This was Qi Yue’s first time watching an ancient amputation surgery, and she couldn’t help but be filled with enthusiasm. However, Liu Pucheng wouldn’t let her enter the operating room.

“This type of surgical procedure is very simple for us,” he said to Qi Yue. “Zhang Tong and I are sufficient. You should stay outside and keep watch. After all, if someone comes for consultation, we can’t have not a single physician available.”

Qi Yue widened her eyes, then laughed again.

“Teacher, here you go again,” she said with a knowing expression. “Teacher, you always teach me to be fearless, but when something happens, the one who’s afraid is actually you.”

Liu Pucheng smiled bitterly.

“It’s not necessarily a good thing for a girl to be too clever,” he said with a bitter smile, then composed himself. “You have many things to do, so there’s no need to be distracted by unnecessary matters.”

Qi Yue rolled her eyes.

“Teacher,” she said, “do you plan to protect me for my entire life? If I don’t dare take any risks, I’ll either become timid and hesitant, or arrogant and overconfident. You don’t want to see me become like that, do you?”

Liu Pucheng laughed and sighed.

“Alright, alright, let’s begin surgery.” Qi Yue clapped her hands to call everyone.

The disciples outside responded loudly in acknowledgment.

Watching Qi Yue step into the sterilization room, Liu Pucheng smiled and shook his head, following her in.

Since Liu Pucheng was the lead surgeon, he used his familiar surgical instruments.

Qi Yue also saw Liu Pucheng’s amputation tools for the first time.

“In that case, let Madam handle the vascular suturing to ensure absolute safety,” Liu Pucheng said.

Qi Yue nodded. Since Hu San’s hemophobia remained uncontrollable, he had withdrawn from surgical operations. The only surgical assistants were A’Ru and Zhang Tong.

“I’m beginning,” Liu Pucheng said.

Everyone in the operating room nodded, watching as Liu Pucheng raised his hand and brought down the knife, cutting open the patient’s lower leg. The surface skin and muscle separated, and Qi Yue promptly performed hemostasis. The skin and flesh quickly separated, revealing the major blood vessels.

Liu Pucheng carefully used his familiar stone needle to lift them, and Qi Yue immediately clamped them with hemostatic forceps. The upper portion was ligated with thread. Liu Pucheng paused slightly, and under Qi Yue’s watchful gaze, cut the lower portion. Qi Yue immediately sutured with fish intestine thread.

“Done,” Qi Yue nodded in indication and withdrew the thread.

Liu Pucheng looked nervously at the upper ligation thread. Everyone’s expressions were tense.

“Tsk, you still don’t trust me,” Qi Yue shook her head and said. She reached out herself and untied the ligation thread.

No bleeding occurred.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Outside the operating room, the sound of bone sawing could be heard, a sound that made everyone’s skin crawl. Fortunately, the sound didn’t last long before it stopped.

“This is necrotic tissue, burn it immediately,” A’Ru passed out a cloth bag from inside the door, with the words “Specific Infection – Burn” written on it.

The shape indicated it was a human lower leg. The disciple who was about to reach for it couldn’t help but let his hand go weak.

“This is my mother’s…” the wet nurse’s son asked in a trembling voice.

“Yes, but this cannot be kept. You can take it to your home, but it must be burned and buried. Otherwise, it will cause infection. If people with wounds come into contact with it, they will also be infected with your mother’s condition,” Qi Yue said from inside.

The people outside immediately stepped back several paces.

“Then, you burn it,” the wet nurse’s son no longer dared to take it.

The disciple, pale-faced, hurriedly carried it toward the specially built cremation furnace behind the courtyard.

After another suffocating period of time, the surgery finally ended.

“Whether we can prevent sepsis infection is still uncertain,” the exhausted Qi Yue seriously explained to the wet nurse’s son. “You must prepare yourselves mentally.”

The wet nurse’s son nodded and tearfully expressed his gratitude.

That night, the patient’s temperature remained high with fever.

“This is much more severe than that hunter last time,” he said, sighing. “I’m afraid she won’t make it.”

“She hasn’t reached the stage of systemic sepsis yet, there’s still hope,” Qi Yue said with a frown, clenching her fists. “Teacher, the herbal medicine is up to you.”

Liu Pucheng nodded.

“A’Ru, increase the intravenous saline drip to maintain balance,” Qi Yue looked toward A’Ru.

A’Ru nodded.

“Hu San, take some people and help me prepare to extract Chinese medicine injection,” Qi Yue said.

Hu San responded loudly and pointed out seven or eight disciples.

Since using it that one time, Qi Yue still hadn’t planned to regularly use this unstable injection, so she hadn’t prepared the materials. Fortunately, everyone had done it once before, and due to its novelty, the impression was deep. Soon everything was prepared, and they set up operations in the room used for teaching.

By evening, they had barely extracted a small bottle. To quickly combat this type of infection, Qi Yue’s advantages were high-purity antibacterial Chinese medicine and rapid intravenous administration.

Qi Yue administered everything intravenously. After observation, the woman showed no rejection symptoms, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’ll monitor today’s temperature. You must sleep for a while no matter what,” Liu Pucheng said with finality.

Qi Yue looked at the woman who was still unconscious and nodded.

The prefect’s office also learned about this, because a familiar servant woman had come to attend the old woman’s funeral, only to find no one at home. Upon inquiry, she learned the woman had been taken to Qianjin Hall.

Upon learning this, the prefect’s wife felt conflicted emotions. Although displeased, with a life at stake, she couldn’t force them to bring the woman back.

“It’s truly seeking medical help in desperation,” she finally shook her head and sighed. “But her son is truly filial.”

As she spoke, the young master was eating pastries nearby.

“Mother, I’m filial too,” he said, offering a piece of pastry to the prefect’s wife.

The prefect’s wife smiled and took a bite, stroking her son’s head.

“Yu’er is such a good boy,” she smiled.

Her hand had only stroked twice when the son suddenly frowned and threw away the pastry in his hand.

“My stomach hurts,” he cried out, pressing his hands to his belly.

The prefect’s wife was frightened pale and hurriedly embraced her son. This time the young master’s pain was severe, as if he wanted to roll on the ground. The whole family was in panic as they called for a physician. When this physician surnamed Zhang arrived, the young master was fine again, lying on the bed catching his breath.

“Did he eat something bad?” the prefect’s wife asked with lingering fear.

Physician Zhang carefully checked his pulse and examined him. Seeing the young master’s peaceful demeanor, with only the sweat from the earlier pain and nothing else wrong, he was also somewhat uncertain. The pulse was normal too, so he nodded.

“Eat fewer fruits and melons, don’t indulge in cold foods. Fast for a few days,” Physician Zhang said.

Only then did the prefect’s wife feel relieved. She thanked him and gave him a generous reward, having someone escort the physician out.

At dawn, the awakened Qi Yue entered the ward.

“…high fever, nasal flaring, black stool…” A’Ru, wearing a gown and mask, was making records.

“…severe blood loss, liver wind about to stir, pulse deep, thin and rapid, tongue smooth without coating…” Liu Pucheng examined while speaking. “Add two parts snake gallbladder and aged tangerine peel.”

A’Ru acknowledged and hurriedly went out with the record to prepare the medicine.

“Teacher, let me take over. You go rest,” Qi Yue said.

Liu Pucheng didn’t stand on ceremony and nodded as he withdrew.

Every three hours, Qi Yue injected the medicine once, until all the hard-won extracted medicine was used up. By midnight, the temperature finally dropped.

Upon receiving the news, everyone couldn’t help but cheer with joy.

“This indicates the infection is under some control,” Qi Yue said. Her expression showed no joy or relaxation. “But the situation is still not optimistic.”

She held a white handkerchief in her hands, containing the patient’s sputum.

She examined it carefully at this moment, as if looking at some rare treasure.

“Yellow thick sputum with blood, indeed the fire poison has invaded the lungs,” Liu Pucheng also examined it seriously, then looked up at Qi Yue. “Madam, if the fire poison attacks the heart, then there’s truly no hope.”

Qi Yue took a deep breath.

“She’s already able to cough up sputum. That’s at least improvement,” she said. “As long as she hasn’t stopped breathing, we must continue treating.”

In the room for extracting injections, the disciples were still busy. Qi Yue slowly walked in and sat down at the table.

