The Debt Repaid

“Benefactor, thank you!”¹

Doctor Yu came into the room and, without so much as a greeting, dropped into a full bow before me. It caught me off guard, and I hurried to get him back on his feet.

“Please, get up.”
“My daughter lives, thanks to you. Truly, thank you.”

Tears gathered at the corners of Doctor Yu’s eyes. He must have succeeded in making the cure. This time he would not spend his whole life in regret the way he had in his past life, and knowing it eased something in me as well.

I asked as though I knew nothing about it.

“Did you make the cure?”
“Yes, it was exactly as you said, Benefactor. Compounding the lightning-struck jujube wood and the Soul-Returning Grass with the other medicinal herbs was the heart of it.”

A foregone conclusion.

Doctor Yu had found the treatment for the Severed Meridians himself in my past life. I had never doubted he would manage it this time too.

“To be honest, at first I half believed and half doubted. That you had come by the cure in a cave in a cliff… I simply could not credit it.”
“I understand.”

Without the memories of my past life, I would never have believed such a story either.

“But I was clutching at straws, so I tried compounding the ingredients you gave me. At first I could get no grip on it, but after some thousands of attempts I finally found the answer.”

The feeling rising in him was more than he could master, and the tears spilled over. He went on in a trembling voice.

“My girl, who had lain three years without so much as stirring, was standing on her own. On her own two feet…”

His feelings overcame him, and he could not finish. The tears ran down his cheeks and fell from his chin to the floor, drop after drop.

I’m glad.

Watching him, something in my chest tightened, because I remembered the Doctor Yu of my past life, the man who found the cure for the Severed Meridians and then grieved all his remaining days over a daughter already dead.

Only now did I feel I had paid back what I owed him, and my heart was lighter for it.

Live happily with your daughter in this life. I will see to it that you do.

I waited in silence until he had collected himself. Perhaps a mealtime had passed² before he spoke again, composed now.

“I want to repay the kindness you have shown me, Benefactor. I remember what you said last time. If there is anything you would ask of me, name it. I would gladly lay down my life.”
“I have no need of your life, Brother Yu.”

I took a chair and waved him to the seat across from me. Once he had settled into it, I came to the point.

“Come into my house instead.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“What I mean, precisely, is that I want you to become my man. I intend to make my house the first under heaven. I would like to walk that road with you, Brother Yu.”

Yu Baegun’s eyes went wide. He had plainly not expected the proposal; the shock was written all over him.

Silence sat between us a while, and I watched him sink into thought. My own mind was not troubled in the least, because I already knew what he would choose.

“Very well! If that is your wish, Benefactor, I will entrust this one body of mine to you. Only, there is one thing I would like to ask.”
“Please, ask.”
“Do you know what sort of man I am, Benefactor? What is it about a man you have never once laid eyes on that you trust enough to take him in? What if I turned out to be a demon for the ages?”

At his question the corner of my mouth twitched up before I could stop it.

Doctor Yu, a demon for the ages… Your jokes are as unfunny as ever.

It was the sort of thing a passing dog would laugh at.

No one in this world knows better than I do what sort of man Doctor Yu is. He is a physician of upright character, one who cannot bring himself to turn his back on an injured man. He was also the man who, every time I came back from a battle in my past life, emptied a bucketful of curses over my head and told me to ease up on getting myself hurt. He was the benefactor who had saved my life dozens of times over, and a comrade who had shared life and death with me. I could vouch for his character myself.

Of course, I could not tell him any of that as it stood. He would never take a story about a past life at face value, so I needed a passable excuse.

“You have a good face.”³
“I beg your pardon?”

I decided to simply brazen it out.

“You don’t have the face of a man who would betray anyone, is what I mean.”
“Why, you ma…”

He got half a curse out before he clamped his mouth shut. That was exactly the reaction I had expected, and a laugh escaped me.

That’s the Doctor Yu I know.

Ordinarily a man of few words, he flew into a rage every time he had to patch me up after I came back in tatters. The word I heard out of him most often back then was ‘mad dog’, I think. The old memory kept tugging the corners of my mouth upward, and I had to cover them with my hand.

“Hah. You really are a strange one, Benefactor.”
“So my reputation says.”

He shook his head at my answer, though he did not seem to mind it. His face was bright.

I sent Doctor Yu on his way and went to see my mother. She was wiping the leaves of her orchids, as she always was.

“Mother, I’ve come to pay my respects.”
“You look well.”
“Yes. Things have been going smoothly for me of late.”
“It is at such times that you must take the greatest care. The clearer the day, the more one must prepare for rain.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”

Her counsel sent a warmth through my chest. Even a single sentence from her carried nothing but genuine worry for me. In my past life and in this one, my mother had never changed.

I broached the matter carefully.

“Mother, I would like to bring someone into the family.”
“Someone?”

My mother’s eyes went round, and her mouth fell open too. She must have been truly startled. The sight was unexpectedly endearing, and I had a hard time forcing the corners of my mouth back down.

Then she asked me.

