“Dong, dong, dong—”
The next morning, Xu Yi awoke amid the damp moisture in the air.
Outside, patrolling street bailiffs beat gongs and drums. Unlike the usual lively mornings filled with the smells of daily life, waves of clamor rose up throughout South Street.
Xu Yi dressed properly and went out to see his neighbors all bustling about anxiously.
Madam He from next door saw him come out and hurried over, calling, “Brother Yi.”
“Madam He.” Xu Yi responded, then heard her say urgently, “The rain last night was too heavy. Many houses collapsed. I saw your kitchen area also collapsed. Are you all right?”
Xu Yi shook his head and said he was fine. Although losing the medicinal ingredients was regrettable, he himself was safe and sound.
He asked, “What about the others on South Street? How is everyone?”
Madam He said, “There were bailiffs who came beating gongs, saying they came to record the damaged houses. We still don’t know much.”
After exchanging a few words, they heard wailing sounds.
They looked at each other and followed the crowd to investigate. By the time Xu Yi arrived, quite a few people had already gathered around the household where the accident had occurred.
The surrounding people were discussing in low voices.
“How pitiful. This family had a house collapse last night, and it hit the pillar of the household squarely. Both his legs are ruined.”
“He struggled through half the night. They say he’s running a high fever and is delirious.”
“The government said they’d send a physician. Have they come?”
Hearing someone ask, Xu Yi looked over and heard another person say quietly, “Don’t know, don’t know. Last time they also said a physician would come. Did any of us see anyone afterward?”
“You’d better not talk nonsense, or you’ll get beaten.”
“Then I won’t say anything.”
That person pursed his lips. The onlookers seemed accustomed to this, not placing high expectations on Yanting County’s government.
Xu Yi observed silently. Someone tugged at his sleeve.
He looked down and saw a radish-headed child with a topknot; it was the son of Official Yang’s household.
Xu Yi glanced at the people nearby but didn’t see any adults from the Yang family. “Rong’er, what are you doing here? Where’s your father?”
“I ran out by myself. Father isn’t home, and Mother is working at home.” Yang Rong raised his head, eyes wide and round, asking, “Doctor Xu, why don’t I see Little Huang?”
Xu Yi smiled. “He’s guarding the house.”
Hearing this, the child’s eyes filled with anticipation as he asked, “Can I go to Doctor Xu’s house to play with Little Huang? I have food I can give to Little Huang.”
He rummaged in the small cloth pouch he carried and pulled out a piece of candy the size of a peanut, the kind adults usually bought to coax children.
Xu Yi knew the Yang family doted on their child, but with the current chaos and many kidnappers about these days, he wasn’t comfortable with a small child staying here to watch the excitement, so he agreed.
He took the child to find Madam He. After asking around, he learned that Madam He had gone inside this household to help.
“It looks like they want to move him to a medical hall to see a physician. Many hands make light work. Are there any lads who can come lend a hand and carry him to Apricot Grove Hall?”
Someone called out, and within moments, two or three neighboring residents responded.
Some knew each other and some didn’t. Last night’s rain had affected quite a few households. Some only suffered leaking and water damage. With some washing and scrubbing, they could make do. Others had one or two places collapse and needed to spend some money on repairs. Like this household where someone was directly hit, there were others too.
Xu Yi hadn’t stayed long when he heard that another household had someone killed by the collapse; a man in his fifties.
Soon, bailiffs from the Street Bureau patrol came one by one to question and register the injured, saying they would arrange accommodations.
Xu Yi stepped forward and bowed, asking the bailiff in charge of registration, “Greetings, sir. I would like to ask how many were injured in this disaster?”
The registering bailiff looked at him with displeasure. “Who are you?”
Xu Yi said, “I am Xu Yi, residing on South Street. I’m a physician.”
“A physician?” The bailiff looked at Xu Yi with scrutiny in his eyes upon hearing this. He’d never seen a physician of such young age.
“I’ve never heard of any new physician on South Street. You’re not some fraudulent kidnapper, are you?”
“Sir, Brother Yi truly is a physician.”
The residents of South Street all recognized Xu Yi. Seeing the bailiff’s disbelief, they came forward to testify.
“That’s right, that’s right. My young son’s bloated stomach was cured by eating Brother Yi’s medicine pills.”
Xu Yi bowed to them. With their testimony, the bailiff no longer doubted his identity and asked about the small child following behind Xu Yi, inquiring about their relationship.
“He’s Rong’er, the son of Official Yang from Flat Road Lane. He knows me and wanted to come to my house to play with my puppy.” Xu Yi didn’t hide anything and answered honestly.
