Chapter 19
The three imperial physicians led by Chief Physician Cao were ushered into the residence. Each of them took Cui Lanyin's pulse, asked in great detail about how her condition had developed over the past two years, and also inquired thoroughly about the old head ailment that had troubled Lady Tan back then. After some joint discussion, they roughly arrived at a conclusion.
Chief Physician Cao, as the leading figure, explained the situation to Cui Sheng and Lady Jiang, saying, "The Second Miss of your household's ailment is inherited from Old Madam Lady Tan. Such a condition passed down through blood is extremely difficult to root out, making it a very thorny case. With the limits of our medical knowledge, all we can do for now is find ways to ease the pain the Second Miss suffers during episodes, and pair that with suitable acupuncture treatments to extend the interval between her attacks. We will have to wait until the Second Miss has taken the prescribed medicine for some time to work out the specific details of the acupuncture regimen, so there is no need to rush that part for the moment."
The old imperial physician who had treated Lady Tan all those years ago had said exactly the same thing, and he had left behind several medicinal prescriptions as well as dietary therapy recipes. The porridge made with Tianma (gastrodia) and chicken soup that Cui Lanyin consumes every day is one of those dietary therapy formulas.
Cui Sheng had memorized those medicinal and dietary recipes thoroughly long ago. He related every one of them to Chief Physician Cao, who smiled after listening and said, "So it was old Physician Xue who treated her back then. Those prescriptions are all extremely appropriate and perfectly suited to the symptoms. Any new prescriptions we would write would be no different from these, so you may continue using them as before. When we pair them with acupuncture treatments later on, she will always be able to suffer less discomfort."
Standing nearby, Imperial Physician Liu asked, "Logically speaking, after using those very same prescriptions for so many years, the condition should have eased somewhat. Why is it that the Second Miss's attacks are even more severe than what Old Madam Lady Tan experienced back in the day?"
How could the two situations possibly be the same? When Lady Tan was still alive, the Cui family had not yet fallen into such decline. Those medicinal and dietary prescriptions had been used in rotation back then, and in good times, she would only have one episode a month, and after lying down for just a day, she would almost fully recover.
Cui Lanyin's ailment first flared up after the family moved to Yingcheng. The two branches of the Cui family had lost more than half of their assets, and they could barely make ends meet to get by. Cui Lanyin insisted on only using the cheapest dietary therapy option, the Tianma chicken soup porridge, and even that she felt was costing too much money. Whenever her family tried to get her to switch to other prescriptions, she would say that they might as well not use any treatments at all.
Once she set her stubborn mind to something, she would dare to go through with almost anything. Since she herself was the one managing all the household money, she also reasoned that she was still young, and if she used the best medicines too early, there would be nothing left that could help her when she really needed them later, and she would have to endure even more unbearable pain.
Old Physician Xue had indeed said so back then, that no medicine could offer more than temporary relief for this head ailment, and none of their effects would last for very long.
Cui Sheng and Lady Jiang were both too soft and unassertive by nature, so they had let her have her way all this time.
When the imperial physicians brought this matter up, the couple felt a sharp stab of pain in their hearts, and they felt all the more that they were utterly useless as guardians.
The three imperial physicians were all very experienced and worldly-wise, and from the looks on the couple's faces, they immediately understood exactly what the situation was.
Apart from the Tianma chicken soup porridge, the other prescriptions cost a considerable amount of money, and even families of comfortable means could not afford to use them regularly. From what they had seen of the Cui family's main branch residence just now, it was obvious that their family fortunes had fallen to a very low ebb. The fact that they had managed to keep serving the Tianma chicken soup porridge to Cui Lanyin without interruption all this time already showed that they cared deeply about the Second Miss's condition.
It was none of their business if the family lacked the money to afford the other treatments. Their duty was done once they had taken the patient's pulse and given their professional diagnosis. As imperial physicians who served in the palace, they knew perfectly well what they should and should not speak of, so Chief Physician Cao and the other two said nothing more on the matter.
In their hearts, though, they could not help but feel puzzled. How had this young lady from such an impoverished gentry family managed to gain the favor of Empress Dowager Chen and Prince Wei? And if she had, why hadn't those two offered her any financial assistance? They assumed it must have been nothing more than superficial courtesy.
