Qianjin Hall, which primarily treated external injuries, was always filled with the smell of blood, but at this moment, besides the bloody smell, there was also a putrid odor permeating the air.

Liu Pucheng carefully examined the wound, his expression grave.

“Master, this cannot be treated…” Zhang Tong said in a low voice.

As soon as these words were spoken, the family members all panicked. One woman even wailed and collapsed to the ground, rolling her eyes back.

“Oh my, doctor, you’re saying it’s hopeless before you’ve even tried to treat it,” someone said sarcastically from outside the door.

The disciples of Qianjin Hall looked over and saw that at some point, a crowd of idle onlookers had gathered at the entrance. The one speaking was a man in his twenties.

“Wu Shan, did your Rejuvenation Hall close down?” Hu San glared at the man and asked.

This question immediately infuriated Wu Shan. Who would want to be cursed like that right off the bat?

“Bah! Your Qianjin Hall is the one that closed down,” he said.

“Then what are you doing here at our place when you have nothing better to do?” Hu San snorted.

“Enough,” Zhang Tong scolded him, glanced at Wu Shan, then paid him no more attention.

The family members here were crying and pleading.

“A few days ago when we came, doctor, you weren’t here…”

Liu Pucheng made an acknowledging sound.

“Miss Qi was here that day…” Hu San snorted again.

“Miss Qi was here?” Liu Pucheng quickly looked at him, somewhat surprised. “If she was here, that’s good. Why didn’t they let her treat him?”

Hu San snorted and jerked his chin toward the family members.

Although he hadn’t been there that day either, the other disciples had naturally told him about it. This kind of behavior that looked down on his master was naturally firmly etched in his memory.

“They looked down on my master. My master had everything prepared. They carried the person away to seek a more skilled physician,” he said loudly, looking at those people. “How come you’re back? Didn’t that skilled physician cure him for you?”

The family members were confused by his words.

Liu Pucheng sighed softly.

“This wound didn’t have to be this severe originally. If the rotten flesh had been cut away and sutured a few days ago…” he said.

“Doctor, doctor, please! Our elder brother has suffered his whole life. Our parents died early, and it was elder brother who acted as both father and mother to raise us brothers. Just when we could finally let him enjoy some comfort, this happened…” The three men fell to their knees with a thud, kowtowing to Liu Pucheng.

“Good, good, get up quickly, I’ll do my best,” Liu Pucheng hurriedly helped them up, then looked at Zhang Tong. “Prepare everything according to what Miss Qi said. I’m going to debride the wound and cut away the rotten flesh.”

“But Master, I’m afraid it won’t work,” Zhang Tong said with some worry, pulling him aside to speak quietly. “This person already has internal fire toxin, severe heat causing flesh decay, and evil toxins attacking the internal organs…”

Evil toxins attacking the internal organs – this was an incurable condition.

Liu Pucheng naturally knew this too.

“However, where is there anyone who would just watch a person die?” he said. “Miss Qi said this kind is external trauma infection… infection… needs anti-inflammatory and detoxifying treatment… let’s try again…”

Zhang Tong grabbed his hand.

“Master,” he said urgently, “if we don’t treat him now and he dies, it’s fate. But if we treat him and he dies, then it becomes human disaster… Master, these people are hunters from Maoshan in the east of the city… these people… are the most fierce and unreasonable… if anything happens…”

Liu Pucheng patted his hand.

“You and I are doctors. We see illness and treat it. We see danger and save lives. As for other things, don’t think too much about them,” he said. “People’s hearts are just, and having a clear conscience is enough.”

Zhang Tong knew his master’s temperament, nodded, and stopped trying to persuade him. He led the disciples to immediately get busy.

Treat away, treat away, Wu Shan craned his neck and stood on his toes to look inside.

Hu San walked in front of him, blocking his view.

“What are you doing?” Wu Shan glared.

