The scar on her face looked very ferocious, and was quite frightening at first glance.
"Replying to Madam, the scar on my face was from being scalded by boiling water when I was four years old."
The girl said with her head down, a hint of shyness and insecurity visible on her face. The long hair falling from her temples seemed to try and conceal the scar.
"You have no need to be ashamed. The scar on your face is your misfortune, but you cannot let it make you self-pitying or think less of yourself, do you understand?"
Feng Jin spoke to enlighten the woman. She reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing half of her face covered in scars. The other half was fair and beautiful. If it weren't for these scars, she would likely have been a beauty.
"I will help you remove the scar on your face, don't worry."
"Thank you, Madam, thank you, Madam." After the girl finished speaking, she was about to kneel and kowtow to Feng Jin, but Feng Jin quickly helped her up.
"There's no need. I am a healer, and curing illnesses and saving people is my duty. What is your name?"
"Replying to Madam, my name is Yun Niang."
"That's a good name. It will take some time for the scar on your face to heal. You can stay at the clinic for now."
"Thank you, Madam."
"All of you too. I will help you all heal the scars on your faces and give you new lives."
Feng Jin had asked Cai Qing to find these people for two reasons: first, to remove the scars on their faces for free, and second, to use them as living advertisements to promote the clinic.
"Thank you, Madam, for your great kindness."
"Ling Muzhu, take them down and arrange rooms for them. I will examine and treat them myself later."
Feng Jin was now treating Ling Muzhu like a servant, giving him orders quite readily.
"Cai Qing, you've miscalculated this. Angelica is two taels a jin, but you've recorded thirty taels for twenty jin. It should be forty taels. Take this and correct it."
Cai Qing stepped forward, glanced at it, and realized it was indeed a mistake. "I'll go and correct it now."
Taking the ledger, she made the correction. After finishing, Cai Qing said dejectedly, "Young Madam, accounting is too difficult. Can you let me do something else?"
It took her half a day to figure out a single account, and sometimes she even made mistakes.
"Such simple accounts, and you find them difficult."
These calculations were all at a primary school level. Cai Qing, being a family servant, was supposed to be taught household management by a governess. It was unexpected that she would be stumped by such simple accounts.
"Madam, these accounts are indeed difficult. My arithmetic is not good, so please assign me simpler tasks."
Cai Qing was afraid of making any more mistakes and absolutely did not want to do this anymore.
Someone else volunteered. Ling Muzhu, hearing the commotion, quickly said, "I'm good at arithmetic. How about I do the accounting?"
Doing accounting was much easier than doing manual labor. Ling Muzhu's mind was calculating furiously.
Feng Jin looked at Ling Muzhu with a suspicious and somewhat disbelieving gaze. "Can you... do it?"
"Of course I can. I'm quite good at arithmetic."
After a moment of hesitation, Feng Jin decided to give Ling Muzhu a chance. "Then you try. Here's the ledger."
Ling Muzhu took the ledger and scanned it repeatedly.
It took him half an incense stick's worth of time to finish. "Done. Take a look."
Feng Jin merely glanced at the ledger and quickly calculated the answers mentally.
"They're all correct..." She hadn't expected this foolish boy to have some use.
"From now on, you'll be in charge of accounting."
"No problem." Freed from manual labor, Ling Muzhu was overjoyed and quickly agreed.
However, this method of accounting was still too time-consuming. Feng Jin took some paper and wrote down the multiplication tables.
"Take this table back and memorize it. This will help you account faster and without errors."
Ling Muzhu took the paper and looked at it, his expression changing from calm to surprised, and finally to disbelief. "How did you write this? This is a lost arithmetic secret manual!"
Feng Jin, who was drinking water, almost choked on her tea. How did the multiplication tables become a secret arithmetic manual here?
"Legend has it that this manual was lost long ago. Even the imperial library only contains incomplete parts. Countless great scholars have racked their brains but couldn't fully deduce it. How do you have this?"
Ling Muzhu asked urgently, eager to know how Feng Jin acquired the manual.
Feng Jin coughed lightly, her eyes darting around as she considered for a moment before saying, "My master taught me all of this. My master is a hidden master, and I don't know where he got it from."
She couldn't show off too much, so it was better to attribute it to someone else. She would just be a diligent bee.
"So that's how it is. I suppose you couldn't have come up with such profound secrets yourself."
Ling Muzhu completely believed Feng Jin's words and, in the process, belittled her.
Feng Jin's mouth twitched uncontrollably, and she suppressed the urge to kick Ling Muzhu away.
It's fine, she could understand. Some people just couldn't accept the excellence of others. To satisfy their own self-esteem, they always looked for countless excuses.
"You should memorize this manual first." Feng Jin immediately regretted teaching Ling Muzhu the multiplication tables and wished she had just let him stick to using an abacus.
"Madam, is there any work I can do?" Yun Niang's weak voice sounded from behind. She stood there timidly, a hint of fear on her face.
Feng Jin did not refuse Yun Niang. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Go and help Cai Qing wash the vegetables and prepare the meal. We'll be eating soon."
"I understand, Madam." Yun Niang replied with a smile and quickly went to the backyard to get busy.
After dinner, Feng Jin began to treat the scars on Yun Niang and the others' faces.
After examining the scars on their faces, Feng Jin prescribed medicine for them to apply. Their scars would fade in a short period.
However, when it came to Yun Niang, Feng Jin became a bit worried.
"Madam, is it that the wound on my face... cannot be healed..." Yun Niang, sensing Feng Jin's worry, asked softly.
She had seen countless doctors before, and they all said that the scar on her face was too deep and could not be removed.
She should have resigned herself to fate long ago and not held onto hope.
"It's not that, but the scar on your face is too deep, and it's been too long. It's very difficult to restore it to its original state by simply applying medication. We need to surgically remove the scar tissue and then let new granulation tissue grow. However, the process is a bit painful. Can you endure it?"
"I can endure it. As long as the scar on my face can be removed, I can endure any pain or hardship."
Yun Niang's voice was filled with emotion. As long as the scar on her face could be removed, she could endure any pain or hardship.
"Alright... Tomorrow, I will help you remove the scar on your face."