Chapter 16 - Meat Pie Crushes People To Death (2)

After writing down the prescription, Ran Yan handed it to Qing Dai, “Have the pharmacy grind White Liang Powder flower[1] and Acorus flower[2] into a powder, then spread that onto the festering wounds. The other remedy is a decocted tonic which I will explain to you in detail later.”

After delivering these instructions, Ran Yan took off the rough cloth around her hands and, bringing Wan Lu with her, headed to the other side of the screen. Syphilis was a tough illness to handle, one that needed to be guarded against with extreme vigilance. If possible, they would do well to maintain as much distance as possible from any infected person.

As she was moving, Ran Yan set her mind on figuring out how to extract penicillin. At the same time she was engrossing herself in thought, a maidservant led in a few of the ‘high-class talents’.

Since her mind was elsewhere, Ran Yan did not notice them at all as she went ahead and sat down on the seat.

“Didn’t you say there was a doctor here to treat us? Where are they hiding!?” A beautiful, bright looking woman from the procession asked incredulously.

Seeing that Ran Yan still wasn’t reacting, Wan Lu quickly called for her attention, “Miss.”

“This person is the doctor,” indicated the servant girl by extending her hand out.

The woman was momentarily astonished. In the Tang Dynasty, female doctors were rare. They basically only existed within the palace and exclusively served the imperial harem. Few were ever allowed to leave. Even if they did somehow leave and became commoners, they were quickly snatched up by powerful families so it was almost impossible for common people to see a female doctor.

“Is this a trick?” The bright-looking woman used her peach blossom eyes to inspect Ran Yan with a gaze piercing enough to make one think she could see through the veil’s barrier.

Having her train of thought interrupted, Ran Yan calmly shifted her attention to analysing these new prospective patients. These ‘women of great talent’ were each about 16-17 years old. Some bright and some gentle; all were beauties with their own distinguishing characteristics. The bright-looking woman’s only ‘blemish’ was that her mouth was a little shrewish.

Ran Yan never had much additional enthusiasm for matters unrelated to work so she proceeded without engaging the shrew, “Who wishes to come first?”

“I’ll go.” Seeing Ran Yan disregard her words, the bright-looking woman inevitably felt a little angry. She lifted her skirt, marched forward and plunked down opposite Ran Yan. She then extended her hand out in a manner that practically demanded her pulse be read.

“Has there been any itching, swelling or pain down below? Any growth of foreign bodies without reason?” Ran Yan asked.

The woman was again surprised. With some doubt, she asked, “You don’t need to take my pulse?”

Ran Yan noted the skepticism in the woman’s attitude, but rather than try to convince her by being friendly, her own unyielding personality made it so that she would not show a bit of bedside manner to such a prickly patient unless she was forced to, “For about a month, stop receiving customers. With men there cannot be intercourse, kisses…”

“Your meaning is, I am also infected?” With a relentless stare, the women interrupted Ran Yan, her face slightly pale, “Are you taking revenge on me for my rudeness just now?”

Ran Yan was at a loss. She was not saying that the woman was definitely infected, but that it was simply better that she not have sex since she had symptoms of red swelling and itchiness. If she kept at it, the end result might not be any better than catching this disease.

“Regardless of whether you’ve been infected or not, with your symptoms, you still cannot continue to receive customers. After I have spoken with everyone else, I will then do a more detailed examination.” Ran Yan felt it was highly likely that some of the people in the brothel had gynaecological disorders. Preventing them from receiving customers was directly disrupting their livelihood, so she anticipated this was not something these people would happily accept. “If you did not catch this disease, I will not force you to treat it.”

Though Ran Yan was not a gynaecologist, during her five years in university, she often stood in[3] for her roommates in class. She had studied and retained so much from those courses that, frankly, there were probably many gynaecologists who were not as book-learned as her.

“I recently heard Young Master Han took on a new lover, so isn’t it a good time for Hong Xing[4]-jiejie[5] to take a break?” Said one of the other maidens with a pleasant sounding Wu dialect. Standing off to the side, this one wore a beige ruqun with flowers embroidered on the chest and spoke in a warm tone.

This girl was fair and clear. Compared to Hong Xing’s appearance, which shined in front of people’s eyes, she was delicate and gentle, docile-looking. Her dainty wrist was adorned only with a white bracelet, her whole aura sophisticated. Even when saying such sharp words, she made people feel like she had no ill intentions.

“Bite your tongue! For that type of fickle[6] dandy to go somewhere else, I feel peaceful instead. Humph. It was lucky he changed so easily upon seeing something new, otherwise he would have died in my room today. How fortunate.” Hong Xing’s normally attractive peach blossom eyes had an entirely different feeling about them when she was glaring at someone.

The woman in the beige skirt lowered her eyes and combed back the hair at her temples. Still retaining her warm and gentle look, she softly said, “Hong Xing-jiejie should mind her words. When I passed by just now, I heard the coroner say Young Master Han was poisoned… jiejie may involve herself if she is careless, no?”

In a fit, Hong Xing violently slapped the table a few times, then abruptly straightened herself up, “Cui Mei, what do you mean by those words!?”

Seeing these two with their proverbial daggers drawn and at the ready[7], Ran Yan, instead of pressing for their treatment, watched on from the sidelines with relish. From Cui Mei’s meaning laden statements, one could easily glean that the newly deceased Young Master Han had not actually died from being beaten by Fourth Master Qin, but that anyone could have poisoned him.

