Xu, like the rising sun at dawn.
This name came to Xu Yi the moment he saw Ah Xu. He felt it suited him perfectly, hoping that no matter what difficulties Ah Xu encountered, he would bravely forge ahead. The rising sun also symbolized rebirth, a beautiful and youthful concept.
Jin meant bright and splendid, just like the little girl’s eyes, so bright and clear.
When Xu Yi first saw the little girl, the first thing he noticed was those watery eyes. Such beautiful eyes shouldn’t be filled with fear and helplessness.
He reached out and patted both their heads, noticing one wore ill-fitting clothes while the other was dressed in rags.
Xu Yi: “…”
A miscalculation. He should have prepared clothes earlier.
Since it was still light out and the sky showed it was early yet, Xu Yi said he would take them to buy ready-made clothes. They went to the clothing shop he had visited before. When the shop assistant saw Xu Yi, he eagerly came forward to ask what he wanted to buy.
Xu Yi pointed to the two children following behind him and said, “I need clothes these two children can wear. Four sets each. Two sets of short brown robes and two sets of narrow-sleeved jackets. Cotton fabric will do.”
Hearing he wanted to buy so much, Ah Xu hastily grabbed Xu Yi’s wide sleeve and shook his head, saying quietly, “Young master, that’s too much. My sister and I only need one set each.”
In the past, they wouldn’t get new clothes for a year or two. A single garment would be mended and patched repeatedly. Even when they wore clothes in winter that exposed their arms and ankles, their parents never thought to make them new ones.
Unlike their younger brother, who got a new set of clothes every year.
Yet the young master wanted to buy four sets at once for him and his sister. That was so many clothes, so much money!
“How could one set be enough?” Xu Yi frowned and said gently, “In a few days, autumn will arrive. Not only will the weather turn cold, but the autumn rains will bring damp cold, and clothes won’t dry easily. How can you manage without spare clothes to change into?”
Ah Xu stared at him blankly: “…”
Poor families didn’t wash clothes daily. If you bathed and washed clothes every day, the garments would wear out within days.
The shop assistant smiled from the side, saying, “The young master is kindhearted. Buying clothes for you all is a good deed.”
After speaking, he went behind the counter to select clothes. The shop had some garments in stock for children around ten years old, but fewer for seven or eight-year-olds.
After browsing for a while, the shop assistant returned to tell Xu Yi that only two sets of the little girl’s clothes were suitable for servants to wear. The remaining jackets had fine fabric colors that probably weren’t appropriate for this child.
Xu Yi’s eyebrows moved slightly. The jackets the shop assistant brought over were indeed of better quality than ordinary cotton, properly tailored. The small cardigan even had embroidered flowers and grass, and the pale yellow skirt was woven with blue wave patterns.
The shop assistant asked apologetically, “If the young master isn’t in a hurry, this humble one can have the shop’s tailor rush out the clothes in the next couple days and deliver them to your residence. How would that be?”
Xu Yi waved his hand, “No need, I’ll take these two.”
The shop assistant’s eyes brightened as he quickly agreed. This set of jackets cost several times more than ordinary cotton ones. You couldn’t buy them for less than two or three taels.
This young master was still generous. After buying the clothes, he had the two children put them on.
Ah Jin had never seen such beautiful clothes. Her eyes fell on the outfit and she couldn’t bear to look away.
She touched the skirt, looked at her brother, then at Xu Yi. Carefully moving closer, she timidly looked at Xu Yi and asked, “Young master, are you really giving these to me to wear?”
Xu Yi said, “Yes.”
He had the shop assistant take the two children to the back room to change, then asked if the shop sold hair ribbons for little girls.
The clothing shop didn’t just sell ready-made clothes. They also had fabric, fabric scraps, and remnants, plus needles and thread. Naturally, they had plenty of hair ribbons made from attractive fabric scraps.
The shop assistant brought out a tray with dozens of hair ribbons in various colors.
Xu Yi chose two: one peach pink, one sky blue.
When Ah Xu and Ah Jin walked out awkwardly in their brand new clothes, Xu Yi called them to come closer.
Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly noticed something moving in the little girl’s hair.
Xu Yi’s heart sank as he thought of something unpleasant. Sure enough, when he parted her hair to look, he saw flea eggs on the strands.
After a long silence.
Xu Yi sighed and took the two children to the medical hall, where he bought some stemona, garden balsam, and sophora root from an apprentice.
Ah Xu and Ah Jin felt somewhat at a loss, but both obediently followed beside Xu Yi without asking questions.
After leaving the medical hall, Xu Yi took them to a tavern to buy one liter of good wine.
In the early Song Dynasty, baijiu (white liquor) still had low alcohol content, only around ten-some degrees. The best baijiu Xu Yi chose from this tavern was exactly this strength.
It was brewed from glutinous rice, water, and yeast, with a slightly yellowish color. It resembled yellow wine but wasn’t quite the same. It was not as thick as yellow wine, but more clear. It was this tavern’s signature fine wine.
The price wasn’t cheap. One liter cost eighty wen.
Xu Yi hadn’t brought a container for the wine, so he spent another ten wen to buy a wine jar.
The tavern assistant filled the jar. Ah Xu stepped forward first and took the wine jar into his arms with both hands.
Seeing this, Xu Yi said nothing and continued walking.
Passing through the South Street market, Xu Yi stopped in front of an old woman selling offal and bought two bowls of pork offal.
Pork offal was prepared similarly to sheep intestines. They were cooked with a small amount of spices until the offal was soft and tender, easy to eat without straining one’s teeth.
When someone wanted to buy some, she would cut it into pieces with scissors, ladle over a few spoonfuls of thick broth, and for just a few wen you could buy a large bowl.
Pork innards were inferior goods. Intestines and organs are meat that only common folk and those who craved such things enjoyed eating.
Xu Yi had rarely eaten organ meat before, but his current body was only in its teens, more than ten years younger than before. Eating some innards wouldn’t hurt.
Besides, the two children at home also needed to eat some pork liver to supplement their blood, so Xu Yi had the old woman add extra pork liver.
The old woman recognized Xu Yi and generously added several ear-sized pieces of pork liver.
…
Upon arriving home, Xu Yi had the siblings call the idle hands outside to carry over several buckets of water.
Ah Xu wanted to go himself, but Xu Yi stopped him, “You have other tasks. Soak all the clothes we bought today in water, and bring over a large ceramic jar.”
He paused, shifting his gaze to the little girl, then added, “You follow Ah Xu and let him assign you some work.”
Having an eight-year-old child do chores made Xu Yi feel guilty for half a second, but he didn’t continue dwelling on it.
If he didn’t let these two work, they wouldn’t feel at ease living here. Since that was the case, he would assign them tasks they could handle, letting them feel they weren’t freeloading.
He went to the kitchen and took out the dried heshouwu, poria, spatholobus stem, and mugwort. He measured out different amounts, added them to the medicinal ingredients he’d bought, and placed everything in a pot on the stove to boil with water.
Among them, stemona could not only moisten the lungs and stop coughing, but also had insecticidal properties. The boiled water could deal with head lice. After adding heshouwu and other herbs, the medicinal water could treat areas bitten by fleas, and could also be used for soaking and fumigation to eliminate fleas and head lice.
He hadn’t noticed this problem yesterday, but now that he knew, he had to remove the fleas and head lice from both of them. Otherwise, before long, the entire household would be overrun by these insects.
Xu Yi had them boil two pots of water to pour into bathing tubs, then help move them into the rooms. He divided the boiled medicinal water into three portions: two portions went into the bathing tubs, one portion was saved to spray around the rooms later.
He also instructed them not to miss any part of their bodies, especially their hair, which needed to soak in the medicinal water for fifteen minutes.
Ah Xu and Ah Jin didn’t understand why, but fortunately, they were obedient children. Though they didn’t understand, they would do whatever Xu Yi told them.
While they were taking their medicinal baths, Xu Yi put the remaining medicinal water in a jar and conducted a whole-house disinfection.
The hardest-hit areas were the kitchen and courtyard. These were the two places where Ah Xu had spent the most time over the past few days.
