Time Travel: The Best Doctor in Ancient Times

Chapter 57: Chapter 31: The Medical Hall Opens for Business

Before they knew it, the three-day period had arrived, and the Gu Family Medical Hall was set to reopen.

On this day, Gu Changsheng got up early, and after a rushed breakfast with everyone, she went to the medical hall to get busy.

The first task was to hang up the signboard again. As the old saying goes, a shop without a sign is no shop at all; whether it’s a large store or a small one, even the roadside tea stalls would hang a cloth banner as a sign.

The Gu Family Medical Hall’s signboard was well-preserved, stored in Uncle Song’s house, where he would fondly wipe and cherish it daily. Against all odds, he had managed to polish the less-than-perfect wood to a glossy sheen. Yet, even so, one could tell at a glance that it was an old signboard with some years on it.

Looking at the sign, Gu Changsheng paused in reflection, remembering the old signboards preserved in the Yhan Family Ancestral Hall of her mentors. They were cared for just as diligently as the one before her, despite being worn with age.

This was perhaps a kind of spiritual sustenance…

Thinking this, Gu Changsheng pulled her thoughts back to the present and helped Uncle Song and several others carry out the old signboard.

Although Uncle Song and the others insisted on not allowing Gu Changsheng to lift a finger, Gu Changsheng was of the mindset that all people are equal. Even if she occasionally leveraged her status to suppress the three maidservants around her, she never truly treated them as slaves.

So, Gu Changsheng was determined not to stand idly by as a mere decoration. She sternly declared that even Uncle Song, who was unwell, was doing his utmost for the opening of the Gu Family Medical Hall, and as its heir and current head of the family, she absolutely could not just stand by and watch.

Her speech moved Uncle Song and Xiao Cui to tears, and she inwardly gave herself a pat on the back for her commendable virtue.

As dawn brightened, the signboard had already been hung. Standing on the street, Gu Changsheng took a good look. Not bad; although the storefront looked somewhat worn, the presence of the signboard lent it a certain respectability.

There were no firecrackers to celebrate, no lion dances or juggling, and no grand feast for guests. Gu Changsheng simply took a wooden plank and with a flick of her brush wrote a line: “Medical hall reopens, free consultation for seven days.”

Once everything was in order, dressed in a modified garment, Gu Changsheng sat behind the consultation table. The wide sleeves had been altered to be fitted, and the hem of her ru skirt was opened wide for ease of movement. As for the color, Uncle Song and Xiao Cui had insisted patients dislike white the most. Thus, Gu Changsheng, having no better option, chose a bright red. This color could not be more vivid; Gu Changsheng claimed, even if stained with blood, it wouldn’t be noticeable. But the real reason was to flaunt her individuality—bright red, quite eye-catching, wasn’t it?

When the sky in the east began to lighten, Gu Changsheng was already seated behind the consultation table, and she remained there well past noon, the only difference being the absence of patients.

“Madam, what if we go out and buy some firecrackers to set off? Opening so quietly as we are, I fear no one will know,” Xiao Cui expressed her concern.

“Indeed, Madam, although our funds are limited, we do have enough to buy a string of firecrackers,” Uncle Song chimed in.

“Oh, it’s like the eunuchs are in more of a hurry than the Emperor. Our low-profile opening is a form of silent pomp, you know. Isn’t there a saying that if you don’t croak, you dazzle when you do? Our present silence is to lay the groundwork for our future stunning debut. That way, our emergence will truly be impactful,” Gu Changsheng reassured with self-assured comfort.

Uncle Song and Xiao Cui were clearly not as optimistic, while Han Qiu remained unflinchingly steady.

Seeing the two fret and fidget, Gu Changsheng could only acknowledge that differences in understanding really aren’t bridged in an instant.

Then, remembering that she had acupuncture scheduled for Uncle Song in the afternoon, she took him behind a curtain separating the hall.

Every time acupuncture was mentioned, Uncle Song adamantly objected, and every time his objections became ineffective in the face of Han Qiu’s force.

After administering the acupuncture to Uncle Song, Gu Changsheng leisurely returned to her seat behind the consultation table.

She waited quietly—she wasn’t in a hurry, someone else was.

Glancing at the people passing by the door from time to time, it became evident.

With the reopening of her medical hall, many were coveting her grandfather’s medical books and prescriptions while waiting to see her fall flat.

Humans are truly a contradictory composite.

So she sat until dusk was approaching, Uncle Song’s and Xiao Cui’s faces anxious and dark with worry. Gu Changsheng figured it might be time to close up shop when an elderly woman with white hair and a faltering step entered the threshold of the medical hall.