Chapter 114 — Died on the Spot
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu took her pulse and said, "Elder Sister, when you were practicing four months ago, did you once suffer a qi deviation? That is the root of the trouble left behind from then."
Fu Qingyun nodded repeatedly and said, "There was indeed a qi deviation. I thought it was a minor ailment and did not take it to heart."
Before anyone noticed, night had deepened, and flower lanterns rose throughout the capital, bright as day. The so-called flower streets and willow lanes were precisely the places the capital's famous scholars frequented, and some high officials and nobles were also wont to visit under cover of darkness. Nor were the flower lanes entirely places of selling the body; the deeper one went, the less it was about selling the body and the more about selling art. The flower lanes' peerless beauties, with their qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting, their poetry and song, could stir the hearts of the illustrious.
And tonight, the various notables who came to the flower lanes found only that the brothels were empty, the lanes lined with girls, yet no one plying a trade within the brothels. When they asked after their sweethearts, the answer came: "A sage physician of women's medicine has come to the Pavilion of Listening to Rain. We sisters are queued up awaiting diagnosis and have no time to ply our trade. Would the young gentleman please come again tomorrow."①
"A sage physician of women's medicine has come to the flower lanes?"
Outside the lane, from a great sedan chair, an old man in plain clothes stepped out and said in astonishment, "Go and make inquiries — how good is this sage physician of women's medicine?"
After a moment, a servant came back to report, "My lord, the girls of the flower lanes all say he is good. His medical skill is called divine."
The old man in plain clothes pondered in silence. Beside him, an advisor said in a low voice, "What my lord has in mind is that person in the palace..."
"Too many people, too many ears. Say no more."
The old man in plain clothes sighed and said, "That person in the palace has long been afflicted with illness. The imperial physicians are at their wits' end, unable even to identify the malady. I only hope to find a divine physician to prolong that life, but I fear the days remaining are few. Words alone are no proof — go and summon Imperial Physician Xiao, and have him come assess this divine physician of the flower lanes."
"Yes!"
Before long, Imperial Physician Xiao arrived and bowed, saying, "For what matter has the old lord summoned me?"
"No need for ceremony outside the flower lanes."
The old man in plain clothes explained the situation and said, "A divine physician has come to the flower lanes. I would ask Imperial Physician Xiao to go and see his abilities — whether he has the skill to treat that person in the palace."
Though Imperial Physician Xiao's hair was wholly white, his eyebrows were blue-green, and there were traces of blood in his eyes. He sneered and said, "What divine physician could there be in the flower lanes? Nothing but a charlatan fishing for fame and deceiving women and children. Why should I go to see him?"
The old man in plain clothes frowned. Imperial Physician Xiao's heart skipped, and he hastily said, "Old lord, I need not see him — I need only look at the prescriptions he has written." With that, he snatched a prescription from the hand of a flower-lane woman who had just come out from a consultation, glanced at it, and sneered, "Old lord, please look — every medicine he prescribes is of the cheapest. With such methods, how could he possibly enter the palace to treat that person?"
The old man in plain clothes said unhurriedly, "Medicine is not judged by price; all of it is a thing for treating illness and saving lives. The women of these flower lanes are no noblewomen and have little wealth. To cure illness with cheap medicine — that is true skill. Come in with me and assess him."