Breaking Bamboo (3 page)

‘Good,’ muttered Dr Shih.

He let the sobbing child rest for a while before applying moxa to another area of skin corresponding to the heart.

Yet the boy was still slipping, his coughs ever more violent.

He had reached a point of balance. Nothing more could be done until Chung arrived. Even then it would take half an hour to prepare the medicine.

Dr Shih leapt up as his apprentice entered the room.

‘The ingredients,’ he said, eagerly. ‘I must have them at once.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said the youth, fearfully watching the Pacification Commissioner’s wife.

‘Pay attention to me, not Her Ladyship,’ commanded his master.

‘Sir, Madam Cao has already prepared the mixture! She heard on the street that the Pacification Commissioner’s son has the dry coughing sickness, so she knew what to do. Madam asked me to tell you that she followed your usual instructions exactly.’

Dr Shih almost laughed with relief. There was so little time!

And now Cao had anticipated him, as she always did.

‘Give it to me.’

He propped up the boy and made him drink the mixture of herbs in one draught by holding his nose. The medicine took effect almost immediately, Little Tortoise lolling into a drugged doze. Shih knew he would sleep in this way for some time.

After a while the boy’s mother grew restless and left the bedside to report back to her husband. ‘I have faith in you, Dr Shih,’ she whispered. ‘Save my poor boy!’ Third Tutor Hu held the door open for her as she hurried out.

‘Keep a close watch on Little Tortoise,’ Shih told the apprentice, once she had gone. ‘At the slightest change, send for me. I will be outside. I need to empty my head.’

Dr Shih stepped out into a small garden adjoining the boy’s chamber and took a deep lungful of night air. Stars glittered above the Twin Cities. Dawn was only a few hours away and, with dawn, Little Tortoise would enter a more favourable time of day. Shih’s thoughts circled and tumbled. Had he considered everything? How would he know until it was too late? The boy’s breath was labouring frantically to fill his lungs and exhale, draw a little life into his lungs then breathe out again, lest he drown in his own mucus.

Dr Shih realised he was no longer alone and turned to discover a man wearing splendid silks in the entranceway. He was sleek and handsome, a decade or so older than Shih.

Unblinking brown eyes indicated a fierce will and much irony.

Yet when the stranger spoke his tone was full of concern: ‘Ah, doctor! I have been sent to ascertain how the unfortunate child progresses.’

Shih shook his head.

‘He is by no means safe,’ he said. ‘We will know soon enough.’

‘
By no means safe
. . . I see.’

The strange gentleman watched him intently and Shih’s discomfort grew.

‘You are a brave fellow,’ remarked the man with a narrow smile. ‘No doubt you are wondering why I call you that? Let me explain. Dr Du Mau says you have over-stepped yourself and his displeasure is sure to have consequences. And, of course, His Excellency will hardly welcome the fact that his heir’s condition has deteriorated. Probably due to your treatment. That is why, doctor, one might call you a brave fellow.’

Dr Shih felt suitably unnerved.

‘Please inform His Excellency the disease is at a point of crisis,’ he said. ‘I shall know very soon whether my cure is effective.’

‘From your expression, I fear the worst,’ remarked the man.

‘It seems Dr Du Mau was right.’

‘I did not say that, sir,’ replied Shih.

Now the strange gentleman smiled again.

‘You do not recognise me, do you?’ he said. ‘If you did you’d be on your knees. Yet I am sure the name of Wang Bai is familiar to you. Oh,
now
you know me! And I know you.

Good night, Dr Yun Shih. No, don’t bother to kneel. It is rather late for that.’

The man left as suddenly as he had come. Shih realised he had been conversing with the most powerful man in Nancheng after Wang Ting-bo. The Honourable Wang Bai was the Pacification Commissioner’s nephew and Second Heir. As the Prefect of the Twin Cities, Wang Bai was responsible for all civil concerns. Worse, Shih realised that neglecting to fall to his knees, as was proper before so high an official, was generally punishable by harsh strokes of the bamboo.

Dr Shih sniffed the air. The breeze, little as it was, had turned to the east,
yang
’s foremost direction.

Back at Little Tortoise’s divan, he found Chung drooping.

‘Is the breath more even?’ asked Shih.

Chung yawned and shrugged.

‘I cannot be sure, Master.’

