Yu Xiaocao glared at him and stopped him by saying, “You should stop before you wound yourself and waste my good medicine. Listen, it seems to be getting quieter out there. The most you can do is go out and clean the battlefield. The wounded should act like the wounded….”

Her voice became silent as the sound of someone pounding on the door occurred! Yu Xiaocao glanced at Chunhua. Chunhua nodded, quietly went to the door, and suddenly opened it. At the same time, the ‘rainstorm of pear blossom needles’ in Xiaocao’s hands also shot out. Dozens of ox hair-thin needles came at the tall figure at the door.

Although the light was behind him and his face couldn’t clearly be seen, Yu Xiaocao still recognized the person from his figure.

“Oh no!” Yu Xiaocao couldn’t help covering her face. Her man was turned into a hedgehog by her!

Zhu Junyang gently rolled up his sleeves, giving them a swing. All the ox hair needles were easily collected in his clothes. He returned the needles to his wife and rubbed her head. With a smile, he said, “You are planning to murder your husband!”

Yu Xiaocao put her arms around his thin waist and put her face on his chest before sticking out her tongue, “When you knocked on our door, your movements were too rushed. We thought it was the enemy becoming desperate, trying to take me as a hostage to threaten you!”

“It’s good to be alert.” Zhu Junyang praised her and gently pushed away his wife. With a smile, he said, “My clothes are dirty, so I’ll go change them first!”

“Did you get injured?” Yu Xiaocao followed behind him, went around the screen, and took a purple robe from his luggage. Most of her man’s clothes were black. After getting married, she asked the sewing department to make some clothes in other colors for him. Her man wearing purple made him look more seductive and bewitching!

Zhu Junyang raised his eyebrows and an evil and cheeky smile appeared on his face, “How about this prince strips bare so you can personally check ah?”

“No, I don’t want that!” This guy loved to behave like a rogue whenever he thought he could get away with things! Yu Xiaocao put his clothes on the bed and turned to go out.

Just as she was about to leave, Su Ran pushed the door open to come in. His white clothes were stained with blood and it resembled red plum blossoms in the snow. He saw Xiaocao was fine and he nodded and said, “It's good that you're okay. It’s messy outside right now, so you should stay in the room for the time being.”

Yu Xiaocao obediently nodded in reply. She saw the bloody gauze that was wrapped around his arm and exclaimed, “Sir Su, you’re hurt! Wutong, bring my medicine box over.”

Su Ran waved his hand and said, “It’s fine. It’s just a small wound; there's no need to make a fuss!”

“How could that be? The wound must be treated. What if it gets infected?” Yu Xiaocao asked him to sit down on the stool. Then, she carefully untied the gauze on his arm and cut open a section of his sleeve, revealing a wound that was four fingers wide and was open like a child’s mouth.

Zhu Junyang finished changing his clothes and came out from behind the screen. He saw his wife with her head bowed, carefully cleaning Su Ran’s wounds with a high concentration of alcohol. He was very upset, “Chief Steward Su, don’t you have an apprentice to take care of you? Go back and let one of your subordinate eunuchs take care of it!”

Su Ran raised his eyebrows and his eyes showed a clear look, “That apprentice of mine is more injured than me. He’s currently lying in bed unable to get up!”

“I’ll say, Chief Steward Su, your martial arts are getting worse! Just a few small thieves can hurt you like this. I’m suspecting that your reputation is false!” Zhu Junyang saw his wife helping the other man wipe some anesthetic on him before she sewed up his wound with lamb gut threads. The stitches she made resembled the most careful stitches in an embroidered piece and her careful appearance made him feel sorry for her.

“Imperial Prince Xu, that is not true! Out of the ones who besieged me, one of them was my master during my training and the other two were my classmates who received the same demonic training. Any one of them could be regarded as the best if they were in the Jianghu!” Su Ran’s wound was re-covered with some clean gauze and it was tied with a beautiful bow.

Yu Xiaocao had long been used to the quarrel between the two childish men. She put away the medicine box and said to Su Ran, “Seven days later, remember to remind me to help you remove the stitches!”

“What medicine did you give me? It didn’t hurt at all when you sewed it up!” Su Ran asked.

Yu Xiaocao grinned, “My homemade anesthetic...er, it’s almost as effective as the anesthetic powder of the legendary Hua Tuo[1].”

Zhu Junyang heard this and immediately asked, “Can this medicine be conveniently mass-produced? Many wounded soldiers on the battlefield have to be amputated to save their lives. However, there’s no pain-relieving medicine. Most of the time it’s very painful. With this medicine, many soldiers can be saved.”

This anesthetic prescription was given to her by the little divine stone. The medicinal materials were commonly used and there wasn't a problem with mass-producing them. However, her Pharmaceutical Workshop had already taken the business of producing wound balm and high concentration alcohol for the army. If she added in the anesthetic, she was afraid that she would bring unwanted attention. She decided to publicize the prescription, which would be considered a good achievement for the country and its citizens!

Zhu Junyang heard her say this and he frowned. He immediately came up with an idea, “I’ll write a memorial and report it to the imperial court. This way the court can let your pharmaceutical workshop become one of the government manufacturers...”

“The old guys in the imperial hospital, who are too idle and bum around all the time, can choose two people to be responsible for the research and development of new drugs!” Su Ran also added in a sentence from the sidelines. He received some news that some old guys headed by Imperial Doctor Wang were mumbling about Xiaocao, saying that she was just lucky. She cured several patients on pure good luck when in fact she had no ability.

