Since it’s already been some time since she has been bleeding, the first thing I do wrap her hand tightly. That way, no more blood can flow out. Next, I use the mortar and pestle, as well as the ingredients, to create and apply a salve to the stump of her finger.

Contrary to my previous plans, this salve is meant to heal the initial damage. Replenish and increase the blood flow while closing off that area. And to make her hand more receptive to healing.

Simply put, my goal is not to reattach the finger now, but heal it as best as possible. Just like a normal beginner alchemist would. It should still heal quicker than it would have without the salve, though.

If she would like to have her finger regrown, there are plenty of ways to do so. Expensive ways, but possible nonetheless.

With that complete, I send her out of the room and I ask for them to send in the next person who needs assistance.

Before they head out, I stop them.

“Could you also bring in a set of equipment that I could use?

“What I will need is a heat source, another mortar and pestle, as well as some jars of water, milk and some towels. Ah! And buckets; large buckets that I could heat, using whatever controllable heat source you could bring.”

With that said, I send them back out. Quickly, they bring someone else back in with them, while bringing the items to me.

Sitting before me is what appears to be a young and normal, but tired looking woman with no discernible issues. She looks skeptically at me, almost like I won’t be able to help her with their issues.

It would be suspicious if I just knew what was wrong with her just based on this. I should ask.

So, what appears to be your issue, I ask?

With a sigh, she proceeds lets me know her cramps are especially bad this month. She wants to know if there’s anything I can do to help alleviate the pain. She wants anything I can give her to reduce it or make it feel better.

I feel totally uncomfortable. They really had to bring out the difficult one, didn’t they?

Nonetheless, I use my intuition to discover what the simplest method is. I find that the simplest method is something that, while isn’t currently out there, could be easily discovered by any alchemist.

What does seem strange to me is that there isn’t anything on the market at this time to already help this issue.

It’s honestly crazy, what ingredients are available in this world and the way they interact with the human body. The presence of qi really changes how people can heal from things or conversely, be hurt by them.

With that knowledge, I address the new woman.

“Yeah, it looks like it can definitely help with that.”

After writing down some ingredients, once again I send out the two women to collect the items that I know they would have available.

Once again, they rush back, this time in excitement.

Using the board and pestle, I grind the ingredients into a powder of sorts. I then put that into a drink. Using the heat source (which appears to be an adjustable heat stone) and water, I make a tea and I request a few more items to help make it more palatable.

The woman continues to look at me in disbelief.

Using my intuition, I make sure that the formula I just used is simple and one that would be easily discoverable by an alchemist. It looks like that is still the case. The only assumption I can make is that it’s something that they rarely receive, especially at their status.

It looks like once you get to certain levels of cultivation, it becomes less of an issue. However, lower cultivation levels still have to bear through the pain.

I give her some advice to help with the pain outside of just using this.

I suggest things such as exercise and lowering stress.

She gulps it down as I continue to think on this.

Why would she be so incredulous about receiving this formula, though? I need to look into the cultural aspects of this more.

…

Oh no.

Seems that this society is like earth’s, in the sense that it’s more patriarchal. Besides that, there’s a lot of gender discrimination across this country.

Part of the reason there isn’t that many solutions for women, is because they’re not viewed as important for many of the alchemists. For the options that are available, they are horribly overpriced and they use expensive ingredients to help justify that cost.

This isn’t by accident, but by design. By making these products ‘luxury products,’ they can charge increased prices to cultivator families. Cultivators of that level would have no issue paying exorbitant prices to help their women members deal with these problems much easier. That, or they would have their personal alchemists make it themselves.

It appears somehow the alchemist groups were able to make creating these ‘lowly’ items, a general cultural taboo. Something no respectable alchemist should create. Unless they worked with a major alchemist group, of course, in which they are providing a nasty but needed solution.

Obviously, this is stupid and hypocritical, but that’s the culture.

And who gets left out? The majority of women who would need it…

It is at this point I can see the woman leaving out with a written note of the ingredients and what I did to create this.

This may get me in a bit of trouble with The Alchemist groups…

Well, hopefully before it reaches them, I’ll be able to get into the cultivation group. If I’m able to do that, they shouldn’t be able to affect me too much.

Since it’s already at this point, I should probably give some additional advice regarding that.

Using the woman with cramps as an example, I show the different areas they should press to help the circulation of the medicine, in combination with the body’s natural Qi flow.

All the advice I’m giving is regarding the qi flow, where to press, how much of the medicine to give someone, is generalized advice. This way, there will be little risk of this being detrimental to someone.

As I finish up the treatment, the woman is already exclaiming how much better she feels.

As that woman leaves, the remaining women in the room have something akin to a fire in their eyes. They rush the next woman into the bathroom.

From this point on, I continue to give similar solutions regarding a wide variety of feminine health care Issues. With me asking for the most ‘serious’ case first, I go through a remarkable amount of people.

I continue to go through many different issues for the patients, such as yeast infections, persistent itching, pain during sex, and other STI’s. I end up finding that while they already have general solutions in place to help with these issues, there are more effective and better ways that are already available, that were just never communicated to people of this class.

I’ve learned so many things that I never realized that I did not want to know about the female body. Not the illness aspect. I was somewhat ready for that…

What I’m talking about is the natural body processes that a woman has to go through, that I was aware of, but not truly understanding of how inconvenient or painful they could be. Like a period. Or the absurd number of things that happen because of hormonal changes. Or even things to lookout for when you’re pregnant.

Being able to see where the pain is and get context on the severity of the issues, really helped me to understand just how shitty those aspects are.

And don’t even get me started on the health issues related to the way they are viewed and treated in society. This isn’t just prostitute focused, but the whole fucking culture.

To be frank, women have it so much tougher than men.

I honestly feel like I need to take a break, just from thinking about all this.

As I get a glance outside, I can see it’s starting to get dark.

Looks like I will not get to the market today…