Chapter 144: Chapter 130, Medicinal Bath_1
“Shall we take a bath?”
Yan Wenkai held the medicine packet given to him by Daohua, looking at Yan Wentao with a hesitant face.
Yan Wentao, without a word, called the servants to prepare the hot water. Then he said, “Little brother, use it with confidence. Daohua won’t harm us.”
Yan Wenkai: “…”
Is the third brother trusting Daohua too much?
He wasn’t saying that Daohua would harm them, but he worried that as a young girl, she might not understand medicine. Even if she had read a few medical books, that didn’t mean she could concoct medicines!
“Aren’t you worried that the bath might ruin your body? If our health breaks down, we will no longer be able to practice martial arts!” He couldn’t ignore this, first because martial arts were his dream, and second, as the legitimate son of the Yan family, he wanted to contribute to his family.
Yan Wentao hesitated for a moment, “How about this, I’ll take the bath first. If there’s nothing wrong with my body, then you can take one?”
Yan Wenkai immediately frowned, “Third brother, what do you take me for? How can I let you take risks for me? If someone is to test it, it should be me first.”
No sooner had he spoken than their servants came over with steaming hot water.
The just recently decisive Yan Wenkai immediately wimped out, looking at the medicine packet with a profound sense of suffering.
Seeing this, Yan Wentao snatched the medicine packet and threw it into the bath barrel. The clear hot water soon turned into a dark brown herbal solution.
“Really going to take a bath?”
Yan Wenkai was still hesitating, while Yan Wentao had already started undressing.
“I’m going in first!”
Yan Wentao quickly sat down into the bath barrel.
Seeing his grimacing, Yan Wenkai immediately asked anxiously, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable?”
Yan Wentao shook his head and shivered before saying, “The water is too hot! If you’re going to take a bath, remember to wait until the water cools down a bit before getting in.”
Hearing this, Yan Wenkai fell silent, then kept a close eye on Yan Wentao. If he showed any signs of discomfort, he was ready to call for help.
However, apart from the initial grimacing due to the high temperature, Yan Wentao’s expression gradually eased, and to the surprise of his brother, he even displayed a look of enjoyment.
“Little brother, you should take a bath quickly too! I don’t know if Daohua’s medicine packet can invigorate the blood and strengthen the body, but soaking here is truly comfortable.”
Upon hearing this, Yan Wenkai appeared skeptical but struggled for a while before finally gritting his teeth and sitting down in his own bath barrel.
However, to set his mind at ease, he still instructed the servants to keep a close eye on their conditions. If anything unusual happened, they were to immediately call a doctor.
“Mmm~”
A moan of relief came from Yan Wenkai. After soaking in the herbal bath, he realized he was wrong. His elder sister hadn’t lied to him; the soreness in his muscles caused by overexertion was truly dissipating bit by bit.
Wuwu~
If he had known the effects were so good, he would have taken out the medicine packet a long time ago. He had suffered in vain for so many months!
Outside the door, Yan Wentao’s servant Tietou and Yan Wenkai’s servant Tieshou occasionally peeked into the room to see if the two young masters were alright, then quietly began to discuss.
Tietou whispered, “Do you think we should tell the Madam and the master that other noblemen practicing martial arts not only had formulas for medicine baths prepared by experts but also had personal doctors to look after them?”
Tieshou looked hesitant, “This… wouldn’t be right, would it? Since the two young masters haven’t mentioned it themselves, wouldn’t bypassing them and going to the master and Madam risk angering the young masters?”
Tietou sighed, “Alas, the young masters don’t want to cause trouble for the family!”
Tieshou: “Isn’t it just so! Had it been before, I really wouldn’t have thought that the household of a Prefectural Governor would fall short of that of a County Magistrate.”
Before he was sold into the Yan family, he had worked in the household of a County Magistrate in the neighboring state. Because the County Magistrate committed embezzlement, he was stripped of his position, and that’s how Tieshou ended up being sold.
Tietou: “This shows something, it shows that our master isn’t greedy, and truly serves the people.”