“What are you doing?” Hu San glared back. “If you want to apprentice here, come in and kowtow.”

Wu Shan spat.

“Me apprentice?” he said. “Am I blind?”

Hu San wasn’t annoyed and made an acknowledging sound.

“Then you want to steal our techniques?” he said.

This sounded even worse than apprenticing. Wu Shan spat again. Medical practitioners all emphasized exclusive techniques when treating patients, naturally not easily letting peers observe. Wu Shan naturally knew this.

“What’s there to steal from your broken techniques…” he snorted, turned and left with a flourish of his sleeves.

Hu San spat at his retreating figure and hurried to help here.

Liu Pucheng finished disinfecting, and Zhang Tong had also finished disinfecting the patient and laid out surgical towels.

Watching this unprecedented scene, the family members felt more reassured – clearly this was Doctor Liu’s secret technique.

He cleaned the wound, cut away the rotten skin and flesh bit by bit with a knife, washed it again with boiled herbal medicine, and applied flesh-regenerating ointment.

“Don’t we need to suture it?” Hu San couldn’t help asking quietly.

Liu Pucheng shook his head.

“No need to suture now,” he answered.

Zhang Tong glared at him. Although he also admired Qi Yue, he was very dissatisfied with Hu San’s constant use of Qi Yue’s methods as the standard for everything.

After Liu Pucheng finished treating the wound, he ordered herbal medicine to be prepared and fed it through a crane-beak pot. After a moment, the patient’s spirit improved considerably – he was no longer talking nonsense, and his breathing had stabilized.

The family members finally breathed a sigh of relief, but Liu Pucheng’s expression didn’t show much relief.

“How about this – this patient will stay here with me tonight,” he said.

There had never been a custom of patients staying overnight at the medicine shop. The family members were all stunned.

“You live far away. If the condition relapses, the back-and-forth travel could cause delays. I can observe the condition at any time if I’m here,” Liu Pucheng explained to them. When he was busy earlier and couldn’t be distracted, but later reflecting on it, many details in Qi Yue’s treatment of the prefect’s son were worth his serious study and learning, such as this thing Qi Yue called “hospitalization” for observation.

The family members made acknowledging sounds and nodded as if they understood.

“Master, we don’t have space here,” Zhang Tong said quietly.

“Clear out my room,” Liu Pucheng said.

Zhang Tong responded and led people to busy themselves with cleaning.

The big man’s wife was at a loss and could only look to her brothers-in-law.

“Fine, doctor, whatever you say, as long as you can cure my elder brother,” one brother gritted his teeth, made the decision, and said loudly.

Everyone nodded. The matter was settled. After settling the patient, since Qianjin Hall had no resting place and Liu Pucheng wouldn’t let family members enter that room, the hunters had no choice but to leave two family members to guard outside the door while the others left anxiously.

Hu San stood at the door watching these people leave, somehow thinking of what the family member had said earlier.

Doctor, whatever you say, as long as you can cure him…

What if he can’t be cured? This thought flashed through Hu San’s mind. As soon as the thought appeared, he quickly shook his head and spat twice.

How could he not be cured? Master was already very capable, and now using the female master’s methods too, it would naturally be instantly effective!

Hu San shook his clothes, lifted his chin with some pride, and swaggered inside.

Qi Yue had quietly read for the whole day. When Chang Yuncheng returned, it was already very late. He was somewhat surprised to see she wasn’t asleep.

When he looked over, Qi Yue also looked over. The two made eye contact, neither smiling nor speaking, both looking away.

“A’Ru,” Qi Yue called.

A’Ru outside hurriedly came in. Qi Yue made a gesture to her, and A’Ru understood, lowering her head to hang a curtain on the round opening of the partition screen.

Qi Yue’s candlelight was immediately blocked.

A’Ru bowed to Chang Yuncheng, said nothing, and withdrew.

Chang Yuncheng lowered his head, entered the bedroom, and closed the door.