Xu Yi worried Little Huang might also have fleas, so he soaked a cloth in the medicinal water and used it to wipe down Little Huang’s fur.
Though he didn’t see any fleas in Little Huang’s coat, he still didn’t dare let his guard down and decided to conduct medicinal fumigation in the house for three consecutive days.
When the siblings finished their medicinal baths and came out, Xu Yi had them roll up their sleeves. Seeing that the wounds from flea and lice bites weren’t serious, he boiled a bowl of medicinal soup, added two spoonfuls of baijiu, and had them drink it.
This medicinal soup used the guanzhong he’d dug up last time, with a little baijiu added before decocting. After drinking it, it could expel parasite eggs from the stomach.
Not only that, Xu Yi also cut several pieces of guanzhong to soak in the water vat, planning to have everyone drink guanzhong water for the next few days.
Three days later, when Xu Yi no longer saw traces of fleas or head lice on Ah Xu and Ah Jin, he stopped the medicinal baths, herb fumigation, and guanzhong water.
During this time, Ah Xu and Ah Jin ate and drank at the Xu household, spending most of each day with Xu Yi. Xu Yi gave them a very different feeling. Aside from not cooking, he liked to do most things himself.
After spending time by his side, the deep-rooted timidity that Ah Xu and Ah Jin carried gradually began to improve.
On this day, Ah Xu watched Xu Yi selecting medicinal ingredients and couldn’t help asking, “Young master, why are you discarding these almonds?”
Xu Yi didn’t answer directly, but slowly asked, “Medicinal ingredients have varying qualities. Look at these two almonds. What differences do you see?”
Ah Xu looked down at the two almonds Xu Yi held before him. One was longer, darker in color, thin and flat. The other was short and round with a pointed tip, appearing fuller than the first, shaped like an attractive peach.
He couldn’t tell which was better or worse, so he simply described what he saw.
Xu Yi heard his very detailed observation and clear verbal description, completely different from his previous timid manner, and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.
Ah Xu hadn’t received any education and couldn’t read, but his performance these past few days had been quite good. Whenever he saw Xu Yi organizing medicinal ingredients, he would come over to help. Hearing him now explain the differences in plain language made Xu Yi wonder if this child might have some natural talent.
After he finished, Xu Yi smiled slightly and said, “Indeed. Of these two almonds, the long, flat one is of inferior quality. If you crush it and look at the yellowish flesh inside, you’ll know its medicinal properties are much weaker. This round, plump one has white flesh inside. This is superior quality almond.”
In a medicinal decoction, the quality of ingredients used could determine its efficacy by ten or twenty percent. Good ingredients produced medicinal soup that might work with twice the result for half the effort, while inferior ones… you’d probably need to drink several more doses to achieve the effect of one dose made with superior ingredients.
Xu Yi picked out the mediocre quality almonds but didn’t discard them. As long as they were medicinal ingredients, though of poorer quality, they weren’t completely useless.
For families without money for medicine, if they fell ill and couldn’t afford good ingredients, these inferior herbs could save their lives.
Xu Yi had Ah Xu put away the inferior medicinal ingredients, wrap them in brown paper, and set them aside.
When it came to medicinal matters, Xu Yi was always cautious. He still wasn’t certain whether Ah Xu had this talent, so he didn’t plan to let him get too involved. He only had him watch from the side and lend a hand when needed.
So Ah Xu stood to one side, eyes lowered, seriously watching how Xu Yi processed the medicinal ingredients.
Some herbs needed to go through steps like roasting, steaming, drying, or soaking before they could develop their corresponding medicinal properties. These steps were all crucial, and Xu Yi never let others interfere.
During the processing, when Xu Yi saw Ah Xu was interested, he would speak a few sentences, explaining why processing was necessary, how to process, and what medicinal properties would result.
After speaking, he would ask Ah Xu if he understood.
Most of the time Ah Xu shook his head. He knew too little. When he didn’t understand, he couldn’t help blushing, instinctively worrying whether Xu Yi would find him stupid.
Xu Yi was speechless and decided to temporarily set aside teaching Ah Xu to recognize Chinese medicinal ingredients.
