"Returning to Before Husband's Castration" 《回到老公自宫前》Chapter 56
The morning written exams ended, the examinee’s names were sealed onto the examination papers to prevent fraud and handed in, in the afternoon the eunuch of the supervisor of the ministry of rites took them to Anle hall.
Anle hall was where the maids and eunuchs were brought to when they fell ill, those ill could not serve the nobles, there were two Anle halls in the Forbidden City, one was at Tiananmen gate, where people with more serious illnesses went, if they died from illness it was easier to bring them out of the palace and cremate them to avoid a pandemic.
The other was south east of the wet nurse residence, the inner Anle hall of the imperial ceremony office yard, those in here suffered minor illnesses.
The inner Anle hall was concealed, it was after all where patients were brought in so it was off the beaten track, most people wouldn’t take a walk around here so it was isolated.
During Chunghua’s reign when imperial consort Wan was favoured in the harem and became the “expert at giving abortions”, emperor Chunghua in order to protect his heirs and not upset his favourite imperial concubine, raised his eldest son in secret here because it was well hidden.
The afternoon exam was on treating illnesses.
Everyone drew lots to pick ten patients, they were all maids or female officials, then they began to assess, prescribe and treat them, imperial physicians stood by to grade their work.
If clothes needed to be removed for acupuncture or cupping, the imperial female physicians would observe and grade.
Wei Cai Wei’s first patient was an old maid in her fifties, it wasn’t anything major, there was no need to think too much, she was viciously vomiting, constipated with a yellowish face.
Wei Cai Wei determined she had gas built up, first she used moxibustion on the acupuncture points of the top of the stomach, middle and bottom, then she used moxibustion on the second acupuncture related to digestion, prescribed her liuwei dihuang teapills, four substance decoction and two-ancient decoction.
Wei Cai Wei finished giving the old maid acupuncture and moxibustion, gave her a prescription and softly said: “Half of the illness is in the mind, did the symptoms start when you got afraid of dying from age in the palace without anyone to support you?”
The old maid was shocked, she nodded immediately, “My oldest friend left the palace with her life savings and gave the money to her nephew, that money was enough to support her until she died, but after the nephew got the money he fell out with her and ignore her, he gave her a crumbling room to live in, served her cold food and water, in less than half a year she was worn down and died, when I heard about this my symptoms began.”
Wei Cai Wei sighed: “If the rabbit dies, the fox grieves, there are some who live well and some who live poorly when they leave the palace. You can’t always linger in sorrow, go find out how the old maid’s who left are living a good life, slowly let it go, otherwise no medicine will help, it’ll flare up again.”
The imperial female physician asked: “How did you decide on this treatment?”
Wei Cai Wei said: “I learned this from a new medical book, Tan Yun Xian’s <Nuyizayan> recorded how to treat blocked up gas. The book said there was an old married woman who began to have these symptoms after her husband was promoted and began to take concubines, the doctor gave her rectifying pills, the more she took them the less energy she had, Tan Yun Xian first gave her supplements, then used black atractylodes rhizome and the rhizome of large-headed atractylodes to get rid of the phlegm. It was clear this illness happened to women with depression and who overthought.”
The imperial female physician kowtowed: “So it was doctor Tan, she was also a imperial female physician registered with the imperial ceremony office, she received an official position and served the court, later because her husband’s family committed a crime the entire family was executed, all the descendants died, only she survived so she withdrew from court, I didn’t imagine she hadn’t given up medicine but became an expert and wrote a book advancing medicine.”
Wei Cai Wei said: “Because she’s a woman, <Nuyizayan> is not known amongst the medicine books, but I felt her cases and treatment were brilliantly written, the cause of the illness is always written from the female patient’s situation and psychology, bemoan the state of the universe and pity the fate of mankind, I hope more doctors will read it, it will become a famous medical book in the future. She passed away four years ago, she lived until the age of ninety-six, a good person had a good end.”
