Chapter 3: The Descent of the Head

  Taking advantage of the night, the little boy flew towards the sky, flying towards the quiet courtyard of the academy, where Xu Xian and others lived. He stopped on the roof of their room, suddenly making a low humming sound, which only those who had received the technique could hear.

  "It's so noisy, painful, Chinese characters, my head hurts so much!"

  Xu Xian was just about to undress and go to sleep when Pan Yu suddenly let out a loud cry of pain. Xu Xian hastily went forward, and Pan Yu grabbed his wrist, falling into his arms, her mouth uttering painful moans.

  "What's wrong with you, Mingyu?" Xu Xian asked anxiously, the trembling person in his arms seeming to grow even thinner at this moment.

  Xu Xian loudly cried for help. Outside the room, a flurry of footsteps finally woke up his roommate next door, who knocked on the door and asked, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

  "Stop taking pictures, go find a doctor quickly!" Xu Xian shouted loudly. He wanted to go himself, but Pan Yu in his arms was holding him tightly, and the other hand was grasping his wrist with great force, unable to break free.

  "Doctor's here, doctor's here! Hurry up and open the door, Xian!" The knocking on the door grew more intense, and Xian was anxious too. He leaned down, speaking softly into Pan Yu's ear in a soothing tone, "Good girl, let go first, I'll go find someone to help you." Pan Yu slowly opened her eyes, then closed them again, releasing her grip. Xian immediately went to open the door. A white-bearded old man who looked like a doctor glared at Xian, "What took you so long? If someone dies, what will happen? Can you take responsibility for Governor's nephew?" After speaking, he turned around and closed the door.

  In the dark sky, a swallow circled twice and flew towards the evening garden.

  He was sleeping soundly at night, when someone knocked on the door. At first, he was not pleased, but slowly got up. However, as soon as he heard a voice outside shouting "Governor Pan's nephew, Mr. Yu", he immediately jumped out of bed and rushed here, even the agile and quick-witted scholar couldn't compare to him.

  At this time, Xu Xian didn't bother to argue with him, and asked him to hurry up and take a look at the illness. The doctor, with an expression of not arguing with him first, stepped forward to take Pan Yu's pulse.

  "The wind evil has entered the brain, I'm afraid Pan Gongzi has contracted cerebral wind. This illness came so suddenly, it's probably not easy to cure. I'll go back and prepare a few doses of medicine to try." The doctor said with a shake of his head.

  At this moment, Pan Yu woke up and looked at his clothes, which were still not dry. He cupped his hands and said: "Thank you, sir! I'm feeling better now. If I eat a few more bowls of your medicine tomorrow, I should be fully recovered."

  The doctor was overjoyed in his heart and completely forgot about the diagnosis just now. He patted his chest and said that Pan Yu was fine, then said a few polite words before leaving. Outside the house, Xia Ziqi stopped the doctor and asked, "How is Brother Pan?"

  "With me around, there's nothing to worry about, you all can leave now!"

  Everyone let out a sigh of relief, but Xia Ziqi's heart was slightly disappointed.

  "Ming Yu, are you really okay? But what that old man just said..." Xian Xu asked with some hesitation.

  Pan Yuxiao said: "Haven't you heard that a good doctor considers it an achievement if there's no illness to treat?" Looking at him, even the wine seemed to have sobered up, and he appeared to be really fine now.

  Xu Xian also understood the medical environment of ancient times, where doctors had to describe the patient's condition as extremely serious before treating them. If they were cured, it was because of their own excellent medical skills; if not, it was just fate. But this sentence from "Bian Que Meets Cai Heng Gong" always made him feel somewhat inauspicious.

  Xu Xian suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist, and when he looked down, he saw that the wrist held by Pan Yu had left a row of blue fingerprints, slightly swollen.

  "It's nothing!" Xian turned his head to see Pan Yu looking at him with concern, Xian shook his head to indicate that it was fine, and pulled down his sleeve to cover his wrist. Compared to this small pain, he was more worried about Pan Yu's illness. Really, is it okay now? But the pain back then was clearly transmitted to his heart.

  In the evening, in Hook's room in Wanfeng Garden, Hook extinguished the red candle and covered the bottle. Wang Shouyi pushed open the door and asked, "Is it all right? It's chaotic over there."

  "I'm not one to easily use my divine powers, the seeds have already been sown, just wait for the harvest. Ha ha, as they say in Heaven's Court, 'heaven is jealous of exceptional talent', 'beautiful women die young', it's normal to die a bit early." Hu Ke laughed.

  Wang Shouyi also smiled with satisfaction. Pan Yu died of a hidden illness, and no one could have anticipated that it would happen to him. But the enemy falling down like this, it's as if he had obtained heavenly orders. No, this is indeed heavenly orders.

