Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace
Chapter 135: Will Not Play

Yui Mei wanted to gauge how aware the woman was about her own body condition, so she started talking once again.

“Your hands appear to be a case of fēng shī bìng.”

“Huh?”

The woman had an expression that said ‘what the heck is she talking about?’.

Her reaction was poor, so Yui Mei explained arthritis just like how she did to Mei Na.

“Moreover, yours seems mild. There’s a high chance that you’ll be cured if you it’s treated, so it’s better if you get medical treatment. Of course there’s nothing better than medicine, but improving lifestyle could also help with arthritis, you know?”

Yui Mei carefully restrained herself so she wouldn’t come off as too pushy, but her voice still retained a bit of zeal.

“What? You’re a lassie who likes spouting stifling words, ain’t you.”

‘Yeah, I expected this much.’

Half of Yui Mei already anticipated this reaction from the woman.

Even in her previous life, there had been patients who were indifferent about their own body.

Those people wouldn’t listen no matter how fervent the people around them talked about health and enthusiastically encouraged them to go to the hospital.

They were a different group from those who didn’t go to the hospital because of treatment cost; instead, their usual line would be “I know my body best”.

And more often than not, the first hospital that they went to would also be the last… There were also cases like that.

This woman also had the same air as those patients from her previous life — insisting that “she can’t see a doctor” while believing that she didn’t need one.

They didn’t understand the desperation of those patients who were really worried about their condition and had wanted to go to the hospital if they could just so they could get better. 

‘But, that’s the fingers of a musician, right? Is she really fine with that?’

Yui Mei was perplexed as she tried to inquire further.

“But, I’m sure your fingers are very important to you as a musician, right?”

The woman frowned when she heard this question.

“See, even if this illness is just like what you said, and that my hands can be cured, I can’t play the lute anymore…I have come to hate it.”

Yui Mei scrunched her brows when she heard what the woman said.

“…You hate the lute?”

“That’s right. That’s why I’m glad I can no longer play, thanks to these hands of mine, okay.”

The woman spat those words at Yui Mei, and her eyes had a hint of darkness lurking in the depths of them.

‘What’s with this, it feels familiar to me, as if I already saw this before.’

So, what was this all about?

Yui Mei was inwardly confused, but the woman seemed to think that she had been too harsh.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that to you, I made you feel bad. We’re not even familiar with each other, but you’re concerned about me, so I’m grateful about that.”

The woman turned around after saying those words, and she hurriedly left the dumping site.

“Ah, wait! You have to stop smoking first to cure that arthritis!”

Yui Mei shouted after her.

‘Ah, I forgot to ask her name.’

Yui Mei realized belatedly that she had failed once again to get her name, but she soon remembered something else.

“Ah, yeah, those eyes.”

It was the woman’s eyes that she thought she had seen somewhere.

They resembled the eyes of a family member who had taken care of a patient in the hospital in her previous life.

Perhaps, that person had also lost someone.

Even after the incident with the woman, Yui Mei still continued doing what she originally came to do — and that was burning leaves.

Still, thoughts about the woman that she just met swirled in her mind as she put the leaves that carried on her back into a heap.

“Hmm~ I can’t help but be bothered about this.”

Although she understood the rational consciousness of “not sticking your nose into other people’s business’, she had been tucking it away deep inside her because of her nature as a nurse in her previous world and as an onlooker here in the Inner Palace.

There was no way she could just pretend that nothing happened and forget all about it when that person that was filled with special circumstances passed her by.

‘Ugh, what am I gonna do if I can’t swallow my meal properly out of anxiety for her!?’

No, her stomach was rumbling even now, and she had already burned the leaves, so there’s nothing to do but make some baked sweet potatoes.

However, she didn’t know what would happen afterward, so she just wanted to get it off her chest.