At the first light of dawn, Xu Yi, lying on his wooden plank bed, suddenly opened his eyes.
Seeing the uneven slanted roof above him, with earthen yellow mud mixed with dried straw still exposed on the outside, he knew he hadn’t returned. He was still in the Northern Song Dynasty.
A few days ago, he had just received his acceptance letter for the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department at City First Hospital, officially becoming a full-fledged attending physician.
He never could have imagined that on the day he was supposed to report for duty, he would transmigrate to the Northern Song Dynasty, into the body of a farmer’s son.
What rotten luck. In modern times, he was born into a medical family. From childhood, he lived a comfortable life. Both his parents were outstanding figures in the traditional Chinese medicine field, and he and his elder brother had been immersed in that world since they were young. They learned to diagnose pulses and treat illnesses alongside the adults, not only inheriting the family’s medical knowledge but also attending medical school when they grew up, truly grasping both aspects. His brother, four years his senior, had already become an attending physician three years ago. When it was finally his turn…
Who would have thought he’d end up here instead, with both parents dead from illness, leaving him nothing but a thatched cottage and a dog.
Xu Yi reached over to the side of the bed, feeling around until he found a money pouch containing several dozen copper coins. This was currently his only disposable living expenses.
From what he understood, prices in the Northern Song Dynasty weren’t particularly high. He was currently in Yanting County under the jurisdiction of Tongchuan Prefecture. Unfortunately, the money at his disposal was too little, only enough to buy one cup of rice.
There wasn’t much grain left at home. Originally, the family had owned six acres of land and more than ten strings of coins. In South Street where poor families were numerous, his household wasn’t considered too badly off.
But the original body’s parents had been ill for several months. Everything in the house that could be sold had been pawned, the land had been sold, the money spent, yet the parents couldn’t be saved.
The remaining little yellowish-brown dog was something the original body had encountered halfway up the mountain when burying his parents. It had wagged its tail happily at him. The puppy was only two months old. The original body seemed to see himself in it and, possessed by some impulse, brought it home.
“Woof woof woof~”
In a daze, Xu Yi heard barking.
There were pitter-patter sounds, like scratching at the wooden door. He got up and opened it. That little yellowish-brown dog wagged its tail and squeezed inside, affectionately licking his pant legs.
So be it. Since it was a dog the original body had brought home, he naturally had to raise it.
After transmigrating, Xu Yi hadn’t yet gone out to forage for food. Thinking about the customs and culture of the Song Dynasty, he decided to take the dog out with him.
Opening the wooden gate of the outer courtyard, a woman in her thirties emerged from the earthen house of the neighbor on the left, drawn by the sounds. The woman wore a chestnut-colored rough cloth short jacket washed until it had faded, with a ginger-yellow two-panel skirt below. Seeing Xu Yi, her face lit up with delight. “Brother Yi, are you going out? Where are you headed?”
This woman was Madam He. Her relationship with Xu Yi’s family was quite good. Xu Yi hadn’t gone out for two days, so one could hear a trace of concern in her words.
Xu Yi nodded politely and said, “I’m going out to forage for food.”
“Good, good, go quickly then.”
…
“The sky’s already so bright, yet this Young Master Xu is different now without parents. In the past, at this hour, he’d definitely be at school studying.”
“Who’s to say otherwise? Now the Xu family only has this one seedling left. I wonder if that marriage arrangement they settled on still counts…”
Walking out of Stone Well Lane on South Street, the idle gossip of neighbors fell on Xu Yi’s ears. Everything else was fine, but hearing the words “marriage arrangement,” his steps faltered and he nearly face-planted.
“Woof! Woof!”
Little Huang barked twice excitedly, circling around him in concern.
“Settle down.” Xu Yi patted its head soothingly, feeling helpless inside.
How could he have forgotten something so important?
Two years ago, his deceased parents had arranged a marriage for him. The betrothal was settled and betrothal gifts had been exchanged. Once these gifts were given, the marriage was half complete. The remaining half would depend on whether, a year later, the other party would come over with a dowry.
The custom of dowries hadn’t yet flourished at this time. Ordinary families marrying off daughters couldn’t produce particularly generous dowries, but pots, pans, ladles, basins, makeup, and cloth still had to be provided. But everything that could be pawned at home had been pawned. The list of betrothal gifts that had been agreed upon, but every single item on it was gone.
