Hearing the word “Border,” Shen Yu immediately felt a surge of interest.
She took Cao Xiangning’s notebook and looked at it.
It was indeed a formula for clearing heat and reducing fever, but it was specifically for treating a common cold.
It would not have much effect on the high fever caused by a smallpox infection.
Wind-cold was a “cold” evil; the body’s reaction was “constriction and blockage.”
To the physicians of this era, a smallpox infection was a “heat” evil, causing “fever and fluid injury.”
Shen Yu didn’t even need to look closely; any experienced physician who studied it carefully could conclude it was useless against the Hundred-Year Sore.
However, she was curious—why did Cao Xiangning go out of her way to emphasize that this formula was obtained from the Border?
“This formula is useless. Why did you specifically emphasize that it was sought from the Border? The Border is far less prosperous than the Capital City, and the skill level of the physicians there is naturally worlds apart.”
“No!”
Cao Xiangning shook her head.
“Look here!”
She pointed to the fragmented notes in her notebook, which served as snippets to help her recall her lost memories.
“I once went to the Border with my father to seek medical treatment for my Loss of Mind. From my observations, I found that although the people living there lead relatively simple lives, they are very healthy. Even though the Border is so close to the Barbarians and is such a desolate, remote place, it should be the first to suffer whenever the Great Plague rages. Because of poverty, families there are often torn apart by a simple fever.”
She continued, “But the reality is… the people in the townships, towns, and even the villages of the Border are very healthy. Not only is the newborn survival rate extremely high, but the proportion of young, able-bodied laborers is also very high. Because they aren’t plagued by disease and death, the Border’s grain production has become increasingly abundant. Even as the Empire is going downhill, the Border is showing a scene of stability and improvement. It is incredible and should be impossible.”
Cao Xiangning was bold.
She spoke her mind about the Imperial Court and the Border without hesitation.
Shen Yu wouldn’t have dared say such things so casually.
However, Cao Xiangning did have her Loss of Mind; she only remembered where people lived well and where they suffered.
She didn’t remember the Imperial Court’s attempts to paint a peaceful picture or their censorship to maintain social stability.
The Imperial Court was too busy with its own problems to care about the bandit-ridden, impoverished Border.
That region was merely a buffer zone between the Imperial Court and the Barbarians beyond the pass.
Years ago, the Imperial Court had deliberately ignored the bandit problem at the Border so that when the Barbarians invaded, the bandits would be forced to fight them while the Imperial Court watched from safety.
After all, to the Imperial Court, losing the Border was no great loss.
Keeping such a poor place was a burden anyway.
But it was different for the bandits of the Border.
No matter how poor it was, it was their home.
When the Barbarians invaded, they would inevitably pillage and loot.
Since the Imperial Court wouldn’t act, the bandits had to confront the Barbarians to protect their own interests.
Regardless of whether they could win, the situation didn’t bode well for the Imperial Court.
While this strategy seemed like a clever, if unorthodox, move, the Imperial Court had clearly underestimated both the strength of the Border bandits and the courage of the Barbarians outside the pass.
For many years, the Barbarians had been nearly wiped out by the Great Plague, while the Border grew stronger every day because of superior medical conditions.
Specifically, the bandit dens led by Qingfeng Village were in league with the local population.
In that place where the mountains were high and the Emperor was far, the commoners who received help from Qingfeng Village only recognized the bandit leader, Shen Bashan—they didn’t care about the pathetic Imperial Court.
This was the reason the Imperial Court was currently so anxious to suppress the bandits; if they allowed the Border to continue developing, the region might eventually declare independence.
Cao Xiangning didn’t care about the politics of the bandits.
She only knew that the level of medical care at the Border was extremely high.
Formulas coming out of Qingfeng Village could save lives with just a few words; a Qingfeng Village prescription was worth its weight in gold in the Central Plains.
She had forgotten many things, but she couldn’t forget Qingfeng Village.
she couldn’t forget the sight of a place where everyone lived in safety and happiness, nor the innocent smiles of children whose faces bore no scars from the Hundred-Year Sore.
Ultimately, what she truly couldn’t forget was the steadfast kindness in her heart.
Although the Empire had begun to rot from within, there were always people willing to mend it, even if they had to sacrifice their lives.
It wasn’t for the country, for family, or even for themselves—it was for the sake of all the common people under heaven.
“I see.”
After listening to Cao Xiangning’s explanation, Shen Yu finally realized the true value of herself and her mother, Su Lianyue.
It turned out that under her own improvements, the medical level of Qingfeng Village had long since become the best in the country… and perhaps the world.
While at Qingfeng Village, Shen Yu had spent every day working herself to the bone over various difficult and complicated diseases, racking her brain and studying by lamplight just to find a single glimmer of hope amidst countless impossibilities.
For over ten years, she had worked diligently, exhausting all resources with the full cooperation of her family to barely build the Border into one-third of what she had imagined.
When she left Qingfeng Village, she thought she would struggle to move a single step without that protection, only to find that it wasn’t even raining outside the umbrella.
After all, even a young lady from a prestigious family like Miss Xiaoyue could believe in something as ridiculous as Pulse Diagnosis by Silk Thread.
It could only be said that the Imperial Physicians’ ability to treat illness relied entirely on the powerful medicinal properties of the world’s herbs.
If they were in the ancient times of the world Shen Yu had once lived in, their methods of healing would be no different from a shaman’s performance—barely qualifying as “performance art.”
In Cao Xiangning’s eyes, the “Border” in “Border Prescription” had become something of a brand name.
As long as it carried those words, the value of any medical formula would skyrocket.
“This prescription is useless.”
Shen Yu spoke bluntly, and her words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Cao Xiangning’s head, making the light fade from the girl’s eyes.
The reason Shen Yu was so certain was that the formula looked very familiar; it looked like something she had written for practice when she was a four-year-old.
Moreover, several of the herbs had been copied incorrectly.
Although the overall effect wasn’t entirely lost, the side effects, such as dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, were enough to torture anyone.
For an ordinary cold, it was actually a decent formula—one dose would show results, and the patient would basically be cured after three.
But against smallpox, it was completely ineffective.
“In dealing with the Hundred-Year Sore, the most important thing is to prevent its spread. To put it simply, keep healthy people away from the infected. Let the sick have enough to eat, keep them warm, and let them rest. Then, use medicine to alleviate their symptoms like fever and pain as much as possible to prolong their lives and give their bodies a chance to fight back.”
The mortality rate of smallpox was high, averaging about 30%, and considering factors like malnutrition, the Hundred-Year Sore was truly a silent, invisible demon in this era.
However, that didn’t mean there was no hope…
“I! I will take you to see His Majesty! Can your plan save the people outside the city? Saving them… is saving the Capital City. I didn’t know what to do before, so I didn’t dare enter the Imperial Palace to advise him.”
Hearing Shen Yu speak so logically—and seeing how some of it matched the practical experience of the Marquis Mansion’s family physicians—hope flared in Cao Xiangning’s heart.
“But it’s different now, Physician Attendant Shen… You really are as the legends say, a Divine Physician! Come, I will take you to see His Majesty!”
“Wait! Hold on a moment. It’s the middle of the night,” Shen Yu said.
“It’s so late… can you even see the Emperor?”