As our story continues, Holy Auntie climbed over the city wall that very night, and on the road home purchased a bottle of fine, pure wine. Then she went directly to the foot of Goosegate Mountain in Ande Zhou. There, Hu Chu was groaning in agony without any respite and Mei had not yet left his side. Brother and sister were waiting nervously and hoping against hope, and as soon as they saw the old vixen burrowing into their earthen den they were immeasurably delighted. The mother heated the wine to a boil and poured the potion, to be taken with the Nine Spirits Pill of Life, into a porcelain cup. She then assisted Hu Chu in taking the medicine and washing it down with the wine, and as per instructions applied the poison-extracting salve to his wound. Chu continued to lie on his earthen bed feeling only sleepiness, and didn't awaken for three hours. The old mother vixen and her daughter kept watch.
"He hasn't closed his eyes for quite a few days," said Mei.
"Well," answered Holy Auntie, "his sleeping now is due, I reckon, to his feeling no pain. We can see the medicine at work."
Pus was running down the curve of his leg and the salve had already been dissolved away, but they didn't dare apply more of the balm out of fear of awakening him. In a few moments, though, Chu came around.
"The wound is really starting to itch," he exclaimed, and when his mother removed the plaster for a peek she saw some slender thing beginning to emerge, still hidden in the pus and blood. The old vixen cleaned away the filth with some grass, and when she applied her claw to remove it a shovel-shaped arrowhead emerged into her grasp. The arrowhead used by Zhao Yi had been of such a shape; she had at first plucked out only its wooden shaft, leaving the tip embedded until this very time. Just then she became ill at ease and examined it closely, and only then did she fully realize the greatness of Yan Banxian's skill and knowledge, and saw for herself the secret power of of the poison-extracting salve. She then boiled a potion of medicinal herbs and ever so gently bathed the wound with it. On seeing the chipped bone and wounded muscle, the torn and decayed flesh and the fresh blood now running out, her appreciation of the tragedy was complete. Reaching for the Fairy's Bone Healing Ointment she applied it hot, and slowly bound up the limb with some silken cloth. He passed the night and next day the dressing was changed and the wound again cleaned; it went on like that for several days until it was completely drained.
After this she did not move him while he spent forty or fifty days recuperating, during which time the flesh grew back, the torn muscle knitted smoothly together, and he struggled to get up, with much agony. Alternating between napping and sitting he didn't dare try to leave the burrow. Then when the one hundred days were completely up the plaster was removed and the wound was entirely without pain. Only when he looked at the spot where the dressing had been did he see the smooth bright red scar flesh and the failure of about half the hair to grow back. Then upon walking he found that his left foot was two inches shorter than the right. The vixen oddly cried out for joy.
"Yan Banxian told me," she exclaimed, "that you'd become a cripple and it's come to pass! You can change your name to Zuo Que, for "Limping Lefty" in honor of his achievement. And from that time on he was indeed called Zuo Que, familiarly Quezi or Que'r, and his former surname Hu was gradually forgotten. "How can I avenge this wrong?" he thought, and ran back to his old mother for consolation. Holy Auntie was sitting on her earthen kang and upon hearing his words she shed bitter tears, so deeply was a good and virtuous fate rooted in her soul. It's really like this: