In the dead of night, a sudden illness was the most frightening. Startled, Cheng Danruo hurriedly threw on her clothes and got up.
This household’s house had only three rooms. In the very middle was the kitchen, which also served as the living room, with two stoves, each leading to the rooms on the east and west sides. She stayed in the west wing, while the east side belonged to Yan Hongzhi and Xie Xuanying.
At that moment, the door to the main hall was open. Someone was leaning against the door panel, doing who knew what.
Cheng Danruo strained to make out who it was. “Young Master Xie?”
Xie Xuanying took a deep breath and turned his head. “My appearance is unseemly. Miss Cheng, please stop there.”
“What’s wrong with you?” As she asked, she had already stepped forward and lowered her head to take a look.
Sure enough, he had thrown up.
Xie Xuanying’s face flushed red. He wanted to brush it off, but he also knew he should not avoid seeking treatment for fear of embarrassment, so for a moment he froze.
“Sit down. I’ll go light a candle and take your pulse.” When it came to illness, Cheng Danruo never allowed room for argument. She turned and went back to her room, quietly and carefully bringing over a candle, which she placed on the stove for light.
A single lamp burned like a bean.
Xie Xuanying sat on the kang near the north side, his face somewhat pale.
As Cheng Danruo took his pulse, she thought back over what they had eaten that day. To be honest, the two of them had eaten the same things, but her body was different from those of the ancients. For example, although there had been no vaccinations in ancient times, when she reached a certain age, a scar exactly like the one from the modern era had appeared on her arm.
But Yan Hongzhi did not have any problems either.
Thinking this, she went outside again to try to identify the vomit, but it was raining, making it hard to tell clearly, so she had no choice but to ask him, “Does your stomach hurt?”
Xie Xuanying nodded with difficulty.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked patiently. “Does it hurt when touched, or when pressed?”
He hesitated for a long time, but still said, “Stomach pain.”
Cheng Danruo: “…” She craned her neck and looked around. Zi Su had been busy boiling water and cooking all day, and Yan Hongzhi had been busy making rubbings. Both were utterly exhausted and sleeping like the dead.
There wasn’t enough room to sleep in the main house, so Bai Mu and Mo Dian both rested in the woodshed. As for the guards, aside from two keeping watch at night, the rest were put up in nearby neighbors’ homes.
No one noticed.
She rolled up her sleeves. “Lie flat. I’ll press on it.”
Xie Xuanying was dumbfounded.
Cheng Danruo said, “Don’t worry, I’ll press over your clothes, all right?”
Xie Xuanying’s scalp tingled, his whole body tensed, almost written all over with refusal. But the strange thing was, he also had no thought of resisting. After hesitating for a moment, he slowly lay down.
“Relax.” Cheng Danruo moved the candle closer. “Tell me where it hurts.”
She began with the lower left abdomen. “Does it hurt when I press like this?”
Xie Xuanying had originally been a little strangely nervous. He had not expected her strength to be considerable, and was slightly surprised, but he shook his head.
“Then it probably isn’t dysentery.” Cheng Danruo breathed a sigh of relief. If it were dysentery, treatment would be troublesome.
Xie Xuanying also breathed a sigh of relief.
She moved to the appendix and touched lightly. “What about here?”
“No.”
“Then it’s not an intestinal abscess either.” Having ruled out appendicitis, she moved to the middle upper abdomen and touched lightly. “Does it hurt?”
He hesitated for a moment. “It’s all right.”
Not pancreatitis. Cheng Danruo applied a little more force and pressed down with her fingers. “And like this?”
He nodded.
She frowned. Although there was tenderness in the middle upper abdomen, the muscles under her hand were extremely tense, which was suspicious. “Are you nervous? Relax a bit. You’re too tense.”
Xie Xuanying: “…”
She was pressing all over his body, and she still blamed him for being too tense?
Cheng Danruo withdrew her hand, a flicker of gloom passing between her brows. It was only a physical examination, yet in ancient times it was this troublesome. But she worked hard to suppress her irritation, not wanting to affect the patient’s mood. She took a deep breath and smiled faintly. “Would you like to see a magic trick?”
