Just as Doctor Wu, Li Jin, and the shopkeeper were talking, a new patient at Xinglin Hall recognized Li Jin.
He said, “Doctor, will you be working here from now on?”
The man faced the three of them, but his gaze was fixed squarely on Li Jin.
It was clear he was looking for Li Jin himself.
He was dressed casually, and it seemed he wasn’t familiar with medical terminology, saying ‘working here’ instead of ‘seeing patients.’
Li Jin was silent for a moment. He was fine with it, after all, he was poor. If he could earn some silver, he would take it.
The shopkeeper seemed a bit reluctant to hire him, which was a problem.
While he was thinking, the shopkeeper spoke up: “Of course, after the busy farming season, Dr. Li will come in July.”
The patient happily agreed and said, “So the young doctor’s surname is Li. My wife is now seven months pregnant. We will have Dr. Li take a look then.”
After the patient left, the shopkeeper said, “As expected, Dr. Li’s reputation has already spread; really, you can’t judge a person by appearance!”
After pausing for a moment, he continued, “I had offended you before, how about one tael of silver in July and three taels of silver in August per month. You will have one day off every ten days, and meals at noon are provided. Dr. Li, does that sound acceptable?”
This was already the most perfect treatment possible.
Afterwards, Li Jin discussed with the shopkeeper about the working hours during the ‘internship period’ in July. After all, at this time the young man was still at confinement period, and he couldn’t leave the young man and the child at home unattended.
In the end, the working hours were set as one shichen1[ 1 shichen = 2 hour ] per day in July and two shichen per day in August.
Doctor Wu also wanted to mention that the person surnamed Song intended to come to thank Li Jin for saving the mother and child and ensuring their safety.
Li Jin thought for a moment and said, “There’s no rush. I will come for consultations in July, and we will meet then. If he comes by again soon, please have Dr. Wu tell him to take good care of his wife during this time—it’s never too late to show gratitude later.”
Dr. Wu agreed. The shopkeeper, seeing that Li Jin wasn’t complacent or expecting favors, maintained his usual attitude.
He praised, “Dr. Li, your medical ethics are noble. Your coming to my Xinglin Hall truly brings honor to the place.”
Li Jin quickly waved his hand and said he didn’t deserve the praise.
=
Two more days passed, and it was finally time for the monthly bathing and self-cultivation day2[In ancient China, months were sometimes divided into three 旬 (10-day periods) instead of weeks. So “每旬一日的沐修” means there was one designated rest day every 10 days specifically for bathing and personal upkeep — similar to how modern people might have a “spa day” or a scheduled day off, except this was a formal, recurring system (often for officials, students, or workers in institutional settings where daily bathing wasn’t practical or allowed).].
This ritual day off wasn’t just for the students at the school; the doctors at the clinic got a break too.
However, Dr. Wu’s hometown wasn’t in town, he was just working there as a doctor. So even on the day of self-cultivation, he wouldn’t go home because of the long journey, and he stayed in the inner hall studying medicine.
For Li Jin, this day of self-cultivation meant he had time to go up the mountain and gather herbs.
On the day of self-cultivation, Li Jin got up early and first gathered three baskets of dry branches and leaves to use as firewood.
After that, he went to pick herbs, sorted them carefully, and planned to deliver them to Xinglin Hall in an hour or so.
Before leaving, the young man helped him tidy up the hemp ropes that secured the baskets on his back, then handed him a handkerchief.
It was made of the cheapest hemp cloth, but all four edges were stitched with fine, close stitches, making it look especially delicate and neat.
“If Ah Jin sweats while walking on the road, use this handkerchief first. I can sew a few more, so Ah Jin can alternate using them.”
In this era, men—more precisely, scholars—also needed to have handkerchiefs, after all, they sweat too, and wiping sweat directly with a sleeve, like Zhuangjia han3[“Zhuangjia han” (庄稼汉,) meaning a farmer/peasant] does, would seem too uncultured.
Li Jin hadn’t paid attention to this detail before. When he was hurrying and sweating heavily, sometimes the sweat would drip down along his chin.
