Chapter 6 – The Female Military Doctor of the 1950s

With her mind still dwelling on other things, Xu Wanchun only gave the photo a brief glance before handing it back to Aunt Su.

Once they got home, and after helping her foster mother sort out the things they’d brought back, she brought up the idea of selling medicinal herbs.

Xu Hehua was putting corn stalks into the donkey’s trough when she heard her daughter mention wanting to collect herbs to sell. Rather than immediately shutting down the idea just because the child was small, she tossed the question right back at her:
“Everyone knows herbs are worth money, but each village has maybe one or two families doing that business. Do you know why?”

Xu Wanchun answered easily, “Because most people don’t recognize the herbs.”

She didn’t expect her daughter to actually know the reason. Xu Hehua patted her on the head.
“Exactly. And even if they can identify one or two, they can’t process them. They can’t tell the good from the bad. Knowing that, do you still want to go gather herbs?”

Back in those days, whether it was learning medicine, smithing, or carpentry—you had to become an apprentice. Outsiders couldn’t just figure it out on their own.

A few years ago, plenty of folks had been envious of Doctor Cao’s income from selling herbs.

Some shamelessly followed him to try learning how to collect them, but the pharmacy refused to buy their goods.

Said the quality was too inconsistent, and none of it had been properly prepared.

Many had tried. Not one succeeded. In the end, they just wasted time that could’ve been spent farming.

Later on, others tried sending their kids to be Cao’s apprentices.

Doctor Cao, however, simply pulled out a thick stack of herbal manuals and said: memorize these first. Only if they had a good memory and a strong work ethic would he even consider teaching them.

But the kids in the village couldn’t read. Most couldn’t even tell which side of the book was up, let alone memorize it.

The few who knew a handful of characters gave up after two days.

So, yeah—some money was just meant to be earned by people who could.

Xu Wanchun didn’t know about the past failures in the village. She said plainly, “I know over a dozen herbs already, and I understand how to prepare them too.”

Clunk!
Xu Hehua set down the ladle she was about to use for water, shocked.
“How’d you learn that?”

“I watched Doctor Cao when he was processing herbs,” Wanchun explained.

Xu Hehua was a sharp woman. She might be illiterate, but her survival instincts were strong. It didn’t take her long to connect the dots. She looked down at her daughter in disbelief.
“So all that time you were running next door… it was to study medicinal herbs?”

Not wanting to lie, Xu Wanchun nodded earnestly.
“Yeah, I want to earn money to help support us.”

Is this kid too clever? Or just too thoughtful for her age? Xu Hehua felt a surge of mixed emotions.

Seeing that her mother wasn’t saying anything and was staring at her with a complicated expression, Wanchun started to feel nervous. She hesitantly called out, “Mom?”

That snapped Xu Hehua out of her thoughts. Instead of replying immediately, she went and scooped one more ladle of water for the donkey. Then she took her daughter’s hand and led her back to the main house. Only then did she speak, her tone serious:
“I’m not against the idea. But in such a short time, you really learned over a dozen herbs?”

“I really did. I guess I just like it… once I see it a few times, I remember,” Wanchun said, making it up on the fly.

She likes it? Xu Hehua looked thoughtful.
“Then do you want to study medicine with Doctor Cao?”

She’d worried before that her daughter’s small, weak body wouldn’t be able to handle the hard labor of farming.

But what else could a rural child do, other than work the fields?

Now, hearing that her daughter not only liked herbs but was also sharp, she wondered—if Wanchun could just pick up a bit of Doctor Cao’s skills, wouldn’t that be enough for her to live well?

The more she thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

Xu Wanchun hadn’t expected her foster mother to be so open-minded.
“Would Doctor Cao even be willing to take on a student?”

“He probably wouldn’t mind,” Xu Hehua said, and then—

Xu Hehua recited the conditions Doctor Cao had laid out for accepting an apprentice.

Xu Wanchun reminded her, “I can’t read either.”
Besides, she didn’t have much hope for the idea. She had a feeling that Doctor Cao wasn’t really looking to take on an apprentice. After all, it’s not like you had to be literate to learn. She refused to believe that out of all the kids in the village, there wasn’t a single one both clever and hardworking enough.

