Chapter 17

The boy’s indigo silk robes were embroidered with willow branches, and sky-blue jade carvings and corundum beads on his waist sash swayed with his every movement. His bright eyes curved in a smile underneath his long eyelashes as he spoke. “Did I scare you? I’m sorry.”
Eondu had just been about to scold the boy for his rudeness but stepped back, alerted by his air of refinement.
Glancing the boy over, I asked, “Why is it no use?”
“See, its wing is broken.”
Looking closer at where the boy was pointing, I noticed that one of the bird’s wings was slightly crooked. A hatchling in the wild, with a broken wing… “I suppose it will die then,” I said after a long pause. “Poor thing.”
That explained why the mother had not come down to protect her baby. She, too, must have given up on it. This little bird had been abandoned, too.
The hatchling continued to chirp, unaware of its predicament.
“Why did you do that?” the boy asked.
“Do what?”
“You got the attendant to call in the rest of the kids early,” the boy said, eyeing my disheveled black hair. “By giving him the hair tie.”
Had he been watching this whole time?
He tilted his head curiously. “Was that really necessary? Why didn’t you just tell them to stop? Aren’t you cousins?”
I held back a snort. You think they’d listen? If anything, it would have made things worse. But there was no need to tell the truth to some strange boy I’d never met before.
Instead, I smiled. “My cousins are very competitive, so if I had stepped in, they would’ve tried even harder to catch the bird.”
“Competitive...?”
The boy’s eyes grew wide and he laughed. The sound rang out like clear bells. I lost track of time staring at him for a moment, then came back to myself. “Eondu, let’s go.”
“Oh? You’re leaving already?” he asked, still laughing.
I turned away from the boy, ignoring his question. Eondu looked down at the bird in his hands. “What should we do with this little fellow?”
I bit my lip and sighed. “Just put it back in the bushes.”
He hesitated.
“Even if we put it back in the nest... It would probably still die,” I said quietly.
There was nothing we could do. If we touched the nest, there was a chance that the parents would go so far as to abandon the rest of their hatchlings, and I wasn’t confident that I could take care of the bird if we were to take it home with us. It’s bad enough just trying to keep myself safe in the Baengri family...
The boy stepped forward. “I can fix its wing.”
I stopped in my tracks and turned toward him.
“Now do I have your attention?” The smiling boy stood up straight, his posture as upright as a bamboo shoot, and bowed with the utmost courtesy. “Oh, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Seok Gayak, a distant relative of Imperial Physician Seok. I moved here not long ago.”
* * *
I was mesmerized by the daring blue brick fences, elaborate roof tiles, and stately yet unique architecture. Does being an imperial physician pay this well? The size of the estate wasn’t comparable to the Baengri clan compound, but everything from the intricate, beautiful gardens to the attire of the gracious servants was meticulously cared for.
As I turned my head here and there to take in the impressive sights around me, a beautiful boy asked, “You seem to like peonies.” It was Seok Gayak, the boy who had led me here.
Seok Gayak... I’d never met him in my last life, and he hadn’t been mentioned in the novel.
“Most of the Baengri gardens are filled with white peonies, but I’ve never seen this color before,” I exclaimed.
“The pear blossom garden of the Baengri clan is famed for its beauty as well,” he replied modestly.
Trailing behind Gayak as he showed me around the estate, I suddenly halted in my tracks. He looked back at me inquisitively. “What is it?”
“Is... my father here?”
“No, he isn’t.”
“Really?” I titled my head and frowned, looking toward the stables. But I thought I saw his horse just now...? I looked for the horse again but could not find it. It had passed by so quickly. “I guess I was just seeing things.”
I tried to move on, but something felt off. How is he so sure? Gayak and I had just come in together. How was it possible for him to know who was here? Shouldn’t he have been unsure, or asked a servant if a guest had arrived? Instead, he’d declared with utter certainty that my father was not here.
What is he hiding...? But what reason would there be for hiding Father’s visit from me? Pushing these growing suspicions to the back of my mind, I followed Gayak through a door.
The room was much fancier than it appeared to be from the outside, filled with elaborate furniture decorated with gold and silver. As I sat down on a soft cushion embellished with grape vines that had been embroidered in golden thread, Gayak took a tray from the serving maid’s hands and began to fill the white cup laid before me with a clear, light pink tea. “This tea siphons heat from the body.”
I knew immediately that he was referring to the internal injuries I’d received from my qi deviation. I’d set aside my suspicions after hearing he was related to Imperial Physician Seok, but they reared their head again at his words. “Did Imperial Physician Seok... tell you about my condition?”
“I sometimes help him clean his apothecary. A few days ago, I noticed a prescription for dried snake gourd, ashy pipewort, mountain root bark… All for drawing heat out of heavy internal injuries. You’re red around the eyes and your lips are dry, indicating a light fever, so I knew those herbs were meant for you,” he explained.
“Ah.” Of course. An imperial physician wouldn’t break doctor-patient confidentiality. That was a relief. But there was still something suspicious about Seok Gayak’s words.
That’s not how a normal child my age would act, is it? Weren’t the twins and Riri the norm? Of course, Gayak was clever, but it wasn’t just his cleverness but his self-possession and tact that set him apart from the rest.
“Did you study medicine?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“So you don’t go to school?”
“I do.”
My head tilted to the side. “But I didn’t see you today.”
“Of course you didn’t. I take morning classes because Scholar Ki has been teaching me since I was a child.”
He’s my age and already taking intermediate classes?
Gayak leaned his elbows on the table, taking in my impressed expression. “I came by during break time to ask the teacher a question,” he continued, smiling at me with an amused light in his eyes.
I was a bit unnerved. As if he’d sensed it, Gayak rose abruptly with a laugh. “Wait here for a bit.”
I drank the tea as I waited, finding the taste both sour and sweet on my tongue. Gayak came back sooner than I’d expected. “I’ve bandaged it up for now. I think we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out. Well, even if the wing heals, I doubt it’ll be able to return to the nest after being handled by humans.”
“Thanks for your help.”
He peered at me intently. “Why don’t you want to raise it?”
I looked down without replying. Every animal I cared for in my past life had ended up dead, either due to something the twins did or for no reason at all. Besides, from my previous memories, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would be vacating my living quarters for some time.
But there was no way I could tell him that now. I put on a sad expression. “I’m sure you already know from your medical knowledge, but it’s hard for me even just to take care of myself. How could I look after a sick bird as well?”
“Surely the Baengri clan isn’t lacking in servants?” he asked, then laughed again at my silence. “You don’t need to lie to me.”
What, he already knows everything? Well, if he did know, that was actually a relief. I wiped the sorrow off my face. “I’ve been told it’s unwise to reveal the faults of one’s family to outsiders, and we’ve only just met today.”
In other words: Quit digging, you snoop, because I’m not telling. I’m sure he’s smart enough to get it. I took another sip of tea, the cup now almost empty. It was about time for me to get back home. I looked up and our eyes met.
Gayak was smiling brightly. “I think you and I will be great friends.”

Chapter end