Chapter Forty: Hope?

Li Zisheng improvised on the spot, knowing he had to play along with the little loli before him. In cases of blood illness, violent shifts of emotion were the most dangerous of all.

Sure enough, after hearing Li Zisheng’s answer, the little loli seemed to understand, as though she had already guessed as much.

With a sweep of his writing brush, Li Zisheng laid out three prescriptions on the rice paper. They were only remedies to ease the symptoms, not to cure the root of the disease; at best, they could delay the onset of her attacks. To truly heal her would still be exceedingly difficult.

Most importantly, each of the three prescriptions served a different purpose.

Her illness at present was centered on three main troubles. First, blazing heat and toxic excess in the blood. Next, deficiency of liver and kidney yin. And finally, a double insufficiency of qi and blood. Each of these required a different treatment; they could not be lumped together and treated as one. The medicine had to match the illness, and the remedy had to point directly at the symptom. Only then was it the proper way.

The blazing heat and toxic excess in the blood was the greatest problem in the little loli’s body, and Li Zisheng had weighed it carefully before writing that prescription.

It was the Artemisia and Turtle Shell Decoction. Artemisia cleared and dispersed pathogenic heat, driving evil outward to the surface. Turtle shell nourished the blood and enriched yin. Used together, the two created an effect of nourishing yin while releasing heat. Anemarrhena and moutan bark assisted Artemisia in cooling the blood, clearing heat, and relieving the exterior. Rehmannia supported the turtle shell in nourishing yin. If there was swelling and pain in the throat, or ulceration in the mouth, honeysuckle vine, heartleaf houttuynia, and black cohosh root could be added to clear heat, detoxify, and relieve the throat. If there were hardened, enlarged phlegm nodules in the neck or armpits, trichosanthes, zedoary, and processed arisaema could be added to break blood stasis, disperse clumping, transform phlegm, and dissolve masses.

Among the three prescriptions Li Zisheng wrote, this one was the key, and he especially made a point of emphasizing it to the little loli. She looked at the prescription in his hands.

As the saying went, a long illness makes one half a doctor. Since childhood, she had taken more medicine than most people could imagine, so she could see the essential brilliance in a prescription.

What Li Zisheng had written for her addressed the condition from the surface inward, and it was, without question, the most suitable tonic for her present state. The little loli looked at him with gratitude and awe. This was not a level one could reach by mere accumulation of experience; such a prescription could only be written after countless proofs and confirmations.

If the first prescription was already of such caliber, then the second and third, though not as perfectly balanced in their combinations, were still excellent formulas not easily found.

At that moment, the little loli stared at Li Zisheng as if her eyes were bubbling, yet her face was very pale. In the end, she only hurriedly said to him, “Until we meet again, if fate allows,” and left.

She had not gone far when a burly man appeared carrying a sedan chair and took her away at once.

Watching her depart, Li Zisheng silently made up his mind to find a way to cure the little loli’s chronic leukemia. Of course, he knew that if bone marrow transplantation were available, he might be able to save her directly. But in this Tang Dynasty, let alone bone marrow transplantation, even the most basic surgical instruments were nearly impossible to find. So he gave up that thought at once. It was simply too unrealistic.

Only by this means could the little loli survive. Although he had known her for only a short while, Li Zisheng somehow felt as though he had known her for many years. She felt like a younger sister, and he could not help wanting to protect her. Even he could not explain why.

Li Zisheng also made his way back to his own tent. By now, the Turkic contest of arms had probably already reached the second round, but he had little interest in it and did not intend to go watch. So he returned straight to the tent.

Inside, it was still empty. By now it was already noon, and he wondered how the little loli was doing. Sitting in the seat of honor, Li Zisheng remained silent for a long time, gazing quietly at the curtain of the tent.

Before long, a young soldier came in with food. He said it had been sent by a man named Eight Taels. Eight Taels was extremely fond of martial arts, and had gone to watch this round of the contest, forgetting to bring the young master his meal. Fortunately, Li Zisheng had not returned yet, so he hurried over now with the food. But since he still wanted very much to watch the contest, he had asked someone else to bring it.

Li Zisheng did not mind. Because of the little loli, he had no appetite at all and did not want to eat anything. He only took a few bites to be polite and then stopped. Seeing that he had no appetite, the soldier simply cleared everything away and left.

Li Zisheng sat in silence, deep in thought, considering what he should do next. His teacher belonged to the Tang Empire, while the little loli belonged to the Turkic delegation, and might even be of royal Turkic blood.

The purpose of the Turkic delegation’s arrival had now become quite clear: it was for the little loli’s illness. Whether there were other motives behind it, Li Zisheng did not know. But he did know that he still wanted to help her.

Yet there was only one possible way to help her: he would have to let the Tang side lose this examination, so that his own teacher could be invited to treat the Turks. At first, he had planned to have his teacher intervene directly and heal the little loli. But now that he had calmed down and thought about it, the likelihood of that was pitifully small.

In the martial world, one was often not in control of oneself. His teacher believed utterly in the divinations of the Celestial Secrets Academy; even when he had taken Li Zisheng in, it had been according to the fate written there. Li Zisheng therefore did not dare to stake everything on the hope that he could certainly persuade his teacher to help.

Or rather, even if his teacher wished to, he might well be constrained in the end and unable to act.

Then what was he to do? Li Zisheng kept asking himself in his heart, searching for a way to respond. Still, if there was no urgency, he could continue learning medicine from his teacher. Perhaps once he inherited his teacher’s medical arts, there might be a solution. But there were simply too many uncertainties in that path, and his teacher likely did not possess a truly effective cure for leukemia either. This much was plainly evident in the long tide of medical history.

Leukemia was notoriously difficult to cure, even less so in the medicine of antiquity. So this could not be his first choice.

The only truly effective possibility now was likely the existence of that divine physician his teacher had spoken of. He had never seen this divine healer mentioned in the historical records, but if even his teacher revered him so highly, then his medical attainments must have far surpassed anything Li Zisheng could imagine. Perhaps such a person really did possess a way to cure leukemia.