These bandits fight less savagely than this, and looking at these people’s attire, they don't resemble bandits at all; rather, they are all richly dressed and adorned with golden crowns.
Watching the crowd of physicians take turns attending to the wound, yet unable to staunch the bleeding, as they chirped about the futility of saving the patient due to such massive blood loss, a large man among those who delivered the injured roared, kicking a stool to splinters, silencing the entire room.
“Doctor Liu has already been sent for. Are the rest of you simply useless? If you can’t save a life, can you at least stop the bleeding?” the large man bellowed.
This figure was like a black tower, a saber still hanging at his waist, which made the apprentice physicians tremble.
“Th-this… this wound is simply too large… the medicine we sprinkled on it is of no use at all,” the lead apprentice managed to say, forcing himself forward. “Perhaps when Master arrives…”
“You wretches!” the dark giant roared, kicking another stool to shards.
The apprentices in the hall fell silent, shrinking back.
“Wrap it first, use more wrappings, sprinkle all the medicine on it…” the lead apprentice urged the others onward in a flurry.
The entire room bustled into chaotic activity.
“Just stitch it up, then.”
A low voice suddenly spoke from behind, which greatly annoyed the lead apprentice, who was already drenched in a cold sweat.
“Who is causing trouble back there!” he snapped back quietly.
The apprentices who weren't causing trouble quickly parted ways, revealing a young apprentice standing at the very back.
This apprentice had been whispering with another and was suddenly thrust into the open, startled by the attention.
“Hu San! Who let you in? Get back to the rear courtyard!” the lead apprentice barked at him irritably.
This young man, called Hu San, was none other than Doctor Hu who had previously treated A’ru.
Being berated by the lead apprentice now, and feeling the weight of all the scornful glances, a surge of anger rose within him.
He came from a family renowned in the medical arts, but his fame was small, and his father had died early, so he never received the true inheritance. Still, he couldn't let the ancestral trade die, so he managed to pull strings to enter the Qianjin Hall, hoping to apprentice and learn the proper techniques to restore his family's reputation. Yet, after three years here, he hadn't even gotten close to Liu Puchang, let alone learned medicine, and was constantly ordered about by these apprentices.
You lot are so capable, yet you still can't treat a wound like this. You’re not as knowledgeable as I am!
“I’ll treat him,” Hu San blurted out, his scalp heating up.
The hall instantly fell silent.
As soon as he spoke, Hu San panicked, and seeing all eyes fixed on him, his heart hammered violently.
“Get out,” the lead apprentice snapped, glaring.
The general clamor resumed, everyone busy with their tasks, and Hu San, left standing alone, couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
“Told you you all lacked insight, and you didn’t believe me…” He muttered something to salvage some dignity, his face a mix of self-satisfaction and regret, and turned to leave.
Just as he lifted his foot, a loud, sharp cry rang out from behind him.
“You there! You will treat him!”
This sound made Hu San’s legs weak, nearly causing him to collapse onto the floor.
“Sir, this is just a handyman here… usually just sorts herbs… he absolutely cannot treat illness…” the lead apprentice hastily explained to the man. Though Hu San was irritating, he was still associated with the Qianjin Hall, and if something went wrong, the Hall would ultimately take the blame.
“Aren't you all just handymen? You still can’t treat him. You’re all useless anyway!” the giant roared, reaching out a large hand. Two solemn attendants with crossed swords stepped forward, seized the already weak-kneed Hu San, and roughly pushed him in front of the injured man.
“Treat him, quickly!” the giant commanded.
Hu San was near tears, his face deathly pale.
“I, I…” he stammered. If he admitted he couldn't treat him, would this giant simply swat his head off?
“I will treat him,” he grit his teeth and shouted, extending his trembling hands outward. “Bring water!”
No one expected him to actually say those words; everyone was stunned into shock.
“Senior Brother, we’re done for. Hu San has gone mad from fright…” someone whispered to the lead apprentice.
Hu San’s shout had carried so much force that a nearby apprentice was also stunned into obedience, blankly fetching water for him.
