Sanruwi called over Minnie and handed her a piece of paper filled with writing.
"Prepare the medicine according to this prescription," Sanruwi said coldly, not bothering to hide his irritation.
Minnie took it, glanced at it, blinked, then widened her eyes and looked again before calling out to Sanruwi, who had turned to leave.
"Wait, I can't read what's written here."
Sanruwi stumbled slightly. "You can't read?"
"I can read, but the writing on this..." Minnie didn't consider herself illiterate. Even if it was traditional characters, she could recognize most of them. But Sanruwi's handwriting...
"You mean my handwriting is hard to read?" Sanruwi's voice turned cold.
"It's not ugly, just this script... I don't recognize much of it." Maybe Sanruwi's writing wasn't bad, but to Minnie, cursive was like reading a foreign language. She had only ever learned standard script.
Sure enough, whether ancient or modern, doctors always had handwriting that was near impossible to read.
Sanruwi stared at Minnie for a long moment while she calmly looked back at him.
"What are you two staring at each other for?" Jax walked over and couldn't help but ask. He had been helping sort the herbs earlier and had just now found some free time.
Sanruwi angrily shoved the prescription to Jax. "Is my writing really that hard to read?"
"Uh, it's not too bad." Jax unfolded the prescription and started reading aloud, "Five taels of honeysuckle, five taels of white chrysanthemum, three taels of raw rehmannia... Sanruwi, what's this one?"
"Five taels of prunella," Sanruwi said irritably. In the past, it had always been Shuran or Yno preparing the medicine. They had followed him for so long they had no trouble recognizing his handwriting.
"Oh." Jax continued reading. When he came across a word he didn't recognize, he asked Sanruwi. There were only about a dozen herbs, so he quickly finished reading through it.
"Honeysuckle five taels, white chrysanthemum five taels, raw rehmannia three taels, prunella five taels..." Minnie repeated.
Jax looked at the prescription in surprise and realized she had recited it exactly. "You remembered everything after hearing it once?"
"You read it slowly, so I could remember. If you'd read faster, I might have needed to hear it two or three times." Minnie explained.
"So, you've got photographic memory?"
"Not quite that good." Minnie shook her head. "I remember familiar things more quickly, but if I don't use it for a while, I forget most of it. I have a friend who studies medicine, so I often hear her reciting prescriptions. I'm familiar with a lot of herb names, so it stuck. Alright, I'll go prepare the medicine."
Just as Minnie was about to begin, she paused and said, "What do I do about measuring taels? I don't know how to use a scale." Besides, in ancient times, a jin had sixteen taels. She wasn't sure what the system was here.
Sanruwi was speechless with anger. "Can you be any more clueless? You don't even know how to use a scale!" The scale used to measure medicine wasn't the big kind found in markets but a more precise type called a deng. Wealthier families often kept them to weigh silver. Sanruwi, who frequently prepared medicine, was extremely familiar with them.
"Isn't it normal not to know? I've never needed to use one, so of course I don't know. That doesn't mean I'm stupid." Minnie firmly argued. She had completed an eight-year medical program and earned a doctorate. How could she be dumb? Her IQ had tested very high back then.
Still arguing. Sanruwi's eyes looked like they were about to shoot fire.
"Alright, alright." Jax quickly tried to calm things down. "If she doesn't know, she can learn. Minnie's so smart, she'll pick it up quickly."
Minnie again. Sanruwi glared at Jax. When did you and this woman become so familiar?
"If you want help, you have to teach first. Even Shuran and the others couldn't help right away." Jax added.
Sanruwi took a deep breath. Thinking about how he needed assistance at Phoenix Mountain, Minnie was clearly the best choice. Even Shuran didn't know acupuncture.
"Come with me." Sanruwi suppressed his frustration and said to Minnie.
Sanruwi's long fingers moved across the dark scale beam, pointing at the golden marks. "This is one jin. This is one tael. One jin is sixteen taels. You can count them."
"One jin really is sixteen taels," Minnie said in admiration. "So it really is half a jin equals eight taels."
"If it weren't sixteen taels, what else would it be?" Sanruwi said coldly. He then picked up another scale, smaller and finer than the previous one. "We usually use this one for preparing medicine."
Since A-Qing was unconscious and couldn't take medicine orally, they had to use steaming or medicinal baths. These required larger doses. A few qian of medicine became several taels, sometimes even over a jin. Sanruwi, always meticulous, had asked Boss Hayes to prepare a scale ahead of time.
