Chapter 2018 Preparation
The sky outside gradually brightened and the morning light shone in. The palace servants carefully went in and out, extinguishing the lanterns and taking them away.
The emperor and the empress silently burned the last handful of paper money. The prince stood up to burn incense and add more lamps. When he turned around a large pillar in the hall, he paused.
Eunuch Wu, who was helping the Crown Prince add more lamps, looked up and saw Zhou Man, leaning against a large pillar, sound asleep with her head resting on it. She had dragged a cushion over and placed it under her knees, but she wasn't even kneeling properly, just sitting down, one hand resting on the medicine box to her left...
Because there was a white curtain hanging in the hall, and white hemp was tied to the pillar, hanging down to block her, no one noticed that she was hiding here last night.
The prince saw that she was sleeping with her mouth slightly open and saliva about to flow out, which was really hurting his eyes, so he walked past her quickly, and gently touched her with his toes as he passed by.
Manbao woke up instantly and sat up straight. She turned her head in confusion to look at the prince's back, and when she looked up, she saw Eunuch Wu winking at her. Before she understood what was going on, Eunuch Wu ran away with the prince.
Manbao moved his body to relieve the numbness in his legs from kneeling, and after a while he stood up with the help of a pillar.
The prince added all the lamps that needed to be added to the hall. When he came back, he saw Zhou Man moving the cushion from behind the pillar and kneeling in front of it.
Just because she slept against the pillar, there were marks on half of her face.
The prince glanced at her and pretended not to see her. He walked forward and handed the lit incense to the emperor and empress.
The emperor and the empress lit a handful of incense and kowtowed before standing up hand in hand.
The emperor still had to bathe and change clothes before going to the front to meet the officials. The empress would also be meeting the officials' families soon. They would each bring their own men to mourn, so the emperor did not say much to the empress. He just pointed to Zhou Man, who was kneeling in a daze at the back, and said, "Zhou Man, take good care of the empress."
Manbao came to his senses and immediately agreed. He waited until the emperor, the empress and the prince had passed by before getting up from the mat. Then he carried the medicine box and went back to Taiji Hall with the empress.
Manbao checked the Queen's pulse. Unlike the Queen who was lazy, the Queen stayed up all night, so she was a little weak at this time.
Aunt Shang also knew this, and she would soon meet with the officials and their wives to receive imperial edicts, so she asked Manbao to check with the Queen to see if she needed any medicine.
You can't eat medicinal food at this time, because many medicinal foods that replenish qi and blood require meat and fish. So Manbao still prescribed medicine, and then asked the queen to take a bath and change clothes, gave her acupuncture, and had breakfast before taking the medicine.
After finishing all this, the queen leaned back on the couch, closed her eyes and rested, waiting for the time to go to the front to meet the officials and their wives to receive the imperial edict.
Maybe it was because she had both an acupuncture injection and took medicine, or maybe it was because she hadn't slept all night, but the queen, who usually slept lightly, fell into a deep sleep leaning against a soft pillow, because everyone heard her soft snoring, which was very rare.
So the palace servants moved more cautiously and retreated quietly.
Aunt Shang gently pulled Manbao out and said with a smile, "Let the Empress sleep for half an hour. Doctor Zhou, go have dinner first. You still have to accompany the Empress to kneel before the spirit body later."
Manbao agreed and turned to go to the side hall to eat.
When the queen woke up, everything was ready in front. The queen went to the mourning hall. The square on Taiji Palace was already filled with people standing on both sides. The emperor and the queen led the clan members to stand in front of the mourning hall. Manbao followed Aunt Shang and others to stand on the side. Across from them was the imperial physician Xiao who was in charge of taking care of the emperor.
Doctor Liu has already gone down to rest after his shift.
The Minister of Rites presided over the funeral and directed the emperor and empress to bow down. Outside, a messenger gave orders, and all officials and their families obeyed the orders and bowed down, and then the mourning began.
Manbao did not follow the Queen downstairs until noon. When she went downstairs to rest, he took the opportunity to return to the side hall of the mourning hall. This had become the temporary office and rest room of their Imperial Hospital. At this time, it was full of imperial doctors and medical assistants who were sleeping or sitting down to rest.
Zheng Gu, Zheng Shao and Doctor Liu were also there. The three of them were ordered to come in and help early in the morning. They had just finished making refreshing soup and cooling soup for people. When they saw the master come in, they immediately stepped forward.
Manbao called them forward, and the four masters and apprentices pulled out the box from under the bed. She checked the contents to make sure nothing was missing, and then asked Zheng Shao to carry it out to Eunuch Wu, asking him to have someone take it back to the East Palace for her first.
Eunuch Wu was about to send someone back to the East Palace to get the prince's change of clothes. After receiving the things, he lowered his voice and said, "His Highness asked you to keep a close eye on the Empress and the little grandson."
Manbao nodded, "I'll pay attention."
Eunuch Wu was satisfied and asked someone to take the things away before turning around and leaving.
Man Bao then turned around and arranged for his three disciples, "Zheng Gu, I have already made an appointment with Doctor Xiao. You go and help him. Zheng Shao, you go follow Doctor Zheng. Sanniang, you follow me."
The three people who could only help out by boiling medicine were arranged very neatly. The medical assistants who were still sitting and resting in the room were extremely envious, but they could only watch them go.
Manbao turned around and saw it. After thinking for a while, he went to find Doctor Xiao. "Doctor Liu said that it's not obvious today, but there will definitely be a lot of people getting sick in a couple of days. Why don't we take turns and stay in the back to get the medicine and boil it, so that those in front and behind can rest."
Doctor Xiao understood Zhou Man's intention. She wanted to train more imperial physicians, but, "All the officials, nobles, and the women of various families are in the palace. If Your Majesty is considerate, seven days will suffice. If Your Majesty is filial, nine days would be the minimum. We wouldn't know who to blame if those elderly people kneeling in the front fell ill. So we need to be fast and have excellent medical skills. These medical assistants have no experience, and if we bring them to the front, we'll have to start from scratch..."
This is also one of the important reasons why they don't like to bring inexperienced medical assistants, because as long as nothing goes wrong, they will just get a little angry at most. But if someone is delayed or something is done wrong, it is naturally not the fault of the medical assistant, but only the fault of the attending physician.
Zheng and Gu were fine. Not only had they been taught by Zhou Man to sit in the clinic for a period of time when they were at Jishiditang, they had also been in the palace for a long time to treat the palace maids and eunuchs. They were familiar with various procedures such as taking pulses, prescribing medicine, acupuncture, and boiling medicine, and they could write pulse records in a very detailed and formal manner.
But it’s different for other medical assistants.
Manbao thought for a moment and said, "So I still have to teach you."
She turned and said, "You and Doctor Liu should have taken them with you long ago, so that you won't be too busy if something happens. There may be many more such things in the future, so why not start now?"
Doctor Xiao knew that she felt that they had not trained their medical assistants well, but their medical skills were not acquired out of thin air, and those medical assistants were not their own children or nephews. They had to rely on themselves to learn things. Couldn't they have brought along what they were supposed to bring along?
Even now, he is not Zhou Manbai's apprentice. Is he willing to teach Zheng Gu or study the "Qing Nang Jing" together as she said?
Some things are hard to say, but when Doctor Xiao looked at Zhou Man, his eyes revealed everything.
Manbao understood and sighed, "Okay, then I'll choose two more medical assistants to take with me?"
Dean Xiao smiled and said, "I have no objection to Doctor Zhou being willing to take the trouble."
Manbao no longer forced him. She went in and picked out two medical assistants who she thought had good medical skills and good character, and asked them to go with her.
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
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