It wasn't uncommon for physicians to experiment on themselves; when Qi Yue was in school, she even knew classmates who practiced giving injections on themselves. However, what Liu Pucheng was doing was incomparable.
Their practice was harmless, just a bit of pain at most. But Liu Pucheng was playing with his life!
"Are you insane!" Qi Yue cried out, her voice trembling. "Never mind the pain, what if the wound gets infected? Is risking your life for an unknown medicine worth it? Doctor Liu, I told you, this medicine will be developed someday. Why must you insist on this...?"
Liu Pucheng smiled, adjusting his robes.
"It is worth it," he said softly. "Even if we don't find it, it proves which paths are unusable, saving future generations some choices. We who heal fear not pain, but blindness on the road ahead. Madam has already pointed the way for us; that is enough. No matter how many detours we take, the right path will eventually be found."
Qi Yue looked at him, unable to speak, vibrating with shock, excitement, and overwhelming admiration.
This was a healer. This was the Way of Medicine. For doctors like them, medicine was not just a profession; it was life itself.
She looked down at the porcelain bottle of medicine Liu Pucheng handed her.
She recalled reading that Li Shizhen had tasted hundreds of herbs to formulate anesthetics, nearly dying from poisoning several times. In the eyes of these medical forebears, such trials were not great matters, but simply what they were meant to do, what they had to do—to try without hesitation if there was even a sliver of hope, even if it yielded nothing.
Perhaps the Way of Medicine cared less for the result and more for the process: whether one dared, whether one would, and how one would proceed.
The sounds of weeping and shouting from over here struck Qi Yue once more.
When a healer sees a patient, the first consideration is not if they can be saved, but how to save them...
"A'Ru," she turned and called out loudly.
A'Ru, who had been watching anxiously, hurried over at Qi Yue's summons.
"Hu San, prepare water and wine," Qi Yue instructed, pulling on the gown A'Ru held out.
Hu San was still reeling from the shock of discovering Qi Yue's true identity. His senior apprentice nudged him before he snapped back to attention.
"Yes, Master!" he shouted, raising his hand toward the people around them. "Everyone please make way! Who can take me to boil water?"
His voice was booming, drowning out the crying, shouting, and conversations of the other doctors in the room.
All eyes turned, landing on Qi Yue now clothed in her strange attire.
"Please, everyone step outside. I need to conduct a thorough examination of the injured. Please clear the area," Qi Yue announced loudly.
The people in the room froze.
"What more nonsense is this? Don't embarrass us here with your appearance," Madam Xie muttered, frowning at Qi Yue.
Because the courtyard was fully equipped for a physician, Hu San quickly returned with water and wine.
Qi Yue ignored Madam Xie, washing her hands with water and then wiping them with wine. A'Ru handed her gloves, which she donned, and then Qi Yue strode toward the patient.
"Young Mistress, you..." The Prefect, whose face was covered in grime, stared at her in astonishment.
"I want to try," Qi Yue said, stopping before the patient writhing on the bed. "Be good now, lie still so Auntie... no, let me see..."
The patient was a child just over ten years old, already delirious from the pain and oblivious to her words.
"Help me hold him down," Qi Yue commanded.
The Prefect and his wife stood closest. They paused at her words. The Prefect's wife struggled to hold the child's head steady.
"Young Mistress, I beg you..." she choked out, looking at Qi Yue.
With his wife's movement, the Prefect sat down and held the child's legs.
"I will do my best," Qi Yue muffled through her mask, taking the stethoscope A'Ru handed her. "Does it hurt here? Here?"
With each touch, the child let out a cry of agony.
"Doctor, please give him something more for the pain," the Prefect's wife pleaded, tears streaming down her face.
"No. I need to find the critical injury. I cannot dull the pain," Qi Yue countered, pressing down steadily on the patient's chest and abdomen. With each pressure, the child's cries rose in pitch.
Without instruments, all they had were hands and ears.
It was too cruel. Everyone else in the room, including the other doctors, couldn't help but look away.
"That's too rough; she'll injure him even if he wasn't already hurt," one doctor muttered quietly.
But then, the most piercing scream yet erupted.
"Is it here?" Qi Yue stopped her movements, as if discovering a new continent, and pressed down again happily.
The child let out a shriek, curling up tightly despite his parents holding him down.
The Prefect's wife nearly fainted, wishing she could kneel before Qi Yue.
"How does it feel?" Qi Yue asked.
The child, consumed by pain, could only cry out and scream; he couldn't articulate the sensation.
"You... b*stard..." his shrieks were interspersed with curses.
Qi Yue paid no mind. Based on the site of the pain, body characteristics, blood pressure, and stethoscope findings, she was fairly certain it was a ruptured spleen. What puzzled her, however, was that the internal bleeding seemed to have stabilized according to the symptoms.
"I administered a decoction to stop the bleeding," Liu Pucheng explained from the side.
"Excellent!" Qi Yue clenched her fist and looked at Liu Pucheng. "I have some sutures. I can operate on him immediately, but I will need assistants."
Liu Pucheng nodded.
"It is my honor," he replied.
"Master, I can help too," Hu San quickly called out.
