Chapter 37: Not Broken
"I said her legs are fine," Doctor He felt his eyebrow twitching. The Madam looked as if her daughter had contracted a terminal disease when she first burst into his clinic, startling him hard enough to fall off his chair.
After hearing the story from Lizi, who was more coherent than her panicking mistress, the doctor examined Anji and declared that she was merely suffering from an excruciating muscle cramp from overexerting herself.
"They’re not broken," he declared. "However, her shredded muscles will need a week to repair themselves. Anji has to do gentle rehabilitation after she recovers. What happened to cause this?"
Guilty, Wanting retold how she was overly zealous in her practical lessons. Although she had drastically reduced the intensity of the lesson, Anji’s tofu-like body was still damaged during the process.
Hmm...
Thinking hard, the doctor wondered if there was a better way. Anji was a determined child. If she had the body of Yihao, she would have endured past the muscle cramps. The training process would be painful, but she would improve by leaps and bounds if she persevered. However, unlike her ruddy brother, any damage suffered to Anji’s physical vessel was multiplied exponentially. Even the thinnest of paper could cut her deep enough to leave a scar if she was not tended to immediately.
"Must she really learn martial arts?" he asked. "Anji’s weaker than a block of tofu. Without the ability to strengthen her body with qi, she’s even weaker than a farmer’s child. Training like this will deteriorate her health quicker than she can build it up."
Horrified by the damages she had unknowingly caused her daughter, Wanting apologised profusely and tearfully asked for Anji’s forgiveness. Although her daughter’s legs were not broken, the injury was serious enough to warrant a week’s worth of bed rest and rehabilitation.
Likewise, Anji’s heart sank. She had been living her whole life without qi. Hearing that she could study basic cultivation theory and learn basic martial arts under her shifu’s instruction made her very happy. However, the joy she felt slipped away as quickly as water through a reed basket. Dismayed, Anji did not know if she or her mother was in more pain.