The fragrant aroma of boiling syrup attracted quite a few toddlers in split-pants from South Street. This was Doctor Xu’s home, and Doctor Xu was kindhearted and generous. The children could crouch outside his courtyard without worrying about being chased away with a broom.
In truth, Xu Yi couldn’t bring himself to chase children away. Hearing the commotion, he emerged holding an oil lamp, its dim yellow light illuminating several small faces.
“Hello, Doctor Xu!”
“Doctor Xu, what are you making? It smells so good!”
Previously, they had only smelled unpleasant medicinal odors from Doctor Xu’s courtyard. This was the first time they’d caught a mouthwatering scent, like the honey they’d smelled in candy shops.
Seeing how dark it had grown and that these children were unsafe outside, Xu Yi called them in.
Madam Chen came out wiping her hands and said to Xu Yi, “I’m heading back now. It wouldn’t be proper to stay any later. Once the syrup cools, pour it into the ceramic jar, then fish out the loquats soaking in salt water, drain them, and add them in.” Worried that Xu Yi might not manage it well, she added, “If you’re not in a hurry, you can wait until I come by tomorrow.”
“Mm, thank you, Madam Chen. I understand,” Xu Yi said.
She bowed slightly, looked at the children who had followed inside, covered her mouth as she smiled, and patted each one on the head.
The children were well-behaved. After calling out “Madam Chen,” they let her pat their heads before running over to Xu Yi’s side.
“Doctor Xu, Doctor Xu, are you making candied loquats?” One of the older boys, about seven years old, still had short hair tied in a small bun that looked like a little dumpling, making Xu Yi want to reach out and tug it.
He restrained himself and said with a friendly smile, “Yes, I’m making candied loquats. I didn’t know how, so I went to ask Madam Chen for help.”
He then asked the other children, “Would you like some sugar water? I’ll go inside and pour some for you.”
Several pairs of eyes lit up brightly.
“Can I really drink some?”
“But my mother said I can’t just take things from other people.”
“Doctor Xu is a good person. He won’t trick me and sell me off, so I’m not scared.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help but laugh. “…”
“After drinking the sugar water, you must rinse your mouths before bed. Understood?”
The children all nodded.
With nothing else to do that evening, Xu Yi sat in the courtyard, gazing at the crescent moon hanging in the center of the night sky. The moon was bright at this hour, with wispy clouds drifting by. It looked like tomorrow would be another clear day.
After receiving their sugar water, the children performed bowing gestures of thanks to Xu Yi in a solemn manner. Though none were very standard, they were quite endearing.
Xu Yi even tested them, asking if they had begun their studies.
“I’m not studying yet. My mother said when I’m two years older, she’ll send me to a teacher to learn the Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, and Thousand Character Classic.”
Xu Yi asked another child, “How old are you?”
The boy’s childish face was full of pride. “I’m seven years old! In two more years, I can find work at a master’s household.”
“A master’s household?” Xu Yi was surprised.
Upon asking, he learned that both the child’s parents had signed labor contracts with a master’s household. His father was a gatekeeper at the estate, and his mother worked in the back chambers, doing water-carrying and cleaning tasks. Watching them, the child also hoped to grow up and work at the estate, earning several dozen or even a hundred wen in monthly wages. That was the life he aspired to.
Labor contracts weren’t death contracts. When the term ended, one could return home, and the master couldn’t beat or sell them at will. It was incomparable to slave status. Come to think of it, Madam He’s husband and son He Linqiu both worked in large households too.
Xu Yi gradually learned that many families on South Street worked in large households. Otherwise, relying on just a few acres of farmland while paying taxes and poll taxes, life would be difficult.
After finishing their sugar water, the children needed to head home. Xu Yi didn’t keep them, telling them to be careful on their way back.
He saw them off at the door, faintly hearing someone scolding a child for being greedy.
The next morning, while practicing his forms in the courtyard, Xu Yi received several eggs sent by the adults from those few households, thanking him for giving their children sugar water.
Shortly after he finished his practice, Madam Chen came to pour the syrup. The loquat flesh soaking in the syrup would need to steep for ten days.
During this time, the lid couldn’t be lifted. The wooden lid had to be wrapped with two layers of cloth for sealing. Only when the time was up could it be opened and eaten.
–
The disaster had become a thing of the past for South Street.
But for the Street Bureau officials who came to register the disaster victims, it wasn’t over yet. The bailiffs delivered their record books to the clerks, who had to record these disaster incidents and store them in the archive warehouse.