Xu Yi rubbed his nose. In modern times, he hadn’t even had a girlfriend yet. Who would have thought that with one transmigration, becoming ten-some years younger, at sixteen he would already have a fiancée?
Setting aside the matter of his fiancée for now, at this moment Xu Yi’s stomach was rumbling with hunger.
He didn’t have many copper coins on him and didn’t dare spend recklessly. At a small stall at the street corner, he ordered a bowl of oil-splashed noodles and gave the stall keeper three wen. In a few minutes, the oil-splashed noodles were brought up, topped with a vegetarian sauce made from mushrooms, tasting fresh and flavorful.
The price wasn’t expensive and the portion was large. For someone like him who wasn’t very good at cooking, it was quite satisfying.
Little Huang had followed him for several days without eating anything proper. Now, smelling the aroma, it whimpered softly.
Since he was raising it, he had to be responsible. Leaving the small stall, he spent one wen at the neighboring stall to buy two vegetable buns and tossed them to Little Huang to eat.
While watching it chomp away happily, devouring the buns, he muttered under his breath, “Next time I’ll give you meat buns.”
The young fellow nearby found this novel and praised him repeatedly, “Young Master Xu is so generous, giving buns to a stray dog!”
“It’s not a stray dog.” Xu Yi looked up at him, extremely serious. “Its name is Little Huang. It’s my dog.”
The young fellow was stunned. Had this Young Master Xu of the Xu family lost his mind? Why was he raising a dog?
He wanted to ask and did so: “Young Master Xu, will you continue your studies in the future?”
At these words, the small stall keepers on both sides who knew Xu Yi all quietly looked over. They too were curious.
“I won’t study anymore.” Xu Yi answered without hesitation.
Studying required money. The Northern Song Dynasty flourished with scholarly culture, and throughout history many famous figures had emerged. Given the original body’s level of talent for studying, wanting to change his fate through studying was less reliable than depending on himself.
Moreover, he had studied far too much in his previous life.
Compared to studying, he preferred to freely be himself. Yesterday he had already decided that if he couldn’t return, he would become a physician in the Northern Song Dynasty.
He would continue doing what he had wanted to do but hadn’t had time to do in his previous life.
Today’s outing, besides foraging for food, he also wanted to see how many medical halls there were in Yanting County.
Medical practitioners in Yanting County were divided into two types. One type was ranked official physicians, belonging to formally registered medical officials, equivalent to doctors in government-run medical facilities, responsible for treating members of official households or commoners serving in various duties.
The county had a medical school with two or three medical officials permanently stationed there. To pass the examination to enter, one needed not only ability but also connections and a medical family background.
The Xu family had been farmers for generations. They couldn’t even pass the first step of applying to become a medical official.
The second type was unranked civilian physicians. The Song Dynasty’s regulation of civilian physicians wasn’t particularly strict. In Yanting County, just on South Street alone, he had already seen two medical halls.
The original body had invited both sitting physicians from these two medical halls to the house to examine his parents. Their skill levels were mediocre, and the prescriptions they wrote, which were still around, weren’t particularly good.
If one wanted quality, there was Doctor Chen at Miracle Hands Hall on East Street. Doctor Chen was fifty-six this year and had been practicing for over thirty years, having treated countless rich and poor patients.
It was just that his consultation fee was too expensive, two qian of silver per visit, which converted to two hundred wen in copper coins.
Two hundred wen, for the Xu family of the past, would require working as day laborers for several days to earn that much. If it were used for medical treatment, they naturally couldn’t produce that much money.
As the saying goes, “treat illness early.” The Xu parents’ illness had been allowed to progress from minor to major. Even if Xu Yi personally examined them, curing them wouldn’t be easy. Not to mention without money, when even a single dose of medicine was repeatedly boiled again and again, and while they could afford the consultation fee, they couldn’t produce the money to buy medicine.
After walking around in a circle, Xu Yi knew what he had to do.
He brought Little Huang back to South Street and entered a general goods shop. He saw the shop assistant leaning against the eastern shelf dozing off. Hearing the commotion, he quickly straightened up. Seeing that the arrival was a young man wearing a bluish-gray square cap, he asked with a smile what he wanted to buy.
