Chapter 34 Li Bai Rescued Guo Ziyi

　　Once Liu Chengyuan had swallowed the draught of numbing elixir, the physician deftly pressed upon several key points along his body, stilling the flow of his vital energies. With practised hands, she drew forth the embedded dagger, the motion swift and unerring. Without hesitation, she took up her needle and thread, pulling the wound closed with precise, unflinching strokes. Over the sutured flesh, she spread a thick salve—its hue a deep, mouldering green, not unlike the rind of a rotting orange.　　At last, she turned to his wrist, pricking the vein with a fine-pointed needle. Summoning her inner strength, she guided the huntsman’s offering of blood into Liu Chengyuan’s failing body, pressing it forward with the quiet force of her own cultivated energy.　　After nearly two hours, Liu Chengyuan began to stir, his breath shallow but steady. The physician, ever watchful, placed her fingers against his wrist, feeling the faint pulse beneath his skin. Satisfied, she reached for a small earthen jar and scooped out a thick, pungent paste, its colour a sickly green, its texture uneven and clotted.　　“Take this”, she instructed, offering it to his parched lips.　　Liu Chengyuan, scarcely able to summon the strength to speak, gasped out between laboured breaths, “What... what is this medicine? Why does it look so strange—like the flesh of a rotting orange?”　　The physician, seemingly unfamiliar with the official tongue, replied in the lilting cadence of the Lingnan dialect, her words brisk yet assured.　　“Sir, you’ve observed rightly”, she said. “This salve is indeed derived from decayed oranges. Do not be misled by its appearance—though the fruit has rotted, the mould it bears is of great benefit to your wounds. Applied externally and taken internally, it will see your injuries healed within ten days.”　　Liu Chengyuan raised the paste to his nose and recoiled slightly. A foul, musty stench, thick with decay, coiled in the air—enough to turn the stomach. Yet, steeling himself, he forced the medicine down. Even so, the clinging taste of rot lingered stubbornly upon his tongue.　　Noticing a bowl of clear water beside the sickbed, Liu Chengyuan wasted no time in seizing it, rinsing the lingering foulness from his mouth. Only then did he struggle u