Chapter 43

(Seeking recommendations, seeking Three Rivers, getting closer to Uncle Cat's x flowers...)

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"Calling it lost is not quite right, didn't you see it yourself? What a lucky kid!" Song Fu shook his head and said, "So there must be copies still in existence, but those who own the book are so protective of it that they refuse to let outsiders see it. *.* The Tang Dynasty's Medicine King, Sun Simiao, spent his whole life hoping to see the true form of this book, but he was repeatedly rejected, which led him to write in his book, 'The Jiangnan masters keep the essential prescriptions of Zhongjing secret and do not pass them on.' It wasn't until he was a hundred years old that he finally saw the book and recorded the content about typhoid fever in his own *Qianjin Fang* (Thousand Gold Prescriptions). Later generations of doctors learned to use the Ephedra Decoction to treat typhoid fever from this."

Chen Ke, seeing that Song Fu didn't even know about Wang Shuhe's edited *Treatise on Cold Damage*, realized that eight hundred years of war and turmoil had obliterated another great treasure of the nation. However, he was not a historian and didn't know why the book reappeared in later generations. He could only speak about the matter at hand: "The *Qianjin Fang* mainly records prescriptions, and the *Treatise on Cold Damage* is not complete, especially lacking the most fundamental medical principles. This is why there is this phenomenon of using medicine haphazardly."

"Then where exactly is the mistake?" Song Fu asked.

"From the symptoms, the illness of the Su family's daughter is indeed the condition for which the Ephedra Decoction is prescribed. According to the principles, she should immediately take the Ephedra Decoction to expel the evil through sweating," Chen Ke thought for a moment and carefully said, "But her pulse is slow and weak. The *Treatise on Cold Damage* states that a slow pulse indicates insufficient vital energy and weak blood. Such a person with weak vital energy should not suddenly take the Ephedra Decoction to induce sweating, because the patient's own vital energy is insufficient, and taking these strong medicines will cause internal chaos, leading to a series of symptoms."

"How should it be treated then?" The Su couple couldn't help but be frustrated. When can you two stop discussing medical principles and focus on saving the patient?

"The *Treatise on Cold Damage* has a section on the True Wu Decoction, which states: 'If a person with a sun disease sweats but the fever does not subside, and they still have a fever, palpitations, dizziness, and muscle spasms, the True Wu Decoction is the main treatment.' This is exactly the condition of the Su family's daughter." Chen Ke paused and wrote out a prescription: "After taking it for three days, use the Clear Heart Pills and Bamboo Leaf Decoction to clear the remaining toxins, and the patient will recover quickly."

Since others hadn't even seen the *Treatise on Cold Damage*, they naturally had no right to speak and could only obediently go to get the medicine.

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Su Xun went to get the medicine, and Lady Cheng, who needed to take care of her daughter, asked Ba Niang to prepare some food for the Chen brothers.

Ba Niang asked Su Zhe to accompany Chen Ke to the front first. Chen Ke, however, said, "There are Uncle Song and my father at the front, so it's very formal. We'd better not go over."

"True." Su Zhe looked at Chen Ke with a different gaze, full of gratitude and admiration. He naturally agreed, "After we finish eating, come to my room and sit down."

"Good idea." Chen Ke also wanted to see where the Su brothers lived. Thinking of this, he asked in a low voice, "Why haven't I seen your second brother?"

"Ah..." Su Zhe scratched his forehead awkwardly, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered, "My second brother is in detention."

"In detention?" Chen Ke immediately felt a sense of shared suffering and asked curiously, "What did he do wrong?"

"This..." Su Zhe couldn't help but feel a bit unhappy, thinking, 'Why is this person so nosy? He hasn't even met my brother and is asking all these questions!' But then he thought about how Chen Ke had come from far away to save his sister, and the slight annoyance quickly disappeared. 'I'll consider it a reward for him.'

Thinking this, Su Zhe told the truth: "The teacher at the academy no longer teaches my brother."

"What happened?" Chen Ke's eyes widened, never imagining that Su Xian had been expelled from school!

"It's a long story..."

"Make it short..."

"Uh, okay," Su Zhe said, "Originally, we both studied at Shouchang Academy, and our teacher was Mr. Liu, the best teacher in Meishan. My brother, as Mr. Liu put it, is 'thoughtful and wise from a young age,' and he is very intelligent and studious, which earned him the teacher's favor. But sometimes, he can't help but point out the teacher's mistakes in class, making the teacher lose face."

"Um..." Chen Ke nodded, "People with a narrow mind don't like having their authority challenged."

"You're right, Third Brother," Su Zhe nodded, agreeing with Chen Ke. He continued, "A few days ago, the teacher wrote a poem called 'Egret,' and he recited it: 'The egret gazes at the distant waves, the cold wind sweeps the shore sand. The fisherman suddenly startles, and the snowflakes follow the wind slanting.'"

"Not bad," Chen Ke said. Under his father's guidance, he had already mastered phonology and philology, which are the blood and flesh of poetry. Naturally, he had the ability to evaluate poetry.

