The Dying King Asked for a Woman Physician novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Table
Ko had brought a basin of madder-red cloths before the Head Physician arrived, and the Head Physician had gone away satisfied.
By night, nobody was thinking about the basin.
The King's writing table stood in the corner of the sickroom under the lamp, a long low table of black lacquer.
It was covered in paper.
There were grain reports stacked in squares, and edicts half drafted.
There was a brush rack, and an ink stone with a pool of black in it.
Tae-heon sat behind it in his shirtsleeves with a brush in his hand and a frown.
Seo-wan stood in the doorway of the side room, watching him work, until he felt her eyes.
"Don't," he said, without looking up. "I have to finish the rice prices."
"Finish them."
"I will."
"Out loud, please."
He glanced up at that.
She came across the room and sat on the edge of the table, right on top of the grain reports.
Her skirt spread over the papers, and her bare feet dangled.
"Read me the price of rice in the southern provinces," she said.
"What are you doing?"
"Listening."
He looked at her, and at her feet, and he bent his head to the page.
"In Jeolla," he read, "the price of a bushel of unhulled rice rose by two coins this month, owing to the late rain."
She leaned back on her hands and put one foot on his thigh.
"Go on."
"In Gyeongsang, the price held."
Her foot slid up the inside of his leg.
He read on, steadily.
His voice stayed level until her toes reached the front of his trousers and pressed.
"In Chungcheong. In Chungcheong, the," he said, and stopped.
"Did I say stop?"
"No, Doctor."
"Then read."
"In Chungcheong, the price," he swallowed, "fell."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Dying King Asked for a Woman Physician are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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