The snow over Qingshi Village stopped for a short while after daybreak.
It had only stopped.
That did not mean the sky had cleared.
The clouds still hung very low, a gray-white expanse, as if they might start falling again at any moment. The lamp beneath the old locust tree at the village entrance was still lit. Its weak flame was enclosed within the lamp housing, illuminating a small patch of trampled snow.
The bloodstained cloth that had been taken down last night had already been put away. Those four characters should no longer hang at the village entrance.
Qingshi Is Dead.
But Qingshi Village was not dead.
At least, not yet.
Several empty houses in the eastern part of the village that could still be lived in had been cleared out. Those with half-collapsed roofs were not used, nor were those whose walls let in too much wind. In the remaining houses, the soldiers had used wooden boards, old cloth, and doors taken down from elsewhere to barely seal the gaps. A brazier was placed in each room. The fire was not large, but it was enough for people to gather around and keep warm.
The elderly, children, and the sick and weak were settled in the innermost areas.
The injured young men were placed in another house.
The women were divided into several groups. One group boiled water, one watched the children, and another helped clean wounds and distribute hot porridge.
Chi Banyue had not slept all night, yet she was still full of energy. She tightened her sleeves and stood at the doorway, directing several village women as they changed the dressings on the wounded.
At first, the women had been somewhat afraid of her when they saw the sword at her waist and the blood on her body. But after half an hour, they discovered that although this beautiful young woman looked as if she had stepped out of a painting, and although her tone was not particularly gentle, she knew how to save people better than many physicians.
“Don’t wipe this directly with snow.” Chi Banyue pressed down a woman’s hand. “Warm the frostbitten area slowly first. Don’t roast it over a fire, and don’t rub it randomly.”
The woman quickly withdrew her hand.
“Yes, yes.”
Chi Banyue looked at her, then added, “Doctor Su said so.”
The woman froze for a moment, then immediately nodded, as if she had just heard some extremely reliable medical instructions.
The young mother beside her, holding a child, also raised her head.
“Is he the Doctor Su who saved my son last night?”
Chi Banyue’s movements paused.
The child had been burning with fever and unconscious last night. After being given the medicine and oral rehydration salts, his fever had gone down somewhat by daybreak. Although he was still weak, at least he could open his eyes and call for his mother.
Chi Banyue looked at the child.
The little boy was curled up in his mother’s arms. His face was still flushed, but his lips were no longer dry and pale like they had been last night. He took tiny sips of warm water, stopping after two sips to catch his breath. Surprisingly, he was being very obedient.
Chi Banyue suddenly thought of Su Muchen.
If he were here, he would probably frown first, then say, “Drink slowly. Don’t rush.”
She smiled.
“Yes.”
The young mother’s eyes immediately reddened.
“Where is Doctor Su? I want to kowtow to him.”
Chi Banyue: “……”
For a moment, she actually did not know how to answer.
Should she say that Doctor Su was in another world?
Should she say that Doctor Su was separated from them by a door, had not slept all night, and had prepared life-saving plans for them?
Should she say that the man was probably still waiting for news inside Guichen Studio?
Chi Banyue was silent for a moment before finally saying, “Doctor Su isn’t here.”
The woman looked disappointed.
“Then will he come?”
Chi Banyue raised her eyes toward the outside.
The wind and snow had just stopped. Gray-white daylight fell over the ruined village, making everything seem covered in a layer of cold frost.
She suddenly said softly, “Perhaps.”
Perhaps one day.
Perhaps that Doctor Su, who had saved Hanshan and Qingshi Village from behind a door, would truly set foot in Dasheng.
By then, if these people were still alive, they would know who had once saved them.
◆◇◆◇◆
Xiao Yuan stood before the granary in Qingshi Village.
The granary door had been pried open by the bandits, and half the door panel was broken. Trampled grains were scattered across the ground. The remaining grain was carried out bag by bag by the soldiers, weighed and recorded again, then divided into several categories according to the method Su Muchen had used in Hanshan.
Can be eaten immediately.
Must be sorted before eating.
