Chapter 18 - 18 15 Pie Kills a Person 1

18: Chapter 15 Pie Kills a Person (1) 18: Chapter 15 Pie Kills a Person (1) Wan Lu’s eyebrows furrowed and her voice suddenly turned cold as she sternly said, “Tidy up your clothes before you reply!” The disheveled courtesan trembled slightly, seemingly very afraid of Wan Lu, quickly organizing her appearance. Due to her nervousness, her hands kept trembling; despite her frantic movements, she failed to fasten even a single belt. Ran Yan watched this scene with interest, feeling a trace of curiosity towards this Wan Lu. Normally, when a brothel madam hears of a death in her establishment, she would rush to the scene to handle the matter. Yet, Wan Lu seemed to care more about the courtesans’ appearance. “There’s been an incident at the brothel; I need to take a look. Please excuse me for now,” Wan Lu said, seizing the moment to politely disengage from Ran Yan. Ran Yan nodded slightly, “No harm, I will start treating Miss Zi Xu first.” In the early Great Tang, the term “Miss” was typically used to address courtesans, especially renowned dancers and musicians. For respectable ladies, they were simply called “Wife,” or, in Ran Yan’s case, by her surname followed by her order in the family, addressed as Ran Seventeenth Lady. Wan Lu smiled apologetically, bowed slightly, then gestured for several maids to lead them inside. Sёarch* The ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. A lady from the boudoir, seemingly indifferent upon hearing about a death, as if she had heard nothing? Wan Lu couldn’t help but take a few more glances at Ran Yan, whose figure was obscured behind her veil, and took note. Once inside, Ran Yan slowed her pace, faintly hearing Wan Lu’s voice outside. “What happened?” The courtesan hastily replied, “Today, Lord Han came to see me, and after we had a couple of drinks, we went to bed. No sooner had I lain down than Qin Silang kicked the door open, dragged me out, and started fighting with Lord Han without explanation. I fell to the ground, and by the time I got up, I saw Lord Han foaming at the mouth with a pool of blood beneath him…” As her voice faded into the distance, Ran Yan turned her attention back and carefully surveyed the room. The room was spacious, with low tables and dark brown columns; densely woven bamboo curtains separated the spaces. Through the gaps in the curtains, the interior arrangement was faintly discernible—a four-panel ebony screen concealed the bed, and under the window on the southern wall stood a dressing table. Four sturdy men had carried Zi Xu behind the screen but hesitated to transfer her onto the bed. Zi Xu’s condition, clearly in the secondary stage of syphilis, was indeed severe. At this stage, the disease’s contagiousness was extremely high, sometimes even through indirect contact. Ran Yan took no chances and instructed the maid who had led them in, “Find some clean cloth for the guards to wrap around their hands.” Upon hearing this, the maid left, and the people remaining in the room exchanged looks; their concerns about the disease being highly contagious certainly weren’t unwarranted. The two closest to Zi Xu quietly moved back half a step. Seeing this, Qing Dai, moved by grief and anger, couldn’t hold back and stepped forward, “No need to look for any cloth. If they don’t want to carry her, I will!” “Stop!” Ran Yan sharply halted her movement, “Do you think I’m joking? Anyone who has shared anything with Miss Zi Xu should come here for a check-up, especially those who have shared men!” Immediately, the room fell silent. No one was more stunned than Wan Lu herself. She knew her wife better than anyone else—how could she speak with such authority? For a moment, Wan Lu felt dazed, standing in front of a stranger rather than the woman she knew. The maid quickly found a piece of coarse cloth, and Ran Yan instructed them to tear it and wrap it around the guards’ hands before lifting Zi Xu onto the bed. “If you are worried, wash your hands with vinegar when you get home,” Ran Yan said, wrapping her own hands with two pieces of the coarse cloth as she began a meticulous examination of Zi Xu’s body. With their task done, the guards, following Ran Yan’s instruction, quickly exited the room. Ran Yan gently moved her hand over Zixu’s pillow and temple area, easily grabbing a strand of hair that