Qi Yue was so moved she couldn’t speak.
What virtue did she have, what fortune did she possess!
Qi Yue looked at Liu Pucheng and said nothing, but bowed deeply.
“Teacher, thank you,” she said.
This form of address surprised Liu Pucheng somewhat, but he said nothing. Seeing Qi Yue’s complex expression, he simply smiled warmly and didn’t continue the topic.
He was a physician, and in his eyes, this woman before him was already a physician as well. Physicians all had their own rules to uphold, and he understood what complex feelings one would have when violating those rules.
Liu Pucheng looked again at A’Ru, Hu San, and Zhang Tong.
“Do you all remember?” he asked.
“We remember,” the three replied in unison.
“Good, go do what needs to be done,” Liu Pucheng said, nodding and smiling at them.
The three responded and went about their tasks.
“Master, this…” Zhang Tong held the removed spleen in a basin, asking quietly for instructions.
Liu Pucheng glanced at it.
“Put it away first. We’ll take it with us when we leave,” he said quietly.
Zhang Tong nodded.
Qi Yue took the second half of the night watch. When she came out of the room, she had no desire to sleep. After a day of rushing about and performing surgery, her mind was still in chaos. She walked leisurely and sat down on a stone bench in the courtyard.
A light cough came from nearby.
Qi Yue turned to look and saw Chang Yuncheng walking out of a room.
“How are you here?” Qi Yue asked, somewhat surprised.
“This is my home. What’s wrong with me being anywhere here?” Chang Yuncheng said indifferently.
Qi Yue laughed.
“You really don’t speak in a way that makes people like you,” she shook her head and laughed again. “No, or rather, you just don’t want to speak nicely to me.”
Chang Yuncheng didn’t speak, seemingly accepting this point.
A moment of silence.
“Not resting?” they both spoke at the same time, then both froze.
Qi Yue laughed first.
“No more resting. I couldn’t sleep anyway, and I’ll have to get up again soon,” she said.
Chang Yuncheng frowned slightly.
“Wasn’t it already successfully treated?” he said.
Qi Yue shook her head and sighed, looking at the night sky.
“The long march has only just begun its first step,” she said. “The surgery is actually the small matter—post-operative care is the big matter.”
Chang Yuncheng didn’t understand this and didn’t ask further.
The two fell silent again.
“Well, thank you for today,” Qi Yue said, rubbing her hands and looking at him.
“Thank me for nearly getting you killed?” Chang Yuncheng said with a twisted smile.
Qi Yue laughed heartily.
“I’ll settle that score with you later. For now, go rest quickly. I still need you to be this door god,” she said, patting Chang Yuncheng’s shoulder and standing up.
Speaking of rest, most people in the Marquis Dingxi’s mansion were sleepless at this time.
Nanny Su helped Madam Xie up from the prayer cushion.
“Has Shumin rested?” she asked.
“Yes, Madam Huang drank the calming soup and finally lay down after much coaxing. She couldn’t hold out any longer,” Nanny Su said, helping Madam Xie sit down and bringing over a bowl of soup from the side.
Madam Xie took it and ate slowly.
“Shumin’s fate is also…” she said, finally sighing.
Nanny Su had a very strange feeling and suddenly didn’t know how to respond.
According to usual custom, she should have said something like “surely it can be cured” or “Madam Huang is still blessed…”
But now the key was that the person who could change Madam Huang’s fate from bad to good was precisely the one they hated to death…
To say Madam Huang was blessed would be to say something about the Young Madam…
Madam Xie was obviously conflicted as well, her hand involuntarily tightening around the spoon.
How could it be that wretched servant…
This made her not know how to pray before the Buddha. Madam Xie loved children very much and had tasted the pain of losing a child, so she empathized with Madam Huang’s current feelings. But if that woman really cured him…
“Has the Prince been with that woman all this time?” Madam Xie asked.
“Yes,” Nanny Su said quietly.
Madam Xie’s hand holding the spoon didn’t move for a long time.
“Go have someone tell Cheng-ge’er that I said he should go rest,” she said slowly after a moment of silence. “The body and hair are received from one’s parents. If he exhausts his body, his mother underground won’t be at peace either.”
Nanny Su responded and quietly withdrew.
The room flickered with lamplight, illuminating Madam Xie’s upright seated figure.
When Nanny Su personally came to this courtyard, she was first stopped by the guards at the gate.
“It’s me,” Nanny Su said hurriedly.
But those guards had no intention of letting her pass.
“I’m here to find the Prince. Madam sent me,” Nanny Su had to say. If it were servants of other people in the household blocking her way, she naturally wouldn’t be so good-tempered, but these were the Prince’s people. While others might not give the Prince face, she absolutely couldn’t fail to do so.
The guards hesitated for a moment, then relayed the message inside. The path was then cleared, and Nanny Su saw in the courtyard hung with large lanterns, a man and woman standing side by side. The woman was even laughing, while the Prince’s gaze fell on that woman’s face…
After hearing Nanny Su’s words, Chang Yuncheng’s face stiffened. His originally relaxed facial lines slowly tensed up, and a flash of dark sorrow passed through his eyes.
“It’s getting late. Go rest quickly. I should also go in and check,” Qi Yue said with a smile.
Chang Yuncheng lifted his feet and walked away, not even glancing at her, as if he had completely forgotten her existence.
This child was having another episode…
Qi Yue shook her head, not taking it to heart, and also turned to go inside.
Only then did Nanny Su lift her feet to leave. When she reached the gate, she saw Chang Yuncheng, who had been striding ahead, stop. Her heart involuntarily clenched as she stared intently at Chang Yuncheng’s back.
It seemed like a long time passed, or perhaps just a blink of an eye, before Chang lifted his feet again and quickly walked away.
Nanny Su exhaled, but her heart suddenly sank.
