Chapter 1014: Tangerine Caramel — Shanghai Love (5)

Feng shui geomancy—an ancient scholarship of the Central Plains!

So, naturally, feng shui geomancy had schools the way any other discipline did: various grand masters of geomancy, and sects made up of their disciples who carried on their intent.

But there was one thing all of them insisted on in common:

Keep mountains close, and keep the sea far away.

As for that, the way it was interpreted in the far future—in Qing’s hometown world—went like this.

First, if the sea is close, the soil and groundwater have higher salinity, and naturally farming becomes difficult.

In the past, an agricultural society avoiding the sea would be the obvious thing.

And then, sea wind.

Sea wind can be harmful, and it’s damp and clammy and not refreshing at all, and it corrodes and ruins houses and tools.

Even in Qing’s hometown, when people say not to live in a house right in front of the sea, there’s always a reason for it.

And then, pirates.

To be fair, when you say “pirates” in this era, it’s basically just the Japanese and their followers.

But the atrocities of these Japanese people were on an entirely different level from mountain bandits or horse bandits—just vicious human garbage.

After taking valuables, they enjoyed torturing the victims to death for fun, and then they’d eat them, too—cannibals.

So if you live by the sea, you’ll end up periodically running into the very worst trash among all the worst trash humans, which is why, of course, they say you shouldn’t live by the sea.

And then, then, later it was revealed that deep blue makes people depressed or something?

The blue of the sky makes people bright and lively, but the blue of the earth—the blue of the sea—makes people gloomy and listless.

To the point that for those nosey Western Regions foreigners, the color blue even carries the meaning of depression.

In the end, even if the sea feels nice at first glance, if you keep looking at it, it’s bad for your mental health.

Of course, the primitive ancients of this primitive ancient world didn’t know any of these scientific reasons at all.

But the Central Plains’ scholarship is closer to a total accumulation of long-built experience.

The kind of thing Qing’s hometown calls “big data.”

Those Western Regions bastards, after a few major catastrophes, broke away from God and started probing causes and principles and applying them—which is also why the status of the Central Plains and the Western Regions completely flipped later, but anyway.

You could say it was all those experiences of, “Living by the sea is miserable, no matter what,” piling up and melting right into feng shui.

Anyway.

Living close to the sea is harmful, but looking at the sea once in a while has a feeling only the sea can give.

So what would the hearts of the three people seeing the sea for the first time be like (Seol Iri thought the North Sea counted, but in truth the North Sea wasn’t the sea)?

“Oh.”

“So this is the sea.”

“.......”

Qing tilted her head.

What? This isn’t the reaction I was expecting.

“What is this—aren’t you going to have something more like, wow, so this is the sea, I’ve been nothing but a frog in a well until now, some kind of reflection like that?”

“I saw it in Qinghai......”

“It doesn’t seem all that different from Taihu Lake.”

“Yes.”

Jayeo was from Qinghai, and after being rescued she’d already enjoyed Qinghai Lake to her heart’s content.

Qinghai Lake is an enormous lake, and when wind blows over a huge lake, you even get waves that feel sort of like the sea.

Likewise, Gongsun Yoye also had a record of seeing Taihu Lake in the past, when she headed to Hangzhou during Qing’s atonement march.

Taihu Lake is also an enormous lake.

And Seol Iri was still insisting she was from the North Sea—meaning, from the sea.

Plus, the North Sea was also an enormous lake, and the deepest lake in the world too, but that was something nobody knew yet, so set it aside.

Still, no matter how big a lake is, how could it be the same as the sea?

Endless, sprawling water, and beyond it the horizon—no matter how huge, a lake can’t imitate that—

Ah. Um. So that’s how it is.

Qing realized the situation quickly.

Shanghai wasn’t a city glued to the eastern edge of the Central Plains.

It sat inland, in a scooped-in inlet where the Yangtze met the sea, and it was a city that touched the sea to the north!

No matter what, if you looked at the “sea” from atop Shanghai’s wall, Jangheung Island and Hengsha Island came into view—and even Chongming Island beyond them ended up in your sight.

No wonder even to Qing it didn’t feel like the sea. More like, this is just an insanely wide river.

“Damn it, this isn’t the sea. If we want the East Sea to actually come into view, we have to go to the real coast on the far eastern edge. Yoye, is there some place we can go farther east?”

“Uh, I’m not really sure......”

Of course. The four idiots of the Half-Sword Twin-Blade Society were gathered, so nobody knew anything.

Still, if there was one thing worth seeing—

“Boats. Boats. There are boats.”

Jayeo tugged hard on Qing’s sleeve and pointed with her tiny finger toward the island ahead.

Sure enough, there were distinctive large ships lined up in front of Hengsha Island.

Western Regions foreigners’ ships—sailing ships!

Unlike the low, flat ships of the Central Plains, they were tall, with triangular sails and square sails mixed together, making them feel packed and overflowing above the deck.

I think I’ve seen those in a movie.

