Chapter 5

I suddenly woke up after falling endlessly from the cliff.

“Ah!”

The ceiling of the kitchen restroom came into view.

“I thought you would sleep for a long time, but you woke up. Did you have a nightmare? You were talking in your sleep.”

Hyang-a wiped the cold sweat from my forehead with her sleeve.

It seemed I had fallen asleep without realizing it.

“No… I just went to attend a supplementary lesson.”

“Huh?”

Hyang-a blinked in confusion.

“Ah… I guess I was still half asleep and talking nonsense.”

I rubbed my eyes and glanced quietly at the cooks.

That supplementary lesson felt more like advanced preparation.

My master had always behaved in strange ways.

There were many times when I couldn’t understand why he acted the way he did.

But later on, there was always a reason.

There must be a reason he appeared in my dream.

Was someone about to get sick?

Was there going to be a problem with someone’s heart?

A strange uneasiness made my heart pound.

Just then, someone could be heard outside the door.

“The Grand Head of the Kitchen has arrived.”

The cooks quickly stood up and clasped their hands respectfully.

In the tense atmosphere, an elderly woman with white hair entered the room.

Her hair was neatly tied up without a single strand out of place, and she wore green silk clothing.

I knew that the Grand Kitchen Head, who oversaw the entire kitchen, never cooked personally anymore.

But even at this late hour, she was wearing a snow-white apron.

It showed how proud she was of the life she had lived as a cook.

But why did the grand kitchen head come here?

I had never seen her in my previous life, and there shouldn’t have been any connection between us.

And yet—

“Oh my…!”

The grand kitchen head suddenly fell to the floor in front of me and burst into tears.

“For a moment I thought the young madam had returned as a child again. How can you resemble her so much?”

The “young madam” she spoke of was my mother.

I look like my mother?

No one had ever said that to me before.

Not a single person.

“Young miss, I was so overwhelmed that I forgot to greet you properly. I am Dang-a, who has served as the young madam’s cook since the Song family of Yunnan. I followed her when she married into the Tang family and eventually became the grand kitchen head. Sob… Young Miss, you’ve returned safely. You must have suffered a lot.”

Dang-a knelt in front of me and cried openly.

So that’s it. I look like my mother.

Whenever my father looked at me with a bitter expression, I had thought he was disappointed in me.

I thought he was frustrated because I was useless.

I never realized he was remembering my mother when he looked at me.

“Grand Kitchen Head Grandma, please don’t cry.”

“Young Miss… may I hug you just once? Then even if I die, I’ll have no regrets…”

I jumped into Dang-a’s arms.

I was so happy to meet someone who remembered my mother.

“Sob… I thought the day I could hold the young miss would never come.”

Dang-a hugged me tightly and quietly cried.

Hmm? Why does her heartbeat sound like this?

While hugging her neck, I secretly checked her carotid pulse.

The pulse felt dull when the blood struck the vessel walls.

I buried my face into her chest and listened to her heartbeat.

Ah… So this is why I never met her in the past!

Her heart’s blood vessels were narrowed, making blood flow through the arteries poorly.

Her heart was struggling to beat while holding too much damp energy.

First, I need to stimulate the heart acupoint with a golden needle!

But I was only six years old.

Getting golden acupuncture needles would not be easy.

Even if I somehow obtained them, I couldn’t perform acupuncture myself.

And there was no way to explain the treatment to Dang-a.

A six-year-old knowing medicine would be suspicious.

At that moment, something my master said in the dream flashed through my mind.

“Stop thinking that only golden needles can save people. What is the highest stage of martial arts? Creating a sword from a drop of water and throwing a blade with a leaf of grass. Your extra lesson is finished.”

So that’s why he gave me that lesson!

In my previous life, I destroyed my own dantian and left the Tang family.

But my master restored my dantian.

He said that if a woman like me were going to wander the world practicing medicine, I would need the strength to protect myself.

So he also taught me martial arts.

Since I returned with my memories… maybe…

I closed my eyes and checked my body.

Below my solar plexus, above my navel, I felt a clear and refined energy.

My dantian.

It had only just formed, but it was still incredible.

Returning with a dantian already intact was a miracle.

And on top of that, my master had even given me a special lesson.

Master, this is amazing! I love you!

I gathered energy in my dantian and guided it to my fingertips.

The energy was so weak it couldn’t even properly be called internal power.

But it gathered on my fingers.

I quickly pressed a point on the back of Dang-a’s neck.

It was to improve blood circulation first.

Then I pressed the acupoint below her ear and another point in her hand.

I had to be careful not to make it obvious that I was treating her.

“Huh? That’s strange. My vision suddenly became clear.”

It worked.

“Really?”

“Yes! My sight suddenly opened up, and my chest feels refreshed.”

I pressed her acupoints again, applying slightly more pressure.

This is exhausting… I feel like the noodles I ate are already gone.

With a child’s body, gathering energy alone was difficult.

Sending that energy to my fingertips required intense concentration.

If I lost focus even slightly, the energy would scatter.

Just a little more… just a little more!

As my fingers touched her acupoints, Dang-a’s eyes gradually became clearer.

“Seeing the young miss at last must have given me strength. But why are you sweating so much? Do you have a fever?”

Dang-a touched my forehead with concern.

“I was cold earlier, then I ate hot noodles and started sweating. Hyang-a made noodles for me.”

“Hyang-a did a good job.”

Dang-a nodded approvingly toward Hyang-a.

The Grand Kitchen Head praising an ordinary cook made Hyang-a flustered.

“The young miss said she wanted noodles, so I just made them quickly.”

“You won the young miss’s heart with a single bowl of noodles. For a cook, there is no greater honor.”

After watching their warm conversation for a moment, I carefully spoke.

“Grand Kitchen Head Grandma… do you happen to have dried ginkgo leaves from last autumn? I want to drink ginkgo leaf tea.”

Dang-a had no facial flushing or bleeding in the eyes, so it wasn’t high blood pressure.

Now that her blocked circulation had improved, drinking ginkgo leaf tea would prevent an emergency.

Ginkgo leaves contained substances that helped dissolve blood clots.

“If I ask the medicine hall, they should have some. I’ll go get some right away and boil it for you.”

Dang-a immediately tried to stand up.

I quickly grabbed her hand.

“If you boil it too quickly, it becomes very bitter. It needs to simmer slowly for a long time.”

“Hmm… then I’ll boil it slowly so it’s ready for you tomorrow morning.”

She would probably taste it herself while preparing it.

Fortunately, ginkgo leaves weren’t toxic.

Even if she drank a lot, it wouldn’t harm her.

And drinking it daily would prevent new clots from forming.

I would have to keep asking her to prepare it regularly.

“Thank you, Grand Kitchen Head Grandma.”

“Oh my, I haven’t even done anything for you yet. So please allow me one request. Please stay in my residence. My place is quite large for an old woman living alone. The child who runs errands for me is very diligent, so you won’t be uncomfortable staying there until the young master returns.”

If I followed Dang-a, I could treat her condition regularly and hear stories about my mother.

But…

I glanced quietly at Hyang-a.

My gaze lingered on the smooth skin beneath her eyes—unscarred.

I have to stop the fire from happening.