Most people on the outside only knew a limited amount about the situation, but the imperial physicians, who spent their days in the palace, understood the full background. After Empress Dowager Chen and Prince Wei returned, His Majesty treated them with exceptional leniency, granting them privileges that were comparable in every way to those enjoyed by Empress Dowager Li and Prince Duan. That was why when Prince Wei's residence sent a request for imperial physicians to attend to someone, the court had readily dispatched three of them without hesitation.
Cui Lanyin endured the pain, shifted herself quietly, and gave Aiye a soft instruction. Aiye went to fetch thirty-five taels of silver, then slipped it discreetly to Cui Sheng. Cui Sheng gave fifteen taels to Chief Physician Cao, and ten taels each to Imperial Physician Liu and Imperial Physician Zhang. This was the standard "travel fee" that was customarily paid to imperial physicians who made house calls.
Thirty-five taels of silver was a very large sum for the main branch of the Cui family, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for Chief Physician Cao and the other two. When they made visits to the households of high-ranking nobles, it was not uncommon to receive more than a hundred taels as a gratuity.
After seeing Buyan and the three imperial physicians off, Cui Sheng and Lady Jiang did not ask Aiye to return the remaining silver to them. The two of them went to the front of the residence to busy themselves for a while, and then Cui Sheng left the house with Geng Shun. About half an hour later, the two of them came back with the medicine they had picked up.
Another half an hour passed, and the medicine was fully simmered. Lady Jiang and Aiye worked together to help Cui Lanyin sit up, and fed her the medicinal broth spoon by spoon. By the evening, Cui Lanyin could barely prop herself up into a sitting position. Her head still ached badly, but it was no longer the unbearable pain that had felt as if her head was about to be split open. Previously, she would only reach this level of relief on the very last day of an episode, which meant that by the evening of the next day, this entire flare-up would finally pass.
The new medicine had already eased her suffering significantly, but Cui Sheng and Lady Jiang only felt more guilty about their situation. They went to the front of the house and wept together quietly. When Cui Su and Cui Jian returned home from their school lessons, the two boys were also heavy-hearted. The whole family discussed that they could no longer continue to live this way.
In the study of Prince Wei's residence, Buyan reported to Prince Wei and Bailin the details of his visit with the three imperial physicians to examine Cui Lanyin.
"I always said those imperial physicians can't treat illnesses properly. After all these years, they are still using the exact same old prescriptions, not a single bit of progress has been made," Bailin said, clearly skeptical about the medical capabilities of the imperial physicians.
"Xuanlin," Prince Wei said, making a hand gesture as he spoke.
Bailin immediately understood his meaning. "I will send a message to Xuanlin via carrier pigeon right away, and tell him to search far and wide for famous physicians who specialize in treating head ailments."
Bailin's inner thoughts were far less calm than his outward demeanor suggested. Prince Wei was going to such great lengths for Cui Lanyin's head ailment—he had not only arranged for three top imperial physicians to see her, but now he was even planning to look for renowned doctors among the common people. The Second Miss Cui was indeed very likable, and she knew exactly how to make Prince Wei happy, but if any of the young ladies from the Yao family had been in her position, they would surely have performed no worse than her. Yet Prince Wei had never even agreed to meet those young ladies at all. It was more than obvious how differently Prince Wei treated Cui Lanyin from everyone else.
Turning around, Bailin noticed that Buyan had not stepped back to the side, and looked as if he had something more to say. He asked, "Is there anything else?"
Buyan scratched his head, but decided to speak up anyway. "I don't think the problem is that those prescriptions are no good. It's that the Second Miss hasn't been using most of them. For the past two years, she has only been using the one dietary therapy recipe that costs the least amount of money."
"What?" Bailin blurted out in surprise. He had no idea the main branch of the Cui family was in such dire straits. He then looked over at Prince Wei, and noticed a hint of astonishment even in Prince Wei's eyes.
"Did you ask how much the most expensive of those prescriptions costs for one dose?" Bailin asked.
