My Gentle and Pure Sect Leader Husband-Chapter 11 - Day of Wearing a Disguise

“Oh my, what happened?”

When the elderly nanny passed by and saw Yu Luocha, who was being held in Yan Hongyin’s arms with a pale face and a restrained expression, she quickly rushed over.

“Nanny, please have someone help me open the room door first. The door is somehow bolted from the inside,” Yan Hongyin gave the nanny a meaningful look.

Hearing these words, the nanny immediately understood. Her eyes flashed with severity, but when she looked at the newlywed couple, she couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, don’t worry about it. Today, let Ah Yu rest in your courtyard. It’s perfect timing – the new medicine cabinet you requested a few days ago was just delivered by the carpenter this morning. You can organize it however you like, and Ah Yu can get some sun and help out too.”

“People shouldn’t stay indoors all day, they’ll get sick even if they weren’t ill to begin with.”

“Yes, yes, yes, we’ll be going then.”

When Yan Hongyin heard the nanny’s nagging, she felt a headache coming on and hurriedly left the courtyard, practically carrying Yu Luocha.

Only after they had walked quite a distance did the nanny’s muttering finally fade away.

Yan Hongyin breathed a sigh of relief, and only then noticed the sick beauty she had practically dragged over. She quickly released him and looked him up and down to check. “Are you alright? I was a bit anxious earlier and wasn’t paying attention… Did I hurt you? Or did I frighten you?”

Yu Luocha: “……”

Would you believe I could crush your skull with one hand?

Though it hadn’t hurt, this woman’s grip strength was unusually powerful.

Yu Luocha’s body was full of battle-hardened muscles, yet for a moment just now, he had actually felt a twinge of pain from her grip.

He smiled and said with a half-cough, half-pant, “Just feel that… your grip is quite strong.”

Yan Hongyin turned her head to look straight ahead, her fingers at her side fidgeting with her hem. “Well, as a doctor, I regularly set bones and do massage therapy, which requires strength. It’s from practice.”

Hmm—what she had been setting were the bones of prisoners in the Jinyiwei prison, and what she had been handling were ruthless criminals with countless sins–

That’s how she had practiced.

The courtyard where Yan Hongyin and Yu Luocha had married was the main courtyard of Yan Hong Hall, but where Yan Hongyin was now taking Yu Luocha wasn’t technically within Yan Hong Hall.

Yan Hong Hall wasn’t in the busy market area, being situated in a quiet location with a large forest behind it.

Following behind Yan Hongyin, Yu Luocha observed the surroundings and noticed that the bamboo and plants here were different from those in Yan Hong Hall. They seemed untrimmed, retaining their natural wild growth. The outer trees were tall and the inner bamboo grove was lush. At such heights, even if someone with light martial arts skills flew over, they would likely struggle to discover that a residence existed within.

After passing through the forest, Yu Luocha saw medicinal herb fields stretching one after another and a small lake with flowing water beside them, finally understanding the hidden world within.

“Many martial artists come to Yan Hong Hall. While they show respect to doctors, somehow they heard that my medical skills are the best in Yan Hong Hall, so they demand to see me for every injury, big or small,” Yan Hongyin explained while pushing open a bamboo fence and gesturing for Yu Luocha to enter. “I can’t exactly put up a sign saying ‘No Martial Artists Treated,’ so I come here for peace and quiet.”

Yu Luocha was amused and followed her lead. “Why not?”

Yan Hongyin raised an eyebrow, extending her two slender white hands to demonstrate to Yu Luocha. “How could a powerless doctor like me without any backing dare to offend those lawless fighters who brandish knives and swords?”

“Besides, I travel around practicing medicine most of the year. Yan Hong Hall only has the nanny and some young maids. What if martial artists seek revenge on them, either because I refused to treat them or because of my treatment? It’s better to avoid it altogether.”

The nanny had suffered misfortune years ago when someone severed her tendons, and her health had worsened with age. Although the Jinyiwei of Lin’an Prefecture kept some watch over Yan Hong Hall, they couldn’t solve immediate problems. If someone truly sought revenge, it could end in tragedy.

Yan Hongyin was never one to act impulsively. Her every order and action often carried the weight of countless lives, and she couldn’t afford to let emotions guide her decisions.

“I heard yesterday that Yan Hong Hall often waives consultation fees for common people, but never reduces medicine costs. You only let patients sign agreements to repay in installments,” Yu Luocha had spent time in Yan Hong Hall’s consultation room yesterday, not just to obtain medicines, but to gather information about Yan Hong Hall.

“Since you pity them, why charge for medicine?”

“Pity?” Yan Hongyin repeated Yu Luocha’s word, her tone rather meaningful. She asked him in return, “If someone treated Ah Yu’s illness when he was seriously ill, but did so with a condescending attitude of pity, how would Ah Yu feel? And what kind of attitude would you have toward that person in the future?”

Yu Luocha looked at Yan Hongyin, who stood by the herb field in a goose-yellow dress appearing gentle and elegant, smiled good-naturedly but remained silent.

Yan Hongyin thought for a moment.

Indeed, given Ah Yu’s good nature, she hadn’t chosen the right example, so she tried another approach.

“Most people feel grateful when they’re first saved or helped, but human nature varies in what follows that gratitude. A peck of help can breed a bushel of hate, that’s how it goes.”

Yan Hongyin spoke, shaking her head somewhat self-mockingly. “When I first started practicing medicine independently after completing my apprenticeship, I met someone. Her parents died in an accident, leaving her alone. Seeing she had no one to rely on and that it would be difficult for a young girl to survive, I temporarily took her in.”

