The donkey carrying Qian Yu and Little Qi reached the area near Yunxiu’s and Xia Qing’s house but refused to go any farther. Stepping into the territory of unfamiliar herds made them uneasy.
Ahead, three gray wolves were eyeing the newcomers with curiosity. Under the parasol tree, two tall chestnut horses were tethered. Beside the grain drying ground, a livestock pen had been hastily erected with bamboo strips. A dozen or so sheep huddled obediently together. Nearby, a few dairy cows, their black-and-white patterned coats distinctive, were unrestrained. Their bellies hung low with full udders.
Qian Yu withdrew her gaze from the dairy cows and glanced sidelong at the approaching Yang Tainan and Sun Er. Her eyes swept over them and landed on the five men, including Zhang Hejun, following behind. She scoffed coldly, “You lot really are something.”
The men’s faces twitched. They couldn’t cry, couldn’t laugh, feeling as if bugs were crawling all over them.
“Which one got bitten by the wolf?”
The man beside Zhang Hejun, the one whose leg was bitten, shuffled forward timidly, forcing a grin uglier than a cry. “Doctor Qian.”
Qian Yu dismounted. The man obediently lifted his pant leg, revealing the wound on his calf. The injury wasn’t deep. It had been carefully cleaned and had already formed a dark red scab—a typical external wound from a wild animal bite.
Qian Yu bent over to look, then straightened. She lifted the man’s chin and pulled down his eyelid to check his eyes. “Tongue,” she ordered.
The man stuck out his tongue cooperatively.
The resilience of human life was a mystery. Meticulous, fragile nurturing didn’t guarantee long life, while rough, hardy living could sometimes let one scrape through to old age. A minor wound could be fatal. A person covered in injuries, without a patch of good skin, could still survive.
A beast bite, if lucky, was just a flesh wound. Unlucky, and a secondary infection could be serious beyond prediction.
Qian Yu checked the man’s pulse, frowning at the addition of yet another patient.
Seeing Qian Yu’s furrowed brow, the man’s heart pounded with fear. When Doctor Qian smiled, it was scary. When her face fell during a pulse diagnosis, it was even scarier. His voice trembled involuntarily. “Doc… Doctor Qian, I…”
Qian Yu released his hand with a trace of disgust. “You’re perfectly fine.”
The man let out a sigh of relief, his heart dropping back into his stomach. Qian Yu looked at Yang Tainan and asked, “Where’s the other one?”
Yang Tainan didn’t react for a moment. Sun Er said, “That Village Chief is still having breakfast. I’ll take you to her.”
Hearing the commotion from the wolves, many villagers had come out with their bowls to watch the excitement. Word of the man and woman arriving on donkeys had already spread across every table inside.
Yan Baiyu guessed it was the doctor Yang Tainan mentioned who’d arrived. She glanced at Li Cunxin, who was holding her bowl with a pained expression. “Still no appetite?”
Li Cunxin truly had no appetite, but she didn’t want to waste food. Eating was like torture. “Yeah.”
Yan Baiyu looked at the bandage on her head with some concern. “If you can’t eat, don’t force it. You’ll just end up feeling sick.”
Li Cunxin said, “I’d be wasting food.”
“Give it to me,” Yan Baiyu said.
Li Cunxin looked up at Yan Baiyu helplessly. Her eyes seemed unfocused, carrying a vague, lost look, as if she hadn’t heard Yan Baiyu’s words. But in truth, she was hesitating. She felt Yan Baiyu was someone with a bit of a cleanliness fetish. Not severe—it could be set aside under harsh survival conditions—but the moment conditions allowed her a choice, she’d maintain it. For instance, every time she returned from the breeding farm, she’d change her shoes… and she never ate other people’s leftovers.
While Li Cunxin was still in a daze, Yan Baiyu had already reached out and taken her bowl of congee.
Yan Baiyu’s fingers were slender and well-proportioned. Even after years of manual labor, which had roughened them, they were still beautiful.
Watching the way she sipped the congee, slowly and deliberately, Li Cunxin licked her lips and suddenly felt hungry again. But before she could ask for another bowl, Sun Er arrived with Qian Yu.
