The death of the imperial physician's wife could have gone unnoticed by those not close to him. The man was reserved and never talked about his personal life. If known, the matter would have ended with some condolences given and not long after, no one would even remember about it. However, the very emperor actually briefly assisted to the procession and honored the dead. Thus, the event became famous through the whole capital; it was something that was talked long afterwards and those who didn't know the name of the chief of imperial physicians learned about it and how much he was favored by the emperor. The matter highlighted the status of the physician in people's eyes more than ever, which made others double their efforts to curry favor with him. It was quite headache-inducing for the man who wasn't really known for his sociability skills.
In a sigh, the emperor had said,
“We thought you, our gifted friend, would be able to cure her,…”
She was someone he, the emperor, had personally played the matchmaker for this friend of his after all. He had his servants looked for women interested in the medical field and between the gathered pages of numerous candidates, he had selected her. The Intel had said her character to be calm and she wasn't, by all means, ugly. The only fault was her sickness. However, he thought that with the two of them combining their medical expertise, they could come up with something. Alas. Havens's will was not something a mortal could bend.
"This humble one failed your expectations."
"Don't take it to heart. The Gods called her back. Let us see that child of yours."
A servant girl had brought the sleeping Shu Fen to the emperor and since a name had already been chosen he didn't insist on naming her but instead gifted her many things before going back.
Having had the emperor's blessing, the child was quite a celebrity on her own. Though both sides of the family had urged the physician to marry so that the child could have a mother, he remained wifeless and had the wet nurse and maids raised the girl.
Despite being the sole child of the big household, the little miss didn't grow up to be pampered into conceitedness. Actually, the little miss grew up quite sensible. Even while still a baby, she wouldn't be difficult at all and wouldn’t cry all that much. The times she did, it was when she was cravingly hungry. She was such a quiet baby that even when she was awake it was easy to believe her to still be asleep thus the wet nurse was sometimes late to nourish her. The baby would smile at people yet only babble to herself, with the exception of her father. She was most active at the sight of him.
It appeared that she could easily recognize the man and at the sight of him would start talking gibberish to have him hold her, after which she would be unwilling to be let down. Crying until falling asleep if he did. This was the reason why the imperial physician mostly visited this child of his when he returned from his workplace, during the times when the sun was setting. Otherwise, he would have to leave the house while she was crying fiercely and he was very reluctant then.
As the child grew up, she kept on clinging to her father. She would crawl to him whenever he was in the vicinity and even her first steps had been taken because she was trying to follow him out of the mansion. When he was home, the physician would let her stay wherever he was with him and when she fell asleep, the maids would carry her back to her room.
The child was also a quick learner. By the end of her first year her gibberish turned into words, six months later the words were more comprehensible and when she had two whole year,s the physician hired a female teacher to come and instruct her. Usually, daughters were taught by their mothers, be that words, poetry, calligraphy, dancing, music or calculus. Since he himself didn't have the time to teach -not that he would have been able to teach the whole of it even if he tried- he could only hire someone, not really reassured with the idea of letting his daughter spend the whole days with family members. What if she became reluctant in coming back home and forgot this father of hers? What would he do then?
By the time Shu Fen turned four, she could even read the names of the different medicinal herbs that were in his room in their jars and he discovered that she could even differentiate them. It turned out those things he would mumble to himself while she was doing her assignments in his room, she was actually paying attention to them. Amused, Imperial physician Shun also started to slowly teach her the basic of medicine.
What started as an impulse spiraled and amazed him later. This child of his had a good memory and as long as you said it once and show it to her, then she wouldn't forget. When she turned six and was, even more enamored than ever about learning from him, he unofficially considered her as his disciple, at the same level as those he took back in the imperial palace. Her pattern of learning had been changed then. Her usual teacher would be coming solely in the morning -instead of either morning or afternoon- while her afternoon would be occupied by assignments given by her father that he would correct upon coming back home at night.
***
The matter went on like that and some people got wind of it. After all, the imperial physician, when teaching his apprentices would always sigh and mumble 'not as talented as her' while correcting their misdiagnosis; though he was saying those words in a sigh, the pride in his eyes was clear for all to see and not long later, people learned just who that 'her' was: the imperial physician's daughter herself.
When his wife died, people had sighed and said regretfully that it was a pity it hadn't been a son born. He hadn't paid heed though quite annoyed by the remarks. Now, he couldn't be more proud. Who cared about a son to continue the name or take his legacy? There was this child who shared his and his wife's passion, what more could he ask for? The little girl was always eager to learn, making this father really proud. So what if he didn’t have a son, wasn’t this daughter perfect in every aspect that mattered? More so that between all of his apprentices considering their starting point, she was still the very best!
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