Chapter 117: Treating the Wounded

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“Wasteful woman! You still want to eat all this good food? Who knows what you’re carrying in that belly of yours? You’re lying around as though you’ve got a golden egg tucked inside you, using it as an excuse to shirk your work. Give it to her? I’d sooner feed it to the dogs.”

Madam Li said this loudly as she headed toward the house. She had been fuming since yesterday, and now that Xiuli had already left, she no longer had any reason to hold back. Throwing her voice across the courtyard, she continued, “You really think you can give birth to a boy? Hmph! You’re destined to bear daughters your whole life. A bunch of useless girls—nothing but money pits!”

Seeing this, the old master hurriedly tugged his wife toward the house. “Good heavens, our daughter has only just left the family, and you’re already starting again? You! We were having a perfectly good day, so why must you make such a commotion? Come on, hurry up and go pack things.”

“Stay out of it. I’m the one who does all the work. I’ve worn myself to the bone, serving every last one of you, and what do I get in return? Nothing but ingratitude. I’m the one with the miserable fate—working myself sick, worrying myself ragged, and not a single person ever says a good word about me.”

Though her husband’s urging finally stopped her from shouting, Madam Li continued muttering under her breath.

Her hands, however, did not stop moving. She gathered up all the food in the eastern side room and carefully stored it away. The family could eat it when they returned that evening. The dishes were all exquisitely prepared, and there was so much meat in them that wasting any of it was out of the question.

“Every one of you has a black heart and rotten guts. When it’s time to eat, none of you is ever missing, but when there’s work to be done, you’re nowhere to be seen. Plenty of women carry children, yet have you ever seen any of them lying on the heated brick bed to be pampered? You seize every opportunity to be lazy. Why don’t you just lie there until you die?”

Madam Li kept working and cursing at the same time.

“You ungrateful little wretches! You see there’s work to be done and still don’t know enough to come help. Why did I raise such heartless creatures?”

This time, she had included both Wenfang and Wenfei in her scolding.

The two girls were in the western courtyard, and Madam Li’s voice carried clearly even without her putting much force into it.

“Second Sister, stay here with Mother. I’ll go over and lend a hand,” Wenfang said, unable to sit still after being cursed at, and started to get up.

“Big Sister, why would you go over there? To put yourself within reach of her tongue? Don’t you know what Grandmother is like? If you stay here, she curses you. If you go over there, she still curses you. Besides, there’s all that good food on the other side. Why would you go help her? She doesn’t need you. When have you ever seen Grandmother let anyone else handle the good food in this household?”

Wenfei grabbed her sister and would not let her go.

Wenfei was telling the truth. Madam Li had long since made a habit of controlling the household’s food. Anything even slightly special had to pass through her hands. Otherwise, she considered it a challenge to her authority, and whoever dared to interfere would be cursed until their ears bled.

Hearing her sister say this, Wenfang gave up on the idea of going over.

“Then I’ll go feed the pigs. Second Uncle’s wife isn’t home today, so no one has fed them. Jiaoniang went out early, and she’s too young to do it anyway. If Grandmother remembers later, she’ll only find another excuse to curse us.”

There was a great celebration in the family that day, so Madam Feng had not prepared the pigs’ feed that morning. Wenfang was careful by nature and feared that the old woman might remember later and find fault with them.

As she spoke, Wenfang rose and went to the back of the house. She carried over the wild greens Wenxiu had dug up that morning, then found the bran, chaff, and other ingredients used to make pig feed and poured them into the pot.

Wenfei did not remain idle either. She lit a fire beneath the pot, added some water, and stirred vigorously with a large wooden paddle. Once the pig feed came to a boil, she quickly put out the fire. They then ladled the feed into a large wooden tub.

The two sisters carried the tub laboriously over to the pigpen.

The family raised four pigs, and since their meal was later than usual that day, all four animals were starving. They squealed incessantly and kept butting their snouts against the trough. The moment Wenfei and Wenfang poured in the feed, the pigs began devouring it with all their strength.

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Fortunately, Wenfang and Wenfei were at home. Not long after they finished feeding the pigs, Madam Li came over. When she saw food in the trough and the pigs eating enthusiastically, she finally nodded in satisfaction.

Jiaoyan had gone to Miao Suwen’s home early that morning. Since no one happened to be seeking treatment at that moment, the master and disciple were busy preparing the tools they needed for suturing wounds.

“Master, have you made the medicine that keeps people from feeling pain? Without it, I’m afraid this won’t work.”

Jiaoyan asked with some concern. Without an anesthetic, stitching someone’s wounds while they remained fully conscious would be enough to make them suffer to death.

“I have. Look at this.”

Miao Suwen smiled and took out a porcelain bottle. Inside was a fine white powder.

“This is taken by mouth. After two quarters of an hour, the patient will fall asleep so deeply that even thunder won’t wake them. Combined with acupuncture, it will work perfectly.”

