“Understood,” the two young men nodded.
“Alright, I’ll prescribe some anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving medicine for you. Come over.”
Ji Kongqing deftly began dispensing the medicine, and after preparing it, she explained how to use it.
“The anti-inflammatory medicine should be taken for about three days. Each small packet is one day’s dosage, to be taken after meals, two pills at a time. This one is for pain relief and reducing fever; if your father is in severe pain or running a fever, he can take one pill, but no more. Do you understand?”
“Understood,” the two recorded it carefully.
“The painkiller must also be taken two to three hours apart from the previous pill; it cannot be taken frequently.”
Ji Kongqing handed the medicine to the two men. “Change the gauze every three days, for about half a month. Then bring your father back to have the stitches removed. I should be around then, but if I’m not, finding Dr. Zhuo is fine too.”
“Alright, thank you, Doctor. How much are the consultation and medicine fees?”
Seeing Ji Kongqing’s superb medical skills, the older man worried that the two taels of silver he had brought from home might not be enough.
“Just give 500wen,” Ji Kongqing said, closing her medicine chest. “It’s a free clinic, and since it’s my own medicine, I won’t charge too much. Keep the extra money to help your father nourish his body; he lost too much blood.”
The two men hadn’t expected Ji Kongqing not only to possess brilliant medical skills but also the heart of a bodhisattva. Gratefully and excitedly, they handed the five hundred wen to Ji Kongqing.
“Thank you, thank you, Dr. Ji.”
“No need to thank me. It’s just that your father is lucky, otherwise even I couldn’t have saved him. Carry your father away now,” Ji Kongqing nodded and walked out with Zhuo Weiqian.
Zhuo Weiqian asked in a low voice, “Kongqing, how did you sew this? It was sewn so well. Such a big cut on his leg, and you sewed it up just like that? I could even see the bone.”
“Mn,” Ji Kongqing nodded. “It didn’t hit the main artery, fortunately.”
Zhuo Weiqian discovered that Ji Kongqing was truly remarkable. Without prescribing traditional Chinese medicine, the concoctions she made herself were enough to handle these patients; he had truly underestimated her.
With Ji Kongqing demonstrating this skill, the remaining patients no longer had any doubts about her.
The whole day everyone was so busy they didn’t even touch the ground, too busy for lunch, conducting the free clinic until evening before all patients were seen.
Zhuo Weiqian was already preparing to lead everyone to pack up and return.
At that moment, another ox cart approached rapidly from not far away. This ox cart was better than the previous one, complete with a canopy. Driving it were a middle-aged woman and a young man.
“Please save my wife, I beg you,” the young man knelt before Zhuo Weiqian and the others the moment he stepped off the cart.
“What is wrong with your wife?” Zhuo Weiqian stepped forward with a group of imperial physicians.
“She is having a difficult labor, the baby won’t come out. She has been in labor for three whole days and nights. The midwives told us to send her to a medical clinic, but the doctors there all looked and said they couldn’t save her.”
“I heard people say the imperial physicians from the palace were holding a free clinic here today, so I hurried to bring my wife and mother over.” The young man explained the situation in a few words.
Zhuo Weiqian lifted the canopy’s curtain and found a female zhongyong lying inside. She was currently delirious, twisting her body and emitting pained breaths. Her belly was swollen high, and blood was still continuously flowing from beneath her.
“Quick, carry her to the examination bed,” Zhuo Weiqian immediately directed the medical officers who had come along, and they scrambled to carry the woman inside.
Placed on the examination bed, Zhuo Weiqian frowned, felt the woman’s belly, and furrowed his brows deeply. “It’s a transverse lie, no wonder she couldn’t give birth. What is to be done? A difficult labor, I’m afraid it’s nine deaths and one life.”
“How long has her water broken?” After listening to his diagnosis, Ji Kongqing asked the young man’s mother.
The middle-aged woman answered without hesitation, “During the Chou hour.”
That had been quite a long time. Ji Kongqing took out a stethoscope and listened to the fetal heartbeat; it was already weak, and the baby probably couldn’t hold on much longer either.
The surrounding imperial physicians were all discussing how to save the patient.
The one who spoke the most was Yu Qingtian, the imperial physician of the kunze department, and she was the owner of those medical books in Ji Kongqing’s possession.
