Chapter 178
She kept venturing into the yard until she met someone who hurriedly saluted her: “Why is the Fifth Princess here? Do you need to summon an Imperial Doctor?”
Lin Feilu nodded and said gruffly, “I’m looking for an Imperial Doctor who is best at treating bruises.”
The official asked, “Is the princess injured?”
Within expectations, the little girl said in anger: “Am I not allowed to ask for an Imperial Doctor unless I am injured?”
The little doll was also cute when she was angry. The official smiled and said, “Of course you can. Please wait a moment, princess. This official will summon an Imperial Doctor for you.”
After he finished his sentence, he went in. A while later, a young Imperial Doctor came out carrying a medicine box. Lin Feilu looked at him and found him slightly familiar. Now that she thought about it, wasn’t he the great doctor who treated her cold?
No wonder Consort Xian, the Eldest Imperial Prince, and the Eldest Imperial Princess sent the Imperial Doctors one after another to check up on her again. It turned out that the Imperial Hospital was indeed perfunctory— they actually sent an Imperial Doctor who was good at treating injuries to treat her cold.
The young Imperial Doctor saluted her: “Greetings to the Fifth Princess. Is Honourable Lady Xiao Lan injured?”
Lin Feilu behaved like a little adult: “Come with me.”
After that, she turned around and walked forward.
The young Imperial Doctor trailed behind her. When she came to the intersection, the little girl suddenly turned her head and asked him, “Big brother, what is your name?”
The young Imperial Doctor had a frightened expression, “This lowly official Meng Fuji is unable to be addressed as such by a princess.”
Lin Feilu smiled. The wind blew against her bangs as her eyes sparkled under her shrivelled hair, “Big brother, your name is really unique. To save the dying, heal the wounded and treat the stubborn illness, you must be an exceptionally skilled doctor!”
Meng Fuji said: “The princess is exaggerating, this lowly official is too lowly, too undeserving to receive such praises.”
He looked up and glanced around, realising that this did not seem to be the road to Mingyue Palace. He was about to ask her, but then he heard the little girl say: “Big brother, I’ve read a saying in a certain medical book before.”
Meng Fuji subconsciously asked, “What is it?”
He listened to her as she spoke: “As a doctor, whatever houses I may enter, I will do so for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all harm and in particular of all intimate relations with both females and males, bonded or free. What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment, as well as outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one should be spreaded abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken of. If I fulfill this oath and adhere to it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time; but if I transgress it and forswear myself, may the opposite of all this befall me.“
(T/L: This is a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath. Doctors are supposed to take this oath, but factually variants of this oath are used, not the exact oath itself.)
Upon listening to her words, Meng Fuji was shocked to his core.
His Meng family has practiced the art of medicine for generations, and it was only in his generation was he finally lucky enough to enter the Imperial Hospital. Father Meng often preached to have the parental heart of a doctor, so he did not approve of his son entering the palace.
Father Meng stated that there was no shortage of doctors with superb medical skills around the Emperor. In fact, it was the subjects of the Emperor that needed them more as they were the ones with incurable diseases, hence the name ‘Fuji’ that he bestowed upon his son.
(T/L: ‘Fu’ in Chinese means something like ‘help/aid’. ‘Ji’ means ‘the sick or the ill’. So the name is literally something like ‘to help the sick’)