The old beggar squinted and shot a sidelong glance at Wu Luoluo, secretly taken aback.
He had deliberately sped up his speech just now to test this girl. To his surprise, although the girl couldn't keep up with the speed of needling, she had managed to memorize all the names of the numerous acupoints he had called out in the correct order! Watching her calmly select the acupoints without the slightest deviation and insert the needles one by one, not a single step was wrong!
Seeing the girl looking at him expectantly, waiting for his praise, the old beggar gave a soft cough and said casually, "Your technique is barely passable. It's just that your speed is far too slow. You should practice more diligently in the future."
Wu Luoluo replied obediently, "Great-uncle is right! I'll practice improving my needling speed from now on. But my master once taught me that one shouldn't strive for speed when needling."
Her master had once said that it was better to be slow when inserting needles and one must never be flustered. She could have tried her best to keep up with the speed just now, but the depth of needling couldn't be careless. The slightest deviation in the needling technique could lead to unimaginable consequences. So she had to sacrifice speed for stability.
The old beggar gave Wu Luoluo a non-committal glance and didn't say a word. He walked straight to the copper pot, reached out to test the temperature of the medicinal soup, but was scalded and quickly withdrew his hand, waving it repeatedly. Frowning, he spat two mouthfuls of thick phlegm into the pot.
Wu Luoluo stared at her great-uncle's not-so-civilized act with a dumbfounded look on her face, feeling completely stunned.
Great-uncle, I spent an hour stewing that whole pot of medicinal soup. Could you please show a bit more respect for my hard work?
The old beggar waved his hand impatiently and said, "After finishing the needling, throw that boy into the pot and let him soak for two hours, then fish him out and dry him off. Make sure to keep him warm and avoid drafts."
Wu Luoluo asked in surprise, "This medicine is for a medicinal bath?" It was such a waste to use so many high-quality medicinal herbs for a bath! She had thought they were for making large honeyed pills to be taken with warm water!
The old beggar snorted and said, "If not for a medicinal bath, do you think it's for drinking? You'd have to wait until he wakes up to force it down his throat, right?"
Wu Luoluo's eyes sparkled, and she looked at the old beggar with admiration. From what her great-uncle said, did it mean this man could really be saved?
The old beggar added, "Needle him every day and then give him a medicinal bath like today. Only after forty-nine days can you remove the silver needle from the Baihui acupoint on his head."
Wu Luoluo was immediately dumbfounded. The medicinal herbs the great-uncle had used just now were numerous and in large quantities. If they were to do this every day for forty-nine days to save him, not to mention whether there was enough firewood in the backyard, there probably wouldn't be enough medicinal herbs in the warehouse!
Wu Luoluo asked speechlessly, "Great-uncle, who is this man? Do we really have to save him?" The family was already out of food. If her master's wife and senior brother didn't come back, she was afraid she wouldn't even be able to survive this winter.
Wu Luoluo had just made this complaint casually and didn't really expect her great-uncle to answer. But unexpectedly, the old beggar stared silently at Shangguan Yun, who was lying on the ground looking like a hedgehog with needles all over him, and sighed, "A friend of mine passed away a few days ago. He came to me in a dream and begged me to save this unlucky boy. The ice on Tianhu Lake was so thick that I had to spend a lot of effort to break a hole and fish him out. Humph! If it weren't for the bit of friendship I had with that bald monk in the past, do you think I'd have traveled all the way here to save him?"
Wu Luoluo was so shocked that her jaw dropped. Didn't "pass away" usually refer to the death of a highly virtuous monk? How did her great-uncle, a Taoist doctor, know a monk?
Even more absurd was that if this man had drowned in Tianhu Lake, how did the great-uncle manage to fish him out? He wasn't a fish!
The old beggar told Wu Luoluo to remove the needles, then grabbed Shangguan Yun on the ground with one hand and threw him into the pot.
Seeing his rough movements, Wu Luoluo quickly reached out to support him, afraid that the man's head would hit the side of the pot.
The old beggar gave her a disdainful look and waved his hand, saying, "Let him soak for two hours every day. You take care of him. I've got other things to do. I'm leaving!" With that, the old beggar turned around and pushed the door open to leave.
Wu Luoluo quickly chased after him and asked, "Great-uncle, what should I do when he wakes up?"
The old beggar ignored her. He walked with a strange gait at a very fast speed and soon stepped into the heavy snow in the yard.
Wu Luoluo shouted anxiously, "Great-uncle! What should I do if there aren't enough medicinal herbs?" It was so difficult to go down the mountain in this cold winter. Even if she had money, it would be hard to buy medicine. Moreover, she was as poor as a church mouse.
The courtyard gate creaked softly, and the old beggar's figure quickly disappeared into the vast expanse of snow. From afar came his nonchalant voice, "There are fish in the vat in the backyard. Figure out the rest on your own!"
Wu Luoluo: ……
The goose-feather snow was falling in profusion. Before long, it had completely covered the footprints the old beggar had left on the ground, as if he had never been there.
Wu Luoluo stood at the door of the kitchen, looking at the white expanse outside, feeling at a loss. She stepped on the snow and walked towards the backyard, thinking to herself that if she changed the medicinal soup every two days, she didn't know if the medicinal herbs in the warehouse could last until the forty-ninth day. There wasn't enough firewood either. What could she do?
When Wu Luoluo got to the backyard, she saw two three-foot-long black carps lying in the vat! She was overjoyed. These two fish would last her for many days. It seemed that this crazy great-uncle wasn't so annoying after all! But the mountain paths were difficult to walk on at this time. How did the great-uncle manage to carry the man on one side and two fish on the other and find his way up here?
Unable to figure it out, Wu Luoluo simply stopped thinking about it. She quickly killed the fish, cleaned it, cut off a section of the fish tail, started the stove, and stewed the fish soup.
The great-uncle had said that the man needed to keep warm and not catch a cold. She also had to repair all the drafty compartments to prevent the man from catching a cold when he got out of the medicinal bath. She also had to clean the snow on the roof in case it collapsed.
After drinking a bowl of delicious fish soup, Wu Luoluo felt warm all over. She climbed up the ladder to the roof to clear the snow. Then she went outside the backyard to dig some yellow mud, mixed it with water, and carefully plastered the drafty cracks in the corners of the compartments layer by layer. Then she lit a small fire with the unburned firewood to dry it slowly.
After finishing all these tasks, Wu Luoluo took a look around inside and out and was quite satisfied. This way, it could largely prevent the patient from catching a cold.
But where would he sleep tonight?
In the Wu's Medicine Shop, Wu Luoluo was responsible for all the trivial tasks such as decocting medicine, making pills, adding firewood, and paying attention to the heat. She often stayed up all night guarding the medicinal ointment that needed to be steamed and dried for several days and nights. Later, she simply made a narrow bed in the firewood room for the convenience of making medicinal herbs. When she was tired, she would lie down and rest for a while, and then wake up to add firewood and steam the medicine. Now that this man had come, it seemed inappropriate for him to sleep anywhere.
She couldn't just throw this man into her senior brother's room, could she? Her senior brother's room was in the northwest corner, far from the kitchen and the compartment. He would have to pass through a courtyard in the middle. She was afraid the patient wouldn't be able to withstand the wind and snow in the yard! Maybe she should let him sleep in her bed in the firewood room, and she could go to the empty room in the northwest that had been idle before to rest.