"When I walked the three imperial physicians back to the Imperial Hospital, I asked them about the cost of every single one of those prescriptions. The ones meant to ease pain are all quite pricey—each dose costs roughly ten taels of silver. But you don't need to take them every day. You only have to use them for the two days when an episode hits. The Second Miss has at least two episodes every month, and each one lasts at least two days, so that adds up to no less than forty taels of silver a month. There are also two other prescriptions for gentle nourishment and long-term conditioning that have to be taken continuously all year round. Those cost about one tael of silver per day, which is thirty taels a month. Adding those two expenses together, it comes out to seventy taels of silver a month. And I heard that the Second Miss has already had three episodes this month. On top of that, those prescriptions have to be used in rotation—if you keep using the same one all the time, it will stop working after a while."
Bailin did a quick mental calculation. That would add up to almost a thousand taels of silver a year. That was roughly the total annual income of most ordinary official families without strong family backgrounds. Goodness, the Second Miss Cui's illness was an incredibly expensive burden.
"Have the medicine delivered to her, and make sure the supply never runs out," Prince Wei ordered. He had agreed to spend that huge sum of money without the slightest hesitation.
Bailin could barely contain his shock. Prince Wei did have great wealth at his disposal, but funding the operations of the entire Dark Feather Guard organization was no small financial strain. He normally only spent his money on people he recognized as his own. Even Emperor Xuanning would never have been able to get him to spend that kind of money without a very good reason.
Now that he had insisted on having medicine prepared for Second Miss Cui without any interruption, that meant he would be covering all the costs of her medical treatments from now on. Year after year, those expenses would add up to a staggering sum. In just ten years, the total would be enough to fund a proper dowry for the legitimate daughter of a high-ranking noble family.
So Second Miss Cui must be his own flesh and blood niece, right? If their ages did not add up wrong, Bailin would even suspect that Consort Yao had given birth to an extra child back then, and that there was some hidden secret behind Second Miss Cui's background.
Bailin did not dare to delay any further. The finest medicinal ingredients were naturally found in the Imperial Hospital, so he told Buyan to go there to have the medicine prepared and send it to the main branch of the Cui family.
When Academy Director Cao saw this, he did not waste a single moment. He politely explained to the eunuch who was waiting to fetch medicine for Concubine Shun, and had the medicine for Second Miss Cui prepared first before handing it over to Buyan to take away.
As the sky was about to brighten, Cui Lanyin took another dose of the medicine. By the next morning, she was already able to get out of bed.
In her half-conscious state, she knew very well that an extremely expensive prescription had been used this time. She knew exactly how much those prescriptions cost. For the pain-relieving formula, five doses were needed at a time, and for the nourishing formula, ten doses were required. That alone amounted to sixty taels of silver, a sum that even the combined monthly stipends of five people in the entire household could not cover.
She knew that once this precedent was set, the other four members of her family would sell off every valuable possession they owned to keep her supplied with medicine, without ever stopping. If things went on like this, the whole family would be dragged down and ruined because of her.
The more she thought about it, the sadder she felt. A dull ache spread across her head. She had not shed a single tear ever since Lady Tan passed away, but now she lay there weeping silently, and soon her tears had soaked the edge of her pillow.
She had just started to see a glimmer of hope, only to run into this new, unforeseen burden. No matter how she tried to patch things up, one problem would only lead to another. Why was life so hard for her?
If Aiye and Lady Jiang had not guessed that she would be waking up soon, and lifted the bed curtain to check on her, she would not have known how long she would have kept crying.
A mother's heart is tied to her daughter's. Even Lady Jiang, who was usually rather oblivious, could sense what her daughter was thinking at this moment.
She quickly wrapped her arms around Cui Lanyin and told her, "My dear Lanyin, don't you worry about a thing. Prince Wei sent Buyan to fetch your medicine from the Imperial Hospital, and he has given the order that from now on, all the medicine you need will be provided by Prince Wei's residence. You just need to follow the imperial physician's instructions and take good care of yourself."
Cui Lanyin was still a little skeptical. "Didn't you all sell anything valuable from our home?"
Lady Jiang did not hold back the truth anymore. "Your father didn't know the market price, so he sold that jade seal of his for fifty taels of silver, and that's how we could afford the fifty-tael batch of medicine we got earlier."
Lady Jiang was never one who could lie smoothly, and Aiye and Sangzhi also showed no signs of acting strangely, so Cui Lanyin finally believed her.
Now her family no longer had to worry about the medical costs, but she owed Prince Wei a huge debt that she could hardly bear.
Since things had already come to this point, she could only focus on recovering her health first. Later, she would see what she could do to repay her great-uncle.