At that time, Li Jin quite missed modern tissue paper, always feeling like something was missing around him. After the young man reminded him, he realized that handkerchiefs were actually a substitute for tissue paper and even more environmentally friendly.
Li Jin laughed, “This is the first time you’ve sewn something for me. I’ll cherish it.”
The young man thought to himself, this isn’t the first time at all. He had sewn a white robe before, but Li Jin had rejected it and never wore it.
Oh right, at the time Li Jin was about to throw that long robe away. He felt it was a pity and ended up hiding it in the storage compartment under the kitchen stove. Recently, though, somehow Li Jin managed to dig it out and even wore it to school.
Later on, he also gradually sewed quite a few things like money pouches, pencil cases, and so on—but without exception, Li Jin either refused to use them or just outright ruined them.
What did Li Jin say at that time?
“If I use something stitched by a ger, would I still have any face in town?”
However, this handkerchief was also the first thing Li Jin accepted from him in person that he had sewn.
Let’s not dwell on past hurts.
The young man showed two adorable dimples: “There’s still some linen at home. I saw that your money pouch is a bit worn out, so I’ll sew you a new one.”
Li Jin smiled and replied, “Okay.”
By the time Li Jin arrived at Xinglin Hall, it was already past the si hour (around ten in the morning). Dr. Wu calculated the payment and gave Li Jin six hundred and ten wen. Six hundred wen of this was for the price of the herbs, and ten wen was a cooperation fee.
This time, the amount of herbs Li Jin collected was not as much as the second time, because he found that someone in the village might know about him earning money from collecting herbs, and many of the wild vegetables along with the herbs at the foot of the mountain had been picked clean.
However, these people lacked proper techniques and could not identify which were true medicinal herbs; they only thought about collecting everything indiscriminately, leaving nothing behind.
Although most villagers knew that collecting herbs in this manner would not yield any profit, there were still those who envied the Li Jin family for rising from poverty to the point where they now had braised pork to eat and rapeseed crops to plant.
They also wanted to try their luck by collecting herbs.
Besides, this mountain isn’t owned by Li Jin, and the herbs weren’t planted by him, so he really can’t control how others collect them.
But luckily, Li Jin doesn’t plan to rely on herbs to make money anymore.
In a while, the rainy season will come, and he’s still pretty careful about safety.
Besides, next month Li Jin will be seeing patients at Xinglin Hall, and besides having one meal a day provided, he’ll earn a silver or two per month, which is already enough to help with household expenses.
If he saves a bit, he will still be able to buy paper and ink blocks next month. By August, when his monthly income reaches three taels, it won’t be so tight.
Doctor Wu knew some of the circumstances in Li Jin’s family and said, “Earlier today, someone came to sell unsorted herbs before you, and I saw that the herbs looked promising; they should have come from the same place as yours. It’s just a pity that the parts that should have been used were all ruined due to improper picking methods, and in the end, not a single one could be used.”
He looked at Li Jin with some concern. “Are those people jealous of you?”
Li Jin said, “Maybe, but there’s a lot of rain in August. I’ll probably only go up the mountain a few more times next month, and after that, I won’t go anymore.”
Doctor Wu thought for a moment and said, “That makes sense. Previously, some people we hired for collecting more herbs fell from the mountain while trying to make extra money, and they didn’t survive. Being careful is definitely the right thing to do.”
“Thanks, Doctor Wu.”
Li Jin came out of Xinglintang, thinking that with his 610 wen, he had to repay half of the deposit owed to Li Daniu’s family, which was 350 wen.
Not counting the ‘savings’ at home, he now only had 260 wen left. Li Jin thought about the results of his recent workouts and decided that he still needed to buy some beef.
Eating only eggs still wasn’t enough to supplement protein.
If he wanted to build muscle in three months, diet was also very important.
What happened next felt a bit dramatic to Li Jin. The owner of the butcher shop in town turned out to be the very Song family whose lives he had saved with his herbal medicine.
