Chapter - 128 Acupuncture And Medicines Unable to Remedy (10) (1/2)
Xue Gongyuan was taken aback, for the physician sounded as if he wanted Zhang Wuji to treat their ailments. ”Elder Hu,” said the man quickly, ”if this Young Hero Zhang is willing to save us, we will have hope once more.”
”What has that got to do with me?” snapped Hu Qingniu. ”Listen up, Wuji. You cannot practise medicine as you wish in the house of Hu Qingniu. But once you step out of my door, I can no longer control what you do.”
Xue Gongyuan and Jian Jie glanced dumbly at each other, unsure of what the physician meant by his words.
Fortunately, Zhang Wuji was a lot smarter than they. Knowing what Hu Qingniu had in mind, he said to Xue and Jian, ”Mr Hu is ill, so you should not disturb him more than necessary. Please come with me.” When the three of them reached the hall, Zhang Wuji said, ”Gentlemen, I am young and my knowledge is shallow. Your injuries are so strange that I do not have full confidence in curing them. If you can trust me, please allow me to do my best. As for the results, we will leave them in the hands of the Heavens.”
By then, the men were so tortured by their injuries that they were willing to drink arsenic and poison for momentary relief. Therefore, they were absolutely delighted to hear Zhang Wuji's words.
”Mr Hu does not allow me to do anything in his house,” the boy went on, ”so that his reputation as the 'Sage of Healing' will not be damaged if anyone dies. Please step outside.”
The men hesitated, for they knew that this fourteen- or fifteen-year-old lad was limited in knowledge and experience. If they remained in the house of the 'Sage of Healing', they could still look to the renowned physician himself for assurance. But if they stepped outside, they might just end up suffering additional yet totally unnecessary pain in the bumbling hands of this young man.
Suddenly, Jian Jie exclaimed: ”The itch on my scalp is killing me! Little Brother, please attend to me first.” Dragging his chains noisily behind him, he walked out of the door.
After a moment's thought, Zhang Wuji went to the room where a variety medicinal ingredients were kept, and brought out ten different herbs and minerals, including Nanxing (nan2 xing1), Divaricate Saposhnikovia Root (fang2 feng1), Dahurian Angelica Root (bai2 zhi3), Gastrodia Tuber (tian1 ma2), Notopterygium (qiang1 huo2), Typhonium Tuber (bai2 fu4 zi3) and ophicalcite (hua1 rui4 shi2). Then, he instructed one of the pages to crush the herbs and minerals in the mortar with some hot wine, before applying resulting paste on Jian Jie's bald pate.
The old man jumped up and yelled in pain when the paste touched his scalp, shouting, ”Ouch! It hurts terribly! But this pain is a lot more comfortable than that horrible itch!” Walking around the grass with chattering teeth, he added, ”Pain is wonderful! Damn, this pipsqueak is better than I thought. No … Young Hero Zhang, I should really be thanking you for your help instead.”
The fast and positive effect of Zhang Wuji's treatment on Jian Jie's itch caused the other men to rush forward with their respective needs. At that moment, one of them started rolling on the ground, holding on to his stomach and crying out in pain. It turned out that he had been forced to swallow more than thirty live leeches. Having survived the ingestion, the leeches had eventually attached themselves to the walls of their victim's stomach and intestines, sucking his blood for all their worth. Zhang Wuji recalled a passage that he had read: Leeches disintegrate upon contact with honey. There was plenty of honey in Butterfly Valley, so he obtained a large bowl of it from one of the pages and instructed the man to consume the entire serving at once.
Then, he proceeded to the other men, attending diligently to each successive patient until daybreak. When Ji Xiaofu and her daughter woke up and went outside, they found that Zhang Wuji had been working so hard that he was drenched in perspiration. Ji Xiaofu offered her help immediately, bandaging open wounds and fetching medicines as required. On the other hand, little Yang Buhui ran around the valley, snacking on almonds and dates and chasing butterflies without a single care.