Chapter 186 Chapter 186 Update.
"Ms. Yijin, I heard the health journal was your idea! No wonder so few people come in."
"This is a good thing!"
"Maybe we'll be out soon too!"
The number of people admitted every day is decreasing, and the people here are more cheerful in their words and in a much happier mood.
By September, they felt heavy-hearted.
Those who originally lived outside were moved inside because their illness worsened, and those who were seriously ill died.
Ji Xu went in to share the spoils, and the place was no longer as noisy as before, but became even more dead silent.
Shopkeeper Hu was the one whose condition had worsened. He lived in the innermost part. Unlike before, he could still sit there and eat dried fruits. He asked for a bowl of sweet tofu pudding, saying he didn't want to eat it, but later the bowl was empty.
Now, the bowl of soup she had in the morning was still there at noon, and it had already gone cold. She lay in it with her eyes closed. Gangrene had appeared on her face and neck, attracting flies to crawl all over her.
The old man who lived next to Wang'er passed away today and was carried out by two Yulin Lang.
Everyone looked through the wooden gate, with sadness in their eyes.
"This is the third one today."
The dead were carried out of the straw hut and burned in a large kiln made of earthen bricks. Even the mat they slept on and the wooden bowls and chopsticks they used were thrown into the kiln and burned.
The flames of burning corpses and other things here never stop day and night, and the smoke seems thick and black, which makes people panic.
"We are also waiting to die."
"Let's not lose heart. I heard the imperial physician's prescription is showing some promise."
Ji Xu comforted them, but the people here were not in high spirits and said:
"They keep saying there's progress, but why are people still dying every day?"
"It's just words to coax us."
"One day, we will also be carried there and burned to ashes."
After Ji Xu distributed the soup to everyone, there was still one third of the soup left. He left the hut with a heavy heart.
"I told you that you are asking for trouble. They are all going to die. No matter how good the food is, they will die anyway."
Wang Huzi said that there was some left in the two buckets he had there. He walked past her, threw the buckets in the kitchen, tore off his clothes, strode to the shade of the tree to drink, and called out to Ji Xu, who was in a trance:
"Why don't you take off your dirty clothes? Do you want to be infected like them and wait for death?"
Ji Xu, lost in thought, dropped the bucket, took off his dirty clothes, washed his hands by the stream, and went to the Imperial Medical Bureau again, ignoring Wang Huzi's next words.
"You don't need to go to the Imperial Medical Bureau anymore. They're just a bunch of arrogant quacks!"
"I want to see the Imperial Physician, Master Gu, to ask about a cure for the plague. Three people died this morning alone. Those people in the straw hut don't really believe the plague can be cured, and they can't even eat their daily soup. How can they possibly feel better?"
"The Imperial Physician has ordered that no one be seen at the moment."
Because of the "Health Records" incident, the imperial physicians here changed their views on Ji Xu. They no longer looked down on her as a city cook as before, and now they talked more.
"Let me tell you, even the wife of the Imperial Physician died of plague at home a few days ago. I think half of the reason why Lord Gu was so absorbed in researching prescriptions was for his wife.
Now that he's dead, Master Gu has lost both his people and his heart, and has already considered retiring to his hometown. Once he's gone, who else could be more skilled than him in medicine and figure out that prescription? Those people, I'm afraid, can only wait for death."
It is said that Gu Hong even refused to see the imperial doctors and locked himself in his room, not eating or drinking for several days.
The Imperial Medical Bureau seemed to be leaderless, and as the number of seriously ill people in the Plague Bureau increased, they spoke briefly and then went about their business.
Ji Xu was the only one left here. She hadn't seen the Master yet, so she lowered her head and was thinking about something. She heard crying in the corner, so she went over to see what was going on.
This is the place where medicinal herbs are dried. A little medicine boy is hiding behind the medicine winnowing rack, wiping his tears, with a white mourning scarf hanging around his waist.
"Whose family are you from? Why are you hiding here crying?"
Seeing someone coming, the little medicine boy wiped his tears with his sleeve and said:
"The Imperial Physician is my master."
Ji Xu knew the reason. Perhaps it was because he had heard her and the imperial physician's words, which reminded him of his sad past. Ji Xu said some words of comfort.