Xie Xuanying was stunned.
He did not answer, and Cheng Danruo did not mind. She casually took a chopstick and a peanut from the stove. “I will make this peanut vanish into thin air.”
Xie Xuanying looked at her hand, and somehow the stomach pain did not seem so severe anymore.
She tapped the round peanut shell with the chopstick. Though the sound was soft, it was clearly audible in the silent night.
By the flickering orange candlelight, Xie Xuanying watched her hand without blinking, but at one particular tap, the sound disappeared, and the peanut in her palm vanished with it.
“It’s in your sleeve,” he said at once with certainty.
She smiled slightly and shook out her sleeve, but nothing fell out.
Then she held out her palm, spreading it flat for him to see that it was completely empty. She turned her hand over and clenched it into a fist, tapped it again with the chopstick, then slowly opened her fingers one by one, and the peanut appeared again.
Xie Xuanying was just about to look carefully and figure it out, when his abdomen suddenly bore pressure.
Caught off guard, his pain was instantly thrown to the back of his mind. His body instinctively moved to defend itself, his hand faster than his brain, intercepting the surprise attack first. Only then did he look down.
In his palm he was holding her wrist.
It was as if Xie Xuanying had been scalded by a piece of burning charcoal. He released his fingers at once.
“Sorry.” Cheng Danruo had not expected a martial artist’s reactions to be this fast either. She was surprised for a moment, then quickly let it go. “Get up. It’s already done.”
So it really had been tension just now. It was tenderness in the middle upper abdomen, acute gastroenteritis.
Considering that Yan Hongzhi was fine, the chicken soup probably was not the problem. After all, it had been simmered at high heat, and the vegetables were also common varieties. She had eaten quite a lot of them. What remained was the eggs.
If she remembered correctly, Zi Su had mentioned that the household had been saving the eggs and could not bear to eat them. Since they had given a generous amount of silver, they had brought out a whole basket in one go.
It was probably Salmonella in the eggs.
She pondered and said, “It’s some gastrointestinal discomfort. I’m afraid you’ll throw up again in a bit, and diarrhea is normal too. That makes it easy to lose too much water and for your vital functions to become disordered. I’ll boil some hot water for you.”
Autumn was not too cold. It was only that before sleeping they heated the kang to drive away the chill. The fire under the stove had long since gone out, with only embers buried within.
Cheng Danruo fetched dry grass and relit the fire, then ladled a few scoops of water from the water jar the household had prepared into the iron pot.
“Shall I go call Bai Mu?” she asked.
Xie Xuanying leaned against the wall and lowered his eyes. “No need. Do not disturb my teacher. I will be fine after some rest.”
Cheng Danruo was a doctor, and she had accepted his kindness several times. It was not good to leave a patient unattended, so she had no choice but to ask, “Would you like me to give you a few acupuncture needles?”
Xie Xuanying raised his eyelids and appraised her expression.
The candlelight was bright, dyeing half her face with its glow. She had not done her hair at night, and her black hair was casually tied with a silk ribbon, falling over her shoulders. Her outer robe was properly worn, but it was his garment. Without the familiar jade belt and embroidered pouch, it instead had a kind of warm feeling, like old clothes worn at home.
And she was gazing at his face. Between her brows there was no shyness or delicate beauty, but rather a faint trace of worry. Her lips were slightly pressed together, as if she were pondering and assessing his condition.
For a moment, it was as if he had fallen into a brazier. His body burned fiercely, yet the organs in his chest seemed to have melted into water, and a murmuring spring warmth flowed through all his limbs and bones.
He turned his eyes away and looked at the crossbeam overhead. “Then I will trouble you.”
Cheng Danruo breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness. If the patient would not let her treat him, there was nothing she could do either. At most, she could give up the chamber pot in the room for his use.
She quietly went inside and brought back the silver needle pouch, but then immediately found herself in a dilemma.
The acupoints for stopping diarrhea were Zusanli, Shangjuxu, Qihai, and Tianshu.
They were either on the lower leg or on the abdomen.