At first because of Wei Cai Wei’s young age and recommendation from Lu Bing, the imperial physicians and imperial female physicians took her lightly, the results of the morning written exams had yet to be released, her worth could not be seen, in the afternoon on seeing her swift treatments, accurate acupuncture and moxibustion and ability to keep up with modern developments, to take in medical books and apply the newly released <Nuyizayan> to her treatments, it was clear she relied on her own capabilities to be recommended by Lu Bing.
Wei Cai Wei relied on her previous life's thirty odd years of experience and smoothly treated ten patients, it was dusk, the hair on her temple was covered in sweat, she was extremely tired.
She carried her medicine bag and lined up to leave the palace, when she reached Xian gate, Wang Da Xia had already hurried the carriage along to take her home,
Wang Da Xia hurriedly helped Wei Cai Wei into the carriage: “I’ve prepared some food in the carriage, but don’t eat too much, Ding Wu is personally cooking today, he’s making your favourite chicken and mushroom stew, and there’s maize pancakes to celebrate on your return.”
Wang Da Xia had sliced open a watermelon which had been soaking in water, and there was a bowl of grapes he had peeled himself with the seeds carefully removed so Wei Cai Wei could easily eat it with a small spoon— whatever Wei Cai Wei did for him while he was injured, Wang Da Xia did the same during her examination period.
Wang Da Xia was like a mirror, he would reflect however much light Wei Cai Wei gave to him.
Wei Cai Wei scooped out a grape, her thoughts going back to their previous lives, Wang Da Xia would treat her like this when he relied on her, now he was doing the same, the grape in her mouth tasted even sweeter.
It was the heat of summer, the windows of the carriage were open, Wang Da Xia who sat on the shaft of the carriage repeatedly looked back at her, “You’re smiling, you’re in a good mood, it seems the exams went well and you’ll be the top scorer.”
Wei Cai Wei had two lifetimes of experience, and she had a month to memorise medical skills, she was extremely confident her life would be smoother than last time.
Wei Cai Wei modestly said: “We’ll only know when the results are announced.”
The carriage crossed from north to south of the city, from xisipailou north street to xisipailou south street, then to the new street, it was already dark outside, Wei Cai Wei had eaten the grapes and watermelon and was dozing off against the carriage, Wang Da Xia knew she was very tired so he didn’t try to talk to her, he silently drove the carriage.
The voice was a little familiar, Wei Cai Wei woke from her half slumber, she said: “Stop!”
Wang Da Xia also heard it, he said: “It’s just someone chasing a debt, it’s a frequent occurrence, with so many people around the northern city troops will rush over, it’s nothing major. Ding Wu is still waiting for us to go home and eat.”
Wei Cai Wei vaguely heard the woman cry again: “Let go of elder brother Chen!”
Desheng bridge was close to Shichahai, the voice came from the lakeside of Shichahai— the Yuan’s called the lake a wetland, by Ming dynasty it was no longer called that.
It seemed to be Li Jiu Bao!
Wei Cai Wei hurried out of the carriage, “It’s someone we know, hurry let’s go see.”
It was precisely Li Jiu Bao and manager Chen.
During the dragon boat festival last month, Li Jiu Bao’s father and brother were busy building a tomb at Sanlitun so they didn’t return home for the festival, manager Chen had driven his mule cart with Li Jiu Bao and half a cart full of food to visit them.
When they returned, Li Jiu Bao’s father and brother had given the money they had earned recently to her to bring back home, for her to eat a little better at home and buy some cloths when she had time to make new clothes for the family, this year all of them wore new clothes to celebrate the new year.
Li Jiu Bao thought her father had quit gambling and had become better, she was really happy and bought cloths to make clothes, she even cut out cloth for manager Chen’s grandmother’s birthday to thank manager Chen for his help.
But, good things doesn't last forever, in the summer months it was extremely hot, some workers had fainted from heatstroke, if it continued people could die, Sanlitun’s construction site stopped for a few days to be resumed once the weather cooled down a bit.