The bailiff went to ask Yang Rong and received the same answer.
Afterward, his attitude softened considerably. He told Xu Yi what he had registered: “Last night’s rain came hard and fierce. Twenty-three households suffered disaster, four households had injuries, and one household lost an old man.”
These bailiffs would be criticized when they returned to the Street Bureau. They wouldn’t get anything good to eat or any benefits, while all the bitter and exhausting work fell to them.
Being a low-level bailiff or clerk in the Northern Song was not easy. Although they had positions with decent benefits, the county town couldn’t compare to the eastern capital Bianjing, and their monthly wages were often in arrears. Occasionally cloth, silk, or gauze would be used to offset wages, and even firewood, oil, and salt could be used as monthly pay. They often had to supplement from their own pockets to maintain daily expenses.
Of course, they were also reluctant to just quit.
Hearing that four people were injured, Xu Yi asked the bailiff what arrangements had been made.
The bailiff indicated that those above hadn’t allocated any silver, and South Street wasn’t the only area affected by the disaster. Outside the city suburbs, several places also had calamities.
A moment of silence.
Suddenly, the bailiff said, “Aren’t you a physician?”
What those above said about sending someone was just pleasant-sounding words to pacify people. Waiting for the official documents to be approved and then requesting an official physician to come. Who knew when that would happen?
Thinking again about the critically injured among the common folk this time, someone whose life hung by a thread, perhaps…
The bailiff’s gaze fell on Xu Yi. This young physician had come to ask out of concern, so he must be kind-hearted and willing to help save people.
The bailiff inquired, “The physician sent from above might have been delayed on the road. We haven’t seen anyone. Since you’re a physician, why don’t you examine their injuries?”
Xu Yi narrowed his eyes slightly. “Delayed on the road?”
The bailiff felt somewhat guilty under his gaze and looked away. “If not that, then what other reason could there be…”
Pausing, he told Xu Yi he could assign a runner to help him.
Xu Yi: “…”
He had come to ask if there would be any physician providing free treatment. Now that there was no physician, these injured common folk would probably face great difficulty. Thinking of the family circumstances of those disaster-affected households, Xu Yi didn’t decline but only said he needed to go home once to get his medicine chest.
The bailiff had essentially drafted him into service, which was inherently unfair. Seeing him agree so readily, he became even more courteous and ordered another runner to assist as well.
Xu Yi, holding the child’s hand, found Madam He and saw Madam Chen and several other women were also there. Common folk at the bottom weren’t so particular about women not showing their faces in public. They were helping those disaster-affected families sort through water-soaked items.
Seeing Xu Yi arrive and that he would serve as a temporary physician, they said they would take good care of Yang Rong.
“I’ll have someone go to the Yang household to find Madam Yang. It’s not suitable for Rong’er to stay at your house right now. It’s better if he stays with us.” Madam He suggested.
“All right.” Xu Yi nodded, also agreeing with this idea. Leaving a small child at home alone was not a wise move.
“Rong’er, after I finish my work, come find me, all right?”
He asked Yang Rong gently.
Yang Rong knew he had work to do and nodded obediently, saying in his clear child’s voice, “Doctor Xu, I’ll stay here. You go ahead with your work.”
After making arrangements, Xu Yi hurried home.
He entered the house, took some hemostatic and trauma medicines, brought along his mortar, took some money and tucked it into his sleeve pocket, then came out carrying his medicine chest.
A runner waited outside the courtyard. Seeing him emerge, he prepared to lead him to where the injured were being settled.
In a courtyard on South Street, this household had suffered light damage and loved doing good deeds. Knowing that people were injured, they had voluntarily cleared a space to accommodate these injured people.
When Xu Yi arrived, he saw the courtyard in chaos. Moaning patients, wailing family members, and two servants of the host family rushing back and forth with their feet barely touching the ground, all crowded together in one place.
His expression grew solemn, his brows tightly knit. He handed the mortar to the runner beside him and asked in a low voice, “Where is the most seriously injured?”
The runner, suddenly catching the mortar weighing over ten catties, nearly dropped it. His heart skipped a beat. Somewhat surprised, he said, “Over… over there.”
Xu Yi said, “Lead the way.”
The runner quickly nodded, not daring to be negligent toward this young physician.
The most seriously injured was the pillar of the household they’d heard about this morning. He appeared to be in his thirties, with an elderly mother, a wife and children, and two unmarried daughters at home. Their clothes were covered in patches; pitiful and helpless.
Seeing Xu Yi approach, the elderly mother guarding her son cried out, “Young Gentleman Xu, save my son. My son cannot die!”