"It must be our words that have saddened you. I understand how you feel. It's as painful as if your heart has been torn apart. Just cry. Maybe you'll feel better after crying for a while."
In her previous life, when her grandmother passed away, Ji Xu was always so organized, busy with the funeral and receiving guests who came to pay their respects. People said she was hard-hearted and didn't shed a tear when her grandmother passed away. In fact, when she was lying in front of others, it was natural for her not to cry, her eyes were swollen from crying, but her grandmother was her only relative, and once she was gone, no one would see her tears again, until she started living again in this life.
"Your master must be as sad as you are. I heard he hasn't eaten or drunk anything. I want to make something for him. I wonder what he would like."
The little medicine boy listened to her and felt her kindness, so he told her a lot of his inner thoughts.
"My master met his wife when she was still a junior imperial physician and she was a female physician in the palace. Back then, she would make marrow cakes for him. Even after they got married, they often ate them. If there's anything his master loves, it's definitely marrow cakes."
Ji Xu thought that if he could get the imperial physician to come to the plague office to take a look, he could persuade him to retire. With his medical skills, he could develop a prescription to cure the plague in the future, and many people would be saved.
Selfishly, she also wanted the plague to pass as soon as possible. If she did a good job and gained a reputation, she would have the opportunity to be recommended as an official chef.
As for the person who could recommend her, she had also thought about it. The official chef she was going to work for belonged to the Food Bureau. Although it was a different "department" from the Imperial Medical Bureau, they both belonged to the Shaofu, the "chief" among the Nine Ministers. The Imperial Physician Order was the "boss" of the next department, so he might have such a say.
It just so happened that because of the health records incident, the imperial physician Gu Hong also had a good impression of him.
Therefore, when he wrote to Tian to let her know that he was safe, he asked her to bring in some flour and pork bones, and it was the Yulin Lang who brought them in.
Marrow cakes are also popular among the people. The bones used are the pig's hind leg bones, which still have a circle of tender meat on them.
The bone marrow inside is the essence. After she cooked it, she used a small hammer to knock open the bones, took out the fat and tender bone marrow inside, and kneaded it into dough with flour.
As for the meat, it is removed, chopped, seasoned with sauce and shallots to enhance the flavor, and then wrapped in dough.
Use a rolling pin to roll it into a thickness of four or five centimeters and a size of six or seven inches. Stick it in a heated stove and pick it off when it is cooked.
People usually bake it in an oven, just like baking Hu pancakes, but there is no oven here, so it would be a waste of money to buy one just to make a marrow pancake.
So she dug a cave in a sloping open space, which was like an oven. She heated it with a high fire and could keep the food warm for baking. However, it was temporary and not as mobile as an oven, but the effect was just as good.
She had learned this in the prefectural mansion of Zhuo County in Youzhou. That time, she followed Wang Shouyu to the underground of the alchemy building and saw the blast furnace for smelting iron there.
Wang Shouyu also said that before the blast furnaces were improved, they used kilns dug underground to burn coal. It was considered a primitive method, and there were still some backward relics left inside. Ji Xu went in to take a look and learned a lot.
However, the kiln she used to bake cakes naturally could not be compared with the one used for iron smelting. It was just an extremely miniature version. It took her half a day to dig it out.
Ji Xu made five in total. He used cypress branches and wood in the kiln and kept it heated. He then shoveled out all the cakes and stuck them inside. When they were baked, he took them off and they might still have the fragrance of cypress leaves.
A gust of wind blew the fragrance to the Imperial Medical Office, intoxicating everyone.
"What smells so good?"
"It smells like baking marrow cakes!"
"I've been detained here for so long. How long has it been since I last had a delicious pith pancake? The crust is crispy, the pith fat is tender, and the meat inside is fragrant and juicy. Take a bite and you'll feel the delicious taste."
They didn't know how much they swallowed.
"Here, the best marrow cakes are made by the Imperial Physician's family."
Lord Gu's wife came to deliver marrow cakes, and they also had a treat. They had tasted them many times. As soon as these words were spoken, the place became quiet again. They would never be able to eat Lord Gu's marrow cakes again.
