Gongcheng Zhu was a young woman in her twenties. Her features and complexion were unremarkable, but her skin was smooth and even, and her bearing upright and composed. At a glance, one could tell she came from a respectable household.
“May I ask, Furen, whether you have lately awakened in the mornings feeling weary, with a sour or unpleasant taste in your mouth?”
The young woman, her hair arranged in a conical knot, spoke in a soft, measured voice. She questioned Xia Changjun carefully about her three daily meals, her habits of sleep and waking, and the condition of both her body and her spirits.
Ying Yang had found a length of red cord and was playing cat’s cradle with her mother. Neither of them was paying much attention to the game, however, and the cord soon became hopelessly tangled. They unpicked it and leisurely began again.
“Furen is indeed with child.”
Only after an examination so meticulous as to verge upon the tedious did Gongcheng Zhu deliver her diagnosis.
“Furen worries too much and sleeps too little. You must rest quietly, for excessive anxiety can affect the child. As for the bleeding you experienced earlier, judging by your pulse, there is no serious cause for concern. You need only avoid strong fragrances and eat less venison, roe deer, and other game.”
Some of that is exactly what Yangzi said.
The same thought flashed through the minds of both Xia women.
“Excellent! Excellent!” Delighted, Xia Changjun thumped her armrest. “Reward her with money!”
“A-Jie, wait!” Xia Xianshi interrupted, taking upon herself the role of the stern interrogator. “Some days ago, when the Taiyi Ling examined you…”
A faint expression of contempt appeared upon the new physician’s face.
Xia Xianshi thought the woman was showing her disrespect, and her own expression darkened.
Ying Yang tugged at her mother’s sleeve.
“Gongcheng Shiyi, do you know the Taiyi Ling?”
“I would not dare deceive the noble ones.” Gongcheng Zhu composed her features. “Every physician who comes to Qin has heard of the reputation of the Li family’s Taiyi Ling.”
“In years past, when the divine physician Bian Que treated a Qin king, the Taiyi Ling of that time, Li Xi, grew jealous of Bian Que’s medical skill. He paid a great sum to hire an assassin to murder him, and thus a celebrated physician of his generation lost his life. The present Taiyi Ling of Qin also bears the surname Li. He is none other than the great-grandson of that same Li Xi!”
As she spoke, Gongcheng Zhu once again failed to conceal her disdain for the Li physicians.
“The Li family understands how to conduct itself in officialdom and knows every method of eliminating rivals. But when it comes to the actual practice of medicine, their skill is thoroughly ordinary. They are nothing more than mediocre physicians!”
“How could they compare with the learning handed down in my Gongcheng family?” Her expression was calm, yet entirely confident.
“After my ancestor Gongcheng Buren became an honored guest of the state of Wei, he established a family estate. But children begot grandchildren, and grandchildren begot children. As the generations passed, how could the fortune of a single honored guest keep every descendant wealthy?
“One branch of the family went to Qi in search of a livelihood. Lacking our ancestor’s abilities, they could not secure positions as keqing in Qi. They gradually fell upon harder times and took up the practice of medicine.
“The medical knowledge handed down in our family includes the Huangdi Pulse Text, the Bian Que Pulse Text, and dozens of secret prescriptions. Thus the Gongcheng family of physicians acquired a modest reputation in the old lands of Qi.
“In my grandfather’s time, he was once saved by General Meng Ao. To repay that life-saving kindness, he brought his entire family to Qin in General Meng Ao’s service and became a physician accompanying the army. My grandfather’s medical skills were outstanding. He treated the wounds of Generals Meng Ao, Meng Wu, and others on many occasions, and he was even appointed to a position among the officials of the imperial medical establishment.”
By Gongcheng Zhu’s generation, the Gongcheng family had settled in Qin, secured the patronage of the Meng family, and benefited from the military accomplishments of several of its sons. One after another, members of the Gongcheng clan received noble ranks, fields, residences, and servants.
But once life grew comfortable, persuading anyone to study medicine diligently became difficult. Not everyone wished to be a physician. Back in Qi, the family had had no choice: without medicine, there had been no food on the table.
