Chapter 188: Chapter 184: Back Again_1

Translator: 549690339

Yingbao glanced over the medicine cabinets; each cabinet was lined with compartments, each compartment labeled with three different herb names.

Each compartment housed three different herbs, their names written on the compartment’s facade.

The commonly used herbs were placed in the central and upper level of the compartments, enabling easy access during prescriptions, such as Angelica, Peony, and Szechuan Lovage; Astragalus, Codonopsis, and Licorice, and so on.

The lighter-weight, less frequently used herbs were housed in the compartments on the higher level, like Rose, Plum Blossom, and Buddha’s Hand Flowers.

Heavier-weight materials, such as mineral-based herbs, shell-based herbs, and charcoal-based herbs that could cause contamination, were down lower in the compartments. Examples include Magnetite, Ocher, Amethyst, Dragon Bone and Dragon Teeth, Oyster, and so on.

The loosest and most frequently used herbs are housed in the large compartments at the lowest level of the cabinet.

Such as Rush, Tangcai; Reed Root, Couchgrass Root; Artemisia, Lysimachia; Bamboo shavings, Mint, Mulberry Leaves, and Lotus Leaves, etc.

Yingbao went through the herb names one by one, and Li Xihua pulled open each compartment to show her the already sliced and prepared herbs.

The herbs varied greatly in size and shape; they appeared easy to identify at first glance, but were actually not.

So, Yingbao wanted to also see the whole, uncut herbs.

“Do you have any uncut herbs?” she asked.

Li Xihua nodded, “Yes, they are all in the storeroom. I’ll show you tomorrow.”

The next day, Yingbao formally began her apprenticeship.

Starting with the bottom-most medicine cabinet, she learned to identify each herb’s scent, color, and shape by smelling and examining before comparing them to their uncut versions.

By the end of the day, she was familiar with over twenty kinds of herbs.

Comparing them with the prescriptions she had previously learned, she started to develop a clearer understanding.

However, the variety of herbs here was vast, numbering in the hundreds to thousands. She would need repetitive practice and exposure to remember them all.

As it was the harvest season and everyone was busy farming, the number of patients visiting the clinic was rather low. Li Xihua and her two older brothers had a lot of free time.

Only Yingbao diligently kept record of the herb names in her notebook using charcoal.

To reinforce her memory, she even sketched the shapes of the herbs and the paired prescriptions on the side.

Doctor Li walked over, seeing the young girl’s dedication, he couldn’t help but stroke his beard and smile.

His elder disciple had written him a letter, requesting to mentor this child, to teach her medicine and herb recognition. The letter also mentioned her intelligent nature and predicted a successful future.

Doctor Li had rushed over to the Jiang family to meet this little girl after receiving the letter. He was pleasantly surprised at her discipline and self-control at such a young age.

“Yingbao, come here.” Doctor Li sat down in a chair and beckoned Yingbao over, asking, “What medical texts have you read?”

Yingbao conscientiously replied: “I’ve read the Internal Classic, Etiology and Symptomatology, Shennong’s Herbal Classic, Pulse Classic and A Thousand Gold Prescriptions.”

Her master had said that these are all fundamental knowledge for studying medicine and should be memorized.

She has only read through these books once, barely memorized a few, and only wrote down a few prescriptions.

Doctor Li nodded, “Well then, let me ask you a question. What does it mean, ‘One who cures illnesses must understand the principles of heaven and earth’?”

Yingbao thought for a moment, then her face lit up.

He wanted her to recite content from Suwen, the Theory of Yin and Yang in Nature, which she could do.

“The heavens are incomplete in the northwest, therefore northwest is Yin; hence the right ear and eyes are not as observant as the left. The earth is incomplete in the southeast, therefore southeast is Yang; hence the left hand and foot are not as strong as the right.”

After reciting, Yingbao anxiously looked at Doctor Li, and asked, “Is that correct?”

Doctor Li smiled, nodding, “Correct. Now, let’s move on to the next question.”

In this way, Yingbao was forced to recite several segments from Suwen.

