BFDNS 049

Chapter 49: Flesh-Growing Ointment

The mountains were not lacking in herbs to stop bleeding, but using them quickly was not easy. Zhang Tiegou was fortunate to have encountered Xu Yi.

Xu Yi examined the animal trap he had removed, turning it over and over. The contraption was assembled from wood and iron; its overall frame was carved from ironwood known for its toughness and hardness, while the serrated wheels on both sides were made of iron, each with sharp iron teeth over one centimeter long.

Having been used for who knows how many years, it was covered in rust.

Zhang Tiegou cried out “aiyou aiyou” several times, drawing sharp breaths as he looked at Xu Yi, his voice tinged with a trace of resentment. “Young brother, why didn’t you give me any warning?”

Xu Yi tossed aside the animal trap and lowered his eyes to look at the bloody wound compressed by the iron teeth, which was now spurting blood again. He had no time to respond to him.

Conditions in the wilderness were poor, but fortunately Xu Yi was well prepared. He had medicine to prevent snake and insect bites, as well as wound medicine.

Last time when he had nothing to do, he had made quite a bit of external injury powder, including notoginseng powder used for stopping bleeding.

Notoginseng powder was one of the most famous hemostatic wound medicines in ancient times. For injuries from knives and axes, it could stop bleeding, relieve pain, and prevent infection at the wound site.

The trap had penetrated deep into the flesh and had been embedded in the blood and tissue for some time. The surrounding flesh was at risk of bacterial infection. To be safe, he needed to first disinfect, then remove the contaminated blood and necrotic tissue, and finally apply medicine.

But seeing Zhang Tiegou break out in cold sweat from pain again, Xu Yi had no choice. He could only take out the notoginseng powder to first stop the bleeding and pain at the wound.

Only then did he say, “You’ll have to bear with it for a bit.”

Zhang Tiegou’s head was buzzing with pain. Hearing Xu Yi’s voice now, he was stunned. “Huh?”

Very soon, he understood why Xu Yi had said this.

He watched as Xu Yi first used notoginseng powder to stop his bleeding, and the wound area became less painful. Next, he saw Xu Yi roll up his trouser leg, exposing the skin above his wound, then pull a long cloth strip from his pocket and press it three inches above the wound. Immediately after, he pressed down forcefully at that spot.

“Ahh—”

A completely unprepared cry of pain suddenly rang out in the deep forest.

The wild dog not far away, still reluctant to leave, heard this terrifying sound. Its hesitant paws changed direction and it ran off…

That human looked truly terrifying.

The truly terrifying Xu Yi remained expressionless, his fingers nimbly measuring a distance before pressing forcefully again on the acupoint of the major blood vessel.

“Ah, it hurts, hurts, hurts—”

Even as a grown man, Zhang Tiegou could no longer care about saving face. He had truly never experienced pain like this before.

What hunter doesn’t get injured? He had been injured countless times before, but never had it hurt like this.

It hurt so much that he suspected he must have offended this young physician somewhere, which was why he was suffering like this.

Xu Yi did not loosen his grip despite his reaction. Instead, he used the remaining cloth strip to tightly bind the area around the wound.

After tying it securely, Xu Yi raised his eyebrows slightly and said, “All right, see if it still hurts now.”

“Hiss, it’s killing me…” Zhang Tiegou grimaced, supporting himself on his arms as he tried to move away from Xu Yi.

Having moved less than half a step, he suddenly felt that unbearable pain disappear, replaced by a slight numbness and swelling ache.

“What?” Zhang Tiegou was amazed and quickly asked, “What did you do? How is it not hurting anymore?”

Xu Yi said, “This is the compression hemostasis method. You wouldn’t normally need it with wound medicine. But your wound is deep. The iron teeth were compressing the blood vessel, preventing too much blood from flowing out. After the trap was removed, the semi-coagulated blood and filth at the bleeding site remained inside. If not pressed out, it will later fester and rot, and in severe cases require amputation.”

Zhang Tiegou: “!!!”

“That terrible?”

Xu Yi smiled. “You’re not afraid of death, but you’re afraid of this?”

Zhang Tiegou scratched his head embarrassedly. “Well, you saved me, so I didn’t die after all.”

As he spoke, he grimaced, feeling the relief of having survived a disaster, and asked, “Young brother, how do you know so much? From your appearance and demeanor, you’re clearly extraordinary. Could you be a fine young man from some family who specializes in treating and healing people?”

This question was essentially asking whether Xu Yi was a descendant of a medical family.

