Two methods
A few days later, Bai Shu was knocked on the door by her senior sister: "Master wants to see you."
Bai Shu had been living in constant fear these past few days, not daring to step out of her house for fear of being stopped and "asked for medical advice." When she heard that Master Wan was looking for her, she buried her face in her hands and ran as fast as she could, afraid that if she was stopped and asked a few more questions, she would be exposed.
Bai Shu also learned in the past few days that her master had a nickname in the Imperial Medical Bureau: "jack-of-all-trades." He could diagnose any illness, chat with any person, and do any job. He was a jack-of-all-trades old man.
As for the other two attendants in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, one is "Yang the Fool" and the other is "Shen the Little Hand". Bai Shu already knows about Yang the Fool, but she does not yet understand why Shen the attendant is called "Shen the Little Hand".
The Imperial Physician's Garden was filled with the aroma of many medicinal herbs mixed together, much like the smell of the Bai family's old residence.
With this scent, Bai Shu felt much more at ease, as if she had never left home.
Wan Gongfeng checked the prescriptions and medicinal materials with the pharmacists and clerks from the Yaocheng and Fangcheng departments. Although the Imperial Medical Bureau separated medicine and pharmacy, and the imperial physicians only wrote prescriptions and did not pick up the medicines, with the Yaocheng's people preparing the medicines and sending them to the inner court, Wan Gongfeng always personally checked the medicinal materials for any prescription he wrote. Sometimes he would even use silver clips to take out the medicinal materials to examine them carefully and taste them.
Bai Shu ran into the room and saw that Wan Gongfeng was busy, so she stood quietly to the side without disturbing him. Bai Shu watched Wan Gongfeng's actions and noticed that he would only leave the medicinal herbs he had picked out and examined outside, instead of putting them back.
Knowing that Wan Gongfeng was meticulous, the two pharmacists did not dare to rush him. They waited for him to look through all the prescriptions and nod in approval. One of them sealed the prescriptions, while the other took out a thick booklet and said, "There are six doses in total. Please sign here, Gongfeng."
Wan Gongfeng then looked at the prescriptions line by line in the book before signing his name along with the two pharmacists and Fang Cheng's clerk.
After seeing the two pharmacists off, the hunchbacked old man took a sip of tea from his purple clay teapot and asked Bai Shu with a smile, "You've been at the Imperial Medical Academy for two or three days now. Are you settling in well?"
Surprisingly, they didn't feel any unpleasantness at being "tricked".
Bai Shu chuckled twice, then said seriously, "I'm used to living here. My father said, 'A teacher for a day is a father for life,' so I'll listen to my master. I was naughty before, but I will definitely listen to my master's teachings from now on and will never cause you any trouble!"
Very well-behaved.
“Girl, you’re exaggerating,” Wan Gongfeng said gently. “Everyone says that the Bai family’s daughter has superb medical skills, is diligent and hardworking, and is also humble. I’ve just picked up a good apprentice for free. I don’t have much to teach you.”
Bai Shu was stunned, and said with a bitter face, "No, Master, it's all a misunderstanding..."
She realized that her recent late-night studying must have led to this embarrassing situation. Bai Shu was on the verge of tears, and with a thud, she knelt down before Master Wan, grabbing his sleeve and sobbing, "Master, save me! I can't do it, I really can't! This disciple knows I was wrong, Master, please don't give up on me, please save me!"
"Hey, hey." Wan Gongfeng was also dumbfounded. He didn't expect this little girl to cry so easily. He tugged at his sleeve and said, "Let go of this old man."
Bai Zhu tightened her grip, wiped away her tears, and acted spoiled and stubborn, saying, "I won't let go! My father said, 'A teacher for a day is a father for life,' so you are my father. I should treat you the way I usually treat him. If I don't let go, they will test me. Master, please save me."
Wan Gongfeng stared wide-eyed. How could the Bai family, who had been supporting the family for hundreds of years, produce such a little rascal?
“It’s not that I don’t want to teach you,” said Wan Gongfeng. “You should know that I do want to pass on all my skills to you, but learning medicine is not something that can be accomplished in a day. How can I save someone? I don’t ask you to pass on your mantle to me. I only ask that if you cause trouble in the future, you won’t implicate me.”
"I won't implicate you, I won't implicate you," Bai Shu quickly said. "I will definitely study hard. I just beg my master not to give up on me and to let me get through this hurdle."
“Since that’s the case…” Wan Gongfeng pondered for a moment, then said, “I do have two ways to resolve your crisis.”
Bai Shu's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said, "Master, please tell me quickly."
Wan Gongfeng said, "First, remember this sentence. If any senior brothers or sisters ask you for advice, use this sentence to answer them, and you will not go wrong."
Bai Zhu massaged his master's legs, saying, "Please teach me quickly."
Wan Gongfeng glanced at her, raised his chin and said contemptuously, "You don't even know this? Go back and read some books."
"Huh?" Bai Shu scratched his head and asked, "This disciple is dull-witted and does not know which book Master is referring to?"
Wan Gongfeng took another sip of tea and said, "It's this one sentence. Pay attention to your tone. Be contemptuous, be disdainful, and be confident."
Bai Shu: "Uh..."
She thought this method was unreliable, and asked hesitantly, "Then, what about the second one?"
This time, Wan Gongfeng's answer was even more concise, uttering only one word: "Hide."
Bai Shu: "What?"
Bai Zhu was expelled from the Imperial Medical Academy by Wan Gongfeng.
Yes, it's about rushing.
Wan Gongfeng chased Bai Shu away, saying, "Go play outside. As long as you don't offend any important people, find a place to stay on your own. Don't stay in the Imperial Medical Academy. Your father and I will cover for you; no one will bother you."
