Lin Yue looked at the children, who were separated into two lines—one for boys and one for girls—with the three rascals mixed in among them. They stared at her with bright eyes, visible nervousness written across their faces.
“Who among you can read?”
The children shook their heads one after another. Lin Yue then asked if they recognized any medicinal herbs and what they were used to treat. Most of the children were able to answer a few.
Poor families had no money to see doctors, so they would naturally know a bit about herbs for stopping bleeding, treating colds, fevers, and the like.
Three years was long yet short. Lin Yue's goal was to ensure the four of them knew how to treat at least basic ailments. She intended to spend the first three months teaching them literacy, screening out the best four based on their learning ability and personal qualities.
This was a rule where anyone had a chance—objective and fair. Even if they weren't chosen, they could still learn a word or two. Becoming literate was an invaluable opportunity for them regardless.
Three days later, an open space was cleared out at the village ancestral hall. Over twenty children sat on the open ground with a square wooden frame nailed together in front of them, filled with fine sand.
Lin Yue stood before the children, using a brush dipped in a specially made green mixture to write a large character for “medicine” on a wooden board. Then, she broke the character down, teaching them starting from stroke order and radicals.
The children below listened attentively. Every time Lin Yue wrote a stroke, she had them follow along in their sand frames. They wrote very slowly and crookedly, yet exceptionally earnestly.
She spent a whole day teaching that single character for “medicine.” On the second day, Lin Yue had them write the character out and break it down again.
Most of the children were able to write it. Only a few who had drifted off during class dawdled and couldn't produce it.
Lin Yue paid them no mind, moving on to teach numbers one through four and simple herb names, breaking down the characters similarly for them to recognize and combine.
Moving from simple to complex, she supplemented her lessons with medical units like jin, taels, qian, and fen, dosage adjustments, and herbal efficacies to deepen their impression.
Lin Yue would switch to another character after teaching one three times, stopping to let them memorize after five or six. She taught ten characters a day, covering common terms like herb names, visceral physiology, symptoms and disease names, and acupoint diagnosis.
A small test every three days, a major test every five days, and a monthly exam. Over three months, she taught more than three hundred characters. Finally, a placement exam was held, accounting for fifty percent of the total score. Combining all the test scores produced the final results, and the top two boys and top two girls were born.
One of the girls was from Hunter Liu's family. The old village chief breathed a sigh of relief, feeling he had given a proper account.
The children who were not selected burst into loud tears.
Instantly, the scene filled with wailing and howling.
The village chief stepped forward and said, “Doctor Lin, the children worked very hard too. They started studying at daybreak and were writing by moonlight at night. We all saw it. Look, their scores aren't that far apart. Could you take on a few more?”
Lin Yue frowned. Teaching more people required more time and energy. If she broke the rule to accept one more, what about the person right behind? Accept them too? If everyone wanted to learn, wouldn't she end up having to teach every single one?
She could only say it was a pity.
“Village Chief, this was agreed upon from the start, and I emphasized it to them as well. If I make an exception and take one more now, what about the next one? My energy is limited; I really cannot teach so many!”
Lin Yue firmly refused. She had originally intended to teach only two—one boy and one girl—and had only added two more out of consideration for a girl's reputation.
The village chief could only comfort the remaining children and send them home.
Excitement filled the eyes of the two boys and two girls who stayed. This was a craft that could be passed down! It was a symbol of status and standing. If they learned it well, their future prospects—whether in marriage or wealth—would be incomparable to before.
Lin Yue looked at them and said with a solemn expression, “Even though you get to stay, do not become proud and complacent. A physician must possess a compassionate heart, a serene mind, and humility. Over the next three years, if your performance fails to satisfy me, you will likewise be asked to leave.”
Hearing the end, the faces of the four turned pale all at once, and they answered in unison, “Yes.”
Over the following years, Lin Yue taught them annually to identify herbs, process medicinal materials, understand herbal properties and efficacies, and learn commonly used prescriptions.
In the first year, she focused on medical fundamentals—the relationships between the five viscera and six bowels, qi and blood, body fluids, yin and yang, the five elements, and so on. In the second year, she taught them the body's meridians, the four examinations, acupuncture, and diagnosis. In the third year, she focused on prescribing remedies, particularly for fevers, colds, obstetrics, and gynecology.
Progressing step by step from the basics, the four didn't dare lose focus after Lin Yue's warning. They worked relentlessly every day, terrified that Lin Yue might be dissatisfied and send them away.
