Chapter Ninety: Healing a Troubled Heart

At noon, An Yi went as agreed to the inn where Li Ruoxian was lodging. The cheaper inns, where a night cost only a few coins, offered nothing more than a single room with one bed, one table, and four stools; the better inns, where a night cost three or two times that much, were quiet and graceful places, with a courtyard planted thickly in green bamboo, and beneath trellises of climbing vines, stone tables and benches set in place.

"With the sun this fierce, why didn't you bring an umbrella?" Li Ruoxian said, pressing a round fan into An Yi's hands.

"I am wearing a veiled hat. I couldn't well carry an umbrella too." An Yi had come under the blazing sun, her cheeks flushed pink from the heat. She quickly took the fan and waved it hard a few times.

Li Ruoxian fluttered her own fan and said, "Qiaozhu, go and bring a bowl of sour plum drink for Miss Nineteen."

In the fierce summer heat, the air was suffocating. Because of Cheng Ruizhi's condition, no ice basin had been set in the room. Though the windows stood open, not a breath of wind came in.

"Junior Sister Nineteen, move in tonight," Li Ruoxian said.

"It would be too much trouble to move back and forth. I am leaving early tomorrow morning." An Yi took the chance to take her leave.

"You've only been here two days, and you haven't even seen the scenery inside and outside the city. Stay ten days or half a month before you go; it won't be too late."

"The sights inside and outside the city are much the same. I've grown tired of them. I'll go see the bustle of the capital, and then I'll go home. No matter how fine the world outside may be, it still can't compare to home." An Yi smiled softly.

"We sisters have hardly any chance to meet. Whatever you say, you must stay here with me a few more days before you leave," Li Ruoxian coaxed.

An Yi could find no reason to refuse, so she looked to Cheng Ruizhi for help. Cheng Ruizhi smiled faintly and said, "Mother, why not wait until Aunt Nineteen has seen the splendor of the capital, then invite Aunt Nineteen to stay with our family for a few months? That would truly count as your hospitality as a local host."

"Second Senior Sister isn't refusing to invite me to your home, is she?" An Yi asked.

Li Ruoxian looked at An Yi, then at Cheng Ruizhi, and laughed. "Very well, very well, don't put it that way. I won't keep you here to accompany me, but you must keep your word. After you've seen the splendor of the capital, you must come to Fuzhou."

An Yi agreed at once. She accepted the sour plum drink that Qiaozhu brought, took two sips, and set it on the table.

After a few more idle exchanges, Qiaozhen came in to report that the restaurant had delivered the dishes. After lunch, Cheng Ruizhi sat for a little while longer, then begged pardon from An Yi and went back to his room for a nap.

An Yi and Li Ruoxian remained in the room chatting idly. Li Ruoxian did most of the talking, while An Yi mostly listened and occasionally replied with a word or two.

"Junior Sister Nineteen, I have something I don't know how to ask..." Li Ruoxian looked as though the words were hard to voice.

"Second Senior Sister, do you want me to take Ruizhi's pulse?" An Yi asked directly.

"When Master diagnosed Ruizhi at birth, she said he had congenital heart disease and would not live past eighteen. Master's medicine was superb; what she said could never be wrong. But..." Li Ruoxian's expression darkened, tears glimmering in her eyes. "But I cannot bear to believe it. I want to find someone who can prolong his life. Junior Sister Nineteen, can you help Ruizhi?"

An Yi had studied under Ji Fanyi, and she was so young; in Li Ruoxian's view, her medical skills could not possibly compare with Ji Fanyi's. But her love for her son was so deep that she was unwilling to miss even the faintest hope.

"I'll examine Ruizhi's pulse in a moment and see what the situation is before I say more." An Yi's own mother had suffered from congenital heart disease and had died young from it. She could not claim complete mastery of the condition, but she certainly knew more than Li Ruoxian did.

A small portion of congenital heart disease cases have a chance of self-recovery before the age of five; clearly Cheng Ruizhi was not among them. Another small portion have only mild malformations that do not significantly affect circulatory function and require no treatment at all; Cheng Ruizhi was not so fortunate either. His face was pale with illness, his lips tinged blue, which showed that the malformation in his heart was affecting circulation and that only surgery could cure him.

"Junior Sister Nineteen, thank you for being willing to make an exception for Ruizhi." Li Ruoxian took An Yi's three conditions at face value.

An Yi smiled awkwardly. Those three conditions had only been something she made up on the spur of the moment, and she could hardly tell the truth now.

When Cheng Ruizhi awoke from his nap, An Yi took his pulse.

"Ruizhi's condition is not too bad," she said, looking at Li Ruoxian with a slight frown.

"Aunt Nineteen, you needn't hold back. Please, just speak plainly," Cheng Ruizhi said.

Li Ruoxian nodded in agreement. "Junior Sister Nineteen, whatever it is, just say it. Don't hide it from us."

"Second Senior Sister, you shouldn't take Ruizhi around so much. Patients with congenital heart disease have weaker resistance and catch colds and fevers easily. He needs proper rest, and he must not overexert himself. Running about everywhere will have a great impact on his body," An Yi said frankly.

Li Ruoxian's face changed dramatically; her heart seemed to knot itself tight. "I... then what should I do now..."

"Mother, Aunt Nineteen just said my condition is not too bad. Don't panic yet. Let her finish." Cheng Ruizhi hurriedly soothed his mother.

"Second Senior Sister, actually you've cared for Ruizhi very well. If you pay more attention in the future, he can live for a very long time." An Yi had grounds for saying this. In modern times, patients with congenital heart disease who never underwent surgery could still live for many years, though of course their quality of life was not as good as that of healthy people.

