The sisters, both awkward with expression, had their first real conversation like this.

With curses mixed into raised voices.

Though their cursing vocabulary was limited to “fool” and “idiot,” they poured out their emotions for a long while.

So there was a political marriage involved.

The Chief Eunuch Admiral’s decision was as follows:

While the elder sister walks the path of officialdom as one of the Six Ministers, the younger sister must marry a foreigner for the family.

Going to distant lands to marry someone whose face and personality are unknown.

After such a political marriage, she must live endlessly for the empire as a bridge for the family in that place.

“Father came that way too!”

“Yes. Mother cherished Father, a foreigner, dearly. But will you be the same? So-ah, will you be cherished like that?”

Everyone knows that while some political marriages become harmonious, most don’t.

“Father at least spoke our language, So-ah. He spoke our language. But this time it’s a place with different culture, different writing. How can you go to such distant lands where you know no one?”

“Yes. It will be difficult. But that’s no reason for my sister to die.”

“There was one position, and if someone had to go… I should have gone, So-ah.”

“Grandfather wouldn’t allow it. Everyone knew how outstanding sister was since childhood!”

Han Yi-jeong answered calmly.

“So I will die. Using illness as an excuse to die young as naturally as possible, then…”

“…Then how am I supposed to live!”

At that moment, Han Yi-jeong’s and Jin Cheonhee’s eyes met.

With a complicated expression, she gestured toward the door with her eyes.

At this quiet dismissal, Jin Cheonhee went outside.

Drrrk–

The door closed.

Sounds of crying and shouting repeatedly echoed from inside.

Master said she was young. That it was a choice only the young could make.

An elder sister willing to throw away her life to stop a marriage, and a younger sister wanting to save such an elder sister.

Is the taste of power originally this bitter?

Like the over-steeped tea drunk at today’s meeting.

So this is what a White Dragon Medical Pavilion Master must consider.

Humans are emotional creatures, and no matter how well you try to draw lines and separate things, some things remain impossible.

It might be one approach to wait until the sisters reach their own conclusion.

But… then a scream rang out.

“Sister! Sisteeeeer!”

At the cry for a physician, Jin Cheonhee quickly opened the door and rushed in to find the elder sister, Han Yi-jeong, had suddenly fainted from severe dizziness.

Right. Disease doesn’t wait.

Even at this moment, the time bomb in her brain continues ticking.

As if ignorant of human circumstances.

Heartlessly.

***

Normally, after talking even with the guardian who came with the patient, Jin Cheonhee would simply wait for results.

However, if the reason for refusing surgery wasn’t simple worry about aftereffects or surgical risks, but rather aimed at suicide because of her sister’s political marriage…

Ah, this is unsatisfactory.

The physician’s meddlesome nature can’t help but flutter.

“Hmm. Foreigners, indeed. Psychologically, people would naturally feel aversion to different ethnicities.”

No need to go as far as racial discrimination.

In this era, people discriminate just for having different surnames in the same village.

“Where is this political marriage supposed to be?”

“I hear it’s a small country beyond the Southern Barbarians. The second prince is famously debauched and violent.”

“Surely not that second prince…”

“That’s exactly right.”

Well, this is ruined.

No wonder the elder sister would naturally choose suicide to stop it.

From what he’d heard roughly, among the three princes, only the third was decent.

“…How does that country even function?”

“Well, he’s not a madman who beheads people daily. For a small country, if geography, resources, and population can keep going, it somehow maintains itself. Of course, the current Emperor’s focus on internal stability rather than imperial expansion helps greatly.”

“Still, wouldn’t the Chief Eunuch Admiral, loving his granddaughter, prefer a political marriage with the third prince?”

With the third prince as an alternative, surely he wouldn’t want to send his granddaughter to someone known for beating people.

“That part is unknown.”

Master quickly wrote something in a letter.

When conveying important information, he used codes made of points and lines rather than Chinese characters.

Because he exchanges with various groups and uses multiple codes rather than just one, even Jin Cheonhee doesn’t know all the decryption methods.

Master only shares part of his information with Jin Cheonhee.

“Well. Who knows. Perhaps the Chief Eunuch Admiral is fully aware of this situation and making his own moves under the surface.”

“This is difficult.”

Though he’d like to secretly arrange a match with the third prince, Jin Cheonhee is a physician, not a matchmaker.

“Well… since your expression is so awful, as your master, let me tell you. Such matters tend to work themselves out when you think good thoughts and eat good food.”

Is there any hope of this working out well?

When his disciple’s expression wouldn’t brighten, Master smirked.

After finishing writing the code and sending the letter, he stood up.

“I think I should have a talk.”

“You, Master?”

“Hahaha, yes. So don’t worry too much.”

Does he have a way to resolve this situation?

***

Master walked leisurely to Han Yi-jeong’s ward.

After hesitating for a while at his request to enter, Han Yi-jeong opened her mouth.

“Come in.”

