Chapter 19 The Ma Family Patients
In the morning, Miaozhen stretched out of bed, feeling that her bed at home was still the most comfortable. After reluctantly getting up, she first had breakfast with Mei Shi, and then met her two younger brothers. She shared the trinkets she had brought back from Wuxi with them, then went to the Tao family to pay her respects to Ru Shi, before finally going to play with Ma Yulan.
Unexpectedly, Mrs. Ma hesitated and asked, puzzled, "Auntie, what's wrong with Sister Ma?"
"Zhenzhen, you should go back now. Your sister Ma is sick and can't see anyone," Mrs. Ma told her to go back.
When Miaozhen returned, she immediately asked Mei, "What's wrong with Sister Ma? Aunt Ma won't let me see her."
Mei whispered, "I heard that she has a serious illness and has even asked a Taoist priest to exorcise evil spirits. She also won't let anyone see her. I don't know what's wrong with her."
"In that case, they probably don't want to disturb others." Miao Zhen feared it was a private matter, so she didn't ask any further questions.
Over the years, she has followed her master to treat illnesses, many of whom are wealthy and influential. You must take the initiative to seek medical treatment for your illness to get better. If you speak evasively, the doctor will not be able to make an accurate diagnosis, and then the treatment will be in vain.
At noon, she rubbed moxa cones the size of date pits and used them to apply moxibustion to Xu Erpeng's hand Sanli acupoint through ginger.
After Xu Erpeng received moxibustion, Miaozhen scraped his Hegu acupoint. He leaned back comfortably in the recliner and said, "Having Zhenzhen as a doctor at home is better than anything else. I can feel the blood and qi flowing through my hands."
"Father, you're exaggerating too much," Miaozhen just laughed.
Xu Erpeng, who often couldn't sleep due to shoulder and hand pain, actually felt comfortable and wanted to sleep after moxibustion at noon today.
While Ru was quite accomplished in gynecology and often made accurate diagnoses, Tan was very skilled in moxibustion, which could be said to cure serious and stubborn diseases.
She also highly values the teachings of Zhu Danxi, so many of the books Miaozhen reads today are related to Zhu Danxi.
As soon as Xu Erpeng started moxibustion, Feng Niang arrived. She had a lump on the left side of her neck and was very worried: "I've tried applying chicken blood and incense, but it didn't work. Miss, what kind of illness do I have? I can still move it."
Miaozhen touched the patient and first eased the tension: "It's nothing serious. I've encountered this before. It's a phlegm nodule. The Danxi Heart Method says that when a person suffers from deficiency, his whole body is covered in lumps."
Feng Niang had been working hard at the Mei family's house, and even though things were a little better at her own home, she couldn't stay idle. Miao Zhen led her into the inner room, first having her remove her outer garment, and then performed moxibustion on the Yifeng and Jianjing acupoints on her left side. The Yifeng acupoint is the meeting point of the Shaoyang meridians of the hands and feet, and the Jianjing acupoint is even more important. During the moxibustion, she also prescribed a remedy.
“I’ll give you Angelica and Forsythia Decoction, which can strengthen the body’s resistance, expel toxins, and promote pus drainage and tissue regeneration. I’ll also add Er Chen Decoction, which you don’t know can treat phlegm all over the body. I’ll also add two qian of Atractylodes lancea, which can also eliminate phlegm. I’ll also give you one qian of Citrus reticulata peel, which can disperse nodules and eliminate phlegm,” Miaozhen explained.
Although she has the title of Tan Yunxian's disciple, she still has to make a name for herself. In modern times, one can slowly build a reputation in a hospital, but in ancient times, one had to first establish a good reputation, which is something that comes from the inside out.
He would first treat his family members, and then begin treating his neighbors. In this way, his reputation spread quickly.
Thinking of this, she was afraid that Feng Niang would refuse to pay for the medicine and was prepared to use her own savings. Feng Niang quickly said, "It's enough that Miss helped me with the diagnosis, but you also have to help me buy the medicine. Then I wouldn't be a human being."