‘You must pay closer attention,’ chided Dr Shih, still unsettled by Wang Bai’s warning. ‘I will attend the patient until dawn. Make sure the case of needles is to hand. We may need them at short notice.’

A gong in the palace was ringing the third hour of night when Little Tortoise awoke. At once he retched bile and phlegm into the bowl Shih held out. The doctor praised each foul-smelling globule of mucus, calling him a strong boy and making up silly rhymes about tortoises, so that the child laughed even at the height of his misery. Shih listened frequently to his little, heaving chest, afraid the draining was less than he had expected.

The hour before dawn brought the final onset. Shih had prepared his needles in readiness and applied them at once. With each inhalation he inserted, twisted, and extracted in time to the next exhalation. Little Tortoise’s breathing was so uneven, a series of wild gasps, that Shih struggled to anticipate the out-breath.

Then, almost unexpectedly, it was over. The boy’s breath grew more regular, chest rattle lessened. When Shih took the pulse it swelled with
yang
. As dawn brought soft light to the bedchamber Little Tortoise fell asleep and the doctor half-dozed beside him.

Third Tutor Hu snuffed out all the lanterns except one and glanced severely at the other servants, who were struggling to stay awake.

‘Prepare a fine breakfast for Dr Shih and Apprentice Chung,’

whispered the Third Tutor. ‘A breakfast worthy of a prince.’

Day took possession of the room. Shih slept lightly, dreaming of his twin brother, Guang, in far off Wei Valley. As ever when he imagined Guang, emotions contended – just as the shadows of leaves dance in bright sunlight, alternating between dark and light. Yet this time a greater darkness seemed to swallow Guang whole, extinguishing all his brightness, and Shih cried out in fear. Then his dream turned to Cao, sipping tea in their shop at dawn, awaiting his return to Apricot Corner Court, her thoughts reaching out to embrace him so that he felt comforted and dreamed no more.

Little Tortoise curled himself into a tight ball beneath the silk sheets, his burned and punctured body gaining strength with each dear breath.

*

Dr Shih woke with a start. Light reached through the open windows of Little Tortoise’s bedchamber. A faint breeze was still blowing from the east, trailing scents of morning. Birds twittered and flitted around the eaves of the Pacification Commissioner’s mansion.

His eyes instinctively sought unwelcome signs in his patient, but Little Tortoise slept as babies sleep, small fingers clenched, breath bubbly with life. Dr Shih detected a faint rattle of lungs, nothing much, only what one might expect.

He rose and was surprised to find Third Tutor Hu still crouching in his corner, watching intently. The other servants were asleep. Even for those accustomed to dutiful waiting, it had been a long night.

‘Do you have a message for His Excellency? Or Honoured First Wife?’ asked Third Tutor Hu.

‘Tell them their son is recovering rapidly. One should never underestimate how the young bend and spring back.’

‘Like green bamboo,’ added Tutor Hu, smiling faintly.

Dr Shih bowed in acknowledgement, for the words came from one of his Great-grandfather Yun Cai’s most famous poems, the long one about the lotus.

The servant left and Dr Yun Shih stepped outside into the enclosed garden. He listened to the sounds of the palace – a drone of gossip as two servants passed down an adjoining corridor believing themselves unheard. A vague hum from the city surrounding Peacock Hill.

Then he was disturbed by two voices arguing in a nearby apartment. Their words were indistinct; not so the fierceness on either side. The voices belonged to the Pacification Commissioner and his wife. Shih felt an irrational, childish desire to hide and remembered his father and mother arguing bitterly one rainy, monsoon afternoon when he was Little Tortoise’s age. At once he felt dejected and weary. Third Tutor Hu stepped into the garden.

‘Doctor! You look faint, sir! You must eat.’

The servants were bringing in breakfast. Shih watched in amazement as dozens of delicate green bowls with an exquisitely distressed glaze were laid out: rice-balls flavoured with sesame and anise; strips of roasted pork wrapped in wafers; piquant prawns fried in batter; cups of the weak wine known in the city as
dawn-dew
, and more of the stronger brew called
dusk-dew
.

As he ate, Dr Shih’s mood lifted. Still he kept an eye on the boy. Surely he had earned an absurd fee – and not just from the Pacification Commissioner! That was the least of it. Word would circulate how he had healed the great Wang Ting-bo’s son. Patients would besiege his humble shop in Apricot Corner Court. With the better sort, he could double – no, triple his usual fee.

