The physicians called for consultation were all about the same age as Liu Pucheng, and the onlooking crowd could call out their names, showing they were renowned doctors in the city, sufficient to serve as authorities and earn the people’s trust.

“Dr. Liu, forgive the offense.” The ones called Dr. Qian and Dr. Huang showed no gloating expression whatsoever. After all, they were all in the same profession, and encountering such matters stirred some feelings of “when the rabbit dies, the fox grieves.”

Another physician, however, wore a stern expression and said nothing at all.

Liu Pucheng nodded to them as well.

“Since we’re all physicians, let’s think of a solution together…” Qi Yue squeezed through the crowd and said hastily.

The three physicians looked at her with astonished expressions. Dr. Qian and Dr. Huang had participated in treating the prefect’s son and recognized her at once. Before they could speak, the other physician spoke first.

“Think of a solution? Are you saying, young lady, that you want us to help cure the patient?” His voice suddenly rose, loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear.

Qi Yue was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding why he was speaking so loudly, but still nodded.

“Then if we cure him, will the credit go to Dr. Liu?” someone outside shouted loudly.

This remark stirred a buzz of voices.

“Even if he’s cured, you can’t escape the crime of being a quack doctor!”

“What were you doing earlier? Pestering people and delaying treatment!”

Qi Yue looked at this physician and understood.

“What is your honorable surname, Doctor?” she suddenly asked.

Wang Qingchun looked at this woman with some composure.

“This old man is Wang Qingchun of Huichun Hall,” he answered.

Qi Yue made an “oh” sound, with an expression of “so it’s you.”

Wang Qingchun calmly accepted her gaze.

The two physicians beside him wanted to remind him of something but didn’t have time to speak, showing some unease as they averted their eyes.

“Please, would the three of you take a look. If there’s still hope, let’s try to save him. Of course, if it’s my fault, I’ll naturally take responsibility.” Liu Pucheng said.

“Naturally, naturally.” The two physicians nodded.

Everyone then walked together toward the room where the injured person was placed.

Because it was an intensive care ward, despite having just experienced a calamity, the disciple in charge of the ward still limped over carrying salt water and burning liquor.

“What’s this for?” All three physicians were puzzled.

“The patient is in critical condition, so we’re implementing isolation. Therefore, you need to disinfect before entering,” Qi Yue explained from behind.

The two physicians hesitated, but Wang Qingchun scoffed.

“Ridiculous,” he said, pushing past the disciple in front and entering directly.

The remaining two physicians hesitated, then still followed the instructions and wiped themselves down briefly.

“Thank you,” Qi Yue said to them.

“We dare not, we dare not, Young Madam.” The two physicians hastily returned the courtesy before entering.

To avoid any appearance of impropriety, the people from Qianjin Hall couldn’t enter. Both Qi Yue and Liu Pucheng remained outside the door.

Dr. Qian entered to find Wang Qingchun already examining the patient.

“Dr. Wang, you… sigh… this kind of thing is unavoidable, why must you be so aggressive?” he said in a low voice.

Wang Qingchun snorted.

“Dr. Qian, you can’t say that. This concerns the reputation of all physicians in Yongqing Prefecture. A quack doctor is undoubtedly a black sheep among us,” he said, looking at the physician while pointing outside. “Look at those common people. If we don’t give them an explanation today, if we cover up for him because he’s a colleague, I’m sure they won’t accept it.”

Dr. Qian felt somewhat stifled by his words.

“When did I say anything about covering up?” he said, frowning. “I’m saying you should be a bit more courteous in your attitude…”

“It’s not like I killed someone. Why should I be courteous to him?” Wang Qingchun laughed.

“Dr. Wang, if not for the monk’s face, then for the Buddha’s face. That woman…” Dr. Huang said in a low voice, “is the Young Madam of Marquis Dingxi’s mansion…”

What? The Young Madam of Marquis Dingxi’s mansion? Wang Qingchun was startled.

He knew that Qianjin Hall might have the backing of Marquis Dingxi’s mansion, but such “backing” would just be some behind-the-scenes pressure on the authorities. He never imagined that the Young Madam of the noble marquis mansion would come in person!

