Since you’re unconvinced, there’s no choice but to change tactics.

Si Miaoxue quickly paid the price for her "foolishness," although this "price" was not something she wanted to obtain in this manner.

"Master is dead, and my senior sister and I depend on each other for survival. She is my only family, and I must protect her from any harm..."

Lin Miao curled up in the embrace of a certain enchantress, seeking a bit of peace of mind. At this moment, he was fully immersing himself in the emotions of the true, original "Lin Miao."

Only he himself didn’t realize that the Lin Miao within him was not truly "dead"; he was merely living in another way.

"Miaoxue knows, Miaoxue understands," Si Miaoxue gently said. The Lin Miao in front of her now seemed like a man not yet seventeen; the previous one was too mature, too rational, too unrealistic.

A man burdened with too much, too heavy responsibilities, is unfortunate, enduring too much, and the pressure could crush him. At the same time, he is fortunate because only with pressure can one understand what responsibility is.

A man with a sense of responsibility is most worthy of a woman’s lifelong trust.

The problem is that such a man often may not belong to just one person. This seems very contradictory, and Si Miaoxue, amidst her confusion, kept questioning herself internally.

Can she really keep going with Lin Miao?

"Miaoxue, do you have any information on Pei Jian?" Lin Miao asked, looking up.

"What do you want Pei Jian’s information for?" Si Miaoxue exclaimed, not understanding why Lin Miao suddenly brought up this person.

"I was involved in a case in the Arresting Department prison. Pei Jian brought food and wine and secretly came to see me. Can you guess what he wanted?" There are some things unsuitable to discuss with his senior sister, but Si Miaoxue was a good confidante.

"What does he want you to do?" Si Miaoxue became interested upon hearing this.

"He wants me to make an appearance and be a pawn to charge ahead for him, to help him deal with Ye Shengyuan and the lady of Marquis Lingyang." Lin Miao said slowly.

"Why does he want to deal with Ye Shengyuan?" Si Miaoxue found it strange. The Ye Family is a major local clan, deeply rooted and tightly intertwined, with close ties to Marquis Lingyang’s Mansion. With such a background, a mere provincial governor wanting to topple the Ye Family is, indeed, unbelievable.

No one has heard of any conflict between Pei Jian and Ye Shengyuan.

"Pei Jian was appointed governor of Dongshan Prefecture on the recommendation of the Eastern Palace. Last year, the Third Prince was deposed, and the future ruler of Da Li is likely to be a choice between the Crown Prince and the Fifth Prince. The Crown Prince is of age but has no issue from marriage, which is his biggest flaw. The Fifth Prince is about to come of age, and once married and has an heir, the weight will be quite different..."

"Mr. Lin, how do you know Pei Jian is from the Eastern Palace?" Si Miaoxue asked curiously.

"He said so himself. If he didn’t reveal a bit of his secrets, it would be impossible to gain my trust."

"You mean to say that Pei Jian is a man of the Crown Prince, which makes him a natural enemy of Marquis Lingyang!" Si Miaoxue, though focusing mostly on the feuds and disputes of the jianghu, also had some understanding of the court’s affairs.

Once the Moon Worship Sect emerges with two people both qualified to inherit the position of the Moon Palace Master, it’s the same situation.

The royal struggle for the supreme position has always been a matter of life and death, with no possibility of compromise.

The court and the jianghu have never been separate; any statement that they’re two different worlds is just deceptive nonsense.

The relationship between the court and the jianghu is the closest; they’re two sides of the same coin.

If one side is in chaos, the other side won’t fare well either.

"Ye Shengyuan is on intimate terms with the lady of Marquis Lingyang, and the Ye Family is the leading local gentry. If they side with Marquis Lingyang, then Dongshan Prefecture is the Fifth Prince’s most solid rear support..."

"Miaoxue, didn’t you see that Pei Jian obviously wants to use me as a pawn?" Lin Miao laughed coldly.

"Did you agree?"

