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He rushed into the room to check on the man himself. According to Gareth, he passed in the middle of their training. "I'm sorry! It's my fault. I shouldn't have let him do it." Her eyes looked at Yan Qing, the patient, her mouth turned into a frown.
What did he do this time?
Did he transform again? Tch.
After I told him to avoid using 'doppelganger' abilities, he did anyway.
Patients like this are a pain in the ass.
You give them a solution, they do the opposite.
I thought summer would allow me to let loose, I got a problem instead.
Asclepius placed the back of his hand on top of the assassin's forehead to check on his body temperature. "I see..." He looked at the blonde female knight and nodded. He then asked her a question to know more about the situation. "What happened exactly?"
Gareth fiddled with her fingers. "We were just fighting to boost my strength—" She stammered. Asclepius knew where this was going. "Then he suggested to transform so I can conquer my fear of someone."
Asclepius clicked his tongue. "And he transformed?"
"Yes. And he also did it three times at the Summer ServFes." In the span of a week— the doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. As soon as assassin was away from his line of sight, he decided to shape-shift behind his back.
Bastard.
"You can leave now. I will watch over him."
When the two of them were left in the room, Asclepius did not hesitate to swear. "Why the fuck did you do that?" It was loud enough to wake up Yan Qing. After he opened his green eyes, the first statement he spoke:
"What happened?" He looked to his right and saw the white hooded figure.
"Gareth told me." Asclepius sighed. "You used your 'doppelganger' abilities after I told you not to. What do you think will happen when you do that? As of now, there's no other way to regulate its effects. Do you understand that?"
He was aware that Yan Qing had some level of intelligence despite his simplified manner of speech. It was a matter of him being stubborn at times. In this instance, his people-pleasing tendencies compelled him to go an extra mile to suit the needs and desires of those around him. It was something a doctor could not fix.
"Oh come on, doc. It's not a big deal—" He sat up. "It's a brief transformation unlike in the previous summers." The doctor wasn't present during those events but according to Master, Yan Qing had the tendency to lose a bit of himself whenever he got engrossed in those identities. And likely manifest their personalities as his own.
"Not a big deal? What if you lose control and cause more trouble?" His voice was strained and hoarse. Asclepius was definitely pissed at his stubborn patient. The interest he had in assassin's condition came with headaches. It frustrated him and kept him at night looking after this guy. When he thought he could trust this patient to look after himself—
I swear to the gods, this man!
He received a pat on his shoulder in which he swatted the hands. "Calm down, now. Look nothing serious happened! My body fell and took a nap after a fight. I just need rest that's all!" He smiled as if nothing bad happened to him. Another struggle when dealing with this patient:
It would be difficult to call him a liar when his memories were a jumbled mess. This ongoing issue had no concept of vacation. It was not seasonal like allergies or sunburns.
He took a deep breath. A doctor must keep his cool in front of his patient. Asclepius conjured a tiny notebook and pen. There, he would record assassin's vitals. Yan Qing being the rebellious ruffian he was, tried to sneak out as if he was imprisoned. But caster would not take this bullshit move and grabbed his wrist.
"Aww, you want a piece of me, Pí-ào1?" He fluttered his 'doe' eyes. The reaction he got was irritation.
"Can't you see I'm checking your pulse, right now?"
"Sure, doc. You really like touching my skin~" Yan jested. "Smooth, ain't it?"
If he wants to joke around, fine! I will do the same, let's see if he can counter that.
"I agree. It is indeed as smooth as your brain. Unfortunately, there's no cure for that." He said it with a straight face then looked at assassin who was too stunned to speak. The ruffian behaved himself. It made the checkup easy.
The pulse rate was normal. Good. He pushed the sleeve higher in preparation of the blood pressure monitoring. He rummaged through his big red duffel bag and brought out a device found in modern medical institutions.
"What's that?" Yan Qing asked.
"A sphygmomanometer2." To those outside of medicine, they would scratch their head just from the spaghetti of syllables. "It checks your blood pressure." If he were to account for Yan Qing's lifestyle of 'eating whatever I want because I'm a servant', he knew this man got high-blood pressure.
Asclepius placed the device on the bedside table along with Yan Qing's tattooed arm. He wrapped the cuff three fingers above antecubital fossa3. He could tell the muscles were tense.
"Relax your arm a bit." His jade hand held onto that toned forearm touching places where the tattoos were. He could hear his patient gulp. "Tch. Are you nervous with the result?" the doctor scoffed. When Asclepius started pumping, Yan Qing straightened his spine and swallowed his throat when the cuff tightened. His blush was visible from his face. It left the doctor chuckling.
