Chapter 56 The Red Phoenix Star Strikes
The two entered Zhaoyu Hall together. Ji Yun asked casually, "Stone lotus seeds are quite rare. I wonder where Doctor Meng obtained them?"
As Meng Yutong led the way, she replied, "Brother Liu discovered this patch by chance in the mountains outside the city when he was traveling for business. He painstakingly collected some of it. It just so happened that my Zhaoyutang was opening, so he gave it to me as a congratulatory gift."
Ji Yun's eyes narrowed slightly, his tone calm and even, yet it carried an inexplicable meaning: "Boss Liu is quite thoughtful, giving gifts that suit people's tastes perfectly."
Upon hearing this, Meng Yutong glanced at him sideways, finding his words somewhat incoherent and strange, so she didn't reply and instead pushed open the door leading to the inner room.
Wu Ming was busy organizing medicinal herbs at the counter when he saw the two return. He quickly greeted Ji Yun.
"Have they all gone back?" Meng Yutong asked Wu Ming.
Wu Ming replied, "Young Master Liu, Brother Cui, and Third Brother Mei have all gone back. It's getting late, so I told Granny Gui to go back first as well. Bai Zhi is still tidying up in the backyard. Once she's finished, you should rest early too, Master."
Meng Yutong nodded: "You've worked hard today too. Go and rest after you've finished tidying up."
Wu Ming agreed.
Meng Yutong continued to lead Ji Yun through the clinic, into the backyard, and towards the stairs leading to the second floor.
The second floor of Zhaoyutang was originally the guest room area of Jufu Inn. After Meng Yutong took over the property, he only made simple renovations and did not make major changes to the layout. At the end of the right corridor on the second floor is the residence of Wu Lin and Wu Ming, grandfather and grandson. There are six guest rooms side by side on the left, which are now temporarily used to accommodate seriously ill patients.
The staircase wasn't wide enough for the two of them to walk side by side. Meng Yutong lifted her skirt and walked ahead, while Ji Yun silently followed half a step behind her.
As soon as I stepped onto the second-floor platform, I saw Wu Lin sitting on a low stool in the ventilated area at the entrance of the corridor, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan and leisurely gazing at the starry sky outside the eaves.
Whether the temple is busy or not, this old gentleman is always detached from worldly affairs. During the day, he sets up his fortune-telling stall under the peach tree, and without fail, he goes back to his room for a short rest at noon. At the hour of You (5-7 PM), he packs up his stall on time. Sometimes he cools off in the courtyard, and sometimes, like now, he quietly observes the stars from a high place, displaying a reclusive air of being detached from the world.
Meng Yutong greeted him with a smile: "Mr. Wu, I'm bringing a friend up to see the patient."
Upon hearing this, Wu Lin slowly turned his head, his eyes scanning Meng Yutong and Ji Yun back and forth twice before he suddenly shook his head and let out a soft sigh.
Meng Yutong found his reaction somewhat amusing, so she stepped forward and asked with a smile, "Why do you shake your head, sir?"
Wu Lin beckoned to her, and when she leaned closer out of curiosity, he lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "Girl, judging from your face, the Red Phoenix Star is shining brightly these days, and you're quite the ladies' man... But these ladies' man... sigh, they come and go, so you have to be careful and discerning, because who knows... which one might have ulterior motives!"
His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Ji Yun to hear, but not loud enough to disturb the patient in the room.
Upon hearing this, Meng Yutong was both amused and exasperated. She blushed slightly, straightened up, and didn't respond to the remark. She simply said, "Sir, you're joking again." Then she turned around and continued leading the way.
Ji Yun followed, and as he passed Wu Lin, he paused slightly and nodded slightly to the eccentric old man, addressing him politely as Meng Yutong had addressed him, "Hello, Mr. Wu."
"Okay, okay." Wu Lin touched his nose and mumbled a couple of replies, his eyes darting away, no longer looking at them.
The two turned left and entered the first ward at the corner of the corridor. The room was not lit; they could only see by the faint moonlight coming through the window and the faint light from the lanterns in the corridor.