"For the sake of interests, temporary cooperation is not impossible, especially since if I don’t agree, he might turn the gun on me and directly get rid of me." Lin Miao nodded. Someone like Pei Jian, driven by the desire for power, would surely destroy anything that obstructs or endangers him when he has the ability to do so at the earliest stage.

"No wonder this time the Arresting Department stands by your side; Feng Sheng was also transferred from another place. Unexpectedly, he’s one of Pei Jian’s men."

"Not necessarily." Lin Miao shook his head.

"Feng Sheng was also sent by the Crown Prince?" Si Miaoxue was surprised.

"It’s not impossible. For such an important place as Dongshan Prefecture, sending two people over is not unexpected. Pei Jian is the visible one, while Feng Sheng operates in the shadows, making it easier to act."

"Have you encountered Pei Jian? Do you think he practices martial arts?"

"I don’t know, but his aura is gentle and long-lasting. If he does, he must have hidden his cultivation realm, and outsiders would hardly notice it unless he deliberately reveals it."

"What do you plan to do next?"

"Continue to sit at the Convenient Medical Diagnosis Point for consultations. What else can I do? The trial of the ’Path to Sainthood’ is currently my biggest task." Lin Miao laughed, "Ye Shengyuan secretly had Shang Youwei poisoned with the purpose of tarnishing my reputation and sabotaging my trial. As long as I can’t pass the ’National Select Physician,’ without this Protective Talisman, he can easily wipe me out."

"So, you must eliminate him to ensure your safety. This aligns your interests with Pei Jian." Si Miaoxue understood.

"Exactly, Pei Jian banked on this, and that’s why he took the risk to secretly meet me in prison, certain that I will cooperate with him." Lin Miao nodded.

"What does he want you to do?"

"No specific requirements have been mentioned yet. He is probably waiting for the right moment. If the time isn’t right, any action would alert the enemy."

"Now that you’re free without depending on him, can he still control you?"

"Without him and Feng Sheng, I wouldn’t have gained my freedom so easily. They used their official positions and powers to help me; otherwise, getting out wouldn’t have been so easy."

"So, they probably won’t give up on dealing with you. The next moves will be even harder to foresee and defend against, right?"

"Right, they’re in the dark, and I’m in the light. If I make even a slight mistake, they will seize upon it and blow it out of proportion."

"Otherwise, should I go kill that Ye Shengyuan for you?"

"No, it’s not possible. Even if you can manage to kill him, it might result in exchanging injury for life, or even directly exposing your identity, which is not something we want to see. Once you lose your mystique, we will be at a disadvantage. Although this Ye is the one playing tricks behind the scenes, it is actually the Marquis Lingyang’s Mansion that is the mastermind. We must consider the Marquis Lingyang’s Mansion in every action we take and not make a single move wrong!" Lin Miao directly rejected Si Miaoxue’s suggestion.

Si Miaoxue didn’t care about the latter part of Lin Miao’s words. What she cared about was that he didn’t want to see her get hurt, and that was enough.

"I’m thinking, now that the Xiuyue Square magistrate named Zheng has severed ties with Song Yunzhong from Anning Hall, and now Song Yunzhong has also been punished for framing me..."

"You mean, since they’ve abandoned Song Yunzhong as a pawn, they will definitely find a way to keep him from speaking?" 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Yes, there are several ways to keep someone from talking."

"First, use money to buy them off, making them completely silent. The second method, more foolproof, is to put them in a coffin, where they naturally can’t talk."

"Killing people too hastily is likely to expose flaws. If I were a smart person, I wouldn’t do it that way, so Ye Shengyuan and the others will certainly try to bribe Song Yunzhong with money to keep him quiet and then find a way to make him truly silent!"

"Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on Song Yunzhong’s situation and notify you at the first sign of any movement." Si Miaoxue said.

"Hmm, I’ll sleep over at your place tonight."

"Really." Si Miaoxue was overjoyed.

"Tonight, I don’t feel like moving."

...