“Old madam, please rise quickly. I will save your son.” After speaking, Xu Yi’s face grew grave as he crouched down to feel the man’s forehead.
His body temperature was very high, feeling like thirty-nine degrees. Looking at his two crushed legs, the fracture sites were a bloody mess. Fortunately, first aid had been properly applied and blood had been stopped with clothing. Xu Yi lifted the cloth to examine and found the major artery hadn’t been injured, but the bone fracture was severe. The displaced bones at the break had compressed and deformed the leg. It was a horrifying sight.
Xu Yi immediately ordered the runner who had come with him, “Go to the medical hall and buy some bupleurum, forsythia, moutan bark, and scutellaria. I’ll write you a prescription. After buying them, brew the medicine immediately.”
As he spoke, he took out paper and brush from his medicine chest and wrote out a prescription at great speed.
As he handed it to the runner, thinking time was urgent and these injured patients’ families might not be able to afford medicine, he took one tael of silver from his sleeve pocket and gave it to the runner, saying, “Please also buy some plain cloth for bandaging.”
“Doctor Xu, rest assured. I will do my utmost.” The runner received the order and left quickly.
To avoid worrying the family members, Xu Yi explained that the wound needed to be cleaned. He also took out hemostatic medicine and ground it into powder using the mortar. Meanwhile, he had the other runner accompany the servants to boil water.
While boiling water, Xu Yi had them add honeysuckle, danggui, and saposhnikovia root, then had them distribute the boiled medicinal water.
“Use clean cloth to wipe the blood and dirt from the wound area. If you don’t know how, come ask me first.” Xu Yi was afraid the people in the courtyard couldn’t hear clearly, so he deliberately spoke in a louder voice.
“Doctor Xu, what is this for?”
At some point, the master of this courtyard stood beside Xu Yi and asked, puzzled.
Xu Yi didn’t look up and continued grinding the medicinal powder in his hands while saying, “These herbs all have detoxifying and swelling-reducing effects. Using them to wash the affected area cleanses the blood and grime to prevent the wound from festering and ulcerating.”
“I see.” The host sighed softly and volunteered to ask if there was anything he could help with.
Hearing this, Xu Yi finally looked up at him and discovered he was an elder wearing a plain-colored wide-sleeved robe with a graying beard. Though his hair was completely white, he had an extraordinary bearing and vigorous spirit.
“If the old gentleman doesn’t mind the dirt and exhaustion, you can help me clean the wound,” Xu Yi said.
The troublesome aspect of this patient was the displaced bone fracture. The bones needed to be reset, then covered with healing ointment and secured with wooden boards.
He had external injury medicine but not enough to make healing ointment for bones. The runner would need to make another trip to the medical hall.
Among the four injured today, two had fractures, one had a head injury, and one had been struck in the back by a beam while trying to save household items, showing symptoms of vomiting blood.
Some injuries were light, some severe. Xu Yi only had two hands and couldn’t personally attend to everything. Having someone volunteer to help, even if somewhat older, was no problem.
The elder, hearing he needed to help clean wounds, rolled up his wide sleeves and fastened them around his neck.
Seeing their master do this, the servants had no complaints whatsoever and immediately called for attendants to quickly bring up the boiled medicinal water.
Basin after basin of steaming medicinal water was distributed. The family members didn’t dare be negligent and carefully wiped away the outer layer of blood and dirt following the method Xu Yi had taught them.
For a time, sounds of pain and grief rose and fell throughout the courtyard.
Passersby felt their scalps tingle, thinking something terrible was happening inside.
The runner carrying a pile of medicinal ingredients came running back. Hearing the screams, he stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face.
He entered in a panic and saw Xu Yi with rolled-up sleeves holding an axe, chopping firewood?
“Doctor Xu?” He approached hesitantly, asking in confusion.
Seeing he’d returned with the medicine, Xu Yi handed the axe to someone nearby, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said, “Your timing is perfect. I was waiting for this medicine.”
He took the medicine package and opened it, dividing it into three parts to be decocted.
One was a medicinal soup for treating fractures, using the Marrow-Generating Blood-Supplementing Decoction. The chuanxiong, peony root, danggui, and huangqi were already in Xu Yi’s medicine chest. He had the runner go buy more dipsacus root, achyranthes root, and acanthopanax bark. With two people having broken bones, he’d brew two portions of the medicinal soup.
Its effects were remarkable. It could tonify qi and supplement blood, nourish marrow and strengthen bones. After Xu Yi’s improvements to the prescription, it could better promote blood circulation, remove stasis, and help sinews and bones heal.
