From that particular day Victorious-Immortal remained so strangely affected that she was quite unable to swallow a grain of rice, or even to touch a cake. At last, one morning, she was too weak to rise. Her mother ran to her bed.
"My poor child," she asked, "what is the matter with you?"
"I ache all over my body. I have pains in my head and cough a little."
Her mother at once thought of calling in a doctor; but, in the absence of the master of the house and his servant, there was no man to go on the errand. But an old female attendant, named Kind-Welcome, was present and observed:
"The ancient woman Wang lives, as you know, quite close at hand. She has helped more than a hundred children into the world. She can sew, and she can act as go-between; but she can also feel a pulse and diagnose an illness. Everybody calls her as soon as there is anything the matter."
"That is true. Go and fetch her quickly."
Some few moments later the healer came and the mother began a long explanation. But the woman interrupted her:
"I shall know all about it when I have examined the patient."
The sick girl put out a wasted hand, and the woman felt her pulse for a long time. At last she said:
"You have pains in the head, and all your body aches. You are in continual agony, and the earth is hateful to you."