Although Fengniang was a member of the Mei family, she gained the trust of the Mei family after arriving at the Xu family. Every year during the New Year, the Mei family would give her a reward. She also planned to retire in the Xu family, so she treated Miaozhen and her two younger brothers like her own children.
Miaozhen stopped her, saying, "I still have money on me, don't worry."
After saying that, he told the maid to take the prescription to the front so that the servant could go to the pharmacy to get the medicine.
Fengniang was full of gratitude, but Miaozhen told her not to worry about it.
After Feng Niang left, she was about to lean back for a moment. She knew that helping others with acupuncture and treatment was tiring, not to mention the long journey she had taken in the past few days.
Miao Zhen had just dozed off for a while when Miao Yun arrived. She quickly stood up and asked, "Big sister, what brings you here?"
"I heard from my father that you were back, so I came to see you." She noticed that Miaozhen was wearing a patchwork blouse and a white cotton-linen skirt at home. It was very simple and plain, and she didn't look like a rich girl at all.
Miaozhen didn't consider herself a rich heiress. Her father only had a few hundred taels of silver. The whole family depended on the bookstore. They had no land or ancestral property. They would be in dire straits if a major event occurred.
But when Miaoyun came to see her specially and brought fruit, Miaozhen smiled and said, "It's been a few years since we last met, let's chat."
Miaoyun smiled and nodded, then said that her mother was now making dowry for the Fang family, a task that would last for two years. She added, "My mother's eyesight isn't very good these days, and I really hope she won't have to keep embroidering all this time."
“Embroiderers are just like that. You can buy some chrysanthemums and goji berries to make tea for your aunt.”
Suzhou has many embroiderers and weavers, and many of them have blurred eyesight by the time they reach their forties. However, there are a few exceptionally talented women who can still embroider even in their eighties or nineties.
After exchanging a few casual words, Miaoyun said calmly, "I remember you learned embroidery from your family's female tutor, right?"
"Yes, she taught me everything from drawing flower patterns to making samples, including color matching and line selection." Miaozhen said, still missing Qiu Niangzi a little.
Miaoyun was obviously there to get information out of her. Although her mother had been a female tutor, that was because of her maternal uncle. Now, such a good thing was no longer possible. Since she considered herself Qiu Niangzi's apprentice, she naturally needed to know more about her. Therefore, she wanted to see the flower manual. Miaozhen, unaware of Miaoyun's intentions, had Xiaoxi bring her the booklet of flower manuals.
Miaoyun held the booklet in her hand, talking to Miaozhen about what gifts Xu Siniang would give as a wedding present, while secretly memorizing the order of the flower arrangement.
But not wanting to let anyone see through it, she changed the subject: "Look, I see your flower arrangement manual goes from easy to difficult. It's like when we were studying. I remember you studied under Scholar Yu, and then you studied under Lady Qiu. Is there a difference?"
“Yes, there is a big difference. Aside from teaching us to read, write, cook, and do needlework, Madam Qiu put a lot of effort into poetry and prose,” Miaozhen said with a smile.
Miaoyun seemed very interested and insisted on seeing Miaozhen's notes. Miaozhen pointed to the bookshelf on the left: "Look, it's right there."
"I'll go take a look and see how it differs from what I learned," Miaoyun said with a smile as she went over.
Miaozhen stood up and said, "Then you can take a look, sister. I need to organize the medical records." Medical records are a very important task, as they will provide a basis for understanding the effectiveness of the patient's treatment.
After writing the medical records, she still had to rub moxa sticks and make sachets; she still had quite a few things to do.
Miaoyun secretly looked at Miaozhen's notes, but after reading for half an hour, seeing that the room was really quiet, she immediately got up to say goodbye, and Miaozhen asked her maid to see her out.
When the maid returned, Miaozhen said, "Did you all notice that eldest sister seemed particularly interested in my female studies today?"
Xiao Tao was usually oblivious and thought she didn't know, but Xiao Xi said, "You spent so much money learning these things, she must want to find an excuse to learn them too. Why don't I help you put the books away in the box first?"
"That's fine, just put the medical books outside," Miaozhen said.
