Jin Shanyao didn't know what it meant to sit around waiting for customers, so she held up her cloth banner and waited foolishly for patients to come to her.
Meng Anzhi was even worse. The little girl squatted on the ground with her chin in both hands, her head turning back and forth with the flow of people.
Qin Baitang came out to see a customer off and noticed the chair sitting unused nearby. "Miss Jin, why aren't you sitting down?"
Jin Shanyao wondered how she should explain taking root. She couldn't very well say she was a tree who liked the feeling of having her feet planted on the ground.
She awkwardly straightened up and pretended to dust off the chair. "I was just about to sit down when you came over, Shopkeeper." As she spoke, she grabbed Meng Anzhi by the arm and lifted her onto the chair.
The corner of Qin Baitang's mouth twitched. If you said she cared about the child, she carried her around like a sack.
But if you said she didn't, she took her everywhere, as though afraid she might lose her.
Jin Shanyao glanced at the shop behind him and humbly asked, "Shopkeeper Qin, I see a steady stream of customers at your shop. Why is it that I've been squatting here for nearly two hours without anyone coming to ask for a consultation?"
Qin Baitang was so annoyed he laughed. So she came to his doorstep to treat people for free, and now she wanted him to teach her how to steal his business? He pressed a hand to his brow.
"Miss Jin, have you considered what sort of people would want free treatment?"
Jin Shanyao was puzzled. Meng Anzhi ventured, "Poor people."
Qin Baitang gave her an approving look. "That's right. Poor people want free treatment because they have no money. Most of them have hard lives. They're too busy putting food on the table and clothes on their backs to pay for schooling.
"You could hold the words 'free medical treatment' right in front of them, and they still wouldn't recognize them."
Jin Shanyao saw the light. She'd been wondering why no one had come; it turned out they couldn't read.
"Thank you for pointing that out, Shopkeeper Qin."
Qin Baitang waved a hand. "No need to thank me. Just remember to sell me any lion's mane mushrooms you find next time."
Jin Shanyao said, "Don't worry, Shopkeeper Qin. The next time I find lion's mane mushrooms, I'll be sure to bring them to your shop."
Qin Baitang gave her a long look. This young woman had a human touch one moment and none the next. Had she spent so long in the mountains that her brain had turned to wood?
Oh well, forget it. At her age, she could have been his daughter.
It wasn't easy for her to raise two children on her own. He would help where he could.
Now that Jin Shanyao knew what the problem was, things were easy. She and Meng Anzhi sat down on the chair.
They shouted at the tops of their lungs, "Free medical treatment! Free medical treatment! Free medical treatment!"
After shouting for a little while, Meng Anzhi's voice grew hoarse. She looked pitifully at Jin Shanyao and said in a raspy voice, "Auntie... my throat hurts."
Jin Shanyao secretly plucked a ginkgo leaf and handed it to her. "Take a break."
Meng Anzhi happily held the ginkgo leaf in her mouth and watched the people coming and going. Just as they were preparing to pack up, an old woman came over, leaning on a cane.
The old woman was bent at the waist. She looked at Jin Shanyao with cloudy eyes. "Miss, can you really treat people for free?"
Jin Shanyao nodded quickly and stood up to offer the old woman her seat.
The old woman said timidly, "Lately, my belly feels as though it's been pumped full of air. It's swollen and painful, so bloated that I can't eat and don't dare drink water."
Jin Shanyao crouched down and placed her fingers on the old woman's pulse. Then she stood and said to Meng Anzhi, "Come here and put your fingers on her pulse."
The old woman panicked when she heard that. "Miss, what are you doing?"
Jin Shanyao smiled and explained, "Don't be afraid. She's my disciple. I want to use your illness to teach her, but don't worry. I'll make the diagnosis and write the prescription myself. It won't affect your treatment."
The old woman secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If her family hadn't been short of money, she really wouldn't have dared come to a free place like this.
Meng Anzhi placed her little hand on the old woman's wrist, and Jin Shanyao guided her in feeling the pulse. "Remember the rhythm of its beats. This is a wiry pulse. A wiry pulse indicates Qi stagnation and liver constraint.
"When abdominal bloating is accompanied by belching and a swollen, oppressive feeling in the sides and ribs, the wiry pulse is especially pronounced."
Meng Anzhi frowned slightly and carefully committed the feeling beneath her fingers to memory. After a while, she withdrew her hand.