felt thin. The area of hair loss was indistinct, resembling insect damage—indeed, it was syphilis. However, according to historical records, it was not until the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty that syphilis was brought over by Western merchants. But now it was the Zhenguan era of the Great Tang! How could such a persistent disease appear? Could it be that history had gone off track? Ran Yan sighed. She had always believed that heaven does not simply drop pies from the skies, and even if it did, sometimes they could kill a man if they were big enough—one had to have the strength to catch them! She had been psychologically prepared from the start, and as expected, Zixu’s situation looked grim. The twenty taels were indeed hard to earn. Ran Yan couldn’t help but regret that she should have asked for hundreds of taels to make it worthwhile. “How is it?” Qing Dai asked anxiously as she saw Ran Yan stand up straight. She had never seen a doctor diagnose without taking the pulse, but now, apart from Ran Yan, no one else could help them. Qing Dai placed all her hopes on Ran Yan. “The situation is not good, but I can ensure she will be alright for now.” Ran Yan knew many ancient prescriptions for treating sexually transmitted diseases, but they were mostly ineffective for severe cases like hers, unless… penicillin could be extracted… Penicillin, which could cure gonorrhea within hours and syphilis within days. Moreover, it had good antibacterial effects against Streptococci, including Streptococcus pyogenes and pneumococcal, as well as penicillinase-negative staphylococci. Simply put, if penicillin could be successfully extracted, diseases like puerperal fever and pneumonia, which were almost certainly fatal in ancient times, would be easily treatable, and incidentally, it could change medical history… Such thoughts surged uncontrollably in Ran Yan’s mind, igniting the work passion that had lain dormant since her time travel. “Divine Doctor, Divine Doctor!” Coming back to her senses, Ran Yan heard Qing Dai calling out anxiously, and couldn’t help but twitch the corners of her mouth slightly, “Call me Doctor Ran, Ran Shiqi, either is fine, but please stop calling me Divine Doctor.” In Suzhou City, there were already enough Divine Doctors, and Ran Yan didn’t need to be added to that count, especially since she had never considered herself a life-saving doctor. Indeed, she seldom used her medical skills to save people because by the time she saw them, they were usually already corpses. “Doctor Ran, my sister…” Qing Dai looked at Ran Yan with hopeful eyes, her makeup smeared from crying, not looking messy but rather evoking a pitiful charm. Ran Yan judged that Qing Dai wasn’t young, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, which in ancient times could be considered middle-aged, but Qing Dai maintained an allure comparable to well-cared-for women of Ran Yan’s previous world, which was truly rare. “I’ll prescribe two types of medicine, one to be taken orally and the other to be applied externally,” said Ran Yan. Qing Dai felt a surge of relief and ordered the maid to fetch writing materials. In the “Secrets of Divine Doctor Hua Tuo”, there were as many as fifteen prescriptions for this type of disease, but there are many types of sexually transmitted diseases and those prescriptions’ effectiveness on syphilis could be imagined. If they were effective, the phrase “talking about syphilis changes color” wouldn’t exist. “Make sure no one in the courtyard comes into contact with this place,” Ran Yan said evenly. She didn’t elaborate further, as saying more might provoke panic. She believed even this statement would cause quite a stir, but she knew Yan Weiwei had the ability to handle it. After all, necessary warnings had to be given. Ran Yan was also glad that she had followed them today; otherwise, if syphilis had spread, the consequences would have been dire. A single outbreak could destroy the prosperity of the Zhenguan era, and Ran Yan could not stand idly by. Penicillin needed to be extracted immediately! This task sounded simple; if there was a laboratory, extracting penicillin would be a matter of minutes for Ran Yan, but now it was the Great Tang, and they had nothing. The only consolation was that it was summer, making it not so difficult to find enough penicillium.