The 19th year of Jianzhang, Great Yan Dynasty, fifteenth day of the sixth month.
The renowned Medicine Woman Feng passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of forty-three, her physical strength utterly depleted after performing the Shangyin Divine Needle twice within four days.
A single administration of the Shangyin Divine Needle cost eighty taels of silver, yet those two families were destitute, paying only four guan in total.
Medicine Woman Feng upheld a single principle: righteousness.
A month after her death, she was still being discussed inside and outside the capital.
Medicine Woman Feng was known as the foremost medicine woman of the Great Yan Dynasty. Not only were her midwifery skills exquisite, but she was also proficient in pediatrics and gynecology, could perform the Shangyin Divine Needle, and possessed a noble moral character. Thus, people respectfully called her Medicine Woman, not Midwife.
Over twenty-six years, Medicine Woman Feng had safely delivered more than four thousand infants and saved over a thousand mothers and babies hovering on the brink of death—including more than two hundred infants saved through the Shangyin Divine Needle.
She had also assisted in the difficult labors of two imperial princesses, one grand princess, and one prince’s consort.
The number of free deliveries she performed, and the medicine and money she gave away, were countless…
Even in death, she had paid off the sinful debts of her grandmother, Madame Fan.
Only after Medicine Woman Feng’s death did people see more of her goodness. They also realized that without Medicine Woman Feng and the Shangyin Divine Needle, their own mothers, daughters, sisters, and children would face far greater danger…
The magistrate of Changping County, Medicine Woman Feng’s home county, had already reported her deeds to Jingzhao Prefecture, which in turn reported them to the Ministry of Rites, hoping to obtain imperial commendation from the court.
Even as they praised Medicine Woman Feng, people also dug up and cursed her grandmother, Madame Fan—the so-called “turtle-crawling woman” from thirty years ago.
Because Madame Fan had committed evil deeds, her descendants truly seemed to have suffered heavenly punishment. Among her dozen or so descendants and daughters-in-law, apart from Medicine Woman Feng and Feng Buji, none of the others met good ends.
Some died of violent illness, some drowned, some hanged themselves, some fell to their deaths…
The ancestors commit crimes; the descendants pay the price. This is karmic cause and effect.
It was said that Medicine Woman Feng left behind only one six-year-old nephew and one fourteen-year-old niece.
Just days after her death, the Feng clansmen descended to plunder the estate of the household left without heirs. A month later, her nephew Feng Buji and niece Feng Chuchen were pushed off a cliff. Fortunately, a large tree broke their fall and they survived.
Having survived the catastrophe, Feng Chuchen went to the county yamen, beat the grievance drum, and accused her clansman uncle Feng Qi of attempted murder. She also accused her great-uncle Elder Feng of indulging his grandson in violence and conspiring to seize the orphans’ family property.
Some said, after all, she was the descendant of Medicine Woman Feng—at such a young age, she would rather be imprisoned to protect her younger brother.
Others said this girl was fierce and unfilial. To sue her elders over money, she deserved to be imprisoned…
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Twenty-first day of the seventh month. The sky was high, the clouds thin, and the autumn sun bright.
Feng Chuchen, who had been imprisoned for three days and three nights, walked out of the cell.
Stepping onto dry earth, smelling the fresh wind of freedom, bathing in the warm sunlight, Feng Chuchen exhaled a long, turbid breath.
She had finally left that dark, damp, stench-filled place.
Freedom was so precious!
She had just transmigrated three days ago and ended up in prison, eating, sleeping, and relieving herself in the same room. Just thinking about it was unbearable…
Ancient society was truly perverse. If a junior sued an elder, a wife sued her husband, or a servant sued their master, even if they were in the right, they still had to be imprisoned or beaten.
Magistrate Li knew and admired Medicine Woman Feng, yet he still had to follow the law and sentence Feng Chuchen to one month in prison.
This was the lightest possible punishment.
Later, thanks to many people pleading on her behalf, Feng Chuchen was released after only three days.
Feng Chuchen scratched her bird’s-nest hair, straightened her wrinkled skirt, and curtsied in thanks to Head Jailer Niu, who had led her out.
“Thank you for your care, Uncle Niu.”
