Xu Yi entered the restaurant and casually chose an empty table by the window, setting his bamboo basket on the ground. The waiter, seeing a customer arrive, came over with a cloth to wipe the table and asked with a welcoming smile, “What would the gentlemen like to eat?”
“One serving of fermented black bean duck, one stir-fried vegetable dish, and one bowl of rice,” Xu Yi said, glancing at the family of three sitting across from him.
The place where they’d taken shelter from the rain happened to be a restaurant selling fermented black bean duck, a famous dish from the Guangnan East Circuit during the Song Dynasty. Because of its reputation, several shops had opened in Yanting County as well. Xu Yi had never tried it before, so this was a good opportunity.
Though the family of three dressed simply, their cotton cloth garments had no patches. Seeing that Xu Yi had ordered food, they naturally decided to eat together as well.
The child’s father said, “We’ll have two servings of fermented black bean duck and two rice cakes.”
“Coming right up, gentlemen, please wait a moment.” The waiter’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “Would the gentlemen like tea? We have loose tea, jarred tea, and this year’s spring tea. The prices are two wen per cup for loose tea, ten wen per cup for jarred tea, and twenty wen per cup for spring tea.”
Spring tea commanded a high price. Several towns under Yanting County’s jurisdiction had tea mountains, and the spring tea picked from these mountains was almost entirely contracted by the major teahouses and grand restaurants. Whether this restaurant’s spring tea was genuine or not, Xu Yi couldn’t tell. Since he couldn’t distinguish the tea quality that well, he didn’t ask the waiter to bring any.
Though he declined tea, the child’s father asked the waiter to bring three cups of jarred tea.
The tea was quickly brought to the table. The child’s father personally took one cup and placed it in front of Xu Yi, saying with embarrassment, “Please forgive us, Young Master Xu. Our means are limited, so we can only offer you such humble tea.”
Xu Yi’s expression didn’t change much, but inwardly he felt a bit more appreciation for the child’s father. Someone willing to spend money to have a physician examine and treat his child’s condition, who also remembered a chance acquaintance he’d met by the roadside, clearly showed how much this father loved his child.
After a moment of silence, Xu Yi smiled slightly and said, “My name is Xu Yi. You may address me by name directly. Looking at your son’s complexion today, he seems much improved. The prescribed medicine appears to be taking effect.”
After that day, Xu Yi had already set aside the matter of meeting this family of three. In Yanting County with its many medical clinics, his prescription wasn’t particularly unusual. From bits and pieces of information, he’d learned that the physician this family had seen before wasn’t very competent. His correctly prescribed medicine showed results after just two doses, though complete recovery would still take time.
“I wouldn’t dare address the young master by name directly.” The child’s father sighed softly. “If Young Master hadn’t diagnosed my son’s true condition, we still wouldn’t know what to do even now.”
For his family, meeting Xu Yi had been their good fortune, which was why they’d gone to Yilu Mountain two days in a row to wait for him. Unfortunately, they hadn’t found him there and instead encountered Xu Yi here on South Street.
Through their conversation, they learned that Xu Yi lived in Stone Well Lane on South Street, while his family had just moved to Flat Road Lane on South Street the year before last, only three lanes away.
The child’s father asked, “I haven’t yet asked why Young Master Xu was running through the rain. Was there some urgent matter?”
“Nothing really, just that Little Huang is still at home.” Xu Yi paused, then smiled. “But since we’ve met, we should sit down and talk.”
Xu Yi looked at the somewhat shy child sitting beside his mother and gently asked him to extend his left hand first.
The best time for pulse diagnosis was in the early morning on an empty stomach, without exercise or eating, to minimize influences on the pulse. Therefore, Xu Yi’s pulse examination this time was quite careful. The left hand corresponded to the heart, liver, and kidneys. After silently completing the diagnosis, he had the child extend his right hand, which corresponded to the lungs, spleen, and gate of vitality among the internal organs.
Observing the child’s pulse, it was deep and rapid, with all three positions showing a weak and powerless pulse, indicating a deficiency syndrome and allowing him to determine the child had body deficiency and insufficient qi and blood. However, compared to last time, there had been improvement, with no weakened pulse beats or thread-like weak pulses appearing.
Xu Yi immediately had a clear understanding and asked, “Does Mister Yang have paper and brush with him?”
“I do.” The child’s father immediately responded.
The previous experience had led him to bring paper and brush from home whenever he went out, just in case they were needed.
Xu Yi took the paper and brush, writing while speaking. “The previous medicinal decoction can be stopped after two more days and replaced with a Danggui Sixni Decoction, which has the effects of nourishing and activating blood, warming the channels and dispelling cold.”