Well, her own daughter was basically illiterate too. So Xu Hehua didn’t press the matter, but she did tuck the thought of apprenticeship away in her mind for later.
“I was just saying. Let’s not worry about becoming an apprentice for now. But about selling herbs—did you bring it up with Doctor Cao or his wife?”

Xu Wanchun shook her head.
“Not yet. I thought I should ask you first. If you agreed, then I’d go tell Doctor Cao honestly.”

“Whether emotionally or practically, we should talk to them about it,” Xu Hehua nodded. “If they’re not happy about you making money this way, then forget it. I’ll support you no matter what.”

She might be a rural woman, but she still had her principles. With that thought, she slapped her thigh and said,
“I don’t have anything going on this afternoon. Once Doctor Cao gets back from his visit, let’s bring a few things over and talk to them.”

Naturally, Xu Wanchun had no objections.
“Okay!”

The mother-daughter pair were both people of action.

But plans never keep up with change.

That afternoon, when Doctor Cao still hadn’t returned, Xu Hehua decided to take a few sesame buns and half a pound of pork she’d bought at the market and bring them as a gift to her parents.

She originally planned to take Taohua (Wanchun) with her. After all, they were family, and getting closer would be a good thing.

But remembering what the old lady had been scheming before, she gave up the idea and went alone.

She didn’t expect that barely twenty minutes after she left, a group of people would rush noisily into the courtyard next door.

Worried that Aunt Su might get taken advantage of, Xu Wanchun locked up their house and hurried over.

When she squeezed through the crowd and made it to Aunt Su’s side, she finally learned what had happened—
Liu Dahe, a villager, had gone into the mountains to hunt and unfortunately ran into a wild boar. Its tusk pierced right through his lower leg.

“Doctor Cao’s not home?” asked Uncle Xu Jingjun, panting and covered in sweat after running over the moment he got the news.

Everyone else looked just as panicked as they stared at Liu Dahe, whose lips had gone pale from pain. The crowd broke out in a flurry of anxious voices:

“Where did Doctor Cao go? I’ll go call for him!”

“Yeah, Dahe’s lost a lot of blood. We can’t just sit around!”

“Should we take him to the town clinic?”

“No, not the town!” Liu Dahe gritted his teeth. The town clinic wasn’t someplace poor folk could afford. He had eight kids to feed—there wasn’t a single silver dollar to spare, let alone two. That money had taken forever to save up.

Xu Jingjun understood Liu Dahe’s dilemma and looked over at Su Nan, who was rummaging through a cabinet.
“Sister Su, do you know where Doctor Cao went?”

Su Nan didn’t even look up as she replied,
“He went to Zhao Family Village for a house call.”

Zhao Family Village was ten li (about five kilometers) away from theirs. Everyone felt their hearts sink.

Despair crept across Liu Dahe’s face.

Xu Jingjun managed to stay calm. He knew that Doctor Cao’s wife also knew medicine—whenever the women in the village had issues, they always went to her.

But he didn’t know if she could handle external injuries. If she couldn’t, they’d have to forcibly take Liu Dahe to town. They couldn’t just let the man bleed out.

With that in mind, Xu Jingjun pressed again:
“Sister Su, can you treat it?”

The moment the words were spoken, the dozen or so men in the room fell completely silent. Their eyes were filled with both doubt and hope as they stared at Su Nan.

Over at the cabinet, Su Nan had already found clean cloth. She pressed it over Liu Dahe’s wound to stop the bleeding and check whether the bone had been hit. While doing so, she glanced up and calmly replied—

Just two words:
“I can.”

After saying that, Su Nan paused, then rolled up a piece of cloth and told Liu Dahe to bite down on it.

Ideally, she would have ground up some raw chuanwu and caowu (types of Aconitum) to numb the wound. That way, the treatment wouldn’t hurt as much.
But those herbs could easily cause skin burns or poisoning if misused, and her medical skills weren’t as advanced as her husband’s. She couldn’t control the dosage with full confidence—so better not risk it.
The only downside: the patient would have to tough it out.

