It turned out that the wisdom of the ancients was not to be underestimated.
Although they did not yet understand the principles behind typhoons and had no way of tracking their paths, experienced helmsmen and fishermen who frequently went out to sea could form their own suspicions when they saw unusual clouds and winds.
At dusk, the ship docked at a small harbor in Huai’an Prefecture.
That night, the wind grew considerably stronger. Even lying in their cabins, they could feel the waves tossing the ship about. Fortunately, they were already safely moored, so everyone felt reassured, and the night passed without incident.
Cheng Danruo went to bed early, but she slept fitfully, turning over several times during the night.
In the middle of the night, a sharp scream from the cabin next door jolted her awake.
Zi Su woke as well, looking shaken. “Miss?”
Cheng Danruo listened carefully, frowning. “That sounds like Master Yan.”
The ship was small, and the three masters’ cabins were close together. The wooden walls did little to block sound, so the cries of pain and groans came through with startling clarity.
For a physician, there was little more frightening than a sudden illness, especially in an elderly patient.
Cheng Danruo immediately got out of bed, hastily threw on an outer robe, and hurried out. She had not even reached the door when she ran straight into Xie Xuanying, who had also heard the commotion.
He was carrying a candle stand, the dim yellow light casting a soft glow over him, leaving his features hazy yet striking.
A beauty was at their most beautiful by lamplight.
Cheng Danruo was momentarily taken aback, but her professional instincts quickly brought her back to reality. “It’s Master Yan.”
“…Miss Cheng?” Xie Xuanying was equally startled.
Cheng Danruo was wearing only the undergarments she had slept in, with her outer robe draped over her shoulders. Her black hair hung loose. Though she was not exposing any skin, it was still absolutely not an appearance she could allow a man to see.
But the moment she mentioned Yan Hongzhi, his attention was immediately drawn to his teacher’s safety.
A woman’s hair and dress took time to arrange. If he sent her back to get properly dressed, what if that delayed treatment for his teacher? In an emergency, propriety had to give way to necessity. Xie Xuanying simply pretended not to notice, averted his eyes, and hurried into the cabin.
Yan Hongzhi was covered in cold sweat. “Call… call a physician. There’s a snake…”
“A snake?” Xie Xuanying grew even more alarmed. He raised the candle high and looked around. “Where?” He then ordered, “Go to my cabin and fetch my sword.”
Cheng Danruo, however, remained calm. “Sea snakes rarely bite people. Where exactly does it hurt?”
“My… my foot.” His face had turned pale and bluish with pain.
The young servant attending him explained more clearly, “Master suddenly said that his foot was hurting, and he felt somewhat dizzy. We were afraid he might have been bitten by a snake or some other creature, but I just looked around and couldn’t find any sign of one.”
Cheng Danruo nodded and picked up the candle stand from the table, moving closer.
Perhaps the pain was severe, because Yan Hongzhi had stuck his foot out from beneath the covers. The area around his big toe was visibly swollen and red.
This spot… She asked, “Is your toe both hot and painful?”
“Yes,” Yan Hongzhi replied weakly.
“Did it come on suddenly, without any warning?”
“Yes.” This time, it was the young servant who answered.
Cheng Danruo asked, “Did he drink alcohol tonight?”
The servant hesitated. “…Yes. Master drank half a pot of Qiubailu.”
Cheng Danruo understood immediately. “Sir, give me your hand. Let me take your pulse.”
The pulse was just as she had expected. Only then did she have the leisure to joke. “I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which would you like to hear first?”
Yan Hongzhi gave a bitter smile. “Doctor Cheng, please don’t make fun of an old man.”
Xie Xuanying, on the other hand, had seen how tense she was when she first entered, yet she was now completely at ease. He guessed that the condition was not serious. “What is the diagnosis?”
“Gout, also known as White Tiger Wind.”
Xie Xuanying occasionally read medical texts when he had nothing else to do. Comparing her diagnosis with what he had read, he found that the symptoms indeed matched. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Gout could be painful, but it was not fatal.
Cheng Danruo said, “The good news is that gout is not dangerous. Even without treatment, an attack will eventually subside on its own after some time.”
Yan Hongzhi visibly relaxed.
