Chapter 44: A Lie Built on Truth

After that earlier experience, Shaoyang ought to have learned his lesson. Yet he could not stand by while his father prescribed ineffective medicine and a patient grew worse or died. Nor would patients and their families trust him enough to let him treat them openly. Caught between the two, he could only help in secret.

Now that he had been found out, he needed an explanation.

He had prepared one after the very first substitution. The old travelling physician remained his best excuse.

He lowered his head. “Father, I did change the medicine without telling you. I’m sorry.”

“And ‘sorry’ settles it? Do you know that the wrong medicine can kill?”

Huixiang ventured a mutter from beside them. “But Brother’s medicine saved her, didn’t it?”

Zuo Gui paused. His fury had been directed entirely at his son’s secret substitution. Only now, prompted by Huixiang, did he return to its result.

“That woman with the undelivered dead child, and the young master in Laohuai Village… Did you change the medicines in those cases too?”

“Yes… I’m sorry, Father. There was no time to discuss it with you. It was wrong of me to act on my own.”

Seeing that his face was still livid, Madam Liang summoned the courage to intervene.

“He’s admitted he was wrong. Please calm down.”

Zuo Gui ignored her. “Where did you get these prescriptions?”

“From… from the medical book that old travelling physician showed me.”

“Didn’t you say you’d forgotten all the formulas?”

“I hadn’t. I remembered quite a lot.”

A spark of delight stirred in Zuo Gui. “Then why did you say you’d forgotten?”

“I thought he might have been deceiving me, that the prescriptions might be false. I was afraid you’d use them and something would go wrong. I wanted to try them secretly first. I didn’t expect them to work so well.”

Zuo Gui’s anger vanished. The affront to his authority was forgotten.

“Which prescriptions do you remember? Tell me!”

“I’ll write them down. You can read them at your leisure.”

“Yes, do that! Write down everything you remember over the next couple of days. I told you that old physician must have been an immortal. How else could his prescriptions work such wonders?”

Madam Liang and Huixiang were delighted to see him smiling. Only Shaoyang remained less optimistic.

Medical books and medical skill were two different things. Possessing a good book did not necessarily make one a good physician. If it did, with virtually any medical text available in the modern world, why were truly accomplished practitioners of Chinese medicine still so rare?

It was a systematic discipline. It required systematic study, long practice and flexible pattern differentiation, choosing a prescription to fit the patient’s condition. A few formulas alone could not make a famous physician, much less a miraculous healer.

Real improvement in his father’s skill would take time. Reading a few prescriptions Shaoyang wrote down would not achieve it.

“With those immortal formulas, we won’t have to worry about business!” Huixiang said happily. “Does that mean we needn’t move?”

The reminder immediately dimmed Zuo Gui’s spirits.

“That is only my guess,” he sighed. “Perhaps the prescriptions aren’t as good as we think. Some may work, some may not. Who knows? Besides, even a good prescription requires someone who knows how to use it. And even then, patients must come to us. With only these few days, how can we manage? No, we should prepare to move. After the New Year, we’ll continue making our rounds through the villages.”

“Once you’ve learned the formulas Brother writes down, Guizhi Hall will rise again!”

His first excitement had passed, and Zuo Gui was thinking more soberly.

“I only wonder whether ordinary mortals like us can learn such formulas.”

The watchman’s clappers sounded in the distance.

“The first watch. Close up and eat.”

Shaoyang shut the door and went into the kitchen to help bring out bowls and chopsticks. At the sight of the pair of buckets against the wall, he suddenly remembered.

That morning, while they were fetching water, Xiaomei had said she would be washing by the river that afternoon and offered to wash his clothes if he brought them. The emergency patient had driven it from his mind. Perhaps she was still waiting there.

He sprang up and bolted.

“Where are you going?” Madam Liang called.

“To the river!”

“What for, in the pitch dark?”

That brought him to his senses. She was right. It was dark, in the depths of winter. Why would Xiaomei still be waiting? This was hardly a lovers’ meeting with a promise not to leave until he came. She had merely offered to wash his clothes out of gratitude for the prescription that relieved her sister-in-law’s painful breast engorgement.

He returned sheepishly. Huixiang was staring at him too.

“Nothing. I thought I’d see whether anyone was fetching water. There are too many people in the daytime. Never mind. It’s dark; I’ll go tomorrow morning.”

“Fetch water?” Huixiang stared. “The jar’s almost full. We don’t even know if we’ll still be living here tomorrow. Why waste the effort? Have you nowhere else to use your strength?”

She had a point. He fetched the bowls and chopsticks, and the family sat down to eat.

After the meal, Madam Liang told her daughter, “Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. You’ve been running back here for days and neglecting your own home. Stay there tomorrow and look after things. You needn’t come. There’s little you can do here anyway.”

“It’s all right. I can’t settle at home with this hanging over us. I have to come and see how things are. Once it’s settled, I’ll stop. Hou Pu told me to come and help too. He can’t get away from the yamen, but says he’ll visit in the first month.”

“That boy is so decent,” Madam Liang sighed. “You found a good family when you married him.”

“I did.” Huixiang looked rather pleased. “He knows plenty of people, so I’ve asked him to look for somewhere cheap and suitable to rent. We can’t afford shop premises now. We’ll find somewhere to live first.”

“Yes. Somewhere to spend the New Year. Cheap rent; we can’t be particular about anything else.”

“Don’t worry. He’s been looking these last few days. He’s found several places, but they all seemed too dear. He’ll see if there’s anything better. We’ll decide tomorrow.”

When the supper things were cleared, Huixiang washed the bowls, tidied the room and prepared to leave.

“Wait a moment, Sister.”

Shaoyang ducked behind the counter, brought over the portable medicine cabinet and began filling it with sliced medicinal ingredients and prepared pills and powders. When it was full, he found a cloth sack and continued packing.

His parents and sister watched in surprise.

“Why are you packing so much medicine?” Huixiang asked.

“To prepare for what comes next,” he said without looking round. “I don’t think we should place any hope in Madam Zhao. She’s hard-hearted; she won’t extend the rent deadline. We’ll have to earn our living as travelling physicians. How can we treat anyone without medicines? She said we must leave them all behind against the rent. If we do, what are we supposed to treat people with?

“I’m putting aside some of the common medicines. Take them home and hide them for us. We’ll need them. She doesn’t know how much stock we have now anyway. We must be able to practise before we can earn, and earn before we can repay her. We aren’t really taking advantage of her.”

“That makes sense. I’ll help.”

“No, let me do it. I don’t want the ingredients mixed up; they’ll be hard to sort afterwards. Just get the cart ready.”

Huixiang hurried away to do so.

His parents watched. Both thought it would look bad if Madam Zhao discovered it. Yet without medicines they would not even have the means to practise on the road. They exchanged a glance, sighed and said nothing.

Soon Shaoyang had put aside a portion of each commonly used medicine. Huixiang returned with a handcart borrowed from the general shop opposite. After making sure no one was in the street, they furtively loaded the sack as though they were thieves. Madam Liang covered it with a cloth and tied it down with thin cord.

Huixiang slipped the cart’s strap around her neck, took hold of the handles and set off.

“Shall I help you push, Sister?”

“No need!”

Without turning, she briskly wheeled it away.

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