Chapter 1: The Fall (continued)

Part 5: The Treatment

1.

The morning began before the sun did.

Lin Wei woke to the sound of someone weeping. Not loudly — a soft, muffled kind of crying, the kind that came from someone trying very hard not to be heard.

She sat up on her woven mat, blinking in the darkness. Auntie Chen was still asleep in the other room. The weeping was coming from outside.

Lin Wei wrapped a shawl around her shoulders — a gift from Auntie Chen, who had insisted that the nights were getting colder — and walked to the door.

A woman was kneeling in the courtyard.

She was young, maybe twenty-five, with a round face and dark circles under her eyes. Her hair was loose, uncombed. Her hands were pressed together as if in prayer.

“Please,” the woman whispered. “Please, Healer Lin. Please help my daughter.”

Lin Wei knelt beside her. “What is your name?”

“Li Wei,” the woman said. “My daughter is Little Peach. She is seven years old. She cannot stop coughing. She cannot breathe. I think she is dying.”

Seven years old. Cough. Difficulty breathing.

Lin Wei’s mind raced through the possibilities. Asthma? Pneumonia? A blocked airway? Whooping cough?

“Where is she?” Lin Wei asked.

“At home. I did not want to move her. She is too weak.”

“Take me to her.”

2.

Li Wei’s house was small — smaller than Auntie Chen’s, with only one room and a cooking fire in the center. The air inside was thick with smoke. A clay pot sat on the fire, bubbling with something that smelled like medicine.

Little Peach lay on a bed of straw in the corner.

She was small for her age, thin and pale, with dark hair plastered to her forehead with sweat. Her eyes were closed. Her mouth was open. Each breath was a struggle — a wheezing, rattling sound that made Lin Wei’s chest tighten.

Wheezing, she thought. That is asthma. Or an infection. Or both.

She knelt beside the girl and pressed her fingers to her neck. The pulse was fast — too fast — but regular. She placed a hand on the girl’s forehead. Warm, but not burning.

“What did Old Man Feng give her?” Lin Wei asked.

Li Wei wrung her hands. “A tea. For the cough. It helped at first, but now… nothing.”

The tea probably contained ephedra, Lin Wei thought. A bronchodilator. It would have helped temporarily, but if the underlying problem is inflammation, it would not last.

“The smoke,” Lin Wei said. “From the fire. Does it make her cough worse?”

Li Wei looked confused. “The fire keeps us warm.”

“I understand. But the smoke… it irritates the lungs. It makes it harder for her to breathe.”

Lin Wei stood and opened the door, letting in the cool morning air. The smoke began to clear, slowly.

“I need you to keep this door open as much as you can,” she said. “Even when it is cold. The fresh air will help her breathe.”

Li Wei looked doubtful but nodded.

Lin Wei examined Little Peach more closely. She lifted the girl’s tunic and listened to her chest — ear to skin, the only way she had. She heard wheezing on both sides, but no crackling.

Asthma, she thought. Probably. But I cannot rule out an infection.

“Does she have coughing fits?” Lin Wei asked. “Worse at night? Worse when she runs or plays?”

Li Wei’s eyes widened. “Yes. How did you know?”

Because that is what asthma does.

“I have seen this before,” Lin Wei said. “In other children. Far away.”

She thought about her training. In the hospital, she would give the girl a nebulizer treatment — albuterol, a bronchodilator that would open her airways within minutes. She would prescribe an inhaler for future attacks.

Here, she had nothing.

But she had ephedra. And she had ginger. And she had steam.

“I need you to boil more water,” Lin Wei said. “As much as you can. And I need you to find me a large cloth — something we can use as a tent.”

Li Wei hurried to obey.

3.

While Li Wei boiled water, Lin Wei went back to Auntie Chen’s house to gather supplies.

She took dried ginger, dried ephedra (which she had found in Auntie Chen’s herb shelf, labeled as “mahuang”), and a jar of honey. She took clean cloths, a wooden bowl, and a clay cup.