Miao Suwen had considerable confidence in her medicines.

Jiaoyan was delighted. She had known her master could be relied upon, and Miao Suwen had truly managed to produce such a medicine.

“Master, you’re amazing!” Jiaoyan said with a beaming smile.

“Still, we’ve never actually used any of this. We don’t really know how effective it will be.”

Miao Suwen sighed.

“It will work, Master. Don’t worry. We’ll have a chance sooner or later. Though, truthfully, I hope we never get that chance. Anyone who needs sutures must be seriously injured.”

Jiaoyan comforted her master, yet could not help feeling worried herself.

Before she had even finished speaking, a loud voice rang out from outside.

“Auntie! Come quickly! Please, save them!”

It was Axi’s voice. From the sound of it, he was still some distance from the entrance to the Miao residence.

Miao Suwen and Jiaoyan exchanged a glance, then hurried out of the room. They saw Axi and Alu leading a group of people into the courtyard. Several wooden boards were being carried in, and people lay sprawled across them. Every one of the injured was drenched in blood and appeared to have suffered severe wounds.

“What happened?” Miao Suwen asked anxiously at the sight.

“Auntie, don’t ask what happened. Please, save them first!”

Axi’s face and body were also streaked with blood. He was so frantic that he had no time to explain.

Miao Suwen took a quick look. There were four people in all, each of them looking like a blood-soaked rag.

“Jiaoniang, bring the hemostatic medicine. They have to stop bleeding first.”

The blood was still flowing. How could they survive without stopping it?

Jiaoyan hurried back into the room and brought out the medicine. By then, Ruyun and Ruyue had also come out and joined them, helping to administer the medicine to the wounded.

Miao Suwen held silver needles in her hand. Without bothering about anything else, she immediately began inserting them into the patients’ bodies. Each person received more than ten needles, with several critical acupoints sealed by the silver needles.

“Ruyun, Ruyue, go heat water and bring clean cloths. Jiaoniang, begin cleaning their wounds and see how serious they are.”

There was always hot water in the Miao family’s kitchen. Miao Suwen’s reputation had spread far and wide, and many people came every day seeking treatment. Since no one knew what might be needed, the kitchen fire was kept supplied with hot water at all times.

Ruyun and Ruyue brought out basins of hot water and added salt to them. Then the two girls helped Jiaoyan begin cleaning the wounded men.

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Jiaoyan took one look and knew they were sword or knife wounds. The injuries were extremely deep, with the flesh split wide open. In some places, the bones beneath were almost visible.

Seeing this, Jiaoyan could not help wondering. These men had clearly been injured in a fight. What did they do for a living to end up in such a state?

But this was no time for questions. Treating their wounds was what mattered.

“Master, the wounds are too deep, and there are too many of them. We may need to anesthetize them first. Otherwise, they won’t be able to bear the pain.”

Even cleaning the wounds would be unbearable, let alone stitching them. These men were already gravely injured, and if one of them fainted from the pain, it would cause even more trouble.

“Give them the mafeisan, then clean the wounds.”

Miao Suwen answered from the other side.

Jiaoyan gave each of the men some of the medicinal powder she had just seen, then began cleaning the wounds. Before the anesthetic took effect, she used a clean cloth dipped in water to wipe the area around the injuries. By the time the surrounding skin was clean, the mafeisan had begun to work.

Jiaoyan rinsed the wound with warm salt water, then washed it twice more with clean water.

“Master, this wound is very deep. I’m afraid it needs to be stitched.”

Miao Suwen was also helping clean another patient, whose injuries were no less severe.

“Then stitch it. The one I’m treating needs sutures too. Go clean the wounds of the other two first. I’ll stitch them one by one.”

The master and disciple were still only in the experimental stage. Neither had truly used the technique on a patient before, and Miao Suwen naturally did not feel comfortable letting Jiaoyan operate. After all, Jiaoyan was only a six-year-old girl.

“Master, I can do it. Let’s work together.”

Jiaoyan shook her head. There were four patients in all. If they relied entirely on Miao Suwen, who knew how long it would take? Injuries waited for no one. What if something went wrong during the delay?

Miao Suwen thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Then be careful.”

They had practiced several times before on the game Shao Yuan had brought back from hunting, and Jiaoyan’s stitches had been quite good. Since they were desperately short of hands now, Miao Suwen had no choice but to agree.

Jiaoyan nodded. She took a small case from the medicine chest, removed a sharp little knife and a pair of forceps, and bent her head to cut into the man’s wound.

“Wait! What are you doing? He’s already injured. Why are you taking a knife to him as well?”

Someone beside her reached out to stop Jiaoyan.

“The flesh around his wound is already dead. If I don’t remove that layer, it will become inflamed and rot later.”

Jiaoyan rolled her eyes at him.

“Are you the physician, or am I? Watch quietly and don’t make a sound.”

As she spoke, she used the knife in her hand to slice away a thin layer of flesh from both sides of the man’s wound.

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