On the table were crude culture media in dishes. She hadn’t used blood culture – firstly because she couldn’t culture anything, and secondly, even if she could culture something, what could she do? Whether penicillin, gentamicin, or any other mycin, she had none. To talk about adjusting medication at this point was simply too luxurious.

If she had penicillin, she could control the condition in half an hour. Why would they need to toil day and night like this?

“Penicillin, oh penicillin, how were you made?” Qi Yue murmured to herself.

What a pity. Back then, why had she seriously studied Chinese medicine injection extraction? If she had studied penicillin extraction instead, wouldn’t that be…

Thinking of this, she laughed again.

She had studied Chinese medicine injections because she was suspicious of them, so she went to understand them. But did she need to be suspicious of penicillin?

She knew penicillin was extracted from penicillium mold, but she had never asked about the specific process.

Qi Yue reached up and tousled her hair.

Don’t think about things that can’t be done now. Thinking about this is completely wasting time. With this limited time, she should go do things that can be done.

What she could do now and rely on were her intravenous injection and IV tools, and her ability to purify Chinese medicine to make it more effective than herbal decoctions – fast and efficient.

“Find several more antibacterial Chinese medicines and see which extract has the greatest efficacy,” she stood up and rushed out, requesting all the medicines from Liu Pucheng’s prescriptions.

For a day and night, the work of extracting injections in the classroom never stopped. Finally, when all the pus scraped from the patient was used up, they used the patient’s sputum, so that whenever they heard the patient cough, the disciples couldn’t help but cheer with joy.

On the third day after surgery, the extraction work finally brought good news – they had found an extract more effective than the previous ones, from a Chinese medicine called white-haired selfheal.

After twice-daily intramuscular injections morning and evening, on the morning of the third day, the patient’s temperature finally dropped, and her mental state also improved.

“Where am I?” she asked weakly.

Her son hadn’t expected his mother to actually wake up and wept with joy, throwing himself at the bedside crying. He had only cried for a few moments when they heard several popping sounds, followed by a spreading stench.

She had defecated…

The wet nurse’s son was quite embarrassed, but saw A’Ru, who was standing guard nearby, greatly delighted.

“Madam, Madam, she defecated!” she called out loudly.

While hurriedly cleaning and changing for the woman.

“You useless woman!” the wet nurse’s son urgently kicked his wife nearby. “Who should be doing this kind of thing!”

The daughter-in-law, having been kicked, hurriedly stepped forward.

“Young madam, let me do it,” she said hastily.

“No need, no need, we’ll do this. It’s very useful to us,” A’Ru said.

Feces being useful?

The husband and wife stood stunned as Qi Yue had already entered.

“Let me see, let me see,” she said excitedly, taking the soiled padding from A’Ru’s hands.

The wet nurse’s son and his wife, watching this beautiful young woman’s actions, couldn’t help but retch.

Without laboratory instruments, all she could use were visual observation and smell. Stool, urine, sputum, saliva, sweat, and so on – all of these could truly reflect the patient’s condition.

“Excellent,” Qi Yue carefully examined the stool. “Yellow-brown color, yellow-brown paste consistency. The sepsis is under control.”

She rushed out happily.

This news finally allowed Qianjin Hall, which had been tense for several days, to breathe a slight sigh of relief.

On the fourth day, no infection spread was found at the amputation site. Moreover, stethoscope examination showed lung rales had basically disappeared. Body temperature was conservatively estimated at around 37 degrees. The patient’s mental state had improved – she recognized people but didn’t want to eat.

Qi Yue could finally sleep soundly, but she was woken up again in the middle of the night.

The patient’s arm was red, swollen, and painful – exactly the inflammatory symptoms Qi Yue had described.

“Could it be that the infection has actually spread?” A’Ru said nervously.

Qi Yue shook her head and sighed.

“No,” she said, pulling out the IV needle. “It should be phlebitis caused by the IV.”

She sighed.

“Stop the IV,” she said, looking at the tube in her hand that had become deformed after multiple sterilizations. This too had finally…

“Throw it away.”

A’Ru paused, looking at the IV tube Qi Yue had thrown to her.

So, another item was gone…

More and more people at the prefect’s office were paying attention to this matter, because they still hadn’t received news about attending the wet nurse’s funeral.

Could it be that she was actually cured?

Someone couldn’t help but go inquire.