Seeing them in person felt strange. Unique. Still, it was definitely something to look at.

Even if the water was calm and there was land beyond it, the sight of big ships lined up in front of it wasn’t bad at all.

“Mm. I’ll go ask at the inn where you can find a place that looks out on the East Sea. Or, well, if we just wander around, we’ll probably run into a shoreline somewhere.”

Isn’t the charm of travel supposed to be wandering freely like this?

Public security in the Central Plains wasn’t particularly good, so it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but that was only true for ordinary people.

For a master on Qing’s level, even if she went wherever her feet took her, there wasn’t much danger.

Since it was daytime, they’d gone up onto the open wall, looked at a half-assed “sea,” then came down and were heading back to the inn to ask around for a good beachside sightseeing spot.

Then suddenly, Qing’s superhuman hearing caught—

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

A sharp, ringing sound of metal plates being struck echoed from far away.

It sounded like the small gong back home, and it was the sound of a small gong being played.

At the same time, a reed flute’s trilling sound blended in—TOOT-TOOT, TOOT-TOOT.

For reference, it was also a sound no one in the Central Plains could ignore.

To Central Plains people who were always bored, this kind of sound was basically a signal saying, hey, something’s happening here, come here, gather up.

Qing, having eaten a decent amount of “Central Plains rice” by now, immediately pricked up her ears.

“Oh, something’s going on. Are they doing a shaman rite or something? Let’s go right now.”

Maybe there was some fun local event.

So she led the group, chased the source of the sound across the city, and at the end of it, Qing’s party faced a peculiar procession.

An old man rode in a palanquin that glittered in gold, slowly marching forward while leading all sorts of musicians around him.

And burly men followed, holding large flags in all directions—and the writing embroidered on each brightly colored flag was anything but ordinary.

“Hua Tuo Reborn, Divine Doctor of Taiping Sorcery”

“Reviving the Dead Lion, Returning the Soul and Restoring Vitality”

“Under-Heaven’s Number-One, All-Ages’ Number-One Physician”

“Cures All Ills, Brings All Blessings”

“Bianque Reborn, Divine Doctor of the Cosmic Inner Canon”

Qing tilted her head.

Taiping Yaoshu has nothing to do with Hua Tuo, doesn’t it?

And the Cosmic Inner Canon is another name for the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, and the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon also has nothing to do with Bianque.

Still, Hua Tuo and Bianque were the greatest physicians the people of the Central Plains could imagine—great physicians treated not just as doctors, but as physician immortals, practically immortals themselves.

And “Reviving the Dead Lion” meant bringing the dead back to life, while “Returning the Soul and Restoring Vitality” meant returning the soul and breathing strength into it.

If you could do that, then of course you deserved to be called the Under-Heaven’s Number-One, All-Ages’ Number-One Physician.

No—if you could revive the dead, you shouldn’t be called a physician at all. You should be called a real immortal.

Originally, Qing wasn’t well-traveled.

But for some reason, she felt like she knew who this was.

Qing had been recognized as a full share of a medical attendant under the Chief Physician.

More precisely, it was closer to: she got chewed out nonstop under the Chief Physician without understanding why, while learning medical-attendant work.

And in that time, there was someone the Chief Physician cursed whenever he had a spare moment.

Namely—

The Gold-Worshiping Divine Physician, Divine Physician Shin!

Gold-Worshiping Divine Physician—“worshiping gold” meant revering money, so it meant a Divine Physician who loved money.

His original name wasn’t known, but according to his own claim, one day Hua Tuo and Bianque appeared in his dream and knelt, begging him for instruction?

At that moment, Shin realized his medical arts had surpassed the realm of a “divine physician,” and he changed his name to “Divine Physician,” “Medical God,” becoming Divine Physician Shin—an absurd anecdote that got passed around.

Honestly, even just looking like that was ridiculous.

Anything becomes unfitting when it goes too far: a mere physician riding in a golden palanquin, waving five-colored flags, even mobilizing musicians—what situation is this?

But his skill was the real thing.

To begin with, the epithet “divine physician” was also praise given to the most outstanding physician of an era.

According to the Chief Physician’s evaluation, it went like this:

He’s trash who only cares about money, but the divine physician of this era really is that bastard.

A man so arrogant and lawless he looks like he’s begging to be beaten to death somewhere—yet he’d been summoned to the Forbidden City multiple times and come out alive every time, and on top of that received all kinds of treasures as rewards, which itself proved his ability, or so the story went.

“Divine Physician sir!” “Under-Heaven’s Number-One Physician!” “All-Ages’ Number-One Physician!” “Successor of Hua Tuo and Bianque!” “Sir, please look this way!” “Sir, please treat us!”

At the loud procession of the Under-Heaven’s Number-One Physician, crowds that had poured out to see what was happening cheered loudly, raising their voices.

That fervent response seemed to delight him.

A satisfied smile never left Divine Physician Shin’s face, and then, at his gesture, the procession’s servants (disciples) started flinging something in all directions.

