Revived

The warm, brilliant sunshine. The never-ending streets.

The craftsmen’s street wasn’t the only place that was bustling with activity. The main road that was connected to this small street was filled with carriages and horses.

One four-wheeled high-ceiling horse carriage with lucky ribbons on the corners and wooden doors moved along slowly, basking in the sunlight.

It only took one look for anybody to immediately conclude that this was no ordinary carriage and that it was probably ferrying a woman of importance. Given how the color and pattern on the carriage leaned more mature and the speed of this carriage was on the slow side, the person inside was probably on the older side.

As the carriage moved along, an even wider and larger horse carriage suddenly came into sight.

The overall design and style of this carriage were also mature and expensive, and the workmanship was intricately done by skilled craftsmen as well. But compared to the first one, this second one had a slightly lighter and brighter color. It was also traveling extremely quickly, and the huge word “Lin” painted on it was extremely prominent.

The main road was very wide, but today was a day when many sellers were here to sell their wares, so the two sides were filled with small makeshift shops. If the two carriages were narrower, they could pass each other by with no issues. But it was going to be impossible with these two unusually large carriages.

The first carriage alerted its owner in time. A middle-aged woman with a round hairstyle and comfortable clothing reached out to pull the curtain back and stuck her head out of the window to take a look.

“Old Madam, it’s the Lin family’s carriage.”

“The Lin family?” An older lady with graying hair was made up nicely and sat with her back straight inside the carriage. A woman who exuded quite a bit of confidence. She looked down and paused to think, “The doctors? That Lin family?”

The other woman nodded, “You’re so intelligent! You’ve guessed it before I could tell you!”

“Let’s give way then. They might be in a hurry to save someone’s life.” The older woman looked outside through the thin curtains of her window, “We can turn left or right into a small street. We’re not in a hurry anyway.”

The horseman immediately stopped moving forward. He spotted a street by the side that was wide enough for their carriage and turned in.

The moment he did that, the commotion along the craftsmen’s street could be seen immediately.

The first woman took a look and was pleasantly surprised, “Old Madam, take a look outside! Isn’t that Miss Song? Miss Song Caitang!”

The older woman looked out and smiled, too, “You’re right.”

“What a coincidence! We came out today precisely to look for Miss Song. If you hadn’t kindly given way to the other carriage and we continued on that road to the Guan family house, we wouldn’t have gotten to see her!”

The middle-aged woman spoke excitedly before her voice suddenly stopped, and she cupped a hand over her mouth in shock, “That…it looks like…someone died?”

The older woman was initially full of smiles and very relaxed, pleased with this pleasant coincidence. But after she heard what the middle-aged woman said in shock, her expression turned serious, and she shifted toward the window. She took a quick glance, then told the middle-aged woman, “Tell the horseman to stop here for a while.”

“Yes, Old Madam.”

This mistress and maid pair was the same one who happened to see Song Caitang shout at First Madam Wu while pointing at the corpses in the coffin home.

The carriage wasn’t too far from the commotion now. The older woman sat inside the carriage and could still see what was happening. The longer she observed the events outside, the more stern her gaze became.

The middle-aged woman dared not speak or interrupt her thoughts and just remained cautiously by her side.

They weren’t the only ones who were silent. Everyone in the street was silent too.

This pretty, young woman had picked up her skirts and marched right up to a dead man, unafraid to touch a dead body, and had inspected his body in a seemingly professional manner. What did that mean?

It didn’t take long for someone to ask, “Miss, are you a doctor?”

“But this man is already dead. He’s no longer breathing! Can he still be saved?”

“If you can save him from the dead, that would be an incredible show of skill, and you would have done a wonderful deed!”

The voices got louder and louder as everyone gasped and started imagining what it would be like if she really brought this man back from the dead. Many of them now looked with great anticipation at Song Caitang, hoping to witness a miracle.

Song Caitang did not respond to them. However, before she could fully bend over and blow air into the man’s mouth, she suddenly stopped.

Something wasn’t right!

She frowned as she touched the man’s chest bone.

This man’s chest bone had hit the corner of the cart very hard, causing him to stop breathing, collapse, and his heart to stop. If she pressed hard on his chest to perform CPR on him, his bone might break!

And if it broke and stabbed into the heart, then she would actually end up killing him instead of saving him.

What should she do now? What should she do now?

The cogs in her brain started spinning quickly. She narrowed her eyes, then suddenly shouted, “Qingqiao!”

“Coming!” Qingqiao pushed the people in front of her aside and came to where her Young Mistress was, “I’m here!”

Song Caitang pulled out a black pill from her bag and passed it to Qingqiao, “Hurry! Get some wine here and make him swallow this pill!”

Qingqiao looked at the pill. Wasn’t this the sort of pill her Young Mistress had been rolling over the past two days?

She had no idea what Song Caitang was trying to do, but her Young Mistress’ instructions were to be followed without question. She immediately responded, “Got it!”

