“Isn’t it just that it hasn’t been cleaned for a long time? Once it’s cleaned up, can’t people live here all the same?” The old agent was eager to close the deal. As he pushed open the main hall door, he said, “Take a look inside, the furniture is all here…”

Before he finished speaking, the door to the main hall crashed down with a bang.

With a loud thud, dust billowed inside the house, and the father and son hurriedly covered their noses and retreated outside.

When the old agent came out, covered in dust, Henry Carter sneered, “There’s not even a door left—how can anyone live here?”

“Just fix it yourself, what’s the big deal?” The old agent brushed the dust off himself in embarrassment, coughing repeatedly.

“You’d better fix it first before renting it out again.” Henry Carter resolutely pulled his father away.

“Wait, don’t go!” The old agent hurried after them, wearing a bitter expression. “Fine, I give in. You don’t have to pay a year’s rent up front. Just pay a deposit and three months’ rent—just four taels of silver, and you can move in right away. Is that good enough now?”

Henry Carter was secretly delighted. As the saying goes, only those who pick faults are real buyers. In fact, he did want to rent this house. The old agent wasn’t wrong—at this price, it was impossible to rent a standalone courtyard house within ten li of the Imperial Academy.

Besides, the father and son had only a little over ten taels of silver between them. Even if they rented this place, if they had to pay a year’s rent up front, they’d have nothing left for food. Now, with only a small portion of the rent needed to move in, what difficulty couldn’t they overcome?

Clean it up a bit, and they could make do!

Hmm, that was something the old agent had said too.

“Son, don’t force yourself…” Edward Carter pulled Henry Carter aside, his face full of concern. “If you don’t like it, let’s look elsewhere…”

“I’m not being picky—I just said that to pay less silver.” Henry Carter explained helplessly.

“I see! Cunning—no, clever!” Edward Carter suddenly understood, and said to the old agent:

“We’ll take it!”

……

Once it was settled, Edward Carter followed the old agent’s carriage back to the brokerage to handle the paperwork. Henry Carter stayed behind in the small courtyard.

Looking at the dilapidated, desolate yard, with not even a place to sit, he felt a sense of absurdity well up inside.

The past few days had felt like a dream. He’d thought his luck had turned, that he’d finally become a young master, free to indulge in pleasure, bully the weak, or at the very least, have an easy life. Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, he’d end up like this…

But no amount of sighing could change reality. After a while, Henry Carter pulled himself together, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to give the place a good cleaning.

But after searching all the rooms, he couldn’t even find a single broom.

Looking at the three-legged chairs and two-legged beds, Henry Carter didn’t even have the strength to force a bitter smile. Truly, from Nanjing to Beijing, buyers are never as shrewd as sellers. This house must have been impossible to rent out, which was why the old agent had been so quick to compromise.

Back in the courtyard, Henry Carter remembered there was a blacksmith’s shop at the end of the alley, so he decided to borrow some tools.

The blacksmith’s shop was just a few steps away. Standing at the entrance, Henry Carter looked inside and saw the forge was cold, and the tools were all hanging on the wall—it seemed the shop wasn’t open.

But he heard the sound of an old man coughing from the back room, so clearly someone was there.

After a moment’s hesitation, Henry Carter stepped inside, about to call out to see if anyone was there.

Before he could speak, the dark cotton curtain was lifted, and a burly, fierce-looking man escorted a man dressed as a doctor, carrying a medicine box, out of the room.

“Sigh, I’m afraid your father’s illness is beyond cure.” The doctor stroked his goatee, speaking in a low, serious voice to the burly man.

The burly man was stunned for a moment, then stammered, “Can a bout of malaria really be fatal?”

“Sigh, it’s dragged on too long…” The doctor shook his head repeatedly, as if blaming him for not seeking help sooner.

The burly man’s eyes turned red, and after holding back for a while, he choked out, “I didn’t dare delay. We’ve seen several doctors lately, and bought more than a dozen prescriptions, but nothing has worked.”

“There’s nothing to be done. As doctors, we treat illness, not fate. You’d best prepare for the worst.” With that, the doctor stepped over the threshold to leave.

Having been ignored by the two, Henry Carter suddenly interjected, “Have you tried using sweet wormwood?”

Only then did the doctor notice there was someone else in the blacksmith’s shop. He was the medical authority on this street—how could he allow a mere boy to question him?

He stopped, glared at Henry Carter, and said, “Young man, don’t pretend to know what you don’t. According to ‘Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One’s Sleeve,’ the remedy for malaria is qinghao. What is this sweet wormwood you speak of? I’ve never heard of it.”

Henry Carter was about to explain, but the doctor continued to rebuke him coldly, “Besides, for hundreds of years, doctors have repeatedly verified that qinghao simply cannot cure malaria.”

“Of course qinghao can’t cure malaria—sweet wormwood can.” Henry Carter replied confidently.

Chapter 13: Sweet Wormwood

Henry Carter was not a doctor, nor had he studied medicine.

He wouldn’t dare make such claims about other illnesses, but when it came to malaria, he was very clear. Because more than four hundred years later, Tu Youyou would win the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering that artemisinin could cure malaria. At that time, there was a nationwide craze for qinghao, and Granny Tu even wrote articles to popularize the science, explaining that artemisinin did not come from qinghao, but was extracted from sweet wormwood.