On the bed, the seriously ill elderly man, well past sixty, was fast asleep, his breathing slightly heavy.
Meng Yutong walked quietly to the bedside and introduced him to Ji Yun in a low voice: "This is Old Man Zhou, who lives in Pear Blossom Lane on the northern section of Imperial Street. He is sixty-three years old this year. According to his family, he fell ill three days ago after accidentally drinking river water. At first, he only had diarrhea, but yesterday it suddenly worsened, turning into a high fever, and he also had bloody and purulent diarrhea, and was lethargic. I have now used Pulsatilla chinensis as the base prescription, supplemented with a small amount of Codonopsis pilosula to replenish qi and strengthen the body. The high fever has subsided slightly, but the diarrhea is not completely under control, and his spirits are still very poor."
Ji Yun listened intently, his gaze sweeping over the old man's pale face and parched lips. After a moment's thought, he said in a low voice, "In that case, when adding lotus seeds, perhaps we could combine them with simmered kudzu root to clear heat and stop diarrhea, charred hawthorn to resolve stagnation and promote bowel movement, and a small amount of costus root to regulate qi and relieve pain. In this way, while clearing away damp-heat and toxins, we can also protect the qi mechanism of the middle jiao. What does Doctor Meng think?"
Meng Yutong pondered carefully and nodded, saying, "Physician Ji's considerations are comprehensive and largely coincide with my own. However, Old Master Zhou is quite old and has a history of palpitations, and his spleen and stomach are even weaker. I was wondering if we could add stir-fried Atractylodes macrocephala and Poria cocos to his prescription to enhance its spleen-strengthening, qi-boosting, and foundation-strengthening effects? As for the other two young patients, their physical condition is still relatively good, so perhaps we can try treating them with the basic prescription you just mentioned."
Ji Yun nodded: "Doctor Meng's consideration is more thorough, so let's go with this suggestion. We can prepare the medicine according to this prescription and observe its effects closely."
"Then let's go down first. I'll have Bai Zhi decoct the medicine immediately. Physician Ji, you can sit in the front hall for a while. I'll go and sort out the lotus seeds for you." Afraid of disturbing the patient, Meng Yutong kept her voice very low.
"Hmm?" Ji Yun seemed not to have heard clearly. In the dim light, he subconsciously leaned slightly towards her. A cool, refreshing scent approached, brushing against her earlobe almost imperceptibly.
Meng Yutong's breath hitched, and she subconsciously took half a step back, but accidentally stepped on the edge of a slightly protruding wooden floor, losing her balance. She cried out in surprise and was about to fall backward.
In an instant, a warm sensation covered her waist, and a force steadily pulled her back.
When she came to her senses, she had already been pulled into Ji Yun's arms.
Startled, she suddenly looked up and met a pair of dark, cold eyes. There was a slight surprise in those eyes, which quickly disappeared and returned to calm, but the color of her eyes became even deeper.
"Be careful." Once she had stopped, Ji Yun released her hand and turned to walk outside.
Meng Yutong glanced back at the patient on the bed and saw that his breathing was steady, his complexion was slightly better, and there was nothing wrong with him. She was relieved and turned to follow Ji Yun out.
The two walked out of the room one after the other. Ji Yun did not stop walking and did not turn around to wait for her. Meng Yutong also had no intention of chasing after him, but kept a distance of not too close and not too far, following behind him at a leisurely pace.
However, when they passed by Wu Lin again this time, the two of them tacitly avoided looking at each other, as if there was no one there.
Wu Lin raised his palm-leaf fan, about to strike up a conversation as usual, when he saw the two people hurrying past him, their clothes billowing in the wind, their gazes never lingering for a moment.
His face contorted, his hand holding the palm-leaf fan froze in mid-air, and he fanned himself a couple of times in the air, muttering sullenly, "Rude, really rude..."
Ji Yun and Meng Yutong descended the stairs one after the other. Ji Yun stopped, seemingly wanting to say something to her, but Meng Yutong didn't linger. She quickened her pace, walking ahead of him and heading straight for the consultation room.