Xu Yi smiled faintly and replied without directly answering, “I’ve learned some medical arts since childhood, treated some patients, and was lucky enough to cure some people, that’s all.”

Zhang Tiegou said, “Then I truly admire you, young brother. I’m different; I only know how to hunt.”

Xu Yi: “Mm, and I only know how to treat illness.”

Saying this, the two seemed evenly matched. Zhang Tiegou almost believed it.

Before long, Xu Yi asked him, “Can you still stand and walk?”

Zhang Tiegou nodded, saying he would try. He asked Xu Yi to cut him a stick. Supporting himself on the stick, he stood up and moved his injured leg. As long as he could step and walk, there was no problem.

“Thank you so much, young brother.” Zhang Tiegou had an easygoing and forthright personality. Coming from a hunter background, he was casual and unlike scholars, not addressing him as “young master” in every sentence.

Xu Yi shook his head. “I couldn’t very well leave you to die.”

Zhang Tiegou chuckled. “It wasn’t my time to die yet. I still don’t know what your name is, young brother.”

Xu Yi said calmly, “My surname is Xu, given name Yi. I’m from Yanting County.”

“Good name.” After praising it, Zhang Tiegou said he was from Baili Village and lived by the small river, in the house with a wolf’s head hanging outside. After a few seconds, he couldn’t help but ask, “Which character is this ‘Yi’?”

Xu Yi: “…”

“It takes the meaning of black wood—one side is ‘black,’ the other is ‘many.'”

The character “黟” (Yi), when many people see it, their first reaction is that it’s a place name, such as the famous “Yi County” which uses this character.

But it has another meaning, such as black wood or dark wood. In the Shuowen, there is a sentence: “Yi, black wood.”

Of course, when Xu Yi’s parents named him, they naturally didn’t take the meaning of “black wood,” but Xu Yi explained it this way for Zhang Tiegou’s convenience in understanding which character it was.

But the character “Yi” also has another layer of meaning, which is the color black.

Xu Yi was born at night that year. According to how his parents described it, that night was dark and windy, and Xu Yi was born in the deep of night. At the moment of his birth, the sky outside was pitch black, without even starlight.

This made them think of using black in his name, but “Xu Hei” (hei = black) didn’t sound good, so they used the synonymous character “Xu Yi.”

Zhang Tiegou’s injury was near the halfway point up the mountain. The two of them, one in front and one behind, with one still limping with a wooden stick, descended the mountain rather slowly.

After walking a stretch, Xu Yi saw blood seeping through the cloth strip tied at the wound. He had Zhang Tiegou rest while he came over to unwrap it and add more wound medicine.

Zhang Tiegou felt somewhat embarrassed, but thinking that if his leg injury wasn’t treated properly, there would certainly be big trouble later, he smiled sheepishly and said it was hard on Xu Yi.

He said earnestly, “When we get down the mountain, you’ll still need to come with me. That eight strings of cash I said I’d give you, I wasn’t just saying it.”

Xu Yi fell silent for a moment.

He unwrapped the cloth strip and saw that the notoginseng powder on the deeper cuts had been obscured by freshly seeping blood. He wiped it off with a handkerchief and reapplied the medicine.

After finishing, Xu Yi stood up and looked at him with mixed feelings, saying, “Your injury isn’t worth eight strings of cash. With that money, once your injury heals, get a new animal trap. That trap is too old.”

Zhang Tiegou said irritably, “That’s not mine. I don’t use animal traps when hunting. I don’t know who put it there. It was very well hidden. I was just chasing a pheasant when I had the bad luck to step right on it.”

Speaking of this, he had quite a few complaints to vent.

He said this area wasn’t deep enough, and placing animal traps there was very inappropriate. What if someone like Xu Yi who came up the mountain to gather medicine encountered it? Wouldn’t it harm others?

He was lucky today, running into Xu Yi who knew medicine. If he had encountered someone who came up the mountain to chop firewood, wouldn’t that have been a wasted life?

Xu Yi listened to his chatter and saw his condition had improved considerably, knowing he should be all right now.

Only the wound was somewhat deep. After returning home, he would still need to clean it thoroughly, first use notoginseng powder to prevent the wound from becoming inflamed and swollen, then make some anti-swelling flesh-growing ointment to apply to the wound. Within half a month, it should be completely healed.

…

An hour later, the two finally descended the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, the cart driver was still waiting for Xu Yi. Seeing Xu Yi finally return, he breathed a sigh of relief, while also harboring a faint hope that Xu Yi might have hunted something good on the mountain.