Although this matter did not concern her, coming across a murder case in ancient times inevitably roused her interest.

“I am a musician. I sell my talents, not my body. I moved out from Zi Xu’s house one month ago. I should be fine, right?” Cui Mei finally decided to ignore Hong Xing. She instead turned to Ran Yan and asked about medical matters.

If this was really so, it should be fine. However, before Ran Yun could answer her, she suddenly noticed a barely visible sore at the corner of Cui Mei’s mouth covered underneath powder. Ran Yan hesitated slightly and asked, “And the sore by your mouth?”

“Oh, the brothel’s dedicated doctor saw it yesterday. They said it was internal heat and prescribed some medicine. It doesn’t hurt anymore now.” Cui Mei’s voice was soft like the gentleness of a March day in Jiangnan[8], it made one wonder which noble line she was descended from.

Ran Yan glanced at her probingly. An early sign of syphilis was small red papules on the skin that would then rapidly rupture into small red ulcers. As the disease progressed, the amount and spread of the ulcers would increase. Aside from the lower body, the most likely places where this symptom would appear were the corners of the mouth, fingers or chest.

“If that is the case, then I shall not ask further.” Ran Yan replied indifferently and turned to question the last prostitute.

This young girl was called Zi Ai and appeared rather timid-looking. After replying to Ran Yan’s questions, the girl stared with slight fear at Ran Yan while waiting for her diagnosis.

When the initial inquiry was completed, only Zi Ai did not have any abnormalities. It was now time for Ran Yan to do a second, more detailed examination. Regardless of how gentle and meek she appeared, Cui Mei remained stubborn in her rejection. Hong Xing, on the other hand, was very accommodating. It was unfortunate however that she was diagnosed with syphilis.

“You served the same man as Zi Xu?” Ran Yan actually wanted to ask who the man was directly, but deliberately asked a leading question instead.

As expected, Hong Xing did not disappoint her. She replied with a trembling voice, “It… It was Young Master Han.”

Ran Yan knitted her brows, her heart sighed once again. As expected, the heavens would not simply drop meat pies. She had stumbled across a good opportunity to earn money when she had just entered the city, but this opportunity… It had actually burned her hand a little.

“Please save me!” Hong Xing suddenly fell to Ran Yan’s feet, “Just now when I was disrespectful towards you[9], the scales had not yet fallen from my eyes[10]. Please don’t take it to heart. I have always been the type of person who sticks their foot in their mouth[11]…”

Pulling open the curtains at that exact moment, Madam Yan could not help but feel startled by what she saw. When it rained, it really poured[12]!

“For the next few days, close your doors to business and rest.” Stated Ran Yan. In response, Madam Yan quickly collected her appearance, walked in at a slow pace and sat in front of Ran Yan to receive her own examination, “Does the Great Doctor have a way to treat this disease?”

“There is a way, but it is not suitable for everyone. In the meantime, I have already prescribed two stopgap remedies. Ingest the tonic and apply the medicinal powder to any ulcerated rashes.” As she spoke, Ran Yan noticed that the rash on Madam Yan’s fingers had ruptured. Seeing it already rupture since the time of their encounter in the alley meant Ran Yan no longer needed to continue her examination, “Your hands do not need to be concealed with makeup powder. Just use the medicinal powder instead.”

Hong Xing looked at Madam Yan’s hands in surprise, but her heart sighed in relief. Since Zi Xu had fallen ill, the brothel’s doctors had been helpless, yet Madam Yan still ordered everyone to hide the incident. Now, they at least had a road to recovery. Hong Xing felt it was just her bad luck that she had no relatives to watch after her as she recuperated like Zi Xu, who at least had an older sister.

“Who is Young Master Han? Does he have any wives or concubines?” asked Ran Yan.

***

Editor: alliterativeart (20/01/19)

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[1]白梁粉钱 (Bái liáng fěn qián): could not find out if this was a real flower or not so I just did a direct translation. 钱 (qian) actually means money, but it can also refer to flowers because they look like money.

[2]石菖蒲钱 (Shí chāngpú qián): Acorus tatarinowii flower found in China, relative of Acorus calamus

[3] 顶课 (dǐng kè): to pretend to be someone in class and stand in for them.

[4] 红杏 (hóng xìng): apricot

[5] 姐姐 (jie jie): older sister (also used to address women who are older than you)

[6] 见异思迁 (jiàn yì sī qiān): to change at once on seeing sth different (idiom); loving fads and novelty / never satisfied with what one has

[7] 剑拔弩张 (jiàn bá nǔ zhāng): lit. with swords drawn and bows bent (idiom); fig. a state of mutual hostility

[8] south of Changjiang or Yangtze river / south of the lower reaches of Changjiang / often refers to south Jiangsu, south Anhui and north Zhejiang provinces / a province during Qing times / in literature, refers to the sunny south

[9] 您: respectful form of “you” – a change from how she addressed Ran Yan before with the casual 你

[10] 有眼无珠: literally eyes without beads – meaning lacking the ability to differentiate/make good judgements

[11] 心直口快: frank and outspoken (idiom) / straight speaking / to say what one thinks

[12] 屋漏偏逢连夜雨: idiom: when there is a leak in the house, it rains continuously every night – basically many difficult things always happen at the same time.