A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

At 3 PM on the 22nd of June, a wooden bowl was placed on the open ground outside the royal tent.

The bowl was taken from the kitchen stove; it was coarse porcelain with a chipped rim. It was about half full of something, a dark red color with a hint of black.

The heads of the nineteen departments of the royal court stood in a circle around the bowl. No one squatted down to look at it, nor did anyone leave.

This large bowl of food was released from the Khan an hour ago.

Yang Hu entered the royal court at midnight the previous night.

They made their way into the dry ditch to the west, where the mud was knee-deep, and walked four hundred paces. The princess was met by one of her wet nurses, who waited at the ditch entrance with three horses for two hours.

Those 217 riders were guarding the four gates; no one was guarding the moat.

When you enter the tent, the smells inside hit you first: the smell of urine, the smell of burnt mugwort, and the burnt smell of hot ash pressed on the skin.

The Khan sat half-sitting, half-lying on the cushion, his belly so high it looked like a drum. His face was swollen, especially his eyelids, but his eyes were clear.

He saw Yang Hu come in and spoke first.

"Those 417 people were given to me."

"I know."

"You're coming again."

"Your daughter carved thirty lines on the pillar."

The princess moved the lamp to the side behind the pillar.

Thirty engravings, varying in depth. Beside them, countless small pits, Yang Hu counted ninety-four.

"Why is this one carved so deeply?"

"He didn't take his medicine that day," the princess said. "He slept well during the days he didn't take his medicine."

"How many days in total?"

"Seven days."

Yang Hu rolled up his sleeves.

He first looked at the eyelids, then flipped the eyelids, and then pressed the instep. He pressed a finger into the instep, leaving a dent, which didn't disappear until he counted to twelve.

When he touched his stomach, he pushed his hands from under his ribs up to his waist.

It stopped when pushed to the left. It stopped again when pushed to the right.

"There's one on each side of my waist," he said. "Like two fists, hard."

"What is this?" the princess asked.

"This is the root of the disease." Yang Hu looked at the Khan. "Khan, I'm telling you the truth, listen to me."

"explain."

"This disease is inherited from your family. Your father died this way, and your eldest brother died this way too. It can't be cured, I can't cure it, and nobody in the world can cure it."

How do you know my older brother?

"That's what the person who came said," Yang Hu said. "How old was your father when he passed away?"

"Forty-nine."

"Where's your older brother?"

"Fifty-two."

"You're fifty-nine this year," Yang Hu said. "In this respect, you're older than both of them."

The two guards inside the tent both raised their heads.

"It's not that that will kill you today," Yang Hu said. "It's that you haven't urinated for eleven days. The water has come in but can't go out, so it goes back into your body, into your stomach, into your lungs, and up to your eyelids. In two more days, you won't die from the pain, you'll die from the bloating."

Khan's throat moved.

"Can you make me pee?"

"I can try," Yang Hu said. "If you come out, you might live for another year or two, maybe only half a year. I dare not promise anything else."

"Six months is fine too," the Khan said. "I want six months."

The witch doctor barged in after daybreak.

He brought seven men with him, and as soon as they entered the tent, they knelt down and called out to the Eternal Heaven.

"There's a southerner by the Khan's side!" he said. "This man is carrying iron! If that iron enters the Khan's body, it's regicide!"

The eldest prince arrived a moment later than him. He neither knelt nor shouted; he simply stood at the tent entrance and uttered six words.

"Do as the witch doctor says."

Of the forty-three tribes residing in the royal court, nineteen chieftains arrived that day.

Yang Hu stood up, ignoring the witch doctor, and spoke to the nineteen people.

"I won't write on paper," he said. "You don't recognize paper, so writing on it would be pointless. Bring me a piece of new wood and a stone knife."

The wood and the knife were brought by that milk brother.

Yang Hu placed the wooden piece on his lap and carved three lines with a stone knife.

After it was engraved, the translator explained it to everyone in the room, line by line.

"First rule: Before sunset today, Khan will be able to urinate on his own."

