Ye Qichi walked into the separate courtyard.
The courtyard was quiet in the early dawn light.
Weeds grew thickly within the courtyard, suggesting it had not been tended to for quite some time.
Ye Qichi followed the stairs and came before a door, then knocked.
The door opened, and a Maid appeared at the doorway, draped in a thick garment, her face abnormally flush with red, and with red sores scattered across her face. Her spirit was very downcast at the moment. Seeing Ye Qichi, she seemed surprised but showed little interest in other matters due to her discomfort. In a sickly voice, she asked, "Are you here to take care of the young mistress?"
The people here had actually been replaced several times already.
The Maids who came to take care of Pang Nan’s daughter, Pang Yuehuan, kept dying one after the other due to infection and because they could not afford expensive medications for treatment.
They were barely hanging on and thought she was someone Pang Da Ren had newly dispatched to care for the young mistress.
"I am a doctor, I am here to treat you," Ye Qichi explained.
The Maid’s eyes flickered, but her gaze remained dull, "It’s useless, this disease is incurable."
"Let me in first," Ye Qichi said, not wanting to explain further.
The Maid opened the door.
Inside the room, besides the Maid who had opened the door, there was another Maid sleeping on a couch nearby. Her face was similarly flushed with red, but different from the first Maid, her face was covered in red spots. At this moment, she was clearly in a state of high fever, and the noise at the door did not stir her—perhaps her mind was beginning to blur.
Ye Qichi surveyed the room and walked to Pang Yuehuan’s bedside.
By the bedside, there were also two doctors seated.
The doctors appeared to be lacking in spirit, and when someone approached, they just looked on indifferently, showing no reaction.
The Maid said, "This is a new doctor that Da Ren has invited over."
The doctors shook their heads without speaking.
All of them had given up hope.
Now everyone had caught the disease and couldn’t leave, all they could do was wait for death.
Ye Qichi sat beside Pang Yuehuan and touched her forehead.
"How long has the fever lasted?" Ye Qichi asked the doctor by her side.
"It’s been more than two months since the illness started," the doctor answered. He continued, "I advise you to leave early, it’s no use. Now, nothing can cure it. And the young mistress is already past the point of recovery, it will only be a matter of days. Since we are all doomed anyway, why should you throw away your own life? All of us here, once the young mistress dies, we will have to follow her, so don’t throw away your own life for nothing. Go outside the courtyard and hide, don’t get infected. As soon as the young mistress dies, you can leave."
The tone carried a somber earnestness.
Ye Qichi smiled at the corner of his lips, "No, none of you will die, I will cure all of you."
"How can you just not believe..." the doctor shook his head, saying nothing more.
Ye Qichi let go of Pang Yuehuan’s forehead, reached out her hand to feel her pulse.
The pulse was indeed very weak; if not treated promptly, she feared she might not survive the night.
She tightened her eyes and fully concentrated, starting to diagnose Pang Yuehuan.
In fact, since the moment she saw the symptoms on the two Maids, she had basically determined the possibility of smallpox, and now, after taking the pulse, it verified her thoughts even further.
Smallpox, one of the four great ancient plagues, highly contagious, and in the terribly poor medical conditions of ancient times, indeed had a very high fatality rate.
"What medications have you all used on her?" Ye Qichi asked the doctors.
"Mainly antipyretics," the doctor recited the prescription for Ye Qichi to hear.
Ye Qichi shook her head.
In fact, smallpox is not suitable for immediate fever reduction, but rather by letting the fever burn, the virus might be eradicated, giving a chance of survival.
She had to be grateful that their antipyretics were not very strong, and that they had been using expensive tonics to nourish Pang Yuehuan’s body, regulating the electrolyte balance, thus not causing severe dehydration. Otherwise, Pang Yuehuan would have long since passed away.
"Is there pen and ink?" Ye Qichi asked.
"Yes," the doctor replied, pointing to the ink stone on the side.
Ye Qichi walked over, picked up the pen and ink, and began to write, reading as she wrote, "Fried white silkworm pupae two grams, whole cicada molt one gram, broad turmeric three grams, raw Rhubarb four grams... grind all into fine powder, divide into two servings. With five people here, we need to make five sets of two servings."
Everyone listened quietly to Ye Qichi’s prescription, neither interrupting nor showing any surprise.
After writing the prescription, Ye Qichi asked the doctors, "Do you have all these medicines here?"