Tieshou nodded in agreement, a face full of approval. Not being greedy was good. If you weren’t greedy, you wouldn’t be dismissed or have your property confiscated, and they, as servants, wouldn’t be sold from one owner to another.
This time, having been sold, he was lucky to have met a good master like Young Master Wenkai. But what if there were a next time? Who knew what kind of master he would end up with?
From a young age, he had been sold from one person to another, and had often seen servants ground down to death because they had ended up with cruel masters.
For people like them, their greatest wish was to find a good master and live a peaceful life.
Tietou was somewhat luckier than Tieshou. At least, he knew where his parents and home were. Because of the drought, there was no way to make a living. As the eldest in the family, he sold himself, and the silver he got from it was what kept his parents and younger siblings alive.
Young Master Wentao was very kind, he had hardly ever beaten or scolded him. Moreover, he loved tending to the fields, and Tietou liked his master from the bottom of his heart and hoped he would be well.
Thus, Tietou, devoted to his master, spoke up: “Madam and master are the same. Not to mention the two young masters, don’t they know about preparing this kind of stuff?”
This really wasn’t Yan Zhigao’s and Madam Li’s fault; neither of them had ever dealt with martial arts, so how could they know about the need for medicinal baths?
Upon hearing Tietou’s words, Tieshou’s expression changed drastically: “You insolent guy, do you want to die? Are master and Madam something we servants can talk about?”
Considering that the two young masters were almost always together and that he and Tietou would have to continue being around them for a long time, Tieshou couldn’t help but remind him to avoid implicating himself.
“The master being good to us comes from his kind heart. Don’t ever think that because of that we can treat our master without respect. The third young master also treats the master and Madam with the utmost respect. If you gossip like this behind their backs, do you think he will still want you?”
Tietou was so frightened he could barely respond: “I didn’t say anything, did I?”
Tieshou gave him a look: “If you want to stay by the third young master’s side, just do your own job well and don’t meddle in matters between the masters.”
Tietou nodded, promising: “I understand.”
The two fell silent. After a while, Tietou looked into the room again: “The two young masters have been soaking for a good while now, why haven’t they come out?”
Tieshou also looked inside and saw Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai sitting motionless in the bath. Worried something was wrong, he quickly entered the room: “Come on, let’s go check.”
When they arrived at the bath, they saw that Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai had simply fallen asleep and immediately heaved a sigh of relief.
“Are the two young masters all right?” Tietou asked with some concern.
Tieshou: “Look at the two young masters’ comfortable expressions. Does it seem like something’s wrong? Come on, give me a hand, and let’s get the two young masters onto the bed. If they soak too long and catch a chill, that won’t be good.”
The following day.
Yan Wenkai and Yan Wentao arrived at the martial arts training ground feeling refreshed and invigorated.
“What a pity, if I had known that big sister’s medicine bags were so effective, I would have used them sooner!” Yan Wenkai said with regret on his face.
Yan Wentao glanced at him: “If you had told me earlier, would this situation have happened?”
Yan Wenkai smiled sheepishly, quickly changing the subject: “In the past, Su Hongxin, because he had more stamina than us, beat us up quite often. Today, I’m going to get even with him!”
Soon, the students training in martial arts had all arrived one after the other.
Seeing that Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai had come so early, Xiao Yeyang and the others were somewhat surprised.
Practicing martial arts is physically demanding and exhausting work. If one doesn’t rest properly after practice, it’s very difficult to recover the next day.
People like Xiao Yeyang naturally had no problems. Their family members had taken care of everything for them, with medicinal baths, personal doctors prescribing special medicinal meals, and sometimes, if the training was too intense, there were even specialized massages and acupuncture. Their bodies could naturally keep up.
But Yan Wentao and Yan Wenkai were not so fortunate. Because their elders at home didn’t understand martial arts, they hadn’t prepared any of these for them.
Although the Academy did provide abundant food for students practicing martial arts, that only ensured basic nutrition. Their bodies weren’t soothed after daily practice.
As a result, the two were always the last to arrive, all because they couldn’t get up in the morning due to body aches. Their perseverance in attending every day without fail was already proof of remarkable willpower.