Chapter 42 — The Medicine Bearer Through the Chaos

First Meeting

The next morning, Tinh Yen was awakened before dawn by the loud knocking on the door from the purple-shirted housekeeper. Her urgent voice was different from the coldness of the previous afternoon.

"The chancellor has changed his mind and wants to see you this morning, before the hour of the Dragon." She said, her eyes glanced at the cloth she was wearing with displeasure. "Quickly change into proper clothes, I will lead you to Chinh Duong."

Tinh Yen hurriedly prepared, adjusted her shirt, and tied her hair into a neat bun, her hands still shaking slightly from surprise. She brought Ky Ba Nghiem's letter of introduction, the scroll of decree, and of course, the red cloth bag containing half a piece of white talisman jade - the only thing that proved the entire journey that had brought her here.

The main hall of Thai Y Vien was a large building located in the middle of the campus, with a two-story tiled roof, glossy black ironwood columns carved with rolling rattan patterns, the space inside was spacious but so quiet that each step of Tinh Yen resonates clearly on the tile floor. At the end of the room, behind a large rosewood desk, an elderly man sat upright, his beard and hair were gray but his eyes were still sharp as knives, wearing a dark purple robe embroidered with gold thread in the shape of a crane - the outfit reserved for the head of the Royal Hospital.

"This is Chancellor Kinh." The manager spoke softly, then withdrew, leaving Tinh Yen standing alone in the middle of the large room.

Tinh Yen knelt down and bowed her head low according to the ritual she had been carefully instructed by Ky Ba Nghiem before leaving. "I am Do Tinh Yen, I pay my respects to the Chancellor."

"Get up." Kinh Ba Van spoke, his voice was low and slow, without any visible emotion. "I have read Lieutenant Ky Do's letter, and also heard Deputy Envoy's report about last year's border trip. But documents are just documents, I want to see for myself."

He motioned for a person standing behind the desk to come out - a thin old man with a slightly hunched back, wearing a light blue robe of a veteran royal physician, holding a notebook and a small wooden box. Tinh Yen glanced and realized that this must be one of the old gods mentioned in last night's discussion.

"This is Doctor Ngan, one of the oldest Royal Doctors still in office at the institute, who will be examining with me." Mr. Ba Van briefly introduced. "Medic, please check the token first."

Ngan Ba Thuyen stepped forward, holding a small wooden tray in front of Tinh Yen. She took out half a piece of jade talisman from the red cloth bag and placed it on the tray, her hands shaking slightly with excitement. When Ngan Ba Thuyen bent down to look closely at the piece of jade under the light from the window, Tinh Yen noticed something unusual happening on his face - the hands holding the tray slightly stopped, the old fingers trembled a very small beat, almost impossible to detect without careful observation, and in that moment, his eyes suddenly darkened as if he had just seen a ghost from the past appear.

"Doctor Ngan?" Kinh Ba Van asked, his voice somewhat questioning when he saw that the silence lasted longer than usual.

"Nothing, Chancellor." Ngan Ba Thuyen replied, his voice had regained its calmness, but Tinh Yen could still clearly see that his fingers placed on the edge of the wooden tray had not completely stopped trembling. "This token is indeed real. The quality of the jade, the veins, and the engraving technique all match the standards of the token issued by the royal physician many decades ago. There is no doubt about its authenticity."

"What about the person who once owned it?" Kinh Ba Van continued asking, his eyes glanced at Tinh Yen for a moment before looking back at Ngan Ba Thuyen.

Ngan Ba Thuyen was silent for a long time, long enough for Tinh Yen to feel the air in the room freeze. "The records clearly state that the person who brought this token passed away a long time ago. I have nothing more to add." He replied, his voice unusually stiff, then stepped back, not looking directly into Tinh Yen's eyes again for the rest of the audience.

Tinh Yen remembered that reaction well in her heart, although she did not dare to ask anything more at this time. She felt it clearly — the old man had just lied, or at least, had hidden part of the truth that he knew better than anyone in this room.

Kinh Ba Van did not show any special expression in response to Ngan Ba Thuyen's silence and moved on to the next appraisal. "Now, tell me, where did you learn the art of medicine, and why did a girl from a fishing village have such skills that even a border military hospital had to write a recommendation report?"