Auntie Chen was awake now, stirring the morning porridge.

“Another patient?” she asked.

“A little girl. Asthma, I think.”

Auntie Chen’s face darkened. “Little Peach? Li Wei’s daughter?”

“You know her?”

“Everyone knows her. The poor child has been sick for years. Old Man Feng has tried everything. Nothing works.”

Nothing worked because he was treating the symptoms, not the cause, Lin Wei thought. And because he did not understand that the smoke was making it worse.

“I will try,” Lin Wei said.

Auntie Chen nodded. “That is all anyone can ask.”

She handed Lin Wei a bowl of porridge. “Eat first. You cannot help anyone on an empty stomach.”

Lin Wei ate standing up, her mind already working through the treatment plan.

4.

Back at Li Wei’s house, the water was boiling.

Lin Wei poured the steaming water into a large clay bowl. She added a handful of dried ephedra and a handful of dried ginger — both known bronchodilators and anti-inflammatories.

She draped a large cloth over Little Peach’s head and the bowl, creating a small tent.

“The steam will help her breathe,” Lin Wei explained to Li Wei. “The herbs in the water will open her airways. She needs to breathe this for as long as she can.”

Li Wei nodded, watching her daughter with desperate eyes.

Lin Wei sat beside Little Peach, holding the cloth in place, speaking to her in a low, gentle voice.

“Little Peach. Can you hear me? I need you to breathe slowly. In through your nose. Out through your mouth.”

The girl’s eyes fluttered open. She looked at Lin Wei — not with recognition, but with the vague awareness of someone who was very tired and very sick.

“In through your nose,” Lin Wei repeated. “Slowly. Good. Now out through your mouth.”

Little Peach obeyed.

Her wheezing did not stop — but it softened.

5.

They stayed in the steam tent for an hour.

Lin Wei’s arms ached from holding the cloth. Her eyes burned from the herbal vapor. But she did not move.

Little Peach’s breathing improved. Not dramatically — but noticeably. The wheezing was still there, but it was no longer the desperate, rattling sound of someone fighting for air.

When Lin Wei finally lifted the cloth, Little Peach’s eyes were open. She looked at her mother and whispered, “Mama.”

Li Wei burst into tears.

“Can I give her something to drink?” Li Wei asked.

“Yes. Warm water with honey. Small sips.”

Li Wei hurried to prepare the drink. Lin Wei stayed beside the girl, watching her chest rise and fall.

“You are going to be okay,” Lin Wei said quietly. “Not today. Not tomorrow. But someday.”

Little Peach blinked at her.

“You talk funny,” the girl whispered.

Lin Wei laughed — a genuine, surprised laugh. “So do you.”

6.

Lin Wei gave Li Wei instructions for the coming days.

“Keep the door open. Let the fresh air in. Do not let the smoke build up.”

“I will try,” Li Wei said.

“Every morning, boil water with mahuang and ginger. Have her breathe the steam for as long as she can. If she gets worse — if she stops being able to speak in full sentences — come find me immediately.”

Li Wei nodded, her face pale but determined.

“What about the medicine?” she asked. “The tea Old Man Feng gave her?”

“Stop the tea. It was helping, but it was not enough. The steam will help more.”

Lin Wei knew she was making promises she might not be able to keep. She knew that asthma was a chronic condition — that Little Peach would have good days and bad days for the rest of her life.

But she also knew that the girl had survived this long. And with better management — with cleaner air, with steam treatments, with avoidance of triggers — she could live a relatively normal life.

Not a cure, Lin Wei thought. But relief. That is what I can give.

That is what I have to give.

7.

Lin Wei returned to Auntie Chen’s house just before noon.

She was exhausted — more exhausted than she had been after her longest hospital shifts. Her body ached. Her eyes burned. Her stomach growled with hunger.

But she could not rest.

There were more patients waiting.

The man with the cough — Uncle Lin — had returned. His cough was no better, but he wanted to thank her for the ginger.