The villagers eating inside the house were curiously sizing up the new guest. Qian Yu’s strikingly attractive face, despite its obvious fatigue, heightened their curiosity. They whispered among themselves. Their gazes weren’t hostile, but they weren’t exactly polite either.
Sun Er brought Qian Yu to Li Cunxin and introduced her, “Village Chief Li, this is Qian Yu, the doctor we mentioned.”
Then, to Qian Yu, she said, “This is the Village Chief here—Li Cunxin.”
Li Cunxin stood and gave Qian Yu a slight nod. “Hello.” She couldn’t help but examine Qian Yu, just like the villagers inside.
Qian Yu’s eyes were a light brown, not very noticeable indoors. Because her eye sockets were deep, at first glance she looked a bit like a mixed-race foreigner.
Qian Yu wasn’t one for small talk and had no intention of exchanging pleasantries. She said to Li Cunxin, “Sit.”
Sun Er explained, “She can take a look at that head wound for you.”
“Oh.” Li Cunxin nodded and quickly sat back down.
Qian Yu examined the bandage on her head and frowned. “Who wrapped this? It’s a mess.”
Off to the side, Yunxiu: “…”
Sun Er smiled and said, “Doctor Qian isn’t normally like this. It’s just… there’s been so much going on lately. She’s exhausted, so her patience has worn a bit thin.”
Standing outside peering in, Zhang Hejun and the others’ faces involuntarily twitched. It was true that people became irritable when overly tired. But even on a good day, Qian Yu’s temper wasn’t much better.
She was the only person in their entire village who dared to, and could, snap at everyone. She’d even gripe at a passing donkey if she found it displeasing.
Li Cunxin nodded in understanding at Sun Er’s words, but before her head could bob down, Qian Yu’s hand caught it, holding it still.
Qian Yu unwound her bandage and leaned in slightly, scrutinizing the wound on her forehead.
They were barely inches apart. Li Cunxin noticed that Qian Yu wore a beige silk shirt underneath—a bit old now. The windbreaker she had on was relatively clean compared to Zhang Hejun’s group’s clothing.
Li Cunxin asked, “Doctor Qian, you came awfully early. Have you two had breakfast yet? If not, why don’t you make do with some of ours for now?”
Qian Yu said, “Stick out your tongue.”
Li Cunxin stuck out her tongue. Qian Yu glanced at her tongue coating. When Qian Yu looked away, Li Cunxin pulled her tongue back and asked again, “Doctor Qian, are you a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, or modern medicine?”
Qian Yu said, “Your hand.”
Li Cunxin extended her hand. Qian Yu rested her fingers on Li Cunxin’s wrist to take her pulse. This stance—even without Qian Yu saying anything—told Li Cunxin she was a TCM doctor. Curiously, she asked again, “Doctor Qian, did you study this in your past life, or did you pick the ‘Medicine’ talent after arriving here?”
Qian Yu’s half-lowered eyes, focused on the pulse, slid over to Li Cunxin. “What?”
Li Cunxin: “Nothing.”
Qian Yu said flatly, “Shut up.”
“…” Li Cunxin wisely pressed her lips shut.
After finishing the pulse diagnosis, Qian Yu asked, “Do you feel dazed, with heavy limbs and no strength?”
Li Cunxin said, “Seems like it.”
“Loss of appetite?”
“A bit.”
Qian Yu said, “The brain’s vessels are damaged.”
At this, it was Yang Tainan’s group—the side responsible for Li Cunxin’s injury—who became more concerned about her condition. Sun Er quickly asked, “Is it serious?”
Qian Yu was silent for a moment, then said dismissively, “Not a problem, as long as there’s medicine.”
Yunxiu, standing nearby, asked, “What medicine does she need? How should it be taken?”
Yan Baiyu had already gotten up and walked to the table where the tea set was kept. On that table were the paper and inksticks Li Cunxin had received from Shen Hu the previous night. She pulled out a sheet of paper and took down one inkstick. Walking back, she said, “Yu Muyang, go to the cooking shed and find a small porcelain dish and a pair of clean chopsticks.”