Damp and unsuitable for long-term storage.
Mixed with dirt and only suitable for feeding livestock or discarding.
The grain remaining in the village was pitifully little.
If they relied only on this, Qingshi Village would not last more than a few days.
Fortunately, Xiao Yuan had brought a small amount of emergency grain divided out from Hanshan, as well as the compressed food, oral rehydration salts, and nutritional powder Su Muchen had prepared beforehand. But these things could not be used openly in large quantities. Otherwise, the “Guichen Medical Sect” cover line they had established last night would seem too crude.
The more precious something was, the less people could have it.
The more limited it was, the more believable it became.
Xiao Yuan looked at the grain register and ordered, “Record the ordinary grain in the village register. As for the Guichen Medical Sect’s supplies, record them only as emergency medicinal provisions. They are to be kept by my personal guards and used only for the sick, weak, and critically ill.”
The guard lowered his head and acknowledged the order.
The Qingshi Village chief standing nearby could not help raising his head when he heard the words “Guichen Medical Sect.”
“Your Highness, the medicine that saved the child last night… was it from the Guichen Medical Sect?”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
The village chief immediately lowered his head, as if afraid he had asked something he should not have.
Xiao Yuan was silent for a moment before saying, “Yes.”
It was only one simple word.
Yet it seemed to fall like a seed into this ruined, snow-covered land of Qingshi Village.
The village chief moved his lips, his voice trembling slightly.
“Then Doctor Su… is he also a member of the Guichen Medical Sect?”
Xiao Yuan did not answer immediately.
The snowy wind swept across the empty space before the granary, stirring the hem of his black cloak.
After a moment, he finally said, “Doctor Su knows the methods of the Guichen Medical Sect. The epidemic in Linzhou, the food shortage in Hanshan, and last night’s situation in Qingshi Village—all of them have his methods behind them.”
The village chief froze.
Xiao Yuan’s tone was very even.
So even that it sounded like he was simply stating a fact that required no exaggeration.
“But he does not like people worshiping him as a god, nor is he some immortal or demon. Remember this. He is a physician.”
The village chief’s eyes slowly reddened.
“A physician……”
Those two words were too precious to Qingshi Village.
After the snow disaster, physicians could not travel, medicine could not enter the village, and injured people could only wait for their wounds to rot. Children with fevers could only be held by their mothers as they cried. Yet that small packet of medicine last night, that packet of warm salt-and-sugar water, had truly dragged a child one step back from the gates of death.
Not a god.
A physician.
The village chief suddenly knelt solemnly.
“Qingshi Village will remember.”
Xiao Yuan did not immediately help him up.
Because this time, he allowed Qingshi Village to remember.
Remember Doctor Su.
Remember the Guichen Medical Sect.
Remember that lamp last night that had not burned the village down.
This was not merely a fog meant to conceal the door.
It was also the first stone he had laid for Su Muchen.
If one day the door truly opened for Su Muchen, if that person truly stepped into Dasheng, he should not be a nameless outsider with an unknown origin.
He would have a name, merit, people who remembered him, and people who would protect him.
There would be people who had survived because of his methods, people willing to speak a word on his behalf.
Xiao Yuan would never say these thoughts aloud, but he would accomplish them bit by bit.
Just as Su Muchen was always preparing medicine, grain, and escape routes for him where he could not see.
He would also prepare a status for Su Muchen in this world that could stand firmly.
He wanted Su Muchen to have a name in Dasheng.
Not a ghost or god.
Not a demon or strange man.
Not a shadow hidden behind a door and unable to see the light.
But Doctor Su, who had saved Linzhou, Hanshan, and Qingshi Village.
◆◇◆◇◆
When Xia Lanshi heard about this, he was sitting inside the carriage looking over the new grain register.
Chi Banyue lifted the curtain and brought in a gust of cold air.
“His Highness has begun establishing Doctor Su’s reputation.”
Xia Lanshi raised his eyes.
Chi Banyue sat down and recounted what she had heard before the granary.
Xia Lanshi was not surprised after hearing it.
