14 Alkali poisoning
◎Wake up! Breathe in my rhythm◎
Chu Yufu was just about to leave when a sleet began to fall. Lanzhu dug out an oil-paper umbrella from the house, and they left. The ground was wet and muddy, mixed with rain and snow. Chu Yufu happened to be wearing an off-white jacket and skirt, so the two of them had to walk slowly, fearing that the mud would stain her clothes.
When she reached the entrance of Cishou Hall, she encountered Wu and her maids and servants, a group of people walking towards this side. Chu Yufu stopped and waited for Wu to approach, then saluted politely: "Mother."
Mrs. Wu nodded, her eyes swept across the food box in Lanzhu's hand. Just as she was about to speak, she was interrupted by a little maid coming out of Cishou Hall.
"Madam!" The little maid hurriedly bowed, then turned to look at Chu Yufu, "Second Miss! What a coincidence! The old lady is looking for you urgently!"
"Mother?" Wu frowned, but the little maid didn't explain. She just said that you would know when you get there, and bowed to lead the masters into the room.
As they approached the east wing and walked down the corridor, they heard a whimpering sound coming from the room. Chu Yufu and Wu were both stunned.
Chu Yufu's mind raced. Lu Jiaan was not a delicate young lady from Beijing. She would never cry over a trivial matter. But she could not remember which scene in the book would make her so sad. Her crying was a little hoarse and sounded extremely sad. What had happened?
Mrs. Wu knew more than Miss Chu. She had just received news that her niece had suddenly fallen seriously ill, and the Cishou Hall was in chaos. As an aunt, she should come to see her. So she hurried over. What kind of illness could make a little girl cry like this? After all, she didn't cry so hard, she didn't seem sick.
Just as she was stunned, the situation in the house changed again. Lu Jiaan's crying suddenly became extremely rapid, accompanied by a few screams. Only to hear Mrs. Wei shouting: "Jiaan! Don't scare grandma--"
"Someone come! Someone come quickly——"
Chu Yufu suddenly pushed the door open and walked quickly into the inner room. She saw her cousin Lu lying on the big bed, twitching constantly, her face in pain, her eyes rolled up, and her throat making rapid "ho ho" sobbing sounds. Her grandmother's eyes were red, and she held her hand and called her name loudly.
Mrs. Wu followed her in and was shocked to see her niece's miserable condition. She screamed and subconsciously took a step back, then was supported by Mother Meng.
The symptoms of convulsions and rapid breathing, combined with the hoarse crying she had just heard, allowed Chu Yufu to almost instantly make a judgment - respiratory alkali poisoning! Alkali poisoning can be caused by hyperventilation due to emotional excitement, anxiety, or excessive stress.
She took out the embroidered handkerchief from her bosom, ran to the table in two steps, poured out the tea from the pot to soak the handkerchief, pushed away Sang Lu who was standing there stupidly crying, squeezed to the bed, and covered Cousin Lu's mouth and nose with the handkerchief to restrict her excessive breathing. She said loudly: "Wake up! Breathe in accordance with my rhythm. When I tell you to inhale, you inhale, and when I tell you to exhale, you exhale. Come on, inhale, keep inhaling and don't stop!"
She counted to three in her head, then said, "Hold your breath."
After counting to five silently again, he said, "Now exhale, and keep exhaling."
Lu Jiaan acted a little flustered and didn't follow the instructions at all. Chu Yufu took the time to stretch out her thumb, touched the depression below her collarbone and pressed it to help her find the rhythm of abdominal breathing. After doing this several times, Lu Jiaan's convulsion frequency decreased significantly, and a hint of clarity appeared in her eyes.
Chu Yufu held the handkerchief and continued to guide her, helping her to restore her breathing rhythm. As time passed, a thin layer of sweat seeped out of her forehead.
The crying in the room had stopped at some point, leaving only the sound of panting. Everyone stared at the movements of Miss Chu Er with wide eyes. Half an incense stick later, Lu Jiaan had completely stopped twitching and her breathing had become steady. Chu Yufu took the wet handkerchief off her face and tremblingly uttered, "Second sister, second sister."
"My dearest—"
"Girl! You scared me to death, wuwu——"
The cry of "Second sister" brought Old Madam Wei back to life, and she bent over her, tears streaming down her face. Sang Lu's knees buckled, and she fell to her knees beside the bed. If anything happened to the young lady, how would she explain it to the master and his wife?
