The meeting lasted only a quarter of an hour. After quickly covering the most important matters, Xu Junjun urged Chen Liu to leave.
Chen Liu and his men vanished from sight, leaping from the window with two letters in hand. Once Xu Junjun had confirmed from the window that they were all gone, she turned back to her meal. Winter food cooled quickly; by the time they had finished talking, most of the dishes on the table were cold. Having eaten just enough to satisfy her hunger, Xu Junjun rose, went downstairs, and returned to her residence.
Ever since meeting with Chen Liu, Xu Junjun’s spirits were visibly lifted. She seemed to have regained her confidence in life, making new plans and arrangements each day. For the next ten days or so, apart from her meetings with Chen Liu and his men every seven days, her main priority was immersing herself in the pharmacy to refine medicine. She finished the pills for the Young Emperor of Tianqi first, handed them to Weidong, and then resumed work on her own supplies. By her own careful avoidance, she and Jun Xiaochen had not crossed paths for half a month. During this time, she had tried to formulate an antidote for the Mother-Child Pill, but every attempt ended in failure. Xu Junjun was not discouraged; she had never expected it to be easy, and the failures were well within her expectations.
Chapter 189