He merely lowered his head and looked at the paper beside him bearing the words “Guichen Medical Sect.” His gaze shifted slightly.
“His Highness is thinking farther ahead than we are.”
Chi Banyue rested her chin on her hand.
“You guessed this already?”
“It wasn’t difficult to guess,” Xia Lanshi said. “Since the Guichen Medical Sect is going to be used, it cannot merely be a cover for the source of the supplies. Otherwise, every time, we would have to fabricate a new explanation. Rather than that, it would be better to make Doctor Su himself the most credible shadow of the Guichen Medical Sect in Dasheng.”
Chi Banyue slowly blinked.
“Sounds like you’re creating an identity for Doctor Su.”
“That is exactly what we are doing.”
Chi Banyue froze.
Xia Lanshi lowered his eyes, his fingertips lightly tapping beside the words “Doctor Su” on the paper.
“If the person behind the door never comes, then naturally he is only a rumor. But what if one day he comes?”
The carriage fell silent for a moment.
Chi Banyue put away her smile.
She understood what Xia Lanshi meant.
Su Muchen currently did not exist in Dasheng.
He had no household registration. No family. No official position. No recognized master or lineage.
Aside from Xiao Yuan, Xia Lanshi, Chi Banyue, and a very small number of others, no one truly knew who he was. If one day he passed through the door and stepped into this world, no matter how many people he had saved, it would still be very easy for someone to label him a demon, spy, sorcerer, or heretic.
But if the name “Doctor Su of the Guichen Medical Sect” had already established merits in the northern frontier before that, things would be different.
He would no longer be someone who had suddenly appeared.
He would be Doctor Su, already mentioned by the Prince of Su’s army, remembered by the people of Hanshan, and gratefully remembered by the people of Qingshi Village.
He would have an origin.
A recognized status.
Merits acknowledged by others.
Chi Banyue clicked her tongue.
“His Highness’s personal motives are hidden pretty deeply.”
Xia Lanshi smiled faintly.
“His Highness has never been someone who only looks at the person in front of him.”
“What about you?” Chi Banyue suddenly asked.
Xia Lanshi raised his eyes.
Chi Banyue looked at him. “Do you also want Doctor Su to come to Dasheng?”
Xia Lanshi was silent for a moment.
He thought of those meticulously written and demanding recuperation plans.
He thought of the modern medical supplies he had heard about from Chi Banyue after waking from the poison.
He thought of that person he had never met, who had not even truly seen his face, yet had forcibly dragged him back from the gates of death and continued to control what medicine he took and how much he rested from behind a door, even forbidding him from staying up late.
Xia Lanshi lowered his eyes.
“I do.”
Chi Banyue was somewhat surprised.
Xia Lanshi said softly, “I want to thank him in person.”
He paused, then added, “I also want to ask him what kind of person Xiao is.”
Chi Banyue’s eyes shifted slightly.
She saw that when Xia Lanshi mentioned Xiao, he subconsciously touched the white jade peace pendant around his wrist.
The movement was very light.
Yet it was already enough to explain many things.
Chi Banyue did not tease him any further.
She merely leaned against the carriage wall and said softly, “There will be such a day, right?”
Xia Lanshi looked toward the gray-white sky outside the carriage.
“I hope so.”
………………………………………..
The census of Qingshi Village continued until noon.
127 living.
23 critically injured.
64 lightly injured.
41 missing.
36 dead.
When these numbers were written down, the village chief’s hands kept trembling.
Behind every number was a person.
Someone’s father, someone’s son, someone’s wife, someone’s child.
Xia Lanshi was silent for a long time after reading the register.
Hanshan was a city. No matter how large the numbers were, they could easily be reduced by account books into grain, households, and population.
But Qingshi Village was small. Every single name was known by someone.
Who had died, who had gone missing, who had been dragged toward the Northern Outpost—there was no need to search the register for long before someone would break down crying.
Xiao Yuan ordered the bodies to be temporarily collected and placed in coffins.
They could not all be buried immediately.
