Chapter 20: Orange Candy For The Eighty Year Old Baby

Bai Jingfei stumbled a little, but stabilized herself before falling. Her balance had slightly improved and she was now better at balancing than a three year old.

She walked ahead and squatted in front of Heavenly doctor Ming, her hands wrapped around her knees much like him, but her butt not on the ground, because she knew how muddy the garden was.

Because of their difference in sitting, Bai Jingfei was slightly above him, despite the two of them being the same height.

Bai Jingfei could easily figure out what had happened here from the hole, and the heavenly doctor's muddy condition.

She knew it was at least half her fault, if not completely.

Bai Jingfei reached into her little pocket and pulled out a little orange candy from the jar it was in and handed it over to the heavenly doctor.

"What's wrong, heavenly doctor Ming? Why are you here?" asked Bai Jingfei innocently.

This set off a floodgate and heavenly doctor Ming began sobbing. He had been sitting and sniffling for the last few minutes, wallowing in self pity, and when suddenly he was offered some normal pity, he felt as if someone understood him.

One of the guards walked over to Bai Jingfei and stuck his arm between Bai Jingfei and the heavenly doctor, as if protecting the young miss from the thug.

This caused the heavenly doctor to cry more, and harder.

"Why doesn't anyone recognise me hick-! I've always helped people all my life-" sobbed heavenly doctor Ming without taking a pause to breathe and then ending up hyperventilating.

"Sure I mark up the prices of my medicines- but it's not my fault I'm short-!"

Bai Jingfei felt as if she had met a kindred spirit. Marking up prices AND sadness over being short? That was her. As an old man perhaps.

"Don't cry, heavenly doctor, you'll only dehydrate yourself. Have the candy, it's quite tasty"

Heavenly doctor Ming slowly lifted the evidence he could've used to catch the person who had been pretending to be him and dropped it into his mouth.

He felt some happiness sucking on the slightly sour but almost completely sweet orange candy.

To Bai Jingfei it was as if she had given a sobbing baby a pacifier, as heavenly doctor Ming loudly sucked on the candy.

"Oh no, looks like my father is coming back." said Bai Jingfei looking around like a criminal upon hearing some footsteps coming from the hall.

With pleading eyes she looked at the guards.

"Please don't tell papa I was here!"

The guards nodded in response to her sickly sweet voice, with smiles on their faces. They were probably going to tell the prime minister either way…

Bai Jingfei jumped up onto her feet like a frog, and then sprinted towards her room, making sure to stop on the way and scrape the mud off of her shoes.

Moments after Bai Jingfei had run toward her room like she was being hunted, prime minister Bai walked back to the garden with Bai Liu and the emperor.

"Your majesty, I believe this is the man who has been impersonating the heavenly doctor"

Heavenly doctor Ming felt tears welling up again, but he sucked on the candy and held them in like the brave eighty year old he was.

"How do we know that isn't heavenly doctor MIng himself?" asked the emperor, concerned.

"Would the heavenly doctor be sitting in my garden after crawling his way into my house through a hole in the wall? Look at those muddy knees… This man can only be a criminal."

If heavenly doctor Ming had known that it would be his muddy knees that would damn him in front of the borderline mysophobic prime minister Bai, he would have crawled through more carefully.

Or not crawled in at all.

"Your majesty, I can prove that I am heavenly doctor Ming!"

"Oh! How?" asked the emperor skeptically.

He too, did not believe that the distinguished heavenly doctor Ming, would sneak into the Bai Family mansion. It just didn't make sense to him.

"Your Majesty! You asked me to check the paternity of the third prince because he looked nothing like you, and you thought his mother had committed infidelity!" screamed heavenly doctor Ming, desperate to clear his name.

The emperor was speechless. He was too shocked to clear the heavenly doctor's name after hearing something he had long wiped from his head out of embarrassment, in front of his loyal servants, the prime minister and the people in the mansion.

He was just about to stop the heavenly doctor when the heavenly doctor began to scream again.

"Your majesty! I treated your erectile dysfunction just two months ago, do you not remember? Have I fallen out of favor with you? Is it because I'm short? Why-"

"Enough!" shouted the emperor, his face turning red out of anger or embarrassment or both.

Heavenly doctor Ming took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. The candy in his mouth had disappeared and only the lingering taste of oranges was left behind.

"Prime minister Bai, please forgive the heavenly doctor for trespassing, let me go talk to him privately. We will be leaving then." sighed the emperor, apologetically.

Prime minister Bai bent forward into a bow trying to cover up his chuckles, while Bai Liu would not face the emperor and had his back toward him, in fear of being caught laughing.

Even the guards were having a hard time keeping a straight face, but knew that if they laughed, they might get beheaded for 'disrespecting the royal family' or some other random reason the emperor would come up with.

As the emperor and heavenly doctor Ming were leaving, the heavenly doctor suddenly stopped and turned toward prime minister Bai with what could only be described as a worshipping expression.

"Prime minister Bai! I would like to take your daughter as my disciple! Please allow me to be her teacher!" yelled heavenly doctor Ming, suddenly snapping into a bow.