Bai Shu went to the Tongshi Bureau and joined the Taishi Yi.
The Bureau of Imperial History and the Imperial Astrologer were about to be submerged in a sea of documents.
With nowhere to put his feet, Bai Zhu dug a spot out from among the messy books and manuscripts, cracked some melon seeds, and said angrily, "Tell me, is there really such a master? He even said something like, 'You're just here to escape an arranged marriage and coast along, you don't need to take it seriously and start learning from scratch. Just get through this year or two, then claim illness and leave the palace.'"
"I'm so angry!" Bai Shu said. "I want to learn, but he won't teach me and he even chased me away. No matter how much I begged him, it was no use. He just thinks I'm troublesome and doesn't want to teach me."
Tai Shiyi, buried in his books, said without looking up, "How wonderful. Bai Xiaoshu, stop showing off, or I'll be jealous of you."
Bai Zhu rolled around in agony, wailing, "I'm so worried! What are you jealous of?"
Tai Shiyi slammed the manuscript down, making a loud bang, and roared, "Aaaaaah, I'm going crazy! You have no idea what kind of pervert my superior is! So many books!" She spread her arms wide, gesturing to the room full of books, "and I have to organize and copy them all. I'm not allowed to leave this courtyard until I finish, and she comes to check on my progress every day. I work day and night, but I can't finish! I'll never finish! I'll never finish in my lifetime! If I go blind, if my hands break, if I die, just kill me! She was sent by my father to torture me!"
Bai Shu felt sorry for her and came over to say, "What do you want to do? I'll help you."
As Bai Shu spoke, he picked up a small, thin booklet, glanced at it, and was dumbfounded. He asked, "What kind of weird talisman is this?"
They look like characters at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they don't. Each one looks familiar, yet none of them are recognizable.
Bai Shu began to doubt herself and exclaimed in panic, "Oh no, sister, pinch me! The books my brother gave me, though I couldn't understand them, I could still recognize the words; how come I can't even recognize the words in these? Am I really illiterate? What is all this written?"
“Yes, you are illiterate,” said Taishi Yi. “Don’t doubt it, I am illiterate too, and I can’t understand it either.”
Taishiyi glanced at the booklet in Bai Shu's hand, took out a book for her, and said, "Look at this. Historians all have their own methods of shorthand. My superior said that the more you read and practice, the more you will learn."
Bai Shu looked at the book for a few lines, feeling dizzy from flipping through it. She closed the book and politely declined, saying sympathetically to Tai Shiyi, "Grandfather said that anyone in your family who can read can do the job of a historian. You've had it tough too, sister. I don't envy you anymore."
"What?!" Tai Shiyi pointed to the large bamboo basket in the corner, collapsing in despair. "Do you know what's in there? My life's blood! My life's blood! I painstakingly organized and copied it all day, and my superior saw it and said it was worse than a dog's writing, and I have to rewrite it all! My heart is bleeding! Look at how much there is, enough to keep me warm in the winter without needing charcoal! Hey, Bai Xiaoshu, if you get cold in the winter, come to me, I'll give you enough to burn. Burn, my life's blood!"
Bai Shu felt that Taishi Yi was acting abnormally.
“Shi Xiaoyi,” Bai Shu said seriously, “I think you’re sick.”
Taishi Yi slapped her in an annoyed tone: "Get lost, you're the one who's sick."
“Really!” Bai Zhu said confidently and earnestly, “Your dark circles under your eyes are a sign of kidney and spleen deficiency. Your manic behavior should be due to excessive liver fire… Wait, no, your irritability and restlessness could also be due to excessive heart fire. Let me think… I know, it’s mania! A syndrome of spleen deficiency and excessive fire!”
"You're the arrogant one! You're both agitated and arrogant!" Tai Shiyi said angrily. "You're just a quack doctor who's only half-knowledgeable; do you think everyone you see is sick?"
“Look, look,” Bai Shu said, “People who are mad don’t admit they’re sick, and you are one of them. You have such a bad temper, and you even curse me. Isn’t that what the book says about ‘cursing without regard to kinship’?”
Taishi Yi was so angry that he hit her with a book, scattering books all over the ground. Bai Zhu hopped around and dodged, saying, "Ouch, you're hitting people! You're becoming more and more like a madman. Your temper is too strong; your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys are all burning. You have to cool it down. You wait here, I'll go back to the Imperial Medical Academy and steal some Coptis chinensis, Scutellaria baicalensis, and rhubarb for you to make a Three-Yellow Soup."
"Get out of here!" Tai Shiyi said angrily, unable to bear it any longer. "Bai Xiaoshu, if you want my life, just say so. I know this drastic prescription is extremely cold in nature. Wan Gongfeng is right, run as far away from the Imperial Medical Academy as you can, don't treat human life so lightly."
Bai Shu was thus pushed and shoved out of the door by Tai Shiyi.
With her limited medical skills, Bai Shu genuinely believed that Tai Shiyi was ill. The Bai family couldn't let any patient go untreated. The young physician Bai said earnestly, "Sister, you can't hide your illness from medical treatment. I'll go find my master to take a look at you. This madness is no small matter."
"Stop using your supernatural powers, Lord Bai. Oh, what have I done to deserve such treatment?" Tai Shiyi chased Bai Shu away, trying to close the door, saying, "I just didn't sleep well. Go find a mirror and look at yourself. Your dark circles aren't much better than mine. Go back to sleep."
"Then you should get a good night's sleep. I'll come see you again tomorrow," Bai Shu said. "Your health is important; you can't be careless."
"Alright, alright," Taishi Yi replied, "Go to sleep well, be good, don't make a fuss."
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