They threw with such force that one even dropped all the way over to Qing’s party, who were watching from a distance to avoid getting caught in the crowd.

And as if the procession looked fun to her, it dropped right into Jayeo’s arms—Jayeo perched on Qing’s shoulders, her rotten eyes suddenly lively.

“Oh. Look. I caught it.”

“Jayeo caught it? Aww, our Jayeo, you’re good at catching things.”

“Kihihit.”

Kids get excited just from being praised. Qing set the thrilled little one back against her neck.

Then a young man came running toward Qing.

But only for a moment—he saw the big blade at Qing’s waist and flinched to a stop.

Beneath her face veil, Qing’s eyes sharpened.

“What. What is it.”

“Th-that’s not—”

“Not what? You ran over because I looked easy and you wanted to snatch it, didn’t you. This won’t do. ‘Very well’—I mean, do you not even know the words ‘give it back to the child’? Why are you trying to take what a child picked up.”

It was, of course, a reasonable thing to say.

The Central Plains didn’t have a “give it to the child” culture.

If anything, it had a “take it from the child” culture.

Not just the Central Plains—this era’s general treatment of children was like that, but anyway.

The young man turned pale instantly and started desperately swallowing excuses.

“N-no, that’s not it. My child’s body is weak, so I only meant to pay a suitable price and buy it, is all.......”

“Hmm.”

Qing narrowed her eyes.

He didn’t seem steeped in bad karma, and since he said it was for his child, Qing softened a little.

“Alright. So what is it?”

“That is called the bottom-tier Gongjin Pill. When the Divine Physician is in a good mood, he scatters them......”

Qing’s eyebrow twitched.

Because the name was nasty.

Gongjin Pill is originally the name of a famous tonic pill that’s been around for about a thousand years.

But bottom-tier Gongjin Pill?

“Bottom-tier” among “bottom-tiers”—the word meant the very worst quality.

Meaning, an extremely cheap Gongjin Pill.

“Bottom-tier? Then what, there are nine kinds total—bottom-tier, lower-middle, lower-upper, all the way up to upper-upper?”

“I heard that above upper-upper there are special-upper and extreme-upper, making eleven kinds total, sir.”

“What is this, a gacha.......”

A physician dividing his own medicine into upper, middle, and lower—and even splitting upper, middle, and lower into upper, middle, and lower again—what kind of rotten mindset is that?

If you’re a physician, even a cheap pill is supposed to be called a good thing, so the patient can relax.

That was when it happened.

Suddenly, Jayeo’s upside-down face filled Qing’s vision.

Still sitting on Qing’s shoulders, Jayeo ducked her head sharply and stretched her hand down toward Qing, upside down.

“Here.”

“Hm? You’re giving it to this mister?”

“Yeah......”

“Aww, our Jayeo. Good girl, good girl. Dad’s so moved I’m about to cry.......”

So what if the kid’s eyes are a little rotten, and she can’t read, and she’s a little dumb?

If she’s kind and brave, that’s the real thing.

“Oh, thank you! Thank you! Martial master, and your daughter too, you’ll be blessed......!”

The young man bowed and bowed like he was about to prostrate, then hurried away.

He looked too young to even have a child, so there was no way to know whether he really needed it because his child was weak, or whether he planned to sell it somewhere, even if it was “bottom-tier” as long as it was medicine made by the Divine Physician.

But what did that matter?

What mattered was that Jayeo judged for herself and gave what she had.

And if that made the child’s heart feel warm, then sure—good is good.

*****

If you were going to go sightseeing anywhere in the Central Plains, the proper method was always to set out early in the morning.

Because it’s dangerous after the sun sets, and depending on the city, sometimes you can’t even enter at night.

So they decided to go east to see the real sea tomorrow morning after breakfast.

For today, they decided to spend the day walking around Shanghai—looking, buying, eating, enjoying.

Shanghai was also a producer of high-quality silk on par with Sichuan, and as a trade port, it was also a city where you could look at goods from Joseon or Japan.

So they wandered around like that all day.

To Qing, “tourism” meant that eating the local food mattered, so in other words, she ate and ate and ate and ate again.

And even after that, as if she wasn’t tired, she came back to the inn and started ordering more dishes.

Jayeo, Seol Iri, and Gongsun Yoye all couldn’t hide their slightly sick-of-it expressions, picking at this and that, clutching their full stomachs and catching their breath.

That was when it happened.

A group of constables stormed into the inn and shouted loudly.

“Is there a deeply accomplished master here who has cultivated orthodox Taoist internal power—a late Transformation expert? A Prayer Adept to heal the County Magistrate’s spiritual consciousness? Wait, is it Prayer Adept? Ah—True-Qi Daoist, yes, ahem. If there is a master who can serve as a True-Qi Daoist, please lend us your strength! The County Magistrate will receive you with the courtesy due a benefactor! Please—we humbly seek the help of a mighty master!”