Chapter 386 – Doing a Favor for Teacher (2)
“After getting a complete form of the divinatory diagram, the next step that you have to do is predict whether it is good fortune or bad fortune. At this point, we have to look at the question of change and immutability in the trigrams. After confirming the three changed parallel lines in a trigram, the direction of a matter is essentially already confirmed at that point. As for the judgement standard of the three changed paralleled lines, Yang is numbered with 9 and 7, while Yin is numbered with 8 and 6. Among them, 9 means ‘Old’ Yang and 7 ‘Young’ Yang; 6 means ‘Old’ Yin and 8 ‘Young’ Yin—” Huangfu Chen continued to explain, putting the herbs on the ground to illustrate the trigrams to Ye Zhen and taught her how to read the trigrams to predict good or bad fortunes.
Time passed, and as Ye Zhen listened to the lecture, she had unknowingly filled half of the small square with herbs. Thus, she wanted to go to the medicine storehouse to clean up those moldy herbs that could no longer be used.
At that time, Huangfu Chen’s lecture was also at the tail end, and he had also finished teaching her the method of predicting good and bad fortune. Thus, he ended the lesson, “That’s all for today.”
Ye Zhen silently recalled the knowledge he imparted today and felt that her understanding of divination had deepened. “Teacher, tonight, I will go back and do a divination to predict good or bad fortune.”
Huangfu Chen couldn’t help but smile as he said, “Divination is actually a very exhausting task. So, don’t tire yourself out.”
“Hm.” Ye Zhen smiled and nodded her head in agreement.
“I’ll go with you to clean up the medicine storehouse,” he said, unable to bear watching a little girl like her do these things.
Looking at her teacher’s resolute eyes, Ye Zhen knew that it would be useless even if she refused. So, she simply went along with the flow and let him help. Thus, the two people went to the medicine storehouse together. There, she saw many moldy herbs, some of which had even had worms feasting on them. Taking in this sight, she shook her head and commented, “This medicine storehouse is really a place that wastes a lot of herbs.”
Huangfu Chen said, “The air in springtime is relatively more humid than summer, furthermore, the grounds do not use a layer of moisture-proof board on top of it. Under such conditions, it is normal that the herbs become damp and moldy.”
“Let’s clean these up first,” Ye Zhen said.
Huangfu Chen calmly said, “You shouldn’t be the one to do this. Go and tell the Imperial Physicians’ Courtyard to ask someone to make some moisture-proof boards for the medicine storehouse. Otherwise, the herbs will need to be taken out again in a few days to dry.”
“I’m now a young physician. I can’t possibly go to the Imperial Physicians’ Courtyard to ask for those things, can I?” Ye Zhen said as she frowned, looking at the worm-infested herbs with distress. Regardless of whether she was in the Ye Family or the Lu Family, she was in truth quite spoiled. Therefore, this was the first time she had ever done this kind of cleaning.
“You wait here. I’ll go to Gong Tang.” Huangfu Chen’s voice was cold.
“Teacher, do you know Chief Gong?” Ye Zhen asked, a little surprised.
How could he not know that guy? He used to be the medicine boy of his paternal aunt’s mother-in-law. “He can be considered an acquaintance of sorts. Anyway, just wait here and don’t touch those herbs.”
Before Ye Zhen could say anything, the other had already turned around and left.
If we can get ChiefGong to order people to affix some moisture-proof boards on the ground, then that will be great. We can prevent the herbs from molding due to the damp environment. Ye Zhen thought that if that should truly happen, it would be very good. This way the herbs would not be wasted.
Although the medicine field was very large and there was no shortage of herbs… if some could be saved, it was also a good thing, especially for the people who lacked herbs outside.
After finding a cool location to sit down, Ye Zhen took out the yarrow stalks divination she brought with her and considered. She didn’t know what matter she should predict, so she decided that she might as well calculate the matter of her future trip.
The form of this divinatory diagram was the Kun that was formed by three broken parallel lines. And when she carefully recalled her teacher’s teaching in her mind, this divinatory diagram represented ‘a dragon fighting in the open field, spilling the blood of heaven and earth’.
What does this mean? Inauspicious divination?
Ye Zhen pondered over the meaning of the divination she received from the diagram, but no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t understand it. She was obviously trying to divine the outcome of her travel plans, so how did the result of her divination – a dragon fighting in the open field – be related to her planned trips?
It seems that I haven’t studied well… perhaps I have made a mistake when calculating?
She put away the yarrow stalks disapprovingly and turned around to go outside to take a look. At that time, a shadow suddenly appeared behind her, scaring her so much that she almost cried out and fell.
“Don’t be afraid. It’s zhen,” the man said in a low voice as he hastily supported her shoulder, preventing her from accidentally falling.