“I still do not know how to locate acupoints through clothing,” Cheng Danruo said apologetically. In this area, her professional skills were not quite up to standard. “If you mind, please let my adoptive father…”
This time Xie Xuanying answered very quickly, “Do not make him worry about me.”
If the patient did not mind, then the doctor had even less reason to mind.
Cheng Danruo took out the silver needles and asked him to sit up straight and roll up his trouser leg.
She chose the spot four finger-widths below the knee and inserted the needle slightly upward into Zusanli. The needling sensation traveled along the Foot Yangming Stomach Meridian to the abdomen.
After a moment, she switched to the abdominal acupoints.
Generally, Zusanli could be combined with acupoints such as Qihai and Tianshu, but Qihai was below the navel. At this location, one could already see the shadow of a mosaic.
Out of consideration for protecting both parties, Cheng Danruo asked, “How about using Tianshu?”
Xie Xuanying had no objection at all.
The Tianshu acupoint was level with the navel, so his clothes still had to be lifted.
About three finger-widths out, Cheng Danruo took up a needle and inserted it.
The distinct sensation of the acupoint came through, and she knew this needle had also been placed correctly.
Acupuncture required a brief pause. During the wait, the doctor’s professional composure temporarily took its rest, and ordinary human aesthetic sensibility returned to its proper place.
Xie Xuanying’s face was pale, his brows slightly furrowed, as if he were doing his utmost to endure the pain. He looked truly pitiable.
Cheng Danruo could not help but feel sympathy. Life in ancient times was not easy. Even for a noble young master of a marquis’s household, when he fell ill there was still no specific remedy to take.
After two sighs of emotion, her peripheral vision slid down to his abdomen.
This… was really too much.
She was a little dazed.
Although on the way here, based on the strength with which he had pulled her onto the horse and the fit of his clothes, she had teasingly made some guesses, the human skeleton, muscles, and facial appearance had no necessary relationship. It had only been random speculation.
Who would have thought that even her guess had been conservative.
What need did a beauty have for a knife to kill?
He was cheating.
Her eyes suddenly grew hot, and her throat itched. For a moment, she forgot most of the names of the abdominal muscle groups.
What were they called again?
She tried hard to steady her mind, but found helplessly that under such strong visual stimulation, she really had briefly lost her memory.
She could only shift the blame: it must be the fault of ancient society. Too repressed. It had worn away her willpower.
Steam rose from the stove with a hissing sound.
Cheng Danruo finally came back to her senses. After silently calculating the time, she quickly removed the needles, pulled his clothing back down, and got up to go to the stove to mix the water. Using her sense of touch, she added salt and sugar to adjust it, then handed it to him. “Drink this.”
“Thank you.” He sat up and took the tea bowl, drinking slowly.
He did not know whether it was because he had vomited once and all the food in his stomach had been emptied, or because the acupuncture had had a remarkable effect, or because the warm salt-and-sugar water had soothed his spleen and stomach, but Xie Xuanying felt the sharp, twisting pain in his abdomen gradually receding.
He let out a soft breath and raised his head to look at her.
But Cheng Danruo was busy. She found the chamber pot meant for convenience in the carriage, scraped out some plant ash from under the stove to spread inside it, and placed it in the corner. Then she added firewood, keeping the embers in a state that was neither quite burning nor quite out, to keep the hot water warm.
Xie Xuanying lowered his head and eyes, but the corner of his vision quietly followed her movements.
The way she worked was slightly unpolished. Clearly she did not often do rough work, yet she was orderly and methodical, as if she had done it before.
He could not help but think, if not for the Cold Dew Rebellion, perhaps her life would have been like this: married into a well-off family, boiling water and washing vegetables, supporting her husband and raising her children… No, that was not right.
The way she adjusted the firewood was a little impatient. Her brows were tightly knitted, her lips pressed together, as if she were saying: What the hell is this thing? It is so hard to use. Yet she had no choice but to restrain her temper and tend to it patiently, lest she inadvertently put out the fire.
When she ladled out the salt and sugar, her posture slowly relaxed, and she measured them lightly and deftly, her expression also easing.
