Heavenly doctor Ling laughed awkwardly. He hadn't expected to get caught this soon. Poaching Bai Jingfei was supposed to be a covert, undercover activity. Heavenly doctor Ming wasn't supposed to catch him at all, in the best case scenario.
But now heavenly doctor Ling had no other choice but to stare heavenly doctor Ming down and pretend he had no clue of what was going on.
He composed himself and straightened out his clothes with a smug grin.
"FeiFei, didn't you come here on your own?" stated heavenly doctor Ling, still giving heavenly doctor Ming an obnoxious smile.
"Did you FeiFei?" asked heavenly doctor Ming, turning to Bai Jingfei who suddenly felt bad for her teacher.
There was no way she could explain to heavenly doctor Ming that she wanted to rob heavenly doctor Ling. At least not in front of heavenly doctor Ling.
Bai Jingfei broke eye contact.
Poor heavenly doctor Ming was contemplating his life again. He had only two students, one taken in by mistake and one to reach shelves that he himself couldn't reach. Despite this he dearly loved both of his students.
And to have one snatched away, especially by his long time rival, was scathing.
He wasn't just going to surrender Bai Jingfei over to his rival without putting up a fight. His honor and rivalry rest on winning this battle.
Well, heavenly doctor Ling never really considered heavenly doctor Ming a rival. But no one ever told heavenly doctor Ming that. Even in this case, he just wanted to annoy heavenly doctor Ming and get a reaction out of him.
"FeiFei let's go back, there's nothing to see in this man's hut of a medical hall." said heavenly doctor Ming, attempting to drag Bai Jingfei out of the medical hall.
Unfortunately, Bai JIngfei was his height and approximately his weight. The two were approximately of the same strength too, so Bai Jingfei barely budged.
Heavenly doctor Ming tried pulling Bai Jingfei for a little while long, finally turning to Ladder almost desperately and nodding, signalling him to help him.
Ladder then walked up to Bai Jingfei.
"I'm sorry FeiFei… Heavenly doctor Ming will explode if we don't leave right now…" he whispered before lifting Bai Jingfei and tossing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Bai Jingfei didn't bother struggling and lay flat over his shoulder, as if dead.
"What are you doing, Ming? That's your student!" shouted heavenly doctor Ling in complete disbelief.
"It's precisely because she's my student that I can do this" said heavenly doctor with a smugness that an old man, essentially kidnapping a little girl, should not have had.
Heavenly doctor Ling rushed to the exit of the inner hall and blocked it with his body, preventing Ladder and the seemingly dead cave creature on his shoulder from leaving.
"I can't let you do this Ming!" he screamed desperately.
Heavenly doctor Ming let out a little chuckle and stared at heavenly doctor Ling. He then stuck his hand onto his hip like a diva and looked him dead in the eye.
"What are you going to do about it? Actually what exactly can you do?"
Heavenly doctor Ling couldn't say anything and put down his hands he had stretched across the exit to block them, freeing the path.
Meanwhile, Bai Jingfei was taking a nap on Ladder's shoulder, completely unbothered by her surroundings and enjoying herself and the breeze from the garden.
Heavenly doctor Ling was just about to move from the exit when his student, who had previously been cleaning the silver needles, walked over.
He smiled as he wiped his hands with a white cloth, completely clueless to the situation, and asked heavenly doctor Ling "Should I get some tea for your guests, teacher?"
Heavenly doctor Ling looked at his student as if god himself had come down to earth to save him and whipped his head around, nodding furiously.
"You do that, Zihao, I'll take the guests to a comfortable place to sit.
Song Zihao completely ignored the saggy cave creature on the abnormally tall man's shoulder and looked at heavenly doctor Ming.
"Oh heavenly doctor Ming has come! Should I use the special tea?"
Heavenly doctor Ling shook his head like a possessed being in order to get his student to shut up about the special tea but heavenly doctor Ming caught on pretty quickly and quickly stopped all ways for heavenly doctor Ling to retreat.
That special tea was going to be his.
"Yes, yes, Ling was telling just us about his wonderful tea!" smirked heavenly doctor Ming, so caught up in his small win that he failed to realize heavenly doctor Ling had successfully stopped him from leaving.
Heavenly doctor Ling sighed and waved his hand to dismiss Song Zihao.
He then led the awkward group of suspicious old man, weirdly tall man and dead cave creature slung over tall man's shoulder, to a table.
A crash then sounded from the main exit of the medical hall. Probably a flower pot or something of the sort had broken.
Heavenly doctor Ling's ears almost perked up as he turned towards the exit.
"Wait. I think I have a patient" said heavenly doctor Ling proudly. Not many people needed or could afford his acupuncture so he quite loved when he had patients.
"It's not like you have many of those" slid in heavenly doctor Ming smugly. Despite marking up his prices 2 or 3x he had never had a shortage of patients.
He actually had so many patients that on busy days he would mumble to Bia Jingfei about how he wished he had studied dance instead. He claimed he would have become the best royal dance troupe member the country had ever seen.
He turned to the exit too and immediately recognized the man lying over a broken mud pot near the exit. He frowned as if staring at his sworn enemy or something of that sort.
It was Bai Jingfei's brother and confirmed idiot, Bai Liu.