In prison, she had been able to eat her fill. The straw inside was dry and plentiful. The chamber pot was changed daily. The jailers and prison matrons had been quite polite to her…
Even though armies of cockroaches and rats had made her skin crawl with goosebumps again and again, Feng Chuchen was still immensely grateful.
This was not only due to Magistrate Li’s instructions and Head Jailer Niu’s care, but also the camaraderie Medicine Woman Feng had shared with the jailers and prison matrons during her lifetime.
The matrons were the old women who guarded female prisoners in the jail.
While Medicine Woman Feng was alive, she had come to the prison many times to examine female prisoners and had even delivered babies there.
Head Jailer Niu smiled and said, “If you want to thank someone, thank Sister Feng. My mother couldn’t give birth for three days and nights; it was Sister Feng who safely delivered my fifth younger brother. My family was poor then—we only gave her ten eggs, and she returned five for my mother to nourish her body…
“Sister Feng was a good person. If nothing goes wrong, the court will certainly commend her. Those blind fools won’t dare bully you siblings anymore.”
Those who give love receive love in return; those who send forth blessings receive blessings.
The forefathers plant trees; the descendants enjoy the shade.
The woman Feng Chuchen had never met had not only saved countless lives and spent her entire lifetime atoning for Madame Fan’s sins, but had also accumulated boundless good karma, allowing Feng Chuchen to live again.
Feng Chuchen firmly believed that if not for Medicine Woman Feng’s accumulation of good deeds and virtue, this body would have simply died. How else could a soul from another world like her have replaced the original occupant and continued living?
Since she had come, she would definitely find a way to keep Feng Buji—the sole remaining seedling of that family—alive, and raise him into a capable adult.
The Feng family would not die out; it would only grow better and better.
Younger brother Feng Buji was the only child her foster parents had given birth to at the age of thirty-five. When he was one year old, her foster father died of illness; a few days later, her foster mother drowned.
People said this was because of Madame Fan’s great evil, that her descendants could not meet good ends…
Feng Chuchen walked out of the main gate of Changping County prison. Feng Buji and the maid Banxia were waiting outside.
They had hired a donkey cart before dawn and come into the city to wait here.
Feng Buji rushed forward and hugged Feng Chuchen’s waist, bawling at the top of his lungs, “Sister, you’re finally out. I was useless, letting Sister be bullied by bad people and even put in jail.
“Sister is a young lady. It should have been me who went to sue, me who went to jail. Ah~~ ah~~ ah~~ I’m not a man…”
The little fellow wailed as he confessed his guilt, utterly heartbroken. The several large scars on his face twisted, making him look even more ferocious.
The scars were from when he had tumbled down the cliff earlier.
Feng Chuchen comforted him, “It’s not Brother’s fault. Brother is small and couldn’t endure that suffering. All right, all right, if something happens at home in the future, I’ll definitely let Brother stand in front of Sister…”
Only then did Feng Buji stop crying.
The siblings walked hand in hand toward the street intersection, with Banxia following behind.
Feng Buji spoke of family matters, “The day before yesterday, Brother Guo took several of his brothers to Hekou Village, smashed Feng Qi’s house, and beat up the men of his family. Not a single person in Hekou Village helped them, and those clan members didn’t dare help either.”
A trace of a smile appeared on his solemn little face.
Banxia added, “Yesterday, Auntie Wang was taken to the Qi Residence. Young Mistress Qi’s expected delivery date is the end of this month or the beginning of next. Auntie Wang gave me one hundred wen for the cart ride and noodles, and also told Miss to step over a fire basin when returning home.”
Auntie Wang was Medicine Woman Feng’s assistant and also a servant of the Feng family. Her midwifery skills were excellent.
As they walked along, the main street was broad, the shops arranged in rows like fish scales, mostly blue-brick tile houses, with two-story storefronts and even four-story storefronts.
Pedestrians bustled about; the cries of vendors rose and fell in succession.
Public order was quite good as well; from time to time, groups of patrolling yamen runners would appear.
Feng Chuchen counted herself lucky that she hadn’t transmigrated into an era of war and chaos.
The group arrived before an open-air noodle stall in the Eastern Market.
Banxia said to the stall owner, “Three bowls of plain noodles. Add a fried egg to two of them. Cook one bowl softer.”
The two fried eggs were for Feng Chuchen and her brother. Feng Buji’s stomach was weak, so the noodles needed to be softer.