Rebirth: Phoenix Riding the Ninth Heaven

At dawn, the morning light filtered through the mist, gently casting a light shadow on the earth. Li Ruoyue and Luzhu slowly walked into the Qihuang Pavilion. The bronze bell on the corner of the pavilion, still stained with the night dew, swayed gently in the breeze, making a crisp sound.

Chen Jingsheng was bent over, drying medicinal herbs in the courtyard. His figure appeared slightly hunched in the morning light, as if his back had been bent by the weight of time. The isatis root and honeysuckle flowers in the bamboo basket, illuminated by the morning light, shone with a damp sheen, as if bathed in morning dew.

Suddenly, there was a slight sound of footsteps. Chen Jingsheng straightened up abruptly, and the scale in his hand slammed down onto the bluestone slab with a clang, as if startled. His movements were a bit hasty, as if he was too surprised.

"Boss!" Chen Jingsheng's voice trembled as he stumbled forward, his calloused hands tightly clutching Li Ruoyue's sleeve, as if afraid she would suddenly disappear. His eyes were bloodshot, cloudy and tired, revealing a deep anxiety and worry.

"You're finally here!" Chen Jingsheng's words were mixed with some complaints, "Where have you been these days?" His breathing was a little rapid, and the medicine bag on his waist rose and fell violently with his panting, even revealing half of the yellowed page of "Treatise on Febrile Diseases", as if telling of his concern and waiting for Li Ruoyue.

Li Ruoyue slowly pulled her hand away from Chen Jingsheng's. Her gaze, like a gentle breeze, swept across the dozen or so medicine sachets hanging in the corridor. These sachets were meticulously inscribed with the words "avoid plague" in cinnabar, as if they were little guards protecting people's health.

Her gaze rested on one of the medicine bags, and she squinted slightly, as if she were looking through the thin fabric to see the precious medicinal materials inside. Then, her gaze shifted to the pillars, and her fingers gently stroked the newly engraved marks on them.

It was Lu Zixuan's handwriting, a bit crooked, but revealing a childish earnestness. "Three grams of ephedra, five grams of apricot kernel"—the words were like a testament to Lu Zixuan's studies at the Qihuang Pavilion, and reminded Li Ruoyue of his vibrant face.

However, Chen Jingsheng's words interrupted her thoughts. "But this measles is really bad!" Chen Jingsheng said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his hand, but accidentally leaving a cinnabar-red mark on his face. His voice revealed a hint of anxiety and helplessness.

"Three more children were sent here yesterday. The boy from the Lu family and Brother Lin came here to test the medicine..." Before Chen Jingsheng could finish his words, he was suddenly hit by a violent cough. His body trembled violently, and even the medicine residue on his beard was shaken off.

Li Ruoyue calmly took a half step back, avoiding the incoming medicinal fumes. "I heard about the epidemic at the Imperial Hospital." She lifted the curtain of the clinic and saw Lu Zixuan hunched over the table, writing a prescription. The back of his shirt was stained with sweat. "Is this the newly prepared Yinqiao Powder?" She picked up the prescription on the desk, the ink still wet. "Three grams of Forsythia suspensa, two grams of Burdock seeds..."

"Boss, please look at this!" Chen Jingsheng suddenly pulled out a celadon bottle from his sleeve and poured out a few pills wrapped in gold foil. "This is the purple snow pill I made last night. I added rhinoceros horn powder..."

"Rhino horn?" Li Ruoyue's pupils shrank slightly. "Mr. Chen, do you know the current market price of rhino horn?" She gently stroked the bottle with her fingertips, the glaze reflecting the rhino horn slices drying outside the window. "The Imperial Hospital just ran out of stock last month, and you're using up all the treasures of the store."

Chen Jingsheng stamped his feet anxiously. "Human lives are at stake! Those children are delirious due to fever. How can we not use rhino horn to calm their nerves?" He suddenly noticed the Imperial Hospital token on Li Ruoyue's waist, and his eyes lit up. "You've come at the right time. I was just about to ask for support from the Imperial Hospital..."

"Master Chen, take a look at this." Li Ruoyue pulled a document from her sleeve, the cinnabar seal gleaming brightly in the morning light. "This is the newly approved 'Regulations for the Prevention and Treatment of Febrile Diseases' from the Imperial Hospital. From now on, all cases of epidemics must..."

"Miss!" Luzhu suddenly ran in from the back hall, holding a blood-stained undershirt in her hand, "Look at this!" Li Ruoyue took it and looked at it. There was half a branch of lily of the valley embroidered on the lapel. It was exactly the clothes that Lu Zixuan wore when he was testing the medicine last night.

Chen Jingsheng's face suddenly changed, and he hurriedly tried to explain. Li Ruoyue, however, smiled faintly and handed the clothes back to Luzhu: "Go burn this undershirt, and then make a bowl of ginseng root and ophiopogon tea for Mr. Chen." She turned to look at the herbs drying in the courtyard, and suddenly pointed at the isatis root and asked: "Are these newly picked this morning?"

"Exactly." Chen Jingsheng wiped the sweat from his forehead. "The Lu family kid went to the wild fields in the back mountains to pick it before dawn. He said that wild isatis root has stronger medicinal properties..."

"Nonsense!" Li Ruoyue suddenly raised her voice, startling the sparrows under the eaves and making them fly up. "The wild land is full of miasma. Isn't it courting death to go and pick herbs now?" She turned around and saw Lu Zixuan hiding behind the door, his pale face still stained with mud. "Zixuan, come here!"

The young man timidly approached, and Li Ruoyue suddenly grabbed his wrist. Lu Zixuan cried out in surprise and tried to break free, but Li Ruoyue pinned him down on the examination table. She placed her fingertips on his pulse, sensing a faint, wiry pulse. "Have you contracted damp-heat?"