Mrs. Wu and Mrs. Meng, who had watched the entire process, looked at each other in shock. "Was the Second Girl a miracle?" she thought. "She had dragged Lu Jia'an back from the brink of death!" She saw it clearly. If Lu Jia'an had continued breathing like that, he would have passed out in no time.
"My hands and fingers are numb, and my chest is stuffy..." Lu Jiaan spoke weakly, his voice hoarse.
Everyone became nervous again after hearing this. Chu Yufu grabbed her wrist and pressed Neiguanxue vigorously to help her calm down.
Lu Jiaan had been weak due to a cold these past two days, and after all this ordeal, he soon became exhausted. After feeling better after pressing on his acupuncture points, he closed his eyes and fell asleep involuntarily.
Seeing Old Madam Wei tremblingly reaching out to check her breath, Chu Yufu whispered comfortingly, "Grandma, my cousin is fine. She's probably just tired. Let her rest for a while."
Old Madam Wei withdrew her hand, grabbed the handkerchief and pounded her chest fiercely. Two tears fell onto the quilt. Mother Yang hurried forward to touch her chest and calm her breath. She asked the question that everyone in the room wanted to ask: "Second Miss, what happened to my cousin?"
"It's a syncope. Crying too hard causes the lungs to lose their ability to descend, leading to insufficient vital energy and poor blood circulation in the heart. This in turn causes liver wind to stir, and the tendons and veins to lose nourishment, causing convulsions, chest tightness, and numbness." Chu Yufu knew they definitely didn't understand what respiratory alkali poisoning was, so she switched to the Chinese medicine term. Seeing that they still looked confused, she thought for a moment and said, "It's because of the excitement and crying that causes excessive panting. For example, we gasp 160 times in a cup of tea, but my cousin gasps 300 times, and then something goes wrong."
"That's why you covered her mouth and nose to prevent her from breathing." Mrs. Wu suddenly realized.
"Yes." Chu Yufu withdrew her hand and covered the quilt for her cousin.
Old Madam Wei had initially dismissed the maids' words, but now, having witnessed with her own eyes how Fu had saved Jia'an, she could no longer disbelieve. With a trembling voice, she spoke, "Fu, look at your cousin again. Do you know what's going on? I heard you cured a maid of the same illness the other day."
It was almost dusk, and the weather was bad, so the house was dim. Mother Yang asked the maid to light all the lights in the house, and she herself held a candlestick and carefully went to the bedside to illuminate the bed curtains.
It was then that Chu Yufu noticed that her cousin's face and neck were covered in rose-colored rashes, which were extremely frightening. She leaned in closer by the candlelight to examine them, even pulling open her cousin's collar and sleeves to examine them. Then, she placed three fingers together on her pulse and felt for a while before saying, "The maidservant had rubella before. Although both were red spots, your cousin's were different."
Mrs. Wei's heart sank. Before she could say anything, she heard her mother say, "It looks like an allergy, or 'addiction rash.' Did your cousin eat something she doesn't normally eat today?"
Everyone in the room looked at Sang Lu. Sang Lu twisted her fingers together nervously as she thought carefully: "Miss, Miss, I just drank more of the medicine prescribed by Doctor Zhang today." As she spoke, she took out the prescription left by the doctor from her bosom and handed it to Chu Yufu for review.
Chu Yufu took the prescription and looked at it, then shook her head slightly. "This is a common prescription for treating colds, called Xiao Qinglong Decoction. The ingredients are very common. My cousin should have used it before, so she wouldn't be allergic to it."
"That doesn't seem to be anything else..." Sang Lu couldn't remember anything more and looked embarrassed.
Mrs. Wei suddenly spoke up: "For lunch today, I specially asked the kitchen to prepare a Gastrodia elata pigeon soup. Is Jia An ready to eat?"
When Sang Lu was reminded by the old lady, she took a breath and said repeatedly: "Yes, yes! The girl usually doesn't like to eat these, but this time she ate them because she thought it was the old lady's kindness. When she was eating, she said that it had a herbal taste, spicy and astringent..." When she said this, she saw Mother Yang winking at her, and just then she noticed that Madam Wei's face was ugly, and she suddenly lowered her head and covered her mouth.
