SELDOM DOES HE ENTERTAIN GUESTS in the pharmacy outside the aim of business. Most who flocked to his humble shop in ward Cotes were often the sick or in need, those whom required treatment and not conversation, no different than it had been back in the harbor. Thus, when he invites Zhongli to stop by should he ever be in search of company, Baizhu hardly realizes he is very under prepared in the way of hosting such casual visits.
When Zhongli finds him, it is not too long after he has closed for the day. And while many would assume his work would be done, that is simply not the case for a doctor; his schedule was as long as it was erratic, for rarely was there not a need for his services. After all, illness never slept—and little did an apothecary, so long as there was work to be done.
He brews the both of them tea in unspoken apology as he makes small talk over a sorting of flowers and fresh herbs, setting a ceramic cup kilned and glazed in jade hue to the funerary consultant joining him for the evening in the pharmacy’s back room.
“ I must apologize, ” Baizhu says lightly, a smile worn modest as he pours himself a serving of herbal tea. “ You’ve come to visit, and here I am— busy with business as we’ve talked. I do hope it hasn’t dampened the hospitality any. I grow very busy in winter, what with the illness a change in seasons tends to bring. ”
But Zhongli seems to think nothing of it, much to his relief. And so Baizhu sits again upon the chair beside him, leaving his tea to cool in favor of examining the freshly picked Qingxin flowers he obtained from the market earlier in the day.
Changsheng, tuckered out, rests sleepily against the slope of his shoulder; absently, Baizhu spares her a stroke against her smoothly scaled head.
“ It’s fortunate I’m still able to find medicinal ingredients this time of year. ” He plucks a flower from the bunch, eyeing it through his spectacles. “ Perhaps with these flowers still so fresh, I could set some like them out in the pharmacy lobby. I think they should— ” A reach of a hand beside him is cause for his distraction. “ —liven up the pharmacy for guests quite nicely... ”
The thought trails off. Behind his ear, Zhongli tucks a Qingxin flower around its shell, and for a moment the most Baizhu does is blink golden eyes in surprise, turning his head only once the hand has reigned in back to Zhongli’s side. And then, he smiles something warm and amused at him, hiding a laugh beneath curled fingers.
“ And I suppose... flowers do a grand job of livening up people, too. ” His mirthful gaze turns to the tea now sufficiently cooled, taking it into his hands with a palm supporting the ceramic from the bottom. “ Thank you, Master Zhongli. I believe this specimen, I shall keep for myself. ”