Because a doctor had proactively provided free medical care this time, the supervisor of the Street Bureau learned about it. He summoned the bailiff responsible for the matter and, hearing that this doctor was one of the disaster-affected residents on South Street and was also a young man not yet capped, became curious.
“Is this person a student at the prefecture’s Imperial Medical Bureau?” the supervisor asked the bailiff.
The bailiff lowered his eyes and dared not conceal anything. “This humble one reports to his honor that Doctor Xu is not a student at the Imperial Medical Bureau. Last year he was still studying at a private school. He abandoned literature for medicine, switching paths midway.”
The supervisor pondered. Abandoning literature midway for medicine was quite rare. This young man had such determination. According to the submitted documents, Doctor Xu’s free clinic was well-organized, and aside from the severely injured who couldn’t move yet, the rest had recovered without issue.
However, he was still young, not enough to warrant much attention.
The supervisor waved his hand to dismiss the bailiff and temporarily put the matter aside.
…
West Street, Jishi Hall.
Young Master Shen received news of Xu Yi’s free clinic a day late. Upon learning of it, he immediately wrote a letter to Tongchuan Prefecture, informing the Shen family head not only about Xu Yi’s refusal to sell the formula but also about Xu Yi’s efforts to build his reputation.
In his view, Xu Yi was someone who sought fame and angled for praise. His previous refusal must have been because the offer was too low.
He had the servant who came with him on business summon Doctor Yan.
“Doctor Yan, go find that Xu Yi again and tell him I’m willing to raise my offer to three hundred strings of cash. Ask if he’s willing to sell the formula in his hands.” Though Young Master Shen said this, his tone carried thick disdain. He didn’t believe Xu Yi would refuse him this time.
Three hundred strings of cash was no small sum. With that much money, let alone buying a residence in Yanting County, one could buy a residence in Tongchuan Prefecture and still have enough left over to purchase two servant boys to attend to them, living comfortably.
Hearing this, Doctor Yan’s face showed he wanted to speak but hesitated. Last time he had defended Xu Yi and offended the young master, who then deliberately found fault with the medical hall over various matters.
If he spoke up in persuasion again this time, he’d likely invite trouble.
Young Master Shen looked at him coldly and sneered, “It seems Doctor Yan has been head physician in Yanting County for so long, he’s forgotten that Jishi Hall isn’t the Yan family’s!”
Doctor Yan was alarmed. “Yan has never harbored such thoughts. Since coming to Yanting County, I have always adhered to my principles: first, to treat and save patients; second, to manage the medical hall for the Shen family. I dare not have any other intentions.”
“Hmph, best that it’s so.” Young Master Shen eyed him sideways, knowing this man’s heart favored that Xu Yi, yet deliberately made him deliver this message.
“Go quickly, don’t delay my business.”
Doctor Yan let out a deep sigh, helplessly resigning himself to his fate.
Returning to the medical hall’s consultation room, he sat down and called in an apprentice.
The apprentice who entered happened to be the one who had received Xu Yi that day. He asked with a smiling face what Doctor Yan needed. Seeing his high spirits, Doctor Yan entrusted him with delivering the card.
The apprentice took the card and came to Stone Well Lane on South Street to find someone.
He randomly grabbed a passerby to ask where Xu Yi’s home was. Unexpectedly, this person was extremely enthusiastic and personally led him to the Xu residence.
“Doctor Xu, someone’s looking for you!” Having delivered the person, that man left, deeply concealing his merit and fame.
Xu Yi came out and, seeing it was an apprentice from Jishi Hall, was somewhat surprised. He invited him in and asked, “It’s not yet time to deliver the digestive pills. Why have you come?”
The apprentice said, “I’ve come to deliver a card. Doctor Yan wishes to see you and asks if you’re free at 2pm.”
Xu Yi raised his eyebrows. Doctor Yan wanted to see him. His first thought was of that day at Emerald Garden and Young Master Shen’s angry, embarrassed face.
Xu Yi collected his thoughts and said, “I’m free. Please inform Doctor Yan that I’ll prepare tea at home and await him.”
When 2pm arrived.
A curtained ox cart stopped outside the Xu family’s courtyard gate. Doctor Yan descended with the apprentice’s support and, seeing the Xu residence, was filled with emotion.
