The Female Supporting Role Shows Out

Lin Dan was escorted into Xuanping Marquis Manor all trussed up, but in less than an hour she had been invited to the main courtyard as the eldest princess' respected guest. She drank a bowl of ginger soup to warm her body, then dispelled the eldest princess’ doubts: "In the case of Your Majesty's illness, neither nourishing yin nor nourishing yang will work, or else the symptoms will worsen."

The eldest princess suddenly felt extremely confused, and worriedly said: "None of the usual methods can be used, so how can my illness be treated?" It was only now that she realized that it was not the imperial hospital’s physicians that were useless, but her own illness that was too bizarre; it was impossible to treat it as a normal disease.

Lin Dan pondered for a moment, then said slowly: "The Mingmen (life gate) is located in the Xiajiao (lower burner)*, which contains the true fire** of the human body, the source of qi transformation. I would not replenish yin fire, nor yang fire, but directly prescribe medicine that affects the Xiajiao to replenish your majesty’s true fire. When your true fire grows, yang qi grows, and when yang qi grows, yin fire weakens. When the time comes, your majesty will naturally be cured of all diseases." After her words fell, she rolled up her sleeves and asked politely, "Where is my bamboo basket? My pen, ink, paper, ink-stone, and pulse pillow*** are in it. I have to carefully check Your Majesty’s pulse before I can formulate a prescription."

*One of the “triple burners,” the Xiajiao is below the belly button.

**True fire is also known as origin qi, and comes from the kidney.

***A small pillow to rest patients’ wrists on while taking their pulse.

The two senior palace maids hurried to the woodshed and brought all of Lin Dan's belongings, not even daring to overlook the little hoe that had mud all over it.

The eldest princess muttered to herself: "Neither replenishing yang fire nor replenishing yin fire, but directly replenishing true fire? Good, good, Physician Lin really is a brilliant doctor, not conforming to the mold!"

In the Dao of Medicine, the worst habit was to be overly rigid. Many would rather go through many more twists and turns and use a few more types of herbs, all to avoid the most direct path. But Lin Dan was completely different. Her scope of vision and line of thinking, in many cases, could help her discard the surface symptoms and directly see the most essential inner workings. This also caused her prescriptions and acupuncture to be much bolder than ordinary doctors. She might even have come closer to transcendence than that famous, impressive ancestor of hers.

But she only practiced medicine in the countryside, and most of the patients she cured were ignorant and inexperienced, sometimes not even knowing that they themselves had been suffering from a terminal illness. How would they know what level her medical skill had reached? The patients didn't find anything unusual, and she also had an ancestor shining through the ages that she compared herself to, so she naturally didn't know what realm she was in.

If the treatment plan she had so easily drawn up had been revealed to the public, it would certainly astonish the entire medical world. The other doctors couldn't even find the root of the illness, but she could accurately diagnose it with just a glance and come up with the most efficient treatment method. How extraordinary were her medical skills?

The more the eldest princess thought about it, the hotter her heart became. She pointed at her son and said, "Physician Lin, please take a look at my son’s illness. How can he be treated?"

Zhu Yimin hurriedly hid behind his mother, but was forcefully hauled out by the other party and pushed in front of Lin Dan. He hurriedly wrapped one arm around his chest, covering his face with the other, like a young girl who had been harassed.

Lin Dan pulled his hand away and said, "Can you take off your clothes and let me take a look? What are the symptoms and when did they start?"

"The symptoms started two months ago. First, there was dull pain in the lower pouch*, with redness and swelling. Soon after, his chest swelled up day by day, his sleep was plagued with dreams, his temper became irritable, his appetite decreased, his stool was hard and dry, the sides of his chest were swollen and unbearably painful, his skin became smooth and glossy, and his facial hair stopped growing." The eldest princess waved her sleeves, and the two senior palace maids immediately captured the little prince and stripped off his clothes in three or two moves.

*Euphemism. Comment if you don’t understand.

Zhu Yimin covered his chest with all his might while shrieking, and his white and tender cheeks had become a patch of red. If a bucket of water had been poured over his head right then, he would definitely have given off steam.

"What’s the point of covering yourself? What you have, I also have." Lin Dan’s one sentence made him shut his mouth completely.

The corner of the eldest princess' mouth twitched, as if she wanted to laugh, but she held herself back. This was the first smile she had shown since her son had fallen ill.