Jin Shanyao wanted to write the old woman a prescription, but found she had no brush or ink. So she said, "Come with me. We'll go to Benevolence Hall to write the prescription."
Qin Baitang was keeping the accounts at the counter when someone tapped twice on the surface. He looked up to see Jin Shanyao beaming at him.
"Shopkeeper Qin, could I borrow a brush and some paper?"
It was the first time Qin Baitang had met someone so shameless. Both annoyed and amused, he resigned himself to handing her the brush. He wanted to see whether Jin Shanyao really knew how to treat patients.
Jin Shanyao took the brush and quickly wrote out two prescriptions. She handed one to Meng Anzhi and the other to the old woman. "Here. Take it once a day. You'll see results in three days."
The old woman thanked her repeatedly and turned to leave, but Qin Baitang called her back. He came out from behind the counter and smiled. "I'm very interested in your condition. Would you let me take your pulse?"
The old woman hesitated. "Is that free too?"
"It's free." Qin Baitang led her to the consultation area and personally took her pulse.
He stroked his beard, inwardly astonished. He hadn't expected Jin Shanyao to really know how to treat patients, much less write such an ingenious and precise prescription. Even he couldn't have written one so good.
Qin Baitang withdrew his hand and smiled. "This medicine is just right for your condition."
The old woman was overjoyed. Shopkeeper Qin of Benevolence Hall was a highly skilled physician who rarely took anyone's pulse himself. She hadn't expected him to treat her for free today.
The old woman hurriedly bowed, filled with gratitude.
"Thank you both." Her eyes reddened as she made her way slowly out of the shop with her cane.
Qin Baitang saw Jin Shanyao in a new light. "I didn't expect someone so young to be such a skilled physician."
Jin Shanyao smiled without speaking. She had taken human form a thousand years ago, and whenever the animals in the mountains fell ill, they came to her for treatment. Her so-called outstanding medical skill was entirely thanks to her long life and extensive experience.
It was getting late. Jin Shanyao returned the chair to Qin Baitang and drove the ox cart to the academy to pick up Meng Anci after classes.
By the time they returned to Little River Village, it was between five and seven in the evening, and the sunset had dyed half the sky. They had just turned the corner when Meng Anzhi saw a crowd gathered in a semicircle outside their courtyard.
"Auntie! Did something happen at home?"
Jin Shanyao raised a hand to her shoulder and glanced at Xiaoli, who was sprawled atop the courtyard wall. The tip of his tail swayed gently. Seeing them return, he merely lifted his eyelids.
"Why panic? With Dahuang and Xiaoli here, the house won't fall down."
The onlookers made way when they saw them return. Someone couldn't resist pointing into the courtyard. "The Meng children's aunt is finally back! Your Dahuang carried a silly roe deer home in his mouth this evening, one this big."
Meng Anzhi looked where the person was pointing and sure enough, a fat silly roe deer lay in the courtyard. Dahuang was crouched beside it, licking his paws. Nothing looked the least bit wrong.
Her heart relaxed.
Matchmaker Gao saw the ox cart piled with food boxes and said sourly, "The Meng children's aunt must have made quite a bit of money on her trip, huh? You can even afford dishes from Top Scholar Tower now."
Jin Shanyao didn't answer. She led the ox cart into the courtyard, carried the silly roe deer into the kitchen, and covered it with a layer of spiritual power to keep it from spoiling. Tomorrow, she would take it to Top Scholar Tower and ask whether they would buy it.
Seeing Jin Shanyao ignore her, Matchmaker Gao felt a little put out. "Looking down on people, are you? Made a little money risking your life and now you don't know how to stop showing off. Eating dishes from Top Scholar Tower, even. Aren't you afraid you'll choke to death?"
"Ow... where did this wildcat come from? Get away from me!" Matchmaker Gao waved a hand to strike Xiaoli, but the mountain cat was too quick. She didn't even touch his tail.
Old Woman Li said, "That's enough. Listen to how sour you sound. If you had a dog that could hunt, you could eat dishes from Top Scholar Tower too."
Matchmaker Gao spun around. "Pah! Who's sour?" With that, she flounced away, swinging her sleeves.
Old Woman Li stared at Dahuang and muttered to herself, "Once the disaster's over, I'll buy a bitch and breed her with Dahuang. If I raise the pup well, it might even hunt a silly roe deer for me up in the mountains."
For some reason, a chill ran down Dahuang's back. He turned to look at the neighboring courtyard, but it was empty. He saw nothing.