57. The Doctor

The trip was going to take over three weeks at the snail pace their lumbering caravan set. Everyone was on edge; Madam Jiang should not have been throwing up quite so much; and the only reason Ying’er had not run off into the wilderness after A’Cheng and Lan Wangji was that A’Yao and Meng Shi were tag teaming him day and night.

The only good news were the vague and sometimes confusing reports of A’Cheng variously “hopping,” “nesting,” and “hunting.” And occasionally “splashing.”

“I’m just saying, birds don’t really understand walking or swimming. My trick is that I marked him as one of their own, so they just think he’s a very odd crow. But then, most crows are odd. So.” Ying’er shrugged one evening as they sat around a fire pit, gnawing on some very gamey game birds for dinner.

A’Yao blinked at him in consternation while Nie Huaisang giggled. “Makes sense, Ying’ge!”

“You’re older than me!”

“Am I? Are you sure? I think I’m just a baby. Small baby.” Nie Huaisang widened his eyes innocently and puffed out his cheeks.

“Wei Ying is only three!” Ying’er declared.

“Ying’er,” Yanli broke in before they started crawling around on their bellies like infants. “As long as you know he’s alive and uninjured, that is enough.”

He nodded, resigned. “I’m not even sure if I’d know if he found Lan Zhan, to be honest. But…maybe? The crows would surely think he’s a crane or something! He’s so beautiful and elegant!”

“Right,” A’Yao sighed heavily, rubbing his chest. The travel was wearing on him as well, the constant pain of his damaged meridians making him walk around like a wizened old man, leaning more on his cane than he liked to admit. His body was still suffering from his burned out meridians and locked-down spiritual power, and Du Zhili explained the effect as something akin to severe arthritis, in that natural flow of qi through his body was interrupted and sometimes pooled toxically in his joints. Massages and pain-relieving droughts could only do so much.

They spent most of their evenings talking nonsense for the most part, sitting around too-smokey fires and eating travel rations only barely elevated by fresh meat the disciples were catching. The stores of the Unclean Realm had been emptied, but Nie Popo explained apologetically that the best rations had to go the fighters, as they needed their strength. Slow travelers heading to safety would have to deal with bland congee, old bread, and foraging. It made sense, but it also made for tasteless meals.

Six days in, Madam Jiang finally hit her crisis, late in the afternoon. They were coming to a small town they would normally have bypassed completely, but the doctor insisted on getting her into a place with a roof and a clean well. Several Nie rode fast ahead to secure lodgings while a litter was put together to carry Madam Jiang as gently as possible. The three former Jiang helped carry her the whole way.

She was quickly flushed with fever, though, and incoherent. Du Zhili looked extremely worried and muttered quietly with Meng Shi as they all walked to the town behind the litter, surrounded by Nie guards. Ying’er and Nie Huaisang had stayed behind, utterly and openly terrified by the whole situation, but A’Yao insisted on coming with them.

It would hardly be proper to drag her into an inn for her childbed, so the Nie had found a family who was willing to rent out their house for a couple days. The siheyuan was modest, smaller even than Yanli’s home in Yiling, but clean with pleasing feng shui. As the family left with their overnight bags, the madam of the house looked over Madam Jiang with a worried expression, and gave Yanli her honest hopes that “her sister” would come through the birth, and that she would offer prayers for them. Yanli did not even have the heart to correct her.

There was no screaming and no wailing. Madam Jiang died quietly late in the evening, whimpering and calling out for her mother, while Meng Shi wiped her brow and Yanli held her hand. Du Zhili, who had been tense and waiting for the moment, already had her instruments ready to cut the child out of her.

The little boy did not cry at first, either. Despite being born on schedule, he was frail and weak. Yanli was already weeping as Meng Shi took the child in her arms with a grief-stricken expression. A’Yao had come into the room once he heard the child’s thready cries, and looked over his mother’s shoulder, heartbroken.

“Would you like to hold your brother?” Meng Shi asked softly. Yanli’s brain rattled at that, only then remembering who the true father of the child was. If Du Zhili heard Meng Shi, she did not react.

A’Yao choked back a sob but nodded, holding his arms out. As he took the tiny bundle into his arms, he mustered a small smile. “Hello, Little Brother. I am so glad I get to meet you,” he whispered. The moment would have a been endearingly precious if not so tragic.

“HEY!”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET OUT!”

Everyone froze at the ruckus happening in the courtyard.

“I’m a doctor! I can help!” A woman’s fierce voice shouted over them.

Du Zhili looked at the child in A’Yao’s arms, then at Yanli, and shrugged. She was still cleaning up, and Madam Jiang’s corpse was on the bed between them. Liu Peng, who had been standing off to the side, came over and gently laid a shawl over her face with gentle, respectful care.

“I will go,” Yanli said and shakily got to her feet. She was shadowed by Jiang Wu and Jiang Minhao, for which she was grateful.

The woman in the courtyard was short and dressed as a commoner, but she held herself in a familiar way, like a cultivator. They studied each other silently as Yanli approached.

The woman bowed. “This one is We-wwWang Qing. My name is Wang Qing. I am a doctor. I can help.”

“You are a cultivator,” Yanli said.

“I am. My clan specializes in medical cultivation. I am…traveling…with family. I was at the inn and heard there was a mother in crisis.” She straightened up and cocked her head, listening. “Is she…?”

Yanli shook her head. “She passed away. I’m afraid the child won’t last much longer.” She covered her eyes and took a moment to breathe.