As it turned out, with one look he saw a burly man following behind Xu Yi. The man was leaning on a crutch, limping along behind, clearly injured.

“What happened…” the cart driver asked in confusion.

Xu Yi briefly explained the chance encounter with Zhang Tiegou, then asked the cart driver if he could hire the cart for a trip to Baili Village.

Baili Village was more than ten li from here. Walking back on an injured leg would likely cripple that leg.

The cart driver agreed without a second word.

He had specifically waited for Xu Yi today and hadn’t loaded any other passengers on the cart. The two got on the ox cart, and with the cart driver’s series of “yo yo” calls, the ox cart began to sway into motion.

On the road.

The cart driver boasted to Zhang Tiegou about Xu Yi’s previous achievements, saying he had single-handedly killed a wild boar weighing over two hundred jin, and his body was virtually unscathed; truly extraordinarily brave.

“Young Master Xu is also a formidable physician. Last time that man’s leg was bitten by insects like that, you didn’t see it, but it was swollen like a pig’s trotter soaked in water. Young Master Xu used just one medicine and cured him…”

He went on to say that Xu Yi could treat various other ailments, and just among those he knew of, there were already several people.

At first they had been half-believing and half-doubting of Xu Yi, but Xu Yi charged very low consultation and medicine fees when treating them.

With that being the case, how could they not try? One after another… as long as they truly followed Xu Yi’s instructions, those people’s illnesses were all cured.

Xu Yi: “…”

Xu Yi had heard this kind of thing many times now.

The cart driver was the best promoter. With his testimony, some people even specifically took his ox cart just to encounter Xu Yi and have him treat them.

Over these few months, Xu Yi’s reputation as a “physician” had gradually spread.

Although there were more people who didn’t believe, there were already some with stubborn ailments that showed no improvement, who had no money for treatment, coming to try their luck.

Hearing all this, Zhang Tiegou appeared extremely shocked. How had he managed to compare himself to this person?

“You can kill a male wild boar weighing over two hundred jin?”

Xu Yi said unhurriedly, “By chance.”

Zhang Tiegou couldn’t help but twitch his lips. Why didn’t he have such good fortune? No wait, he’d better not encounter any wild boars.

“You must have martial skills. Otherwise I can’t imagine how you killed that wild boar. Wild boars have enormous strength. Years ago when a wild boar broke into our village, the village chief called four men, and only then did they manage to kill it.”

The cart driver spoke first. “Young Master Xu is so capable, he naturally has martial skills. Don’t only rely on how sturdy you are. Young Master Xu might be able to knock you down flat with just one punch.”

Xu Yi: “…” Drawing aggro now.

Zhang Tiegou: “…”

Upon reaching Baili Village, the cart driver finally stopped talking and asked Xu Yi if he wanted him to wait there.

Xu Yi nodded and readily took out money to hand to him, saying, “Yes, and I’ll need Uncle to wait a little while.”

The two bid farewell to the cart driver and headed one after the other to Zhang Tiegou’s home.

Sure enough, upon arriving, Xu Yi saw the brazenly hung wolf’s head at the entrance.

The wolf’s head was dried, with a layer of wolf fur still on the outside. It looked fierce and terrifying, with no other neighbors around.

Zhang Tiegou was talking to Xu Yi. “Brother Xu, would you like some meat? I don’t have much here, but I have plenty of meat. See over there, it’s all dried meat I’ve cured.”

He raised his hand and pointed toward the wooden beam below the eaves, where more than ten strips of dried meat hung.

“The dried meat I make tastes pretty good. Quite a few people in the village buy from me. If you want to eat it, Brother Xu, I’ll give it to you for free.” Zhang Tiegou patted his chest, clearly already treating Xu Yi as a good friend.

He pushed open the door and let Xu Yi enter to talk.

Then he himself limped over to pour water for Xu Yi.

Xu Yi stopped him, saying helplessly, “You should just rest properly.”

Seeing the water in the vat wasn’t clean, he told Zhang Tiegou to change the water in the vat later, and also told him that if he wanted his wound to heal quickly, he couldn’t drink raw water.

Zhang Tiegou pursed his lips. “That’s so troublesome.”

Xu Yi glanced at him, and Zhang Tiegou immediately shut his mouth. Xu Yi didn’t say anything to him, but simply explained the benefits of boiling water and letting it cool before drinking.

People of this era had no awareness of boiling water before drinking. Xu Yi felt that he could correct them one person at a time.