He's so shameless.
"So... How was it, doc?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." His tongue clicked like a lizard's tail.
"Is that a good thing or—"
"With your diet? I recommend you to stop eating salty foods and drinking alcohol."
"Hmph. That takes away the fun." Yan Qing pouted. "I thought this is about me shape-shifting."
"It is." Those hetero-chromatic eyes stare at the green ones. "It shows how careless you are. It's worrying." While he spoke in monotone, the way he pulled apart the hook and loop of the velcro swiftly. The assassin winced.
"Hahaha. You're so harsh, Pí-ào. It's like you're going to rip someone's skin off."
"Tch." Asclepius smiled a teeny bit, enough for Yan Qing to notice. After he set aside the sphygmomanometer, he brought out a small notebook and pen to record the pulse rate and blood pressure. "There is nothing harsher than the truth and it's a doctor's job to deliver it to their patient." He continued, "Look, Yan Qing— your condition is serious. Your account and Gareth's account of events do not align. What exactly do you remember?"
The humor dropped.
He broke eye contact.
Those upturned lips pursed.
The air was cold.
"I don't know." His brows furrowed. He tried to recall but so much was happening, the images flashed before his eyes were quick. Yan Qing did remember. It was just difficult to explain.
The knight I was training with...
Held my feet with her bloodied hands.
Her green eyes were wide open, devoid of life.
That indiscernible face flashed to a worried one.
I fell and saw the blue sky before my vision darkened.
Assassin's breath accelerated. He looked at his armored hands and looked up to see a woman in prison who resembled a fellow courtesan4. "Jiějiě5?" He approached her. The emperor might have put her there. Her jade hands latch onto his chest. "It's okay, jiějiě—"
Those hands shook him. "Snap out of it!" That voice belonged to a man.
Where am I?
Yan Qing was disoriented. From one simple question of what happened, he recollected an amalgamation of analogous memories of taking away someone else's lover regardless of their relationship. His eyes looked at Asclepius.
It was just the two of us here...
The doctor was shaking. For sure, he felt fear when Doppelganger started shifting assassin's body to a terrifying shadow whose breath echoed through the armor. This was the worst part when dealing with this patient. This happened when he pressed him to answer that question. It wasn't easy to decide whether to ask it or not. If he didn't ask him, the problem would fester and attack later on. If he asked him now, he would trigger an episode. Perhaps, he might not be the right person to deal with this but what options were there?
"Doc, are you alright?" Yan Qing asked. "You're shaking— Did I hurt you?"
"No. I'm alright." Asclepius responded. He sat his patient down to bed who was shaking himself along with his constricted pupils. His entire body was in sync with his hitched breathing."How about you? Does your head hurt? You don't have to speak."
Yan Qing nodded.
The doctor performed a temperature check. He felt the rising heat from Yan's forehead. He opened his bag to retrieve a cooling pad. "Remove your shirt." And assassin did what he was told. He also untied his to rid off the strain on his scalp.
Asclepius brought back his sphygmomanometer to check on Yan Qing's current blood pressure. The levels rose due to psychological stress. While the doctor had his own pride, he knew he was partially at fault here. Of course there was no time for the blame game when the patient's condition was critical. He moved the pillows to support his patient's back emulating an inclined bed to help with blood circulation.
"Do you feel better, now?"
"Mhm." They met each other's eyes. "Khe. Didn't know you have a soft side, Pí-ào."
Asclepius rolled his eyes and gave a thrifty smile. He massaged Yan Qing's right hand, pressing on its thumb muscles. In a way they were sharing warmth and tenderness through the heat emanating from their hands.
Unbeknownst to the doctor,
I enjoy this attention.
Though, it's risky,
He gets to spoil me
Like 6 did...
Yan Qing closed his eyes happily.
Footnotes
- 皮奧 (Pi-yoh) - Yan Qing's nickname for Asclepius. Funny that each word is connected to Asclepius (皮 - cover; 奧 - mysterious) return to text
- A device used to check blood pressure return to text
- The hollow side of the elbow, above the forearm return to text
- Based on the Yan Qing's descriptions in some versions of Water Margin, it was speculated that he was raised like a courtesan by Lu Junyi especially when he sang to the Emperor about a male faithless lover return to text
- 姐姐 - senior sister/big sister. Yan Qing referred to Li Shishi as a senior sister (he rejected her advances, she got sisterzon'd) return to text
- 大哥 - boss; senior brother/big brother (he sometimes call to Lu Junyi a boss or senior brother, it goes both ways lol) return to text