Miaoyun was unaware that Miaozhen had already noticed. After returning home, she first wrote down what she had seen at Miaozhen's place on paper. As for the flower patterns, she wasn't worried because she had been drawing since elementary school and had also learned embroidery from her mother.
But if she wanted to make her own flower patterns, she would need to buy paints, and she had already run out of paints.
But she still had to ask her father for the money for the paint. Her mother was very careful about where every penny came from. Although her father was not good at social niceties and sometimes pretended to be aloof, he was a soft-hearted person who couldn't resist people asking for favors.
She immediately went to Xu Dalang and pleaded, "My daughter finally got this job, and it's with such a wealthy family. If I don't produce some solid evidence, people will talk about my daughter."
Seeing his daughter pleading, Xu Dalang had no choice but to give his daughter three taels of the five taels that Xu Erpeng had lent him for renting a house, and secretly keep the other two taels for himself, as he wanted to use the remaining two taels to add to Xu Si Niang's dowry.
After giving it all away, he gave a bitter smile, realizing that he was now truly left with nothing.
Meanwhile, Xu Si Niang's wedding was the next day, and Miao Zhen's newly made clothes had already been delivered. It didn't matter if she dressed simply at home, but she should dress more presentably when she went out.
Wearing a white lace skirt, a light green vest, and a string of gold pendants hanging on her chest, with gold willow leaf earrings, Miaozhen lightly applied some face powder. Looking at herself in the mirror, although she could not be considered stunningly beautiful, she was still quite pretty and elegant.
After getting dressed, she went to Fengqiao with her parents. A shed had been set up in front of the building early in the morning, and the kitchen was staffed by Bao's younger brother from her maternal family.
Madam Mei seemed slightly dissatisfied: "How did we manage to invite him?"
"Was there any accident involved?" Miaozhen didn't know.
Madam Mei said, “Last time when your brother had his third birthday celebration, your third aunt invited her brothers to our house. They brought all their utensils, and we agreed. They said there were nine tables of guests, but they prepared ten. Not only that, they charged five coins per table, and after the guests finished eating, they didn’t let their people clean up.”
"No wonder, even nowadays, a banquet with five fruits and five vegetables, and a tabletop for the Lion Immortal Sugar Fighting, only costs five coins." Miao Zhen thought that this Uncle Bao was really heartless.
Madam Mei added, "And another thing, Old Gao, who sells sesame cakes, is seriously ill, but he's not dead yet. Uncle Bao brought a group of people to his house to hold a funeral for him, but they were beaten out by the Gao family."
Miaozhen was speechless when she heard this.
Originally, the family wanted to ask Xu Erpeng to keep a record of the gifts, but Xu Erpeng was only willing to come over for lunch, as he had to write a book in the morning. Therefore, Old Mrs. Xu asked her younger brother, Uncle Xu, to keep a record of the gifts.
Madam Mei had someone bring two taels of silver, which was a gift, but it couldn't be called a gift because they were family. So they just said it was for Xu Si Niang's dowry.
It had been more than a year since I last saw her. Xu Si Niang had just turned sixteen. Even though I used to dislike her, seeing her in a red dress, shy and bashful, and about to marry into another family, I felt that time had flown by.
I heard that Xu Si Niang is now a very good cook, and she can also do laundry and mending. She is even more capable than Old Lady Xu.
When Miaozhen came out of the new house and saw that Xu Dalang had come alone, she asked, "Hasn't eldest sister arrived yet?"
“Both she and your aunt have things to do,” Xu Dalang said.
Miaozhen didn't ask any further questions. It was obvious that her aunt didn't want to come. She had been mistreated when she lived in the old house, and now she was even less willing to do anything for the Xu family. This was understandable.
Unlike Mei, Huang's life was not very pleasant, so she was unwilling to appease her in-laws. Mei, on the other hand, usually lived her own life behind closed doors, with no worries about food or clothing, and only interacted with her in-laws two or three times a year, so she was relatively tolerant.
