Chapter 711 - 367: Never-ending

Chapter 711: Chapter 367: Never-ending

Juhua asked in surprise, "It’s already deep into autumn, and you’re still going into the mountains to gather herbs? Didn’t you open an apothecary? Why go gather them yourselves? Isn’t that a waste of your time?"

Yun Ying glanced at her. "The apothecary can only stock common herbs. Some ingredients aren’t things you can just find anywhere. You won’t discover the best herbs unless you spend time searching in the mountains and wilds. Plus, the more we gather, compound, and prepare them, the more we learn about their medicinal properties. My senior brother isn’t satisfied with your and Aunt Liu’s C-sections. He’s determined to make a breakthrough, so he’s been agonizing over the problem."

Juhua was even more surprised. "But Aunt Liu and I are both perfectly fine. Why aren’t you satisfied?"

Yun Ying looked at her as if she were an idiot. "Have you forgotten who performed your surgery? My senior brother and I may not be as skilled as my father, but to put it humbly, we’re still among the best in Jing Country. If an ordinary doctor performed a C-section, they’d have a forty or fifty percent chance of saving the mother, at best. And that’s only if the mother is healthy enough to withstand it. Our skills add another twenty percent to those odds. The medicines we use aren’t available to most doctors—that’s another ten percent. After the surgery, we stayed at your house without leaving, ready to treat you at a moment’s notice, which adds another ten percent. Your family was also incredibly careful with your food, clothes, and everything else. That’s why it was a success. But think about it. What if we had to do several more surgeries like this? If we aren’t there to personally oversee the recovery... a wealthy family in the city might manage, but for a farming family in the countryside, the wound would almost certainly fester and get infected, or they would develop a severe illness."

Juhua asked in shock, "So you two are..."

Yun Ying sighed. "So we need to figure out how to compound a better medicine. The wound salve my father created is already excellent—it’s highly effective for typical external injuries, even deep ones. But my senior brother says it isn’t enough. This isn’t a normal wound. The mother’s uterus is also cut open, so... well, never mind. You wouldn’t understand even if I explained it."

Juhua looked at her with reverence. ’What a noble goal,’ she thought. ’If they develop a better medicine, C-sections could become a common procedure.’ But what about now? Juhua couldn’t help but worry for all the women who were suffering through difficult labors.

She asked quietly, "Did someone die again? Is that why your senior brother is so..."

Yun Ying nodded silently. "My senior brother arrived too late. You know how it is—people always call for a midwife first. They only seek out a doctor when the birth isn’t happening."

Juhua fell silent, lost in thought.

Yun Ying suddenly brightened, a smile returning to her face. "I’ve taken Zhao Qing on as my apprentice! She’s truly gifted—she has an excellent memory, great intuition, and an especially sensitive touch for taking a patient’s pulse."

Juhua was overjoyed at the news, not only for Zhao Qing but also because Yun Ying had found an apprentice she truly liked. She quickly asked, "And Zhao San agreed?"

’What a silly question,’ she thought. ’An opportunity this rare? Of course Zhao San and his wife would agree.’

Yun Ying nodded. "Zhao San told her to focus on her studies with me and not to worry about her family."

Just then, Huai Zi called from outside, "Juhua, dinner’s ready! Banli and Cong are still asleep, right?"

Juhua quickly called back in affirmation and pulled Yun Ying out to eat.

A few days later, Yun Ying and Qin Feng went to Xiatang Market and opened a clinic, "Jishi Hall," in a garden that had been part of Juhua’s dowry. Juhua had insisted, saying that even if they didn’t use it, she would never rent it out. To keep it from becoming overgrown, she would have had to hire someone to maintain it anyway, so she told them to think of it as just helping her look after the place.

The trees in the garden had been planted long ago, but the building was new. Back in the spring, around the fourth or fifth month, Qingmu had been building his own house and decided to build one for his sister at the same time. He felt Juhua had married in such a rush that her dowry was lacking. Besides, if one really traced it back, the money was hers to begin with, so he had used it to build the house in her garden. The part facing the street was designed as a storefront, which was now perfect for a clinic.

Yun Ying returned every few days to check Juhua’s and Aunt Liu’s pulses and adjust their prescriptions. The two women gradually healed, and Aunt Liu was already able to help with simple chores, leaving her in high spirits all day.

It was the season for harvesting the late rice, so the men of the Zhang family and Liu Heizi were busy in the fields all day and were never home. Even young Heipi was out in the paddies, lending a hand. Once harvested, the rice was taken next door to the Zheng Family’s courtyard to dry in the sun before being moved into the underground cellar for storage. The Zheng Family had plenty of their own late rice to harvest as well, so two enormous mounds of grain were piled up in their courtyard, left to dry until the work was finally finished at the end of the tenth month.

That evening, after finishing their work and washing up, Huai Zi sat in a chair, ignoring his fatigue. He held their son, Banli, and playfully teased him. Juhua stood behind her husband, gently drying his damp hair with a towel.