With that in mind, she turned to the village elder, Xu Jingjun.
“I can’t leave him unattended. I need someone to decoct a medicinal brew. The wound has to be cleaned.”

Xu Jingjun immediately agreed.
“Just say what to do. I’ll make the decoction.”

Su Nan gave the prescription clearly:
“Thirty grams of honeysuckle, ten grams of dandelion. Boil four bowls of water down to one.”

Xu Jingjun could read, but he’d never actually prepared herbs before. He tensed up and began stammering:
“W-what was that again, Sister Su?”

This was a simple formula—its only purpose was to reduce the risk of infection. In this era, there was no such thing as tetanus vaccines.

Saving lives is a race against time. Without another word, Xu Wanchun stepped up:
“I’ll do it,” she said, and grabbed the weighing scale, heading straight for the drawers that held honeysuckle and dandelion.

But she wasn’t tall enough, so she had to drag over a stool and climb up on it.

Everyone was stunned into silence as they watched the little girl calmly scoop and weigh the herbs. She brought the honeysuckle over to Su Nan and asked,
“Auntie, is this right?”

Su Nan was completely dumbfounded and could only nod,
“That’s right…”

With confirmation in hand, Xu Wanchun poured the honeysuckle into a small basket and went back to weigh the dandelion.

After Su Nan confirmed it again, the girl took the herbs and hurried to the kitchen.

Xu Jingjun narrowed his eyes in surprise.
“Sister Su, I’ll leave Dahe to you—I’ll go help Taohua with the decoction.”

Su Nan had already composed herself and nodded.
“Thanks.”

Fortunately, Liu Dahe hadn’t broken any bones.

Including the time it took to brew the herbs, the entire treatment took about half an hour.

Just as they were finishing, Doctor Cao returned. After examining the wound and confirming there were no issues, he prescribed some external anti-inflammatory and hemostatic medicine.
He added a final instruction:
“If he develops a fever, come get me immediately.”

After the crowd carried the injured man away, the room quieted down. Only the Cao couple and the Xu mother and daughter were left.

Xu Hehua had returned only a few minutes before Doctor Cao. She had no idea what her daughter had just accomplished. She was planning to take her daughter home first and return later with gifts to formally ask for permission.

But before she could say anything, Su Nan bent down to look at the little girl and gently asked,
“Taohua, can you tell Auntie how you learned to recognize those herbs?”

Doctor Cao blinked, confused.
“What’s going on?”

Su Nan quickly explained, and was rewarded with the exact same stunned expression from her husband.

Xu Hehua also turned to her daughter, struggling to process what just happened—
This is completely off-script!

“I asked while Doctor Cao was preparing them,” Xu Wanchun answered.
She had stepped up earlier out of a sense of duty. Even if she was now just an 8-year-old child, the oath she once took—to save lives and heal the wounded—had become deeply rooted over a decade of study.
Of course, she hadn’t been reckless either. She had thought this through and gave a reason she’d prepared in advance.

Faced with the staring eyes of the adults, Doctor Cao frowned and muttered,
“Hm… I think she did ask about a few herbs. And she remembered all that?”

Although it felt a bit embarrassing to act all impressive like this, Xu Wanchun had no choice. So she stiffened her spine and—

Xu Wanchun stiffened and said, “I remembered all the ones I asked about.”

Cao Xiu still wasn’t fully convinced. He pushed up his glasses and asked, “Which ones do you remember?”

Xu Wanchun lifted her small legs and walked to the medicine cabinet: “This one is huangqi (astragalus), this is baizhi, chuanwu, huanglian, and gancao (licorice).”

Seeing the little girl accurately identify each herb and match them to the correct drawer, the Cao couple finally believed she had really remembered them all.

Still, they weren’t as shocked as Xu Hehua—after all, their own son, Cao Jingliang, was also extremely bright.

But as educated people, they naturally had a fondness for talented children. Su Nan turned to the still-stunned Hehua and encouraged her with a smile,
“Taohua is a very smart child. Don’t let her talent go to waste.”