However, she continued, “After this attack, there may be a period of time before it happens again. Perhaps a month and a half, perhaps six months or a year. But sooner or later, it will return. After that, the intervals between attacks will gradually grow shorter. If it isn’t properly treated, it can eventually damage the kidneys.”
Xie Xuanying frowned. “That’s the bad news?”
“It’s the good news.” Zi Su came in carrying the medicine chest and a hairpin. Cheng Danruo pinned up her hair, opened the chest, and took out a silver needle. “For a physician, an illness that can be treated is good news.”
Yan Hongzhi struggled to sit up and leaned against the soft pillows. “Then what’s the bad news?”
Cheng Danruo looked at him sympathetically. “With gout, it’s less a matter of curing it than managing it. As long as you avoid the things that trigger it, the attacks can remain very infrequent. But…”
“But?” Yan Hongzhi suddenly sensed that something was amiss.
“It means a very, very long list of forbidden foods.” Cheng Danruo rolled up her sleeves, deliberately avoiding the subject. “In any case, let me put in two needles first to relieve the pain.”
This was the most urgent matter at hand. Yan Hongzhi had no choice but to put aside thoughts of his miserable future. Both apologetic and desperate for relief, he gestured for her to proceed.
Cheng Danruo took out a needle, inserted it into the swollen area, and let the blood out.
There was no helping it. This was a world that had yet to enter the age of modern medicine, and there were only so many treatments available. The ship had not been stocked with any suitable medicinal herbs, so acupuncture was her only option.
Fortunately, although bloodletting had no effect on the gout itself, it could at least slightly ease the pain caused by the swelling and inflammation of the joint.
Cheng Danruo bled him twice, though neither time produced much blood. Even so, Yan Hongzhi was visibly more comfortable afterward.
She checked his pulse again. The old man’s temperature was slightly elevated. However, the wind and waves were fierce tonight, and the ship was rocking violently. She had nearly stuck herself while performing the bloodletting just now, let alone attempting acupuncture. She simply did not dare put the needles in.
“My skills are limited, so I’m afraid I can’t give you acupuncture tonight,” Cheng Danruo said apologetically. “You’ll have to bear with it for a while.”
“It’s all right. Knowing that it isn’t snake venom puts my mind much more at ease.” At least half of Yan Hongzhi’s earlier fright had been due to the lingering trauma from what had happened at Tianxin Temple. Now that he had calmed down, he could even make light of himself. “Even at my age, I still have to suffer through things like this.”
“Everyone spends their whole life suffering,” Cheng Danruo said. After thinking for a moment, she added, “Shall I perform another little trick for you?”
Yan Hongzhi looked at her, then smiled and shook his head. In a gentle voice, he said, “I appreciate the thought. It’s already late. Go back and get some rest.”
He exchanged a glance with Xie Xuanying. Xie Xuanying nodded and took the initiative to escort her out.
The patient was in no danger, so Cheng Danruo had no reason to linger. Once they reached the doorway, she said politely, “It’s only a couple of steps. There’s no need to see me out.”
“I’m truly sorry for disturbing you so late at night.” Now that he knew his teacher was fine, Xie Xuanying felt relieved. Then he remembered his own lapse in judgment just now and couldn’t help feeling apologetic.
He immediately tried to rectify the situation. Glancing around, he said coldly, “If a single word about what happened tonight gets out, anyone responsible will be beaten to death. No exceptions.”
Beaten to death? Cheng Danruo stopped in her tracks. Only then did she remember that the beautiful young man standing before her was not some banished immortal from the moon palace. On the contrary, he was one of the powerful people of this mortal world, someone who could easily manipulate the fates of those beneath him.
Just as the Chen family had been able to arrange her fate with equal ease.
Thus, even knowing that this was simply the norm in a feudal society, and that he was in fact trying to protect her, she still felt a faint, creeping chill.
And sorrow.
She had merely been anxious about the patient’s condition and was slightly improperly dressed as a result, yet it had to be dealt with by threatening people with death. How tragic was that?
But regardless of the turmoil in her heart, Cheng Danruo pressed her lips tightly together and said nothing.
Sure enough, neither Yan Hongzhi’s young servant, nor Bai Mu, who attended to him, nor Zi Su, who had accompanied her there, found anything inappropriate about Xie Xuanying’s words.
They solemnly replied, “Yes.”