Chen Jingsheng was about to open his mouth to explain, but before he could finish his words, Li Ruoyue had already quickly taken out the silver needles from the medicine cabinet. Her movements were as fast as lightning. She muttered to herself: "Fei Shu, Zhong Wan, Yin Ling Quan."

As she finished her words, the silver needle in her hand pierced into Lu Zixuan's acupuncture point as fast as a meteor. Lu Zixuan suddenly felt a sharp pain and couldn't help but gasp.

"Lüzhu, go get the Liuyi powder and drink it with lotus leaf soup." Li Ruoyue ordered without turning her head.

However, at this moment, Chen Jingsheng suddenly fell to his knees with a plop. He said pleadingly, "Boss, please have mercy on these two children!"

Li Ruoyue stopped what she was doing, looked at Chen Jingsheng expressionlessly, and asked coldly, "What am I pursuing?"

Although her voice was not loud, it carried an undeniable authority. Chen Jingsheng was so overwhelmed by her aura that he was speechless for a moment.

Li Ruoyue continued, "Should I investigate you for secretly testing the drug? Or should I investigate you for secretly purchasing rhino horns?"

Having said that, she suddenly thrust the silver needle into Chen Jingsheng's Zusanli acupoint. Chen Jingsheng groaned and his body trembled violently.

"What I really want to pursue is that you don't know how to cherish your reputation!" Li Ruoyue's voice rose eight octaves, echoing in the air filled with the fragrance of medicine.

The aroma of medicine lingered in the air, and tears streamed down Chen Jingsheng's face. His lips trembled as he said, "I have been practicing medicine for many years and have always been conscientious and have never made any mistakes..." In forty years, I have never seen such a dangerous epidemic..."

"So it's even more important to stay alive and save people." Li Ruoyue lit the moxa stick and placed it above the old man's lung point. "From today on, all medicinal materials for Qihuang Pavilion will be purchased by Luzhu, and all prescriptions must be reviewed by me." She turned and saw Lin Feng coming out of the back hall holding a medicine jar. "Lin Feng, bring me the newly prepared three-bean drink. I want to try it myself."

As the morning light grew, Li Ruoyue sat at her desk, correcting prescriptions. Her wolf-hair brush swiped across the word "rhinoceros horn," changing it to "buffalo horn." Luzhu entered, carrying freshly picked honeysuckle flowers. She whispered, "Miss, the Imperial Hospital staff are waiting at the door." Li Ruoyue, without even looking up, continued writing. "Let them in, and settle Mr. Chen's consultation fee."

Chen Jingsheng was turning the mugwort in the courtyard. When he heard this, his hands trembled and the mugwort scattered all over the ground: "Boss, I don't want any consultation fee..."

"Yes." Li Ruoyue wrote down the last ingredient, "This is what you deserve." She dipped cinnabar in the medicine and stamped it on the prescription. The red mud fell on the three words "buffalo horn" like blood blooming.

A faint medicinal mist drifted in the morning light of the Qihuang Pavilion. Li Ruoyue's hand, writing on it, suddenly paused. Outside the window, the sound of hurried horse hooves echoed, and the tread of three black horses sent sparks across the bluestone slabs. As the first man dismounted, the jade token bearing the title of Chief Judge of the Imperial Hospital at his waist shone with a cold light.

"Miss Li!" Judge Chen Xiuyuan entered, the crane pattern on his official uniform still stained with morning dew. "We've received your urgent report, and the Imperial Hospital has allocated five hundred taels of silver..." He suddenly glanced at the prescription on the table, his face changing dramatically. "Buffalo horn instead of rhino horn? How can that calm the heat and poison attacking my heart?"

Li Ruoyue threw the cinnabar brush into the inkstone. "Does Court Judge Chen know how much one ounce of rhino horn is worth on the black market right now? It's enough to buy three dan of isatis root!" She pulled out the account book from the cabinet and ran her fingertips over the shocking expenditures. "Last month, the Qihuang Pavilion spent eight hundred ounces just on rhino horn. What are you going to let me use to treat the people?"

Chen Xiuyuan flicked his sleeves and sneered, "Woman's opinion! Saving money when lives are at stake, how will the Imperial Hospital maintain its reputation if word gets out?" He suddenly noticed Lu Zixuan preparing medicine, with a blood-soaked gauze half exposed from his sleeve. "This kid has the axe to grind, and he dares to touch medicinal herbs? Miss Li, is she trying to spread the disease?"

Lu Zixuan took a frightened step back, bumping into the medicine cabinet behind him and making it rustle. Chen Jingsheng came out from the back hall, still clutching half a piece of cold mint cake in his hand. "Counselor Chen, calm down! This child has been isolated..."

"Isolate?" Chen Xiuyuan suddenly raised his voice, startling the swallows' nests on the beams and causing them to rustle with dust. "Our hospital has just received news that there are 20 new cases of measles in the west of the city!" He flicked his sleeves and pointed out the window. "Your Qihuang Pavilion has become a hotbed of epidemics!"

Li Ruoyue suddenly slammed the account book down on the table, sending the copper paperweight tumbling off. "If Dean Chen truly cares about the epidemic, he should investigate why the Department of Medicinal Materials hasn't yet approved the Lianqiao herb!" She turned and pulled out a tin box from the medicine cabinet, pouring out a few charred pills. "This is a new recipe I tried last night. It uses charred hawthorn instead of rhino horn..."

"Nonsense!" Chen Xiuyuan was furious. "Scorched hawthorn can reduce fever? This hospital wants to see what you can do..."