After leaving Qianxi Pavilion, Pei Luo went to the largest pharmacy in the county, Baicao Hall. As she arrived at the entrance, she saw the doors surrounded by a dense crowd. Curious and unwilling to miss any excitement, she pushed closer and discovered a person lying at the entrance, while a woman beside him sat slumped on the ground, wailing that the doctor at Baicao Hall had killed someone.
The attending doctor at Baicao Hall was frantically treating the man, clearly startled by the sudden emergency. The surrounding villagers were shouting and speculating in all directions. When someone mentioned reporting him to the authorities, the doctor grew even more anxious. Despite his efforts with acupuncture, the man showed no signs of regaining consciousness.
Frowning, Pei Luo leaned over and shouted,
“This person isn’t dead, but you’re going to suffocate him if you keep crowding like this!”
With so many people surrounding him, the air was stagnant—hardly conducive to treatment.
The crowd instinctively stepped back, wary of being implicated. The shopkeeper of Baicao Hall quickly realized what was happening and called a young assistant to part the crowd.
Pei Luo crossed her arms and noticed the doctor’s hands trembling with the silver needles, likely due to stress. Driven by her instinct to help and to test whether a simple act of assistance could generate merit points, she could not resist offering advice:
“Calm yourself. As a doctor, to save a life, the first requirement is composure. Keeping a clear mind allows for precise judgment.”
The doctor, in his thirties, obviously inexperienced, glanced at Pei Luo, a little girl, but felt no offense at her interference. Instead, he lowered his head in self-reproach, took a deep breath, and adjusted his state before feeling the man’s pulse again.
Pei Luo began naming acupuncture points:
“Renzhong, Neiguan, Yongquan, Shui Gou, Baihui, Hegu.”
The doctor was shocked. Only trained physicians could understand these points. Could this girl really know medicine? Acupuncture was rare—many doctors couldn’t perform it well, and mastery was exceptional. He had learned only a little from his own master, which explained his mistakes under pressure.
Fortunately, he remembered the basic points. Gathering his focus, he applied the silver needles exactly where Pei Luo had indicated. With the last needle in place, the man, previously unconscious and seemingly lifeless, suddenly took a deep breath and woke up.
“He’s awake! Incredible!”
“I told you Doctor Zhong’s skills were competent; there’s no way he could have killed anyone.”
The crowd murmured with relief. The shopkeeper and Doctor Zhong himself exhaled in unison.
The woman stopped crying upon seeing her husband awake. Doctor Zhong examined him, confirmed he was fine, removed the needles, and let them leave.
Doctor Zhong then hurried over to Pei Luo, bowing respectfully:
“Thank you, young lady, for speaking up earlier. Without your assistance, I might have faced a lawsuit for causing a death. I didn’t expect someone your age to possess such advanced medical skill. I am curious—how did you immediately identify his symptoms?”
Pei Luo noted his humility and thought kindly of him. In her previous life, she had despised incompetent doctors who treated patients recklessly, often causing death and evading responsibility through paperwork. To her, attempting to save someone without absolute confidence was reckless and life-threatening.
She had long considered intelligence and talent essential in medicine. Hard work alone could not substitute for innate skill, and while Doctor Zhong lacked talent, he was humble—a quality Pei Luo appreciated. She began explaining, though she noticed no trace of merit energy from the simple act of helping—it was purely altruistic.
“The man fainted due to a brief shock. For mild cases, stimulating Renzhong and Yongquan points may suffice. If there’s no improvement, additional points can aid recovery by increasing blood pressure and promoting local blood flow. The underlying cause of shock varies and requires further examination.”
Doctor Zhong looked puzzled. After a pause, he asked,
“Miss, what is shock? And what do you mean by blood pressure and blood flow?”
Pei Luo froze, realizing she had forgotten that this was the ancient era. Many modern medical terms could not be explained easily to someone of that time. Even with patience, he would not understand, so she decided to let it go.
Seeing her unwilling to explain further, Doctor Zhong wisely did not press. To express his gratitude, he purchased some snacks for Pei Luo. Unable to refuse, she accepted.
The shopkeeper, kind-hearted as well, repeatedly thanked her. Embarrassed but remembering her purpose, Pei Luo presented the herbs she had prepared: Bletilla, Dendrobium, wild ginseng, and other common herbs, dumping them together. The shopkeeper looked at the collection and finally understood she had come to sell herbs.
“Shopkeeper, will you buy these herbs?”
Pei Luo smiled, revealing her white teeth and dimples, making her appear charmingly innocent. Though her face resembled her past life’s self, it carried a more naive, sweet impression in this body.
The shopkeeper nodded with a smile:
“Certainly. Bring any herbs you have in the future; I promise a fair price.”