EBE Chapter 37 Do you know about quinine?
Chapter 37 Do you know about quinine?
There are priorities in everything. This time, the trip out of the palace was different from the last time when he accompanied Emperor Kangxi on his tour of the northern frontier. There was no grand procession or a large group of servants and guards. The two brothers, Yinzhuo and Yinreng, traveled light and simply. The two of them, with two horses and a few guards, left the palace and sped off towards the northern desert.
They changed horses but not riders along the way, traveling almost day and night without daring to slack off for a moment. Just before Yinzhu felt that he was about to be shaken apart by the horse, they finally arrived at Bogehetun.
"Your Highness, Sixth Prince, you've finally arrived! His Majesty... he's been waiting for you..."
Judging from Liang Jiugong's tone, Yinzhuo knew that Kangxi inside the tent was probably not in a good mood. He turned to look at Yinreng beside him, and sure enough, his face had also become extremely ugly.
"Let's go, Eunuch Liang, please take us to see the Khan."
The two followed Liang Jiugong through the military camp and finally arrived at the very center of the camp—Kangxi's imperial tent. Because Kangxi was ill and was sometimes awake and sometimes asleep, Liang Jiugong did not go in to announce his arrival. Instead, he lifted the curtain and bowed to invite Yinzhuo and Yinreng inside.
"Father..."
When Yinzhu saw Kangxi again after more than a month, he felt as if he had been in another world. In his memory, Kangxi had always been a high-ranking, majestic, and decisive monarch. He had never been so disheveled as he was today. He was emaciated and weak. When he saw him and Yinreng coming in from outside, he wanted to raise his hand to invite them to sit down beside him. Such a simple action now seemed to require all his strength.
"Yinzuo, don't cry~ Father is alright, sigh... Liang Jiugong, look... Just as I thought, seeing me like this now, he's sure he'll burst into tears..."
Upon hearing this, Yinzhuo suddenly came to his senses, raised his hand to touch his face, and found it was indeed wet. Realizing that he had once again lost face in front of Kangxi, Yinzhuo hurriedly wiped his face a few times, and then walked over to Yinreng, who was now sitting by Kangxi's bedside, and stood down as if nothing had happened.
"Father, please don't make fun of Sixth Brother. He was on tenterhooks the whole way and was probably frightened. Now that he sees that Father is alright, he'll be so excited that he'll start crying and acting spoiled."
Having not witnessed Kangxi's serious illness firsthand, Yinreng's tone was completely unlike that of someone who should be attending to their father's deathbed. Seeing his nonchalant demeanor, Yinzuo was utterly speechless. "Brother, has your brain been turned to mush by the horse's hooves all the way here? Even if you're certain Father is truly dying, you should at least put on an act! Is this the time to watch me suffer? Shouldn't you be kneeling before Kangxi, tears streaming down your face, to show your filial piety?"
If it weren't for Emperor Kangxi watching them, Yinzhuo would have really wanted to go up and pinch the somewhat smug Yinreng hard, and say to him, "Brother, you're getting a little too cocky. Don't be fooled by Father's silence; he's been saving money for you. What did Father say when he deposed the Crown Prince? 'Born to bring misfortune to his mother, unfilial and disrespectful.' He even complained that you showed no concern when you visited him in his illness. Isn't that exactly what he's talking about now?"
This isn't really about how filial Yinzhuo was; it's all thanks to the contrast with his peers, as Guo Moruo said. With Yinreng as a comparison, when Kangxi deposed the crown prince years later, reflecting on the situation and comparing the two men's words and actions, he increasingly felt that his son, whom he had raised and nurtured personally, had already become estranged from him. While Yinzhuo was a bit of a scoundrel in his daily behavior, he was far more filial than Yinreng. It was precisely because of this that Kangxi turned a blind eye to Yinzhuo's transgressions, completely ignoring his fourth son's angry outbursts, cursing his loving father for spoiling his son.
Of course, that's a story for later. At this time, Yinzhuo had no idea that he had unintentionally achieved such a remarkable result. At this moment, our Sixth Prince was still thinking about how to reasonably take out all the quinine in his arms.
"Father, how are you feeling now?"
Kangxi was certainly feeling unwell. Before, he had only felt tired and cold all over, but in the past two days, he had started to feel hot and cold, short of breath, dry mouth and irritability. However, seeing his son looking at him with worry and remembering how scared he had been when he saw him crying, he didn't want to frighten him anymore.
"Father is alright... You must not have had a proper rest along the way. I have Liang Jiugong take you to rest first, and once you've rested..."
Seeing that Kangxi was still putting on a brave face, Yinzhuo was extremely anxious. Rest? What rest? Is this the time to rest? And you can't even speak properly and you're saying you're fine? Even if you want to fool a fool, you should first see if I'm a fool before you try to fool me. And you can't say you're fine, otherwise, should I give you the medicine or not?
But Yinzhuo also knew that although he and his father might not be alike in other aspects, their stubbornness was definitely hereditary. So at this moment, he stopped asking Kangxi and turned to face Yinreng, who was standing to the side.
"Second brother, look at Father Khan, he's still putting on a brave face. Is this the time to be stubborn? Why don't we call the imperial physician over and ask him how Father Khan's condition is?"
Yinreng agreed with Yinzuo's words. Although he was excited that he might ascend the throne ahead of schedule, Kangxi was still alive and watching him. Even if he was pretending, he had to pretend to be a filial son.
What could the imperial physicians say? Naturally, they said the same thing as before: the emperor's condition was serious and had been delayed for too long. The northern desert lacked medical resources, and they were helpless with the emperor's condition. Now they could only do their best to treat him and leave the rest to fate.
"Dr. Wang, in all your years of medical practice, have you ever heard of a Western medicine called quinine?"
Of course, Imperial Physician Wang had never heard of it. If he had, he wouldn't have let Kangxi's health deteriorate day by day. When he heard what Yinzhuo said, his face was full of question marks.
"This old minister is dull-witted and begs the Sixth Prince to enlighten me: what kind of medicine is quinine, what does it look like, and what ailments does it treat?"
Yinzhuo had been waiting for these words. Upon hearing them, he reached into his robes and pulled out a small blue purse that he had carefully protected all the way. He opened the purse, took out a small jade bottle containing medicine, poured out a pill, and handed it to Physician Wang.
"This is it. This is quinine. When I was listening to storytelling at the teahouse, I overheard people at the next table talking about how someone had malaria and was cured by taking this quinine. When I heard that the Khan was seriously ill, I specially sent someone to the Imperial Observatory to get the medicine from Father Hong Ruohan. I also asked Physician Wang to help me see if the Khan could use this medicine."
Yinzhuo wasn't afraid of being verified, because he had indeed heard people in a teahouse when he left the palace that a wealthy man named Li in the south of the city had contracted malaria and was cured by a miracle drug from a foreign priest.
The imperial physician Wang held the medicine in his hand, examining it repeatedly and smelling it under his nose. After studying it for a long time, he still couldn't reach a conclusion.
"May I ask if this malaria is a symptom of chills and fever?"
"Exactly."