They looked at each other, their gazes falling on the tightly closed door. The sound of him flipping through the bamboo scroll became much softer, and he no longer spoke of the marrow cake.
But then he saw the door open. This was the first time Gu Hong walked out of the dark room after his wife's death. It was the fragrance of the marrow cake that brought him out.
He seemed to see his wife's voice and appearance, and all the words she had said to him in the past about being a doctor and cultivating virtue came to his mind. He followed the fragrance all the way out.
After leaving the Imperial Medical Office, I saw smoke billowing from the direction of the straw hut. A young imperial physician hurried over and said,
"Oh no! Oh no! That guy called Wang'er has stiff limbs. He's dying."
In the straw hut, Qiu Gu was holding Wang'er and crying loudly. She had just taken some medicine and was coughing for some reason. Now Wang'er's lips were white and he wouldn't wake up no matter how she called him.
Qiu Gu didn't let those Yu Lin Lang get close to her, fearing that they would carry her Wang Er away and burn him.
"Get out of the way! Lay him down on his side!"
The imperial physician, Gu Hong, came here and patted Wang'er sideways, then turned him over and patted him again, but Wang'er did not respond. Seeing this, the hearts of the people in the straw hut around him also turned cold.
"I'm afraid it's no use. Your face is all black and blue."
"Alas, he's only so young. He's already very determined to have made it this far."
"Wang'er! Wang'er!"
Qiu Gu was trying to call his soul back, but Gu Hong kept slapping her and then reached into his throat to dig. He only heard:
“Ahem…”
Following these two sounds, Wang Er coughed up a ball of blood and finally breathed a sigh of relief. The people around him cheered:
"woke up!"
"woke up!"
Later, they used acupuncture again until Wang'er was able to open his eyes. Only then did Gu Hong, the imperial physician, leave.
After returning to the Imperial Medical Bureau, the little medicine boy brought medicine to help Gu Hong clean his hands. He saw that his hands were covered with dirt, all from Wang'er.
His condition was already very bad. He could only hold out for three more days with acupuncture at best, and then he would be unable to resist fate.
Gu Hong locked himself in the dark room again, but this time it was not to reminisce about something, but to rummage through boxes and drawers and find the unfinished prescription:
Atractylodes macrocephala, realgar, orpiment, angelica dahurica, bupleurum, calamus, peach leaf, nardus odoratus, mugwort, patchouli, rhubarb, Chuanxiong...
What is missing? What is missing?
Until dawn, dark, dawn, dark again.
He was still flipping through volume after volume of medical books. His room was in a mess and he accidentally knocked over a package.
The wrapping leaves fell off, revealing two pith cakes inside. The meaty aroma of the pith cakes had dissipated, and instead a scent of cypress leaves remained.
It should be that when Ji Xu was baking cakes, he used cypress branches to heat up the kiln, and the smell was smoked into the cakes.
Gu Hong could no longer remember when the little medicine boy had brought in the marrow cake on behalf of Ji Xu. At that time, he must have been obsessed with these ancient books and refused to see anyone.
Now, smelling that faint smell, he grabbed the bread and stuffed it into his mouth, and suddenly his mind was enlightened.
"Yes, it's the fragrance of cypress leaves! Add cypress fruit, which is balanced by the energy of autumn. The balanced energy benefits the lungs, the sweet fragrance benefits the spleen, the yin benefits the liver and kidneys, and the blood nourishes the heart!"
"I have the prescription!"
"We have a prescription for curing the epidemic!"
The apprentice, the little medicine boy, announced the happy event everywhere, especially to the Internal Affairs Office and the kitchen, where he bowed to Ji Xu repeatedly and said:
"Thank you, lady, thank you, lady!"
"Thank me?"
Ji Xu, who was making the soup, didn't understand.
"You don't know, but the marrow cakes you made have a cypress leaf aroma, which reminded my master of the herb Cypress Seed. First it was in the health records, and now it's in the prescription. You are truly a lucky star for our Imperial Medical Bureau!"
"So, there is hope for those people? What about Wang'er, how is he?" She was particularly concerned about this old neighbor.
"I just took a new dose of medicine. I'll just wait and see how it works. My master will adjust the dosage accordingly. As long as I can get through tonight, I'll definitely get better in the future."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com