"The teacher was also very proud and used it as a model to teach the students how to write poetry. My brother quietly told me that the poem was good, but the last line should be changed. He and I often go to the lake to play, and sometimes we see the white egret feathers fall into the green reeds, black and white, very beautiful. Before I could advise him to keep quiet, he had already raised his hand."

"The teacher asked what was wrong, and he stood up and said, 'Teacher, I think 'snowflakes follow the wind slanting' should be changed to 'snowflakes fall on the reeds.' " Su Zhe continued, "Seeing him change his favorite poem, the teacher was taken aback and immediately became unhappy. But he still thought about it seriously and honestly said, 'The change is good...'"

"The change is indeed better," Chen Ke said. "Compared to the original 'follow the wind slanting,' 'fall on the reeds' is a higher level in terms of artistic conception." Although he said this, he felt a sense of shared suffering for Mr. Liu... With Chen Ke's current level of knowledge, he could write poems and fill in lyrics without any problems with rhythm and allusions. But poetry is not a mechanical combination of words; its height depends on the author's talent. Effort can only make you write qualified poetry, but to reach the level of art, you need innate talent.

In poetry, Chen Ke and Mr. Liu were both ordinary people, how could they compare to Su Xian?

"Isn't that very generous?" Chen Ke couldn't help but speak up for Mr. Liu.

"But the teacher had another half-sentence... 'I am no longer your teacher.'" Su Zhe said dejectedly, "The next day, he called my father to the academy and told him, 'I can't teach a prodigy like your son anymore, please find a better teacher.' My father tried to persuade him, but the teacher refused to take him back. My father has a bad temper and insulted the teacher, so the teacher stopped teaching me as well."

Although he respected his elders and didn't reveal the content of the insults, it was probably something like, 'You not only lack talent but also lack tolerance.' Chen Ke smiled bitterly, "What a fuss, just changing three words, and the student is expelled. This teacher's heart is narrower than a needle's eye."

"You can't say that," Su Zhe, being a good person, didn't want to put all the blame on the teacher, "Actually, the teacher had been putting up with my brother for a long time, but he couldn't take it anymore this time."

"True, this way, in the eyes of other students, the teacher is not as good as your brother," Chen Ke nodded, "How can he continue to teach and manage the students?"

"Ah..." Su Zhe shook his head, "My brother is great in every way, except for one thing... He can't keep things to himself and always has to say what he thinks to feel satisfied." As he said this, he suddenly realized that he had become so open with Chen Ke, which was unlike him.

At this moment, Su Ba Niang came out of the kitchen with two large trays. Since it was the Cold Food Festival, they could only eat cold food that was prepared in advance, which made the cook's job easier.

Chen Ke and Su Zhe quickly went to help. Su Ba Niang, who liked this handsome and capable Chen family's younger brother, smiled gently and said, "Don't trouble Third Brother, go wash your hands and come to dinner."

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The food was laid out on the table, and Chen Ke could see that the Su family had put in their best effort, but it was still much simpler than the lunch at his own home... It seemed that the Su family's life was not very prosperous.

After eating a bowl of cold noodles and two pieces of cold cake, Chen Ke saw that Song Fu had the intention to ask more about the *Treatise on Cold Damage*, so he quickly gave Su Zhe a look, apologized to the adults, and slipped away from the table.

Out the door, Chen Ke magically took out two green rice balls and said, "Let's go, I'll bring food to your brother."

"Let's go..." Seeing the green rice balls in his hand, Su Zhe smiled and shyly took out a date cake from his sleeve.

Lady Cheng and Ba Niang were both in the younger sister's room, so the back yard was very quiet. The two of them tiptoed to the east wing and saw that the lights were already on inside.

The door was naturally locked, so Su Zhe knocked on the window and called, "Second Brother."

A young voice came from inside, "Tongshu, how is the little sister?" As he spoke, he opened the window.

"She has taken the medicine and is resting," Su Zhe said as he climbed in, then turned to Chen Ke, who followed, and said, "Third Brother, this is my second brother, Su Shi, whose courtesy name is Hezhong." He then introduced the rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed young man to Chen Ke, "Second Brother, this is Third Brother from the Chen family, the one who treated the little sister."

Finally meeting the legendary Su Xian, Chen Ke was a bit disappointed, not because the young man was ugly, but because he was too handsome—Chen Ke found it hard to associate this handsome and lively young man with the big-eared, round-bellied, bearded Su Da Hu.

'Idol, why don't you have a beard yet...' Chen Ke couldn't help but feel disappointed, 'What do I have to admire then?'

"You are Third Brother from the Chen family?!" Su Shi, however, was not distracted and grabbed his hand excitedly, "I've heard of your great name for a long time! I admire you so much!"

'Uh, Su Xian admires me?' Chen Ke was startled and looked at Su Shi's excited young face, then laughed to himself, 'What Su Xian? Just an ordinary kid. I'll admire you when you become Su Xian...'

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Su Dongpo has arrived, without any halo, without asking for a signature, disappointed, huh, hahaha... Don't worry, I won't make Su Xian less impressive to highlight the main character. Watching how a great literary figure is made is also a very happy thing.

Seeking votes, seeking explosions...

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