If he had not done that, he probably never would have had a chance to speak to Lian Qiao. So sometimes, a little scheming was necessary. Tong Hua narrowed his eyes and began discussing other topics with her.
Through the water mirror, Jiang Chan saw Lian Qiao chatting with the man, a faint smile at the corners of her mouth. She dispersed the mirror. It seemed Lian Qiao’s future life had found its footing too.
Jiang Chan turned over in bed, wondering what she should do that evening. City High had no evening study sessions on weekend nights. Everyone could read in their dormitories, while day students could return to school on Monday morning.
After thinking it over, Jiang Chan still had not made a plan when someone knocked on the dormitory door. Yu Jie went to open it. Seven or eight girls stood outside, all unfamiliar faces who were not in Jiang Chan’s class.
“Who are you looking for?”
The girl at the front stepped forward. “Hello. Is Jiang Chan here? We have something to ask her. Could we come in to talk?”
Jiang Chan climbed down from the upper bunk. “Come in. What is it?”
The seven or eight girls walked in. The first girl spoke again. “I saw your medical license on the forum today, Jiang Chan. I haven’t been feeling very well and wanted to ask you to take a look.”
“Yes, me too.”
The girls chattered away. Wen Jing and the others stopped reading, tossed their books aside, and sat on their beds looking at the newcomers with shining eyes. They could watch Jiang Chan show her skills again. How exciting!
City High’s dormitories were not large. As soon as the girls came in, the room was packed. Jiang Chan sat at the table. She had just been wondering how to pass the time, and now here was something to do.
“Come one at a time. Shall we start with you?” Jiang Chan pointed to the girl who had spoken first. She looked very straightforward, with something of a leader’s air.
The girl readily sat opposite Jiang Chan and held out her left wrist. Jiang Chan looked her over. “Your complexion is rosy, your voice is strong, and you move with vigor. You’re very healthy. Why do you need to see me?”
The girl laughed openly and withdrew her wrist. “I came for my maternal grandfather. He has severe chronic knee pain brought on by the cold. Whenever the temperature drops even a little, he has to keep warm. In winter, his knees ache and swell. When it’s bad, he can’t even bend them.”
Jiang Chan tapped her fingers on the table. “That falls under what traditional Chinese medicine calls bi syndrome. Since I haven’t seen your grandfather, I can’t make a precise assessment. But I have a prescription here that you can take back for him to try.”
Jiang Chan picked up a pen and wrote out a prescription for Tendon-Relaxing, Knee-Strengthening Decoction. “Follow this prescription when you go back. Have him take one prepared dose each day, divided into three portions. From what you’ve told me, your grandfather has considerable cold-dampness. Don’t throw away the dregs after decocting the herbs. Stir-fry them with strong liquor, put them in a bag, and apply them as a hot compress to the affected area once a day for twenty minutes.”
The girl put away the prescription. “Thanks! How long should he keep it up?”
“Try a month first. After all, I haven’t examined him in person. But I’ve treated this sort of bi syndrome before, so I’m fairly confident. All right, next!”
In Xianyue’s world, Jiang Chan had earned the title of Medical Immortal. What difficult or unusual illness had she not seen? Such conditions were particularly common among the poor. Having seen so many, she had developed her own set of theories.
A girl with a sallow, dark complexion sat before Jiang Chan. She was far too thin and had heavy dark circles beneath her eyes. Jiang Chan frowned as she studied her for a long time, then carefully took her pulse before speaking. “Do you have insomnia?”
The girl immediately nodded vigorously. The girls behind her were stunned. Did she not even need to ask about the patient’s symptoms? She could tell simply by looking and taking her pulse? Wasn’t that too mysterious?
“Jiang Chan, Xiaoqin’s insomnia is very serious. She can barely sleep at all, night after night. We’ve tried to move as quietly as possible, but she still can’t sleep.”
One girl briskly explained some of her circumstances. Jiang Chan nodded and took a silver needle from her needle case. After disinfecting it, she said to the girl, “Give me your right hand.”
The girl was a little apprehensive. “Will it hurt?”
Jiang Chan smiled. “Of course not. It’s little different from a mosquito bite.”
After disinfecting the pad of the girl’s middle finger as well, Jiang Chan looked at the eyes surrounding her and decided to explain more clearly. “For this kind of needling, we generally choose the left hand for males and the right for females.”
“Look closely at the pad of your right middle finger. There are usually one or two small white areas the size of rice grains. They’re mostly oval and generally toward the side. These are the ischemic areas.”
Jiang Chan pointed to a small area on the side of the girl’s middle finger. The other girls stared wide-eyed but could not see anything different. Was this the difference between an expert and an ordinary person?
Seeing everyone listening intently, Jiang Chan swiftly lowered the needle, leaving a tiny puncture on the girl’s middle finger. The girl only realized afterward. “You’ve already done it? I barely felt anything.”
Supporting the girl’s finger, Jiang Chan squeezed out a dozen or so drops of blood, then pressed an alcohol swab against it.
“All right. You can have a good night’s sleep tonight.”
“It’s that simple?” Everyone stared in unison. No prescription, no acupuncture, just a few drops of blood? They all looked at Jiang Chan doubtfully.
Jiang Chan shrugged. “You’ll know tonight whether it works. All right, next!”
After seeing seven people in succession, only the last one remained.
The remaining girl looked about sixteen. She was small and thin, so frail that a breeze seemed capable of blowing her over. After examining her pulse and tongue coating, Jiang Chan had some idea.
“You have asthma. It should be congenital, and you’ve probably had it for over ten years?” Although Jiang Chan phrased it as a question, she sounded very certain.
The girl nodded. “Yes. My mom has asthma too. I have to carry my medicine with me.”
“Of course. There are three conditions whose medication people need to carry with them. One is asthma, and the other two are hypertension and diabetes. The weather is getting colder now. Do you feel tightness in your chest and shortness of breath, sometimes with difficulty breathing?”
“Yes. Sometimes I wake up gasping not long after falling asleep at night. It’s awful.” The girl clutched the clothing over her chest. She had now become afraid of going to sleep, worried that one day she might fall asleep and never wake again.
Jiang Chan frowned. “I need to think this over. When was your period?”
The question made the girl blush deeply. “It ended two days ago.”
Jiang Chan clapped her hands. “Then that’s fine. Today happens to be the first day of the first nine-day period after the winter solstice. Your timing is fortunate. Wait here. I’ll make you some medicinal plasters to try first.”
Seeing that Jiang Chan was going to prepare medicine, Yu Jie climbed down from her bed. She was very interested in making medicine and naturally wanted to observe up close.
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