Yonghe Road

Chapter 64 She Medicine
Lin Yingying, holding the child, stood up from the waiting chair and walked into the clinic. Wang Zian and Zhong Ziqi also hurriedly followed.

The layout of the She Medicine Hall's clinic is obviously different from that of ordinary clinics.

The clinic was very spacious, with a dome decorated with woven bamboo strips. Hanging from it were a few strings of air-dried dendrobium and gynostemma pentaphyllum, which gently tapped against the indigo cloth curtains in the breeze blowing in through the window.

On the wall opposite the window hung a large painting of "Sheshan Herbs". Beneath the painting, against the wall, stood a rosewood couch used for taking pulses, covered with freshly picked calamus leaves. Beside the couch stood a half-person-high ceramic jar with snake patterns. From under the red cloth covering the mouth of the jar, the gurgling sound of medicinal wine rising and falling could be faintly heard.

The entire clinic was filled with the faint aroma of mugwort. The tall and thin man with his indigo sleeves rolled up, revealing the coiled snake tattoo on his forearm, was none other than Mr. Lan, the owner of She Medicine Hall.

Behind Boss Lan, the entire wall is covered with paulownia medicine cabinets with a shiny black patina. The 365 drawers are arranged according to the 24 solar terms, and a snake totem engraved in relief can be vaguely seen on the brass pull rings.

In front of Boss Lan, on the antique eight-immortals table were piled the Lan family's She doctors' handwritten notes. On the top was a book with a dark blue cover, "Chinese She Nationality Medicine", with a few drops of unwashed snakeberry juice on the corners of the book.

Closely placed next to the books is a copper medicine grinder with a warm patina. The pollen of seven leaves and one branch of flowers remaining in the grinding groove is emitting an emerald-like glow.

Seeing Lin Yingying walk in with the child in her arms, Boss Lan gestured to him to lay the child flat on the bamboo couch. He asked his apprentice to hold a lamp and bend over to carefully examine the child's swollen face. He found that the bee sting had been removed, but the person who removed the sting probably used the wrong method. Instead of using a scraper, they squeezed it directly with force. As a result, although the sting was squeezed out, the wound also showed signs of infection.

"Doctor, can a bee sting heal without treatment?" Lin Yingying asked timidly.

She remembered that she had been stung by a bee when she was a child. Although it was swollen and itchy, her family did not take her to see a doctor. After a while, the sting healed on its own.

Boss Lan straightened up, looked back at Lin Yingying, and said, "Then you can take her back."

Lin Yingying looked very embarrassed.

This She doctor has too much of a temper.

Zhong Ziqi hurried forward to help Lin Yingying out and said to Boss Lan, "You'd better ask the doctor to take a look. My nephew's face is horribly swollen after being stung by a bee."

"Yes, sister-in-law, there are cases of death caused by bee stings due to untimely treatment. It has been reported in the news."

Boss Lan glanced at Zhong Ziqi and Wang Zian, then his eyes passed over Lin Yingying's face and finally landed on the face of the child on the bamboo couch. He murmured, "Didn't you see that the color of the child's lips has changed?"

After the child was stung by a bee, Lei Sheng quickly drove Lin Yingying and the child down the mountain to the village clinic. The doctor at the clinic thought the bee sting was no big deal and symbolically prescribed a dermatitis ointment. After applying it to the child, Lin Yingying took the child home.

When he got home, Huifang would inevitably scold him. The words became more and more unpleasant, and the redness and swelling on the child's face became more and more serious.

Huifang was a She ethnic group member and insisted that Lin Yingying take the child to see a She doctor. Zhong Ziqi then took Lin Yingying and the child into the city.

Lin Yingying was caught off guard by this sudden accident, and Huifang took advantage of her weakness and ridiculed her. She cried all the way while holding the child. Her eyes were swollen to the point of being just slits, and she didn't pay close attention to the changes in the child.

Reminded by Boss Lan, he took a closer look and was shocked to see that the child's delicate face was not only swollen like a pig's head, but his lips had also turned dark blue.

"Doctor, is Niu Niu's condition serious? Is she dying?" Lin Yingying grabbed Boss Lan's arm and cried anxiously. Fortunately, Zhong Ziqi and Wang Zian pulled her away in time.

This time, Boss Lan was not angry, but continued with his diagnosis and treatment. He stretched out his fingertips and gently brushed the child's belly, then the child's swollen face, and suddenly pressed hard three inches behind the ear.