Actually, when he was asking around earlier, that guy had told Li Jin that the people seeking medical help were from the butcher shop, but Li Jin didn’t pay much attention at the time.
The shop owner hadn’t even been outside to greet customers; it was actually his assistant who recognized Li Jin first and hurriedly called the owner out.
Boss Song got really excited when he saw Li Jin: “Our lifesaver!”
Li Jin: “You’re too kind, really.”
“Are you here to buy meat, doctor? Ribs, pork belly, hind leg meat, guys, wrap it all up for him.”
Boss Song had hired two assistants, and inside were two courtyards, making the shop look quite prosperous.
Li Jin hurriedly said, “No need. Boss Song, you’re too kind. I’m here to ask if the town can place orders for beef and fish.”
Boss Song said, “Doctor, don’t call me Boss Song. My name is Song Dali. I’ve been strong since I was young, and my father taught me to slaughter pigs. You can just call me Dali.”
Li Jin didn’t dare call him that and could only address him as Brother Song in the end.
Song Dali said, “Beef supplies are scarce. The cows here are very precious, normally they are well-fed and well-cared-for, just waiting to work in the fields.
However, some cows are about to die of old age, and those are the ones they sell to me for slaughter.But Dr. Li, the meat from those old cows isn’t as fresh and tasty as our pork.”
Li Jin thought about it and realized it made sense—beef in ancient villages really was expensive and tough. He asked, “What about fish?”
“There aren’t many fish in the river downstream from us, but there’s a pond upstream — if you want fish, I’ll have someone go ask around for you.”
Li Jin didn’t have any connections on his side, so he could only trouble Song Dali.
Song Dali said, “This is such a small matter, it really doesn’t count for much. The doctor was in a hurry today, and I can’t stay long either. Please do me the favor of telling me where my home is. We will definitely come to thank you for saving our lives.”
At this moment, Li Jin no longer refused. After all, in ancient times, such thanks were only natural.
If he refused again, it would seem a bit inconsiderate.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many novels written saying things like ‘The hero saved my family, and this young woman must offer herself in return.’
Boss Song was just too enthusiastic, so Li Jin ended up carrying a bag full of spare ribs, hind legs, pork belly, and pig trotters.
When Li Jin returned to the village, he first put the items down, then went to the village chief to buy some seasonal produce like pumpkin, eggplant, potatoes, winter melon, and so on. His family’s vegetable plot had just been planted, and it would take at least four weeks for them to grow, so for the time being, they could only rely on buying vegetables.
The young man felt delighted when he saw the pumpkin and said, “Pumpkins are sweet; we can steam buns with them.”
Li Jin said, “Do you want to eat pumpkin buns?”
The young boy nodded. Although he was a bit hesitant, he was increasingly bold in expressing his inner thoughts. He wasn’t as timid as before.
This was a good sign. Li Jin could see it clearly in his heart and was very pleased with his change, though his expression remained as usual.
He said, “Then I’ll steam the buns, and you eat.”
The young man was somewhat dazed at the moment. The process of making steamed buns was quite complicated; not only did he have to cut the pumpkin and prepare the filling, but he also had to knead the dough, and in the end, he had to fold the dough to make buns.
Li Jin raised an eyebrow: “What, you don’t trust me?”
The young man shook his head: “Of course not, it’s just that you’ve been working hard all day today, and I, I hope you can take a rest.”
Qin Muwen finally spoke his mind, feeling a bit uneasy, worried that Li Jin wouldn’t like it.
But over these days, Qin Muwen had noticed all of Li Jin’s efforts.
He felt that Li Jin seemed completely unaffected by fatigue, busy from morning till night every day. When others were resting, he still had to find time to practice calligraphy… If this continued, even someone tough as an iron wouldn’t be able to endure it.
A very strange emotion, one that had never appeared in his heart before, suddenly began to grow in Li Jin’s heart.
He didn’t have time to think about what it really was. Or rather, he thought about it but couldn’t find an answer.
In the end, the fearless Dr. Li blurted out: “Care about me?”
The author has something to say:
In the end, the fearless Dr. Li blurted out: “You care about me?”
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