Chapter 37: Autumn Orchids for a Pendant

“Don’t worry,” Zuo Gui said. “I’ll give him a purgative. Once it passes out, he’ll be all right. Next time follow the doctor’s instructions. Don’t give extra medicine.”

“Yes, yes. Thank you!”

“Zhong, give him a few Hemp Seed Pills.”

“All right.”

Hemp Seed Pills, Ma Zi Ren Wan, moistened the bowels and eased constipation. They could help remove paralysed worms, Zuo Shaoyang thought, but would not expel them effectively without an anthelmintic.

Increasing the omphalia would work. His father had called it poisonous, however. The woman would never consent now. He needed another approach.

Chinaberry bark (ku lian pi)? No. Bitter, foul-smelling and especially disliked by children. More importantly, poisonous; a slight mistake could cause harm.

Quisqualis fruit (shi jun zi)? Sweet, pleasant and safe, but slow. It needed chewing for three or four days before taking effect.

Besides, he had found none in either their own stock or the market. It presumably had not appeared yet: its first medicinal record came in the Song’s *Kai Bao Materia Medica*.

He considered the other anthelmintics and returned to omphalia as the soundest choice. The boy had already taken it, but his mother would object. He must think of a way.

The answer soon came.

First use areca nut, bing lang, to quiet the roundworms. It too expelled worms, paralysing them and easing the pain. Then give a sufficient dose of omphalia to kill them. Hemp Seed Pills would help carry out the dead worms before their absorption could cause adverse effects.

Complicated to explain, the plan took only a moment to form.

He mixed some areca nut with the Hemp Seed Pills and gave them to the child.

“Watch him,” he told the mother. “When the pain stops, bring him back for another dose. Before you leave with your vegetables sold, we’ll decide whether he needs more. Go with him if he uses the privy and check whether he passes worms. If he does, stop the medicine. More would be bad for him.”

She thanked him repeatedly and paid six wen.

Before long the pain did stop. The happy boy ran back to tell him. Zuo Shaoyang then gave enough omphalia together with Hemp Seed Pills.

Dispensing and administering medicines were always his responsibility. His father never interfered, so the second dose was given without difficulty.

That evening, as his mother’s vegetables were nearly sold, the child needed the privy. She went with him as instructed. When they returned, she joyfully told Zuo Gui, “They came out! Lots of worms. Your medicine works!”

He stroked his beard and smiled, pleased by another prompt cure, unaware that his son had altered the treatment.

But that lay later.

To return to noon: after the woman and her son left the consultation, another wait brought the sight Zuo Shaoyang had been hoping for. The dark-skinned girl came into the market with a great load of firewood.

He sprang up.

“You’re here!”

She smiled as she passed, went a little farther and set down her load in a gap among the other sellers. Catching her breath, she looked back at him and smiled again.

He hurried over.

“I was wondering why you hadn’t come. Thought you might stop selling with New Year so near. And here you are!”

Her large eyes flickered.

“Do you want wood?”

He wished he could say yes, but it was not his decision. They might not have a shop tomorrow. Buying a whole load when they so badly needed money would infuriate his parents.

He shook his head apologetically.

“No. Father and I have set up a medicine stall. Just beside you, as it happens.”

He brought out the squirrel.

“Look! Its eyes are open. I’ve been feeding it pine nuts. It loves them.”

She looked and smiled without speaking.

“We seem to keep meeting,” he said. “You saved me and gave me this lovely little fellow. Could you tell me your name? Oh—mine’s Zuo Zhong. I live at Guizhi Hall, on the street ahead. And you?”

She glanced at him, lowered her head and spoke in a clear, bell-like voice.

“Miao Peilan.”

“Miao Peilan! That’s a lovely name. Peilan is fragrant thoroughwort, a common medicine for dispelling dampness and summer heat. And it has a refreshing scent. In *Encountering Sorrow*, Qu Yuan wrote of ‘stringing autumn orchids to wear as a pendant’. You wear no orchids, but your lingering fragrance is sweeter than theirs.”

Her eyes flickered. She tilted her head and sniffed, seemingly unable to detect anything. Naturally: she lived with it always.

Blushing, she looked at him and quickly lowered her eyes.

The shy gesture stirred him. He coughed twice to cover it and held the squirrel out on his palm.

“What shall we name it, Miss Peilan?”

She considered, then stroked its smooth golden fur.

“When it curls its big tail round itself to sleep, it looks like a yellow ball. Call it Yellow Ball. Children shouldn’t have names that are too fine, or the spirits grow jealous and send misfortune and sickness. A plain name like that will help it thrive.”

He laughed at her treating the squirrel like a child.

“Yellow Ball it is.”

She took a bundle from behind the firewood, opened it and offered him a small bag.

He looked inside: nearly half a bag of pine cones.

“Wonderful! It has no teeth, so I have to crush the nuts and feed it the juice. That uses so many cones. I’ve nearly finished what I picked on the mountain. I was wondering where to find more in town, and you’ve brought some. Thank you!”

Just then his father called.

“Zhong! What are you doing? Come here. A patient!”

A middle-aged woman sat at the table, hands in her sleeves and shoulders hunched.

He answered and turned back.

“I must help Father. I’ll put these into another bag and return yours.”

Peilan nodded.

He ran to the stall and sat beside his father.

“What’s troubling you?” Zuo Gui asked.

“A cough. Chills. I feel unwell, and the smallest effort brings me out in a weak sweat. I sell cloth remnants here. Just hauling my stock from home left me sweating and panting like bellows. After that I began feeling ill and coughing.”

“Let me take your pulse.”

He examined it and her tongue.

“Nothing serious. You sweated carrying your stock, then caught cold in the wind. A couple of doses should help.”

“But why so easily? I never used to be delicate. I could carry heavier loads and not even be breathless. For the last six months, I’m always ill. A little carelessness, and it’s aches, fever, cough, sneezing—everything. Please examine me properly. What’s wrong?”

Zuo Gui nearly said it was age, but she looked only a little over thirty. He swallowed the remark.

“Do you take medicine when you’re ill?” his son asked.

“Of course. I look after myself. I don’t try to endure it. ‘Hide a debt and grow poor; hide an illness and die,’ people say. At the first headache or fever, I buy medicine at Huimin Hall. Their pills work beautifully.”

“Pills? Which ones?”

She counted on her fingers.

“Cinnamon Twig with Kudzu Powder, Bupleurum and Cinnamon Twig Powder, Mulberry and Chrysanthemum Pills, Kudzu Powder, Bupleurum and Kudzu Pills… plenty of them!”

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