Jingting was staring at the leg of the person who came inside the clinic. He couldn't even fathom how it happened. What was he supposed to do with it?
"For how long has it been like this?" he asked, carefully lifting the trousers with a wooden spatula, really not wanting to touch it.
"It's been a week or two," the patient answered. Jingting's eyes shot up almost into his hair. Two weeks?
"You did not visit a clinic before?" The person nodded.
"I did. Only after I put a salve from the clinic did it become like this…"
Jingting was staring at the open wound; the bone was still sticking out of it, the edges of the wound itself were dark purple, red, and ashy gray, and yellowish liquid was flowing out of it. He had no idea what to do.
"How did it happen? I'm confused how you were able to even come here. Or live this long… Did you have a fever?" he asked, really flabbergasted.
"I did that's why I went to the other clinic, the fever went down, so I thought it was okay, but then I found worms eating it one day, so I got scared and went here."
"YOU WHAT?!" All four of them, who were staring at the leg, shouted out. Xuhua, Xicheng, and Jin Hua were there. At first, it was Jin Hua who got this patient. He called in Xicheng, who called Xuhua, who ended up staring at it for a while, and after the initial shock, she sent Xicheng directly to the sanctuary to pick up Jingting, as it wasn't his workday today.
"I don't know if I'll be able to save your leg, to be honest. I can try, but I might need to amputate, depending on how deep the infection is." Jingting stated simply getting his brain to work.
"Once again… how did this happen?" he asked. The patient was obviously trying to dodge the question.
"I might know. It looks like this when you fall off your horse badly," Jin Hua said, and they all looked at the poor-looking, obviously starved person.
"You are a deserter, right?" Jin Hua half asked, half stated. The guy on the bed looked away.
"I did not want to visit this clinic in the first place. I know you have ties with the officials. I knew you would snitch me out," he exclaimed and started getting up from the bed. Xicheng quickly caught him and pressed him down. He tied his hands in the silk ropes they had there in case they had difficult patients. Just like this one.
"Of course, the punishment for desertion is death!" Xicheng shouted out.
"You were never there! The general Zhu discards soldiers as if they were animals! He hurries us into a war we should not be in!" he shouted out loud, and the name rang a bell.
"We will not tell on you for now. I will take care of the leg first. After you are better, we will talk about it." He said and stared at his helper. He stared at Xuhua. She stared at him back.
"I have no idea either," he said after the silent communication.
"So let's use the usual and let him faint from pain? Checking his heartbeat?" she asked, glancing at the guy.
"That's probably the only option we have for what I plan to do," Jingting sighed and went to get ready. He took Jin Hua with him to show him how to keep everything clear, how to help someone to keep clean, while Xicheng was the one getting everything ready. It was a nice ability for the imperial family to know medicine. Prince of Xing hoped maybe they would live longer that way.
They both came out in white cloaks, white gloves, the mirror mechanism was already pointing at the leg, and the guy had a pillow with herbs over his mouth, able to breathe through it.
"First, let's get the bone back where it's supposed to be," he said after he made the wound wider and longer with his knife. He set the bone back, and with the silk thread, he held it in place for now.
Next, he took another knife, and he searched for anything that was a grayish, yellowish color, and he scraped it off. Hoping the tissue could take it. The man groaned many times, but Xicheng was holding him down, so he wouldn't move much.
"I think I need to stitch it inside, but I don't know if it won't make it worse. The silk is not exactly harmless either," he looked at Xuhua, who was staring at the possibilities she had, and shook her head.
"I don't know either. Try it. If it inflames again, you can use burning tools to get the infectious parts out again." Jingting knew he had no other choice. Usually, the body would be able to take care of the fine, boiled silk inside, but he wasn't sure now since he was already weak from the other problems.
"Take it and soak it in the anti-inflammatory salve we have mixed with alcohol…" he said, trying to prevent problems. Maybe if it were like this, it would be okay.
After he finished all stitching, correcting, and changing the thread on the bone for the new alcoholized one, he breathed out, staring at the deserter. What should he do…
As if an answer from heaven, a knock sounded on the door, and Jiang Heng came in with two scrolls of paper. One he gave to Xuhua and one to Jingting.
"Generals answered. I had trouble finding you, so it's a bit late. Also, the bird got confused on the way, so it was a bit longer than it should have been, but now it knows the way perfectly. So, next time will be only a day." Jingting nodded and looked at the mini-scroll. Stopped and then looked at Jiang Heng.
"Bird? He doesn't have a name?" he asked. Jiang Heng shook his head.
"Well, then let's call him Lele," he said and started reading.
'I miss you. Nobody else. Also, we won. Many people were injured, but we are okay. Everybody here is an idiot, and I hate them. Can I go back to you?' Jingting's ear blushed in a color of blood.
"Liu Sheng is injured in his arm; nobody knows if he will be able to use his arm in the future," Xuhua said out of nowhere. Jingting jerked himself.
"What?!"