  The next day when Xū Xiān woke up, he looked towards Pān Yù's bed and was surprised that she hadn't gotten up early.

  Last night was too late! Xuxian thought so. Went out to bring back breakfast, but Pan Yu was still lying in bed, Xuxian felt something wrong, pushed awake Pan Yu, Pan Yu weakly turned his head, the haggard face made Xuxian jump.

  He never thought that overnight, a person could become so haggard. The originally warm and fair complexion had turned pale, with dark circles under the eyes, especially the deep and clear feeling in his eyes was gone, replaced by exhaustion. Yet, despite this, he still looked stunningly beautiful.

  Pan Yu touched her hair and said, "Maybe I drank too much last night!" She got out of bed and went to the table to eat her breakfast.

  Xu Xian was hungry again, the rice porridge on the table was steaming with an enticing aroma, but Pan Yu couldn't feel any hunger. Since she started practicing martial arts, it had been many years since she last fell ill, this weak feeling made her somewhat disgusted.

  The doctor came again last night, said some ambiguous words, and didn't have the confidence of the previous night. He prescribed a medicine that wouldn't do any harm even if it didn't work, and then left in a hurry.

  The fellow students of the Imperial Academy came to visit one after another, but were all blocked by Xu Xian at the door. Xia Ziqi held some nourishing tonics but was also blocked by Xu Xian at the door, and couldn't help but frown "Is Pan Yu your exclusive friend? We should all go in to pay our respects, but you're deliberately blocking us, what's on your mind?"

  "It's not suitable for her to see the wind or receive guests, this is the doctor's order, please leave!" Xuxian stood at the door with an expressionless face.

  At noon, Pan Yu's uncle, Governor Pan, came in person. Xu Xian stood outside the door and didn't go in. Soon, Governor Pan came out and looked at Xu Xian, instructing him: "Take good care of him, I guarantee your future will be boundless." He was also anxious, so he would say things that he wouldn't normally say. His brother entrusted his only son to his care, if something really happened here, he might not be able to face him in the future. He wanted to arrange some servants to attend to him, but Pan Yu insisted on not allowing it, knowing his nephew's temperament, and had no choice but to entrust Xu Xian with this task.

  Xu Xian furrowed his brow but still nodded and said "yes".

  Later, many famous doctors in Hangzhou Prefecture came to the door one after another, but none of them could say what the disease was. The whole afternoon was almost not peaceful. Governor-General offered a large sum of money and wanted to take risks to get a doctor's name, but there were no doctors who dared to do so. When Pan Yu took a look at the prescription, they all sneered. Although she didn't understand the medical skills, she had seen many medical books and basically understood the basic medical principles. However, even she herself couldn't say what disease she was suffering from, as if there was an invisible abyss constantly devouring her energy.

  She had become so emaciated that she could no longer get out of bed, and no one came to visit her anymore. Even the doctor didn't dare come to take her as a patient, lest he fail to cure her and incur the wrath of the governor. Only at first was the doctor forced to do something, still prescribing some useless medicine, but now even the clinic is closed, and every day he regrets and worries at home. Rumors have begun to circulate in the academy that she has been possessed by an evil spirit, and their gate is increasingly deserted. Many people deliberately take a detour, not passing by their gate, after all, a dying person has no value to befriend.

  It's okay, he's still there! She told herself.

  "Mingyu, it's time to take your medicine." A fragrance of medicine wafted from the room, and Xu Xian sat on the bedside with a bowl of carefully prepared medicine, his face still bearing a forced smile. Xu Xian helped her sit up, and she leaned against him, taking the medicine with difficulty as he blew it cool and fed it to her mouth. The medicine was very bitter, but compared to what she had endured all along, it was nothing. Although she knew it wouldn't do much good, she just wanted to lean on his chest for now!

  Xu Xian furrowed his brow, he couldn't feel Pan Yu's will to live, instead she seemed to have given up early on. Although he didn't understand medicine, based on his knowledge from his past life, he also knew that a patient's mental state was very important. But he couldn't understand, with Pan Yu's family background, having no worries about food and clothing, and having a bright future ahead of her, why would she be like this?

  Like a traveler who has been trekking alone in the icy snow for a long time, my heart was already filled with fatigue and loneliness, and this journey was destined to have no end. At this moment, a warm little hut appeared in the vast snowy sky, as if I had finally found a reason to stop, even if the little hut was just a synonym for death. But at least I can tell myself that I've done my best.

  The pain caused all the weakness accumulated over the years to erupt, and there was no more strength to continue on. Not only was there no fear of death, but instead, there was a sense of relief that "it's good that I won't have to die alone".

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