"Secondly: If I can't get out, my life is in the hands of the royal court; do with me as you see fit. Release the two women who came with me; it's none of their business."

"The third order: Now that you've come out, each of the nineteen departments shall take back to their respective departments every word spoken in the tent today."

He made a cut on his index finger with the stone knife and pressed the blood onto the three marks.

"There is one more, please have the Great Shaman carve it as well."

The witch doctor raised his head.

"If he gets out today," Yang Hu said, "from now on, you are not allowed to touch the Khan's body again. You are not allowed to administer medicine, burn moxa, apply ash, or use the whip."

The eyes of all nineteen chieftains inside the tent turned to the witch doctor.

The witch doctor's hand trembled as he handed over the piece of wood. He carved it, but only shallowly.

"Who should I give this piece to?" Yang Hu asked.

One of the nineteen chieftains, an older one, spoke up.

"Give it to Zhang Mu."

The translator whispered to someone nearby: "There is a man in the royal court who is in charge of these carved wooden pieces, passed down from generation to generation, and no one else is allowed to touch them."

Yang Hu handed over the piece of wood. He watched as the old man in charge of the wood put it into an old leather bag, which was filled with other pieces of wood.

They made their move at the beginning of the Wei hour (1-3 PM).

Only the princess, Su Heng, Liu Ye, the Khan's two personal attendants, the shaman, and the eldest prince remained in the tent. Yang Hu demanded witnesses and forbade anyone to leave.

Su Heng laid out the thirty scallions.

Cut off the thickest part of the scallion, peel off the outer two layers of skin, remove the inner core, leaving only a thin tube. Soften the tube in warm water, then coat it from end to end with mutton fat.

"General," Su Heng whispered, "it's too soft."

"Try it first."

The first one broke after going in an inch. It was broken inside, and when it was pulled out, a few drops of blood came out with it.

The Khan grunted.

"General!" Liu Ye pressed down on the knife.

"Don't move it." Yang Hu placed the broken scallion in the bowl. "Take another one."

The second one broke too.

The witch doctor laughed out loud from behind.

Yang Hu washed his hands, sat down, closed his eyes, and thought for a long time.

"Reed pipe".

Su Heng was taken aback for a moment: "The reed tube is thick."

"The reed tube won't go in," Yang Hu said. "The reed tube stays outside, just blocking the opening. The scallion tube goes through the reed tube, so it won't bend at the doorway."

He cut a two-inch section of reed, smoothed the end, used it to hold the outside open, and then slowly inserted a new scallion stalk into the reed.

Insert the scallion stalks three, four, or five inches in.

Yang Hu stopped.

"arrive."

He held the outside end of the tube towards the bowl, lowered his head, and blew a breath.

The first three or four drops came out, dark red.

Then there was a surge.

Su Heng took the bowl and filled it halfway before Yang Hu stopped the tube.

"stop."

"General, it's still flowing."

"Hold it down," Yang Hu said. "A person who has been bloated for eleven days will collapse from exhaustion if they suddenly urinate. I've seen people die from urinating in Qing Shi Kou. Put in half a bowl, wait a quarter of an hour, then let it out."

The first bowl was placed in the early afternoon. By the third time, the Khan's hand, which had been gripping the edge of the felt, loosened.

His belly sagged down.

The sun set at 5 PM that day.

The bowl was taken out an hour before sunset.

The witch doctor was escorted out of the tent by two men. He turned back at the tent entrance and said something that the interpreter had to translate twice before daring to translate it.

"Every extra day he allowed the Khan to live, he will have to pay for."

The Khan slept for two hours.

When he woke up, it was already completely dark, and three lamps were lit in the tent. He first looked at his stomach, then touched it, and then turned to look at Yang Hu.

What do you want?

Not now.

Why?

"The Khan still needs help to speak while sitting," Yang Hu said. "Once you can walk out of this tent on your own, then the Khan will listen to whatever I ask for."

The Khan stared at him for a long time.

He raised his hand and pointed to the carved wood on the table.

"Take it out," he said. "Look at it section by section. There's that mark carved by the great shaman on it."