Chapter 43 - Senior Brother’s Medicine Girl

A month later, much had changed for Ao Wen. The wounds she'd suffered from purging the Yin Poison had healed and they'd moved on from Salt Flats City where she'd woken to another city nearby, and then further along the coast to a city in a different kingdom. Each time, they spent a number of days traveling before setting up the camp anew and taking command of the situation in the ailing city. According to Senior Sister Cheng Chuntao, the sudden wave of Yin Poison eruptions had likely been plotted by one of the lords of the Yin Fiends. Many cities with large populations have been affected to one extent or another. The city they'd just arrived at, King Fish City, had gotten through the outbreak considerably better than most cities. Because so many people had been traveling on boats at the time of the outbreak, there were many people who escaped the corruption of the outbreak and had successfully reclaimed and defended a portion of the town. The good news was that many more people would survive. The bad news was that widespread death and the chaos in the city left many people who weren't suffering from Yin poison still afflicted with a number of other maladies and diseases that propagated when essential city functions collapsed.

"We have a new mission, Little Yu," Huang Yuze said with a flamboyant flip of his hair when he entered her room. Unlike when she had first met him, Huang Yuze had adopted an even more effeminate appearance, adding purple eyeshadow and matching lipstick to his daily look along with an elaborate earring on one ear that featured multiple dangling chains suspended from a cuff on the upper ear. Even his basic wooden hairpin had been traded for a gold pin with several dangling jade baubles. Were it not for the loose way in which he wore his robes, revealing glimpses of his distinctly masculine chest, he might truly be mistaken for a senior sister rather than a senior brother!

"What does Senior Brother require?" Ao Wen asked, looking up from the array of flames on the table before her. The Swirling Pool Flame Control Art that she'd learned from books in Master Dongfang's clinic created a single source of flame in which the cauldron was set or submerged. The intensity of the flame was kept uniform around the cauldron and the heat was controlled by varying the rate at which the flame pool swirled. The Eight Trigrams Flame Control Art on the other hand, used between three and six distinct large and small flames positioned around the cauldron. That might be three large flames arranged around the cauldron, six small flames, four small flames, and a single large one, two large flames, and two small flames… there were eight variations in total to precisely control temperature in different regions of the cauldron and to produce different effects. Compared to the Swirling Pool method she'd learned first, this one demanded significantly more focus from her and she was relieved to be given a reprieve from practice!

"We've begun to move the sick and wounded who are free of Yin Poison to a medical tent for treatment. Master has asked me to take command of the treatment of mortals there. I need you to follow me as my Medicine Girl for a few days. You'll fetch the herbs I ask for, prepare the ingredients for medicines, and help with other tasks like changing bandages, applying medical pastes, and the like," he explained.

"Senior brother wants me to help with patients?" Ao Wen asked, unsure about stepping back into a room full of people who needed treatment after what she'd experienced at the orphanage.

"Of course I do," he said. "You need real practice and there are never enough people when there's a real crisis. The Alchemy Novices and more senior alchemists are all busy treating cultivators with more complex conditions. That leaves just two of us to take care of mortals. You're not going to leave me alone, are you?"

The question he asked was straightforward enough, but the almost flirty way in which he said "leave me alone" gave Ao Wen a moment of pause before she cupped her hands and bowed slightly. "If senior brother needs help, how can this Yu refuse?"

"I knew Little Yu wouldn't let me down," he said with a clap and a wide smile. "Gather your things and come with me."

Huang Yuze took Ao Wen to a tent that stood fifty meters long by twenty wide and already held over a hundred mortals who needed treatment. The people had been grouped into three general categories. Comatose patients who were unresponsive, or so severely impaired that they couldn't communicate. Non-ambulatory patients who had to be carried to receive treatment and finally ambulatory patients who could at least move about under their own power.

"Where do we begin?" Huang Yuze asked Ao Wen, wanting to see how she would decide.

"Aren't comatose patients the most critical?"

"And the most difficult to administer care. Of the four methods, which cannot be used on those patients?"

"Interrogation," Ao Wen answered quickly. "But interrogation is often unreliable, isn't it? People have many reasons to conceal things or to distort what they report."