Xu Hehua already knew her daughter was clever, but she hadn’t realized she was this clever. Hearing Su Nan say that, she nodded repeatedly,
“I was planning to send her to school this September anyway.”

Su Nan lit up with delight.
“She should go! Studying teaches a person reason—it can change your fate. And who knows? If this child gets into college someday, you’ll be so proud!”

College?!

Xu Hehua drew in a sharp breath, then waved her hands hurriedly,
“I don’t dare to dream that big! Not at all!”
She truly didn’t. Getting into college was such a rare, difficult thing back then. But what if…

Xu Wanchun saw her foster mother start to drift into fantasy and had to speak up herself:
“Doctor Cao, Auntie, may I gather and prepare herbs to sell?”

“You want to sell medicinal herbs?” Cao Xiu asked, surprised but not entirely caught off guard.

Xu Wanchun nodded seriously.
“I’m not in great health, and it costs a lot to raise me. I don’t want my mother to work so hard.”
Then she added quickly,
“If you don’t approve, just pretend I never asked.”

Xu Hehua’s eyes turned red as she explained as well,
“She’s said the same thing to me at home before. Sister Nan, please don’t feel pressured. We really mean this—if it’s not appropriate, we won’t do it.”

Su Nan exchanged a glance with her husband, then smiled and gently tapped the little girl’s nose.
“This is something you learned yourself. If you want to sell herbs, go ahead. Just bring them by first, and I’ll help our Taohua inspect them, okay?”

In truth, neither of them were the overly warm-hearted type.
But the Xu mother and daughter were good people, and as neighbors, they were willing to help where they could.
Especially since the two of them could’ve quietly gone out and sold herbs directly, yet still chose to ask permission—that alone was touching and respectful.

Before asking, Xu Wanchun had been about 80% confident. She hadn’t expected them to be so kind. Her eyes, already large from her thinness, grew even rounder as she blinked away the sudden rush of tears.
Then she smiled sweetly and said,
“Thank you, Auntie. Thank you, Doctor Cao.”

Such a good child, Su Nan thought, pretending not to see the tears and softening her tone:
“Our Taohua is such a sweet girl.”

Doctor Cao, usually stern with outsiders, now spoke gently too:
“Call me Uncle Cao from now on.”

Xu Wanchun’s eyes lit up.
“Thank you, Uncle Cao!”

Xu Hehua discreetly wiped her eyes, smiling as she said,
“I’ll go home and get some gifts.”
And without waiting for a response, she turned around and rushed off enthusiastically.

---

The Next Day

Just as dawn broke, the Xu mother and daughter were already up.

They had planned to go to the back mountain to gather herbs, and on the way, stop by Li Family Village to pay respects at the graves of Wanchun’s biological parents.

So after breakfast, they packed offerings and lunch rations, then led their donkey out the door.

As they set off, the mother and daughter rode the donkey and chose a secluded path.

They had agreed to keep their herbal gathering a secret—not out of selfishness, but to avoid drawing unwanted attention to the Cao family.
The Caos had helped them out of kindness; it wouldn’t be right to bring them trouble in return.

But even with such a hidden path, just as they neared the foot of the mountain, they ran into a villager.

Squinting into the distance, Xu Hehua tugged on the donkey’s reins.
“Taohua, is that your eldest cousin?”

Xu Wanchun had only seen her maternal uncle’s eldest son once—on the day of the warming banquet. But she had a sharp memory. She stared for a moment, then nodded:
“It is big cousin.”

“What’s he doing here at this hour?”
This place was two or three li away from their village. Xu Hehua frowned and dismounted from the donkey. Just as she was about to call out, she saw a slim figure running toward the boy in the distance.

Xu Wanchun instinctively lowered her voice:
“Mom, is Big Cousin… on a date?”

Xu Hehua gave her a quick thwap on the forehead.
“A little kid like you, what do you know about dating?”

What do you mean, what do I know?
Dr. Xu rubbed her smarting forehead indignantly. She’s seen a lot more than they think!