As a result, while Lin Yue spent most of her days treating patients and teaching, most of the chores like chopping firewood and growing vegetables were taken care of by her four disciples, serving as their practical labor.
She didn't farm. Using the money earned from treating patients to buy meat and grain, she ate meat at least three or four times a month. The villagers also brought over vegetables and eggs every now and then. Although the place was a bit poor, the treatment was quite good.
In her spare time, Lin Yue learned hunting techniques from Liu San—observing wild animals' habits, activity tracks, and setting traps.
The first time she set a trap, she caught a pheasant. To keep it as a memento, Lin Yue personally built a coop for it. The pheasant was cooperative, laying an egg every one or two days.
After learning to hunt for three months, Lin Yue had mastered most of the essentials, becoming a novice hunter ready to practice on her own.
She dug a large pit in an area where large animals frequented, smoothing out the walls, disguising it with branches and fallen leaves, and dropping fruits and roots that herbivores loved in the center of the trap, quietly waiting for prey.
She checked it every day, and finally, on the tenth day, a wild beast's howl echoed from the trap. Lin Yue rushed over excitedly. At the bottom of the pit, a gluttonous wild boar was leaping frantically, but it couldn't scale the sheer pit walls no matter how hard it tried.
Seeing this, Lin Yue jumped straight down, circulated her internal energy, and knocked the wild boar unconscious with a single kick. Swiftly tying it up with rope, she carried the wild boar out of the mountain along with a wild rabbit. On the way back, villagers and children gathered around, chattering endlessly.
“Doctor Lin, what great luck to catch a wild boar!”
“This wild boar is at least eighty or ninety jin! Doctor Lin looks slender, but who knew she was so strong!”
“Doctor Lin, the wild boar is covered in mud. Let me carry it! Take a rest.”
Seeing this, a parent of one of Lin Yue's disciples hoisted the wild boar onto his own back, and Lin Yue handed it over to him.
“Is Doctor Lin planning to take it to town to sell?”
“This is the first time I've caught a wild boar. I'll get someone to slaughter it and treat everyone to a feast,” Lin Yue replied. Such a major achievement naturally called for a celebration.
“Oh my, Doctor Lin is so generous! I'll go call everyone for the feast right away,” an auntie laughed, heading down the mountain with a basket of wild vegetables on her back.
“Doctor Lin, this wild boar could sell for at least two taels of silver!”
“Doctor Lin is from the city, so of course she doesn't care about this little bit of money...”
The villagers rarely ate more than a few pieces of pork even during holidays. A crowd gathered to watch when the boar was slaughtered, the smiles on the villagers' faces even brighter than if they were hosting a family wedding.
Lin Yue watched from the side, directing them to clean the offal and internal organs to prepare them for braising.
The spices for braising the pork cost over a hundred coppers, ten times more expensive than the offal itself, but the resulting braised flavor was fragrant, natural, and pollution-free—perfect to go with rice.
Off to a flying start, Lin Yue subsequently hunted pheasants, wild rabbits, wild birds, as well as wild boars and wild deer. Some she sold directly in town, some she gave to hunters, or sold to the village at low prices. Over three years, she saved up fifty taels of silver.
Days passed one by one. After three years of hard study, the four disciples were gradually imbued with knowledge. Treating minor ailments like colds and fevers was no longer a problem. Lin Yue left behind medical books and some herbal prescriptions so they wouldn't be without direction if they wished to delve deeper in the future.
Meanwhile, the three small-time rascals were strictly disciplined by the village chief. After forcing them to attend three months of literacy classes, he made them work for every household—working for one family today and eating their food, working for another tomorrow and eating theirs. Refuse to go? Get beaten. Do a poor job? Get beaten again. Whenever the highly respected village chief raised his walking stick, people immediately stepped in to help deliver the thrashing.
They had also come to Lin Yue's place a few times. Perhaps terrified from the beatings, they worked exceptionally diligently. Whenever Lin Yue so much as glanced at them, their skin twinged with pain.
Over three years, under the stick-and-cane discipline of everyone, the three turned over a new leaf and settled down significantly, growing into strong young men. The villagers taught them life skills such as building houses, weaving, carpentry, and farming. The village chief also selected a few mu of land for them to clear. With houses and land, the three led stable lives.
When the time came, Lin Yue left without notifying anyone.
Riding her little donkey, clop-clop-clop, she continued down the dirt road amidst the evening breeze, night dew, and a sky full of stars. The donkey brayed heehaw-heehaw, the bell around its neck ringing crisp and clear.
