Chapter 548: Chapter 548: Magic?
A healer’s heart is a benevolent one. Hearing a child was in pain, Li Xu pushed aside any thoughts of rest.
"Alright, Sister Wang, bring the child over. I’ll open the door in a bit."
Not long after, Sister Wang led a six-year-old girl into the clinic.
The little girl had delicate features,
but right now her brow was furrowed in an unhappy frown.
"Come, let Uncle take a look."
Li Xu gestured for Sister Wang to lift the child’s shirt.
The moment the shirt was lifted, Li Xu’s brow furrowed as well.
On the child’s once fair and smooth skin were countless tiny red blisters. Some had already burst and scabbed over, while others were still translucent and glistening. The sight was enough to make one’s skin crawl.
’This rash... it doesn’t look like ordinary eczema,’
Li Xu thought to himself.
If it were ordinary eczema, the twelfth-month snowmelt he’d brought back from Qinling would be the perfect remedy. A few applications and it would clear up.
But the nature of this rash seemed more like an uncleared "fetal toxin" or latent heat in the body manifesting externally.
He didn’t rush to prescribe medication, asking for a detailed history first. "How long has this been going on?"
Sister Wang sighed, her voice full of heartache. "It’s been two years, on and off... It’s like she can’t acclimate. Every time the seasons change, or there’s a slight shift in the weather, she breaks out in these rashes."
"She gets them on her face, too. Sometimes even on her scalp."
"When it flares up, it’s unbearably itchy. She’s just a kid, she doesn’t know any better and just wants to scratch it raw. It breaks my heart to watch."
Li Xu nodded, a diagnosis forming in his mind.
This skin condition, while presenting as a rash, was rooted in "Scarlet Pox."
The ancients believed this was due to congenital fetal toxins lying dormant in the body, which would surface when triggered by unseasonable weather or an improper diet.
If not completely expelled, it would cause recurrent flare-ups and could even develop into a more severe skin disease in adulthood.
Topical treatments like the twelfth-month snowmelt could only address the symptoms, suppressing it temporarily without curing the root cause.
An internal remedy was needed to thoroughly "dilute" and expel the toxic evil from the body.
Li Xu pondered for a moment, and a prescription surfaced in his mind.
"Sister Wang, please wait a moment."
Li Xu stood up and said, "I’m going to prepare some special medicine for the child."
With that, he turned and walked into the dispensary in the back.
He opened a delicate little porcelain jar. It contained the plum blossom stamens he had collected and prepared earlier.
Plum blossoms bloom defiantly in the snow, absorbing the pure qi of heaven and earth, making them ideal for neutralizing fetal toxins and clearing latent heat.
He took some of the plum blossom stamens and placed them in a mortar, grinding them carefully into a fine powder.
Next, he took a tiny amount of Cinnabar—less than ten grams.
Cinnabar has a heavy, sedating effect, calming the spirit while clearing heat and toxins. Here, it served as the finishing touch.
Finally, he found some fine white sugar.
He ground and mixed these three ingredients together in a specific ratio, creating a pale pink powder.
Li Xu wrapped the powder in a small packet and returned to the consultation room.
"This is called the ’Plum Blossom Scarf.’"
Li Xu handed the packet to Sister Wang. "When you get home tonight, have her eat a little bit of this. She can just eat it like candy."
"Have her take it for three days. The medicine is sweet, so she’s sure to like it."
"But there’s one thing you must remember: starting tomorrow, the child cannot go outside. She must stay indoors. After taking this, the blisters will gradually decrease and thin out, but during this period, she absolutely must not be exposed to the wind. If she is, the pores will close up, and that will be a problem."
Listening to Li Xu, Sister Wang held the packet, half-convinced and half-skeptical. "Really? Just by eating this sweet powder? Will it work that fast? We’ve been to the hospital and gotten so many ointments, but none of them worked."
Li Xu said confidently, "Just give it a try. It should work. This is an empirical formula from the famous Qing dynasty physician Feng Chuzhan. Although the ingredients aren’t hard to find, the collection and preparation of the ’plum essence’ are extremely demanding—it must be the stamens of plum blossoms that bloomed in the snow. After taking the medicine, the dense blisters will become sparse and eventually disappear."
Just as he was speaking, the little girl beside them couldn’t resist reaching out to scratch the rash on her back again, whining, "Mommy, it’s itchy... still a little itchy."
Sister Wang was about to stop her, but a sudden thought struck Li Xu.
He remembered the few pieces of parchment he’d found in the shipwreck, and the miraculous Zuyou Skill recorded on them—the "Itch-Cursing Method."
’My rational mind is telling me this is completely unscientific, but in Chinese medicine, they say belief is the key to efficacy. Besides, this is to stop a child’s itching. There’s no harm in trying, and it won’t have any side effects.’
Li Xu gave a mysterious smile and crouched down to look at the little girl. "Niuniu, how about Uncle recites a spell for you? It’ll make the itch go away, okay?"
Song Sisi, who was preparing medicine nearby, was well aware that the "treasures" Li Xu had brought back this time included a manual on the Zuyou Skill.
Seeing this, she couldn’t help but cover her mouth to hide a giggle.
’She’d always thought this so-called Zuyou Skill was just some ancient form of psychological suggestion or witchcraft. How could it possibly work?’
’Li Xu is really laying it on thick.’
But Li Xu’s expression was completely serious.
He stretched out his right hand, fingers spread, and held it hovering over the affected area on the little girl’s back.
Then, he closed his eyes and began to chant. His voice wasn’t loud, but it was clearly audible in the quiet clinic:
"First, I curse the sky-sheep. Second, I curse the earth-sheep. Third, I curse the Y-sheep. Fourth, I curse the antelope. Fifth, I curse the Shang-sheep. The mother sheep shall die, the father ram shall be annihilated, and all their children and grandchildren must be wiped out. If you do not vanish, this disciple will summon five hundred barbarian thunders to strike you dead!"
Sister Wang was stunned for a moment. She didn’t understand a word of it. ’Is he performing a shamanistic ritual?’
After chanting it once, Li Xu flicked his fingers outward.
He then repeated it.
After repeating this three times,
Li Xu suddenly shouted, "STOP!"
The shout was full of force, startling the dazed little girl.
She blinked her big eyes, looking at Li Xu with curiosity, wondering what this strange uncle was doing.
Li Xu retracted his hand and asked with a smile, "Niuniu, how do you feel now? Is it still itchy?"
The little girl froze, as if seriously trying to perceive the changes in her body.
A few seconds passed.
Her small, furrowed brow suddenly smoothed out. She touched her back in disbelief, then said in a clear voice, "Huh? I... I don’t think... I don’t think it’s very itchy anymore."
The moment she said this,
the air in the room seemed to freeze.
Song Sisi was dumbfounded.
Sister Wang’s jaw dropped, her face a mask of utter disbelief.
Even Li Xu, the one who had performed the ritual, was stunned.
"What... What just happened?"
Sister Wang was completely bewildered.
Nothing in her nine years of compulsory education could explain what she had just witnessed.
She had just watched Li Xu act like a charlatan priest, muttering some shamanistic chant, forming strange hand seals, and gesturing all over her daughter’s back.
And with a single word, "Stop," her daughter—who had been so itchy she was scratching her heart out, completely inconsolable—was miraculously no longer itchy?
But... but...
’This isn’t scientific!’
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