Drrrk-

Entering, he found the younger sister Han So-jeong’s eyes were completely swollen.

Embarrassed by her disheveled face, she turned away, roughly wiped her face with her sleeve, and ran out.

Seems they fought the whole time.

No matter how much she wiped her eyes with her sleeve, the tears wouldn’t stop, so she ran out to calm down.

Rather, the elder sister’s expression had become serene, as if completely accepting death.

Before Master could speak, elder sister Han Yi-jeong spoke first.

“No need for formalities. It’s fine. Just… I’m sorry I won’t receive treatment.”

“You’re accepting death?”

“Yes… that’s what I want. When Grandfather finds out, he’ll force surgery, so I’ll have to be prepared for suicide then.”

Though an adult in this era, to Jin Cheonhee’s eyes, she was still in her late teens.

Not words a mere late teenager should speak. Yet her expression was terribly resolute.

Divine Doctor White Dragon smiled bitterly.

“As a senior who accepted death until a few years ago, let me tell you – a terminal life isn’t very interesting.”

“That’s fine.”

“Food loses its taste. Since you can see the end anyway.”

“That’s fine too.”

“Every book becomes somewhat bland.”

“I never enjoyed reading. It was just duty as the eldest daughter. That’s fine.”

“They say the pear blossoms in the Chief Eunuch Admiral’s garden are beautiful. Every May they bloom white, creating an exquisite view. I’ve heard rumors that his two granddaughters especially enjoy walking that path.”

“…We won’t walk together anymore anyway, so that’s fine.”

“…”

Master spoke no more.

He merely smiled faintly.

It was a smile from Master, who once lived a terminal life.

To a child trying to walk the same terminal path.

“Waiting for the end is truly boring.”

“How strange. You say it’s boring even knowing it will end anyway?”

“Yes. A life conscious of its end is always boring. Each moment will feel like ten days. Living like that, you’ll age far beyond your years before you know it.”

“…I’m fine with that.”

“Your words are already aged.”

Han Yi-jeong closed her eyes at Zhuge Rin’s words.

Beneath her closed eyelids, a drop of delusional thought flowed out.

It was something like the natural human attachment to life.

Finally, Master spoke.

“What if you could walk that pear blossom path together again?”

“What…?”

“If you could walk that pear blossom path with your sister again. However, if that path is by no means an easy one.”

Unable to understand his meaning, Han Yi-jeong just rolled her dark pupils.

Master spoke to the youth not yet terminal.

“Can you swallow poison? Can you stain your hands with blood?”

Saying this, he handed her a note folded four times.

There was some seal stamped in the corner of that note, but it wasn’t visible from Jin Cheonhee’s position.

“It’s Grandfather.”

“The good always perish easily. In the end, only the vicious remain. In that sense, though Grandfather was once good, now he’s become the imperial palace’s trusted confidant.”

What could that mean?

She gripped the letter tightly with trembling hands.

Zhuge Rin spoke.

“If you open that, you’ll walk the same path as your grandfather. But you’ll survive. The vicious always survive long.”

Master’s eyes curved gently.

“Just decide. Die pure, or live vicious. It’s not a big decision. If you survive, you’ll worry about what to eat more often than this.”

She pondered and pondered again.

“…”

Crunch–

The crumpled letter screamed in her hand.

It was also the groan of remaining purity in young Han Yi-jeong.

“Youth is good. Purity is also good.”

Master’s laughter sounded like a cold-blooded animal’s breathing.

“…”

This time, Han Yi-jeong couldn’t say “that’s fine.”

She finally opened the letter.

What filled the small white paper was an array of points and lines.

It was a code Jin Cheonhee didn’t know.

Finally… after reading it for a while, Han Yi-jeong’s expression crumpled like the letter.

She curled up and groaned.

“Kugh… keuugh…”

Rage and devastation, simultaneously resolve and determination.

“…Grandfather… how could… urgh…!”

Her groans tasted like a mud ball mixed with joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure.

Finally, after breathing heavily for a while, Han Yi-jeong answered in a bloodless voice.

“…Surgery… please perform the surgery as soon as possible.”

Master answered with a faint sneer.

“I told you, didn’t I? That terminal life isn’t interesting. Now an entertaining life awaits you.”

“Divine Doctor White Dragon… just who are you…”

Instead of answering, Master bowed deeply to her.

“Congratulations on becoming His Majesty’s next trusted confidant.”

That voice held none of the earlier laughter, rather becoming solemn.

“…”

Han Yi-jeong silently stared at Zhuge Rin with pitch-black eyes.

Finally, her last remaining purity flowed down her cheek as a death throe.

“…I shall never forget the teachings of Grandfather and Divine Doctor White Dragon.”

She rose from her seat and gave Zhuge Rin a cupped fist salute.

Strangely, a vicious aura seeped into that grateful salute.

Neither hostility nor goodwill.

In black and white, they showed respect to each other.

To Jin Cheonhee, it was quite a peculiar scene.