Watching his descendants prepare to abandon their inherited medical learning, Gongcheng Zhu’s grandfather was deeply distressed. After long and painful consideration, he decided to summon home his youngest granddaughter, whose married life was going badly. She was to divorce her husband, return to the family, and inherit its medical tradition.
Thus, in obedience to her grandfather’s wishes, Gongcheng Zhu devoted herself day and night to studying medicine and supporting her family.
Quiet and patient by nature, she had actually been the quickest and most accomplished medical student among the Gongcheng grandchildren when she was young. But later, her mother decided that medicine was no proper occupation for a woman. Again and again, she ordered Gongcheng Zhu to give up her studies and devote herself to weaving and other feminine crafts.
Once, her mother flew into such a rage that Gongcheng Zhu dared not disobey. From then on she concentrated on weaving plain cloth and cutting garments, preparing for marriage.
Who could have imagined that she would eventually be divorced?
“Divorced?!” Xia Xianshi looked aghast. “Was there not a single capable son or grandson in your family to inherit its learning? Did they truly have to make you divorce your husband?”
Gongcheng Zhu paused. A trace of sorrow entered her expression.
“Inheriting the family’s medicine was one reason. But in truth, my grandfather called me home because he pitied my unhappy marriage. He wished to rescue me from the den of wolves and tigers that was my former husband’s household.”
“Who was your husband’s family? What made them wolves and tigers?” Xia Xianshi frowned.
Her outlook was conventionally conservative, and her opinion of Gongcheng Zhu had taken a sudden turn for the worse.
“My former husband’s surname was Fan, and his given name was Yuqi. He…”
“Pfft—cough, cough!”
Ying Yang, who had been drinking water, choked.
When everyone crowded around her, she hastily waved them away to show that she was fine. She had merely swallowed too quickly.
Xia Changjun made a mental note of the interruption and invited Gongcheng Zhu to continue speaking about her former husband.
Ying Yang listened with her ears pricked up. The more she heard, the more she felt that Gongcheng Zhu had been both terribly unlucky and remarkably fortunate.
Her former husband really was that Fan Yuqi of history—the man upon whose head her father would one day angrily place a bounty of a thousand jin, seeking the destruction of his entire clan.
To enrage the long-reigning king of Qin to such a degree was quite an accomplishment. Fan Yuqi certainly possessed both ability and a formidable personality.
He was brave and skilled in battle, fond of wine, meat, and beautiful women: a typical military man, with conspicuous virtues and equally conspicuous faults.
To be his relative or friend could be a stroke of good fortune. He was loyal, generous with his wealth, and fiercely protective of his own.
To be his wife, however, was another matter.
Gongcheng Zhu had borne him neither son nor daughter. In front of relatives and friends, Fan Yuqi had shouted at her and called her useless. Worse, he had insulted the medical learning of the Gongcheng family.
What sort of illustrious medical family were they, he demanded, if they could not even cure their own daughter’s infertility?
“Outrageous!” Xia Xianshi sprang up and struck the table in fury. “You were right to divorce him!”
Her attitude had reversed completely.
“For a man surnamed Fan to dare insult your family’s standing in such a way! If you and your family could endure even that, you might as well cease calling yourselves human!”
Ying Yang suppressed a snickering laugh.
Mother can be strangely innocent sometimes.
Gongcheng Zhu, too, could not help smiling.
“The noble one’s words are entirely correct. My elders at home thought exactly the same!”
Ying Yang sighed.
“You endured his torment for so long. Only when Fan Yuqi went too far and insulted your entire family did you finally have a chance to escape that sea of suffering.”
A sea of suffering.
Gongcheng Zhu silently turned those words over in her mind again and again. She could think of no more fitting description for those years of marriage.
“A fortunate daughter does not enter an ill-fated household,” Ying Yang declared with a bright smile. “Gongcheng Nüyi, you were right to divorce him.”
Xia Changjun immediately sensed the unspoken meaning beneath her words.
“What fortune? Do you mean the Fan family is ill-fated?”
