The Riding and Archery Duel, Die Early and Reincarnate Early

Having Serena Feng accept the Master of the Mystic Healer Valley as her disciple? Absolutely impossible. Even if the sky fell, Serena would never agree.

Setting aside her lack of seniority, just considering the Master’s personality, there’s no way Serena would take him as a disciple. He’s not sincerely seeking a teacher; he only wants her medical instruments.

To other doctors, open-skull surgery might seem miraculous, but the Master of Mystic Healer Valley has already experimented on cadavers himself—his knowledge of anatomy is no less than Serena’s. As long as she explains the theory, he could perform the surgery solo.

Of course, taking him as a disciple is out of the question—but using him as a helper is perfectly fine. The follow-up treatment will be time-consuming and exhausting, but the Master’s solid medical knowledge is a huge asset for Victor Yun’s recovery. Serena generously explained her radiotherapy plan in detail and left all of Victor’s post-surgery care in his hands.

It’s not that Serena is just being generous—she simply doesn’t have the time. She’d planned to leave the follow-up treatment to Simon Sun after the surgery, only stepping in when needed, but thanks to Ninth Royal Uncle’s blunder, Simon didn’t show up and she got saddled with the troublesome Master of Mystic Healer Valley instead.

Since the Master doesn’t mind doing grunt work for a junior, Serena sees no reason not to use him. With an expert of his caliber, Victor Yun’s post-op care is guaranteed.

The Master of Mystic Healer Valley may be eccentric, but he’s serious about his patients. It’s a doctor’s quirk: research subjects are one thing, patients are another. Both are lives, but to a medical fanatic, they’re worlds apart.

Victor Yun woke up on the third day after surgery and saw his parents. He still couldn’t speak, but just waking up was enough to make the Young couple ecstatic. Their looks toward Serena grew more and more enthusiastic, making her scalp tingle.

They looked at her like she was their future daughter-in-law—honestly, who could handle that kind of pressure?

To avoid the Young couple, Serena handed all of Victor Yun’s follow-up treatment over to the Master of Mystic Healer Valley after two days.

Boohoo... The Master of Mystic Healer Valley is doing a better job than her. Serena’s only task now is to run a morning checkup on Victor Yun using the Smart Med‑Pack.

With Victor Yun well cared for, Serena finally has time to chat with the Wang and Yun families, plus the two imperial physicians who refuse to leave Feng Manor. Naturally, all they talk about is Victor’s illness.

Victor waking up proved that Serena’s unbelievable medical technique really works—it stands up to scrutiny. Now, if she explains the principles, the doctors can understand, but accepting it...

That’ll take time. Serena knows you can’t get fat from one meal. As long as the doctors aren’t hostile, the rest will be easy.

With current medical standards, not every doctor can handle brain surgery, but simpler procedures—like removing an appendix or a blind gut—are definitely doable.

Under Serena’s crash course, the four doctors don’t fully understand yet, but they’re not as resistant as before. Eastern and Western medicine may differ, but at the end of the day, it’s all about curing patients. If it works, who cares how?

Even as their doubts fade, the four doctors still won’t leave Feng Manor. They’ve stopped pestering Serena and switched to pestering the Master of Mystic Healer Valley instead.

Serena’s happy to see it. She’s busy—busy settling scores with Ninth Royal Uncle, busy preparing for the contest, busy buttering up Zuo An so he’ll agree to escort her to Shandong.

She’s still a target for assassins; leaving the Capital means risking her life. She has to cling to Zuo An’s protection to avoid dying before her time.

Settling accounts with Ninth Royal Uncle is easy. Serena grabs a free moment, storms over to the Ninth Prince’s estate, and bluntly airs her grievances, fiercely condemning him for deceiving her.

Ninth Royal Uncle stayed silent the whole time. No matter what Serena said, he just kept a blank face—looked like he was admitting fault, but Serena knew he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.

Once again, Serena realized just how much she hated that blank expression. Determined to make him acknowledge his mistake, she solemnly declared, “Ninth Royal Uncle, whether you admit you were wrong or not, this mess caused me a ton of trouble. To prevent it from happening again, you’re banned from my bed for three months.”

Nolan’s face instantly darkened, but he still didn’t say a word. If he couldn’t climb into Serena’s bed, he’d just get her into his.

Too bad for him—dreams are nice, but reality bites. Serena flashed him a smile, turned on her heel, and left without looking back, ignoring the steward’s pleas to stay.

She had to make sure Nolan remembered: deceiving her comes with consequences. If she says it, she means it.

After airing her grievances to Ninth Royal Uncle, Serena threw herself into preparing for the contest against Su Rou.

The day of the contest dawned clear and bright—perfect for an outing. Serena secretly decided that before heading to Shandong, she’d take a break and enjoy spring for once. She’d been running herself ragged and needed some rest. She also wanted to reconnect with Dominic Zhai and the others.

For whatever reason, news of Serena’s riding and archery duel with Su Rou had leaked early. Tea houses and taverns—quiet all winter—were suddenly buzzing again because of it.

Everyone knew the Serena–Su Clan Grand Contest wasn’t just about Su Clan’s honor—it affected the wallets of Eastlyn’s citizens. The massive betting pool, built up over half a year and totaling millions of taels, was finally about to be settled.

It’s thrilling! It’s electrifying!

Whether they’d placed bets themselves or were running the books, everyone was eager for the contest. Of course, the bookies didn’t care who won—they just wanted the pool to wrap up so they could finally use their money.

But unlike the other bookies, Vincent Su—the main organizer behind the betting pool—wasn’t happy at all that the contest was starting so soon. While everyone else was excited for the showdown, Vincent was stuck worrying at home.

“Ninth Royal Uncle, couldn’t you have delayed the contest a little longer? Where am I supposed to scrape together that much silver on such short notice?”

That’s right! The reason the Serena–Su Clan Grand Contest dragged on so long wasn’t just that the Emperor wanted to keep Prince Damien of Southlyn around—it was mostly because Nolan was pulling strings behind the scenes. As for why...

It all comes down to what Vincent Su said: the massive betting pool. With all that money in Vincent’s hands, there’s no way he’d let it sit idle when he could put it to work.

Vincent had already invested the betting funds to bolster the army. And now...

He still hadn’t gotten the money back!