“Do you have any waist-high woven bamboo baskets, the kind with lids?” Xu Yi asked.
The shop assistant squinted and said, “We have them, but the price is somewhat more expensive than ordinary ones. Does the young gentleman want one?”
Xu Yi didn’t answer directly. “Bring it out for me to see.”
The shop assistant ran off to the back courtyard with quick steps. After a few moments, he returned dragging and hugging a half-meter-wide bamboo basket. As soon as he set it down, he called Xu Yi over to inspect it.
The item was good. Xu Yi asked him how much.
The shop assistant first praised how beautifully the bamboo basket was woven, then talked about how much effort went into it and how much bamboo material was used. Seeing the young man impatiently furrowing his brow slightly, he quickly said it would be twenty wen.
Clearly he was treating Xu Yi as someone who could be bullied and overcharged.
“Ten wen. I’ll buy it.” Xu Yi’s tone was indifferent.
The smile on the shop assistant’s face cracked. Then his face stiffened, as if about to jump up and shout, “How can you bargain like that? You can’t buy such a large bamboo basket for ten wen! No, no, at the very least it must be eighteen wen. This is the lowest price. You can’t buy it at this price anywhere else.”
Xu Yi looked at him. “Then I’ll go ask at other shops.”
“Hey? Don’t leave!” The shop assistant rarely encountered someone wanting to buy this household item that wouldn’t sell. He quickly grabbed the person, “Young gentleman has such a temper. If you want to buy it, bargain a bit more, it’s not impossible.”
“I only have ten wen. Will you take it or not?” Xu Yi asked him.
The shop assistant: “…”
So he’d encountered a poor wretch? Looking at his clothes, he’d thought he was a scholar, wearing a cotton cloth long robe, but it turned out he couldn’t even produce eighteen wen.
The shopkeeper had previously wanted him to sell this basket that was taking up space, but the purchase price had been ten wen. Selling it too low felt like a loss, so it had gone unsold for several months after changing hands. Today, they’d rarely encountered someone who wanted it, but could only offer ten wen.
He couldn’t make this decision himself and had to go to the back courtyard room to consult the shopkeeper who was inside drinking tea.
When the shopkeeper heard someone wanted to buy it, even if only for ten wen, he still agreed to the sale. A batch of goods was arriving in a few days, so this would free up space.
Xu Yi got the bamboo basket he wanted as he wished. Carrying the basket on his back and leading the dog, he returned home.
The hour was already late today. Going to Yilu Mountain south of Yanting County would no longer be possible in time. Xu Yi planned to leave early tomorrow morning. Right now, the most urgent matter was to earn back the copper coins he’d spent today.
Otherwise, in a few days when the household ran out of food, he’d be drinking the wind.
Farm families ate two meals a day, a morning meal and an evening meal.
An evening meal was set for when the sun was about to set in the evening. Xu Yi took two copper coins and, familiar with the route, went to Madam He’s house to exchange them for two eggs and a handful of seasonal vegetables. Madam He wanted to give an extra egg, but he refused.
Eggs sold in the market were three for two copper coins. By taking one less egg and asking for an extra handful of vegetables, he wasn’t at a disadvantage.
He saved the eggs for the next day. With clumsy hands, he lit the stove fire and simply cooked a pot of vegetable congee in an earthenware pot.
Little Huang wagged its tail beside him, drooling as it waited. He poured out a portion into a chipped earthenware bowl. Little Huang wanted to eat immediately but was scolded back by him: “Too hot, you can eat it later.”
Taking advantage of the time before dark, one person and one dog finished their evening meal.
Then, using the remaining embers at the stove opening, he heated water for cleaning himself.
Carrying the wooden basin filled with water into the room, Xu Yi washed his face and feet, blew out the oil lamp, and climbed onto the wooden plank bed in the dark.
In the deep silence of the night, Xu Yi thought about his plan to go to Yilu Mountain tomorrow morning to gather medicinal herbs, feeling slightly excited inside. For a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, the allure of wild medicinal herbs was immense! Moreover, he had studied how to process medicinal materials. Wild Chinese medicinal herbs held only increasing, never decreasing, attraction for him.
No, he had to close his eyes and sleep.