Hu San, trembling, glared at the scene, thinking of what he had witnessed that day. Gritting his teeth, he tore at the cloth wrapping the wound. His movements were so clumsy that the injured man cried out in pain. The giant’s brow twitched, but he managed to restrain himself.
“I… I need to… clean… clean the wound first…” Hu San said, his voice shaking as he looked at the bloody, mangled flesh revealed before him. As he spoke, he reached out, pressed down on the wound, and poured the water over it.
The injured man flinched violently from the sudden shock. Blood and water swirled and dispersed on the floor.
“You…” The giant stood up, glaring at Hu San. He gritted his teeth but held back his temper.
Having taken the first step, Hu San found more courage. He requested more water to rinse the wound, and even dared to speak a few words when the patient began to moan in agony.
“…This… it’s infected… the… cells… need to be thoroughly flushed… otherwise, umm… it won’t heal… just bear with it. That fourteen or fifteen-year-old kid back then could endure it; you, a grown man, can’t possibly lose to a child…”
The injured man, brought momentarily to consciousness by the intense pain, bit down hard upon hearing Hu San’s mumbled coaxing, truly managing to endure it.
The dark-faced giant and the others slowly relaxed their tense muscles, which produced audible popping sounds, terrifying the surrounding apprentices until their faces turned ashen.
“Done…” Hu San finally finished rinsing, sweat plastering his hair to his forehead. Although blood was still seeping, at least the wound area was no longer a complete mess. “Bring needles and thread…”
He reached out again.
The apprentices looked at each other.
“Needles and thread?” the lead apprentice asked with a dark expression.
“We certainly don’t have surgical ones here… so… bring the ones for sewing clothes… it’s all stitching anyway,” Hu San mumbled, then looked up.
Everyone gasped, exchanging bewildered looks.
“Hu San, if you’re looking to die, don't blame me for showing no mercy. If anything goes wrong later, you’ll be thrown out of my Qianjin Hall,” the lead apprentice warned quietly.
Hu San’s face twitched, and he swallowed hard.
“Get it for him!” the dark-faced giant ordered.
His command carried weight; someone immediately dashed off as if flying.
Hu San took the needle, which had already been thoughtfully threaded for him….
All eyes watched Hu San, then saw him shake, tremble, and slowly push the needle toward the injured man’s arm….
A piercing scream immediately erupted, followed by another, and then the dull thud of a body colliding with the floor.
Hu San, who had been near the patient just a moment ago, had been thrown backward, slamming against a table in the corner of the room before landing on the floor, eyes rolled back.
“You bastard, you dare to play me for a fool!” the dark-faced giant cursed, his fists clenching until they cracked.
Everyone was too terrified to utter a single syllable. The apprentice who had fetched the thread feared implication and immediately dropped to his knees, begging for mercy.
“I, I really saw someone treated like this…” Hu San, sprawled on the ground and seeing the giant preparing to strike again, cried out in terror, snot dripping down his face, his voice shaking. “Just… just on the street… that person was perfectly fine…”
“You little brat…” The dark-faced giant didn't listen, stepping forward and grabbing Hu San up, raising a massive fist as if to strike.
Everyone closed their eyes, unable to bear the sight.
“Old Ma, hold on,” a low male voice suddenly cut through the tension. To Hu San’s ears, it sounded like heavenly music.
Hu San opened his eyes and saw another man enter from the doorway. His figure was silhouetted against the light, making his features indistinct, but he stood tall and straight, like an ancient pine.
“Was someone really healed this way?” he asked, standing at the threshold, casually snapping a riding whip in his hand.
“Yes, yes, Sir, truly. That person also had an arm cut open and couldn't stop the bleeding. That doctor stitched it up, and he was able to get out of bed right away. He was fine in three days, and now… now he’s still swinging a sledgehammer at Zheng Si’s Blacksmith Shop,” Hu San shouted rapidly, afraid that if he spoke too slowly, his head would be smashed by the giant’s fist.
“Bring that person here for me to see,” the newly arrived man said, striding inside.