Prescriptions needed to match both the symptoms and the person. He didn’t directly copy the Danggui Sixni Decoction from the Treatise on Cold Damage but slightly reduced two of the medicinal ingredients, added another medicinal herb, and converted the adult dosage to a child’s dosage.
Madam Yang took Xu Yi’s prescription, tears welling in her eyes. “Thank you, Young Master Xu, for examining my son’s pulse and writing another prescription. My husband and I have few heirs. After all these years, we only have our son Rong’er. These past few years, for Rong’er’s sake, my husband’s salary and my dowry have been largely spent. We even moved to South Street because we didn’t want to give up.”
“It’s merely a small effort.” Xu Yi quickly said, “Madam Yang needn’t be so distressed. After about another ten days of drinking the medicine, it can be stopped. Medicine is three parts poison, so it’s better to regulate the body with medicinal cuisine afterward.”
Hearing this, Madam Yang immediately asked, “Could Young Master Xu please write a few medicinal cuisine recipes for Rong’er?”
Xu Yi thought for a while and wrote down two nourishing recipes.
One was Huaishan Dangshen Quail Soup, where the quail could be substituted with hen, pigeon, or similar. The other was black sesame porridge, requiring only polished rice, black sesame, and salt, suitable for those with body deficiency and constipation. The child frequently had difficulty with bowel movements, and drinking some nourishing porridge could supplement the liver and kidneys while facilitating the large and small intestines.
At this moment, the waiter brought their ordered dishes to the table.
The fermented black bean duck sold at this restaurant consisted of duck meat sliced and soaked in thick fermented black bean sauce, dotted with several black beans on top. The sauce-colored duck skin looked glossy and oil-bright, quite appetizing.
Xu Yi was hungry, so he picked up a piece of duck meat and ate it. The duck was tender, fatty but not greasy. His taste buds were sensitive, and he could tell that glutinous rice wine had been added, giving it a mellow and sweet taste that eliminated the gamey flavor while enhancing the freshness.
After the meal, they talked again about the child’s condition.
Though medicinal cuisine was good, it similarly couldn’t be eaten every day. The Yang family had learned this lesson before, and he worried that if he didn’t explain clearly, this medicinal cuisine would appear daily in the child’s diet once taken home. So he continued adding a few more lines to the unfinished prescription, telling them to prepare it judiciously.
“If you need anything in the future, you can come find me in Stone Well Lane. I’m home at night every day,” Xu Yi said.
Father Yang gratefully stood and bowed. “Thank you so much, Young Master Xu.”
Looking at the family of three, Xu Yi said unhurriedly, “This is all within my duty as a physician.”
As a doctor, he couldn’t remain completely detached. Studying medicine was inherently about treating illness. Since he had seen it, he would thoroughly implement what he had learned rather than just carrying the title of “medical family” without actually knowing how to see patients or treat diseases.
Of course, consultation fees still needed to be collected.
He needed to eat and therefore naturally needed to collect money. However, since ancient times, traditional Chinese medicine had charged different consultation fees for different patients.
“The poor receive treatment, the wealthy pay.” Xu Yi knew this unwritten rule well.
He symbolically collected five wen as a consultation fee from the Yang family, merely a token gesture.
…
Before leaving the restaurant, Xu Yi had the waiter pack one serving of fermented black bean duck and two bowls of rice. The fermented black bean duck tasted good and could be taken home for Little Huang to eat.
Stepping outside, the rain had stopped.
The street had returned to its usual bustle of people coming and going, with peddlers carrying their wares now walking through the streets and alleys calling out their goods.
Xu Yi stopped a peddler and bought lamp oil, needle and thread, and a small ceramic jar the size of a palm from him.
Turning around, he went to the blacksmith’s shop and bought a cleaver for chopping and cutting medicine.
Iron was expensive, and after buying this cleaver, Xu Yi had spent all the money he had on him.
From childhood until now, he’d never been this short of money. This feeling of being penniless made him extremely uncomfortable.
But during the rainy season, it could rain at any time. He probably wouldn’t be able to go up the mountain to gather herbs for the next day or two, so it seemed he’d have to tighten his belt for these couple of days.
Xu Yi: “…”
Should he think of another way to make money?
Besides digging medicinal herbs to sell and treating patients, what else could earn money relatively quickly that he knew how to do?
On Xu Yi’s face, somewhere between youth and adulthood, his gentle brows furrowed slightly. Thinking it over, it seemed there really weren’t many ways for him to earn money.
Among them was the method the original person had used to earn living expenses before, which was copying books for bookstores to earn commission. Copying one ordinary book could earn one hundred fifty wen, and at his current writing speed, it would take at least two days.
Two days to earn one hundred fifty wen?
No good. For him, it was too little!
As expected, becoming a physician first required an investment.