It was very moving.
Xie Xuanying gazed at her just like that. In an instant, the pain seemed to vanish into thin air, and a surging warmth in his chest rushed to all his limbs and bones. His chest felt stuffy, reminding him of when he had accompanied the emperor on a hunt in his childhood. There had been a small deer that had been kept in captivity for so long that it was completely unafraid of people. It lightly leaped past the guards, rushed to his side, and butted him with its short, fuzzy antlers.
Autumn was the season when pomegranates ripened.
Had his heart also been struck?
“When you want to drink it, add water to eight-tenths full.” Satisfied with the proportions she had mixed, Cheng Danruo placed the bowl on the low cabinet nearby. She had already composed herself, and no unusual expression could be seen. “Don’t worry. Rest well. I’ll examine you again in the morning.”
Xie Xuanying nodded slowly, then suddenly raised his head and smiled.
In an instant, even the thatched cottage and humble room seemed to glow, dazzling and pressing.
“Miss Cheng, thank you,” he said.
Cheng Danruo looked at him.
Staying overnight in a farmhouse, everyone only took off their outer robes and slept in their clothes. He wore his inner shirt, with the sash tied loosely, revealing a ring of skin at the collar.
She said, “…You’re welcome.”
It seemed that in the future, when there was nothing to do, she absolutely must not be alone with him at night.
She could not take it.
The next morning, she was awakened by the crackling sound of rain. Before she even got up, she felt the chill, and hurriedly threw on her clothes and got out of bed.
Zi Su brought hot water and said quickly, “Miss, it rained heavily this morning. The old gentleman says we won’t go into the mountains. Once the rain lets up a bit, we’ll return to Jining.”
Cheng Danruo was somewhat startled, afraid that something might be wrong with Xie Xuanying, and hurriedly washed and went out.
Who would have thought that outside, Xie Xuanying was calmly discussing with Yan Hongzhi. “With the autumn rains continuing without stop, I’m afraid the water level will rise. It would be better to set off earlier.”
Yan Hongzhi said helplessly, “That’s the only way. Ah, the Yellow River’s autumn floods make everyone nervous every year.”
Cheng Danruo listened carefully for a long while before she finally understood the whole situation.
Modern people might not feel it, but for the ancients, controlling the Yellow River was a top priority. Every year during the autumn floods, if there was too much rainfall, it could breach the river defenses and cause flooding. Therefore, local officials had to survey the river channel in winter, and in spring oversee dredging the river and repairing dikes.
During the great floods of late summer and autumn, it was even more of a critical moment, and they had to preside over river defense.
This year there had been a lot of rain, and Jining’s terrain was complex, with the Yellow River on one side and the Grand Canal on the other. The prefect was greatly troubled and had conscripted laborers in advance, preparing to reinforce the dikes to guard against flooding.
As for why it had not been repaired in spring, whether it had been delayed by some matter or simply not repaired well, it was hard to say.
In any case, the village had received word that laborers were to be conscripted. This counted as corvée labor. Not only was there no pay, but the common people also had to bring their own dry rations. Apart from hardship, it was still hardship.
Moreover, autumn was already the busy farming season. With part of the labor force gone, those remaining would certainly be busy with farm work. Even if someone wanted to earn extra money, Yan Hongzhi could not possibly delay agricultural work and flood prevention.
Since there was no manpower, and they also feared delay, they could only return.
“When spring comes next year, sending people then will not be too late,” Xie Xuanying comforted his teacher.
Yan Hongzhi sighed. “So be it. Give the villagers some silver and have them build a shelter when they are free, to protect it from wind and rain, lest after long exposure to sun and rain the inscriptions become too worn, adding needless regret.”
Xie Xuanying immediately agreed.
The rain fell in a steady drizzle, endless and unrelenting. Fearing delay in their schedule, they set off just like that.
That night, everyone returned to Jining. The next day, they set out for the capital.
Because the rain did not stop, the rest of the journey was rather hurried. In less than half a month, they had already reached Tongzhou.
The capital was already right before their eyes.