As he had suspected, the Xu family’s circumstances were not wealthy, though the new tiles and bricks suggested the roof had been recently renovated. He felt he could somewhat understand Xu Yi’s thinking. Young and proud, with aspirations to practice medicine and help the world, unwilling to sell his formula, unmoved by hundreds of strings of cash. It seemed understandable.
“Doctor Yan?”
Xu Yi called twice before Doctor Yan came to his senses.
Seeing him shift his attention, Xu Yi said gently, “Doctor Yan has been well these past days? Tomorrow is the day to deliver the digestive pills. Since you’ve come, it would be convenient to take them back together.”
“Good, good.” Doctor Yan nodded. The digestive pills were now bestsellers at Jishi Hall. Many came to buy them, and they frequently sold out.
Xu Yi only supplied four hundred pills every five days. The quantity was still too small.
He knew the main family wanted to purchase the formula, understanding how beneficial these digestive pills were. With over twenty branch shops selling these pills without quantity limits, the monthly profits would be astronomical.
Naturally, he dared not speak such words to Xu Yi, nor did he embellish or presume to save Young Master Shen’s face. He simply stated that he was asking on behalf of Young Master Shen whether, for three hundred strings of cash, Xu Yi would sell the formula in his hands.
“…”
Xu Yi clicked his tongue. Why was Young Master Shen still unwilling to give up after so many days?
Doctor Yan sighed. “The young master insists on this. This old man can only make the trip and brazenly ask Young Master Xu. Regarding this formula matter, may I ask what Young Master Xu’s intentions are?”
“I won’t hide it from Doctor Yan. This formula truly cannot be sold to the Shen family.” Xu Yi remained unmoved. Whether one hundred strings or three hundred strings, for him it wasn’t a matter of price. “I won’t give you empty words. The formula is secret knowledge, not of my own creation. I’m merely borrowing it. It’s not my formula to sell.”
Hearing this, Doctor Yan said gravely, “These words are quite right. Do not do unto others what you would not have done unto yourself. If this formula were in my hands, I wouldn’t easily sell it either. How could I force Young Master Xu to act against his conscience?”
Young Master Shen didn’t study medicine. His eyes saw only merchant profits, believing that with a high enough price, others would comply with his wishes and hand over formulas.
It was truly laughable.
Thinking this, Doctor Yan said no more. His gaze fell outside the courtyard, looking at the medicinal herbs drying there, smelling the faint medicinal fragrance in the air.
As a hot breeze passed, he withdrew his gaze and said to Xu Yi, “Yan should return now.”
Xu Yi nodded. “Then I won’t keep Doctor Yan.”
…
After seeing Doctor Yan off, Xu Yi’s gaze fell on Little Huang, thinking this matter likely wasn’t over yet.
With such persistence, having sent Doctor Yan this time without getting an answer, perhaps next time it would be someone else.
After making note of this matter, Xu Yi didn’t pay it special attention. Two days later, Xing Yuesen came to visit Xu Yi on his ten-day holiday.
He didn’t come empty-handed, bringing two books as well as a knife of famous Fuyang bamboo paper and two ink sticks.
Xing Yuesen said, “Coming to your home to study, how could I use your supplies? I’ve brought my own so you can use them too.”
“Brother Ziteng is too courteous.” Xu Yi smiled, taking the bamboo paper to examine it. He found it quite different from the ordinary bamboo paper he used. The paper was fine-textured and smooth, flexible, with a faint pleasant scent.
He asked curiously, “This bamboo paper?”
Xing Yuesen blinked and said, “My second uncle went to do business in Lin’an and along the way brought this back from Fuyang for me. He said it’s quite precious. One knife costs two taels of silver.”
His Second Uncle Xing brought back three knives of paper. He presented one knife to his teacher, kept one for his own use, and brought the remaining knife to Xu Yi’s place.
Xu Yi was shocked. This bamboo paper was so expensive!
When people said studying cost money, it wasn’t just talk.
Tuition fees were a very small portion of studying expenses. Buying books, collected works, commentaries, as well as the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone for practicing calligraphy, those were the long-term expenses.
And in the Song Dynasty, due to the advancement of printing, book prices had reached unprecedented lows. Many common families could afford books, but along with that came various other expenses.
Most families sent their children to study for two years to learn literacy, hoping they could find a respectable, less exhausting job.
Xu Yi thought of those children, looking forward to studying for two years before seeking respectable servant positions in master households…
“Brother Yi, my teacher gave me a problem. It’s no fun doing it alone. Will you keep me company?” At this moment, Xing Yuesen spread out the bamboo paper and asked with a smile.