Yu Muyang acknowledged and left. Yan Baiyu brought the paper and inkstick to Qian Yu and said, “Doctor Qian, please, whatever herbs you need, how to prepare them… could you write them down? What you don’t have, we might. And what we don’t have, we can still search for.” She’d caught the implication in Qian Yu’s earlier words: they were short on medicine.
Qian Yu took the paper and ink, holding them up to look at them for a moment. She let out a very faint, almost wistful laugh. “You even have the leisure to make paper and ink.”
Sun Er was also a bit surprised to see this, but she’d already seen so many surprises in this village—from these brick houses and the livestock to the staple foods at dinner last night—that her expression barely changed. Actually, when she thought about it, in this bizarre place, the unexpected was just another form of normal.
Yu Muyang brought the empty dish and chopsticks. Sun Er ground the inkstick for Qian Yu at the side. Using the chopsticks, Qian Yu dipped them in the ink and began writing on the paper.
Even though the chopsticks weren’t thick, bamboo couldn’t hold ink well. To prevent the characters from turning into blobs, she had to write them large.
Watching from the side, Li Cunxin mused, “I wonder who knows how to make brushes. Miao Bing… maybe? We should get some brushes made soon. Writing with bamboo skewers and chopsticks dipped in ink all the time is just unseemly.”
Miao Bing said, “I can make the handles fine, but the brush tip… Tang Jiang deals with hides and fur. He might know. Go ask him.”
While the two were chatting, Qian Yu had finished writing a prescription. Yan Baiyu and Yunxiu stood on either side, looking at it. They could see the formula was called the Spleen-Restoring Decoction. But of the herbs listed, they didn’t have a single one.
Qian Yu handed the prescription to Yan Baiyu, who took it. Yunxiu came over to look. Li Cunxin also curiously leaned in. Except for Li Cunxin, who watched like an unconcerned bystander, Yan Baiyu and Yunxiu both wore grave expressions.
A glance at their faces, and Qian Yu understood they had no medicine here either. She switched to another piece of paper and wrote as she spoke. “Some food ingredients can also promote Qi flow and blood circulation. If you have them here, you can use them to regulate her system through diet.”
After finishing, she handed it to Li Cunxin. “Until she recovers, don’t overwork her brain.”
Li Cunxin took it. “Thank you.”
Qian Yu turned back to Sun Er. “I’m heading back. Have Little Qi come with me and later send over some Angelica Sinensis and Safflower. It’ll help with her Qi stagnation and blood stasis.”
Li Cunxin casually handed the dietary prescription to Yu Muyang nearby and said, “Doctor Qian is leaving already? Please, stay for a simple meal.” This woman was far too brisk—appeared, barely sat down, and now was leaving already?
Qian Yu said, “No. I have many patients waiting for me.”
With Qian Yu saying that, Li Cunxin couldn’t press her to stay. She escorted Qian Yu out with a touch of regret.
Over there, Yu Muyang was looking at the food prescription alongside Xia Qing. He exclaimed in pleasant surprise, “Hey! Radish! We have that! Cinnamon bark, ginger… we have those too! And garlic!”
Qian Yu’s steps halted. She turned to stare at Yu Muyang.
Li Cunxin followed Qian Yu’s gaze to him. “Doctor Qian, is something wrong?”
Qian Yu asked, “You have garlic here?”
“We do.” Li Cunxin walked over to the table, picked up a peeled clove of garlic Yu Muyang and the others had prepared for their noodles, and offered it to Qian Yu.
Qian Yu held it in her hand, staring at it for a long time.
Li Cunxin said, “Does Doctor Qian like garlic? I can give you some.”
Qian Yu looked at Li Cunxin intently. “How much do you have?”
“Quite a bit.” Li Cunxin said. They’d been planting garlic for several cycles now. Since many people liked eating raw garlic with noodles, and it was an essential seasoning for cooking and pickling, and Yunxiu liked making sauce with it, consumption was high. So each time they planted, they increased the amount considerably.
Qian Yu asked, “Can you give me all of it?”
Li Cunxin: “Uh…” You’re not very shy about asking, are you.
