Chapter 597: Chapter 589: I Understand Everything
Qin Liuxi holds no fondness for these Inner House Ghosts and does not care to investigate in detail. She pointed out who the mastermind was, and someone like Jiang Wenyan, raised by her legitimate mother, would naturally find out.
Thus, Jiang Wenyan wanted to seek medical treatment first. Qin Liuxi was happy to relax and turned to the outer room to take pulses and make a diagnosis.
“Is it necessary to drink talisman water?” Jiang Wenyan asked softly. “As long as it’s good for my health, I can drink it.”
Qin Liuxi’s mouth twitched slightly and said, “You’re overthinking it. Feng shui influences your emotions, which in turn worsens your health. However, over the years, your body has indeed become frail and deficient, lacking both Qi and blood. You require careful conditioning. It’s not something a single dose of talisman water can cure.”
Jiang Wenyan felt somewhat embarrassed; wasn’t this question just because Qin Liuxi is a Daoist doctor?
Qin Liuxi added, “A Daoist doctor is still a doctor, but we use medical skills to promote the Dao, also spreading goodness and forming good connections. So, don’t always think about drinking talisman water and other nonsensical things. Those are tricks by God Sticks to deceive people. We must believe in medical skills, and take medicine for illnesses.”
Everyone: “…”
Who was the one connecting Feng Shui and illness so logically just now?
And aren’t you also a God Stick with great skills?
“If you really want to drink talisman water, it’s not that you can’t. However, it must be a specific medicine charm, not just any random scribbles.”
So, one can still drink talisman water.
Qin Liuxi switched hands to take the pulse and asked Jiang Wenliu and Qiao Ziling to wait outside.
“Is there something we can’t know about?” Jiang Wenliu was a bit anxious.
Qin Liuxi glanced at him, puzzled: “Do you want to learn how to treat women’s diseases? With you men here, how can a patient speak freely about her condition?”
Jiang Wenliu’s face reddened, and he hurriedly pulled Qiao Ziling out.
Jiang Wenyan saw her younger brother’s embarrassment and laughed out loud, saying, “My brother is usually the epitome of a gentleman, cultured and graceful. It’s rare to see him so uncomfortable.”
“Maybe internally he is the repressed type, and you don’t know it.”
Jiang Wenyan: “?”
What does “repressed” mean?
“Your physical condition in these recent years is mainly due to the Six Excesses and Seven Emotions. Quick to anger and easily agitated, aside from the Feng Shui influence in this room, there is also the fact that during pregnancy and childbirth, overthinking caused your five viscera and six entrails, as well as yin and yang, to lose balance, leading to a depressive temperament,” said Qin Liuxi. “After giving birth, did you have menstrual irregularities? How is your appetite and bowel movements?”
Jiang Wenyan’s face felt hot, but since there were no men here, she didn’t find it too embarrassing. Qin Liuxi asked very straightforwardly, so she responded honestly: “Indeed, after giving birth to Yuer, because of heavy thoughts and the family rules being what they are, there was a wet nurse to feed him, so I didn’t breastfeed him. However, the lochia persisted, and it took three months of treatment to stop. Even though I didn’t breastfeed, my menstruation didn’t return for half a year. When it did, it lasted for over ten days, and then I would skip two or three months.”
After giving birth, she suffered from swollen lips, internal heat, frequent lip sores with bleeding, a reduced appetite with vomiting, chest tightness and stopped menstruation, and even difficulties with bowel movements, fluctuating between constipation and diarrhea. The suffering was unbearable.
When Jiang Wenyan recalled those days, she felt she was hardly human, with all sorts of troubles with her body, and her figure had changed due to pregnancy and childbirth. It took numerous massages by maids and servants to get her belly back in shape, yet still there were stretch marks, and her relationship with her husband had grown even more discordant.
The most annoying part was inviting an Imperial Physician to take her pulse and prescribe treatments. Once her stomach qi was regulated and her menstruation returned, it would become disorderly again, and then she would be prescribed more medicines to regulate her menstruation, an endless cycle.
