Qi Zhenguo watched Zhang Yang from the side, a little puzzled. Except for the first point, the other two requests from Zhang Yang seemed unrelated to the illness, but they were Zhang Yang's requests, so he could only comply.

Regarding the first point, he actually strongly agreed with it.

When he couldn't drink alcohol, Old Qi always loved to smell it, and every time he did, Qi Zhenguo felt a tremor of fear, worried that Old Qi would give in and take a sip. Given his current condition, he absolutely could not touch another drop of alcohol. If he no longer smelled wine, the danger of him being tempted to drink would naturally disappear.

"Since you agree to these three points, the treatment can begin now. Please lie down on the **, Elder, and I will start by inserting a few needles!"

Zhang Yang smiled slightly and took out a needle box from his canvas bag, preparing for the needling.

Qi Zhenguo and Cai Zhelang hurried over to help Old Qi onto the **; since his illness worsened, his body was no longer as nimble.

With Old Qi settled on the **, Zhang Yang began needling his back.

Zhang Yang was using a needling technique designed to protect the liver and internal organs, while simultaneously conditioning Old Qi's entire body. The medical philosophy of the Zhang family had always been to treat the root cause; no matter the ailment, they would first condition the entire body. It was like a tree branch infested with many pests—the most severely damaged branch naturally required the eradication of all pests there. However, that branch wasn't the only place with pests; the rest of the tree had them too. One couldn't just focus on that one branch and ignore the others. The Zhang family's medical approach was to eliminate all pests first, and then focus on treating the most heavily infested branch. This way, after killing the pests, there would be no worry about others migrating from elsewhere to cause trouble. The body was the same; before treating the liver failure, Zhang Yang needed to adjust Old Qi's entire system to its optimal therapeutic state.

After about ten minutes, Zhang Yang finished inserting the needles. In the past, this might have taken him half an hour, but since his Neijin (Internal Energy) had strengthened, his needling speed and efficiency had increased significantly. A total of about twenty needles vibrated on Old Qi’s body.

Everyone who witnessed Zhang Yang’s needling for the first time was invariably astonished, and Qi Zhenguo was no exception; his eyes were nearly popping out.

"Father, how do you feel?"

When Zhang Yang finished needling and stepped back to rest, Qi Zhenguo immediately leaned over the bedside and whispered the question.

"Nothing much. Don't talk too much while the doctor is working!" Old Qi replied softly with his eyes closed. Qi Zhenguo paused slightly and immediately stood to the side.

It wasn't that Old Qi felt nothing; on the contrary, his sensations were quite distinct. He felt dozens of warm currents slowly flowing within his body, a sensation that brought immense comfort to his entire being. This feeling made him realize that Zhang Yang, the divine doctor, had not been exaggerated in reputation; he was truly a master with genuine ability.

Old Qi's insight far surpassed his son's; he had already guessed something about Zhang Yang's identity. However, he would absolutely not mention it. He hadn't even told his son, and since Zhang Yang hadn't brought it up, he certainly wouldn't volunteer the information.

Half an hour later, Zhang Yang stood up and removed all the needles from Old Qi. After extraction, he took out a box of pills from his bag, poured out several, and handed them to Qi Zhenguo: "These are seven Yang Sheng Wan (Nourishing Pills). Starting tomorrow, take one daily, precisely at eight in the morning. Have the elder get plenty of sunshine otherwise. That's all for today; I will return tomorrow for another session of needling!"

Taking the medicine Zhang Yang provided, a look of surprise reappeared on Qi Zhenguo's face.

"That's it? Just these few needle treatments? Also, the doctor strictly warned against taking random medication!" Qi Zhenguo was genuinely perplexed. Although he wasn't an expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine, it was rare for TCM treatments to involve only a few acupuncture sessions to cure a serious illness, especially one as critical as his father's. Furthermore, the absolute prohibition against random medication was a doctor's strict instruction. Every medicine carries some toxicity, and Old Qi's liver failure meant his detoxification function was almost entirely gone; taking medicine now would only worsen his condition.

Zhang Yang smiled lightly. "These are Yang Sheng Wan, not medication. Rest assured, they are like food, with no toxic side effects whatsoever!"

As Zhang Yang spoke, he packed up his needle box, bid farewell to Old Qi, and left the room with Long Feng.

Cai Zhelang rushed out immediately to see Zhang Yang off, and Qi Zhenguo hesitated for a moment before following them out. Regardless of his relationship with Zhang Keqin, Zhang Yang was the doctor they had invited to treat his father, and they absolutely could not treat him disrespectfully.

After seeing Zhang Yang off, he and Cai Zhelang returned, and a look of doubt still lingered on his face.

"Yang Sheng Wan? Can this medicine really be taken?"

Upon returning to the room, he was still hesitant. The warning not to take random drugs came from a physician. Although Zhang Yang had successfully treated Elder Qiao, he felt uneasy about administering his medicine now.

"Of course, it’s medicine to be taken. Give these pills to me, and starting tomorrow, remind me to take them at eight o'clock every day, as Dr. Zhang instructed!" Old Qi said to Qi Zhenguo, slowly sitting up with Cai Zhelang's support.

