The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 1093 - 1172: The First Hexagram

Chapter 1093: Chapter 1172: The First Hexagram

Second Madam Cheng glanced at her and smiled, putting the money back, and asked with regret, "Is Doctor Zhou Junior really not coming tomorrow? Why must it be three days later?"

"Because your acupuncture sessions are once every three days, and so are the massages." Why would she come over if there’s nothing to do?

She’s also very busy, alright?

Second Madam Cheng sighed with pity, letting Daya send the guest out, and then she stopped in her tracks at the secondary entrance.

Currently, Manbao only has one patient to attend to, so she’s not very busy. On the other hand, Shao is extremely busy.

His nature has always been gentle, and his talent for medicine is average. Manbao herself learns quickly; originally, when Doctor Ji taught her, he just poured out everything he knew in one go, allowing Manbao to infer other things from one example.

Thus, when teaching Shao, she did the same thing, straightforwardly having him sit by her side to observe consultations and help with prescribing, offering guidance afterward.

However, the more she instructed, the more something felt off, and after two days, she finally figured out what it was.

She discovered that for similar symptoms, the prescriptions he ended up giving were exactly the ones she had corrected the day before, even the dosages were the same.

This was not wrong, per se, but neither was it right.

Because every patient’s condition is different, how could the prescriptions be the same for all?

Once Manbao pointed this out, Shao didn’t even dare to write a prescription next time.

Seeing him falter after taking the pulse and unable to write a single word, Manbao knew it was over.

As a doctor, this indecisiveness, not to mention being able to produce good prescriptions, firstly made the patients feel uneasy.

She could only temporarily stop letting Shao write prescriptions, and then during lunchtime, she joined Doctor Ding and the others in sighs and complaints.

Doctor Ding and the others felt it was normal, "Apprentices, you know, everyone is like this when they first start prescribing. When I first started studying medicine, I mostly followed the book, giving people prescriptions straight from it."

"That’s true for me too, but haven’t I been teaching him? And he’s seen the pulse of so many patients already, he should be able to adjust the prescriptions by now."

Doctor Ding laughed heartily: "It’s only been three days, how could it be so fast... You, you didn’t learn to adjust prescriptions in just three days, did you?"

Manbao shook her head, "Not three days, no. The same day I learned from Doctor Ji, I revised two prescriptions for him to see. Doctor Ji gave me a lot of pointers, and then I gradually figured out how to write prescriptions on my own."

Doctor Tao looked up and asked thoughtfully, "This gradually you speak of... How long exactly?"

Manbao cocked her head and thought for a moment, "About a ten-day period? Or was it seven days? I’ve forgotten."

The doctors: ...

They silently bowed their heads to continue eating, thinking back to when they finally figured out how to adjust their own prescriptions.

Was it half a year, or a year?

Shopkeeper Zheng watched, chuckled quietly to himself, picked out a piece of well-balanced braised pork for Manbao, and said affectionately, "Try this, Doctor Zhou Junior."

Manbao nodded repeatedly and ate it.

Shopkeeper Zheng then smiled at her and said, "Shao has limited aptitude, Doctor Zhou Junior’s teaching method only suits someone as clever as you. You could ask Doctor Ding and the others about how they teach apprentices."

Manbao looked towards Doctor Ding and Doctor Tao.

Doctor Ding cleared his throat and said: "I keep it simple, start with one disease syndrome. Let him study it for a year and a half, until he’s fully grasped it and knows how to write prescriptions for that syndrome, before moving on to other diseases."

Doctor Tao nodded, "That’s right, and once one disease syndrome has been mastered, learning others becomes easier."

Doctor Gu also nodded, "This is called ’Master one to understand one hundred.’"

Manbao said, "That’s how I learned too. Initially, most of the patients who came to the herbal shop were suffering from wind-cold coughs, and it was the first syndrome I fully understood, but I learned about other diseases afterward as well."

Doctor Ding chuckled and asked, "How long did it take you to fully understand wind-cold coughs?"

Manbao: "A month?"

The three doctors didn’t even want to talk to her anymore.

But Manbao caught on, so when she went out to State Duke Su’s mansion, she asked Shao, "What disease syndrome do you want to start with?"

These past three days, Shao, in trying to keep up with Manbao’s pace, had almost gone bald, sleeping only two to three hours each night. The rest of his time was spent either flipping through books or scrutinizing the prescriptions he and Manbao had written, and memorizing his notes...

Now hearing Manbao’s question, he knew she planned to do the same as the other doctors, starting with one disease syndrome. Although somewhat disappointed, Shao was relieved.

He pondered for a moment and cautiously said, "I’ll follow your lead."

Manbao then said, "Among those who come to the herbal shop, seven out of ten patients suffer from wind-cold, wind-heat, or coughs, and these three syndromes have something in common, so let’s start learning from here."

Shao agreed; he also preferred to start with this.

"Starting tomorrow, you will diagnose patients with such conditions. If there aren’t any, just assist me," Manbao instructed.

Shao agreed.

Today was the day for Second Madam Cheng’s treatment. Manbao administered acupuncture to her and gave her a massage, then checked her movements.

Since it was the second time, it was much quicker.

After treating the illness, the two were a bit sweaty. Second Madam Cheng invited Manbao to sit down, have some tea and snacks, and rest a while before leaving.

Manbao cleaned her hands and sat by the table, while the maid went to the kitchen to fetch some hot snacks.

Second Madam Cheng changed into fresh clothes, sat opposite Manbao, picked a piece of pastry for her, and smiled, "Try this, Doctor Zhou Junior. I think it’s quite nice."

Manbao took a bite and nodded, "It’s sticky, very delicious. What is it called?"

Second Madam Cheng started talking about the pastry, and they both tried a piece. In the end, the conversation naturally wandered off to other topics, "I heard that Doctor Zhou Junior also visited the Yin Family yesterday? How is the young master’s health? My uncle said he hasn’t been to school for several days, is he ill again?"

Manbao replied, "It’s nothing serious, he’ll recover in a while."

Seeing she didn’t want to talk about Yin Huo, Second Madam Cheng changed the subject, "I wonder how State Duke Pi’s young master’s injury is doing now."

That was no secret. Manbao said, "His leg has been set back in place, and it’s being treated at the Imperial Hospital now."

"But didn’t Doctor Zhou Junior visit a few days ago?"

"That’s because their Old Madam was worried and wanted me to check; but really, those imperial physicians are much better than me at setting bones. I just stood by and watched." And incidentally collected ten taels of visitation fee, feeling a bit embarrassed about it.

Manbao was puzzled about something and couldn’t help but ask, "Second Madam Cheng, why are you all so generous with the doctors who make house visits, always giving silver? Don’t you think it’s a bit too much?"