Chapter 54: A Relapse

Zuo Gui had always assumed that the old travelling physician his son met must have been an immortal, or at least a recluse of extraordinary medical skill. Surely his teaching was so accomplished that the medicine would cure whatever it met.

That was why he had taken such interest in the books Shaoyang corrected. He had been studying them carefully, finding their explanations convincing, and had even begun the laborious task of memorising *Verses on Decoctions*. Now someone had come to say the old physician’s prescription had failed.

With his idol shattered, he scarcely knew what to think. Much of his earlier confidence vanished.

Shaoyang could not understand what had gone wrong. They would have to go there to find out. Seeing the disappointment pass over his father’s face, he felt ashamed.

“Shall we go and examine her first, Father?”

“Yes.”

Zuo Gui nodded. Having accepted the patient, he was responsible for her. Whether he had the skill to cure her was another matter, but until he went, he could not know. He also understood the urgency of treating wind stroke. An emergency left no room for the New Year’s Day custom of refusing patients. Saving a life came first.

Shaoyang shouldered the medicine chest. His father took the banner and bell. They told Madam Liang where they were going and warned her that, if the patient was gravely ill, they might have to stay all night and return tomorrow.

She urged them to take care. Shaoyang asked her to feed the squirrel for him, and they hurried out towards the west gate.

From a distance, they saw a young woman waiting there.

“Miss Peilan! You’re…”

“I’m going back with you.”

“What about your wood?”

“I’ve asked someone I know to sell it. Come. Give me the medicine chest.”

“It’s all right. I can carry it.”

Without further argument, she took it from his back, put it on her own and strode briskly through the gate.

Shaoyang understood. She had left her wood so she could carry the heavy chest. Climbing Mount Qianren with it would exhaust them and slow their journey. Speed mattered most now, and he knew she was far stronger than he was. He did not argue. Taking the banner from his father, he hurried after her.

Even with the chest, Peilan walked much faster than either man. Father and son followed breathlessly, barely keeping up, and reached the foot of Mount Qianren without stopping.

The mountain was steep, with cliffs and precipices in many places. Last night’s snow had clothed it in silver, beautiful to look at but difficult to climb. By noon, sunlight had partly melted the snow and ice. Passing feet had churned the entire path into mud.

Zuo Gui was used to mountain roads and knew how to move quickly without slipping. Shaoyang had grown up in a city and seldom walked such muddy slopes. Barely a little way up, he had slipped several times. Only Peilan’s quick hands had saved him from falling.

Seeing that this could not continue, she noticed loose rice straw beside a paddy field ahead. She gathered a handful and deftly plaited it as they climbed. Soon she had made two straw ropes. Calling Shaoyang to stop, she crouched and tied one around the arch of each shoe, then motioned for him to try walking.

He had not understood her purpose. After a few steps, he exclaimed, “What a good idea! I’m not slipping!”

With the ropes in place, he rarely lost his footing, and they moved much faster. Hurrying without rest, they climbed to the summit and reached Laohuai Village in only an hour, almost twice as fast as father and son had managed before.

At the entrance, Shaoyang panted, “Such a high, steep mountain… Thank goodness for you…”

Peilan wiped sweat from her forehead, smiled and went in. With no time to catch their breath, they followed her straight to Auntie Li’s house.

It was scarcely better than Peilan’s: two bare thatched rooms, with walls of bark that let wind through on every side.

“Brother Li!” she called. “The physicians from Guizhi Hall have come to see your mother!”

The wooden door opened. The man stared at them in delighted surprise.

“Physician… Physician Zuo! You’ve come! Wonderful. Please, come in!”

Zuo Gui caught his breath and entered. The old woman lay motionless on a wooden bed under a single thin hemp-cloth quilt, eyes tightly closed. Several men and women stood or squatted beside her. The daughter-in-law who had quarrelled with her knelt in the corner, her eyes swollen from crying.

The man set a round stool beside the bed for Zuo Gui and brought another for Shaoyang. Shaoyang did not sit, but stood behind his father.

“What happened?” Zuo Gui asked.

“After the medicine at your shop, Mother woke up,” the man replied anxiously. “We carried her to the shelter at the works for the night. She was quite well that evening, could hear us and recognise people. Yesterday morning we carried her back here. She took the medicine twice more, but by evening she wasn’t right—drowsy, scarcely recognising us again. We were worried, so we gave her another dose at midnight. This morning she was worse. Nothing would wake her. She’s been unconscious ever since.”

“Any other symptoms?”

“Other…?”

The man did not know what he meant.

“Has she passed urine and stool? What were they like?”

“Yes. The night before last was all right, but last night her stool was loose.”

Zuo Gui nodded and opened her mouth to examine the tongue. Shaoyang leaned forward too. The tip was reddish, the tongue swollen, with a white greasy coating and tooth marks along the edges.

His father took her wrist, considered for a moment and looked round at him.

“Zhong, what do you make of her illness?”

In the past, Zuo Gui would never have sought his son’s opinion. Since learning of the old physician’s instruction and discovering that his own recent successes were due to Shaoyang’s substitutions, he had begun to regard the boy differently. Today’s relapse, however, had punctured his hopes. He asked, but his tone was cool.

“Let me examine her first.”

Shaoyang carefully felt the pulse. It was deep and slippery: deep indicated an interior pattern, slippery suggested turbid phlegm. The white greasy tongue coating and loose stool pointed to phlegm as well.

That was unsurprising. A quarrel with her daughter-in-law had provoked anger, injuring the liver; liver qi had become wind, emotional fire had burned within and thickened fluids into phlegm. Phlegm-fire had clouded the heart and spread through the channels, bringing on wind stroke.

His modified Antelope Horn and Uncaria Decoction, with Purple Snow—one of the Three Cooling Treasures for restoring consciousness—had cleared, descended, extinguished wind and dispelled phlegm. Her mind had cleared. The prescription ought to have been right.

Why had continued treatment made her consciousness deteriorate?

He could not fathom it. Continue the same decoction and Purple Snow? Certainly not. A full day’s treatment had worsened the serious symptoms. The pattern had changed. He could not keep giving it.

Unable to devise a better course, he smiled ruefully and shook his head.

“Father, I… haven’t worked it out.”

“Come with me.”

Zuo Gui rose and walked out to the open space before the house. Shaoyang followed. His father checked that no one was close, then leaned towards him.

“Didn’t that old physician teach you what to do in a case like this?”

“He only told me to use the earlier prescription for this illness. He didn’t tell me what to do if this happened.”

Disappointment settled over Zuo Gui’s face. He shook his head, thought for a moment and said, “Then I shall have to find a way myself.”

---

**Enjoyed this story?**
Discover more chapters of **The Young Physician of the Tang Dynasty** at [**NovelPotato.asia**](https://novelpotato.asia/the-young-physician-of-the-tang-dynasty/).