Jiang Wenyan was relieved to find a female doctor with whom she could speak freely. She said, “…During those two years, I did not have a single day without medicine. My son was not by my side, how could my mood be good? And with him, the passion from our wedding night was gone. I turned to favor a maid by his side instead. The rare occasion when we were intimate, the pain almost made me kick him off the bed… cough cough, look at me, I’ve forgotten that although you are a female doctor, you are still a maiden.”
She touched her cheek somewhat embarrassingly, chuckling as she looked towards Qin Liuxi.
Qin Liuxi: “I understand everything!”
As for how she understood, don’t ask; if you ask, she would say she had read extensively and even observed!
To ease her embarrassment, Qin Liuxi asked the wet nurse to bring over the prescriptions from the past few years to review. They were all about promoting qi, relieving depression, and soothing the liver, and some were actually addressing the symptoms, like Qi-replenishing Soup. But others were only treating the symptoms and not the root cause. Furthermore, with the recurring illness, the medications had made her body weak and her yin and yang imbalanced, spleen deficient, and blood deficient.
Qin Liuxi critically appraised these prescriptions and made her current condition clear, “The root of the illness surges from the emotions, with damage to the liver and spleen. It is really not appropriate to repeatedly use strong medications. Your use of harsh medications postpartum has depleted your Primordial Qi. Even though the medicines you’ve been taking may have been appropriate to your symptoms, your Primordial Qi has not been fully replenished. A person’s Primordial Qi is like essence and blood, extremely important. With sufficient Primordial Qi, the essence and blood are also sufficient, and the body becomes strong. These prescriptions address the symptoms but not the root, and with more medicine, much is likely to be lost, creating a vicious cycle.”
Medicine always has three parts poison; it can cure disease, but too much can also make the body frail, fatigue the limbs, and cause irritability. Additionally, she had been affected by external factors, making it even harder for her body to fully recover.
Jiang Wenyan’s continued survival to this day was entirely due to the good care she received as a young lady, which created a strong foundation that kept her from being bedridden. If she continued like this for another couple of years, she would eventually wither away.
Mrs. Zhang, concerned, asked, “Master, how should we treat Granny’s condition?”
Jiang Wenyan also looked on.
“Now your spleen meridian is weak, and the liver heat from too much anger has hurt your blood. It is necessary to strengthen the qi of the spleen and nourish the blood of the spleen. I will use Si Wu Tang with added Xia Chai Hu Tang and Zhizi Dan Pi to regulate qi. I’ll also add a dose of Free and Easy Wanderer Powder to soothe the liver and relieve depression, to nourish yin and yang, and to solidify the foundation and replenish the Yuan,” Qin Liuxi thoughtfully said. “In addition, you kept fish in your bedroom before. The gold is cold and the water chilled, also contributing to the imbalance of yin and yang. I will apply acupuncture for three days to balance yin and yang, and allow the five organs and six entrails to achieve equilibrium so your essence and blood can be well nourished.”
Jiang Wenyan asked, “How long will it take for my illness to be cured?”
“After four doses of the medicine, it should be enough. Your body’s spleen meridian is depleted, mainly needing nourishment. After finishing the medicine, there is no need for aggressive tonics; warming tonics should be the focus. Do not overthink or worry, but try to keep your mood cheerful. Reciting scripture can make one’s temperament gentle; I have several volumes of scripture from Qingping Temple, would you like some?” Qin Liuxi asked with a smile.
“Yes.”
Good, another believer.
Qin Liuxi was pleased, saying, “Then when I come to give you acupuncture tomorrow, I’ll also bring a couple of volumes.”
“Okay.” Jiang Wenyan thought for a moment and said, “What about the feng shui? Is there anything that needs to be done?”
For our own believer, we have to keep them hooked.
Qin Liuxi said, “I have pointed out the bad elements for you; replacing them will be fine. I’ll place an Exorcism Talisman on the eaves of your house. As for the bedroom, to better recuperate and nourish your body, I will set up a small Spirit Gathering Array later; that will be more than enough.”