Chapter 45: Soup Head Song

  Zuo Shaoyang ground up some fruit kernel and fed it to a little squirrel. He then picked up an oil lamp and started writing a prescription.

  He first took out his father's handwritten copy, which were prescriptions from medical books before the Tang Dynasty, such as "Ming Yi Bie Lu", "Shang Han Lun" and so on. Among them, there were some texts from "Su Wen", "Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing", "Huang Di Nei Jing" and "Shang Han Lun" before the Tang Dynasty, but many of them were missing or incorrect. The important texts from these classics were well-known to Zuo Shao Yang, but ordinary texts and many prescriptions, especially those that were not commonly used, he couldn't remember, so he just modified and added what he remembered to make it complete.

  Actually, this content was all available before, but at that time the printing technology was not good, and it could not be widely promoted, so only a few doctors had such a complete version in their hands. The others were just some scattered manuscripts.

  He was very unaccustomed to using a brush pen, and also had to write in complex characters, so he wrote very slowly. By the time he finished filling it out, it was already late at night. His hands were also frozen stiff, and he could only put down his pen and go to sleep.

  The next morning, as soon as the sky brightened up, Zuo Shaoyang woke up and sprang out of bed. He saw that the little squirrel in its nest beside his pillow had also woken up and was lying on its back, looking at him with its beady eyes shining brightly, its whiskers twitching lightly.

  "Huang Qiu! Are you awake?" Zuo Shaoyang reached out to scoop up the little squirrel, put it in his arms, and came down from the ladder. Without even bothering to comb his hair, he carefully opened the door, fetched a bucket of water from the kitchen, and rushed out the door, running quickly to the riverbank.

  He stood panting on the steps, with no one at the well below. He looked around in all directions, but even the women who normally washed clothes by the river were nowhere to be seen. The entire riverside was deserted, except for him standing there with a pair of empty water buckets.

  Today is New Year's Eve, who would still come to fetch water on this day? Only myself. Actually, I didn't come to fetch water either, the water jar at home was almost full, enough for use until after the third day of the first month. I came to the river early in the morning with a bucket, also waiting for my little sister to make an explanation.

  He slowly descended the steps, came to the well, and used a gourd ladle to scoop water. The bucket was slowly filled, but his younger sister still hadn't arrived, nor had he seen anyone else come to fetch water. Instead, several passersby curiously looked at him.

  Zuo Shaoyang didn't care, he just kept looking around, hoping to see his little sister and explain things to her, so that she wouldn't misunderstand his good intentions.

  The little squirrel in his arms seemed to be helping him hurry, poking its head out of his chest, but was blown back by the cold winter wind and quickly retreated, only using its small eyes to look outside.

  Left Shao Yang had waited for almost half a watch, according to usual, little sister and that young woman should have come to fetch water long ago. Now they still haven't come, I reckon they won't be coming today.

  Zuo Shaoyang felt a bit down, thinking that his mother should get up too, and couldn't wait any longer. If not, his mother would think he had run away. He reluctantly carried a pole with two buckets of water back home.

  Li saw him come back, and said in a bad tone: "Why did you go to fetch water on New Year's Eve? Beggars still have the 30th night, beggars don't even go out to ask for food on the 30th of the year. You... Ah, hurry up and put down the bucket!"

  Zuo Shaoyang quietly poured water into the vat and put down the bucket, then silently went to open the door of the pharmacy.

  "Never mind, it's New Year's Eve today, I've already said it, beggar..."

  "There are also thirty nights! — I won't open it anyway," Zuo Shaoyang said, closing the door again. "So what do we do today?"

  "Getting everything ready, preparing the altar for ancestor worship, exchanging peach symbols, pasting window decorations, getting ready for New Year's Eve dinner...". Thinking about it still doesn't know where to spend the year, and let out a sigh: "Sigh! Still don't rush, wait and see, San Niang will come at noon, and talk to her again, see if we can delay a bit more. If not, we'll have to move house too. Don't even know if your sister has found a place yet. Sigh!"

  "How about I open a door and let in some light?"

  "Don't open the door, just pull up the window!"

  The door of the three-bay medicine shop had windows on both sides, and there were also windows above the door. The room was already quite bright, but in ancient times, all windows had very complex window frames, which blocked out a part of the light. Moreover, the windows were all pasted with white paper, whose transparency was far inferior to glass. Therefore, although there were many windows, the room was still relatively dim.