Xu Yi: “…”
Wait, I’ve already abandoned literature to study medicine.
He helplessly pinched the bridge of his nose and said to Xing Yuesen, “Brother Ziteng, I’d rather read medical texts.”
Hearing this, Xing Yuesen looked around the room’s furnishings. He only saw books on the desk; all Four Books and Five Classics, along with some posted commentaries. Where were the medical books?
Oh, wait, there was one. He’d previously found it in his grandfather’s storeroom and specifically brought it to give Xu Yi.
Suddenly, he thought of a question. The Xu family had no medical books, so where had Xu Yi learned medicine?
Xing Yuesen, curious, asked Xu Yi, wanting to know the answer.
Xu Yi’s brow twitched. He thought for a moment before saying, “Previously when I needed something, I borrowed medical texts from bookstores. Also, when I used to attend to my father and mother at home, I asked the doctors who came. They had quite a few medical books.”
“Do you want to see them?” After finishing, he asked perfunctorily.
Xing Yuesen shook his head with a smile. “Just looking at this problem already makes me dizzy. How could I make myself read medical texts too? Brother Yi is impressive. Pharmacology and medical theory aren’t things just anyone can learn by reading.”
This digression made Xu Yi realize he couldn’t just talk without substance.
After Xing Yuesen left satisfied with his completed essay, Xu Yi also went out, buying quite a bit of paper.
He sat at his desk and began grinding ink, contemplating where to begin.
Xu Yi had a good memory. Back when he was learning traditional Chinese medicine, his family had him first memorize the medical texts he needed to study. Dozens of medical books, millions of characters. Memorizing all of it was naturally impossible!
But some that he’d handled until they were worn smooth, those he could still write out.
For example, Treatise on the Origins and Symptoms of Various Diseases, Yellow Emperor’s Moxibustion Classic of the Luminous Hall, Basic Questions, Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica, Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases, Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet, and others—each of these medical texts taken individually had tremendous research value.
Moreover, most were famous texts that existed before the Song Dynasty. If Xu Yi copied them down, he could cite their origins.
As for medical texts by masters from after the Song Dynasty, from the Ming and Qing dynasties, those weren’t suitable to display openly.
But he feared that with too much time passing, he’d forget them all. So he planned to gradually complete them as well.
He’d write as much as he could remember. Xu Yi put brush to paper and spent half a day writing out one of the ten volumes of Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases.
The complete work had over eighty thousand characters. At Xu Yi’s speed, spending four hours each day copying, it would still take over half a month.
–
Ten days later, the candied loquats could be opened and eaten.
Over thirty jin of loquats, after removing skins and pits and candying, remained only a third of the original amount. Using a clean spoon to scoop some into a bowl, before even tasting it, one could smell a sweet fruit fragrance.
Xu Yi used chopsticks to pick up a piece and put it in his mouth. The texture was soft and sweet, like canned yellow peaches, but the taste was different. Without the rich aroma of canned peaches. Instead, it tasted refreshing and pleasant, still retaining its throat-soothing and lung-clearing properties.
He was quite surprised and hurried to the courtyard to pick a handful of mint.
This mint he’d seen at the mountain’s base and dug up to plant in his courtyard. Unexpectedly, it had survived.
Mint could clear the head, soothe the liver and regulate qi, benefit the throat, and had many other benefits. It could also treat wind-heat colds, coughs, and dissolve phlegm… It had a common name of “silver elixir grass,” and some common folk ate it as a wild vegetable.
To eat it as a vegetable, one could make mint porridge or stir-fried mint rice. On the third day of the third month, some regions had customs of chopping mint, nine-story pagoda, and chicken manure vine to fry with rice, creating a fragrant and nutritious fried rice dish; a type of medicinal cuisine.
Xu Yi didn’t make fried rice, as his wasn’t tasty. He used the mint for tea.
Adding gold silver flower (jinyinhua) and white chrysanthemum, plus a little salt, drinking it could refresh the spirit and detoxify.
Recently, he’d been staying up late writing medical texts by lamplight, sleeping later than before. For three consecutive days, he picked mint to make tea, and adding white chrysanthemum could also clear the eyes; killing two birds with one stone.
He washed the picked mint with clean water, blanched it with boiling water, then placed it in a bowl of ice water and added a spoonful of candied loquat.
In no time, Xu Yi had created his own unique fragrant beverage.
Rather than enjoying it alone, it was better to share the joy. He decided to invite a few acquaintances over for a tasting.