Chapter 287: Chapter 118 Little Lord Pei_1

Snow fell continuously in Shengjing, and before anyone realized, it was already December.

In the courtyard, most of the red plum blossoms had bloomed; in West Street’s Yazhai Bookstore, New Year’s peach talismans were being sold in large quantities.

Renxin Medical Hall had come out with a new face cream "Yulong Paste," made by blending spices with medicinal oil and fat to prevent skin from chapping due to cold. Because it was affordable, commoners often bought it along with pastry and Guanyin statues as holiday gifts. Renxin Medical Hall’s revenue started to maintain a stable balance after the appearance of "Yulong Paste."

Early in the morning, Du Changqing, along with Yin Zheng and Ah Cheng, headed out to distribute porridge.

Distributing porridge was a tradition left by Du Changqing’s father, Old Master Du. Every year on the last day of the twelfth lunar month, everyone from Renxin Medical Hall would go to the temple at the West Street market to set up stalls and cook "Seven Treasures and Five Flavors Porridge" to give to the poor.

Since the medical hall was unattended and Du Changqing knew Lu Tong was busy preparing for the spring examination, he did not ask Lu Tong to come along, leaving her to look after the medical hall.

Inside the back room, Miao Liangfang sat in a recliner with a thin blanket over his legs, squinting at Lu Tong writing out medical prescriptions.

Ever since that early morning meeting with Lu Tong, the two had reached a subtle tacit understanding. Miao Liangfang had agreed to teach Lu Tong medical theories to help her pass the spring examination, and Lu Tong had agreed that if she truly passed, she would fulfill Miao Liangfang’s requested favor.

He came over every morning, teaching Lu Tong until late at night before leaving. Although Du Changqing grumbled about it, he still took care of his three meals a day, which was better than starving. Considering that he once served as a Medical Officer at the Hanlin Medical Institute, teaching a doctor or two was not a difficult task, especially since this female doctor from Renxin Medical Hall had a bit of fame, and she was also intelligent; the job wasn’t too hard.

But Miao Liangfang soon discovered that he was mistaken—

"Little Lu, how can you use salt bile water for scabies?" Miao Liangfang glanced at Lu Tong’s medical prescription and couldn’t help but hold his forehead.

"Why not?"

"Salt bile water is highly toxic; applying it aggravates suppuration."

"That’s for when there are sores and blood. Without sores or blood, using brine is safe."

"How do you know?"

"I’ve tried it."

"You’ve used..." Miao Liangfang’s belly full of words was choked off, staring at Lu Tong: "You’ve tried it?"

Lu Tong nodded.

Miao Liangfang felt like punching cotton, full of suffocating frustration.

She had tried it?

Nonsense!

It had been over half a month since Miao Liangfang started teaching Lu Tong, and his initial excitement had turned to utter frustration; everyday he was stunned by Lu Tong’s "medical skills."

Because Lu Tong was preparing for the spring examination, and he knew nothing of her past, Miao Liangfang wrote out exam papers according to the nine subjects on the first day of teaching to gauge her level.

However, without probing, upon reviewing, this Doctor Lu truly gave Miao Liangfang quite the shock.

The pharmacology and medical scriptures written by Lu Tong, though not very thorough, were passable. However, the prescriptions she wrote for the diseases were wildly creative and unorthodox.

The common prescriptions were fine, but with the more difficult diseases, while Lu Tong’s diagnosis was fairly accurate, the prescriptions she came up with always included one or two toxic herbs.

At first, Miao Liangfang thought that Lu Tong was just accustomed to writing prescriptions this way, but as more were written, some prescriptions Miao Liangfang had never heard of, he gradually began to sense something was wrong.

This Doctor Lu, rather than saying she understood medical theory, it was more apt to say she was more knowledgeable about all kinds of poisons.

She was skilled at treating illnesses with poison!

Miao Liangfang also tried to probe indirectly, hoping to find out if Doctor Lu had any special habits or personality issues, so he said to her, "There are emergency methods for toxic medicines, where toxins can flush up or down to weaken the force of the illness. There are also non-toxic treatments for illnesses, where non-toxicity means slower efficacy... What if you try changing the prescription?"

Lu Tong furrowed her brows: "I can’t."

The answer was blunt and straightforward.

After several attempts, Miao Liangfang gradually understood that Doctor Lu truly didn’t grasp medical theory and had never received proper education from a Medical Worker; it seemed her medical learning was all self-taught, and the foundation of her self-learning was poison.

Her familiarity with poisons, to the level of being adept and effortless, alarmed Miao Liangfang.

Even more alarming were the prescriptions written by Lu Tong.

Miao Liangfang considered himself knowledgeable of hundreds of effective remedies, yet the ones written by Lu Tong were unheard of. Out of curiosity, he couldn’t help but secretly test a few trivial prescriptions on himself and found, surprisingly, that they had remarkable effects.

Those prescriptions were actually real!

And when he asked Lu Tong about them, she would just respond with "I’ve tried it" to dismiss him.

As if she had tried them!

Miao Liangfang didn’t believe it at all. Those prescriptions contained numerous highly toxic ingredients, and the diseases were extraordinarily varied. If Lu Tong had really tried each one, could she still be alive today? Even Medicine Men weren’t that unfortunate.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read