Qi Zhenguo quickly said, "Father, it's not that I don't trust him. You know your situation; perhaps we should have someone test them first?"

"No need. Just give them to me starting tomorrow. Since we've sought a doctor, we must trust him!" Old Qi shook his head, a faint smile lingering in his eyes. Zhang Yang’s needling had confirmed to him that Zhang Yang was indeed a divine doctor, and an extraordinary one at that. He had been needled before by many TCM practitioners. However, none of those sessions gave him the feeling Zhang Yang did. When the silver needles vibrated, the surge of warmth made him feel twenty years younger, to the point where he felt capable of standing up and even executing a set of military drills. Of course, this was just a feeling; he certainly couldn't actually do it. It was precisely because of this feeling that he trusted Zhang Yang so completely.

Seeing his father insist, Qi Zhenguo reluctantly gave up. Fortunately, Zhang Yang was Zhang Keqin’s son, and Old Qi had once supported Zhang Keqin; under no circumstances would Zhang Keqin harm Old Qi.

On the way back, Zhang Yang and Long Feng, Long Feng kept smiling.

"What are you smiling about?"

Long Feng was driving on the return trip, while Zhang Yang held Wu Ying, who was fast asleep, and the rather bored Shan Dian. Since returning from Nanjiang last time, Zhang Yang noticed Wu Ying slept even more, spending most of the day asleep and no longer playing with Shan Dian. Shan Dian had protested several times because of this.

"Nothing much. I find it amusing that they don't believe you. If the contemporary heir of the Medical Sage lineage cannot cure a disease, I believe no one in this world can," Long Feng chuckled, stating that the Medical Sage lineage had always been the most powerful in medicine throughout history; others might not know, but Long Feng was very clear about it.

"It's normal for people to be skeptical when they meet me for the first time," Zhang Yang said softly. He was accustomed to others' initial disbelief; if he were in their shoes, he wouldn't trust such a young doctor either.

As they were speaking, his phone suddenly rang. Looking at the number, Zhang Yang immediately answered. The call was from Young Master Su. Zhang Yang speculated whether the information he had asked Su Gongzi to inquire about had yielded results. He had asked Su Gongzi to check with his media contacts about the two news stories from ten years ago.

"Zhang Yang, I have results for what you asked me to look into!" Su Gongzi's voice boomed as soon as the call connected, just as loudly as before.

"Spit it out!" Zhang Yang bypassed any pleasantries and asked directly.

Su Gongzi said, "The military movement wasn't a real exercise; it was just a plan. They passed through An Tian without setting up camp and left to execute another mission. I’m not sure exactly what mission; my contact is just a journalist and doesn't know military affairs!"

Zhang Yang paused slightly and quickly pressed, "It wasn't a real exercise, and they didn't stay in An Tian?"

"That's what my friend said. You know military deployments have their own protocols; the outside world can't know. And this was ten years ago; we really don't know what mission they were executing, but we can confirm they definitely didn't stay in An Tian!"

Su Gongzi’s words caused Zhang Yang's brow to furrow deeply. If there was no exercise in An Tian, then his previous suspicions were baseless. This also explained why the newspaper only ran one story and never followed up, and why this supposed drill seemed so strange—it was merely a plan that was ultimately aborted, thus lacking further details.

"There was indeed a wolf disaster. The area around An Tian is very mountainous and has many wolves. That year, due to food shortages, they descended in large numbers and injured quite a few people. However, An Tian has many hunters, and many wolves were killed by them, with assistance from the local government. The wolf packs were quickly eliminated. In the end, the result was many injured but few deaths—many people there still remember that incident," Su Zhantao continued. Zhang Yang's frown tightened further.

The wolf disaster was factual, which meant both news items could potentially be true, and he had merely misinterpreted them. These two facts also bore no relation to his mother's death. As long as both were true, it was difficult for Zhang Yang to connect these events to his mother.

"Zhang Yang, why aren't you speaking? Oh, by the way, why were you inquiring about these old news stories?" Su Zhantao asked again. By this time, Zhang Yang had lost the inclination to continue talking with him.

"It's nothing. I have other things to attend to. I'll hang up now; thank you for your help this time." Without waiting for Su Zhantao's reaction, Zhang Yang disconnected the call and began to ponder with his head lowered.

The information Su Zhantao had gathered was highly credible, but this development rendered all his previous deductions and suspicions invalid, leaving him back at square one without any leads.

He now had only two paths forward.

One was to go directly to An Tian and investigate thoroughly the place where his mother passed away. Since only ten years had passed, he should be able to uncover something.

The second path was to confront Zhang Keqin and demand an explanation. However, if Zhang Keqin had been willing to tell him, he would have done so long ago, not waited until now. Moreover, Zhang Yang currently felt unable to face Zhang Keqin; it was as if there was an unresolved knot in his heart, and until that knot was loosened, seeing Zhang Keqin would be useless, only bringing added frustration and potential hidden dangers to himself.

After careful consideration, Zhang Yang concluded that only the first path remained viable, which was his original plan anyway.