Chapter 4: The Son-in-law Who Came to the Door as a Reward

  The old man listened and felt that although the young man's words were a bit unpleasant, they were very sincere and straightforward. If he didn't have some real ability in his heart, he wouldn't be so confident. He unknowingly added a few more points of hope in his heart. He hurriedly said: "Yes, many doctors have not been able to cure my daughter's illness. I hope you can bring her back to health with your wonderful skills. If you can cure my daughter's illness..."

  Lu Jinping waved her hand to interrupt him: "Old Master Gao, no need to say any more. I know all those conditions of yours. Let's not waste time, let's go quickly!"

  Old Mr. Gao hastily agreed and brought Lu Jinping and maid Ye Qingqing to the daughter's boudoir in the backyard.

  In the Tang Dynasty, there was no such strict separation between men and women as in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so male doctors could directly enter a woman's room to treat her without using a mosquito net or even a handkerchief on their wrist. Therefore, after Lu Jinping and others entered, Old Lady Gao's daughter lay on the bed with no mosquito net around her, while maids, old women, and Old Lady Gao's three wives stood beside her.

  Lu Jinping couldn't help but secretly sigh and shake her head as she looked at the face of the old man's daughter lying on the bed. Not to mention how serious the girl's illness was, even if a young doctor with great skills came to cure her, he would probably hesitate after seeing her appearance, wondering whether or not he wanted to cure her, because the truth was that the old man's daughter looked quite ordinary, and could even be considered ugly.

  Of course, in the eyes of parents all over the world, their own children are always the best. So, in the eyes of Old Man Gao, his daughter was as beautiful as a celestial being, and that's why he offered such a high price. The high price he thought, as long as it could save his critically ill daughter's life, he would be willing to take him in as a son-in-law, not only marrying his lovely daughter but also inheriting his family business. Because Old Man Gao had only this one child, the family business could only be left to his daughter and son-in-law. Unfortunately, he lacked an objective understanding of his own daughter's appearance, and he didn't know that the reward he offered was actually a severe test for young men with illusions.

  Of course, Lu Jinping didn't come for the reward of marrying into the family business. He was just forced to come by Yao Baozi and others' calculations. However, he did want to see if his medical skills could help cure the illness of Old Lady Gao's daughter. If he could cure her, even if he didn't become a live-in son-in-law, he could still get a reward, at least enough to alleviate some of the pressure on his living situation and not have to worry about making ends meet.

  Lu Jinping sat down, carefully observed Miss Gao's complexion, and took her wrist to feel her pulse.

  He studied Western medicine in college, but traditional Chinese medicine is a required course for medical students and requires a certain number of hours to study. So he still understands some basic things about traditional Chinese medicine, but it's far from enough to diagnose people, including pulse diagnosis. He only knows some theory and has no practical skills at all. Now he just pretends to be something he's not.

  When his fingers touched the girl's wrist, she suddenly twitched, as if her wrist had been pricked by a needle. With great effort, she opened her eyes, glanced at Lu Jinping, rolled her eyeballs once, and then closed them again, emitting a painful moan from her nose.

  "Good daughter, this doctor is a famous physician invited by your father to treat you. His medical skills are very good and many people have been cured by him. He has cured many people with the same illness as yours, so he will definitely be able to cure you too. Don't worry, just listen to the doctor's words and take the medicine well, and you'll get better soon."

  This old man has said this many times, every time a doctor comes, he will boast to him like this, his ears have calluses from listening, but it's useless. However, these words are comforting to hear, so in order to comfort his daughter, he also says them out loud, and after saying them many times, they become very natural.

  Lu Jinping made her already very light movements even lighter, almost lightly attached to the woman's wrist. Even so, the woman still trembled slightly.

  He just kept it up, because he was only pretending. He held her wrist like that and turned to Old Lady Gao and said: "When did your daughter start feeling unwell? When did she discover she was ill? What were the symptoms at the time?"

  The old man found it strange that this young doctor examined his daughter's pulse and asked about her condition at the same time. Normally, a doctor would either ask about the condition first or remain silent while taking the pulse and observing the tongue image before asking questions. It was rare to see someone take the pulse and ask questions simultaneously, as one might be distracted by listening to the other person's response and fail to carefully feel the changes in the pulse under their fingers. This made the old man think that this young doctor wasn't as skilled as he had imagined. A look of disappointment appeared on his face again.

  But there is always hope rather than despair, he still needs patience and give Lang Zhong as many opportunities as possible.

  The old man did not express his inner doubts and replied directly: "My daughter probably fell ill about four or five months ago. At first, she didn't want to eat anything, kept having diarrhea, felt weak, and thought it was nothing. We invited a doctor to take a look, saying that she had contracted typhoid fever, and gave her medicine to eat, but it had no effect at all, and instead got worse and worse. She ate less and less, had no strength in her body, and lay in bed without wanting to get up. Moreover, no one could touch her, as soon as someone touched her, she would say it hurt. Alas, I don't know what's wrong with her. I specially went to the capital to invite a famous doctor to take a look, but it was also useless. Now, I can only pin my hopes on you, young master, and hope that you will definitely cure my daughter. If you cure her...

  As he was about to say that ridiculous solution again, Lu Jinping hurriedly waved her hand to interrupt him and frowned as she carefully examined the girl's complexion. She took the girl's hand and found that one side of her palm was peeling and there were some small red rashes on her hand.

  Lu Jinping's eyes lit up involuntarily, and she nodded slowly. Turning to Old Man Gao, she asked, "Did you give your daughter anything to eat today?"

  The old man shook his head and said: "No, she won't eat. The food is placed beside her bed, but even if we feed it to her, she can't swallow a single mouthful."

  "Has she vomited?"

  "Occasionally. There have been a few times when she ate something and then vomited. But in the past few days, she hasn't vomited at all. — Young master, what do you think is wrong with my daughter? Some doctors say it's an injury, this view is the most popular, some others say it's evil spirits. However, no matter what methods are used, they can't cure her. You must have a good method, right? Is it medicine or doing rituals?"

  As soon as Old Master heard this, Lu Jinping knew that he was indeed desperately seeking medical attention. It seemed that not only had he consulted many doctors, but also invited Taoist priests to perform rituals, and it wasn't just a few times, or else he wouldn't have said something like that.

  Lu Jinping said to Old Man Gao, "Let's not talk about those things for now. First, let your daughter eat something. A person is made of iron and food is steel; if she doesn't eat, she'll be starving, and her body will get weaker and weaker, making it harder for her to fight off the illness."

  The old man sighed and said: "I also know it's this principle, but the thing is sent to her mouth, she just doesn't eat, I have no way."

  "Alright, you bring the food over and I'll talk to her. Once she's eaten something and has some energy, she can speak and I can ask her questions to understand her condition. If she doesn't say a word, it will be troublesome. Traditional Chinese medicine...ah no, isn't diagnosis based on inspection, listening, questioning, and palpation? Without asking questions, it's hard to accurately grasp the condition, so we still need to find a way to get her to eat something."

  The old man nodded repeatedly as soon as he heard it, and hurriedly ordered the maid to bring a bowl of millet ginseng porridge from the kitchen for the young lady to eat.