The next day.
Xu Yi went out alone to visit a bookstore, where he selected the Four Treasures of the Study suitable for beginners.
The paper was the cheapest yellow bamboo paper, which would cause ink to bleed when writing, but the price was affordable. One ream of yellow bamboo paper cost only twenty-some wen. The brush was an ordinary hair brush costing about ten wen. The ink stick and inkstone were naturally also the cheapest.
Though inferior, they were sufficient for children in the early stages of education.
After buying everything and placing it in the book box he carried on his back, on the way home Xu Yi encountered Madam Yang bringing Yang Rong to find him.
When Yang Rong saw Xu Yi, he bounced over happily, calling out, “Doctor Xu!”
His face beaming with smiles, after greeting him he immediately thought of Little Huang at Xu Yi’s house, asking if he could go play with Little Huang.
“If Brother Rong is willing, you can come with me. I’m heading home now,” Xu Yi said to him warmly.
Hearing this, Madam Yang glanced reproachfully at Yang Rong and said helplessly, “You’re such a troublesome child.” Then she told Xu Yi her purpose for coming.
“I came to find Doctor Xu today because my husband isn’t feeling well…”
It turned out Official Yang had returned from the prefectural city these past two days and for some reason kept feeling thirsty. Thinking he’d eaten too much rich food, he took several digestive pills, but the effect wasn’t good. He still felt unbearably thirsty.
At this point, Madam Yang realized something was wrong.
In the past, Official Yang had also experienced dry mouth. Eating some Minor Bupleurum Decoction would cure it, but this time the Minor Bupleurum Decoction didn’t work, nor did Xu Yi’s digestive pills. So she said she wanted to come ask Xu Yi to visit their home and diagnose what was causing Official Yang’s illness.
In the differential diagnosis of dry mouth and thirst, there were many pathological causes in Chinese medicine that could lead to such symptoms.
Based solely on these few sentences from Madam Yang, Xu Yi couldn’t determine what illness was causing Official Yang’s condition.
Xu Yi said, “Don’t worry, Madam Yang. Let me go home first to get my medicine chest.”
Madam Yang slowly curtsied, bowing slightly to Xu Yi, and said, “Thank you for the trouble, Doctor Xu.”
Seeing Xu Yi about to leave, Yang Rong said, “I want to go with Doctor Xu. I haven’t seen Little Huang at Doctor Xu’s house yet. What if he forgets me?”
When he came out with Madam Yang, he had deliberately run to find two pieces of dried meat, wanting to coax Little Huang to play.
Now that Xu Yi was leaving, he naturally wanted to follow along.
Madam Yang couldn’t resist his urging, so the three of them headed toward the Xu household together.
When they arrived home, Madam Yang was stunned to see children in the courtyard. She hadn’t heard the Xu family had other children.
However, she didn’t ask many questions, just stood quietly in the courtyard waiting.
As soon as Yang Rong arrived at the Xu household, he ran off to find Little Huang. When he saw Ah Jin, he froze, asking with some confusion, “Who are you?”
Ah Jin pressed her lips together, “Who are you?”
She now wore a beautiful jacket and skirt, her dull hair tied into a child’s bun with hair ribbons. Her sallow little face, after this period of care, wasn’t as yellow. The timidity had faded by thirty percent, replaced with more ease. Seeing a child about her age, she wasn’t afraid.
Yang Rong scratched the back of his hand, “My name is Yang Rong. I came to play with Little Huang.”
Ah Jin bit her lower lip and said, “Little Huang was taken by my brother to play. He’s not home right now.”
Yang Rong’s expectant expression cracked, “Ah, when will he come back?”
Ah Jin: “Don’t know.”
Not getting a definite answer, Yang Rong returned to Madam Yang’s side looking dejected. Though Madam Yang’s heart was with her husband, she still noticed his expression was off and asked what was wrong.
Yang Rong pouted, saying somewhat aggrieved, “Little Huang isn’t home.”
Madam Yang: “…”
She wanted to say something to comfort Yang Rong when she saw Xu Yi emerge carrying his medicine chest.