When Madam Xie heard Nanny Su’s words, she said nothing, only waved her hand.
“It’s getting late. Go rest for a while. There will be much to do tomorrow,” she said.
Nanny Su helped Madam Xie put up the bed curtains, blew out the outside lamp, and withdrew.
After an unknown amount of time, the curtains were lifted, and Madam Xie, wearing only her undergarments, slowly walked to the prayer cushion and knelt down.
“Good and evil have their rewards. That wretched servant shouldn’t have such good fortune. Buddha protect us, she… cannot save him…”
Qi Yue and Liu Pucheng’s group didn’t sleep all night. A’Ru and Hu San were responsible for blood pressure and pulse, Zhang Tong prepared medicinal soup, and everyone was waiting for the moment when the patient would wake up.
Seeing A’Ru stand up and walk toward the patient, Hu San hurriedly followed.
“Sister A’Ru, is it time?” he asked quietly.
Qi Yue required observation of blood pressure and pulse every fifteen minutes, which was one ke.
A’Ru hummed and carefully checked the blood pressure gauge.
Hu San also quickly checked the pulse.
“No problems,” he said, watching A’Ru pick up a pen from the side and write it down on paper. “Sister A’Ru, teach me how to read it. I’ll watch while you sleep for a bit.”
“What’s one day without sleep,” A’Ru said quietly, head down while writing.
Hu San was somewhat embarrassed by this rebuff.
Meanwhile, Qi Yue and Liu Pucheng were also speaking quietly in the outer room.
“The source of qi and blood transformation—is it truly harmless to people after removal?” Liu Pucheng asked quietly.
“It can’t be said to be harmless,” Qi Yue said. “But it won’t be fatal. The immune system will just be weakened. But compared to not removing it and facing death, it still needs to be removed. Not just the spleen—many organs in the human body can be removed, transplanted, or repaired…”
Liu Pucheng’s expression became increasingly shocked, but more than that, he was excited.
“Opening the chest to explore the heart, exchanging them with each other…” he murmured. “So those divine physician stories recorded in ancient books were all true, all truly feasible…”
He trembled uncontrollably, looking at Qi Yue.
“Miss Qi, all these… you know all these…” he asked with a trembling voice.
“I do know them, but…” Qi Yue didn’t know what to say.
Liu Pucheng already knew what her “but” was about and interrupted her.
“Miss Qi, where exactly did you…” he couldn’t help asking.
“I can’t tell you where I learned this, but I can tell you that I’ve done such things before, more than once,” Qi Yue knew what he wanted to ask but couldn’t answer. She could only sigh.
“What were the results?” Liu Pucheng asked hurriedly, with some nervousness.
“No problems,” Qi Yue said with a bitter smile.
Liu Pucheng was somewhat puzzled by her expression. No problems meant everything was fine, right? Shouldn’t that be cause for joy?
“Back then, I had everything I needed. How is it like now, when I need everything but have nothing,” Qi Yue sighed. “I really don’t know if we can get through post-operative infection and complications.”
Although Liu Pucheng didn’t understand many of the terms Qi Yue mentioned, he understood her meaning.
From their first meeting until now, Liu Pucheng was very clear about this girl’s dependence on and anxiety about medicine.
But it was also understandable—such powerful medicine was simply not of this world, truly miraculous beyond measure…
“Whatever needs attention, we’ll watch together. Whatever illness arises, we’ll treat it. Don’t worry—even the best medicine is made by people, so in the end, people are more capable,” he smiled.
Qi Yue was grateful for his comfort and nodded with a smile, though the worry in her brow didn’t ease.
When dawn came, the anxious magistrate couple came to visit again, accompanied by Marquis Dingxi and his wife.
This time Qi Yue couldn’t prevent the family from visiting. After all, they had waited until now, which was already quite remarkable. She had A’Ru take them through disinfection before allowing them in, though other people were still refused visitation.
To avoid Qi Yue’s words being incomprehensible to the magistrate couple and causing more anxiety, Liu Pucheng explained the patient’s condition and surgical situation to them, while Qi Yue was detained by the intensely curious Marquis Dingxi for questioning.
“Yueniang, can you really cut open a person’s belly without killing them?” he asked.
Qi Yue laughed.
“Father, it’s not just randomly cutting people’s bellies,” she smiled. “The cutting is to treat illness and save lives, not to kill.”
“Then how can they not die? Cutting open the belly—some people can die from just a small wound, and the belly is so big…” Marquis Dingxi said with amazement and confusion.
“Father, it’s not that big, only this much,” Qi Yue laughed and gestured a length for him. “Besides, this isn’t so rare. Many physicians did this before.”
“Really? I don’t think so. Only the divine physician Bian Que could do this. How could ordinary physicians?” Marquis Dingxi shook his head. “Yueniang, you’re not a disciple of Bian Que’s lineage, are you?”
Qi Yue laughed heartily.
“Yes, I wonder who Yueniang learned from to acquire such skills?” Madam Xie said indifferently from the side.
Qi Yue glanced at her.
“I don’t know. My grandmother didn’t say,” she answered simply and directly.
Marquis Dingxi wasn’t interested in this. It was enough to shock him that his eldest daughter-in-law possessed such skills.
“Even the imperial physicians in the capital probably can’t do this,” he murmured, feeling feverish all over.
“That’s not necessarily true. The world is vast, and there are many experts. Many physicians might not be unable to do this, but rather they don’t easily display such skills,” Qi Yue sighed.
Take suturing, for example—Liu Pucheng’s master knew it. Suturing naturally appeared for the purpose of suturing, so it would naturally involve situations requiring surgical cutting. Perhaps, like Liu Pucheng’s master, they had encountered too many failures and had no choice but to give up.
She didn’t know what the result would be this time.