The wounds on some of the bodies could prove that they had not died from the snow disaster, but from blades and weapons. All these traces had to be recorded. In the future, they would become evidence that the Crown Prince and the Northern Frontier Transport Office could not evade.
The village chief’s face paled slightly when he heard that they could not be buried immediately.
But Xiao Yuan said only one thing.
“They cannot have died for nothing.”
The village chief said nothing more.
Several young men from Qingshi Village were summoned and followed the personal guards in clearing out the granary and ancestral hall.
At first, they were still somewhat timid. But when they discovered that the Prince of Su’s men were not here to seize the remaining grain, but to redistribute grain, save people, and investigate the dead, a little light gradually appeared in their eyes.
One of the young men suddenly asked, “Your Highness, the Northern Outpost… are there still people alive there?”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
The young man was around twenty years old. There was a knife wound across his shoulder, and his face was pale from blood loss, yet he still stood perfectly straight.
“My younger brother is at the Northern Outpost.”
Xiao Yuan was silent for a moment before saying, “I will investigate.”
The young man’s eyes reddened, but he forcibly held back his tears.
“If he is dead, I beg Your Highness to bring him back.”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
“If I can bring him back, I will.”
The young man knelt and heavily knocked his head against the ground.
Xiao Yuan did not stop him.
Some kneelings were born of fear.
Others were the last bit of hope someone could grasp when there was nowhere else to turn.
Having accepted this bow, he would have to shoulder everything that came afterward.
◆◇◆◇◆
In the afternoon, the messenger was “escorted” away.
On the surface, he was being sent back to Hanshan for interrogation.
In reality, the two soldiers escorting him deliberately exposed an opening along a forest road, making him believe he had found a chance to escape.
He fled miserably.
He fell into the snow several times. Blood seeped from the wound on his shoulder, yet he still gritted his teeth and ran north.
He did not dare go toward Hanshan, nor did he dare return to Qingshi Village. He could only flee toward Blackpine Ridge.
Two hidden guards silently followed behind him in the distance.
Chi Banyue stood on a high slope, watching the figure flee farther and farther away.
“Who will he lead us to?”
Xiao Yuan said, “At the very least, he can lead us to Blackpine Ridge.”
Chi Banyue frowned.
“What if he dies halfway?”
“Then it means the people at Blackpine Ridge do not want him alive either,” Xiao Yuan said. “That is useful all the same.”
Chi Banyue thought about it and felt that made sense.
Sometimes, a dead man could explain a matter better than a living one.
Xiao Yuan turned and walked toward the village.
Chi Banyue followed.
“Your Highness, is the Northern Outpost next?”
“Yes.”
“What about Qingshi Village?”
“Leave a squad of personal guards here and have them work with the village’s young men to defend the village. Hanshan will send the first batch of relief grain tomorrow,” Xiao Yuan said. “Until then, hold out with the existing grain and medicinal provisions.”
Chi Banyue looked at his profile.
“Can the door still open?”
Xiao Yuan’s footsteps paused slightly.
After a moment, he said, “I’m not sure.”
Chi Banyue did not ask again.
She knew this was the most troublesome part.
If the door could open, Qingshi Village could hold out more securely.
If the door could not open, they would have to rely on the supplies they had already brought and reinforcements from Hanshan.
But Xiao Yuan had not placed all his hopes on the door.
Chi Banyue could see that.
He was using the door.
But at the same time, he was slowly building things outside the door.
Hanshan’s divided granaries.
The Qingshi rescue effort.
Qin Feng’s troops.
The Guichen Medical Sect.
Doctor Su’s name.
These things appeared scattered, but in reality, they were all slowly becoming things Xiao Yuan could hold in his hands.
Chi Banyue suddenly felt that His Highness had perhaps begun changing earlier than she had thought.
Not from the moment he wanted to ascend that position.
But from the moment he wanted someone from beyond the door to one day be able to stand here openly and honorably.
◆◇◆◇◆
Inside Guichen Studio, after the door closed again, Su Muchen did not hear another sound from it for the entire morning.
But this time, he did not keep watch in the back room.