These old guys, however, relied on their family recipes to get into the imperial hospital. They only thought of how to fight with each other and hadn’t made any progress in their medical skills. It was time to make room for someone with real abilities to serve the emperor.

By dinner time, the outside had been cleaned up and the blood on the deck was washed with water. For the sake of safety, the ships that were about to enter the boundary of Huai'an today as planned landed at the wharf in Suqian.

The captain of the ship, along with the ship’s staff, carefully checked the official ship inside and outside. Xiaocao took advantage of the opportunity to go ashore to look for food and local specialties.

The official ship stayed in Suqian for two days. Zhu Junyang took her to the nearby counties to taste the local fatty chicken slices[2], braised lion’s head meatballs[3], double skin crucian carp, and pan-fried stuffed bitter melon. They also bought some dried daylilies, braised duck breast, and other such local specialties to bring back with them. If it weren’t for the fact that they had a tail, Su Ran, accompanying them, then he would be even more satisfied.

The rest of the voyage was smooth. On the twelfth day, they entered Zhenjiang. The boat changed its course onto the river and traveled along the Yangtze River for half a day. Finally, they arrived at Jinling, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties period.

When she thought back to the TV introductions of Nanjing snacks in her previous life, such as: beef potstickers, soy-sauce duck, soup dumplings, braised lion’s head meatballs, sugared lotus root….her saliva was about to flood her mouth! Maybe in this era, she might not be able to eat all the delicious delicacies in the world but being able to eat at least one of them was good!

When Zhu Junyang saw his wife’s gluttonous face, he couldn’t help shaking his head. Could his wife's proficiency in cooking be related to her love of delicious food? Because she loved it, so she specialized in it? Also, the shops in her hands came from her love of money, right?

On the wharf, the inspector-general of Jinling and the governor of Zhili waited quietly in front of their people and horses, which had lined up into two lines.

“Here they come! Here they come!” The prefectural magistrate, with sweat on his head, galloped over from the quayside. In front of the inspector-general and governor, he, the head of a prefecture, had become an errand-runner.

The inspector-general and the governor were surprised. Looking out as far as they could see, they only saw a magnificent official’s ship come ashore. They stepped toward the official ship and came to a stop in front of it. They quietly waited for the arrival of the imperial envoy.

A tall man wearing black with a cold face came out of the ship. The inspector-general rushed forward and respectfully said, "The inspector-general of Jinling pays respects to the great imperial envoy..."

Unexpectedly, the man in black waved his hand to him and said, "You've got the wrong person. I'm not the great imperial envoy. I'm just a small guard!"

The governor at the side, however, saluted respectfully, “This humble subject pays respect to Imperial Prince Xu. You’ve worked hard!” Zhu Junyang was very kind to the governor of Zhili. It could be said that without Zhu Junyang’s mentorship and promotion, he might’ve not been able to climb to the position of governor in his life.

“There is no Imperial Prince Xu here! I’m just a small bodyguard beside the great imperial envoy!” Zhu Junyang patted the governor on the shoulder.

Governor Fan’s heart was filled with surprise. What was the origin of this imperial envoy that made the rebellious Imperial Prince Xu willingly be his bodyguard?

The inspector-general of Jinling saw a gentleman in white getting off the boat. He thought, ‘The imperial envoy coming is in charge of agricultural affairs and should be from the Ministry of Revenue. The one from before should be from the military, so this one should be the right one, right?

“The imperial envoy has come all this way, you’ve worked hard…” Official You’s face had a broad smile on it and he warmly welcomed the white-clothed man.

“You’ve got it wrong! I’m not the imperial envoy, I’m just a little bodyguard like Imperial Prince Xu!” Su Ran smiled slightly and walked past Official You.

“Official Wu, after you!” Yu Xiaocao adhered to the tradition of respecting the elderly and, being virtuous, she helped to support people who were over 50 years old.

Official Wu was flattered, “No, No! Your Honor, you should go first!”

What? Was the imperial envoy a teenage girl? Inspector-general You and Governor Fan’s eyes were about to pop out of their heads. No, in terms of dress, she should be a beautiful young madam. This, this…. what was happening? Could it be a mistake?

When the two high-ranked officials heard that Official Wu, who was in charge of the experimental fields of Jinling, repeatedly calling the beautiful young matron in front of him with the title of ‘Imperial Envoy’ and insisting that she go first, they were stunned.

Official Fan: ‘What’s happening? Imperial Prince Xu and the head steward court eunuch are guards for a woman? Did I not sleep well last night so I’m hallucinating now?’

Official You: ‘What can such a young imperial envoy, and a woman at that, do? If she saw a toad jumping out in the fields, she would be so scared that she burst into tears! Official Wu is too unreliable. Leaving for the capital for so long and this is the result!’

[1] Hua Tuo - A Chinese physician who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty. The historical texts Records of the Three Kingdoms and Book of the Later Han record Hua Tuo as the first person in China to use anaesthesia during surgery.

[2] fatty chicken slices - this name is deceiving. It's actually a dish made of fatty ground pork, eggs, and some starch binding it together along with seasonings. Steamed into a meatloaf and then sliced thinly.

[3] braised lion’s head meatballs - not actually made out of lion. Name reflects the fact that these meatballs are very big.