Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 386: Unrelated (asking for monthly ticket)

Wang Ji is not fond of beautiful women.

In Wang Ji's opinion, any hospitality was unnecessary. He was more or less mentally prepared to treat the emperor. After meeting Li Zisheng and Zhang Luan, he was able to behave calmly as usual.

Wang Ji is the kind of person who remains calm in the face of adversity, and any human affairs do not matter to him.

Of course, there are also people and things that surprise him, such as Zhang Luan's use of vaccination to prevent smallpox, which is the most shocking thing in his life.

"Mr. Wang, you will go to the palace with Zhang Taichang tomorrow morning. After you examine His Majesty, I will take you to the Imperial Hospital. From now on, you will be an official medical officer."

Li Zisheng showed special respect to anyone who seemed capable. "You just arrived in the capital and have no place to rest, so why don't you stay at my house... What do you think?"

Wang Ji bowed and said, "I dare not bother Minister Li. I have a place to stay in the capital."

Li Zisheng smiled and said, "Just stay here. It will be more convenient to enter the palace tomorrow. I won't disturb you two... You two can get together tonight to discuss His Majesty's condition, how about that?"

Wang Ji was about to refuse sternly, but he immediately turned his eyes to Zhang Luan.

It probably means, if you let me stay, I will stay.

Zhang Luan thought about it, nodded and said, "What Minister Li said makes sense. Since I have to enter the palace tomorrow, I still have to explain the situation to you clearly, so as to avoid...any mistakes when I see the emperor tomorrow."

……

……

Li Zisheng kept his promise and left soon after, leaving Zhang Luan and Wang Ji in his villa.

Not only was the sedan prepared for the next day, but there were also Jinyiwei guarding the door.

It seemed that Li Zisheng was also afraid that something might happen and that the two great doctors of the time would be killed. Then he would not be able to report to the emperor.

"Have you seen the dog?"

Zhang Luan was a little bored and asked casually.

Originally, he was supposed to discuss romantic matters with Li Zisheng tonight, and he could also study some new plays, under the pretext of ensuring that the emperor would smile, but in fact he was just messing around with the actors in disguise.

But because of Wang Ji's arrival, and the fact that Wang Ji was serious and did not like beautiful women, the final result was that the two of them sat opposite each other and discussed medical matters.

Wang Ji said: "As soon as I entered the city, I went to see your son first."

"Oh."

Zhang Luan said with relief, "It's good that you have met me. There are some things I'm afraid I can't explain clearly, so it's best for him to explain it to you."

Wang Ji frowned and said, "But your son said that it was you, Mr. Zhang, who went to see His Majesty in person. He has never been to the palace. How could he know His Majesty's condition better than you?"

"This……"

Zhang Luan thought, don’t you know what it means to curse someone without exposing their shortcomings?

You are such a boring person.

Wang Ji continued to ask, "I wonder what your Majesty's pulse is like? What are the symptoms? How did Mr. Zhang diagnose you? What kind of medicine should be used as a guide? Also, what is the principle of the so-called liquid medicine made from animal viscera?"

Zhang Luan yawned and shook his head after hearing this, saying, "It's getting late. Why don't you and I go to bed early? We will go to the palace before dawn tomorrow."

Wang Ji asked in confusion, "Didn't Minister Li ask us to discuss the progress of His Majesty's illness?"

In Wang Ji's opinion, Zhang Luan in front of him was simply unreasonable.

You said you wanted me to discuss your illness with you, but you turned around and said you were sleepy. It's a pity that you didn't agree when I said I wanted to leave...

Are you playing with me?

Zhang Luan said, "Let me make it clear. According to my diagnosis, your Majesty's illness may not last more than a month. It may worsen at any time. It is even possible that he was fine a moment ago, but suddenly became terminally ill."

After hearing this, Wang Ji frowned and asked, "Mr. Zhang, since you know that His Majesty's condition is so serious, why did you get involved?"