"Wow!" The drowsy child suddenly burst into a loud cry, causing Lin Yingying's heart to skip a beat. Boss Lan, however, remained calm and collected. He pulled out a three-edged needle from the silver box at his waist and said, "This is the Phoenix Three-Nodding Head!" He seemed to be introducing it to the family members, but also to be talking to himself.

As she spoke, the needle tip had accurately pierced the child's Ren Zhong, Yong Quan and Nei Guan acupoints. Lin Yingying's heart was also tightened again and again with the three needles, until the purple lips of the child on the bamboo couch gradually turned red and the loud crying subsided, and her tense heartstrings finally relaxed.

"Doctor, the bee venom has been removed, right?" Lin Yingying asked in a trembling voice.

"This is just to wake the child up. Only when he wakes up can he be treated, otherwise he might go into shock without being noticed during the treatment."

Boss Lan turned around and opened the paulownia medicine cabinet beside him. He took out a celadon bottle, dipped the amber liquid inside and gently applied it to the affected area of the child's face. The redness and swelling subsided at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Wang Zian saw that the decoration in the clinic was full of snake elements, and then he looked at the medicine bottle in Boss Lan's hand, and felt a little confused.

Baile Village is a settlement of She and Han people. I once heard the She people in the village mention that there is a She doctor named Lan among them who is proficient in She medicine, especially in detoxifying snake venom. I think he is the boss Lan of this She medicine hall.

Can the medicine that only cures snake venom also cure bee venom?
Zhong Ziqi had previously accompanied an elderly villager who had been bitten by a snake to seek treatment at the She Medicine Hall from Boss Lan. Seeing that Boss Lan also used this celadon bottle of medicine to cure snake venom, he immediately asked Wang Zian what had been on his mind: "Boss Lan, is that the antidote you applied to my nephew?"

As Boss Lan reached into the medicine cabinet for some medicine, he explained, "This is the juice made from the tuberous roots of the three-leaf cliff creeper. It can detoxify snake venom. In the past, we She people mostly lived in mountainous or semi-mountainous areas, making us vulnerable to snake bites. Snake bites are a major threat to our lives. To save our lives, we She people have accumulated rich experience in preventing and treating venomous snake bites."

my country has over 100 species of snakes, one-third of which are venomous. She medicine practitioners have categorized snake venom into three categories based on its composition: neurotoxins, blood-circulating toxins, and enzymes. Based on the different types of venom and practical experience in treating snake venom deficiency, internal venom accumulation, and constipation, over 30 detoxification prescriptions have been developed.

Using a snake venom remedy to detoxify bee venom—in our She ethnic medicine system, this seemingly cross-disciplinary approach precisely embodies the ecological wisdom of "all things share the same origin, and different poisons can be treated with the same treatment."

As Boss Lan spoke, he quickly weighed and dispensed the medicine using a medicine scale.

Wang Zian noticed that the little finger on his left hand was broken.

That was the injury Boss Lan suffered when he was young and was learning She ethnic medicine and testing drugs with his master.

The She ethnic group only has a language but no written language. The She ethnic group also has the custom of not passing on skills to outsiders and passing them on to males but not females. In addition, most folk She doctors are old, and some famous She doctors have passed away one after another. She medicine was once on the verge of being lost.

Therefore, learning the medical technology of the She ethnic group can only follow the principle of word of mouth and forming its own system. The She medicine has the experience of adapting to local conditions and using local materials. This means that in addition to learning from a teacher, it also requires a lot of personal experiments and drug testing.

In any walk of life, if you want to achieve something, you must endure hardships that others cannot endure and pay sweat that others cannot pay.

The She Medicine Hall has become famous among She doctors in eastern Fujian, and one can imagine the efforts made by Boss Lan.

As he was speaking, Boss Lan had already prepared two sets of medicine. He packed each set of medicine into several small bags, and then packed them into two large bags and handed them to Zhong Ziqi.

Zhong Ziqi was surprised to see such two large bags of herbs and asked, "Besides applying it externally, the antidote for bee venom should also be taken internally, right?"

Boss Lan pointed at Lin Yingying who was standing beside him. Lin Yingying had already picked up Niuniu and was following Zhong Ziqi.

Boss Lan said, "Two doses of medicine, one for the child and one for her. The one for the child isn't for bee venom, but for infantile malnutrition. How can you be a mother? Your child's belly is bigger than usual, and you didn't even notice? And you didn't even take care of yourself after your confinement..."

Boss Lan said this, shaking his head, looking very disappointed in his friend, while Lin Yingying was already jaw-dropping at what Boss Lan said.