It wasn’t until a few people rushed into the clinic seeking Doctor Li’s help that the impromptu quiz ended.

“Doctor Li, my son has cut his arm. Could you take a look, please?”

The middle-aged man was supporting a young man whose left arm was gashed by a sickle, and was bleeding profusely.

Doctor Li hurriedly left the counter to examine the injury. He grabbed medicinal alcohol and a needle and thread from the medical box his grandson brought over.

First, the wound was cleaned with medicinal wine, then the needle was warmed over a candle flame, threaded with sheep’s intestine, and used by Doctor Li to suture the wound of the young boy.

After stitching, a layer of medicinal powder was applied, and only then was it wrapped up tightly with clean strips of cloth from the medicine box.

“I’ll prescribe a flesh-renewing decoction for you. After returning home, brew it for him to drink, and replace the wound dressing on his arm tomorrow,” the old doctor instructed.

Doctor Li bent over the table to write out the recipe, then handed it to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man took the prescription with trembling hands and asked, “How much does the medicine cost?”

Li Lin replied, “The external and internal medicine together will cost eighty-five coins.”

“Ah? That much” the middle-aged man said with difficulty, “Doctor, I, I only brought thirty coins with me”

Doctor Li waved his hand and said to his grandson, “Prepare his medicine.”

Then he looked at the middle-aged man, “You can pay the remaining fifty-five coins after you’ve sold your wheat.”

The middle-aged man immediately bowed to Doctor Li, expressing his profound gratitude, “Thank you, Doctor Li, I promise to bring the money after I’ve sold the wheat.”

Yingbao looked at the middle-aged man, then at Doctor Li, and quietly asked Li Xihua, “Do you think he will really return with the money?”

Li Xihua responded quietly, “Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.”

Such an act was repeated every few days and she was accustomed to it.

Yingbao pondered over it thoughtfully.

It seemed that the plaque in the medical hall with the words “healing the world” was not an empty claim.

The days passed by, filled with Yingbao learning to identify medicines and seeing patients.

The summer harvest ended quickly, and the town began to liven up.

Several portly grain merchants set up scales and measuring cups on both sides of the town’s streets, and began to buy summer grain.

Many villagers queued up to sell their baskets of wheat, arguing intermittently with the grain merchants.

The bone of contention was that the grain merchants claimed the cereals were not dry enough, or the grain had too much sand mixed in, and they wanted to lower the price.

Whereas the villagers believed the grain merchants were fabricating reasons to slash prices, leading to both parties arguing fiercely.

Fights almost broke out until Xiang Zhi intervened to broker peace.

For a time, the town’s streets were jammed with a chaotic crowd, blocking the roads and hindering the movement of several horse-drawn carriages.

Yingbao, peering from the counter towards the excitement outside, suddenly noticed a few familiar figures.

Chen Changping and his wife from the Han Family were stepping down from a carriage, with a little child in her arms.

Two young girls also stepped down from another carriage – it was Chen Tiantian and Chen Zhao.

Not only that, but Old Chen Lao had also returned, accompanied by his wife from the Feng Family.

Chen Tiantian and Chen Zhao, supporting Feng, walked straight towards the medical hall.

“Doctor! Doctor Li!” Old Chen Lao hurried into the medical hall in two steps, calling out to Doctor Li, “Quickly, take a look at my wife, she, she’s vomiting violently!”

Doctor Li stood up, glanced outside, and said, “Help her sit here, I’ll examine her.”

Chen Zhao and Chen Tiantian had Feng sit on the bench outside the counter, rolling up her sleeve to let the doctor feel her pulse.

As they looked up, their eyes met with Yingbao’s.

“You…” Chen Zhao momentarily didn’t recognize that the girl in the blue robe was Yingbao.

“Why are you here?” Chen Zhao couldn’t help but ask.

Yingbao raised an eyebrow, “I’m an apprentice.”

At this moment, Chen Changping and Han, who was holding the baby, also walked in.

Yingbao casually glanced at the baby in Han’s arms.

The child appeared to be several months old, and surprisingly, looked just like Chen Xu from her past life.