Being a zhongyong, and because she had to treat kunze, the imperial physicians in this department were all zhongyong.
After the discussion concluded, Yu Qingtian reached a conclusion and spoke up, “Do you want to save the mother or the child?”
Hearing this, the middle-aged woman collapsed with weak limbs, falling to the ground. “My son and daughter-in-law have only been married for five years, and they finally have this child. Now we are being asked which one to save? How can we choose?”
The young man looked at his wife with a resolute gaze. “Save the mother, please save the mother.”
“No,” his mother grabbed Yu Qingtian’s sleeve. “A zhongyong is already naturally lacking in offspring. Marrying this daughter-in-law spent all our family’s savings. Save the child, we must save the child.”
Ji Kongqing frowned, feeling quite displeased with the young man’s mother’s attitude. What, is your daughter-in-law just your family’s tool for reproduction? Is her life not a life? Truly inhuman!
“No, Mother, after Yunniang married me, she didn’t despise our poverty. She wholeheartedly managed the household and took care of our little family. She treated me so well, I cannot watch her lose her life just to give birth to a child. This son does not allow it!”
“Then what if there are no children in the future? Our family line will be cut off! When I die, how will I have the face to see your father? If you won’t save the child, then I won’t live either.”
As the middle-aged woman spoke, she shed tears and threatened to smash her head against the wall.
With this commotion, her son had to pull her back while also looking after his wife, and he wore an expression of sheer agony.
Ji Kongqing couldn’t stand it any longer. “Enough, this old woman only knows how to cause trouble!”
“I have a method that can save both.” Ji Kongqing looked at the woman on the treatment bed.
The young man seemed to regain hope, dropping immediately to his knees. “Please, Doctor, save both mother and child. I beg you, I beg you.”
“My treatment method is rather shocking to conventional values. Do you still want to save her?” Ji Kongqing looked down at the man.
The man nodded. “Save her. As long as Yunxiang can be saved, anything is fine.”
“Mn,” Ji Kongqing raised an eyebrow. “What if I perform a cesarean section to deliver the child?”
“What?” The man recoiled in terror by a few steps, hesitating. “Cut open her belly? Can Yunxiang still live then?”
“Just sew the belly back up. Will you have it done or not? This is also a method of nine deaths and one life.”
Ancient times lacked the advanced surgical equipment and sterile operating rooms of the modern era. Performing surgery here meant facing the risks of infection and heavy bleeding requiring blood transfusions, and Ji Kongqing was also taking a gamble.
That was simply because today her system had unlocked general anesthesia medication and scalpels.
The man gritted his teeth. “Save her! I entrust her to you, Doctor.”
Ji Kongqing nodded. “Then all of you go outside. Dr. Yu and Dr. Zhuo, the two of you stay to help me. I’ll go next door to prepare the medicine first.”
Yu Qingtian was still in shock over Ji Kongqing’s method of cutting open someone’s belly, while the man decisively dragged his mother away.
After preparing the surgical items, Ji Kongqing thoroughly disinfected the treatment room with alcohol. This was already the best method she could manage, given the limited conditions.
After briefly instructing Zhuo Weiqian and Yu Qingtian, Ji Kongqing administered the anesthetic to the patient and swiftly proceeded with the subsequent cesarean section.
Her major in modern times had been general surgery, with a minor in cardiothoracic and pulmonary surgery, and she had even spent two years abroad serving as a battlefield surgeon.
Under fire-torn circumstances, in order to save lives, one couldn’t afford to worry about surrounding conditions; she had performed cesarean sections on women in labor before and had the experience.
Half an hour later, the child was extracted. Looking at the cyanotic child in Ji Kongqing’s hands, Zhuo Weiqian froze completely.
“It’s not crying. Pat its soles, and suck out the amniotic fluid in its mouth.” Without even raising her head, Ji Kongqing instructed Zhuo Weiqian to handle it immediately.
“Oh, right,” Zhuo Weiqian quickly steadied his mind, slapped the infant’s soles, and helped suck the amniotic fluid from its mouth.
With Yu Qingtian’s assistance, Ji Kongqing continued the suturing. Her speed was exceptionally fast, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings, her gloved hands tying knots rapidly.