If only Cao were here now, to witness this moment! He would buy her new silks and lacquered furniture to replace all that had been scuffed and dulled by years of hardship. Oddly, the prospect of her pleasure made him restless. Soon his thoughts drifted another way.

It seemed he had also made an enemy of Dr Du Mau. The Pacification Commissioner’s own nephew had said as much. As head of the guild Du Mau possessed a great capacity for mischief.

Dr Shih had laboured over many years to establish a Relief Bureau intended to assist the destitute and those without family. In return he received a pittance from the city authorities and Cao sometimes complained his work there kept them as poor as the patients. Shih’s fear was that Dr Du Mau might seek to appoint someone else to manage the Relief Bureau, a prospect he could not bear.

Still he ate the delicacies set before him, making sure Chung received a share. The lad was determined to taste every dish –a banquet like this was worth a thousand boasts among the other apprentices in Water Basin Ward.

Third Tutor Hu was gone a long while. He returned with the Pacification Commissioner and his wife, accompanied by a dozen secretaries and officials. Among them was Wang Ting-bo’s handsome nephew, Wang Bai.

At the sight of Little Tortoise, the couple’s stern expressions melted. Husband and wife tentatively approached the bedside.

Shih noticed their hands touch as they gazed down at their son.

Tears were back in Wang Ting-bo’s eyes. He reached out and brushed the boy’s forehead, marvelling at its coolness. The Pacification Commissioner’s wife also bent over the boy and then looked up to smile at Dr Shih with fierce gratitude.

‘Doctor,’ said Wang Ting-bo softly, so as not to wake the boy. ‘Do appearances tell lies?’

Dr Shih bowed respectfully.

‘I think we might call Little Tortoise safe, Your Excellency,’ he said. ‘From this malady at least. Though, as the proverb says,
one step at a time is good walking
.’

Wang Ting-bo nodded stiffly.

‘Perhaps I had too little faith in you. In my position one is confronted by so many incompetent and self-seeking men. . .

You will receive an auspicious reward.’

‘When your son wakes and eats an appropriate meal, I shall feel myself rewarded,’ said Shih. ‘It is crucial the boy is not stuffed with too much rich food.’ He added hastily: ‘Your Excellency.’

The Pacification Commissioner chuckled.

‘What is your name again, doctor?’

‘Yun Shih, sir.’

‘Good. Carry on.’

As they left he noticed the Pacification Commissioner’s wife whispering urgently to her husband, who silenced her with a curt gesture. Wang Bai was the last of the great people to leave.

He stepped to the bedside and examined Little Tortoise coldly for a moment. The boy murmured anxiously in his sleep.

‘Ah,’ he said, looking over at Dr Shih. ‘Do not forget our little conversation.’

Then he strolled out after his noble uncle.

While Shih waited for Little Tortoise to awake, Third Tutor Hu slipped from the room. An hour later he was back, looking troubled.

‘Dr Shih,’ he said. ‘May I speak with you alone?’

Tutor Hu led him to the garden and they sat on a long bench.

The sun was beyond its zenith. Shih was glad of the warmth on his face.

‘I must tell you,’ said Hu. ‘That an embassy from the Physician’s Guild has begged yet another audience with His Excellency. Dr Du Mau, in particular, is most vexed. He claims that under his instructions magicians were busy all night and that their spells are the only reason for the boy’s recovery.

He is concerned your meddling will undo his good work.’

‘Dr Du Mau is claiming to have cured Little Tortoise?’

‘His Excellency sent him away curtly. Indeed I do not think Dr Du Mau will be returning to Peacock Hill. All his fees here are at an end. I wish you to know this, so you might be prepared.’

Shih sighed.

‘His anger will pass. He has many other patients.’

‘Perhaps,’ replied Tutor Hu. ‘I must also tell you that others are displeased by the boy’s recovery. You know Little Tortoise is His Excellency’s heir?’

‘I do.’

‘If he had died, the new heir would have been Wang Bai, as His Excellency’s nephew. You should know this as well. Wang Bai’s wife is distantly connected to Dr Du Mau by marriage and the Du clan own much property in Fouzhou. So you see, there is more to this than meets the eye. If Wang Bai had become heir, it would have enhanced the Du clan’s position inestimably.’

Dr Shih concealed his hands in his sleeves.

‘I am a simple man. What has any of this to do with me?’

‘Surely that is obvious,’ said Tutor Hu, severely.