What a boring, boring place.
Qiu Yunru had always though he wanted to live a quiet life, but this certainly wasn't that "quiet life" he'd always dreamed about.
Six days had passed since he and Liao Li had returned from the Bloodred Maw, battered and burnt, but alive. As he trailed his hand down the wooden countertop, he recalled the way Liao Li had looked back then:
After being spit out by the Maw, Liao Li had stumbled over to Qiu Yunru. Even when he was covered in soot and sweating bullets, he was still more concerned about Qiu Yunru than himself.
"Qiu-wanbei!" He had cried out, grabbing Qiu Yunru by the shoulders.
Qiu Yunru, who had been waiting tiredly at the volcano's edge, had immediately noticed something was wrong. There was an unfamiliar shake in Liao Li's hands, and his expression seemed deeply embarrassed.
Just what kind of story had that volcano made him tell down there?
Usually, he wouldn't have asked. However, his brain was short-circuiting a bit. After the heat and the stress, his mouth was simply croaking whatever thought came to mind. And so, what came out of his was:
"What did it make you tell it? Don't tell me it was something illicit..."
"Illicit? Like...NSFW?" Liao Li's already-red face had flushed a shade darker. "No, no! Ah...I mean, yes..."
Qiu Yunru's face had drained of color. Holy shit! Not only had he just asked that out loud, but it had actually been true! This poor man--harassed for sexual details of his life. What an ordeal!
"I'm sorry," he croaked apologetically. "That's...not good. Anyways, I think it was probably going to try and get something NSFW out of me. I was just going to start talking about it when I almost passed out..."
"Really?" Liao Li swallowed, turning his face away. "Thankfully, I only told it about a dream I had."
"That's still intrusive," Qiu Yunru yawned. In the red-blue light of the volcano, his face suddenly looked thirty years older from exasperation. "What a weird deity. Anyways, let's get out of here. I don't want to be near it too long..."
Thus, they had hiked three days back to Leng Mo City. Upon returning, Madame Red had demanded that they cure Shao Lu. She barely handed them a cup of water before ushering them in and handing them apothecary supplies.
"Do it," She had snapped, eyes flashing darkly. "Or you'll wish you were dead!"
Under this comforting threat, Qiu Yunru had quickly worked, completing the cure within an hour. Within a day, Shao Lu had been entirely cured of her syphilis. Though some marks remained on her skin, and she still needed to use her cane until her bones grew stronger, every other sign of the disease had vanished.
Shao Lu had cried profusely, holding Qiu Yunru's hands and thanking him again and again. Meanwhile, being the stoic and cold type, Madame Red thanked him stiffly. It seemed she was the type to thank with gifts rather than with words. She offered for both Liao Li and Qiu Yunru to stay at the Red Lotus Pavilion for the time being. Later that night, servants delivered steaming noodles to their doors without a word. That night, Qiu Yunru ate well. He chomped his noodles and collapsed on his bed, thanking all that was good that he had survived such a stupid side quest.
The very next day, Shao Lu introduced Qiu Yunru to her father, the owner of the Three Herbs Apothecary. Named Shao Chang, he was a short and wrinkled demon with a grey mask and poor eyesight. Upon hearing what Qiu Yunru had done, he grabbed Qiu Yunru by the arm and began dragging him out the door of the brothel.
"Young demon!" He shouted. "A cure for an incurable disease! Can't you see I'm too old to be an apothecarist much longer? All these years of searching for an apprentice, and one falls into my lap! Good-looking, no less! Come, come! You'll work with me! I'll teach you all I know. Perhaps my dedication hasn't been a waste after all. In fact, I'll call you my son! Didn't you save my dear daughter, after all?"
In this overstimulating way, Qiu Yunru was hired on the spot. Ever since, he'd been waking up at the break of dawn, heading out to the The Herb Apothecary, and working for Shao Chang.
Every day, he tried to get a little closer to his goal: cure a noble demon, ask them to open a portal to the mortal realm as payment, and finally escape this place!