Xie Xuanying turned to Cheng Danruo, considering how he might tell her not to be so formal. But when he raised his eyes, what he saw was not a face filled with embarrassment or gratitude. Her face was pale, her lips tightly pressed together, and her expression was even more solemn than it had been inside the cabin.
He froze for a moment, then immediately regretted it. She probably hadn’t thought much of it before. It was only because he had said it aloud that she had been made to realize how serious the situation was. Had he known, he should have dealt with the servants privately just now.
After a brief pause, he said, “Miss Cheng.”
Cheng Danruo composed herself. “Hmm?”
“Is my teacher really all right?” He changed the subject.
“He’s fine, but there is one troublesome matter.”
“Please, tell me.”
“You must be extremely careful about his diet.” Cheng Danruo temporarily set aside her worries and spoke seriously. “First of all, he must eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, drink lots of water, and urinate frequently. He can no longer drink strong tea. Secondly, alcohol, meat broth, animal offal, and seafood should all be avoided if possible. Otherwise, another attack could easily be triggered.”
Xie Xuanying frowned.
He knew why she had called it “troublesome.”
Yan Hongzhi loved drinking. Whenever he had nothing else to do, he would have a few leisurely cups. And now that they were at sea, their meals consisted mainly of fish and shrimp. With the weather so hot, fresh fruit and vegetables were difficult to store and could only be purchased when they came ashore.
Eating more fruit and vegetables while cutting back on fish and shrimp would make their journey considerably more difficult.
“I understand,” he said. “Miss Cheng, you should go back and get some rest.”
Cheng Danruo nodded and returned to her cabin.
It was only then that Zi Su cautiously tried to admonish her. “Miss, you were rather careless tonight. Fortunately, Young Master Xie was considerate.”
“Yes. Next time, I’ll take my time getting properly dressed before going to check whether the patient is still alive.” Cheng Danruo did not know whether she was mocking herself or someone else. “That way, I’ll finally be behaving properly.”
Zi Su fell silent.
Cheng Danruo found it pointless too. She quietly lay back down, closed her eyes, and returned to her memories of the days before she had transmigrated.
At the time, she was doing an internship at the teaching hospital affiliated with her university. However, unlike the exciting lives of interns in medical dramas, the daily routine of a medical intern consisted of running errands, standing around watching, and getting berated.
Every time they answered one of their supervisor’s questions, they would get torn apart.
“If you practice medicine like this, you might as well not become a doctor.”
“You’re treating people’s lives like a joke.”
“Just go back home and get married.”
After half a year of this, a hospital initiative came up as part of a government program to provide one-on-one medical support to remote areas. Put simply, the hospital would send several doctors to remote towns and villages to lend a hand.
Her supervising physician signed up, so Cheng Danruo decided to go along.
There were few opportunities to get hands-on experience at a major hospital, but small hospitals were different. It was rare to have access to the expertise of a major hospital while also having the opportunities to practice that a small hospital offered. Only a fool would turn down the chance to work hard and gain experience.
She promptly paid for a plane ticket and followed her supervisor to a county in Datong, Shanxi.
Anyone willing to travel thousands of miles to take on difficult work voluntarily was bound to be an idealist. Her supervisor did not complain about the small hospital’s poor equipment or the fact that it lacked almost everything. If anything, he was full of enthusiasm.
Cheng Danruo was young and passionate too. After hearing patients talk about how some remote areas had even worse economic conditions, with village clinics lacking both staff and medicine, she began thinking that she wanted to do something to help.
She contacted her university and classmates and, after going through all sorts of channels, managed to obtain a batch of medical supplies, which she planned to donate.
That day, Cheng Danruo boarded a coach alone, carrying the medical supplies she had collected for the rural hospital.
She remembered clearly sitting by the window, watching raindrops patter against the glass, trailing down in lines like tears.
The air was slightly chilly, and the coach wound its way along the endless mountain roads.
She was well aware that there had been heavy rain that day, but in Shanghai, rainy weather was hardly unusual. Besides, she was about to accomplish something truly meaningful, and her heart was full of joy. She felt as though she had endless energy to spare. Why should she be afraid of a little wind and rain?
The journey was long, and the road was rough. She opened her tablet, put on her headphones, and listened to an online lecture, her mind filled with beautiful visions of the future.
And then the flash flood struck.
She was swept away by the raging torrent and transported to this unfamiliar era.
Twelve years had passed.
