Chapter 10

"Little Master, can these horses be cured?"

In the spacious and tall stable, Constable Wang slightly covered his nose and mouth, asking Li Ang, who was carefully examining the sick horse.

Conjunctivitis, keratitis, corneal ulcer...

Li Ang took a half step back, pondered a treatment plan, and after a long while, opened his eyes and nodded, "They can be cured."

"Really?"

At this moment, Supervisor Xun, who had already recovered from his dejected and sorrowful state, also entered the stable, staring intently at Li Ang, "How confident are you? What do you need to prepare?"

Li Ang casually replied, "I'm about seventy to eighty percent confident. If the sick horses outside the city have the same symptoms, I can cure most of them. However, I need about twenty guan for the medicinal materials."

"Twenty guan?"

Supervisor Xun widened his eyes and opened his mouth wide.

"Too much?" Li Ang frowned, "If it's really not feasible, I can pay for it myself, but after the job is done, you need to reimburse me the twenty guan, plus ten guan in interest."

"No, no..."

Supervisor Xun waved his hand. He had expected Li Ang to ask for fifty guan or even a hundred guan—many doctors in this era would take advantage of patients' illnesses to raise the price of medicines, and there were even unscrupulous doctors who would charge a thousand guan for a life-saving medicine.

"Cough, cough, Wang Sanlang, please go to the warehouse and get twenty guan."

Supervisor Xun sent Constable Wang to get the money, and then, changing his cold attitude, warmly asked Li Ang about the treatment details.

Li Ang still used the same explanation of "liver fire rising, yin deficiency with hyperactivity of fire." When Constable Wang returned with the money, Li Ang borrowed a horse from Supervisor Xun and informed him that he would come every day for the next four days, and that Supervisor Xun should manage the sick horses centrally.

After that, Li Ang took Constable Wang to the street to buy medicinal materials.

Supervisor Xun, who had given away twenty guan and a horse, paced back and forth in the hall of the Horse Supervision Office. Less than half an hour later, he waited for Constable Wang to return with a report.

Supervisor Xun hurriedly asked, "How was it? What medicine did Li Ang buy?"

Constable Wang's face was full of shock and disbelief, and even his hands were trembling slightly—since he had participated in the action to pursue a criminal by the Pacification Office ten years ago, he had thought nothing in the world could shock him so much.

"He... he first took me to a porcelain shop to buy porcelain, then bought white salt and saltpeter, and then went to a blacksmith's shop to order a custom needle, and then..."

"Then what? Speak up!"

"He took me to buy pig eyes!"

——

"Master, you... do you have some special fetish..."

In the Security Hall, Chai Cuiqiao looked at Li Ang with shock.

Li Ang was holding a large porcelain vase in his arms, which was filled with water and emitted a strong, indescribable strange smell.

Pig eyeballs.

The porcelain vase was filled with pig eyeballs, each one still retaining blood vessels, looking extremely bizarre.

Well... actually, the term "special fetish" was relatively mild. If the Pacification Office of Yizhou City or the fanatical believers of the Vast Heaven Sect in the southern Zhou Kingdom saw Li Ang bring back a bottle of pig eyes, they might suspect him of being a demon.

"Nonsense, what special fetish."

Li Ang gently placed the vase on the ground, "Go find some firewood and bring out the pure alcohol from the warehouse."

"Okay."

Chai Cuiqiao obediently went to heat water, while Li Ang wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the bizarre bottle.

These fresh pig eyes, which he and Constable Wang had bought from the largest slaughterhouse in Yizhou City at three coins each, were all cut out by Li Ang himself with a knife, without any damage or cuts.

Thinking of the astonished expressions of Constable Wang and the butchers, Li Ang couldn't help but smile slightly.

"It seems my surgical skills haven't declined."

He nodded proudly. Although a surgeon is a profession tied to modern science and the modern industrial system, without medicines and advanced surgical instruments, and without reliable methods for hemostasis, pain relief, and sterilization, a surgeon's skills are hard to fully utilize.

However, as long as one's thinking is broad and flexible, there are always more methods than difficulties.

"The cornea of mammals is located at the front of the eye, directly exposed to the outside world, making it susceptible to damage from microorganisms, injuries, and physical and chemical stimuli, leading to inflammation.

A 0.25% to 2% atropine solution or ointment can be used daily to dilate the pupil, reduce iris irritation, and promote ulcer healing.

Or antibiotics can be injected subconjunctivally, and corticosteroids can be used, along with vitamin C, vitamin B2, and cod liver oil.

Since there's nothing available now, we can only... adapt to local conditions,

and use pig eyeballs."

Li Ang muttered to himself, moving all the fresh pig eyes to the courtyard and disinfecting his hands with pure alcohol (a high-concentration alcohol invented by the Academy using distillation, usually diluted before drinking).

The most effective alcohol concentration for disinfection is around 75%. Lower concentrations cannot thoroughly kill bacteria, while higher concentrations can cause bacterial proteins to coagulate, forming a film that prevents complete sterilization.

However, under these conditions, having high-concentration alcohol is already good.

After disinfecting his hands with pure alcohol, Li Ang carefully washed the pig eyes with cold water to remove blood and impurities.

During this time, he asked Chai Cuiqiao to find an iron pot, pour water into it, and place a heat-resistant porcelain bowl inside. The porcelain bowl was not filled with water.

When the iron pot heated up and produced steam, water droplets would condense on the iron lid and eventually fall into the porcelain bowl, producing crude distilled water.

Crude is crude, but it can be used.

Li Ang used the distilled water to wash all the pig eyes and then used a clean cloth, which had been boiled in distilled water, to wipe off the surface water from the eyes.

After that, Li Ang disinfected his hands again and used a small iron knife to make a one-centimeter incision in the center of the pig eyes' pupils. He squeezed the eyes over a disinfected porcelain bottle, allowing the aqueous humor, vitreous body, lens, and iris to flow into the container.

Finally, he sealed the porcelain bottle and placed it in an ice box made of saltpeter for refrigeration.

The entire process was complicated and tedious, and Chai Cuiqiao couldn't understand what Li Ang was doing at all.

"Master..."

Chai Cuiqiao looked at Li Ang, who was washing his hands with expensive pure alcohol, hesitating to speak.

"What's wrong?"

Li Ang wiped the water droplets off his hands and raised his hand to his nose, sniffing to make sure there was no strange smell left.

Chai Cuiqiao hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Aren't pig eyes... disgusting? Digging them out of a pig's head..."

"What's disgusting or not, they're just organs. Just like pig ears, pig skin, and pork."

Li Ang frowned and thought for a moment, "But now that you mention it, they do come from a pig's head, so they are indeed dirtier.

Hmm... let's have stir-fried large intestine for dinner tonight."