“Would this be the man who bought the lightning-struck jujube wood you spoke of before?”
“No. The man I want to bring in is a physician. His skill is outstanding, so he will more than earn his keep. You needn’t worry.”
“I am not simply asking about the man’s ability. Mujin — how well do you know this person?”
“I can say with confidence that I know him better than anyone else in this world.”
“Mujin.”

My mother took my hands in hers, her face troubled. Then she spoke gently, the way one gives counsel.

“They say you may know the depths of ten fathoms of water, but not one fathom of a man’s heart. I fear you may come to grief for trusting too readily. Do you understand your mother’s meaning?”
“Yes, I know very well what you mean. But this man can be trusted. I will vouch for him. Please trust your son.”

I said it looking her straight in the eyes. She studied me a moment, then let out a small sigh and nodded.

“Looking at your eyes, it does not seem a thing you decided lightly. But this is not a matter your mother can decide alone. When your father returns, let us speak of it again then.”
“I understand.”

When my talk with Mother was done, I made for the inn where Doctor Yu was staying. Inside, at a corner table, Yu Baegun and a girl sat in the middle of a meal. He spotted me and sprang to his feet.

“Benefactor, you’ve come.”
“Sit, please. I hope I haven’t interrupted your meal.”
“Not at all. Would you care to join us?”
“I’m fine. Please, finish.”

I took the seat across from them and waited for their meal to end. The girl shoveling food in until her cheeks bulged fit to burst had to be Doctor Yu’s daughter. I had a feeling I had heard her name from him in my past life, but I could not call it up.

She must have been ill a long while — is it all right for her to eat like that?

Doctor Yu felt my gaze and smiled.

“The cure took well and she has recovered a great deal of her strength. This much is no trouble.”

At his words I looked the girl over carefully. The long illness had left her painfully thin, but the color had come back into her face and she looked healthy. She seemed about the same age as my youngest sister, Hayul.

Once her convalescence was over, I would bring my sister along to meet her. I waited out the father and daughter’s meal with a contented heart.

When the meal was over, Doctor Yu gave me a cupped-fist salute.

“Benefactor, allow me to greet you properly. I am Yu Baegun, who walks the path of medicine. And this is my daughter, Yeohui. Yeohui, greet him. This is the benefactor who saved your life.”
“I am Yu Yeohui. My father told me about you — that you were the one who named the ingredients to make the cure. Thank you, truly.”

Yeohui copied her father’s cupped-fist salute as she spoke.

“Not at all. It was thanks to your father, who never gave up and kept at it.”

I answered her, then turned to Yu Baegun.

“Yang Mujin, Young Master of the Yang manor.”
“I know. Word of you is thick on the ground in Qingzhou, Benefactor.”
“It can’t have been particularly good word.”
“It was not, no. The Young Master with no martial talent. The elder brother who falls short of his younger. A madman putting on strange antics to draw people’s eyes. There is no shortage of ugly talk.”

Quite the variety.

For talk like that to be going around, my reputation must have been on the floor. The man I had been in my past life was pitiful beyond words.

“But the Benefactor I have met is nothing at all like the rumors. They say gangho rumor is not to be trusted, and it seems the saying is not wrong.”
“That is the nature of rumor.”
“Though some part of it does hold true.”

Doctor Yu, as ever. He says the thing that needs saying.

I went straight to the point.

“I have come because there is something I would ask of you, Brother Yu.”
“Benefactor — ‘Brother Yu’? I have agreed to become your man, so please speak to me as you please.”
“I could hardly do that to a man older than I am. I will settle on an easier form of address and call you Doctor, then. Doctor Yu, would you have a look at the state of my body?”

I rolled back my sleeve and held out my arm. Doctor Yu’s eyes turned serious; he took my wrist and began to read my pulse.

“Mmm…”

His brow drew together and a low sound of deliberation escaped him. Yeohui, watching from beside him, asked anxiously.

“Papa, what is it? Is the Benefactor very unwell?”
“Wait a little.”

Having answered his daughter, Yu Baegun turned back to me.

“I shall have to look more closely. May I send my internal force through you to check?”
“Please do.”

A warm current flowed out of Doctor Yu’s fingertips and into my meridians. His internal force swept through every corner of my body.

A moment later he drew his qi back and took his hand away, and his face turned grave. I already knew what he was going to say, because I had been through the very same thing in my past life.

“Are you aware, Benefactor, that your body is unlike an ordinary person’s?”
“I am. However much I gather qi, no internal energy accumulates, and the drawing and releasing of qi does not come smoothly either.”
“You know it well. The reason is that you were born with an unusual constitution called the Blood-Chain Meridians, Benefactor. That is why gathering qi and drawing and releasing it have never come smoothly.”

Just as in my past life, he had seen through my constitution at a stroke. That meant I should be able to get the answer I wanted, too.

I played ignorant and asked.

“Is there a way to improve my constitution?”
“Only by driving the body to its limit and working it beyond all bearing. Though as I see it, your body is already all but complete, Benefactor. At this rate, three months and your constitution will right itself of its own accord.”
“Is there no way to shorten that period?”

I waited for what he would say next.

“There is.”

A smile spread over my face before I knew it.

I had faith in you, Doctor Yu.