Chapter 18: Sweeping Monk
In the evening, the family of four still entered the space.
Lin Qian walked into the wooden house, took out all the medical books, and then looked for a prescription for rheumatism.
Finally, Lin Qian found a prescription for treating rheumatism in the "Jinkui Yaolue" written by the medical saint Zhang Zhongjing, called Guizhi Shaoyao Zhimu Decoction.
There are nine medicinal ingredients in total, including cinnamon twig, white peony root, licorice, ephedra, ginger, white atractylodes, anemarrhena, saposhnikovia divaricata, and processed aconite.
Lin Qian wrote down everything and prepared to boil a few bowls for Lin Changshen to drink to see if it could alleviate his rheumatic symptoms.
The next day, Lin Qian did not follow Lin Shuo and Wei Jing to exercise, but walked to the town early in the morning.
Along the way, Lin Qian was reciting the prescription, fearing that she would forget it.
After entering the town, Lin Qian first bought two big meat buns at the breakfast shop, ate them all the way, and then walked to Renhetang to get medicine.
"Cinnamon twig, white peony root, licorice, ephedra..."
"Ginger, Atractylodes macrocephala, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, wind-relieving, processed Aconite root, Guizhi Shaoyao Zhimu decoction. Little girl, is anyone in your family suffering from rheumatism?"
Lin Qian was reciting the prescription as she walked, when suddenly an old voice sounded and took over the prescription that Lin Qian had just recited.
Lin Qian stopped in surprise and looked around. A beggar with a foul smell all over his body was holding a pot of wine and drinking a big gulp.
"Were you the one speaking just now?"
The old beggar glanced at Lin Qian and said, "Little girl, is there anyone else here besides me?"
Looking at the old beggar, Lin Qian suddenly felt that she might have met the legendary Sweeping Monk, who might be a hermit with great medical skills.
Lin Qian squatted down and handed the other meat bun in her hand to the old beggar.
The old beggar took it and stuffed it into his mouth. It seemed that he had not eaten for a long time.
"I have a friend who had whooping sores as a child. Although he was left with scars, he had recovered. But when he was thirteen, his face suddenly started bleeding and pus started coming out again, and he also had a high fever that wouldn't go away.
After his fever subsides, I want to try to heal his face by grinding rhubarb into powder and mixing it with honeysuckle to apply to his face. What do you think of this method?"
The old beggar finished his meat bun in a few bites, then gulped down a large mouthful of wine. He lay lazily on the ground and said, "This is only treating the symptoms, not the root cause."
Lin Qian moved closer and asked, "What do you mean by treating the symptoms and what does it mean by treating the root cause?"
The old beggar looked at Lin Qian with his dim eyes, then yawned, closed his eyes and said, "Why should I tell you? What's in it for me?"
Lin Qian narrowed her eyes, then sat down on the ground, saying, "Every human body has meridians and collaterals. The straight ones are called meridians, and the side branches are called collaterals. There are twelve meridians: the three yin and three yang meridians of the hands, and the three yin and three yang meridians of the feet."
In just this short moment, the old beggar suddenly opened his eyes and sat up.
"There are twelve meridians. The three yin and three yang meridians of the hand? The three yin and three yang meridians of the foot? Girl, what else is there? And where did you see this sentence?"
This time it was Lin Qian's turn to fight back: "Why should I tell you? What's the benefit of telling you?"
"Oh, dear girl, I was wrong just now. Can you tell me where you saw this sentence?"
Lin Qian said nothing and looked at the old beggar.
The old beggar said, "How about this? I'll help you heal your friend. Is that okay?"
Seeing that Lin Qian was still silent and at ease, the old beggar finally got anxious and said, "As long as you tell me where you read this book, I will do whatever you want me to do in the future, okay?"
"Then I want you to be my master and teach me medical skills." Lin Qian said.
As soon as he said this, the flattering smile on the old beggar's face suddenly froze.
He sat back on the dirty ground and looked at Lin Qian without saying a word, with a complicated look in his eyes.
"If it's anything else, it's easy to talk about, but forget about accepting me as a disciple." After a long time, the old beggar lowered his head, said lightly, and then lay back on the dirty ground.
Lin Qian didn't understand why the old beggar changed so quickly, but she knew that the old beggar was a master.
"Why? Do you have any secrets? It's okay if you don't want to accept me as a disciple. You teach me medical skills and I will give you all the medical books I know." Lin Qian approached the old beggar and said.
The old beggar shook his head, took a sip of wine, and then shook his head sadly.
"If you don't accept me as your disciple, I won't teach you medicine."
Lin Qian looked at him for a long time, then got up and left. She still had to go to Renhetang to get medicine for her grandfather.
After getting the medicine, Lin Qian noticed that there was a scholar writing letters on the opposite side.
Lin Qian rolled her eyes, then gave him ten cents and asked him to help write the letter.
The sentence that Lin Qian recited to the old beggar before was from Li Shizhen's "Investigation of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians".
Here, although Yuan Chao was lost by the butterfly, the books written by the Medical Saint are in Lin Qian's space.
She only read a short paragraph from the beginning, and the old beggar was so excited. It seemed that the content of this medical book was very attractive to the old beggar.
Although Lin Qian wanted to take the old beggar as her master, she couldn't force him if he didn't agree.
Anyway, these are medical books that have been widely circulated in later generations. It doesn't hurt to let the old beggar take a look. Learning from them will benefit the people.
Lin Qian only asked Xiucai to write the general introduction of "A Study of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians". After all, it was impossible to complete the whole book.
I’ll give the old beggar the rest next time.
On the way back, Lin Qian bought ten more big buns. Sure enough, the old beggar was still lying there.
"Here!" Lin Qian put the buns and the food next to the old beggar.
"I'm going back first. I'll copy down the rest of the content and send it to you later." Lin Qian said, turned around and left.
Later, the old beggar opened one eye, looked at the note, picked it up, and called Lin Qian.
"Girl, why do you want to learn medicine?"
Lin Qian tilted her head. She didn't know why she wanted to learn medicine. Maybe it was because of the medical books in the space.
It could also be due to something else.
"I don't know, but I think I would be very happy if I could heal other people's pain." After saying that, Lin Qian waved her hand and went home.
Behind her, the old beggar kept looking at her back, and finally, he lowered his head to look at the book in his hand.
"Happy? You think so simply, you little girl who knows nothing." An obscure light flashed in the old beggar's eyes, like mockery and pain.
In the end, he folded it carefully and put it close to his body.
He took a sip of wine and continued to lie on the ground.
"Next time, when will you come? I forgot to ask. Never mind, it's nothing anyway, I'll just wait."
When I got home, it was just past noon.
When passing by the small dilapidated house, Lin Qian saw that the foundation of Wei Jing's new home had been laid.
"Mom, Dad, Grandpa, I'm back." Lin Qian pushed open the door and shouted.
Zhao Xiu was learning embroidery with Zhang Yufang. When she heard this, she looked up and said, "Why are you back now? Wash your hands quickly. I'll go get you some food."
"Okay." Lin Qian responded with a smile.
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