“Really, really, she’s alive! Just had her leg sawed off!” the person who inquired quickly returned, shouting throughout the courtyard.

Alive! But had her leg sawed off!

Both pieces of news were quite shocking.

“Oh, I know!” a servant said quietly, pulling out a piece of paper from his sleeve. “Is this what’s written here, ‘Don’t take small wounds lightly…'”

He read from the paper, “‘…may cost life or limb… sterilization and disinfection must be done well…'”

This was everyone’s first time hearing such words, so someone snatched the paper from his hand to see what it was.

“This is a leaflet distributed by Qianjin Hall…” the servant introduced. “Many people in the city have them. It says that if you’re cut or hit and get an opening, never sprinkle ash or dirt on it. First wash with running water, then with salt water, or you can go to Qianjin Hall, and they say it’s free…”

Everyone passed it around to read. The content was simple, easy to understand, and novel.

“Is Qianjin Hall really that capable?” someone asked. “Weren’t they supposed to only treat bruises and injuries?”

“Yes, they do indeed specialize in treating bruises and injuries, but think about it – what kind of bruises and injuries have they been treating recently?” the servant said seriously, counting on his fingers. “…the prefect’s son who was trampled by a horse – he was given a death sentence by all the physicians in the city, but Madam Qi cured him. The hunter with the injured leg – Wang Qingchun bet on his knees that it couldn’t be cured, but Madam Qi cured him again. A few days ago, someone whose chest was sawed open was also cured. Now, the wet nurse who was already in her burial clothes also had her life saved…”

As he listed each case, everyone suddenly realized how many remarkable things Qianjin Hall had accomplished.

Although these cases all involved bruises and injuries, but…

“Besides bruises and injuries, these people all shared another characteristic – they were all determined to be dying,” the servant said with deep emotion. “What she treats isn’t just simple bruises and injuries – it’s life! These were all incurable cases!”

Yes, someone who could treat people determined to be dying – if that wasn’t remarkable, who in this world could be called remarkable!

Everyone’s minds were suddenly enlightened, and news of Qianjin Hall’s miraculous deeds spread like wildfire throughout the prefect’s office.

But at this moment, the prefect’s wife couldn’t spare time to worry about whether these matters would affect her family’s relationship with the Marquis Dingxi’s mansion. She was already driven to distraction by her young son’s stomachache.

Since those two times when he suddenly hurt and suddenly stopped hurting, thinking it was just an upset stomach that would be fine with some warmth, the young master had another stomachache yesterday. This time, it wasn’t like the previous times where it would pass in a while – he was in so much pain that he fainted.

After Physician Zhang examined his pulse, his face also turned slightly pale.

“Young master, what exactly did you eat?” he asked.

The prefect’s wife was trembling all over.

“Just eating meals – those meals were the same ones I ate with him,” she said in a shaky voice.

“But this pulse indicates that the young master’s organs have been injured,” Physician Zhang said gravely. “No external injuries, no other symptoms, severe abdominal pain – this could only be caused by eating something that shouldn’t be eaten.”

The prefect’s wife collapsed onto the bed.

“Heavens, who wants to harm my son,” she immediately wailed, shouting to investigate quickly.

The prefect’s office was immediately thrown into chaos. The maids and servants who attended the young master suffered, being beaten until they cried and wailed, but nothing could be discovered.

Finally, it was Physician Zhang who used needles and moxibustion to wake the unconscious young master. The whole family cried and pleaded, asking him what he had eaten.

The young master was in severe abdominal pain and could only cry – how could he answer?

“The spoon!” suddenly shouted a maid beside the prefect’s wife.

Everyone in the room looked at her.

The maid pointed at the young master’s neck.

“The young master’s silver spoon!” she screamed.

The prefect and his wife immediately reacted and simultaneously pounced over, embracing the young master to check his neck.

Around the young master’s neck, like all children, he wore a collar with five blessing bells, plus jade pendants and silver chains.

At this moment, the silver chain was empty – there had originally been a finger-sized spoon hanging there.

“Where is your spoon?” the prefect’s wife grabbed the silver chain in panic and shouted. “Where is the silver spoon your grandmother gave you?”

“Did he lose it?” the prefect asked with one last hope, his voice trembling.