Someone behind him acknowledged the order and left.
When Yuanbao was brought into the Qianjin Hall, he was still in a state of fright, and the sight inside made his face turn even paler.
“You… what are you grabbing me for? I didn’t, I didn’t fight…” he insisted, holding his neck high.
He assumed it was just another brawl among street laborers over business, and he had been caught in the crossfire.
“Let me see your arm,” someone said from a corner deeper within the room.
Yuanbao looked towards the sound and saw one person seated and two standing—all dark shadows, impossible to make out clearly.
Before he could react, the man escorting him grabbed him and tore at his sleeves in two quick movements, ripping the cloth off both arms to reveal thin limbs.
“The one on the right…” Hu San’s weak voice was drowned out.
“Let me see…” The dark-faced giant strode forward and seized Yuanbao, dragging him towards the light near the doorway.
“What are you doing?” Yuanbao yelled.
In the light, a distinct, winding scar, like a snake, was visible on Yuanbao’s arm—completely different from wounds that heal naturally. The clear indentations of stitches were plainly visible.
“It really was stitched?” the dark-faced giant exclaimed in surprise.
Yuanbao suddenly understood what they intended to do and turned to look inside the room, where he indeed saw Hu San.
“Boy, which doctor healed you?” the dark-faced giant asked, a hint of excitement in his voice.
Yuanbao simply kept his mouth shut, his young face showing sheer stubbornness. He had been strictly instructed never to reveal the identity of the person who treated his injury.
“Still not talking?” the dark-faced giant was surprised. “What is there to hide? Is it someone who cannot be seen in public?”
Yuanbao remained silent, allowing the man to grip his arm tighter and tighter.
“It was… it was the physician from the Marquis’s Residence,” Hu San interjected from the side.
Yuanbao glared fiercely at him.
“Boy, saving a life surpasses building a seven-story pagoda. Look at this injured man; we cannot delay any longer…” Hu San urged, meeting Yuanbao’s gaze.
“Oh?” The man sitting in the room stood up, his voice carrying a note of curiosity. “A physician from the Marquis’s Residence? Which Marquis’s Residence? Is it the one in Yongqing Prefecture?”
Yuanbao remained silent, finally lowering his head.
“You little brat!” the dark-faced giant slapped him. “Believe it or not, I’ll cleave you in two with my blade.”
Yuanbao stumbled to the ground, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and looked up at the giant, who was making a motion to draw his saber. Yuanbao kept his lips tightly sealed.
“Sanqing, when did our household start keeping physicians?” the man asked as he slowly walked toward the doorway.
“Reporting to the Heir Apparent, we do not,” a standing attendant in the room replied softly. “Shall I go and inquire?”
The man had already reached the doorway. Yuanbao looked up and finally saw his features clearly.
He was a man around twenty-four or twenty-five, with slightly dark skin, thick brows, large, piercing eyes, a high nose bridge, thin lips, a square jaw, and an innate aura of noble authority about him.
Heir Apparent? The thought flashed through Yuanbao's mind, accompanied by a flicker of surprise. Before he could process it further, he saw the man’s thin lips curve upward into a slight smile.
“No need. Since this child is so frightened that he dares not speak, he must be hiding something. You won’t get an answer by asking; why waste the effort…” he said, reaching out to steady the grip on the dark-faced giant’s saber. “Perhaps it would be faster to just treat him one more time…”
The moment his words fell, Yuanbao heard a clanging sound, immediately followed by a flash of cold steel before his eyes. A searing pain instantly shot through his entire body.
Yuanbao shrieked and stumbled to the ground, clutching his arm.
Watching the man still smiling while holding the drawn saber, everyone in the hall felt their scalps tingle. Hu San immediately sank to his knees on the floor.
This time, the trouble is huge…
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－ Hey, I started a supernatural story on the side just for fun, posting sporadically. It’s just ghost stories. Feel free to check it out if you’re free. Search for it by my name; it’s called Walking in the Dark Night. By ]. div> BAIDU_CLB_LT_ID = "519311";