“No choice.”

Zhang Luan stood up and said helplessly, "I also wanted to stay out of this. I just prescribed some medicine for Your Majesty to take. You can tell the prescription I used. Later, as the effect of the medicine weakened, Your Majesty no longer trusted me. As a result, he listened to the Taoist priest Deng Changen and took elixirs and relied on Taoist methods to treat his illness, which led to... Your Majesty's condition rapidly worsened and returned to its previous state. I had to go to the palace every day to treat Your Majesty.

"Then... Elder Wan and Elder Liu criticized me in front of His Majesty, and His Majesty kept me away for a few days. It turned out that Elder Wan was just fooling His Majesty, and the people he brought with him couldn't come up with a good prescription... So these past two days, I was asked to return to the palace to treat His Majesty."

After hearing this, Wang Ji was a little stunned.

I thought to myself, your experience is really bizarre and ridiculous.

So you, Zhang, have gotten yourself into this mess just to treat His Majesty? The emperor has changed his mind about your trust several times, and you are still working so hard to treat him?
Zhang Luan said, "Sir, if you have anything to say, just say it. I can answer you about everything except the pulse diagnosis for His Majesty. Because I don't understand pulse diagnosis, most of the time when I diagnose His Majesty's pulse, I am just... filling in the gaps."

If Wang Ji had heard Zhang Luan say this when he first met Zhang Luan, he would have labeled Zhang Luan a liar.

In fact, when they first met, he did regard Zhang Luan as a liar from the beginning, and even believed it.

But the problem is often so mysterious. After knowing each other for more than half a year, Zhang Luan in front of him is the representative of a real person. In Wang Ji's opinion, Zhang Luan is pretending to be confused most of the time.

If you don’t have the ability, how dare you treat the emperor?
Wang Ji nodded and said, "I will know the answer after I check your Majesty's pulse tomorrow."

Zhang Luan said, "Your Majesty's skin has turned very yellow, and the whites of his eyes are almost completely golden. In addition, your Majesty's physical strength is very poor, and his appetite is poor. Recently... Oh! Forget it, you can judge for yourself after you go."

Wang Ji said, "Mr. Zhang, can you show me the prescription you used before?"

"Ah."

Zhang Luan nodded and pointed to the desk. "They are all in the wooden box on the table. Take them out and have a look. Some are prescribed by me, and some are prescribed by the imperial doctors of the Imperial Hospital."

"What about this one?"

Wang Ji asked in surprise, pointing at one of the lists.

"I drove it."

"Then this..."

“I drove it, too.”

Zhang Luan sat there and watched Wang Ji pick up the prescriptions one by one. He would ask about any prescriptions written by him, but would just put them down after reading any prescriptions written by the Imperial Hospital.

Zhang Luan couldn't help but feel puzzled.

Why did he ask for every prescription that was prescribed by my son?
After Wang Ji finished reading all the prescriptions, he picked up the four prescriptions written by Zhang Yanling again, examined them carefully, and finally sighed sincerely: "The superb medical skills and exquisite use of medicine are unique in the world." Zhang Luan said embarrassedly: "You can't say that. If this medicine is really effective, it wouldn't be like this... Alas!"

"Mr. Zhang, where did you get this prescription? Who taught you? Or is it your clinical practice prescription?" Wang Ji looked at Zhang Luan with admiration.

Zhang Luan felt embarrassed.

Zhang Luan quickly shook his head: "No, I just wrote it randomly."

"..."

At this moment, Wang Ji felt like a thousand horses were passing through his mind.

Is there anyone who can fool people like this?

Are you writing random prescriptions for the emperor?

Listen, is this human language?
Believe it or not, I will report you?

Zhang Luan sighed, "There are some things that I can't explain clearly. Just like you saw my son and saw him making medicine, do you know what he was doing?"

"Mr. Zhang, I'm not quite sure, but shouldn't you know best?" Wang Ji said again.