This time Zhang Tiegou didn’t dare say it was troublesome, only saying he would properly drink hot water.

Xu Yi said nonchalantly, “I’ll leave the wound medicine with you. Change the dressing every two shichen (four hours). Before changing it, you need to clean the wound. I’ll make some medicine for you. Boil them in water, let it cool, then wash the wound with it. As for the ointment to apply, I’ll make it tomorrow and bring it over when I visit.”

Among the medicinal materials he had gathered today, there weren’t many flesh-growing medicines, but he had some at home that could be put to use.

Xu Yi left all the notoginseng powder he had brought out with him, then examined Zhang Tiegou’s pulse to confirm there were no major problems before withdrawing his hand.

Next came the matter of the medicine fee.

He certainly couldn’t accept eight strings of cash. That much money could buy two taels of ten-year-old wild ginseng.

Xu Yi charged fairly. He only took the consultation fee, medicine fee, and material cost (cloth strips), collecting a total of two hundred and ten wen.

This included the cost of the ointment he would bring tomorrow when he visited.

Seeing that Xu Yi really wouldn’t take his eight strings of cash, Zhang Tiegou struggled for a while, then said he would give Xu Yi some dried meat.

“Fine if you won’t take the money, but I’m giving you this dried meat as a brother. If you don’t take it, you’re not giving me face.”

Xu Yi: “…”

He’d seen forced buying and selling, but never forced gifting of dried meat.

Most of the dried meat Zhang Tiegou cured was rabbit. In summer, meat was hard to store. When he caught game, he would take some to sell in the county seat and keep some for himself to eat.

This year’s spring had a lot of rain, so in summer there were considerably more wild animals in the mountains than usual. Zhang Tiegou was skilled at hunting with a bow. Most of the game he caught was in good condition and could fetch good prices.

If he didn’t spend money as soon as he got it, he’d have more than just that bit of silver on hand.

He selected a few pieces of good quality meat to give to Xu Yi, still unable to forget what the cart driver had said on the road. “Brother Xu, can you really kill a wild boar with one punch?”

“…” Xu Yi blinked innocently and said, “I don’t have such supernatural powers. At the time, the wild boar attacked me first. I couldn’t escape, so I resisted with all my might and was lucky enough to kill it.”

Having said “by chance” several times on the road, Zhang Tiegou was now deeply skeptical of this phrase.

“How about when my injury heals, we have a match?” Zhang Tiegou invited. “Though I haven’t trained formally, I do know some crude techniques; all learned from old hunters before.”

Xu Yi’s curiosity was piqued. “You can use a bow. Did you also learn that from an old hunter?”

Zhang Tiegou: “I learned that from an old soldier who returned to the village. Back then he wanted to earn some money teaching people archery. Nobody else would learn, but I went to study with him. Turns out he had real skill. After half a year of learning, I could shoot game. Though I can’t hit every shot, if I shoot ten arrows, I can hit with five. That’s enough to not worry about food and clothing.”

Hearing him say this, Xu Yi felt somewhat moved. He knew martial arts but not mounted archery. If he could learn horse riding and archery, it would give him another means of preserving his life.

“Is that old man still around?” he asked.

Zhang Tiegou shook his head. “He fell ill and passed away a few years ago. I was the one who collected his body.”

Seeing Xu Yi look over, he quickly explained, “That old soldier was penniless, without even money to see a doctor. I didn’t take any burial money from him.”

Xu Yi: “…” That wasn’t what he meant.

He was just somewhat regretful.

But looking at Zhang Tiegou standing alive before him, he felt there was still a chance to learn archery.

So Xu Yi said, “I’m willing to have a match with you, but if you lose, you have to teach me archery.”

Zhang Tiegou said without thinking, “If you want to learn, I’ll just teach you. Why use a match as a wager?”

Xu Yi smiled. “It’s more interesting with a wager.”

…

When he arrived home, the sky was half dark.

Xu Yi returned later than usual. As soon as he walked into Stone Well Lane, he saw Ah Xu and Ah Jin holding small oil lamps, waiting outside the door for his return.

He quickened his pace and emerged from the darkness, saying to them, “Why are you out here? Go inside quickly.”

Ah Jin nervously clutched at Xu Yi’s robe. “Sir, you came back so late today. Brother and I waited at home but you didn’t come back, and we were a bit scared.”

Xu Yi patted her head. “That’s my fault. From now on, if I come back late, you don’t need to wait outside for me.”

Then he asked if they had eaten their evening meal.