This relationship was definitely extraordinary!

But so what? Marquis Dingxi’s mansion dared to pressure the authorities, but would they dare pressure the common people?

The people’s emotions had already been stirred up. If Marquis Dingxi’s mansion dared to protect this Liu Pucheng, they’d have to weigh public opinion carefully.

He didn’t believe that once Liu Pucheng was confirmed as a quack who killed someone, this so-called Young Madam of Marquis Dingxi would still dare to openly protect him.

“Dr. Wang, we haven’t even examined him yet. Don’t keep saying he killed someone…” Dr. Qian frowned. “What if nothing’s wrong and he won’t die?”

Wang Qingchun laughed.

“Won’t die?” He pointed at the injured person lying on the bed. “Look at this. Is there any hope?”

Dr. Qian and Dr. Huang looked over, and without even taking his pulse, their faces darkened.

Seeing the three physicians emerge from the room, people inside and outside the hall began crowding over.

“How is it?” The hunter’s family members still held hope, rushing over to ask.

“Severe infection syndrome.” One of them exchanged glances with the other two and said, “Incurable. Prepare for the funeral.”

At these words, crying and shouting immediately erupted.

“Quack doctor!”

“Murderous quack doctor!”

“Pay with your life!”

Overwhelming shouts crashed in from outside the door.

Liu Pucheng and the others already knew this result. Hearing this, they said nothing and lowered their heads.

The crime of a quack doctor killing someone? Destroying Dr. Liu? No, absolutely not!

Qi Yue had been frowning and thinking on the side. Now the overwhelming shouts interrupted her.

“Even if it’s incurable, you can’t say it’s our fault!” she shouted loudly.

This statement made the family members and onlooking crowd even more agitated.

“Still making excuses at this point!”

Boos erupted everywhere.

“This patient was delayed by you in the first place.” Qi Yue ignored the rising boos and looked at the family members, raising her voice again. “I wanted to treat you at the time. You wouldn’t listen and insisted on going to another place for treatment…”

She paused here.

“That’s right, you were treated at another place. Only when the person was dying did you bring him to us. How can you say we treated him badly?” she shouted loudly.

The family members were stunned by her shout, and the onlooking crowd, just learning about this matter, began inquiring in low voices.

“So you’re saying we treated him badly?” Wang Qingchun asked.

Qi Yue turned to look at him.

“You?” She didn’t react immediately.

“There’s nothing to hide. I diagnosed and treated them, but later, hearing that Dr. Liu had returned, they wouldn’t let me treat them anymore.” Wang Qingchun said calmly.

“When this person was brought in, he was already in critical condition. Don’t you know that?” Zhang Tong shouted. “Dr. Wang, put your hand on your heart and speak fairly. This was due to the patient’s critical condition in the first place. How can you blame it all on us physicians?”

Dr. Qian and the others had just learned this, and their expressions toward Wang Qingchun became somewhat grave.

The people watching inside the hall quickly passed this conversation outside, and the people outside began discussing animatedly.

“When we examined him, he was perfectly fine.” Wu Shan shouted from outside. “If he had followed the medicine we prescribed, he would be well by now!”

“You say nothing was wrong, we say something was wrong. Everyone claims they’re right! Are we supposed to just take your word for it?” Hu San jumped out and cursed at Wu Shan. “I say you clearly treated the person badly and are framing our Qianjin Hall! When this person came, he was already beyond help. All the senior brothers advised Master not to take the case, but Master couldn’t bear to see someone die before his eyes without treatment, so he insisted on trying. Good intentions truly get no good reward! If we’d known, we should have let you leave from the start!”

At the end, he pointed at the family members.

The family members were stunned by his words and felt somewhat guilty. If put this way, it seemed that indeed back then…

Now the spectators were all confused. Was this really a quack doctor killing someone, or was it a case of fate?

“Who says the person was beyond help? There was clearly still hope. My prescription was right on target.” Wang Qingchun said, sneering as he looked at Liu Pucheng. “Dr. Liu, your treatment method was wrong, wasn’t it?”

