『The Medicine's Guide』
BL age-gap. A sinister, cunning doctor x a frail, delicate young master. Morbid Dependency #Ancient Setting #Ten-Year Age Gap #SM? (I don't know either ^U^) Bai Ye is the only young master of the Bai family. A prestigious clan of Jiangnan, merchants for generations, down to his generation there is only one child left. Frail and delicate, he has lived with medicine for years. His hair is long, always veiling his brows and eyes, and when he speaks, his voice is soft, as if afraid of startling something. The family has summoned every famed physician, but no one can cure him. When Shen Wenqing arrives, Bai Ye is leaning on the couch reading, without even lifting his head. Shen Wenqing is a wandering healer who roams the land with a medicine chest on his back. Some say his skills are superb, others call him a fraud. He doesn't care. He smiles with his eyes narrowed, and no one can ever tell what he's thinking. He takes Bai Ye's pulse and says he can cure him. The steward asks how confident he is, and he smiles, saying it depends on the young master's fate. Bai Ye doesn't like him. This man's smile is too fake, his words too soft, like a knife wrapped in sugarcoating. But Bai Ye has no other physician left. The medicine Shen Wenqing prescribes is bitter beyond reason. Bai Ye frowns, and he watches with a smile—next time, just as bitter. When Bai Ye coughs up blood, he stands by the bed watching, eyes narrowed, lips curved, as if admiring flowers. Bai Ye asks him whether he enjoys watching him be sick. Shen Wenqing says yes. Bai Ye says he's insane. Shen Wenqing says, Mm. What Bai Ye fears is not pain, not death. He fears Shen Wenqing not giving him his medicine. When Shen Wenqing leaves, no one will take care of him anymore. He doesn't say it, and Shen Wenqing doesn't know. All Shen Wenqing knows is that Bai Ye's grip on his sleeve grows tighter and tighter, until he can't pry it open. So he stops prying. He lowers his head and takes Bai Ye's fingers one by one into his palm. Bai Ye's hands are cold, and so are his. Neither is warmer than the other. Later, Bai Ye asks him whether he can't bear to let him die. Shen Wenqing doesn't answer. He draws Bai Ye's hand over and presses it to his own face. Bai Ye feels a patch of dampness. Shen Wenqing says it's raining. There is no rain indoors. Bai Ye doesn't call him out on it. Rain pours outside the window; inside, the two say nothing. The medicine pot gurgles away. Before that bowl of bitter medicine goes cold, neither intends to let go first. In one line: He is his only medicine, and he is his only illness.
Your life is your own