“I know you don’t know who I am, but I might be able to help.”

“We have a doctor with us,” Yanli explained. She wasn’t quite sure how to simply say “no thanks”—and what if this random rogue cultivator could help? Did Yanli not have a responsibility to at least try to save the child’s life?

“But, we would welcome your insight,” she said instead, and turned to walk back inside. She was not surprised when one of the Nie guards joined the Jiang to follow Wang Qing into the room.

A’Yao was sat on the floor, still holding the infant and resting against his mother’s legs as they gazed sadly at the child.

“This is Doctor Wang Qing. She has offered her expertise.” Yanli spoke simply. Du Zhili intercepted her and they talked in hushed tones for a moment before Wang Qing walked over. She crouched down and visually inspected the baby for a moment, then looked sharply at A’Yao.

“Do you need to hold him?” A’Yao asked, his voice rough.

“Ah. No, not yet, I don’t think. Let me—” She reached out and put two fingers on the baby’s forehead, closing her eyes. Yanli could sense the surge of qi, gentle but strong, as it circulated around and through Wang Qing. Her eyes flew open, and she snapped out instructions for a medicine that Yanli was not familiar with.

Du Zhili froze for a second before her eyes went wide and she scrambled like a mad woman for her medical chest.

Yanli lost track of what happened after that. Wang Qing snatched the baby out of A’Yao’s arms and went over to Du Zhili. They huddled over him, acupuncture needles coming and going as they tapped medicines onto the baby’s tongue and the soles of his feet. A’Yao stayed sprawled on the ground, watching them with cautious eyes. Yanli came over and sat next to him.

How long they all sat there, Yanli did not know. Minutes? Hours? But then there was another cry from the baby, this time loud and strong, followed by a deep sucking gasp for air. A’Yao startled so badly his mother had to brace him, and Yanli nearly fell over.

“I’ll be damned,” the Nie doctor said in awe, staring at Wang Qing. “You did it. How did you know that would work?”

“Liu Peng!” Meng Shi snapped the words, drawing everyone’s attention to her. “Go to the inn, wake up the inn keeper, and ask for wet nurse. If he doesn’t know one, have Jiang Minhao and one of the female Nie cultivators escort you to the local brothel. They will know.” She pulled a coin purse out of her sleeve and tossed it at Liu Peng, who fumbled it, but then nodded and ran full tilt out of the room, Jiang Minhao on her heels.

A’Yao tried to get up and fell back on his haunches. Yanli and Meng Shi grabbed him, but in the next moment, Wang Qing was there.

“And what is wrong with you?” She asked, her words clipped and annoyed.

“Nothing, I am fine—”

“I’ll decide that,” she said and without a by-your-leave grabbed his wrist to check his qi. They all froze for a moment before Wang Qing gasped and yanked her hand back. She looked at A’Yao in shock.

“How are you alive?”

“We ask the same question every day, Doctor,” Du Zhili said with a heavy, frustrated sigh. At Meng Shi’s sharp look, she continued. “We are, of course, grateful that Seneschal Meng is doing so well! Truly a miracle! Praise the heavens,” she mumbled and then crab walked off to the side to fuss over the baby.

Wang Qing turned a beady gaze on A’Yao, who sat up as best he could, squared his shoulders, and stared right back at her.

“You still have a core.” She narrowed her eyes.

“Perhaps. My meridians are scorched and my core is either partially destroyed or simply fractured beyond repair, which is why it has been locked down by my doctors.”

“Mn.” She nodded slowly, lost in thought. “Wen Zhuliu, I presume?”

“You know of him?” Yanli asked, trying to keep her suspicion out of her voice.

Wang Qing rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t? He’s terrifying to all of us, isn’t he? And he’s Sect Leader’s highest ranking general, after his sons. Or, son. Rumor is that Wen Xu was defeated by the Nie,” she added thoughtfully, glancing around at the Nie in the room as if seeing them for the first time. Something in her manner shifted, and she stood up. “I must be going. My younger brother only knows that I came here for a medical emergency.”

A’Yao gave her a curt bow from where he was sitting. Meng Shi had already left the conversation to tend to the baby while the doctor moved to dealing with Madam Jiang’s corpse. They were going to have to take her with them, Yanli realized uncomfortably. She decided to get out of the room for a moment and breathe fresh air, so she led Wang Qing out.

“You are familiar with the damage the Core Melting Hand leaves behind,” she said, soft enough not to be overheard by the guards who trailed them.

Wang Qing side-eyed her but did not say anything.

“You also called Wen Ruohan ‘sect leader.’”

“He is the sect leader of the Wen,” Wang Qing replied with an insincere smile.

“You did not call him ‘Sect Leader Wen.’ Just ‘sect leader.’”

Wang Qing paused mid-step but then started walking again, picking up her pace. “I must get back to the inn,” she said loudly. It was obvious to Yanli that the doctor was past her point of allowing any further discussion on the matter and simply wanted to get away from the Nie as quickly as possible.

“Of course.” Yanli bowed to her at the entrance to the siheyuan. “Doctor Wang.”

Wang Qing rose up from her own bow with a raised eyebrow. “Yes?”

“I am Wei Yanli, sect leader of the Yiling Wei sect. You have done us a great service by saving the life of the child, and we owe you a life debt. You are obviously a talented doctor, and a rogue cultivator. Should you ever need assistance, please look to Yiling Wei. We stand by to help you.” She bowed again while Wang Qing stood there, looking stunned for a long moment, before quickly walking away.