  Zuo Shaoyang had no choice but to push open the windows on both sides, and the main room immediately brightened up. Although it was brighter now, the cold wind outside poured in, making it chilly again. Fortunately, Zuo Shaoyang had been through hardships for several days and had gotten used to them.

  Now that she was free, Zuo Shao Yang let down her hair and picked up a comb to comb it. After finishing, she started to learn how to braid a bun, but found it much harder than when her little sister did it for her the day before.

  Li's mother sighed: "Zhong Er, how can you not even braid your hair? Let me do it!" Li's mother took the comb from his hand and taught him how to braid his hair, saying as she did so. Finally, Zuo Shao Yang learned how to braid his own hair. When he finished, his hands were sore, and he thought that in this respect, modern society was better - just keep a short haircut, and you wouldn't even need a comb, how much easier!

  She had finished dressing her hair and putting on her headdress, and there was nothing more to do. Her father had already gotten out of bed, and after washing his face, he sat down at the long table with a cup of tea that Liang's mother had brewed, even though the shop wasn't open yet.

  Zuō Shǎo Yáng placed the medical book he had revised overnight in front of him: "Father, this is what that old doctor said, the omissions and errors in your handwritten copy. I've supplemented and organized them all."

  "Oh?" Zuo Gui took it over and flipped through it, very surprised. "Is this what Old Bell Doctor said?"

  "Yes, he asked me what medical books I had read. So I took the medical book you gave me to show him. He pointed out many errors and omissions, which I have all noted down."

  "Hmm, let me take a closer look as a father."

  "Okay, I'll continue writing."

  "What? You've only been here for a day and you've remembered so much?"

  Zuo Shaoyang was taken aback for a moment, and then said with a smile, "Actually, that old bell doctor secretly taught me for half a year before he left."

  "Really?" Zuo Gui was both surprised and delighted, "Hmph, you have this opportunity, it's truly your good fortune! Hurry up and write it then. Just write the prescription, as for other things, I don't have that kind of memory to recite them."

  "Oh," Left Shao Yang sighed, the light on his back was not good at learning medicine, and needed systematic study of relevant theories. However, Lao Die was already this old, and hadn't received modern education, so talking to him about "Traditional Chinese Medicine Basic Theory", "Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnostic Science" and other basic subjects would be useless. He might as well start directly with the prescription, which would be simple and easy to understand. So he said: "Old Lin taught me a medicinal poem, I'll write it down for you."

  "What's the song? Good." The song is easy to recite and remember.

  Zuo Shaoyang first fed the little squirrel with fruit juice and then picked up his pen to start writing "Tang Tou Ge".

  "Tang Tou Ge" is a medical book compiled by Wang Ang, a famous doctor of the Qing Dynasty. It selects and records more than 300 commonly used Chinese medicine prescriptions, divided into 20 categories such as tonifying, diaphoresis, purging, and emesis. The prescriptions are summarized and generalized in the form of seven-character rhymes, with brief annotations attached to each prescription for easy learning and recitation. Later, it became a must-memorize text for beginners in traditional Chinese medicine.

  New Year's Eve, every household is busy, and there are significantly fewer pedestrians on the road. They are all at home preparing for ancestor worship, New Year's Eve dinner, etc. Children are holding firecrackers and fireworks, with snacks in their hands, chatting and laughing as they pass by. The Spring Festival is always the happiest time for children.

  This poem is quite long and I didn't finish writing it until noon.

  After handing it over to Lao Die, Zuo Gui looked at it for a while and nodded frequently: "Very good, this song is profound and subtle, using square precision, enough for father to recite and study. Just write these for now, let father digest them first." He tucked the book into his bosom. At this moment, he didn't have the heart to look at medical books.

  Zuo Shaoyang put down his pen and leaned against the window frame, gazing out at the street scene.

  After a while, Huixiang hurried over and said: "Dad, Hou Pu has been looking for several rental houses these past few days. The one near the west city gate is relatively cheaper, but it's a bit out of the way. If it doesn't work out, we can move there temporarily, how about that?"

  Zuo Gui and Liang Shi exchanged a glance, let out a long sigh in unison, and nodded slowly.

  Liang and Xiang began packing up their things; they couldn't take any of the medicine with them, so there wasn't much else to pack.