Chapter 188: Chapter 184: Back Again_1
Translator: 549690339
Yingbao glanced over the dicine cabinets; each cabinet was lined with compartnts, each compartnt labeled with three different herb nas.
Each compartnt housed three different herbs, their nas written on the compartnt’s facade.
The commonly used herbs were placed in the central and upper level of the compartnts, 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 compartnts 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 compartnts. Examples include Magnetite, Ocher, Athyst, Dragon Bone and Dragon Teeth, Oyster, and so on.
The loosest and most frequently used herbs are housed in the large compartnts 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 nas one by one, and Li Xihua pulled open each compartnt 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 dicine cabinet, she learned to identify each herb’s scent, color, and shape by slling 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 rember 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 ti.
Only Yingbao diligently kept record of the herb nas in her notebook using charcoal.
To reinforce her mory, 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 ntor this child, to teach her dicine and herb recognition. The letter also ntioned her intelligent nature and predicted a successful future.
Doctor Li had rushed over to the Jiang family to et this little girl after receiving the letter. He was pleasantly surprised at her discipline and self-control at such a young age.
“Yingbao, co here.” Doctor Li sat down in a chair and beckoned Yingbao over, asking, “What dical 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 fundantal knowledge for studying dicine and should be morized.
She has only read through these books once, barely morized a few, and only wrote down a few prescriptions.
Doctor Li nodded, “Well then, let ask you a question. What does it an, ‘One who cures illnesses must understand the principles of heaven and earth’?”
Yingbao thought for a mont, 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 segnts 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 dicinal alcohol and a needle and thread from the dical box his grandson brought over.
First, the wound was cleaned with dicinal wine, then the needle was ward over a candle fla, threaded with sheep’s intestine, and used by Doctor Li to suture the wound of the young boy.
After stitching, a layer of dicinal powder was applied, and only then was it wrapped up tightly with clean strips of cloth from the dicine box.
“I’ll prescribe a flesh-renewing decoction for you. After returning ho, 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 dicine cost?”
Li Lin replied, “The external and internal dicine together will cost eighty-five coins.”
“Ah? That much” the middle-aged man said with difficulty, “Doctor, I, I only brought thirty coins with ”
Doctor Li waved his hand and said to his grandson, “Prepare his dicine.”
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 imdiately 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, “Sotis they do, sotis they don’t.”
Such an act was repeated every few days and she was accustod to it.
Yingbao pondered over it thoughtfully.
It seed that the plaque in the dical hall with the words “healing the world” was not an empty claim.
The days passed by, filled with Yingbao learning to identify dicines and seeing patients.
The sumr harvest ended quickly, and the town began to liven up.
Several portly grain rchants set up scales and asuring cups on both sides of the town’s streets, and began to buy sumr grain.
Many villagers queued up to sell their baskets of wheat, arguing intermittently with the grain rchants.
The bone of contention was that the grain rchants claid 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 rchants 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 ti, the town’s streets were jamd with a chaotic crowd, blocking the roads and hindering the movent of several horse-drawn carriages.
Yingbao, peering from the counter towards the excitent 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 dical hall.
“Doctor! Doctor Li!” Old Chen Lao hurried into the dical 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 t with Yingbao’s.
“You…” Chen Zhao montarily 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 mont, 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.
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