A silent night.

Liu Pucheng had only gone to sleep when dawn was breaking, but he had barely lain down when Zhang Tong woke him up.

“Master, it’s bad. That person has started talking nonsense again…” Zhang Tong said in a trembling voice.

“Disaster!” Liu Pucheng rolled over and got up, not even bothering to put on his outer coat, and rushed straight to the temporary sickroom.

Although the patient’s family had agreed to Liu Pucheng’s hospitalization arrangement, they were still uneasy at heart. Early in the morning, everyone rushed over, only to see the patient in an even worse state than the previous day.

“Doctor, what’s wrong? Didn’t you say he was better?” Men and women surrounded Liu Pucheng, crying and shouting in chaos.

“I didn’t say he was better. I said let’s try. The condition is really too severe, and you delayed treatment, so now it’s hopeless…” Liu Pucheng explained to the family members.

“What do you mean we delayed treatment… clearly you made him worse…”

At some point, many people had gathered in Qianjin Hall to watch the excitement, and someone among them laughed.

Hu San looked for the voice and saw it was Wu Shan again.

Wu Shan had been keeping an eye on Qianjin Hall. Although he had left yesterday, he was still paying attention. When he saw these family members come out, he had even approached them with concern and asked how Liu Pucheng had treated the patient.

“Cut away quite a bit of flesh?” Wu Shan shouted exaggeratedly.

This expression made the family members even more uneasy.

“Doctor Wu, can this kind of treatment cure the illness?” the family members grabbed Wu Shan and pressed him with questions.

“I wouldn’t know. Everyone has their own school techniques, they’re all different… you should wait and see,” Wu Shan shook his head and smiled, but looked at these people with some pity, which only made the family members more uneasy. So they came over early in the morning, and Wu Shan naturally was also uneasy and followed.

As expected…

Serves you right for showing off! Lifting a rock to drop on your own foot!

But just as well – better them than us… what a delightful sight…

Wu Shan was blooming with joy inside.

“What do you mean we made him worse? Clearly you made him worse,” Hu San jumped over and shouted.

Wu Shan laughed contemptuously.

“When we saw him, he wasn’t this bad yet. We told him to take medicine, but they wouldn’t listen. They insisted on finding Qianjin Hall…” he said, shaking his head, then pursed his lips. “If he had taken our medicine, maybe…”

He spread his hands toward everyone at this point.

His words made the already panicked family members even more panicked.

“External trauma and carbuncles most importantly need medicine. But look at this – instead of properly taking medicine, they used knives to cut and slice… even a healthy person would get sick from all that cutting…” Wu Shan continued, while craning his neck to look at the patient lying on the bed.

The wound wasn’t bandaged, clearly showing traces of knife cuts.

“Shut up, what do you know?” Hu San and the other disciples angrily retorted.

But Wu Shan wasn’t afraid of them, loudly pointing things out to the onlookers.

“…How did the shopkeeper of the Wan family grain store in the east of the city die?… He had a pustule that accidentally broke open… and the result? He died in less than three days…” he said, becoming more and more indignant as he spoke, then looked at the completely panicked family members and shook his head. “Such a pity, such a pity, seeking death by their own actions…”

Elder brother is dead… elder brother is dead… there was still hope originally… if we had just listened to Rejuvenation Hall and taken medicine, everything would have been fine… but they sent elder brother here… and this doctor… this doctor…

“Quack doctor! You killed my elder brother, give me your life!” The short, stocky man suddenly jumped up, grabbed a nearby stool, and smashed it toward Liu Pucheng.

Liu Pucheng had been ignoring the commotion, concentrating on feeling the pulse and writing prescriptions. He had just finished writing and stood up when, amid cries of alarm, fierce wind struck from behind.

Liu Pucheng instinctively dodged his head and raised his hand to block. With a crack, the stool broke, and Liu Pucheng also fell to the ground.