As guests arrived one after another, Madam Mei and Miaozhen sat down at the table. The dishes on the table were all greasy and fatty. When the groom came over to give the bride money, he only gave the third wife two thicker red envelopes.
Miaozhen met her uncle, who had a pointed head and a slightly protruding mouth, and seemed to be quite shrewd.
In the end, it was quite a lively affair, with the bride being taken away amidst the sounds of gongs and drums.
On the third day after the wedding, Miaozhen and the others did not go to visit. Xu Si Niang's wedding gifts were all given to Old Madam Xu. Old Madam Xu thought that she usually lived with her third son, so she took out one and gave it to her third son. As for the gifts from the other two sons, she kept them for herself.
Ms. Mei was actually a meticulous person and knew the situation perfectly well, but her youngest son was only three months old and needed constant care. Although there was a wet nurse to take care of him, she was still worried.
Miaozhen, on the other hand, had some free time. She spent her days studying medicine and doing needlework, which was quite pleasant for her.
A month or so later, the phlegm nodule on Fengniang's left neck really did disappear completely. Fengniang was so happy that she praised Miaozhen's medical skills to everyone she met.
When the servants of the Ma family overheard this, Madam Ma wiped away her freshly dried tears, seemingly having made up her mind to go to the Xu family. At that moment, the Xu family was having dinner together. Miao Zhen was testing her younger brother and helping him recite his lessons. After he finished reciting, she served him soup and rice. Just as she handed it to him, Madam Ma arrived.
When Madam Ma arrived, Madam Mei noticed that she seemed hesitant to speak and feared that she had something difficult to say, so she invited her into the inner room. However, she said, "I would like to invite Zhenzhen to come and see our side."
Miaozhen paused, wondering if Ma Yulan was really seriously ill. She quickly followed her.
In the past, the atmosphere at the Ma family's house was always cheerful, but now it was strange. Madam Ma remained silent the whole way. However, when they arrived at Ma Yulan's courtyard and reached the main house, she opened the door and Miaozhen came in and looked inside.
The once cheerful and lively Ma Yulan now has a face that alternates between pale and flushed, and her belly is so protruding that she seems to be pregnant.
Ma Yulan was also somewhat dazed. Mrs. Ma whispered in her ear, "Zhenzhen, look at your sister Ma. She was fine during the New Year, but after the New Year, her period stopped and her belly got bigger. We had two religious ceremonies performed, which cost a lot of money, but she still didn't get better. Later, we hired a doctor who first said that your sister was having sex with a ghost, and then said that she was indulging in pleasure but refused to admit it. I was so angry that I was trembling all over. I was afraid that people would tell, so I stuffed some money into her mouth to keep her quiet."
Miaozhen couldn't help but feel a lump in her throat upon hearing this, and asked again, "Did you invite Madam Ru to come and see?"
"I did ask. At first, she said your sister Ma had a stone in her stomach, but it didn't work. So she said it was a ghost fetus. It was your master who suggested that I ask someone to perform a ritual." Mrs. Ma was very worried. She knew that she couldn't find Ru Shi, let alone Ru Shi's apprentice. But now she could only try anything as a last resort.
Miaozhen suddenly remembered the concept of a virgin's ghost fetus mentioned in "Fu Qingzhu's Gynecology". Although it had its limitations, it seemed to be the symptoms of this type of fetus. She calmed herself down for a while before saying to Mrs. Ma, "This is not a ghost fetus. My method is only 30% sure. If you are at ease, I will try my best. If you are not at ease, I will not talk about this matter."
Without modern medical means, Miaozhen could only proceed with extreme caution. Fortunately, Mrs. Ma truly loved her daughter and was by no means a foolish person.
Seeing that she wasn't boasting and was being cautious, Mrs. Ma immediately said, "I'm at ease. If I weren't at ease, I wouldn't have come to you."
"Alright, let me make this clear from the start: I'll write down my sister's symptoms in the medical record. If anything goes wrong along the way, you can't come looking for me. If you agree, we'll have someone witness it and sign a document." Miao Zhen had transmigrated because of a medical dispute, and she was still shaken by the memory. Therefore, this was the only way she could do it.
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