The elderly woman with the swollen joints — Widow Liu — had sent her daughter-in-law to ask for more willow bark.

The young man with the infected wound — Iron Hammer — had come back for his second cleaning, just as she had instructed.

And there were new faces too. A grandmother with a toothache. A farmer with a gash on his hand. A pregnant woman with back pain so severe she could barely stand.

Lin Wei treated them all.

She cleaned wounds. She dispensed herbs. She gave advice about rest, about water, about food. She held hands. She listened. She did not promise miracles.

By the time the sun set, she had seen fifteen patients.

Fifteen.

In one day.

8.

That evening, Old Man Feng appeared at the door.

Lin Wei was sitting in the courtyard, drinking tea, too tired to move. Auntie Chen was inside, preparing dinner. The last patient had left an hour ago.

Old Man Feng stood at the gate, his gray beard illuminated by the lantern light. He did not enter. He simply stood there, watching.

“Healer Lin,” he said.

“Old Man Feng.”

He was silent for a long moment.

“The child with the cough,” he said finally. “Little Peach. Li Wei’s daughter. You treated her today.”

“Yes.”

“With steam. And mahuang. And ginger.”

“Yes.”

Old Man Feng’s face was unreadable. “I treated that child for three years. I gave her every remedy I knew. Nothing worked.”

“She has asthma,” Lin Wei said. “Her lungs are sensitive. The smoke in her house made it worse.”

“Smoke?”

“From the cooking fire. The smoke irritates her lungs. It causes the coughing fits.”

Old Man Feng frowned. “I never thought of that.”

“No. Because you were focused on the symptoms, not the cause.”

The words came out harsher than Lin Wei intended. She braced herself for his anger.

But Old Man Feng did not get angry.

He sighed — a long, tired sigh — and sat down on the wooden stool across from her.

“You are right,” he said. “I focused on the symptoms. I have been focusing on symptoms for thirty years. Because that is what I was taught. That is what I know.”

He looked at her — truly looked at her — for the first time.

“You know things I do not know,” he said. “Things I have never seen. Where did you learn them?”

Lin Wei touched the jade pendant.

“Far away,” she said.

Old Man Feng nodded slowly.

“Far away,” he repeated. “I have heard that answer before. From travelers. From merchants. From monks who came from distant lands.”

He stood, brushing the dust from his robe.

“I do not know if you are a witch,” he said. “I do not know if you are a ghost. I do not know if you are a gift from the heavens or a punishment from hell.”

He walked toward the gate, then stopped.

“But I know that child is breathing tonight because of you. And that is more than I have been able to give her in three years.”

He turned and looked at her one last time.

“I will not stand in your way, Healer Lin. But I will be watching.”

He walked into the darkness and disappeared.

9.

Lin Wei sat in the courtyard for a long time after he left.

The jade pendant was warm against her chest.

She thought about Old Man Feng’s words. I will not stand in your way. It was not acceptance. It was not friendship. But it was not hostility either.

It was… a truce.

Auntie Chen came out with a bowl of rice and vegetables. She set it in front of Lin Wei and sat down beside her.

“He did not yell,” Auntie Chen observed.

“No.”

“He did not threaten you.”

“No.”

“That is good.”

Lin Wei picked up her chopsticks. “He said he will be watching.”

Auntie Chen shrugged. “Let him watch. The village is watching too. And right now, the village is on your side.”

Lin Wei ate her rice in silence.

She did not know how long this truce would last. She did not know how long she would be able to keep her secrets hidden.

But tonight — just for tonight — she allowed herself to rest.

Tomorrow, there would be more patients.

Tomorrow, there would be more questions.

Tomorrow, the dragon would remember.

But tonight, she slept.

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End of Part 5

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Chapter 1 Table of Contents:

Part	Title
Part 1	The Pendant
Part 2	The Awakening
Part 3	The Village
Part 4	The First Patient
Part 5	The Treatment
Part 6	The News Spreads