The operating room immediately descended into chaos. Seeing the spurting blood, Hu San very simply rolled his eyes back and fainted. Zhang Tong trembled all over, and although he didn’t faint, he was no different from having fainted.

“Qi Yue!” Coffin Boy shouted, reaching out to press down on it.

This call of “Qi Yue” brought Qi Yue back to her senses.

“Gauze!” she shouted.

A’Ru over there had completely lost control, barely managing to stand by supporting herself on the instrument rack.

Coffin Boy reached out and grabbed a thick stack of cloth. Qi Yue began packing it in.

“Adjust the operating table, head down, feet up!” she shouted.

A’Ru, Hu San, and Zhang Tong were no longer of any use. Coffin Boy wasn’t familiar with this bed, so upon hearing this, he went over to lift it himself. Liu Pucheng hurriedly reached over to turn the bed mechanism, and the movable bed board slowly rose.

“Saw…” Qi Yue reached out her hand again.

Coffin Boy froze for a moment.

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I need to completely split open the sternum,” Qi Yue said.

Coffin Boy looked at her, his eyes above the mask widening, his breathing becoming even more rapid.

“It’s already like this and you still want to split it open…” he said in a trembling voice.

“Yes, this is a major arterial branch rupture with bleeding. Without extracorporeal circulation technology, I need to immediately find the bleeding location and suture it… gauze, give me gauze, pack and compress to stop the bleeding…” Qi Yue said, her hands never stopping as she packed white cloth piece by piece. “A’Ru, blood transfusion!”

A’Ru wanted to respond “yes,” but she was shaking so much she couldn’t make a sound.

Coffin Boy reached out and took it over.

“How do I do it?” he shouted, looking at these instruments he’d never seen before.

Liu Pucheng stepped forward, took the needle, connected it to the tube, and inserted it into the patient’s vein.

As Qi Yue once again enlarged the incision, the entire operating room seemed to transform into a slaughterhouse.

Outside was also in chaos. Seeing Hu San faint inside, although those outside didn’t have such a direct view of the blood gushing from the chest cavity, they were still frightened into screaming wildly.

The patient’s family members, who had originally been persuaded to wait on the side, were now also panicking.

“What happened? What happened?” they shouted as they rushed forward.

Several disciples tried to stop them but were pushed aside.

The man in the lead rushed to the screen and looked through the gaps, just in time to see Qi Yue raise a saw and pull it across the patient’s chest.

“Murder!” the man let out a wailing cry, his hands banging against the screen with a thud.

The force was so great that the entire screen shook.

Several disciples hurriedly rushed up to stop him.

“This is surgery, surgery is being performed, don’t be afraid,” they shouted in confusion.

“Big brother! Big brother! We’ve been tricked!” Shuanzi rushed in from outside, shouting loudly, “They said that their Qianjin Hall are fraudsters, that they use people… people… for some kind of practice… practice techniques!”

These words confirmed what the man had just seen, and he immediately flew into a rage.

“Break down the door!” he shouted, charging toward the operating room door.

The loud banging on the door stunned everyone in the operating room.

“Hold the door, absolutely cannot let them in,” Qi Yue shouted.

Liu Pucheng immediately rushed over to firmly hold the door. A’Ru, trembling, also wanted to run over. She had just taken a step when she fell down, but she crawled over anyway.

“Can’t come in, can’t come in until the surgery is finished,” Liu Pucheng shouted loudly.

Outside, angry curses and door banging continued.

The disciples outside, hearing their master’s shouts, also came to their senses and desperately rushed forward, both blocking and pulling.

These four men were strong and quickly shook off a group of disciples. One man picked up a chair and smashed it heavily against the door.

Zhang Tong, Liu Pucheng, and A’Ru held it firmly.

To all of this, Qi Yue seemed to hear nothing. She had already opened the incision, removed the packed compression gauze, and began anatomical dissection of the local mediastinum.

Coffin Boy held the suction device, continuously removing blood so she could have a clear view.

Both of their foreheads were covered with sweat, and the clothes under their surgical gowns were soaked through.

“Found it!” Qi Yue let out a low cry. “Left common carotid artery… hemostatic clamp…”

She reached out her hand, and Coffin Boy, holding the suction device with one hand, accurately picked up the clamp with the other and handed it over.

“Finest suture thread,” Qi Yue said, reaching out her hand again.

The needle and thread were accurately handed over. She blinked her eyes, ignoring the dry pain in her eyes, and began suturing.

“There’s still seepage…” she murmured, reaching out her hand once more.

Coffin Boy’s thread was handed over again. Watching her suture again and again, time and the chaotic noise seemed to be shut out. At this moment, except for the buzzing in their ears, they could hear nothing else.

The hourglass in the room flowed grain by grain – a full three and a half hours had already passed.

Coffin Boy withdrew his gaze from the hourglass and continued to focus intently on Qi Yue’s hands, those nimble hands dancing within the human body.

It was at this moment that Old Physician An stopped outside Qianjin Hall.

The commotion almost overturned the entire courtyard.

Young Physician An, hearing the angry curses and wailing from behind, was so frightened his face turned pale.

“Father, Qianjin Hall has definitely gotten into trouble. We shouldn’t go in,” he said hurriedly.

Old Physician An was anxious as fire.

“Quickly push me in!” he struck with his cane.

Young Physician An had no choice but to push him in. This time, no one paid them any attention, and no one laid out door planks for them. All the disciples had rushed to the back courtyard, leaving the front hall completely empty.