He ate breakfast first, then finished the lunch Xiao had watched him eat, before returning behind the counter to complete the details of the “Guichen Medical Sect.”
Xiao sat opposite him, propping his chin on his hand as he watched.
“You’re being rather obedient this time.”
Without looking up, Su Muchen said, “Maintain my strength.”
Xiao laughed.
“Young Master has finally learned to apply medical advice to himself.”
Su Muchen gave him a cold look.
“Are you very idle?”
“More or less.”
“Then help me check whether it is legally possible to establish some kind of public-welfare or relief organization related to Guichen Studio on the modern side.”
Xiao froze.
“Public welfare?”
Su Muchen said, “On the surface, it can handle antique restoration, the organization of folk-custom materials, disaster preparedness displays, and charitable donations. In reality, it can provide cover for part of our material procurement and warehousing.”
Xiao looked at him.
“You’re planning to do this long-term?”
Su Muchen’s fingers stopped on the keyboard.
After a moment, he said, “I’m not planning to. I’ve already started.”
From the moment the first box of gold was turned into medicine and grain.
From the moment the first child was saved in Hanshan.
From the moment he wrote the Qingshi Village emergency plan.
This was no longer something temporary.
For Xiao Yuan’s side to survive, a few emergency rescues were not enough.
Guichen Studio could not keep acting like it was committing a temporary crime every time it hurriedly transferred supplies.
He needed more stable channels.
A more reasonable name.
Larger warehouses.
Cleaner financial flows.
The Sheng family was watching him.
The Crown Prince was watching Xiao Yuan.
There were blades on both sides.
Then he had to forge his own blade as well.
Xiao’s smile faded.
“You know this will keep getting bigger, right?”
“I know.”
“And more dangerous.”
“I know.”
“Sheng Chengxiu won’t sit back and watch you build Guichen Studio up.”
Su Muchen raised his eyes.
“Then he can try.”
Xiao looked at him and suddenly felt a strange familiarity.
That calmness concealing coldness was unexpectedly similar to Xiao Yuan’s.
Perhaps the door really could change people.
Or perhaps these two people had always been destined to pull each other toward the same road.
Xiao lowered his eyes, hiding the complicated emotion that flashed through them.
This time, many things had begun to deviate from the paths of the previous cycles.
Su Muchen and Xiao Yuan’s actions had both changed.
Hanshan had survived.
Qingshi Village had not been burned to ashes either.
And Su Muchen had already begun actively stockpiling things for the future.
Xiao did not know whether this was a good thing.
Change meant hope, but it also meant new uncertainties.
He had already seen the ending too many times.
Every time…
He thought he could act a little earlier, a little more precisely, a little more ruthlessly.
Yet fate was like a locked door. No matter how hard he slammed against it, in the end, it would close in another way.
This time…
Xiao raised his head and looked at Su Muchen.
Su Muchen was lowering his head, organizing the spreadsheets, his eyes focused and his brows slightly furrowed. Several documents were open on the computer screen.
Guichen Medical Sect Setting
Qingshi Village Support List
Long-Term Supply Procurement Plan
Guichen Studio Public-Welfare Cover Plan
And another blank document that had not yet been named.
Xiao stared at the blank document for several seconds.
“What is that?”
Su Muchen followed his gaze, then fell silent for a moment.
“Memo.”
“Memo for what?”
Su Muchen did not answer immediately.
He simply named the blank document.
Dasheng Long-Term Support Plan.
Xiao’s eyes shifted slightly.
Su Muchen looked at those words, his voice very low.
“If Xiao Yuan wants to survive, saving one city and one village isn’t enough.”
Xiao looked at him.
Su Muchen did not continue. He did not need to make it any clearer.
For Xiao Yuan to survive, protect the northern frontier, and avoid being torn apart and devoured by the Emperor and the Crown Prince, he could not remain merely a Seventh Prince who was distrusted, weakened, and sent to his death.
There were things Xiao Yuan did not say.
But Su Muchen had already understood them.
He lowered his head and wrote the first line in the blank document.