Li Jiu Bao’s father and brother finally returned home to rest with their wages, Li Jiu Bao’s father Li Wei was a gambling addict, it was fine when he was busy, he would only focus on work and after would lie down from fatigue, not wanting to move a finger at all.
Now he had returned home, his daughter was serving him with good food and wine, Li Wei was too comfortable, his fingers started to itch again, his addiction popped up.
The owner of the casino knew Li Wei had recently made some money, so he tempted him to the casino, at first he let him win, to make Li Wei feel he was lucky, he spent over half of his life losing, finally he could win some money.
Li Wei raised his bets again and again, he almost lost all his money and owned the casino a debt.
Li Wei believed he was out of luck, he wrote an IOU, that night there was a heavy downpour, it relieved the heat a little, the manager of the Sanlitun site was in a hurry, Li Wei was anxious about earning money and repaying his debt so he dragged his son back to Sanlitun immediately.
Because Li Wei felt guilty and was scared when his daughter Li Jiu Bao knew he had gambled again she would shout at him, he didn’t tell his daughter.
Li Wei didn’t expect the casino owner to have an ulterior motive, he never expected him to repay the debt, rather he had his eye on his daughter Li Jiu Bao.
The flower of Machang lane, a refreshing young woman, he was missing a beautiful concubine in his home to pass the time away.
Li Jiu Bao was completely unaware of the crisis she would face, manager Chen’s business was doing quite well recently, he rented and sold property, a few properties were let and he made quite a bit of manager fees, also taking his savings, he had around a hundred silvers.
This money should be enough for a betrothal gift and a wedding.
Manager Chen planned to propose marriage when Li Wei and his son returned home.
However before that, manager Chen wanted to ask Li Jiu Bao for her opinion.
Of course he was certain Li Jiu Bao liked him, liking someone and saying they liked someone were two different matters.
Manager Chen was like countless young men who fell in love, they wanted to hear the person they like say those words.
In the evening manager Chen had changed into a blue satin gown he wore only when he saw clients, a wangjin1 on his head, a green peacock feather was stuck on the left side of the hat as a decoration.
The two met at the beautiful lakeside of Shichahai.
Li Jiu Bao had been followed by men from the casino since she left Machang lane, when she reached Shichahai it was dark, there weren’t many tourists, a group of men rushed forward to grab Li Jiu Bao and carried her to a carriage.
Hearing Li Jiu Bao’s shouts, manager Chen hurried over to protect her, he stopped the carriage, “This is the capital! You actually dare to snatch women off the streets!”
A man took out Li Wei’s written pledge, “A debt is owed, a father’s debt is his daughter’s, heaven’s law and earth’s principle, even if you take this to the yamen we’re in the right!”
That was when manager Chen realised Li Wei had been gambling again, he said: “It’s only fifty odd silvers, I’ll repay it for him, follow me home, I’ll give it to you right away.”
The men wanted her not money, so how could they agree?
“Get lost! You poor sods in Machang lane are used to gathering together, if we went back with you we’re going to be chased out by them! Let’s go!”
Manager Chen wanted to get her back but were surrounded by the men and beaten, Li Jiu Bao was locked in the carriage, she could only call for help through the narrow gap in the window.
Manager Chen’s fists were no match to their four legs, he was thrown to the ground and the carriage was moved along, in his moment of anxiety, manager Chen threw himself to cling tightly onto the reins, his body was dragged along the ground, forcing the carriage to a halt.
The man on a horse escorting the carriage whipped him, manager Chen laid on the ground unwilling to move and gripping onto the rein, the man was exasperated, he moved the horse over, looking like he was going to use the horse to scare him away.
Manager Chen wasn’t scared, he said: “I’m an ordinary person, if you dare to trample me to death, you will pay with your life!”
The man on the horse could only move his horse back, but he didn’t have great horsemanship, the horse didn’t kick manager Chen in the head but when it returned it’s hoof to the ground, the metal hoof firmly trod on manager Chen’s bottom half of the body.
Manager Chen screamed in pain and immediately passed out, blooding pouring from the bottom half of his body…
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