The young master wailed in abdominal pain.

“I ate it, I bet with my cousin that I dared to eat it…” he cried out.

The prefect and his wife swayed and immediately collapsed onto the bed.

“Doctor… please save him,” the prefect’s wife cried out, grabbing the physician’s sleeve.

The physician was frightened and hurriedly backed away.

“How many days ago?” he asked.

But the child was too incoherent from pain to speak clearly, finally hurting so much he wanted to roll around again.

“Don’t move, absolutely don’t curl up,” the physician shouted, hurriedly pressing down on the young master’s body. “It’s already in the stomach. Don’t move around – if it punctures the internal organs, that would mean immediate death.”

Hearing this, the prefect and his wife hurriedly held down their son.

“Quickly get chives and celery for him to eat, see if we can get it to come out. I’ll prescribe medicine too,” Physician Zhang said.

“What if it still doesn’t work?” the prefect’s wife couldn’t help asking.

Physician Zhang was silent for a moment.

“Either he dies from internal congestion, or from intestinal perforation,” he said slowly.

In any case, it was death…

The prefect and his wife turned pale.

“But that was before,” the physician suddenly said again.

The prefect and his wife felt their hearts nearly stop.

Don’t give us such heart attacks!

“Now, Qianjin Hall might be able to save him,” Physician Zhang said slowly.

Qianjin Hall?

“Madam Qi at Qianjin Hall has the skill of opening the abdomen and cutting the belly. Now only this method can remove the spoon from the young master’s stomach,” Physician Zhang said.

Madam Qi at Qianjin Hall…

The prefect’s wife pressed her hand to her heart, sweating profusely.

Is… is this retribution?

Is… what the elders say about not speaking carelessly, because careless words will come back to hit you?

That day, no matter how the young master cried and fussed, chives and celery were forced into his mouth. But besides increasingly severe pain, there was no effect.

“Sir,” the prefect’s wife had cried until her voice was hoarse, supported by two servants, unable to sit still.

“Stop crying! To hell with the Marquis Dingxi’s mansion! The Marquis Dingxi’s mansion isn’t my son! Why should I care about his reputation!” the prefect shouted. “Quickly go to Qianjin Hall and request Madam Qi!”

Servants hurriedly ran off.

At Qianjin Hall, the wet nurse had completely recovered mentally. Only then did Qi Yue tell her about her leg being sawed off, leading to mother and son embracing and crying together.

“I’m useless now, I’ve become a cripple,” the wet nurse beat her chest and wailed. “I might as well be dead.”

“Mother, you raised me this big, now it’s my turn to care for you. As long as you’re here, even if you lost a leg, even if you were paralyzed, blind, or mentally impaired, as long as you’re here, I’m someone who has a mother,” her son wept.

“Don’t worry either. Later we’ll make a prosthetic limb to attach, and with a crutch, it shouldn’t affect walking and movement,” Qi Yue comforted.

These words delighted the mother and son greatly.

“It’s just that it definitely won’t be the same as before,” Qi Yue said hastily, sweating under their bright gazes.

“Thank you, divine physician, thank you, divine physician,” the mother and son kowtowed.

Qi Yue hurriedly helped them up.

“Don’t call me divine physician – I can’t bear such a title,” she said.

After settling the mother and son, Qi Yue returned to the office. She could finally sit down these past few days, but still couldn’t rest because people waiting for consultation were also lined up outside.

As time passed, more and more people came to Qianjin Hall. Although she wasn’t sure if they were making money, the popularity was visibly thriving.

“Doctor, doctor…” a man lifted the curtain and rushed in, followed by guiding disciples who couldn’t stop him in time.

Qi Yue was examining a woman’s heart and lungs with a stethoscope when this man suddenly burst in, frightening the woman into screaming and covering her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Qi Yue frowned and asked.

The man was also frightened and stood outside the door.

“Madam Qi, Madam Qi,” he said in panic while bowing. “I’m from the prefect’s office, requesting Madam Qi to make a house call.”

Qi Yue put down her stethoscope.

The prefect’s office?

She looked toward the door with a mocking smile.

My, my, how rare indeed.

“I’m sorry, but physicians at our Qianjin Hall don’t make house calls,” she said. “If you need medical treatment, please come to Qianjin Hall.”