“Initially, she was very clever and smart, eager to help with everything. Later she asked to learn some skills from me to make a living, begging me to teach her what I knew.”

“But my sect was strict – one had to formally become a disciple to learn, and the rules were harsh, allowing no room for those who aided evil or committed crimes. If anyone broke their oath, everyone in the sect would hunt down the betrayer.”

While speaking, Yan Hongyin walked to the new medicine cabinet placed on the empty ground nearby, running her hand over its surface. The lacquer had completely dried, and only the fresh smell of wood remained.

“She firmly joined the sect, but ten years later, because of a man, she turned around and used what I had taught her to meddle in court affairs, eliminate opposition, and harm innocents.”

“After her arrest, she was quickly sentenced. Before her execution, she showed no remorse for her actions, felt no hatred toward that man, but instead asked me why I saved her but didn’t protect her, saying I had pushed her step by step toward her current situation, toward this dead end.”

Yu Luocha, thinking of this woman’s soft-heartedness and overthinking nature, continued, “You felt you shouldn’t have saved her? Felt that you caused those deaths?”

Yu Luocha somewhat sneered at such weak thinking.

Yan Hongyin neither agreed nor disagreed, saying, “I considered it.”

If it hadn’t been for her, that girl might have lived her entire life as an ordinary person, whether tragic or happy, living the life that was meant to be hers.

“But later my master slapped me and said she taught me how to be a person and how to handle matters. If I wanted to be a saint, she would immediately send me off with a knife to meet Confucius and Mencius for some serious studying.”

Yan Hongyin laughed as she said this, shrugging her shoulders helplessly.

Yu Luocha also curved his lips in a smile.

Sunlight filtered through the bamboo grove into the courtyard, casting dappled warmth on them both, creating a rare moment of relaxation and peace.

“Later my master said I had poor judgment in saving people,” Yan Hongyin pulled open the medicine cabinet drawer to check it, and after confirming all was well, reached through the house window to retrieve a tray with a wolf-hair brush and prepared gold ink.

“When I was defiant, I would go to the streets with my master to watch people, but everyone I picked turned out to be not good people.” Yan Hongyin pouted slightly with childish annoyance. “Master said I had bad luck and forbade me from randomly bringing people home.”

Yu Luocha’s response was quick, “Then....what about me?”

“Ten years have passed, and after experiencing so much, I must have improved somewhat.” Yan Hongyin scooped some water from the small pond to dissolve the solidified gold ink. “Besides, clearly that day there was an accident with the constables’ prisoners on the street. Usually, where would there be so many bad people on the street?”

Yu Luocha didn’t quite know how to evaluate Yan Hongyin’s self-awareness.

Because no matter how much Yu Luocha tried to deny it, he couldn’t claim to be a good person, a perfectly gentle and kind soul.

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“Oh right, I almost forgot this.” Yan Hongyin suddenly remembered something she’d been forgetting, took out an oil paper package containing the sarira, walked over to hand it to Yu Luocha, then pointed to the medicine-grinding tools nearby, saying, “This is new medicine I found from the Merchant Guild, perfect for your condition. The sunlight is good now, so Ah Yu should get some sun while grinding these into powder for the medicine.”

Yu Luocha opened the oil paper package and looked, his brow twitching.

These things looked like some round objects that had been shattered, and their color somewhat resembled the lake pearls he had obtained from Chu Liuxiang.

“What is this?”

No one wanted to recover from their injuries more than Yu Luocha, after all, he couldn’t practice internal martial arts until his internal injuries healed.

Yan Hongyin, with her back to Yu Luocha, stood before the medicine cabinet, dipped the brush tip in gold ink, and while steadily writing medicine names on the cabinet with her wrist suspended, thought about how to adjust Ah Yu’s prescription, and answered, “A kind of pearl from Dali. It’s rare, but not too hard to find. I haven’t used this ingredient before. Your body can’t handle too much strain, so the dosage is an issue. I need to think about the prescription.”

Yu Luocha picked up a piece to examine it closely. He had a feeling that this thing seemed somewhat similar to sarira.

Having lived in the Western Regions, Yu Luocha had never seen sarira in person, but it also seemed unlikely that Yan Hongyin would have access to sarira, even in this shattered state.

So he asked, “Is it expensive?”

Yan Hongyin’s attention was focused on the medicines and prescription, and she replied casually, “We can afford it. If it works, we can just buy a few more from Dali.”

Hearing Yan Hongyin’s relaxed tone, Yu Luocha knew he must have overthought it.

After all, even if a sarira had limited uses, it was still a symbol of high-ranking Buddhist monks. Among those who achieved nirvana in this world, barely one in a hundred left behind a sarira, and the Buddhism in Dali wouldn’t simply allow others to request it for grinding into medicine powder.

Thinking this, Yu Luocha poured all the fragments from the oil paper into the mortar and picked up the pestle beside it, pressing down with slight force.

After they had each worked on their tasks for a while, Yu Luocha suddenly spoke, “Hongyin.”

“Hmm?” Yan Hongyin turned her head with her wrist still suspended, her eyes questioning.

Yu Luocha kept his head down, grinding the large particles in the mortar with the pestle, and without looking up said, “In the future, don’t take in any more people.”

Yan Hongyin: “?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Yu Luocha felt awkward.

He let Yan Hongyin look at him questioningly, his lips pressed into a straight line, not saying another word.

Yan Hongyin, preoccupied with the prescription, saw him fall silent, tilted her head slightly, and turned back to continue writing the medicine cabinet inventory.

Yu Luocha raised his eyes and gave Yan Hongyin’s back a complex look.

Considering how much effort she had put into treating him, if she could withdraw in time in the future, he might be able to turn a blind eye and spare her life.