Chapter 46: An Offer for a Prescription

It was nearly noon. Shaoyang was gazing absently at the street when someone called, “Young physician! Please open the door!”

It was not Madam Zhao’s voice, but a man’s, and a familiar one.

Two visitors stood outside. The first was short and stout, his forehead gleaming, his padded jacket patterned with copper coins. Smiling broadly, he bowed towards the window. Shaoyang recognised the wealthy villager whose son he and his father had treated in Laohuai Village two days before.

Behind him stood a middle-aged man with a rather affected smile: Huimin Hall’s deputy manager, the one who had offered only ten wen for the musk.

Shaoyang wondered what brought them. Their smiles suggested no deterioration in the child’s condition. Could they have come with money? The father had promised a further reward if his son recovered. Delight surged through him. Another two or three thousand wen could see them through this crisis!

He called an answer and hurried to open up.

“Father, the gentleman from Laohuai Village is here!”

The door creaked open. The stout man entered and bowed to Zuo Gui behind the long table.

“Physician Zuo, may wealth come your way! May your coffers overflow, and all your fortunes prosper!”

New Year greetings tumbled from his mouth. People usually exchanged them after the turn of the year; that he was offering them on the eve showed how pleased he was.

Zuo Gui rose, returned the greeting and offered auspicious wishes of his own. He recognised the deputy manager, a fellow practitioner in the same town, and greeted him with clasped hands. The man returned the gesture without speaking.

Shaoyang brought two chairs to the table. Zuo Gui invited the visitors to sit, and Madam Liang served tea.

“Forgive my intrusion on New Year’s Eve,” the stout man said. “I have come especially to thank you for saving my son. Your extraordinary skill delivered him from danger. Doctor Ni at Huimin Hall said that, with such severe acute convulsions and so much phlegm obstructing him, another child brought from that distance would certainly have died on the way. Thanks to you and your son, mine survived. Thank you!”

Zuo Gui made a modest reply.

The man took out his purse and placed a small silver ingot on the table. It was a government-standard horseshoe ingot weighing one tael.

“A small token of my gratitude. Please accept it.”

“No, no…” Zuo Gui pushed it back. “Forgive me, what is your surname?”

“Jia.”

“Master Jia, we already received a very generous fee in your village. More than enough. I would be ashamed to accept any more.”

“Not at all, Physician Zuo. Doctor Ni himself said you saved the boy. Without prompt treatment to restore consciousness and clear his phlegm, he would have died. I have five wives and concubines, but fate has given me few children. Here I am in middle age with only this one son. Had he died, our family line would have ended.

“Your kindness is as great as giving him life anew. A substantial reward is only right. I am ashamed to offer so little. If you insist on refusing, you must consider it insufficient. I shall go and find more.”

He arranged his plump face into a show of displeasure, blowing out his beard.

Only then did Zuo Gui thank him and accept the ingot.

Master Jia immediately became all smiles again.

“Under Doctor Ni’s careful treatment, my son has improved enough to go home. I must hurry back to Laohuai Village with my family to prepare for the New Year. The deputy manager has something to discuss with you, so I shall not intrude further.”

He rose and bowed. Zuo Gui was about to see him out when Shaoyang intervened.

“Stay and talk to the deputy manager, Father. I’ll see Master Jia off.”

Outside, Master Jia turned to him. “No need to come further, young physician. Farewell.”

“One moment.”

Shaoyang took two Purple Snow pills from his robe and offered them.

“If your son develops another high fever with acute convulsions, give him one of these and bring him for emergency treatment. It can reduce the fever and restore consciousness. If, as before, phlegm builds up and he cannot cough it out during the convulsions, obstructing his breathing and causing severe suffocation, prick a few holes in a croton seed, thread it on a string, let him swallow it and draw it out again. Repeating this several times should make him cough up the phlegm. Just as my father did on the road.”

Master Jia frowned and smiled uneasily.

“Doctor Ni said he was cured and wouldn’t have another attack. Surely this… won’t be necessary?”

“Many illnesses can cause acute convulsions in children. We don’t know whether he has completely recovered from this one. Even if he has, another illness might cause a high fever and convulsions again. Laohuai Village has few physicians or medicines and is far from town. You may not be able to get him here in time. Keep the pills, just in case.”

Convinced, Master Jia accepted them and tucked them carefully away.

“Thank you, young physician. Farewell.”

Shaoyang returned to the shop in time to hear the deputy manager speaking.

“It is New Year’s Eve, Physician Zuo, and I have no wish to waste time. I shall be direct. Our head manager is interested in the medicine your shop used to restore young Master Jia’s consciousness. We offer nine hundred wen for the prescription, to be transferred to Huimin Hall. What do you say?”

Zuo Gui paused and looked at Shaoyang. He now knew that his son had secretly changed the medicine. Only the boy knew the formula.

Shaoyang was delighted, though nine hundred seemed rather little.

“Could you offer a little more? Nine hundred is too low.”

The deputy manager snorted.

“Frankly, Young Master Zuo, I would not buy it at all. Huimin Hall has never bought a prescription from anyone; it would damage our reputation. But my elder brother, our head manager, says it is a pity to leave this formula at Guizhi Hall, where it may not be used once a year. At Huimin Hall it could serve its purpose and save more patients. That is why he sent me.

“The price is fixed. If you find it too dear, Physician Zuo, I shall simply leave.”

The beginning had been tolerable. The latter part, though true, was unpleasant to hear. Zuo Gui frowned.

Shaoyang was irritated too, but with his father conducting the discussion, he could not easily interrupt. He could only listen.

At Zuo Gui’s silence, the deputy manager’s smile disappeared.

“I hear your shop has been short of money lately. Your landlady is pressing for payment, and you need cash urgently. Otherwise, Young Master Zuo would hardly have come repeatedly to Huimin Hall trying to sell medicines and prescriptions…”

Zuo Gui was puzzled. Their stock consisted of ordinary, commonly used ingredients. Cheaper than Huimin Hall’s, perhaps, but worth little. What could his son have taken to sell? The prescription must have come from the old travelling physician. He glanced sideways at Shaoyang.

“Father, it was the musk I bought from Miss Peilan on Mount Qianren with the money Sister gave me—nine wen. I thought we needed money at home and tried to sell it to them, but their offer was too low. I still have it.”

Zuo Gui waved the matter aside.

“Does your shop genuinely wish to buy our prescription?”

The deputy manager shook his head.

“As I have already explained, we merely think it a waste here. Besides, our head manager is charitable and likes helping people in difficulty. Hearing of your trouble, he sent me to enquire. A yes or no, Physician Zuo. Guizhi Hall may have nothing to do, but Huimin Hall is busy. We cannot afford delays.”

Master Jia’s gift was one tael of silver. Together with Huimin Hall’s nine hundred wen, that made nineteen hundred—two hundred short of the amount Madam Zhao would demand at noon. Their remaining money and the earnings of the last two days should almost cover the difference.

Even without a higher offer, Shaoyang had been willing to sell the formula to meet their immediate need. But the man’s overbearing contempt, as though this were an act of charity, was thoroughly galling.

Anger began to rise in him.

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