Mei Niang had already brought some pastries from home, but Jian Ning and Ding Youtian were away, so neither the four little ones nor Qiao Feng dared to take any. Even Er Niu waved them off, saying she wasn't hungry.
Before coming here, Jian Ning told them to follow the rules and be polite, and they all remembered it.
"Sister, your children are really well-educated. I think they will not eat anything without your permission."
Seeing Jian Ning approaching with Doctor Gan, Mei Niang stepped forward with a smile and stood half a meter away from her. "Sister, you are truly a living Bodhisattva. It's only been a short while. My husband said he feels more relaxed and his complexion is a little better."
"Sister, how can I thank you? I feel really bad that you can't even drink water after coming here."
"Sister, you're being too polite. I'm a doctor, and curing illnesses and saving lives is a medical practitioner's duty. Sister, you're pregnant, so you'd better be cautious. Don't drink the water in the city until it's purified. I have some water in my backpack, I'll get it for you."
Before coming this morning, Jian Ning had filled two bags of spiritual spring water with her water bag. She went to her room and refilled the two bags with water. She gave one to Mei Niang and one to Qiao Feng, "Sister, use the water in here when you cook."
"Qiaofeng," she told Qiaofeng, "You guys don't need to wear the hats on your clothes anymore. Eat a few of the cakes Aunt Mei brought you. Just stay here and don't go anywhere. Keep an eye on Yaoyao and Jiajia."
"Yes, Master."
Qiaofeng handed the water bag to Dabao, then she went to get some cakes and distributed them to the four of them. She also gave two pieces to Jian Ning, and then took Dabao and the others to sit by the charcoal brazier and eat the cakes quietly.
"Sister, I'm going to the inner room to test the newly collected blood samples. Don't let anyone in. If anything happens, just call me."
"Don't worry, I won't let anyone disturb my sister."
Jian Ning nodded to Doctor Gan and said, "Uncle Gan, please do as you please. I'll come back later."
Gan Lang was curious about how she was going to test the blood sample, but he also knew that the secret direction was never revealed, so he nodded and smiled, "Go ahead, I'll take care of it here, you go and do your own thing."
Jian Ning returned to her room, locked the door, and went to the Baicaojian medical warehouse. Testing revealed the presence of specific antibodies in the serum of the woman and her daughter, including IgM, IgG, and IgE. Before she collected the blood samples, the mother and daughter had not received any treatment for the disease, and the positive results for specific antibodies were crucial for confirming schistosomiasis infection.
However, the serum couldn't detect the Gu worms. Jane Ning had never had the opportunity to come into contact with them before, so she thought that the serum of the patient with liver and abdominal swelling could detect it. In fact, it could only detect a high cross-reaction.
After thinking for a while, she decided to find a seriously ill patient outside the yamen, anesthetize him and bring him into the herb room for a colonoscopy to see if the disease could be detected.
As she was about to open the door and leave, a light bulb suddenly lit up in her head. She had given Yang Jinyu the medical book that Grandma Wu had given her, and Yang Jinyu had copied it and returned it to her. She vaguely remembered that the book had a record about poisonous insects.
Because witchcraft has always been very mysterious, including the black magic in Thailand, Jane Ning used to be a staunch atheist and did not believe in these things other than science, so she would just glance at them occasionally.
She found the medical book in the herb room, flipped open the book, and found the passage. It actually described a method for verifying whether a Gu worm was in her body, and it was incredibly simple. It was incredible! All she had to do was hold a soybean in her mouth for about two minutes. If the bean skin swelled and fell off in her mouth, like a bean that had been soaked for a long time, she could be sure she had a Gu worm.
Otherwise, it is intact.
What cannot be detected by serum can be done with just a soybean. If the experimental results are really like this, she only wants to say one thing: it’s really awesome!
Jian Ning came out of the room and saw that most of the doctors who had gone back to the store to get herbal samples had come back, and Qin Yifan was arranging people to lead them to distribute them door to door.
"Uncle Gan, can you please talk to me for a moment?" Jian Ning called Doctor Gan aside. "Have you ever heard of poisonous insects? Are there Miao people here in Baiya County..." Jian Ning was not sure whether they were called Miao people in ancient times, but when he mentioned poisonous insects, Doctor Gan's face became serious.
"To be honest, this is what I was wondering about earlier." He stroked his beard, pondered for a moment, and raised his eyebrows. "This Gu disease came on so violently and so quickly that it really puzzled me. At first, I just wondered if someone had tampered with it."
At this point, he looked around, waved his hand to signal Jian Ning to take a few steps to the side, and then lowered his voice and said, "You may not know that the county magistrate used a trick a while ago, causing several grain merchants in the city to hoard grain at high prices and suffer heavy losses. It's hard to guarantee that some of them won't bear a grudge and use strong medicine to frame the county magistrate by taking advantage of the Gu disease."
"Is there anyone here who can raise Gu?" Jian Ning also lowered his voice.
"I have heard that the Ganao people (now the Miao people) are good at raising witchcraft, but the emperors of all dynasties have issued clear decrees to ban the practice, especially the current emperor. As a result, the Ganao people were almost exterminated, and now they are called the Guoxiong people, not far from here."
"It is said that the Guoxiong tribe no longer practices Gu, and the tradition has been lost. Young lady, do you suspect someone has cast a Gu? But what did the test reveal?"
Jane Ning shook her head. She had originally thought Uncle Gan was a local and wanted to ask him if he knew that soybeans could be used to detect insect poisoning. As a doctor, everyone cherishes their reputation. If she acted rashly and the soybeans proved ineffective, the patient's suspicions would be minor, but affecting their subsequent treatment cooperation would be even more disastrous.
After some deliberation, Jian Ning decided to trust the medical book, which had been given to her by her master, Grandma Wu. Furthermore, the appearance and accent of the people of Zhuling County struck Jian Ning as remarkably similar to those from Yunnan. Geographically, they also resembled Yunnan, where the Miao ethnic group was predominant. In her past understanding of witchcraft, the Miao and the Miao were inextricably linked.
"I wonder if there are soybeans in my sister's house?" Jian Ning asked.
"Why, sister, do you want to eat tofu?"
"No, just a few will do. I want to use them for an experiment."
"I'll send someone to get it right away."
Qin Yifan and Sanniang's official residence was originally in the main hall of the county government office. The legal advisor lived in the East Flower Hall, and the county magistrate lived in the West Flower Hall. After Qin Yifan brought his parents in, old Qin was not used to living in the official residence. The food problem was solved, and the money he got from selling the house was returned, so he used the money to buy another house near the county government office. The official residence became Qin Yifan's office and dormitory.
The maidservant beside Mei Niang quickly brought the soybeans. Jian Ning put one in his mouth, and Qin Yifan, Mei Niang and Doctor Gan each put one in their mouth.
She estimated that after about two minutes, she asked several people to spit out the beans in their mouths. Except for the beans in Qin Yifan's mouth, whose skin was swollen and peeling off as if they had been soaked, the beans in the other three's mouths were intact.
"That's strange. Could this be the method used to check if someone has been poisoned by a Gu insect?"
Qin Yifan heard Doctor Gan make a "hmm" sound when he heard the insect, then raised an eyebrow and looked at him, then looked at Jian Ning, "Did someone poison me this time?"
Jian Ning was startled, then said, "From your tone, it seems you know who cast the curse?"
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