*Jingle-jangle~
It signaled that a traveler was on the road.
Along the way, if she lacked anything, she treated patients and exchanged consultation fees for supplies. When she rode the donkey too much, she would dismount and lead it along.
Sometimes Lin Yue wanted to use lightwork to travel faster, but the little donkey couldn't run fast. Though she could carry it and run, she feared it would get constipated from the shock, which would look truly ungraceful, so she had no choice but to give up.
As the donkey walked along a mountain path, a narrow trail appeared ahead with grass on both sides taller than a person. After passing through, the grass rustled, and the next instant, four burly men with red bandanas tied around their heads appeared, surrounding Lin Yue.
Lin Yue blinked. Only after one of the big men shouted did she realize she had encountered bandits.
Having been transmigrated for nearly thirty years, this was her first time encountering bandits. Recalling the classic tropes from television, Lin Yue couldn't help but smile, her eyes curving like crescents.
The bandits froze. One muttered to himself, “Is this girl an idiot?”
The leader beside him shouted, “Robbery! Girl, hand over the donkey!”
Smack!
The bandit chief slapped the back of his head. “Why waste words! Only fools make choices—take everything!”
Seeing this, Lin Yue didn't panic in the slightest. She smiled as she watched them reach out their grabby hands. Raising her hand, she casually grabbed one person's wrist, gave it a pull and a twist, and his face instantly contorted in pain.
Glancing out of the corner of her eye at the move of the man beside him, Lin Yue shoved her captive into him. Though the push looked light as a feather, the man couldn't hold his ground, and both tumbled to the ground together. With a turn of her body, Lin Yue kicked another one flying. The remaining bandit looked at the three on the ground, unable to advance or retreat. After a moment of hesitation, he raised his saber and charged.
Lin Yue sidestepped to dodge the slash, instantly grabbed the wrist holding the saber, and pulled backward. The man hadn't expected the girl to possess such immense strength; stumbling forward from the pull, his knee suddenly took a blow, growing sharp with pain and weak, and he slumped to his knees.
Only then did the four realize that this girl actually knew martial arts. Regret surged in their hearts—sure enough, lone wanderers, whether young or rough, were never soft targets.
They had violated a cardinal rule of the trade.
“Heroine, spare our lives!”
“We don't dare anymore! We brothers were forced into becoming bandits out of sheer desperation...”
As the four spoke, they stood up and backed away. Once they reached a certain distance, they turned around to run. But before they could take more than a few steps, several swish sounds rang out, their knees went soft, and they collapsed to the ground again.
As they struggled to get up, they saw a figure walk up to them. Looking up, the girl said:
“Still running?”
The bandits shook their heads repeatedly. If possible, they naturally wanted to suffer less. “Not running! We won't run anymore! Heroine, spare our lives! We brothers have bedridden mothers at home and suckling infants to feed...”
“Which mountain stronghold are you from?”
A cold voice came from above. The bandit chief immediately complied smoothly, “We're from Jibei Mountain!”
“Where is it?”
The bandit pointed to a smooth, rounded peak on the left.
Lin Yue asked about their numbers. The bandit said there were over a hundred brothers, and the lookout brother had already gone back to report; he would bring down several dozen men shortly. He urged Lin Yue to leave quickly. But while he babble-muttered, he saw the heroine take a few running steps, leap with a kick off the tree trunk, and fly up into a tree, standing atop a twig no thicker than a finger to gaze into the distance.
The eyes of the four nearly popped out of their sockets. Could a tiny twig like that support the weight of a person? How deep must her internal energy be?! She looked to be in her teens, so young, yet she moved like an old monster!
Lin Yue looked off into the distance, scanning the surroundings. She saw a dozen or so people rushing over from the direction of Jibei Mountain, set to arrive in a few minutes. Looking closely at each of them, their demeanor and bearing didn't seem like people who knew martial arts.
After a moment's thought, Lin Yue executed her lightwork, landed on the ground, grabbed her luggage off the donkey's back, and flew off toward the rear, disappearing from sight in an instant.
“Heehaw! Heehaw...”
The donkey's nostrils flared, its belly expanding and contracting. With its mouth wide open, it brayed frantically toward the direction Lin Yue had flown off, kicking away a stone by its hoof.
When the bandits arrived, this was the scene they encountered: four brothers lay on the ground, staring blankly in one direction. In that direction, a donkey was braying like a slaughtered pig, kicking and thrashing as it bolted forward, leaving a trail of rolling dust behind.
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