As for internal injuries, in traditional Chinese medicine this was called blood stasis syndrome, and there were many medicinal soups for treating blood stasis syndrome. Internal injuries to the five viscera and six bowels differed from brain injuries in the soup prescriptions used, so Xu Yi could only brew these two people’s medicinal soups separately.
To the basic prescriptions, Xu Yi added channel-guiding medicines. For the patient with brain injury, he added Chinese lovage root. For those injured in the chest and lower back, he added platycodon and eucommia bark.
After dividing them, he had the runner quickly brew the medicinal soups.
…
As soon as the medicinal soup was ready, Xu Yi had family members feed it to the patients. After the feverish young man drank the soup, an hour passed and the medicine took effect .His high fever finally broke.
Xu Yi smoothed the chopped wooden boards to use as splints to immobilize the fractures.
At this time, the elder had also finished preparing the healing ointment.
There was some trouble when resetting the bones. Time was pressing, and Xu Yi couldn’t prepare mafei powder anesthetic. He could only have family members hold down the patient while he manually repositioned the displaced bones.
“It will hurt somewhat. Use a bit more force,” Xu Yi reminded them.
The family members agreed, but when they heard the patient cry out in pain and struggle, they were frightened and loosened their grip.
The scene became chaotic for a moment, causing the wound to bleed. Fortunately, Xu Yi was quick-eyed and deft-handed. He pressed the person down and took the opportunity to forcefully snap the misaligned bones back into place.
His hands were covered in blood, his expression stern, making people afraid to look directly at him.
The scene of resetting bones was indeed somewhat frightening. Even in the scorching summer heat, it sent chills down people’s backs.
Xu Yi had no time to care what they thought. He went to the well to scoop water and wash up. Returning, seeing the hour was late, he had people apply the ointment as well and bind everything with cloth strips.
“Don’t remove the wooden boards before the wound heals. Change the ointment once daily. The medicinal soup you drank today must also be taken for five more days.” Xu Yi instructed the family members. “I’ll be home these next few days. If there are any problems, you can come find me.”
The elderly mother was overwhelmed with gratitude, crying and calling out, “Thank you, Doctor Xu! Thank you, Doctor Xu!”
“It’s nothing.” He smiled slightly, finally feeling he’d done a good deed.
The other patients received treatment and their conditions improved considerably. Some had disaster-stricken areas at home to return to. Xu Yi likewise instructed them to rest for two days.
For the man injured in the head, Xu Yi told him to watch for vomiting, dizziness, and other problems, and to come find him as well.
As for the one with internal injuries, he still needed to prescribe medicinal pills to take along with the soup.
That man’s wife hesitated, covering her face and asking quietly, “Doctor Xu, does today’s medicinal soup cost silver? My family really cannot afford too much silver for medicine.”
Xu Yi froze.
He’d forgotten about this. The government said they would send an official physician. Half a day had passed without any sign of one. They probably weren’t coming. Then today’s consultation fees and medicine costs would have no one to cover them.
The one tael of silver he’d given the runner had all been spent on today’s medicinal ingredients, not enough to divide into several doses for them to take home.
Xu Yi calculated in his mind and realized he would need to put out another ten strings of cash.
Indeed, not everyone could do charitable deeds.
“I’ll pay this money. Doctor Xu, treat patients with peace of mind. This old man will handle everything.”
The elder walked over. After speaking, he had his servant fetch twenty strings of cash, using this money to buy medicine and distributing the remaining silver among those several poor families.
The family members, hearing someone would pay for their medicine, were so grateful they nearly kowtowed, but the elder stopped them.
He said with a smile, “This old man merely scattered some wealth. It’s nothing. It’s thanks to Doctor Xu’s benevolent heart in bringing aid through medicine. You should be more grateful to him.”
Xu Yi didn’t dare take credit, saying, “I have only studied a few medical texts and know some medicinal principles. Seeing injured people, I simply did what a physician should. It’s the old gentleman who is truly magnanimous, helping the weak and supporting the fallen.”
The two exchanged compliments and made small talk for a bit.
The hour growing late, Xu Yi wrote several prescriptions for the elder’s servant. Around noon, the elder arranged for food to be brought over.
It was simple baked flatbread and thick congee, yet it still made today’s disaster-stricken common folk grateful.
Xu Yi hadn’t had time to send an errand boy to buy food, so he stayed to eat the flatbread with congee. Seeing the runner also hadn’t left, he asked why he hadn’t returned.
The runner scratched his head sheepishly. “The white flour flatbread made in this manor is very fragrant. I couldn’t resist just now and asked the maidservant for two to eat. It’s better than eating at home.”
Xu Yi: “…”
It seemed that grassroots civil servants had it hard in any dynasty.
*nod nod* there’s always good people who help others