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Translator: Silavin
Hansheng laughed inwardly. There was a formula in the Classic of the Black Satchel specifically for treating Ghost Foetuses.
[Why not give it a try?] Thinking this, he closed his eyes and tried hard to recall the composition of that prescription.
The Classic said that Evil Yin invading the foetus is called Ghost Foetus, which can be cured using water from the ‘River of the Milky Way’. That would be stagnant water taken from bamboo fences or hollow tree cavities. Use three live Mole Crickets, with removed wings and legs, and boil them in the Milky Way Water. One dose would be able to eliminate it.
Hansheng secretly jumped up, grabbed the flashlight from the table. He found an empty bottle, then slipped out of the thatched house on the pretext of relieving himself. There, he came to the bamboo forest behind the house.
He figured there must be cut bamboo stumps in the bamboo forest behind the house, with rainwater accumulated inside the bamboo cavities. [There should be Milky Way Water here. Mole Crickets are plentiful in the fields during summer and autumn. Catching a few should be as easy as turning over my hand.]
Sure enough, after walking a short distance, he found several bamboo stumps under the beam of his flashlight. As they had been cut long ago, they were filled with yellowish brown rainwater, with dozens of mosquito larvae swimming in it.
Hansheng filled the small bottle, which should be enough. Next was to catch the Mole Crickets.
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Hansheng walked back and forth in the bamboo forest with his flashlight, but he couldn’t see even a shadow of a Mole Cricket. Unlike ordinary crickets, Mole Crickets do not chirp. In other words, they could not be caught by tracing sound coming out from them. He could only rely on his eyes to search for them as he made his way deeper into the bamboo forest.
The small path through the forest was winding and secluded. Under the flashlight, insects like crickets and Longhorn Beetles occasionally leaped across his path. Sometimes, he would spot one or two toads crawling slowly, their eyes glowing red.
Without realising it, Hansheng walked farther and farther. He even eventually left the bamboo forest. Ahead was a small flat area, where many Fireflies were flashing green as they flaoted about.
The distant mountains appear hazy in the moonlight. At that time, a patch of white mist drifted in from somewhere, gradually spreading along the ground.
A faint *rustle*, and a small black dot flew over his head towards the mist.
[A Mole Cricket!] Hansheng knew that Mole Crickets had wings and could briefly fly. So, he hurriedly chased after it.
The Mole Cricket appeared and disappeared in the mist. Ahead, there was a crack in the surface of the ground, and a large group of black Mole Crickets were constantly moving in and out of the opening…
Hansheng was overjoyed. He approached the prey stealthily, but just as he was about to grab them, he suddenly felt something was wrong. He paused and looked around. He suddenly realised he was in an area of abandoned graves.
Before him was a new grave, with grass only an centimetres long on the mound. A thin stone slab stood in front of the grave, and under the moonlight, he could faintly see the name of the deceased carved on the stone: ‘Tomb of Shen Caihua’.
There was no date or name of the relatives who erected this tombstone. [Strange… the Family did not allow her to be buried in the Ancestral Gravesite, but buried her in this abandoned graveyard. According to local customs, this woman must have died under suspicious circumstances…]
[Wait! Could this be where that pregnant woman fainted!? That abandoned graveyard where Yin Energy invaded the womb to form a Ghost Foetus might be here?] Although Hansheng had never treated patients on his own, he knew a thing or two about general pathology. Usually, a pregnant woman’s immune system was very weak. Various factors like wind, cold, and evil toxins could easily invade a Mother’s body and affect the foetus.
Graveyards generally have heavy Yin Energy, and pregnant women should have completely avoided approaching them.
For all poisons, there must be something within a few metres that could counteract it. For that woman in labour who could not deliver, injured by the Yin Energy of this graveyard, the ideal solution would be to find something nearby to counteract it.
After all, the essence of thousands of years of Chinese medicine was the mutual generation and restriction of the Five Elements, and the balance of Yin and Yang.
Hansheng understood now, thinking that this group of Mole Crickets might be just the thing to counteract that Yin Energy here. [This might be why they are needed in the solution written in the Classic.]
At that moment, from the cracked earth by the grave, a stream of black energy slowly rose from the ground, enveloping Hansheng.
※※※
Inside the thatched house, Doctor Zhu paced back and forth in the room. He had just poured the decocted medicine into the pregnant woman’s mouth, and was now waiting to see the results.
That young Hansheng said he was going to relieve himself, and had left the medicine while it was boiling aside. He still had not returned. When he thought of how Hansheng was so callous, he got gloomy. After all, which Master would be happy when their apprentice did not have the qualities to be a doctor? This was the worst news to him since it means the Zhu Family would have no successor.
Just as he was thinking this, a shout came from inside the house: “Doctor Zhu, come quickly!” It was the anxious voice of the pregnant woman’s Husband.
Doctor Zhu rushed into the inner room and was shocked to see the pregnant woman’s bare lower body convulsing uncontrollably. There were even bluish green bruises appearing on her skin.
This was a horrendous sign. It was signs of subcutaneous capillary rupture! How could this happen!? He had never encountered such a situation before!