Ying Yang answered vaguely, “That’s something for the future. Anyway, sooner or later Fan Yuqi will bring about a terrible disaster. Staying far away from him can’t be a bad thing.”
However they questioned her, she refused to say more.
Thanks to this interruption, the unfamiliarity surrounding Gongcheng Zhu had faded considerably. Xia Xianshi could no longer continue playing the stern interrogator. Instead, she watched quietly as Gongcheng Zhu examined her elder cousin’s pulse, prescribed medicine, and explained in detail the precautions to observe during pregnancy.
As Ying Yang watched Gongcheng Zhu put away her medicine chest, a question occurred to her.
“Gongcheng Shiyi, don’t physicians nowadays keep medical records?”
Gongcheng Zhu was taken aback.
“May I ask Gongzhu, what is a medical record?”
Ying Yang gestured with both hands and briefly described the form and purpose of a medical record book.
Gongcheng Zhu immediately understood its advantages.
When attending upon noble patients, a physician’s greatest danger was not being too meticulous, but failing to be meticulous enough.
With written records, a physician could look back to see what illnesses a patient had previously suffered, how the illness had developed, which medicines had been prescribed, and what effects the treatment had produced.
Such records would be valuable not only in the patient’s future treatment but also in improving a physician’s skill and instructing younger members of the family.
Only…
“May I ask whether the noble one would permit me to write down the details of your pulse examinations?”
In this age, ordinary people often lacked the money to consult physicians or purchase medicines. Even wealthy people did not necessarily seek medical treatment; some preferred shamans and spirit-mediums.
There were other difficulties as well. A patient might not be able to consult the same physician twice. Physicians looked down upon their rivals. And particular patients did not wish others to know they had ever been ill.
When Gongcheng Zhu had treated relatives and friends at home, she had frequently encountered people who forbade her to disclose the details of their conditions.
Some female relatives were embarrassed. Some male relatives feared that colleagues or political enemies might learn of a weakness in their health and secretly move against them.
The palace had even more taboos. Gongcheng Zhu could not help asking.
As expected, Xia Changjun hesitated.
She feared that a malicious person might obtain her medical records through one means or another and use them to interfere with her treatment.
After considering the matter repeatedly, Xia Changjun chose a compromise.
Gongcheng Zhu could record the date, the symptoms, and the prescription, but not the patient’s name, age, or other identifying characteristics. Moreover, the description of the symptoms had to be obscure and difficult to interpret, so that outsiders could not easily pry into the record or tamper with it.
Ying Yang shrugged.
Palace intrigue is something the adults have to worry about.
Xia Changjun was about to dismiss the physician when Gongcheng Zhu hesitantly spoke again.
“Gongzhu…”
“Mm?” Ying Yang looked up.
Gongcheng Zhu asked Wu Gongzhu to stand and walk about. She then inquired after the child’s age and height, and examined her pulse, first at one wrist and then the other.
“How is my daughter?” Xia Xianshi could not help asking.
Gongcheng Zhu’s expression grew rather grave.
“Compared with children of the same age, Wu Gongzhu is somewhat lacking in stature. I ask permission to observe the Gongzhu’s diet.”
Newly arrived at court, she phrased the matter cautiously. She deliberately refrained from uttering the word poisoning.
Ying Yang’s eyes, however, lit up. She brought the matter into the open herself.
When Gongcheng Zhu learned that Wu Gongzhu had been fed wine from early childhood, she was stunned for a moment.
“No wonder Wu Gongzhu is a good deal shorter than the other children I’ve seen…”
What the hell! Right through the heart!
Ying Yang clutched her chest, nearly coughing up blood from the shock.
“H-how much shorter is a good deal?”
Gongcheng Zhu lowered her voice.
“Approximately one chi.”
Her family had never been poor. The children of her relatives and friends, as well as the children brought to her household for treatment, had all enjoyed ample food and clothing.
Well-fed children generally grew quite well. Compared with those in her memory, Ying Yang was exceptionally short.
And the System was not about to spare her feelings.
[Assessment complete. You have indeed been in a state of prolonged malnutrition. Your height is far below the average standard for a three-year-old girl.]
Author’s Note
None.