People from the street outside, hearing the commotion, also ran in, completely blocking the back hall door. Young Physician An struggled to push his father through the crowd.

The courtyard was like a pot of boiling dumplings.

The disciples were scattered about, in groups of two, three, four, or five, each grappling with a strong man, either hugging legs or waists. No matter how the strong men swung their big fists wildly, they held on tightly and refused to let go.

One strong man let out a frenzied roar, shaking off the four disciples clinging to him, and his whole body crashed toward the door.

Young Physician An turned his head away.

“What’s happening?” Old Physician An asked loudly, his expression anxious.

“They’re saying it’s murder…” said some onlooking crowd members.

This time the door was broken open by half. The man shouted as he tried to rush in, but the disciples on the ground desperately threw themselves forward, clinging tightly to the man’s legs and feet.

The man roared and kicked, but couldn’t shake them off.

Just then the door opened.

“What’s all this shouting about? Get out of the way, the surgery is finished!” Liu Pucheng shouted.

This was the first time Liu Pucheng had spoken so loudly. The noisy courtyard immediately quieted down, and all those struggling and fighting looked over.

What?

“The surgery is finished. Now it’s intensive care. No one is allowed to enter,” Liu Pucheng said.

He finished speaking and turned around to look inside.

“Xiao Qi, should we keep him here or move him to the adjacent ward…” he said.

Qi Yue was walking over, her eyes red from sweat irritation looking over.

“Move him… the contamination here is too severe… Teacher…” she said wearily. Before she could finish, she cried out in alarm and rushed forward to grab Liu Pucheng and pull him aside.

“Give me back my brother’s life!” The big man, taking advantage of everyone’s stunned state, finally broke free from his restraints. He took a step forward, his big fist swinging hard.

Amid everyone’s screams, Qi Yue, who had pulled Liu Pucheng aside, met it head-on. Without even a chance to cry out, she fell backward, tumbling into the arms of Coffin Boy who was right behind her with a cry of alarm, and fainted.

When night fell heavily, the prison became even more gloomy.

The groans and wails of prisoners continuously echoed, and the bloody stench in the air made the place even more unbearable.

Two guards hurriedly ran, trying to catch up with the rapidly walking youth ahead.

Huang Ziqiao kicked open the door. Inside, four men were chained and suspended from posts. Without saying a word, Huang Ziqiao grabbed a whip from the side and began beating them mercilessly.

The four men let out restrained cries of pain, but not one begged for mercy.

Huang Ziqiao, being young after all, soon tired from beating and stopped, panting heavily. The men before him were already covered in wounds.

“If Miss Qi…” Huang Ziqiao panted and drank, but when the words reached his lips, he still couldn’t say that word. He grabbed the whip again and lashed out viciously. “You just wait to be flayed and have your bones ground to dust!”

The wounded man let out a cold laugh.

“We lowly people, our lives aren’t worth much, but we’ve never thrown away our lives for nothing…” he said in a hoarse voice. “A life for a life, a debt for a debt…”

Before he could finish, Huang Ziqiao raised the whip and lashed out again.

“You cheap lives, cheap lives, you deserve to die, to die! Even if you died a thousand times, ten thousand times, you wouldn’t be worth one Miss Qi…” he shouted, lashing down viciously. “Go die, you go die, go die!”

Night passed and dawn broke dimly. Someone was running in small steps down the street, stopping outside Qianjin Hall.

The door of Qianjin Hall was open. Chang Chunlan, with tear-blurred eyes, supported herself against the door, caught her breath for a moment, then rushed in.

In the ward, two beds each had someone lying on them, with disciples checking on them.

“…the temperature is high… Physician An, this person’s temperature is high…” A’Ru turned from the bedside with a choked voice.

At the other bed, Old Physician An in his wheelchair heard and turned his head.

“Let him die!” Hu San said viciously from the side. “We shouldn’t have kept him, should have thrown him out…”

Old Physician An looked at him.

“Then wouldn’t Master’s efforts have been wasted?” he said.

Saying this, he looked toward the bed where Qi Yue lay quietly. If not for the two wooden boards fixed to her head and the ice pack on her forehead, anyone would think she was just sleeping.

Old Physician An couldn’t help but recall this woman’s bright smile, aggressive but not annoying. His eyes couldn’t help but sting, and he touched his own leg. As physicians, was this kind of fate destined…

He remembered what his old wife had said: “You doctors saving lives, that’s opposing the King of Hell. How could the King of Hell spare you…”

He sighed softly and turned his wheelchair around.

“Let me take a look,” he said, moving toward the other bed.

Chang Chunlan supported herself against the door, crying as she collapsed to the ground, looking through tear-blurred eyes at Qi Yue on the bed.

The early spring weather in the capital still carried a chill. After a patch of dark clouds, mixed rain and snow fell. Chang Yuncheng, wrapped in a large cloak, stepped into the military camp, his shoulders already covered with ice crystals.

“Departing on the first day of the fourth month,” he said to the military officers seated around the room. “The Ministry of War has set the date.”

“Excellent! I’ve been feeling stifled for so long,” a red-clothed military officer laughed.

Chang Yuncheng also smiled slightly, though the smile never reached his eyes.

“My Lord!” came an urgent call from outside. “A carrier pigeon has arrived from home.”

Carrier pigeon. Chang Yuncheng froze, then suddenly lifted the curtain and went out.

Taking the message tube from the kneeling guard and removing the small rolled paper, Chang Yuncheng couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

No news was good news, so then…

He took a deep breath and opened it, immediately turning deathly pale.