Minnie took it with curiosity. "What's this scale marked in?"
"This line is five fen..."
"Five fen?" Minnie did some quick mental math and realized five fen was just over a gram. She was impressed by how precise the deng scale was.
"Got it memorized?"
"Yes." Minnie nodded.
"Good." Sanruwi put his hands behind his back. "Now weigh out one jin, five taels, eight qian, and three fen of danggui."
"What?"
Sanruwi glared at her.
"Got it." Still feels like an exam. Minnie first used the large scale to weigh out one jin and five taels, then switched to the deng scale for the rest. She used her finger to count the scale markings, concentrating intently.
"All done." Minnie smiled and gathered the danggui together. "Teacher San, please check."
Teacher San. Sanruwi's brow twitched. Do I look that old?
Normally, in teacher-student relationships, people said Master or Sir. The term teacher was usually reserved for older, respected scholars who ran schools. When Minnie said it like that, Sanruwi thought she was calling him old. But he also started to sense there was more to it.
"Don't call me that. We don't have any such relationship," Sanruwi said coldly. He had just completed his own training and wasn't planning to take on any apprentices. And if he did, it definitely wouldn't be a woman.
"Oh." Minnie didn't get upset. She patiently stood by.
Sanruwi reweighed the danggui and didn't comment. He just said, "Prepare the medicine according to the prescription. Make three sets."
"Okay." Minnie cheerfully agreed. She was in a great mood after learning something new and didn't mind doing a bit of work.
When Sanruwi stepped outside, Jax was waiting for him.
"What are you smiling at?" Sanruwi saw the grin on Jax's face and found it irritating.
"Teacher San?"
"You were eavesdropping!"
"I didn't need to. I listened openly."
"You're getting more shameless." Sanruwi scolded angrily.
Jax chuckled and didn't take it seriously. "You know, with how you spoke earlier, how many women wouldn't get mad? But Minnie didn't just stay calm. She even showed respect. Shouldn't you appreciate that?"
"Appreciate?" Sanruwi snorted. "Appreciate what?"
"You need me to spell it out?"
"That woman's too dumb for me," Sanruwi said with disdain.
"What's dumb about her? Someone with near-perfect memory isn't dumb."
"So what? I said she's dumb, so she is." Sanruwi flicked his sleeve and went back inside.
Such a terrible temper. Jax rubbed his nose and thought to himself. Getting Sanruwi and Minnie together wasn't going to be easy.
Jax went to find Minnie again. She was humming a tune and smiling as she weighed out the herbs, clearly in a very good mood.
Jax cleared his throat and walked over.
"Jax." Minnie greeted him cheerfully while continuing her work.
"You didn't get mad earlier, right?"
"Mad?"
"It was Sanruwi who said you're dumb." Jax watched Minnie's expression carefully.
"That? There's nothing to be mad about," Minnie smiled. "Actually, Sanruwi isn't wrong. Even though I have a good memory, I'm still pretty dumb in some ways."
"In what ways?" Jax asked with interest.
"For example, arguing with people." Minnie thought for a moment. "And doing housework. I only know how to eat. I don't know how to cook or clean. My mom often scolds me. I'm also bad at sports, almost like an idiot."
Most women in Huaguo rarely do housework like Minnie, so Jax didn't find it strange, but still…
"Arguing, arguing? Why would you need to argue?" Jax didn't understand.
"Don't think arguing is something bad. I think people who are good at arguing are amazing. At least their mental strength and reaction speed are top-notch."
"How so?"
"I've been in many arguments, and I always end up red-faced and speechless. When someone curses at me and I finally think of a good comeback, she's already moved on to something else. I just can't keep up. My former coworkers and friends used to say I was dumb, not even able to argue."
"People actually argue with you?" Jax was surprised. Even someone as sharp-tongued as Sanruwi lost her edge with Minnie. Who could even manage to argue with someone this good-natured? And from what Minnie said, the arguments sounded intense.
"Yes, quite a few. My coworkers always have to help me." Minnie said with some embarrassment. When she encountered rude and unreasonable patients, this tongue-tied person would be pushed aside by her bold coworkers, becoming a quiet onlooker, secretly admiring the women arguing fiercely with passion and energy.
This might be perfect. She and Sanruwi could never get into a fight no matter what. Aren't they made for each other? Jax couldn't stop herself from laughing quietly.