The two said in unison, “We were waiting for you to return before eating, sir.”

Xu Yi frowned. “Next time, if I’m late returning, you shouldn’t wait for me to eat your evening meal. You’re still growing. Going hungry can make you not grow tall.”

Thinking of the two possibly becoming short in the future, Xu Yi immediately shook that thought away.

Because he returned too late, Xu Yi didn’t have time to wash up first. He only changed out of his dirty clothes, washed his hands, and called the two children to eat together.

The Xu family had no rule against talking while eating. After giving the two of them each a piece of meat, Xu Yi asked how their lessons had gone today.

Ah Xu set down his bowl and chopsticks and answered obediently, “In answer to you, sir, today I first cleaned the house, then wrote large characters. But I didn’t write them well and wasted three sheets of paper.”

They were now using cheap yellow bamboo paper, cut with a knife into neat squares. One sheet could hold twenty large characters.

Xu Yi had instructed them to write two sheets of large characters daily without any mistakes. If one character was wrong, they had to start over from the beginning.

Therefore, paper consumption had been rather high lately. It seemed he would need to buy a few more bundles of paper tomorrow.

After hearing him finish, Xu Yi shifted his gaze to Ah Jin.

Ah Jin’s face instantly turned red. She stammered, “Sir, I… I wasted eight sheets of paper. I won’t dare to again.”

Xu Yi smiled. “Being able to write the characters, wasting a few more sheets doesn’t matter.”

Hearing him say this, Ah Jin immediately nodded vigorously and secretly winked at her brother. See, she said the sir was a good person and wouldn’t scold her!

However, the next day when Ah Jin practiced her large characters, she was even more serious than usual.

Her talent for practicing martial arts was lacking. Her strength was insufficient, and the punches she threw were soft and carried an innate cuteness, like an adorable little child.

Xu Yi discovered that Ah Jin’s talent for study was actually higher than Ah Xu’s. After reading through the annotations and explanations of the Three Character Classic the same number of times, Ah Jin understood the annotations faster and found them easier to remember than Ah Xu.

It was just that both were still young, and the characters they wrote were unbearable to look at. One could only tell whether the strokes were correct or wrong.

After checking both children’s lessons, Xu Yi taught them two new sentences from the Three Character Classic. Two sentences at a time, and they would continue once they understood them.

After class ended, Xu Yi went to the kitchen, planning to make a bottle of flesh-growing ointment for Zhang Tiegou.

Flesh-growing ointment was primarily composed of six medicines: danggui, white angelica, licorice, purple gromwell, dragon’s blood, and light powder.

First, the dragon’s blood and light powder needed to be ground into fine powder using the grinding trough, then sifted and set aside.

Next, the other four medicines were also broken into small pieces and placed in a pot to soak in clear oil. Once soaked, they were fried until charred, then the residue could be filtered out.

At this point, Xu Yi sent Ah Xu to the medical hall to buy a jin of beeswax back.

Ah Xu quickly left, and Xu Yi used this time to refine the fried oil until it reached a viscous state where water dropped into it would form pearls.

By then, Ah Xu had also returned.

The beeswax he bought back contained impurities and needed to be melted and filtered before use.

Once everything was prepared, Xu Yi could mix and stir the refined oil and medicinal powder evenly, making them into a brownish-red soft ointment.

The reason for the brownish-red color was the use of dragon’s blood.

This dragon’s blood, also called blood resin, was colored like coagulated red blood clots. It could treat bruises and external bleeding wounds, and had the effect of contracting sores and generating flesh.

With this anti-swelling flesh-growing ointment, Zhang Tiegou’s wound would not be a major problem.

This flesh-growing ointment was expensive to make because the process was complicated. It was a medicinal formula recorded in the “Taiping Shenghui Fang” (Taiping Holy Prescriptions for Universal Relief), which Wang Huaiyin, Wang You, and others compiled by imperial decree over fourteen years during the Northern Song Dynasty.

It just happened to be the third year of Chunhua now, the year this book was completed.

Xu Yi knew that since this book had just been compiled, it was only available as an official text and commoners had no access to it.

Since he had used it, he couldn’t call it “anti-swelling flesh-growing ointment.” He would just tell Zhang Tiegou that this was an ointment he made himself and that he couldn’t use it in front of outsiders.

Though Zhang Tiegou appeared casual and careless, he was much more careful at heart. Hearing these words, he understood this ointment was unusual, and if people with ulterior motives heard about it, it might be disadvantageous to Xu Yi.

Naturally he wouldn’t say anything about it.