The senior apprentice hesitated. A doctor's techniques were always closely guarded secrets, never taught outside the immediate school; since they hadn't been specifically invited, he, as a mere apprentice to the master who was invited...
"Good. A'Ru, take them to change and disinfect," Qi Yue instructed.
A'Ru nodded.
"Follow me," she said, turning toward the door.
Liu Pucheng and Hu San quickly followed. The senior apprentice stood frozen for a moment, then gritted his teeth and trailed after them. Missing this chance to witness miraculous skill firsthand—even losing face couldn't stop him.
"Everyone outside, please. I need to prepare the operating area," Qi Yue called out loudly, raising her hand.
The room was in chaos.
"Is she really going to open his abdomen?" everyone buzzed.
For ordinary folk, cutting into a person's belly meant certain death. For the doctors, their theory suggested it was possible, but it existed only in books—something ancient and almost legendary. They had never seen it practiced. Where did this young woman get the medical knowledge to dare attempt such a thing?
"Hurry out, everyone out!" The Prefect, whose only concern was his son's survival, immediately began ushering people away at Qi Yue's words.
When he spoke, Marquis Dingxi also seemed to snap back to reality, directing the almost stupefied servants to clear the area. Soon, everyone was forced out.
Qi Yue began directing the servants to set up the operating theater. This time, without reliance on prepared medication, every movement had to be perfect and careful.
Two tables were pushed together in the center of the main hall.
A'Ru returned with Liu Pucheng and Hu San, who had completed disinfection.
"I don't have any anti-inflammatory drugs. I need a medicinal soup that can disinfect, fight bacteria, and reduce inflammation. There must be something in Chinese medicine for that, right?" Qi Yue asked Liu Pucheng.
"Disinfect, fight bacteria, reduce inflammation?" Liu Pucheng frowned, unfamiliar with these terms.
"Yes, yes, medicine for symptoms like carbuncles, sores, and rot... for example... for example..." Qi Yue anxiously sifted through the TCM vocabulary she knew. "Like Zihuading!"
She spoke the name, but the faces of those before her remained blank.
"Zihuading? What is that?" Liu Pucheng asked, frowning.
"Huh?" Now it was Qi Yue's turn to be bewildered. "Don't you have it here? It's just an herb."
"Never heard of it," Liu Pucheng shook his head.
Qi Yue felt foolish.
"However, for treating things like carbuncles, sores, and rot, I often use bitter herb (Ku Shen), Phellodendron bark (Huang Bai), and Cnidium fruit (Shechuang Zi)," Liu Pucheng continued. "I wonder if those would work."
Work or not, I don't know, Qi Yue murmured inwardly. Time was short; they had to treat a dying horse as if it might live. They would try.
Liu Pucheng immediately contemplated and wrote a prescription, handing it to his senior apprentice to quickly prepare the brew.
Meanwhile, Qi Yue began explaining potential surgical complications and necessary preparations to Liu Pucheng.
"Even though the bleeding has stopped, there will definitely be blood inside the cavity. Without a siphon, we'll have to use gauze and cotton balls," Qi Yue stated.
Hu San quickly jotted this down.
"And then, anti-shock measures..." Qi Yue continued.
After these few interactions, Liu Pucheng was growing accustomed to her terminology. He understood the meaning of shock.
"Renshen Sini Tang," he immediately instructed Hu San, who stood nearby.
Hu San scribbled furiously. Hearing Qi Yue urge him to hurry, he flew out with A'Ru.
Soon, all preparations for the surgery were complete. However, an unexpected complication arose during the clearing of the room.
The Prefect and his wife adamantly refused to leave, insisting on watching their son's surgery firsthand.
"Your presence will distract me. You cannot bear to see blood and flesh; you will be frightened..." Qi Yue tried to persuade them patiently.
"But if I don't watch, I simply cannot feel at ease," the Prefect's wife cried.
Everyone said the same thing. Yet, even for modern people, despite the overwhelming flow of information, witnessing a scene of surgery could be shocking. Never mind ancient people who had never seen medicine this bloody. Think of A'Ru's mother that other time—she fainted instantly from fright.
Qi Yue explained with patient restraint.
"But no matter what, if I don't watch with my own eyes, I won't be reassured," the Prefect's wife finally voiced her true feelings.
The Prefect expressed the same conviction with a resolute expression.
"If that is the case, then please take your son and leave," Chang Yuncheng's voice carried from the back of the crowd.
The crowd parted, and Qi Yue saw Chang Yuncheng walking toward them step by step.
"Since you are unwilling to trust her, then seek expertise elsewhere," he approached, stopping on the steps, and said.
The Prefect and his wife were made extremely awkward by his words.
"How dare you speak like that," Madam Xie scolded her son for the first time, unable to stop herself. She didn't know why she had suddenly spoken this way. In her eyes and heart, whatever Chang Yuncheng did was always right; her duty was simply to listen without question, never needing to think. Perhaps it was because her own son was speaking up for this woman...
Madam Xie's heart churned with complex emotions. She glanced at Chang Yuncheng, then at Qi Yue standing opposite him, and quickly looked away as if stung.