Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Lately, I have been feeling restless, unable to sleep at night.

The summer days are oppressive and hazy, and even the cicadas in the courtyard sound listless.

Upon waking from a nap, I felt a discomfort in my stomach, and before long, a rash broke out across my body.

Ignoring the fact that dusk was already falling, Xi’er and my Wet Nurse hurriedly sent a page from the outer courtyard to summon Li Shiyin.

Li Shiyin was over seventy years old. He had originally served as the Assistant Director of the Imperial Medical Bureau, but after falling ill a year ago, he was left with a tremor in his hands. He subsequently resigned from his post and became a leisurely physician in Shangjing.

Even so, given his former status, it was no easy feat for an ordinary official family to invite him to their residence for a consultation.

However, it wasn’t long after the page from the Mansion of the Minister of Ceremonies left that this elderly man, rumored to have a foul temper, arrived at our door.

In truth, he was a frequent guest at the Mansion of the Minister of Ceremonies.

I often thought that what made Li Shiyin so accommodating was certainly not my status as a Third-Rank Commandery Lady, but rather the fact that my husband, Cheng Wenting, held such high prestige in court and enjoyed such deep imperial favor that the doctor had no choice but to come.

Xi’er and my Wet Nurse did not see it that way. They always coaxed me, saying that although Li Shiyin had also treated Wei Shi in the side quarters, his attitude toward me was clearly different.

During the traditional four steps of diagnosis-observing, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking-he was always meticulous. He constantly refined the prescriptions I took, using only the most precious medicinal ingredients.

This time, however, after advising me not to seek too much cold during the midsummer months, he added coptis root to the prescription.

Xi’er reminded him, “Old Master, coptis is bitter. My lady won’t be able to stomach it.”

Li Shiyin then swapped the coptis for gardenia fruit and said to me, “All medicine is bitter to the taste. Please endure it, My Lady, and perhaps have some candied plums afterward.”

I stopped Xi’er, who was about to speak again, and asked him, “You previously said I suffer from deficiency heat, and now I have broken out in hives. I haven’t been able to sleep well lately and feel very irritable. I wonder what the true cause is.”

“My Lady, deficiency heat is caused by a lack of vital energy. Hives, also known as ‘hidden rashes,’ occur where evil influences gather because the energy is weak. This is precisely why you have been feeling so restless and uneasy lately.”

“But I have been taking the medicine for a while now, and there is no sign of improvement.”

“The heat and dampness of late summer require slow regulation.”

Li Shiyin was, after all, a man who had served as the Assistant Director of the Imperial Medical Bureau. After answering my confusion, his voice paused before he continued, “In truth, My Lady may not necessarily be ill. The medical texts say that Heaven and Earth are the high and low of all things; Yin and Yang are the blood and energy of man and woman. It is said that Yin is within, the guardian of Yang; Yang is without, the envoy of Yin. This deficiency heat of yours is actually an imbalance of Yin and Yang… Once they are harmonized, these symptoms will naturally vanish.”