Urgently, Doctor Zhu pulled out silver needles and simultaneously punctured the pregnant woman’s four major acupoints: Qihai, Xuehai, Jimen, and Yingu.
After a moment, the woman’s convulsions gradually stopped, but the subcutaneous bleeding was getting worse.
Doctor Zhu broke out in a sweat.
※※※
The black corpse gas surrounded Hansheng and was continuously being inhaled by him. However, Hansheng remained none the wiser. He focused solely on capturing the scattered and burrowing Mole Crickets. He quickly caught three or four, then tore off their wings and thin legs, throwing them into the glass bottle filled with Milky Way Water.
Hansheng did not know that when he had fainted at the thousand year old tomb the night before, dozens of White Mountain Beard mycelia had entered his body through his nostrils. That thousand year old White Mountain Beard was the nemesis of the world’s most toxic red corpse gas. Thus, mere ordinary black corpse gas could do nothing to him.
Just then, Hansheng seemed to hear a long hoarse sigh near his ear.
He stood there as a cool breeze passed by, hearing the rustling of the bamboo tops. He thought, [Maybe it was just an illusion? Who would be in an abandoned graveyard in the middle of the night?]
Hansheng gripped the bottle in his hand and excitedly retraced his steps. Before long, he could see the thatched house.
There was no one in the kitchen area. An empty medicine pot sat on the stove. It was clear the medicine must have already been brewed and taken inside.
Hansheng dumped out the dreg in the pot and poured in all the Milky Way Water and Mole Crickets from his glass bottle. He put it on the stove and started the fire.
Hansheng entered the inner room to find it in chaos – the pregnant woman had vomited the medicine she had drunk all over the bed.
“Hansheng, quickly go brew another pot,” Doctor Zhu glanced at Hansheng and hurriedly instructed, with no time to scold him.
“Okay, I got it,” Hansheng agreed and retreated to the kitchen to watch his medicine pot.
[That graveyard is a bit strange…] Hansheng thought as he watched the Mole Crickets tumbling over and over in the pot as the water temperature rose. Some red string-like things floated to the surface, they were the carcasses of mosquito larvae.
[Could that long sigh have come from that crack in the grave? But how could a dead person sigh?]
※※※
“Hansheng, is the medicine ready? Bring it here, quickly!” His Father’s call for help interrupted Hansheng’s thoughts.
Hansheng strained the medicine into a bowl and carefully carried it into the room.
The pregnant woman’s lower body was covered in blood. Her skin was swollen and bruised. She was barely breathing. Her husband was crouched in the corner, head in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
Doctor Zhu opened the woman’s mouth, and Hansheng gently blew on the spoonful of medicine to cool it before pouring it in. After feeding her a bowl of medicine, Hansheng returned to the kitchen and dumped the Mole Cricket residue from the pot into the courtyard.
[Oh Classic of the Black Satchel, I hope you can save this dying woman.] Hansheng silently prayed.
In a moment, Doctor Zhu was surprised to find that the blue swelling on the pregnant woman’s body was gradually subsiding…
Hansheng stood in the courtyard, looking up at the night sky. The stars were twinkling, the Milky Way was hazy, and a shooting star streaked across the sky, leaving a long tail.
Back then, the divine doctor Hua Tuo probably also stood at the prison gate, watching shooting stars on the horizon, lamenting with a heart full of compassion for humanity. It was definitely frustrating that his unfulfilled life’s ambition had to stop there .
“Wah!” The first cry of a newborn came from inside the house.
This sound reached Hansheng’s ears like celestial music. He jumped up and rushed into the house like a gust of wind.
Seeing his Father’s relieved expression and the joyful tearful look on the pregnant woman’s Husband’s face, Hansheng could not help but tear up as well.
“It’s a girl.” His Father said wearily.
The woman was half-reclining on the bed, contentedly holding her newborn baby. She did not seem to have known that she had just been at death’s door.
“Thank you, Doctor Zhu. You saved both Mother and Daughter,” the man said repeatedly, not even bothering to wipe away his tears.
“That was close,” his Father said to Hansheng as he sat by the table drinking tea.
Seeing his Father’s happy expression, Hansheng felt very overjoyed. [Classic of the Black Satchel, you really didn’t let me down!]
“Hansheng, what are you smiling about?” his Father looked at Hansheng curiously.
“Nothing, Dad. I suddenly feel that when a doctor saves a dying patient, there’s an indescribable joy in his heart,” Hansheng sincerely sighed.
“Yes. That’s why it’s called ‘to practise medicine means helping the people.’ It’s a pity you don’t study diligently. Haaaa… I’m afraid our Zhu Family’s hereditary medical skills will end in my generation,” his Father lamented.
[Hey, that’s not necessarily the case. Maybe the student will surpass the Master?] Hansheng thought to himself.
That night, Doctor Zhu and his Son stayed at the pregnant woman’s home. Having worked continuously for two days and two nights, Doctor Zhu was exhausted/ He began snoring shortly after going to bed.
The bright moonlight shone through the window. Hansheng lay with his eyes open, not feeling sleepy at all.
From now on, his fate would be changed because of the Classic of the Black Satchel.
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