"Junior Sister Nineteen, you can cure Ruizhi's congenital heart disease!" This was the first different answer Li Ruoxian had ever heard, and she was overjoyed.

"This illness cannot be cured right now." An Yi was an attending physician in thoracic surgery in modern times, but she had never performed a heart transplant; she had only done bypass operations. Even if she had, under these crude conditions she still could not possibly perform a heart transplant for Cheng Ruizhi.

"Mother, Aunt Nineteen said to pay more attention, not that it can be cured," Cheng Ruizhi said. He had long since become indifferent to life and death, but that did not mean he was unafraid of death. An Yi's words had given him a sliver of hope.

"Oh, oh, then what should we pay attention to?"

An Yi explained everything she knew. "Have you remembered all that I said?"

"We have," Li Ruoxian and Cheng Ruizhi said, both nodding.

An Yi added, "I will write you a prescription. Let Ruizhi take it every day."

"Qiaozhen, quickly bring pen and ink." Li Ruoxian said.

"Four and a half qian of fangji, three qian of yuzhu, six qian of astragalus, three qian of atractylodes, and one liang of yunqin." An Yi finished the prescription for Cheng Ruizhi, then wrote out four dietary remedies: yam stewed with pork kidneys, winter melon simmered with three birds, pig heart stewed with tangerine peel and astragalus, and beef stewed with hawthorn. "These four dishes need not be eaten every day. Once every few days will do."

After An Yi had eaten dinner with Li Ruoxian and her son, she took her leave.

Night had fallen deep. There were few pedestrians on the road, and the lanterns hung outside the shops cast a dim light. An Yi took off her veiled hat and held it in her hand. As she neared the inn gate, she saw two men in white approaching. They were muttering to each other in a language she could not understand.

An Yi paid them no mind and went on, only for the two of them to suddenly lunge at her. One grabbed for her chest; the other struck toward her abdomen.

An Yi was a young woman, yet these men used such vile tactics. Enraged, she hurled her veiled hat at them and stepped back swiftly. With her left hand she formed a seal, twisted her meridians, and launched a row of sleeve arrows.

The two men dodged left and right, their bodies turning with nimble ease, and in an instant they were behind An Yi.

An Yi spun around at once and lifted her right hand, about to fire silver needles, when one of them flicked a finger and pale yellow dust billowed out. An Yi knew at once that it was a sedative. She had no time to release the silver needles and hastily retreated, but still inhaled a little of the powder.

Seeing that she had inhaled it yet had not collapsed immediately, the two of them each used a grappling technique, coming at her from left and right.

An Yi had only recently begun learning martial arts. The journey had been peaceful, and she had only once crossed hands with Li Ruoxian, even then escaping by means other than force of arms. Now, facing two opponents at once and having inhaled sedative powder, she was powerless. She had used only three moves before they seized her, and with fingers flying they struck her acupoints shut.

The sedative took effect, and An Yi lost consciousness.

The dose of sedative had not been large. On top of that, An Yi knew how to compound such drugs herself, and after more than a year of medicinal baths, her body had developed resistance to them. Soon the drug's effects wore off, and she gradually came to. She heard several breathing sounds near her, but she did not dare open her eyes.

After listening for a while, An Yi slowly opened them a sliver. She was inside a carriage. There was no oil lamp within, and it was pitch-dark. After blinking a few times and adjusting to the blackness, she discovered that besides herself there were three other girls in the carriage, all still unconscious.

An Yi did not dare wake them rashly. Noticing that her acupoints had been sealed, she quickly composed herself, regulated her breathing, and completed one full cycle of internal circulation, forcing open the blocked points.

Just then the carriage suddenly stopped. An Yi hurriedly lay still. She heard someone outside ask, "Aunt Miao, you've worked hard on the road. How was this trip?"

"This trip went very well. We captured sixteen girls. A few of them are quite pretty, and the one we just caught is an exceptional beauty. The palace lord will surely like her when they see her," a hoarse female voice replied.

An Yi frowned slightly. Palace lord? Could this be the Hundred Flowers Palace, renowned throughout the martial world for its seductive arts? If so, that would explain why they had acted with such indecency. But according to the book, the Hundred Flowers Palace's lair was in Chengdu. When had it moved to Zhengzhou?

"Aunt Miao is indeed formidable."

Aunt Miao gave a couple of dry chuckles and asked, "Has that old ghost Mu returned yet?"

"Lord Mu hasn't returned yet, but he should be back in the next few days."

"Then he is certain to lose to me this time," Aunt Miao said with confidence.

The carriage continued onward. An Yi was secretly anxious, yet helpless to do anything. She did not know how far they traveled before the carriage stopped again. With a rustle, the door was pulled open.

"Carry them into the room," Aunt Miao ordered.

An Yi caught a strong floral fragrance, and then she felt herself being lifted. She could even feel the softness against the woman's chest. So the one who captured her was a woman, and therefore had no scruples in her movements.

Already in the thieves' den, An Yi dared not act rashly. She feigned unconsciousness and let the woman carry her into the room. The woman brought An Yi inside and laid her on the bed.

An Yi pricked up her ears to listen. There were faint footsteps, and after a moment she felt another person beside her.

After a while, An Yi heard the door close and lock, and then she heard Aunt Miao say, "Keep an eye on them. I am going to rest for a while."

An Yi slowly opened her eyes. Once they adjusted to the darkness, she looked around. This was a very large room, with six beds arranged haphazardly. On the bed where she lay, there was another girl besides her. It seemed likely that the other beds also held the kidnapped girls.