Tinh Yen briefly recounted the years of apprenticeship with her grandmother in Lach Dua, about her wandering journey, about being accepted by Lieu Nguyen as her disciple, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was inevitably nervous at the sharp eyes that were examining every word she said.

"A monk taught medicine to a girl from a fishing village, lost on the road, without papers, without identity, and then the girl claimed to have learned enough medicine to diagnose rare poisons and perform battlefield surgery." Kinh Ba Van said, his voice carrying a bit of sarcasm that was hard to hide. "Do you know that every year, hundreds of people claiming to be talented, with all kinds of strange stories, come to the door of this Royal Medical Institute hoping to be accepted? Most of them are just scammers looking to profit from the reputation of the institute."

"I understand your skepticism, sir." Tinh Yen replied, trying to keep her voice steady even though her self-esteem was affected. "But I didn't come here to ask for a title, I came because this token guided me, and because I believe my skills deserve to be evaluated fairly, not just based on words."

Kinh Ba Van raised his eyebrows, seemingly surprised by the fearless frankness in her voice. "Okay, then I won't rely on words." He stood up, walked out of the desk, and approached a small table placed in the corner of the room, on which were dozens of unlabeled bottles of medicinal herbs. "This is a test I often use for those who claim to be talented. You have three hours to correctly classify the uses, flavors, and toxicity of each of these medicinal herbs, and point out which of them, if combined incorrectly, can be deadly."

This was the area in which Tinh Yen was most confident - something she learned from Mrs. Khue since she was a child, then was further refined by Lieu Nguyen during two years of wandering, and finally trained through countless real combat emergency cases on the border. She walked to the table, picked up each jar in turn, smelled it, tasted a little powder on her fingertips, observed the color and texture, then began to arrange them into groups according to taste.

Kinh Ba Van and Ngan Ba Thuyen stood silently observing, not saying a word throughout the process. Tinh Yen worked with absolute concentration, her hands moving skillfully without hesitation, occasionally stopping longer at a few jars with confusing flavors, recalling the lessons Mrs. Khue had repeated over and over again — "look carefully, smell carefully, never be hasty when it comes to human life."

When three minutes had passed, she had completed the classification, and correctly pointed out three pairs of medicinal herbs among them, which, if combined in the wrong dosage, could cause a reaction causing acute heart failure - a detail that even Kinh Ba Van had to frown slightly, signaling to a attending physician to take careful notes.

"Can you explain why the pair of umbrellas and licorice are dangerous when mixed in the wrong proportion?" Kinh Ba Van asked, his voice losing the initial sarcasm, replaced by a genuine attentiveness.

"O dau inherently has strong toxicity, affecting the heart. It often has to be carefully prepared and mixed with licorice to reduce toxicity." Tinh Yen replied, her voice firm. "But if the ratio of licorice is not enough, or the first fruit is not prepared properly, the toxicity will not be completely neutralized, the patient may experience symptoms of tongue numbness, arrhythmia, and in more serious cases, sudden cardiac arrest. I once saw such a case at the military hospital, a soldier arbitrarily used folk medicine of unknown origin, but fortunately, emergency treatment was given in time."

Kinh Ba Van was silent for a long time. His eyes looked at Tinh Yen with a completely different expression than at the beginning of the meeting - no longer cold skepticism, but a serious assessment, although still maintaining a cautious distance.

"Your skills are not bad." He said, his voice still holding the familiar sternness. "But skills alone are not enough to enter this Imperial Hospital. You will have to undergo a probationary period, under direct supervision, before I will consider granting you an official position. During that time, you will work in the Internal Medicine Hall, under the authority of the current Royal Physicians, and must strictly comply with all the rules of the academy - there are no exceptions for a token, no matter what it means."

"I will obey your orders, Lord Chancellor." Tinh Yen bowed her head, her heart both relieved and still heavy with unanswered questions.

When the meeting ended, Tinh Yen was taken on a quick tour of the Internal Medicine Department by a young physician, where she will start work tomorrow. On the way out of Chinh Duong, she accidentally caught the eyes of Ngan Ba Thuyen standing from afar watching her, but as soon as their eyes met, the old man quickly turned away and walked quickly towards another corridor, looking like he was trying to avoid something that he himself did not want to face.

Tinh Yen stood still for a moment, looking at the thin figure disappearing behind the corner of the wall, a hunch arose in her heart that the old man knew a lot more than he was saying - and that, sooner or later, she would have to find a way to get him to open up.