At this time, my mother, who had gone to Jinma Street to ask for a doctor, finally returned with Doctor Zhang, who had just been there at noon. The group dispersed from the bedside to make way for Doctor Zhang.
Doctor Zhang, a robust old doctor with a white beard, stepped forward to examine Lu Jiaan's face carefully, then took her pulse and spoke confidently, "It's a case of wind evil. What did you eat today, young lady? It's likely a food intolerance, causing a weakened defensive surface, allowing the wind evil and dampness to accumulate in the skin."
Same conclusion!
Everyone in the room subconsciously glanced at the girl in white standing with her head bowed at the corner of the bed. Old Mrs. Wei replied, "We had a bowl of Gastrodia elata pigeon soup at noon. Was it because of this?"
Doctor Zhang stroked his beard. "It's possible. Just in case, the young lady shouldn't eat the food she ate today. Don't worry, old lady. This rash may look serious, but it's not fatal. I'll prescribe a prescription. The young lady should take the medicine according to the prescription and you will be well again soon."
Old Mrs. Wei: "Then the marks on your body may fade away?"
"Of course." Doctor Zhang nodded.
Seeing that he said exactly the same thing as Chu Yufu, Mrs. Wei breathed a sigh of relief, put her heart back in her stomach, chanted "Amitabha" and thanked Doctor Zhang repeatedly.
As soon as she relaxed her mind, she realized that her hands and feet were weak, her whole body was powerless, her heart was pounding, and her head was dizzy. Doctor Zhang was about to follow the servants to the outer room to prescribe medicine. Seeing her pale face, he grabbed her wrist and held it for a few seconds, then hurriedly said to the maids, "Quick, help the old lady to the couch."
Wu hurriedly asked the maids and servants to come forward to help. Doctor Zhang took out silver needles from his medicine box and inserted them into several acupoints such as Baihui, Fengchi, and Neiguan. Finally, he said to everyone, "The old lady was too excited just now, which caused her liver qi to rise. The sudden relaxation has unbalanced her qi. I will prescribe a warming and nourishing prescription to recuperate her. You must be careful not to cause liver anger again."
Mrs. Wu nodded repeatedly. A quarter of an hour later, when Doctor Zhang removed the needle, she collected the prescription and handed it to the servant, then personally escorted him to the gate of Cishou Hall in the courtyard.
Back at the corridor of the wing room, Mrs. Wu peeked into the room. In the dim candlelight, Lu Jiaan was still sleeping, the curtain was half-drawn, and Old Lady Wei was half-leaning on the couch with a thin blanket between her legs. The second girl was half-kneeling beside the couch, feeding the old lady water.
She withdrew her gaze, held Mother Meng's hand, and whispered, "...I remember there was five taels of top-grade Gastrodia elata on the list of gifts we gave to the old lady yesterday?"
Mother Meng replied in a huffy voice, "Yes, that was a gift from the head of the northern village last month. Thinking of the recent unpleasantness between Madam and the old lady, I specially added high-quality wild Gastrodia elata to this month's order."
A smile appeared in Wu's eyes, and her voice was pleased: "Good job."
The Lu family girl couldn't eat Gastrodia elata. It's true that a country girl can't handle good things. God has eyes and let her vent her anger! She was told to be too talkative and eat the Chu family's food and use the Chu family's food. Not only did she not appreciate it, she even ran to the old lady to gossip. Now she got her comeuppance! And that old hag, she made her lose face in the mansion so much, she must be so angry that she dies!
Then, her gaze fell to the edge of the couch, a hint of doubt in her eyes: "Speaking of which, this second girl doesn't seem very smart on weekdays..."
Madam Meng replied, "Madam, you may not know this, but some people may not seem very clever, but they are very good at one thing. For example, I have a distant aunt who has never had a very good brain since she was a child, but her hands are very dexterous, and the patterns she embroiders are very vivid and lifelike."
Mrs. Wu felt that what Mother Meng said made some sense, so she nodded and said, "That's right."
【Author’s words】
Here I am~ Today is my best friend’s wedding [come on] I wish my bestie a happy marriage and a lifetime of happiness, and also give some joy to all the little angels, and hope everyone can meet their true love!
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