Yu Qingtian hadn’t even clearly seen how she tied the knot when she heard her command to cut the thread.
As the two of them finished suturing, the child also let out a cry. Initially very soft, it grew increasingly sonorous, and its previously cyanotic body turned rosy as well.
Ji Kongqing glanced up, letting out a sigh of relief.
Outside the door, the man heard the baby’s cry and wept tears of joy.
The most emotional of all was the middle-aged woman who had insisted on saving the child. She kept pressing her palms together and rubbing them, thanking the heavens for their blessing.
Half an hour later, the child’s mother awoke.
Ji Kongqing looked up at Zhuo Weiqian. “Take the baby for its mother to see.”
Zhuo Weiqian nodded and brought the newly wrapped infant to show its mother, Yunxiang. “It’s a baby boy, congratulations.”
Tears instantly welled up in Yunxiang’s eyes, and some color returned to her pale face.
Ji Kongqing breathed a sigh of relief. This surgery was truly the crudest she had ever performed, without strict disinfection, and she had no idea if there would be subsequent complications.
“Please help me prepare boiling water,” Ji Kongqing took off her gloves, looking at the blood-stained surgical instruments as her obsessive-compulsive tendencies flared up.
“People have already gone to boil it,” Zhuo Weiqian carried the baby out to its father, still lost in the surgery he had just witnessed and unable to snap back to reality.
The system also reacted: “Successfully performed a cesarean section. Rewarded with one sterile laminar flow operating room. The Master Lecture Hall has been opened, and the Surgical Simulation Room has been opened.”
The system interface changed as well.
[Saved lives count: 111 Pharmacy: Opened System space: Opened Quest: Untriggered Recycle bin: Opened Surgical Simulation Room: Opened Master Lecture Hall: Opened This is an unlocked area. Account balance: 4584]
This reward could be said to be extremely generous. Ji Kongqing took advantage of her rest to check it out, finding that the Master Lecture Hall had many locked learning courses, and watching a single lesson required 1000 system coins, which was 1 tael of silver.
The Surgical Simulation Room could replicate real-life patients to simulate surgical procedures.
Using it once cost 10,000 system coins, or 10 taels of silver. During use, one’s consciousness would be completely immersed in it, with the tactile feel identical to reality, complete with virtual nurses and surgical assistants.
The laminar flow operating room could be materialized at will in any location or room, and could be withdrawn when not in use. Using it once cost 10,000 system coins, which was 10 taels of silver.
It was equipped with electricity and surgical instruments, and no one other than those permitted by her could enter the operating room or view the conditions inside. Within the operating room, no one could harm her.
These rules and configurations completely defied scientific laws; one truly had to admire the magical nature of the system.
“The patient needs observation for three days,” Ji Kongqing said after washing and sterilizing her instruments, going out to explain to the man. “Only after three days can she return home with you.”
“Understood,” the man nodded repeatedly. “How should the consultation fee be paid?”
“5 taels of silver.” Ji Kongqing glanced at the middle-aged woman beside him, making a rare, lion-sized demand.
“No problem.” The man’s family still had some savings and immediately produced the money.
“Will you accompany your wife tonight?” Ji Kongqing asked the man.
The man nodded. “Mn, I will stand guard here.”
“Good,” Ji Kongqing administered an anti-inflammatory injection to the woman and watched the drip enter the woman’s body before finally heading out.
When she came out, it was pitch dark. Feeling as though a lifetime had passed, Ji Kongqing turned to look at Zhuo Weiqian. “The hour is late, but she needs me to guard her here. What is to be done?”
Zhuo Weiqian thought for a moment and spoke up, “I will have someone notify Your Highness, would that be feasible?”
“Mn, good,” Ji Kongqing nodded immediately. “I need to stay here for three days.”
“Good,” Zhuo Weiqian agreed, having a medical officer take his personal identity token to the princess’s manor to convey the message.
Princess’s Manor – Fenghua Courtyard.
“What, Ji Kongqing went out for a free clinic for commoners and won’t return for three days?” Jiang Sui was somewhat surprised. “A free clinic, why would it take three days?”
“This maid does not know,” Cuizhu shook her head. “The person sent by Bureau Chief Zhuo reported it this way.”
Jiang Sui waved for Cuizhu to step down, then signaled to recall Shadow Five.