"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.
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 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.
Having watched Anji grow up, Lizi gave the doctor a beseeching look. Although Anji never outrightly expressed her interest or longing to learn martial arts like her siblings, she always had a forlorn look of resignation when she heard the sound of swords when the other disciples trained. To have such a rare opportunity ripped away was akin to frying an egg before it could turn into a chick.
It was simply too cruel!
Sighing in defeat, the physician walked over to his medical supplies shelf. If the tofu block was too fragile and crumbled under any pressure, all he had to do was transform that jiggly tofu block into a firm tofu block that could at least withstand the pressure of flowing water. However, the process to toughen such a tofu block was unpleasant and tedious.
"The traditional methods of learning martial arts will not work for the young miss," the thin doctor summarised. "There is nothing wrong with learning the Gentle Fist style. However, the training methods must be different for our tofu princess."
Tofu princess... that was a new nickname. Anji did not know how to feel about the pathetically accurate description.
Seeing the family physician as a ray of wisdom and hope, Wanting held her breath and clung to his words.
"How should I change the training method?"
Given the Madam’s dedication to raising Anji, Doctor He knew that she would be able to pull off the tedious training program specially designed for Anji. However, it also meant he had to work extra hours to ensure the safety of the young princess. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel✦fire.net
"Interval training," he explained. "The most important thing to monitor is her heart rate as she exerts herself. If her heart rate surpasses a certain threshold, she must stop to rest for the day. How much she can do would depend on the condition of her body on that day. Instead of perfecting her stance and posture, it would be more efficient to introduce her to as many stances within the tight window frame of her stamina."
Oh, that made more sense. As Doctor He went into detail about the ten-minute training grace period program with forty seconds of practice and twenty seconds of rest per stance, Wanting finally understood why the physician labelled this training method tedious.
Compared to the traditional teaching methods that emphasise endurance and pushing past one’s limits, this new method proposed by the doctor capitalised on maximum efficiency in short spurts, working within Anji’s limits.
"It sounds less risky than the previous method," Lizi agreed. "However, there has to be a timekeeper at all times, a teacher to correct the young miss and a pulse taker on standby during the training. Most importantly, the young miss has to switch between working and resting with barely enough time to prepare. Will this interval training work?"
Shrugging, the lanky physician pulled on his moustache.
"I’ve never seen anyone train before," he admitted. "It was merely a theory my teacher created to increase the body’s metabolism for rehabilitating patients who want to return to their strenuous daily work as soon as possible. It was designed to be used during the war."
Thankfully, the Celestial Dragon Sect had all the money, people, time and resources to spare for Anji’s tofu-hardening training. Naturally, Doctor He could not decline when the Madam of the sect bowed her head before him to ask for a favour. With nobody else in the sect more knowledgeable about Anji’s health, he agreed to oversee the interval training and become the pulse taker.
"After Anji rests for a week, I will examine her again to see if she can return to training. On the other hand, Madam can demonstrate the movements to Anji for her lessons. She is a visual learner and can learn quickly from just observation. If it weren’t winter, I would suggest filling a large pond with water that goes up to Anji’s waist for her to train in. Water reduces gravity and the impact on her joints, making it ideal for rehabilitation."
If the problem was about gravity, Anji had a brilliant idea to counter that.
"How about using a silk cloth tied from the ceiling and wrapped around my waist instead?" Anji asked. "Wouldn’t that also reduce the weight on my joints for recovery?"
Pausing momentarily, the physician looked at the little girl’s waist and raised a brow.
"How many sit-ups can you do without assistance?" he asked.
Sit-ups... Anji suddenly had a bad feeling as the three adults stared at her with anticipation. With no other choice, she laid down on the sickbed and got ready to do some sit-ups.