Zhang Luan shook his head and said, "From the beginning to the end, I have no idea what he is doing."

"What? Who did Yan Ling learn from? How did he accomplish all this? And... Mr. Zhang, if there is really no accurate source, how dare you give His Majesty the prescription in your hand and the medicine made by your son?" Wang Ji was really frightened.

Listening to Zhang Luan talking, I really wanted to hit him.

But I know that he is really capable, and I feel that what he said may have deeper meaning.

Zhang Luan said, "I don't trust others, so how can I not trust my son? Where did he learn this from... I don't know. Anyway, he tells me what medicine to use, and I will use it."

"What about this prescription?"

Wang Ji asked at the right time.

"Forget it, let's talk about it after entering the palace tomorrow."

Zhang Luan thought to himself, as a father, don’t I have any shame?

You too, always calling me Mr. Zhang all the time. How can you be so disrespectful to me?

"Go to sleep."

Zhang Luan pointed to the wing opposite and said, "You live over there, and I'll live in the west room. If someone knocks on the door at night, don't be surprised. If they don't want to stay, let them go back... Don't let them down."

"what?"

Wang Ji didn't understand what Zhang Luan meant.

Zhang Luan shook his head and said, "You will understand then."

……

……

Early the next morning, the two prepared to enter the palace together.

Zhang Luan had heavy bags under his eyes and looked like he hadn't gotten enough rest.

Wang Ji's mental state seemed much better, and he didn't look like someone who came from far away at all. Zhang Luan looked more like the uninvited guest who rushed to the capital from Huizhou.

"Good morning, Mr. Zhang. You look well." Wang Ji said with a smile.

Zhang Luan smiled bitterly and thought, how do you know I look good?

Zhang Luan asked: "I wonder if last night..."

"No one came to disturb us last night."

Wang Ji smiled and said, "There were some noises coming from Mr. Zhang's room..."

"Ahem, don't mention it."

Zhang Luan was slightly embarrassed and pointed in the direction of the door and said, "We will take a sedan chair to enter the palace today. Someone will greet us when we arrive at the palace gate."

……

……

Wang Ji still respected Zhang Luan very much.

The two of them took a sedan chair and arrived at the palace gate together, escorted by the Embroidered Uniform Guards. After getting off the sedan chair, they entered the palace together with Li Zisheng who had been waiting there. On the way, they met Wei Tai, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, who had come out to greet them.

Wei Tai turned around and walked inside, leading the way while looking back and saying, "Master Li, I have some news to tell you. Elder Naiwan has submitted a petition to resign."

Li Zisheng said, "He just asked to resign, but he didn't really resign... At this critical moment, if he leaves, who will take charge of the affairs of the court? Unless someone as capable as Zhang Taichang joins the cabinet, otherwise... it will be the same no matter who comes to power."

"I dare not say so."

Zhang Luan seemed extremely terrified.

Wang Ji was listening nearby and thought, are you sure you are really court officials?

Not a liar?

Why does what you say sound wrong to me?

Mr. Zhang, I can understand that you said he understands medicine and can be in charge of the Imperial Medical Bureau.

Can you say that he...entered the cabinet?
These are completely unrelated things!
Wei Tai said: "What a pity, Zhang Taichang has just been promoted to the position of Imperial Tutor, and he may need... a little luck to enter the cabinet."

Bachelor of Arts?

After all, Wang Ji was a scholar, and he instantly felt uncomfortable all over.

What's happening here?
Just by treating the emperor, you can get the position of Imperial Academy Attendant Bachelor? Wouldn't the people in the court be furious? Would they let you take this position smoothly?
Li Zisheng said, "Everything depends on human effort... If His Majesty asks me who is suitable to join the cabinet, I will definitely recommend you, Zhang Taichang, first."

(Please give me a monthly ticket at the beginning of the month, thank you!)

(End of this chapter)