Ye Qianning’s heart leaped in alarm. To think that his small eyes concealed both poison and a Gu. The Gu worm would be easy to remove, but the poison would be difficult to neutralize.

"How is it?" Sang Zhi asked in a low voice.

Ye Qianning’s brow furrowed. ’Who could be so malicious as to inflict him with a hereditary Gu and poison? What are they trying to hide?’

Sang Zhi was already on edge. Seeing her brow lock in a tight frown, he had an inkling of the result.

"Don’t worry. I’m already used to seeing things this way. If it changed, I’m afraid I wouldn’t know how to adapt," he said, tilting his head back with a smile.

Ye Qianning was taken aback for a moment, and her furrowed brow instantly smoothed out. Even at a time like this, the little stick-in-the-mud still had the heart to comfort her.

"It’s a bit tricky, but it’s treatable." ’I was too grim just now,’ she thought. ’I probably scared him.’

"Really?" Sang Zhi’s eyes lit up, and his voice rose a notch.

"Yes. I’ll prescribe some preliminary herbs for you first. After the longevity banquet, I’ll have people search for the other medicinal ingredients. However, one of them is hard to find. If we’re unlucky, it could take a year or two." The "preliminary herbs" Ye Qianning mentioned were just to deal with the Food and Color Gu.

Most of the Food and Color Gu had fused with his blood. To force it out, he would first need to take a pacifying serum for some time.

It was the ingredients needed for the antidote that were particularly precious and rare.

Sang Zhi was both nervous and excited, his fingers trembling within his sleeves. He would gladly wait even ten years, let alone one.

"Were you studying medicine the whole time you were in Nanyuan?" he asked, full of curiosity.

"Of course! Don’t look down on me because I’m young. I’d say my medical skills are far better than the Imperial Physicians in the palace." Ye Qianning just wanted to show off a little in front of her little stick-in-the-mud.

"I think so too," Sang Zhi agreed.

"Right? Why don’t I teach you medicine?"

Sang Zhi shook his head. "My coursework at the academy is very demanding. I can’t afford any distractions."

"Don’t be so rigid. Getting average grades is good enough. Medicine and martial arts are important too. Otherwise, when people bully you in the future, what will you use to fight back? Your mouth?"

"One should always be reasonable."

"...Did Sang Rui reason with you before? Did the Crown Prince reason with you about the monthly exam? Get a grip! A higher rank is enough to crush a person to death." Ye Qianning felt a pang of frustration, wishing he weren’t so naive.

’Reasonable?’

’As if anyone would ever be reasonable with him!’

Now that Sang Qi had entered the intermediate academy, incidents like the one during the monthly exam would happen more and more. ’It’s enough to just shine quietly,’ she thought. ’Why must he compete with him for first place?’

Sang Zhi was surprised. "How did you know it was him during the monthly exam?"

"I’m not blind. You failed the monthly exam and then refused to defend yourself. Who else could have been playing dirty besides him?"

Sang Zhi lowered his gaze. "The next monthly exam, I definitely won’t let that happen again."

"Just focus on passing the monthly exams. I’ll teach you martial arts and medicine."

"I don’t want to learn."

"You have to. If you don’t listen to me, I won’t hang out with you anymore."

Sang Zhi fell silent for a moment, looking as if he were waging a great internal battle. "Then... would it be alright if I only learn for a quarter of an hour each day?"

"A quarter-hour it is! You’re not allowed to back out."

"I won’t back out," Sang Zhi said firmly.

Ye Qianning was delighted. It seemed her little stick-in-the-mud really did care about their friendship.

’This is wonderful. Now that they were closer, everything else would be easier to handle.’

’Teaching him medicine and martial arts was for his own self-preservation in critical moments. After all, no one could be by his side twenty-four-seven.’

"Young Miss," the butler said, rushing over.

"What is it?"

"Young Miss, you must go to the front hall and see! A fight has broken out."

"..."

It wasn’t that Ye Qianning was unaware of the situation in the front hall; the crucial point was that she couldn’t solve anything even if she went.

’She was on her dad’s side, and Old Gu was a good man, too. But Qian Fanji’s blood had already fused, and the two elders of the Zhan family were being far too stubborn. It put her in an impossible position.’