After entering the consultation room, Meng Yutong went straight behind the counter and began to dispense the medicine according to the prescription that the two of them had just discussed and agreed upon.
She held a small, exquisite brass medicine scale in one hand, and skillfully pulled open each medicine drawer to retrieve the medicine with the other.
Ji Yun paused for a moment, then silently followed her in, stopping a short distance to her side, his gaze fixed on her busy hands.
One herb, Poria cocos, was stored in a medicine cabinet on a high shelf. Meng Yutong was holding a medicine scale, making it inconvenient for her to retrieve it.
Just as she was about to put down the medicine scale, the person beside her stepped forward, easily reached over her head, pulled open the medicine drawer, grabbed a handful of Poria cocos, and put it into the medicine scale tray she was holding.
Neither of them mentioned the accident that had just happened in the second-floor house, but it was clear that the atmosphere was somewhat awkward.
Meng Yutong took the Poria cocos out of the tray and placed it in the medicine bag.
Then, Ji Yun took the medicine in order, and Meng Yutong took over weighing it.
There were no extra words exchanged between the two, only the soft sounds of the herbs falling into the scale and the gentle opening and closing of the medicine drawer. Yet they worked together with remarkable harmony, quickly packing the required herbs into appropriate portions.
Just then, Wu Ming finished tidying up the clutter on the counter and turned to ask, "Master, are you preparing medicine for the patients upstairs?"
Meng Yutong gathered the divided medicine packets together and replied as she walked out, "Okay, I'll go and brew the medicine before I go back. You can rest when you're done."
Ji Yun followed her closely, silently walking out behind her.
Meng Yutong felt that his behavior today was really abnormal, so she stopped and turned to look at him, saying directly, "Physician Ji, please wait here for a moment, I will go and get the stone lotus seeds for you."
Upon hearing this, Wu Ming clapped his hands and said, "Honey, leave the decoction to me! You and Physician Ji have important business to attend to!"
As he spoke, he stepped forward and took the medicine packet from Meng Yutong's hand. Humming an off-key tune, he walked towards the medicine preparation room in the courtyard. He noticed that Bai Zhi had just finished preparing the Purple Snow Ginseng, so he called her over as well: "Bai Zhi, come on in and give me a hand!"
After Wu Ming left, only Meng Yutong and Ji Yun remained in the consultation room.
Before he could reply, Meng Yutong walked towards the courtyard, intending to go to the pharmacy to retrieve the stored lotus seeds.
Ji Yun did not wait in place as she had said. Instead, he naturally followed her and said, "I'll help you."
The two entered the pharmacy one after the other. The pharmacy was somewhat cramped, with towering medicine cabinets on all four walls, and the air was filled with a complex aroma of various medicinal herbs, both rich and bitter.
The two baskets of lotus seeds sent by Liu Sijun were divided into smaller portions by Meng Yutong and Bai Zhi in earthenware jars and placed in the corner of the pharmacy near the window in the northwest corner.
On the other side of the pharmacy, against the wall, there is a long elm wood table cabinet, on which various commonly used medicinal materials are neatly arranged, and under the table are rows of sealed medicine jars with red paper labels.
Since things had come to this, Meng Yutong stopped being polite with him. She pointed to the row of empty jars under the long table and said to Ji Yun behind her, "Physician Ji, would you please go over there and find two clean earthenware jars, one large and one small?"
"Okay." Ji Yun replied and left.
Meng Yutong went straight to the pottery jars containing lotus seeds in the corner. She squatted down, moved the outermost jar, lifted the lid, and, in the dim light coming in from the window, carefully examined each round and plump lotus seed inside, fiddling with them with her fingertips to confirm that they were not at risk of being damp or rotten.
Ji Yun quickly brought over two earthenware jars of different sizes and placed them on the ground beside her as instructed. He did not continue standing, but rather naturally squatted down next to her, the hem of his light blue robe brushing against the ground, bringing a touch of coolness.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