"That doesn't mean you should dismiss it," he advised. "We'll start with the non-ambulatory patients. If we can send them home, we recoup the space to use in treating others. Then we can look at the comatose patients to see if any can be roused. Then we take care of the ones who are still walking and talking."

Their first patient was a young boy, near in age to Fen. His limbs had become weak after eating scavenged food and he'd struggled to keep food down ever since. "What was it you ate little man?" Huang Yuze asked.

"Just kitchen scraps," the boy answered. "Half a radish and some stem lettuce."

"Really?" Huang Yuze said. "Come here, Little Yu, press with two fingers on his abdominal binding acupoint, and watch his eyes as you do."

Ao Wen dutifully palpated the acupoint while watching the young boy's eyes tighten in pain before they began to tremble when she released the pressure.

"See that?" Huang Yuze said as though everything was clear. "If he became ill like this eating rotten stem lettuce then it's surely a case of White Death Mildew poison. He's lucky it hasn't progressed very far. The poison settles in the hands and feet. Amputating them will allow the rest of his body to recover. I'll need you to prepare…"

"Wait! It was yellow-bellied fish," the young boy said, panicked eyes wide as he rushed to confess. "I took it from the stand on the seventh pier. Please, they'll cane me if they find out!"

"Oh, and I'm betting you were pretty hungry and it smelled good cooking so you ate it while it was still hot right?" Seeing the boy nod, he continued. "Hot, but undercooked. Yellow-bellied fish can't be eaten raw like deep sea fish or you can get a parasite." Writing a list of herbs on a slate he handed it to Ao Wen. "Fetch these for me and grind them finely. He needs to add a pinch of this powder to a bowl of thin congee every day for seven days and he'll be fine."

After giving the medicine to the relieved little boy, Huang Yuze pulled Ao Wen aside. "Do you understand?"

"A little. Why did you have me press his acupoint? You didn't do that when you diagnosed him," she asked.

"Because he has a disorder of the flow of energy through his gut," Huang Yuze explained patiently. "If you pressed there, it would hurt, quite a bit really. He needed to feel pain to have more fear of his illness than fearing the consequences of telling the truth," he said. "We're alchemists. We turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Today, we transmuted ordinary pain into extraordinary fear and turned that fear into a truth that could save a life," he finished with a smile. "Understand?"

"I didn't think alchemists had to be actors," she said, impressed by the effectiveness of his methods even if it felt a bit underhanded. 

"An alchemist turns themselves into what they need to be, or what they wish to be. Now, onto the next patient," he said, gesturing for her to proceed him into the next room. 

From room to room, they moved neither hastily or slowly but never dawdling when a person needed them. Each time, after treating the patient, Huang Yuze asked if she understood and answered her questions. By the end of the day, Ao Wen's eyes were filled with admiration for her senior brother. His methods seemed endless, whether it was herbs, ointments, silver needles, or manipulation of the body, he seemed to have an answer for everything. Only twice had she seen him shake his head saying that nothing could be done, the cure was worse than the illness. Even then, he'd offered comfort and relief from pain.

When they returned to Ao Wen's room that night, Senior Brother Huang slumped in the softest chair Ao Wen had available. "There are too many who need treatment," he complained. "I'm afraid we'll have to care for fewer patients tomorrow. I've overdrawn my energy."

"Senior Brother concocted for half the day and used every to treat one in six patients," Ao Wen observed. "Maybe we should request an Alchemy Novice tomorrow to do the concocting for you so you only need your energy to heal."

"Won't work," he said with a dramatic flicking gesture as though he was shooing away the idea like a fly. "All the Novices are treating cultivators. I told you, Master gave responsibility for the mortals to me."

"Then," Ao Wen hesitated. "What if I concoct for you? I may make mistakes and waste herbs, but for recipes without rare ingredients, even if I fail a few times, it still preserves your energy."

"Show me your flame control," he said. "Complete three revolutions of eight trigrams clockwise and three revolutions anticlockwise without losing focus and you can concoct for me."

The first time she tried his test, she failed to switch directions. Taking a look at her exhausted senior brother she begged to try again. The second attempt was better and by the fourth attempt, she'd completed the test to his satisfaction. Tomorrow, she'd begin concocting for patients for the first time since leaving the orphanage.