Lin Dan firmly touched the little prince's chest, took his pulse again, and waved her hand: "It's not a big problem, it's just that his yin pouch* has inflammation, and since it hasn’t been dealt with for a long time, it led to his yang water* being exhausted. All we need to do is eliminate the inflammation, supplement yang energy, dissolve the stagnant qi in the liver and stomach, and soften the knots and disperse the clots. To recover even faster, I can mix a few more doses of Returning Spring powder for him. Add water to give it a pastelike consistency, apply on the affected area two times a day, two to four hours each time, and the symptoms will be gone within seven days.”

*Euphemism. Comment if you don’t understand. (The author had to censor these.)

The eldest princess said with tears of gratitude: "If the symptoms can be eliminated in seven days, my Xuanping Marquis Manor will be in Physician Lin’s debt! Many thanks to Physician Lin for disregarding previous conflicts to treat my son's illness, many thanks!"

Zhu Yimin looked at Lin Dan with glistening eyes, looking like he wanted to thank her but was too bashful to open his mouth.

But Lin Dan didn't even look at him. She just took out the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, wrote a few prescriptions, and had the eldest princess send someone to get the medicine. After all of this, she saluted and said: “Your illnesses are not major problems, but before your symptoms subside, you may not be at ease for me to leave the Marquis Manor. Would you rather arrange for me to stay?"

The eldest princess had just been considering how to go about firmly making her stay without being rude, but she didn’t expect her to speak first, which saved a lot of trouble. Even someone as noble as the eldest princess would not dare to casually offend a doctor with such excellent medical skills, but fortunately, the other party could read the situation and was an extremely tactful and clever person, the type that was the easiest to communicate with.

The eldest princess's favorable impression of Lin Dan continued to rise, and she promptly held her hand and said in an intimate tone: "It would be my honor for Physician Lin to be able to stay in the manor. Yaozhu (jade pillar), Pantao (saturn peach), bring Physician Lin back to Furong (cotton rose) Pavilion to wash up!"

Furong Pavilion was the most luxurious courtyard in Xuanping Marquis Manor. Usually, the eldest princess only let the extended royal family spend the night there, yet today she invited Lin Dan to stay there. It could be seen how much she valued ​​Lin Dan.

The two senior palace maids did not dare to neglect anything at all; one helped carry the basket, the other helped carry the hoe, and they led the guest way with the utmost courtesy. The little prince finally softly clung to the eldest princess and asked with tears in his eyes: "Mom, can I really get better? My illness is only caused by inflammation, not yin and yang in one body*?"

*A euphemistic way to say hermaphrodite/intersex, where one person has the reproductive organs for both sexes.

"What nonsense are you saying! Physician Lin already said, as long as the inflammation is eliminated, the knots are softened, and the clots are dispersed, you will be fine. If you had yin and yang in one body, wouldn’t she have seen it? For now, you just need to calmly stay at home for treatment. Don’t run all over the place!" The eldest princess consoled with her mouth, but her heart still hung up high, for fear that Lin Dan had also misdiagnosed. But out of all the doctors she had met, Lin Dan was the one whose words made the most sense and whose vision was the keenest. If she couldn’t even believe Lin Dan, she really didn’t know who to believe.

—

Lin Dan found a place to stay, but Xue Manor, on the other hand, had become a complete mess. This was because Xue Boyong hurried back after receiving the news and directly ordered guards to tie Xue Jiming up, hang him on the door beam and flog him with a whip.

Xue Jiming wailed that he was being unjustly punished, his voice so loud the whole manor could hear: "Brother, I did everything for your own good! Lin Dan could never understand those books, so why not lend them to Zheng Zhe and Xiao Cao'er to take a look? Their medical skills are better than hers by who knows how many factors. If they have a revelation, they may be able to cure your legs. Good things can only be effective when they are in the hands of people who can recognize good things. Lin Dan pretended to hold those books up and read them; it's been more than a year now, and did she achieve anything? Brother, you bite the hand that feeds you and return kindness for malice! It's just a few books, but you’re already flogging me with a whip. Don’t tell me that in your heart, Lin Dan is even more important than your own brother?"

Old Madam and Madam Xue gathered around Xue Boyong to persuade him to stop, but they did not dare to grab his whip, extremely nervous that they might knock him out of the wheelchair and add injury to injury.

"If you help yourself to someone's things without asking, that’s theft. You stole Lin Dan’s belongings, but you’re still somehow justified?" Xue Boyong laughed grimly: "How do you know that her medical skills are not good? How do you know that those medical books are useless in her hands? Those are the last things her father left her, more precious than any gold, silver, or jewelry! Someone come, go to Xuancao Hall immediately, and bring back all of Lin Dan's belongings. If even one book is missing, it will be on your heads!"

Several guards accepted the order in unison and went out on horseback.

