Chapter 84: Whom Do You Serve
The morning sun over Lanyu was pale and thin, filtered through the light sea fog that rose from the eastern bay every dawn.
In the small stone courtyard behind the inner prefecture's guest quarters, Liang sat shirtless on a low wooden bench while the old Shen family physician pressed two dry, spotted fingers into the side of his chest.
The old man’s name was Dr. Sun, a senior practitioner attached to the household of Lord Shen Yue. His hands were calloused and smelled faintly of crushed dried ginger and bitter root. He pushed his fingers firmly into the skin over Liang’s lower ribs, tracing the thick line of calcified bone where the rib had snapped three years ago during the fight against Yu Xiang.
"Take a deep breath," Dr. Sun said.
Liang drew in a slow, full breath, feeling the air fill his lungs and expand his chest.
"Does it catch?"
"No," Liang said. "It feels solid."
"It is solid," Dr. Sun agreed, withdrawing his hand and reaching for a clean linen towel to wipe his fingers. "The bone knit together completely long ago. But the alignment on the seventh rib on your left side shifted before the bone fully set. It did not set straight. The outer edge bulges by a fraction of an inch."
Liang looked down at his torso. Under the morning light, his bronze skin was covered in small, faded pale scars. The left side of his ribcage was indeed slightly uneven, the bone beneath the skin rising just a bit higher than the right.