Grain, medicine, warmth, disease prevention, alternative communications, military-supply disguises, funding channels, long-term storage.
When he reached the end, he paused, then added another item.
The people’s hearts.
Su Muchen stared at those two words.
He thought of Hanshan.
He thought of Qingshi Village.
He suddenly understood that he was not stockpiling supplies.
He was stockpiling the road Xiao Yuan would need to keep walking in the future.
◆◇◆◇◆
Before nightfall in Qingshi Village, the first batch of deliberately released information began spreading.
It was not done with great fanfare.
Nor was it proclaimed personally by the Prince of Su.
Instead, as the villagers were being settled, as the wounded were being bandaged, and as the child woke after his fever broke and called for his mother, the words gradually spread from the mouths of soldiers, village women, and young men.
“That medicine last night was from the Guichen Medical Sect.”
“Doctor Su said you can’t force water into a child. You have to replenish it slowly.”
“Doctor Su said that someone who has gone hungry for a long time can’t eat too much at once.”
“Doctor Su said burns can’t be covered with dirty cloth.”
“This is how they saved Hanshan.”
“The epidemic in Linzhou also had Doctor Su’s prescriptions.”
The words were not orderly.
Nor were they precise.
In fact, as they spread from person to person, some of them began to change.
Some said Doctor Su came from an overseas medical sect and could identify poison at a glance.
Some said Doctor Su never showed his face because the Guichen Medical Sect had its own rules.
Others said Doctor Su was a reclusive divine physician invited by the Prince of Su, who sought neither fame nor wealth and only saved lives.
When Xia Lanshi heard this, he did not immediately stop it.
He only ordered people to correct anyone who described Doctor Su as a “half-immortal.”
“Doctor Su is a physician, not an immortal.”
That sentence quickly spread as well.
And so the people of Qingshi Village remembered.
Doctor Su of the Guichen Medical Sect.
Not an immortal, but a physician.
Yet in a world such as this, a physician who could bring down a child’s fever, save Hanshan, and keep Qingshi Village from being burned to ashes was no different from an immortal in their eyes.
Xiao Yuan stood in the distance, listening to those fragmented rumors.
He did not stop them.
Chi Banyue walked to his side.
“Your Highness, if this continues, Doctor Su’s reputation will grow larger and larger.”
Xiao Yuan said, “Mm.”
Chi Banyue looked at him.
“You’re doing it deliberately.”
Xiao Yuan did not deny it.
Chi Banyue smiled.
“If Doctor Su finds out, he’ll probably frown.”
A faint smile appeared in Xiao Yuan’s eyes.
“He’ll say, ‘Don’t make me sound like an immortal. The next step after becoming an immortal is becoming a demon.’”
Chi Banyue froze, then burst out laughing.
“That really does sound like something he would say.”
Xiao Yuan looked toward the distant firelight.
“So only say that he’s a physician.”
Not a god, nor a demon.
Not a nameless shadow behind a door.
But Doctor Su.
When Chi Banyue heard this, her smile suddenly disappeared.
It seemed that in this moment, she truly understood what Xiao Yuan was trying to do.
It was not merely temporary concealment.
Nor was it simply favoritism.
He was establishing a place for Su Muchen.
Before Su Muchen had even stepped into Dasheng, he was making this land remember his name.
Chi Banyue said softly, “Your Highness, you’re thinking very far ahead.”
Xiao Yuan said nothing. He merely gazed toward the south.
There, beyond Hanshan and Linzhou, lay thousands of miles of snow and wind—and a door whose next opening was unknown.
“Not far enough.”
His voice was low.
Because what he wanted was not merely for Su Muchen to be remembered.
He also wanted that one day, when Su Muchen truly entered Dasheng, whether it was the people of the northern frontier, the soldiers in the army, or those people in the imperial court who believed they held authority and legitimacy in their hands, none of them would be able to casually ask—
Who is this person?
By then, they would know.
That was Doctor Su of the Guichen Medical Sect.
The man who had once saved Linzhou, Hanshan, and Qingshi Village.
And also the man whom Xiao Yuan himself acknowledged and personally protected.