The next morning, Lin Miao went to the Buddha Hall to offer an incense stick for his master, then went out, bringing Xia Zhu and Sun Youwei to the Convenient Medical Diagnosis Point.

Today, they were reopening for consultation.

The news spread, and the citizens of Xiuyue Square were jubilant.

During these days, Lin Miao’s medical skills and benevolent heart have been witnessed by the residents and patients of Xiuyue Square. Sometimes, common people might say things against their conscience due to pressure from authority, but they are not foolish and can still distinguish right from wrong.

"Good morning, Mr. Cui. Thank you for speaking up for me at the Arresting Department yesterday!" Today’s duty officer was Cui Wanquan. Upon seeing him, Lin Miao immediately clasped his hands and bowed respectfully.

"Not at all, Mr. Lin did no wrong, the court will naturally have its own conclusion." Cui Wanquan responded awkwardly, for how could he afford to express a different opinion in such a situation?

"Thank you, I assure you that I will have a token of appreciation ready for you!"

"You are too kind, Mr. Lin. Please."

Cui Wanquan was never of the same path, this Lin Miao knew very well. It was just that now Jia and Guan were in sync, leaving him unable to stir up trouble.

Should he deliberately cause problems, they could directly send him back to Li Jing and replace him with another.

"Xia Zhu, add some more tokens today, ten in the morning and ten in the afternoon. Let’s try to see all the patients who took tokens the morning before last within three days."

"Yes, Mr. Lin."

The morning before last, he had gone to the Arresting Department for investigation and ended up staying there, leaving the patients who took tokens uncared for, hence they must be prioritized now.

There’s no choice but to add more tokens, otherwise, turning away today’s patients simply isn’t an option.

Although there were a lot of rumors about Lin Miao’s prescriptions causing deaths, some were aware of the Tang Family’s situation.

If, in the start, Lin Miao’s prescription had indeed caused death, some might believe it, but given that the medicine had been taken for four to five days before suddenly claiming it caused poisoning death, and that it was sudden, would be suspicious considering the noticeable improvement in Shang Youwei’s condition these recent days, as many witnessed firsthand, true medicine issues would have shown much earlier.

Of course, there are claims of chronic poisoning, where the final dose just happened to reach a critical point causing death.

Is there such a possibility? Indeed, there is.

But if it was chronic poisoning that reached a lethal dose at last, there necessarily would be a process in it, sudden death doesn’t align with cognition and common sense.

The safety dosage of cinnabar is ’three fen’, and the daily intake shouldn’t exceed ’three fen’, normally it shouldn’t cause poisoning.

Besides, Lin Miao started with three fen, but later reduced it to one fen and had prescribed time restrictions on medication intake, logically there should be no issue at all.

He also indicated on the prescription that only three doses could be bought at a time, meaning, even with the purchase of three doses, it contains no more than three fen of cinnabar together, hence lethal intake in one go was unlikely.

And even if it was poisoning, it wouldn’t result in immediate death, there should be an opportunity for rescue in cinnabar poisoning cases, yet Shang Youwei evidently did not wait long enough to seize that chance.

He took in too much, and the poisoning process was exceedingly rapid.

"Mr. Lin, I have a toothache, it hurts so much that I can’t eat anything..."

Despite having seen so many patients, it was the first time for Lin Miao to deal with a dental pain case. Not that there weren’t any, just toothaches weren’t usually considered an illness enough to see a physician, most would endure them instead.

But toothache, while ’not an illness’, is agonizingly painful.

Once a dentist’s help is sought, it’s reached a point where it has become unbearable.

The solution, medication, or extraction.

Once a tooth is rotten to the core, extraction becomes inevitable, and when it comes to treating dental pain, traditional Chinese methods offer little; medication takes time to be effective, and patients must endure extended suffering, yet acupuncture can be applied to the right spots to help relieve pain.

As for extracted decayed teeth, considering using gold or silver fillings, and gold teeth placements later on, it leads to a potentially separate "dentistry" venture indeed a profitable one.