Xue Boyong lifted the hem of his clothes, unhurriedly stood up straight, and said word by word, "My legs have been cured by Lin Dan. From this day on, if anyone makes things difficult for her, it will be the same as disrespecting me. I will not forgive it easily." After he spoke, he threw the nearly broken horse whip aside and left the main courtyard without looking back, his steps steady and stable.

Old Madam and Madam Xue were stunned, Xue Jiming, who was hanging from the beam, was stunned, and all the servants whom he walked past were stunned, each revealing looks of astonishment and disbelief.

"That, is that Eldest Young Master?" A servant girl stammered.

"It's Eldest Young Master, it is! Eldest Young Master's legs have completely recovered and he can walk again!" Someone cheered, rousing the extremely shocked Old Madam and Madam Xue.

It wasn't until now that Old Madam understood why when Lin Dan left, she said that her mission had been completed. It turned out that she had cured Eldest Grandson's legs a long time ago. But she neither asked for repayment, nor became so pleased that she lost her sense of measure, nor broadcasted the news publicly. She still took care of Eldest Grandson as meticulously as always, and quietly went out to practice medicine and save people. Without those medical books, she would not have made the accomplishments that she had today, and Eldest Grandson would not have recovered to the healthy state he was in today. All of those were the treasures left to her by her father, and they were exclusive skills passed down through the family. How could others covet them?

But they not only enabled Wu Xuancao and Zheng Zhe, but also took the initiative to lend her family treasures out. Wasn’t this forgetting favors and violating justice, destroying the bridge after crossing the river? Lin Dan was so angry that she left, and when she left she cast away all of the books her family left her, showing that her heart had become completely cold to the Xue Manor. She had already thoroughly learned an exclusive skill. When she went outside, the sea was wide for the fish to leap freely, the sky was high allowing birds to fly unhindered. How could she come back? And the Xue Manor offended such a miracle doctor. If Eldest Grandson's condition recurred in the future, who else could they find?

The more Old Madam thought about it, the more anxious she became and the more remorse she felt. She picked up the horse whip and personally flogged Xue Jiming, berating him: "What right do you have to insult Lin Dan and call her an unlucky star? All of this is because you made a mess of things. As soon as your brother’s legs had even a little improvement, you teamed up with Wu Xuancao again to force Lin Dan away. If something else goes wrong with your brother's legs, can you saw off your own legs and connect them to him? You can’t command troops, you can’t handle military affairs, you only think about romance all day long. You’ve grown this big, but have you ever done anything well? That Wu Xuancao borrowed books on the surface, but secretly coveted other people's exclusive skills, she’s also nothing good! It’s only because you’re blind that you see something in her!"

Madam Xue completely ignored her severely beaten younger son, and continuously instructed the servants, "What are you still standing around for, hurry up and bring the Lin girl back! Hurry up!" She hadn’t known at all that her son’s legs had recovered, and she also didn’t know if the problem would recur. If Lin Dan wasn't here, she couldn’t put her heart down. If she had known that Lin Dan was so promising, she would have worshiped her as her own ancestor!

At the same time, Xue Boyong had just been sending people to look for Lin Dan everywhere. He sealed up her study, sent troops to guard it, and didn’t allow a single person to approach.

An hour later, the guards who went to the Xuancao Hall to demand the medical books returned. They pointed to an extra book and said, "General, we found this book in Wu Xuancao's clinic. She rigidly insisted that this book was bought from an antique store and absolutely was not one of Miss Lin's belongings, can you take a look?"

Seeing the familiar cover, Xue Boyong immediately realized that this book was definitely part of the inheritance left by the old Lin ancestor. The title page had the three words Xing Lin* Spring. Flipping it open, what was written inside wasn’t a medical technique, but an internal energy cultivation method. In the appendix, it was very clearly written – in order to practice the Lin clan’s medical skills, this method must first be cultivated, otherwise the acupuncture and massage techniques will be ineffective.

*This is a phrase with multiple meanings. It literally means apricot grove, but refers to TCM because of one well known doctor who, when patients couldn’t pay the medical fee, would ask them to plant an apricot tree instead. It also has the same Lin as the Lin family.

Xue Boyong had seen Lin Dan's set of books, so how could he not know that this Xing Lin Spring was not among them? But he closed the cover and said with certainty, "This is indeed the little girl's book, and should be returned to its original owner." At this point, he finally understood Wu Xuancao's plan. It was because she acquired this volume by chance, learned about the inheritance of the Lin clan, and saw that Lin Dan had several other volumes in her hands, so she struck up crooked intentions and wanted to put together a complete set. Avaricious and insatiable, a snake wanting to swallow an elephant, this idiom was precisely referring to her.