Bai Jingfei rubbed her hands together expectantly with a quint glint flashing through her eyes that heavenly doctor Ling could not have possibly noticed.
She nodded obediently and stared at heavenly doctor Ling with what could only be described as reverence in her eyes.
She had heard quite a bit about heavenly doctor Ling, and most of it was about his wisdom and skill. Bai Jingfei had never seen acupuncture being performed in real life so she was especially interested in what he had to show.
Bai Jingfei had a lot of respect for highly trained professionals. She knew how much work one had to put into skill building, even if they were a genius.
Heavenly doctor Ling hadn't thought it would be all that easy to beguile Bai Jingfei.
Now that he had caught his fish he had no clue what to do with it. He had no clue that Bai Jingfei never had good intentions with anything she did. If he had known what this interaction would bring, he would never have caught her.
He left his jaw hanging wide open and Bai Jingfei felt entertained watching heavenly doctor Ling.
He cleared his throat and then he led Bai Jingfei into his medical hall.
It was completely different from heavenly doctor Ming's medical hall, both in decoration and set up. It had lush potted plants lining the stone walls and had the atmosphere of a modern spa, towels folded up in the various corners of the hall.
On the wall was a larger cloth pouch, just hanging for everyone to see, with silver needles poked through it.
Bai Jingfei felt the urge to poke someone with them. Of course not herself, but someone else. Maybe heavenly doctor Ming.
"So this is my hall…" said heavenly doctor Ling, audibly stuttering.
He had not expected to get this far so now his brain had completely shut down, a bad trait for a doctor but if it hadn't hindered his work so far it was unlikely it ever would.
The hall was rather empty.
There was only one student there and he seemed to be very young, but Bai Jingfei the bona fide loli wasn't going to judge their age from their appearance.
The student was wiping down a bunch of silver needles spread out on top of an expensive looking mahogany table. Sandalwood incense was burning in the corner.
A tiny statue of Buddha was standing in the corner and Bai Jingfei admired how much it would be worth if kept in pristine condition. It looked silver coated at the very least, so coupled with its age it would go for maybe a million or two if sold to the right big fish.
Bai Jingfei chuckled as she stared at the statue, evoking an odd stare from heavenly doctor Ling.
Heavenly doctor Ling himself looked very young but he was around heavenly doctor Ming's age, at least from the time they went to medical school together.
That meant heavenly doctor Ling, despite his lack of facial hair, or hair on the head, and almost youthful looks, was probably around eighty years old like heavenly doctor Ming.
"Is there anything special you wanted to show me?" whispered Bai Jingfei standing right behind heavenly doctor Ling.
Heavenly doctor Ling flinched.
His little jump into the air and shocked face gave Bai Jingfei some joy but her aim wasn't to give heavenly doctor Ling a jumpscare.
Her aim was to steal her competition's trade secrets at the very least. If not trade secrets then sabotage.
Bai Jingfei looked around innocently and then smiled at heavenly doctor Ling. She was either going to frustrate him to death or shock him to death.
Either way the only way out for heavenly doctor Ling was death.
But death was a very nice option when compared to entertaining a very bipolar and annoying cave creature whose only source of entertainment is your reactions and unhappiness.
"Would you like to see my medicinal herb collection?" asked heavenly doctor Ling.
It was almost as if Bai Jingfei's ears had perked up and she suddenly had interest in whatever it was that heavenly doctor Ling had to show her. She nodded vigorously, noticeably biting her lower lip.
Bai Jingfei then proceeded to follow heavenly doctor Ling down an artistic stone path that went through an open air garden with a pond. Bai Jingfei noticed she could peek into the jade medical hall from it. Very convenient for spying.
Bai Jingfei smiled as she decided to mess with not her first, but second heavenly doctor.
That open air garden was very convenient.
Convenient for robbing heavenly doctor Ling that is. One jump over the low wall between the two halls, and she was in the other property.
She silently noted the wall height and calculated for her own, while plotting how many stools she would need to get herself over the wall.
A little more walking and she reached the garden where heavenly doctor Ling pulled out a few discreetly placed pots while wiping his bald and sweaty head.
Bai Jingfei looked into his grey eyes and suddenly felt like her teacher was too stingy.
Heavenly doctor Ling had directly pulled out a huge purple flower.
It was definitely saffron. It had every feature of saffron, and Bai Jingfei had once tried to grow saffron to get rich, and then realized the worth was largely because of how darn hard it was to harvest.
But this one, a larger flower, seemed so easy to harvest from. Simply take off the dangly thing in the middle and it's done. You have saffron. Expensive saffron.
Bai Jingfei had made up her mind.
She was gonna steal.
She'd already committed enough crimes for the death sentence in this world anyway, what was the problem in committing a few more, as long as she wasn't caught.
After a little more looking around, heavenly doctor Ling led Bai Jingfei back out where a very disgruntled looking heavenly doctor Ming stood.
The frown on his face and anger and his eyes could be seen from a mile away.
"Ling, are you trying to steal my student?"