apart from being a bit knackered, you don’t seem to have any other ailments, do you?” Qin Liuxi leaned against the counter, her arms crossed as she coolly sized up the Third Prince.
What, knackered?
The Third Prince’s eyes widened, especially as he caught Lu Xun’s astonished look, and he jumped up, saying: “I’m not, I haven’t, I’m still a fledgling, how could I be knackered? You’re talking nonsense!”
Qin Liuxi said: “It’s not only from overindulgence that one can become knackered; a deficiency in kidney energy is also a sign of being knackered. You understand the concept of being outwardly strong but internally worn out, right?”
The Third Prince turned pale, that can’t be right?
Is this implying that he’s incompetent?
“Moreover, at your age, you should have already experienced nocturnal emissions, and if it happens too often, that can also lead to being knackered,” Qin Liuxi added another comment.
Cough cough.
Lu Xun looked at the rows of medicine drawers; all of these are filled with medicines worth a fortune, right?
The Third Prince’s face turned from white to purple with embarrassment, as he pointed at Qin Liuxi, so ashamed he couldn’t speak. Shameless!
“Get him a bottle of Ginseng Six Yellow Pills.” Qin Liuxi instructed an attendant who was organizing quails.
The attendant crisply replied, climbed a ladder, fetched a jade bottle from one of the drawers, and handed it to her.
Qin Liuxi handed it to the Third Prince, “A thousand silver, eat these and you’ll be fine.”
Lu Xun’s mouth twitched, indeed very expensive.
The Third Prince took it blankly, then felt as if it burnt his hand and recoiled. Wouldn’t accepting it be admitting his kidneys were weak?
“Don’t want it? Never mind then, it’s not a big deal. You’ll get used to it eventually, at most you’ll just be a little lacklustre in the bedroom. Really not a big deal,” Qin Liuxi retracted it.
The men present: How is this not a big deal? This is a huge deal!
“Who said I don’t want it? I just don’t carry that much silver on me,” the Third Prince hastened to grab it.
“The price now is two thousand silver.”
The attendant: “…”
Although the medicine is top-quality, why does it feel like selling it for this price is a bit conscience-pricking!
The Third Prince’s hand trembled, and the bottle almost fell, but Qin Liuxi’s quick reflexes caught it: “Even if it breaks, it’s two thousand.”
“You, you’re just making up prices!” The Third Prince was furious. “Do you think I’m an easy mark to swindle!”
Qin Liuxi: “Don’t want it? No other place has elixirs as effective as those from Changsheng Hall.”
The Third Prince got scared. Each “don’t want it” led to an increase of a thousand silver. He might be rich, but he couldn’t keep wasting silver like this.
He stuffed the bottle into his chest. There, can’t snatch it away now, can you?
Lu Xun shook his head. Saintly among princes, they said the third one was the dumbest and lacked a brain. He was starting to believe it—pulse not even taken, but he already forked over two thousand silver for a bottle of medicine after a few words.
But if he’s willing to pay, maybe Qin Liuxi hit the nail on the head about, well, the frequency of his ‘releases’?
Lu Xun gave the Third Prince a glance. At his age, it was time to take a wife. The two brothers above him each had a commandery princess already.
“Hand over the money.”
The Third Prince’s hand stiffened, and he shouted at his escort, “Why haven’t you brought the silver yet?”
The escort promptly left.
“I’ve bought the medicine; now you can come with me, right?” The Third Prince, afraid Qin Liuxi would say something else about his illness, said, “It’s not for me, but for a consultation for my cousin.”
Lu Xun frowned. “You’re asking for the Su Family? They want to invite the Junior Temple Master, yet they don’t come personally and make you do it?”
The Minister of Ministry of Industry from the Su Family was the Third Prince’s maternal family, and the current minister was his maternal grandfather. But with the Imperial Family’s stature, it was odd that the Su Family, grand as they were, would have a prince fetch a doctor for them.
The Third Prince felt somewhat guilty. “No, no, the Su Family sent their invitation. Since they couldn’t get an appointment, I decided to visit my queen mother in the Palace. By chance, I overheard my maternal grandmother and mother discussing my cousin’s peculiar illness, something even the Imperial Physicians couldn’t diagnose. They say the Junior Temple Master is very capable. They sent the invite to the auction house and even staked it out for days without success. That’s why I thought of using force.”
First, courtesy and then force, he obviously knew. But they wouldn’t receive him with courtesy.
He didn’t expect to part with his wealth before his force was even deployed.
Something seemed off though, parting with his wealth so easily, a bit too ludicrously—why did he do it so readily?
The Third Prince felt the bottle in his chest burning him. Was the other party bluffing? But then he remembered his recent over-activity and calmed down. At worst, he could have the Imperial Physician take his pulse before deciding whether to eat it or not!