The people watching around them were hoping for a miracle, so when they heard that Song Caitang needed wine, they were all eager to help and raised their hands.

“I have some!”

“I’ve got some in my shop!”

“I’ve got a bottle on me right now!” Someone held their wine bottle out.

Qingqiao hurriedly thanked them, took the wine, and came toward the man on the ground. She didn’t panic when she realized she couldn’t do this on her own, so she yelled, “Is there anybody who can help this man to sit up?”

A few strong men came forward immediately. Some supported his neck and back, one pulled his mouth open, and some were afraid that he might suddenly start moving and frighten the ladies, so they pressed down on the rest of his body and four limbs, “Go ahead and do it!”

Oh god, the smell…

Qingqiao nearly fell back, dizzy from the stench after the man’s mouth was forced open. She held her breath, pushed the pill in her hand into his mouth, then poured wine in as well.

The wine spilled out. He didn’t swallow it.

Qingqiao became anxious and looked toward Song Caitang, “Young Mistress…”

Song Caitang had been watching all this time. She frowned at the situation, then bent over to gently pat on part of the man’s back.

Everyone was on tenterhooks, watching her with anticipation. It was as though the world had fallen silent. They held their breaths as they watched her every movement.

“The wine’s gone down! He’s swallowed it!” Qingqiao’s bright and joyful exclamation broke the silence.

Song Caitang smiled faintly, “As long as he’s swallowed everything.”

Different people had different opinions as they watched what happened.

Most of them felt like they had been part of an amazing miracle. They had witnessed a resurrection! That was incredible! They could brag about this to all their children and grandchildren!

A small group had their doubts. They had heard anecdotes of miraculous healing, but they had never heard of anyone being brought to life after it was clear that the person was no longer breathing. This young lady was very well dressed – could she be some rich man’s daughter who thought she was a genius doctor after just reading a bunch of medical books? If so, then as long as the man was not actually revived, everything she did was just entertainment and ridiculous.

The handkerchief in Huamei’s hands was all crumpled up. Her face was pale.

Cousin Young Mistress…had touched a dead person! She pinched and touched the man and even looked like she was about to kiss him!

The man was like a ragdoll as he was turned over, and his hand even touched Cousin Young Mistress’ clothes! But she didn’t seem to have noticed at all…

And that Qingqiao actually listened to Cousin Young Mistress and gave that dead man the pill…

The man was already dead and had stopped breathing, so why did Cousin Young Mistress bother at all? Wasn’t she afraid that the family of this young man might harass her or beat her up?

No matter how hard she tried, Huamei simply could not convince herself to go in front and help.

Blacksmith Zhong was a timid man who didn’t really dare to continue watching, but his wife exclaimed excitedly, “Oh my GOD! We’ve been patronized by a Goddess of Mercy in human form! Is that pill a miracle pill made by deities?!”

At the same time, Boss Li and his wife kept their eyes on Mao San after he had swallowed the pill. Their hearts kept praying, please say he’s alive, please…Goddess of Mercy, please revive him!

Everyone waited for a while, but Mao San did not wake up. They turned to look at Song Caitang again.

“Miss, this…”

Song Caitang checked Mao San’s chest, checked his pulse, then narrowed her eyes.

She turned and happened to spot two women. One was holding a basket of chives she had just bought, while the other was holding a rolling pin and looked like she had run out of the house to find out what the commotion outside was all about.

She quickly pushed through the crowd and came to the two women, “Madam, please give me some of your chives!”

“And madam, I’ll borrow this…”

“Take it, take it! Use whatever you want!”

The two ladies immediately understood that she needed these items to rescue the man, so they gave her the items without her even having to explain.

Finding a bowl was even easier. The street was filled with shops selling all sorts of ceramics, and there were plenty of ready-made ones on the shelves. Once Song Caitang asked to borrow one, someone passed one to her. She squatted down, placed the chives inside, then used one end of the rolling pin to smash it repeatedly, juicing the chives in no time.

Everyone looked on curiously. This was something new. She was supposed to be rescuing someone, not making dumplings. What was she doing with the chives?

Song Caitang ignored the increasingly louder voices around her. She just focused on making chive juice.

In order to get the juice out as quickly as possible, she jabbed the vegetables especially quickly and with as much strength as she could. It didn’t take long for perspiration to appear on her forehead.

After she managed to get half a bowl of juice out, she yelled for Qingqiao again, “Pour this down his nose!”

“Got it!” Qingqiao immediately poured the juice down the man’s nose without hesitation.

Everyone stared at the man without blinking.

Song Caitang was watching him closely too.

She even raised a hand to pull a slightly sharp hairpin from her hair. She didn’t remember where a lot of acupoints were, and she wasn’t great at making use of them either. But if this method didn’t work out, then she would have no choice but to attempt…

COUGH COUGH! COUGH COUGH!

Thankfully, the man on the ground woke up.

He coughed violently, shocking everyone around him.