Chapter 527 - 529 Still No News
However, things did not go as planned. Bai Ruozhu didn’t anticipate encountering such a severely injured child. Despite going against Imperial Court regulations, she had to treat the child using suturing techniques.
She could only hope that Wang Tuhu had listened to her instructions and would not remove the Bai Bu (strip of cloth) holding the wound closed. Once the catgut sutures dissolve and the child’s wound gradually heals, no one would be able to tell how it happened.
For extra safety, she also had to give the family a bottle of scar-removal ointment.
Bai Ruozhu returned to the place where she was seeing patients, and the people who had returned began to spread news about her medical skills.
"You wouldn’t believe how amazing Doctor Zhuhua is. Wang Tuhu’s son had been cut to the bone, and imagine how deep the cut must have been. She was able to stop the bleeding in a few moments and now, he’s been treated and sent home to rest!" One person remarked to another.
"Wow, she must be a divine doctor!" exclaimed someone nearby.
The speaker immediately motioned for silence and warned him, "Don’t call her a divine doctor. Doctor Zhuhua doesn’t like to be called that. Be careful not to anger her."
The man quickly clamped his mouth shut, his face showing surprise. "That is quite unusual."
"Shush, be careful she refuses to treat you," somebody else said softly.
Bai Ruozhu sat at her table and began diagnosing the patients. Thankfully, the illnesses of the people who came later were minor, like heat in the lungs causing a cough, or cold symptoms.
She diagnosed each person one by one, giving them the medicine she had if they needed it. If not, she would prescribe the formulas with cheap, readily available medicinal materials, so obtaining the medicine would not be too expensive.
Soon, word about her had spread around the small town. The town was not large, so any event, even the arrival of a merchant with interesting goods, was noteworthy. Needless to say, news of a divine doctor treating patients for free quickly spread.
Bai Ruozhu was busy seeing patients, and she barely had time to eat lunch. She was seeing patients and munching on a steamed bun in between cases. The sight was too much for some townsfolk to bear, and they returned home to bring food for her. Her table and the area around her filled up with food, making it seem as if she was being presented with offerings. Feeling helpless, she couldn’t figure out what to do with so much food. How could she possibly eat all that?
By sunset, she massaged her sore shoulders and stood up to announce that she would continue the next day. The people who had been queueing for a long time felt disappointed but couldn’t bring themselves to deny her the rest she sorely needed. Any compassionate person could see how worn out Doctor Zhuhua was.
Bai Ruozhu noticed the disappointed customers. She thought for a moment and said, "I will write you all slips of paper. Tomorrow morning, come straight to me without needing to queue. I will prioritize those with the slips."
Those in queue praised her, commenting on how considerate Doctor Zhuhua was.
Bai Ruozhu cut blank sheets of paper into small pieces. As she did so, she carelessly rubbed her hand on a piece of paper and got some pigment on her skin. In order to keep the color of her hands consistent with her face, she had applied pigment to her hands before.
Straightaway, she became more careful. After a whole day’s work, her hands were a bit dirty which was normal, so nobody would suspect anything.
By the time she had distributed the slips, it was completely dark.
Some well-meaning people came forward and said to her: "Doctor Zhuhua, we can help you pack up."
Bai Ruozhu looked worriedly at the food laid out beside her. She appreciated the patients’ goodwill, but she couldn’t possibly eat all of it. If she put all the food in her magical space, there would not be enough room, and she wouldn’t be able to finish it all before it went bad.
However, the people were insistent. No matter how much she declined their offers, they always found ways to leave something behind.
In the end, Bai Ruozhu had no choice but to let people help her take all the food to the inn. She gave some to the helpers and some to the innkeeper, and she secretly stowed some in her magical space.
If people tried to give her food again tomorrow, she wouldn’t accept it, no matter what.
That night, Bai Ruozhu didn’t have time for idle thoughts. She made her bed look like someone had slept in it and crawled into her magical space. As soon as she lay down, she fell asleep. She was really tired.
She woke up in the middle of the night, her breasts aching from being full of milk. She had been searching for opportunities to express her milk discreetly throughout the journey. During her clinic hours, she sometimes made excuses to go to the toilet and express her milk there, otherwise, she would have been incredibly uncomfortable.
After expressing her milk, she fell back asleep, and when she woke up again, it was already morning.
She applied her makeup and left the inn, heading to the place where she had been seeing patients the day before.
She was surprised to see that quite a few people were already queuing up. When they saw her, they enthusiastically greeted her. It seemed that her act of showing temper the previous day had worked well; everyone started referring to her as "Doctor Zhuhua". Even when someone mistakenly referred to her as a divine doctor, others would immediately warn them not to.
She smiled and nodded at everyone. She then took up her brush and wrote something on her sign: ’No more gifts will be accepted.’
After writing, she realized that very few of these people could read, so she had to announce to the queue: "Two things regarding today’s consultations. First, yesterday some people waited a long time but didn’t get seen. I gave them slips. They don’t need to queue up again today and the rest of you shouldn’t think it’s unfair."
Everyone nodded; even if Doctor Zhuhua wanted to let someone cut in line, they wouldn’t complain.
"Secondly, no more gifts are to be given. Otherwise, I will leave Tianshan Town tomorrow. I travel light and all these extra things, even if I accept them, I can’t carry away." She purposefully put on a stern face and, combined with her appearance, managed to look quite formidable.
Several people immediately said they understood and would stop bringing gifts. Only then did Bai Ruozhu sit down to see her patients, and thus another hectic day passed.
By the third day, Bai Ruozhu was starting to feel restless. On the one hand, she wasn’t used to sitting for such a long time — her bottom was aching. On the other hand, she had never seen this many patients before and was feeling exhausted since she gave consecutive consultations for two days. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up.
A key point was that she still hadn’t heard any news about Jiang Yichun. He hadn’t shown up to look for her. Was it possible that she made a mistake in her judgment? Was Jiang Yichun not around this area at all?
She decided to hold on for another day. If there was still no news, she would change towns and continue her medical practice. If there was still no news after ten days, she would have to return to Beiyu City.
During the afternoon of the third day, Wang Tuhu brought his son over. Kankan seemed much healthier, but he obviously wasn’t as energetic as before. After all, losing so much blood takes time to recuperate.
"Doctor Zhuhua, that day you treated my son’s illness, gave us medicine, and paid the innkeeper silver. We don’t have much money, but you must take these two taels of silver. If you don’t, I won’t feel at ease," Wang Tuhu said, bringing out a handful of broken silver that weighed around two taels, and placing it on Bai Ruozhu’s table.
Bai Ruozhu shook her head helplessly, the cost of the medicine and catgut sutures she used to treat Kankan were not something that two taels of silver could cover. Even twenty taels wouldn’t be enough. Nonetheless, she chose to help the poor child, so why should she ask for money?
Two taels of silver were an insignificant sum for her, but for Wang Tuhu’s family, it could be their living expenses for two or three months.
"That won’t be necessary. The child needs nourishment, you should take the silver and use it to bolster his strength. I don’t lack money." Bai Ruozhu said directly.