Liu Pucheng had been silent all along. Hearing his words, he raised his head.

“I…” he opened his mouth.

Wang Qingchun interrupted him.

“I just examined the patient’s wound. It was clearly cut with a knife, and the incision is larger than the original wound. Did you do this?” he asked.

Liu Pucheng nodded.

“Yes, his muscle was rotting and needed to be removed, otherwise the toxic infection would spread to his heart and lungs…” he said.

Wang Qingchun interrupted him again.

“For toxic infection syndrome, how should it be treated?” he asked.

Liu Pucheng was stunned by the question.

“Use cupping to draw out poison and drain pus, prepare raw rehmannia, water buffalo horn, coptis, and scrophularia with modifications to clear pestilence and defeat toxin decoction, supplemented with moxibustion.” Wang Qingchun had already answered himself, then looked at the other two physicians. “Is this correct?”

Indeed it was. Dr. Qian and Dr. Huang nodded.

“Dr. Liu, how did you treat it?” Wang Qingchun looked at Liu Pucheng again, asking slowly.

“This is our Qianjin Hall’s secret method. Why should we tell you?” Zhang Tong said.

Wang Qingchun laughed heartily.

“Secret method? You mean a method that can’t be seen by others?” His laughter stopped, and he looked at Liu Pucheng.

Liu Pucheng was about to speak when Qi Yue got ahead of him.

“It’s not some unspeakable method. I’ll tell you.” She said loudly. “First, wash the wound thoroughly with large amounts of clean water, then use knives and scissors to cut away the rotten flesh. This flesh must be cut away completely, not leaving a single bit, then boil disinfecting and antibacterial medicine to wash and ingest. That’s why you see the patient’s incision is much larger than the original wound.”

When she finished speaking, everyone was stunned.

“Lady Qi, this doesn’t concern you…” Liu Pucheng reacted and, ignoring his support, walked over hastily, trying to stop her.

But Qi Yue didn’t give him a chance to speak. She raised her hand and gestured to the guards.

The guards understood and three of them stepped forward to block Liu Pucheng.

“Oh, according to the Young Madam’s meaning, this isn’t Dr. Liu’s fault but yours?” Wang Qingchun also understood. His heart couldn’t hide his shock.

This Young Madam was actually going to take the blame upon herself.

Was this damn Qianjin Hall opened by her father?

Trying to use Marquis Dingxi’s mansion to pressure him?

Wang Qingchun smiled knowingly, very disdainfully.

If it were just Liu Pucheng’s crime, it would at most be a quack doctor killing someone. But if it involved Marquis Dingxi’s mansion, then the matter wouldn’t just be about a quack doctor killing someone. It would escalate to problems like treating human life as worthless and abusing power, etc. This had nothing to do with medical hall physicians like them, but those censors and court officials would certainly be very interested.

He didn’t believe that a Marquis Dingxi’s mansion would disregard their reputation and go against public opinion for a small physician.

Anyway, this patient died at Qianjin Hall, so he wasn’t afraid of anything they might say.

“This is what I taught Dr. Liu, but there’s nothing wrong with it.” Qi Yue corrected him.

“The person’s already dead, and you still say there’s nothing wrong?” Wang Qingchun sneered, turning to address the surrounding crowd loudly.

“Who says the person died? You’re ignorant and incompetent, and just because you can’t cure him, you conclude I can’t cure him?” Qi Yue also sneered, looking at Wang Qingchun.

Wang Qingchun almost didn’t know what to say. Looking at the woman before him, had Marquis Dingxi’s mansion gone blind or lost their minds? How did they marry such a daughter-in-law?

“You’re saying you can cure him?” he asked.

If someone had asked before whether acute traumatic infection could be cured, it would probably be treated as a joke, but now…

Qi Yue’s chest rose and fell, unconsciously biting her lower lip.

“Really, if you can cure him, I, Wang Qingchun, will crawl on my knees from the entrance of this Qianjin Hall to the prefecture city gate…” Wang Qingchun looked at Qi Yue’s expression and shook his head, laughing.

“Good.” Qi Yue immediately took up his words.

Wang Qingchun was stunned by her response.

“Good what?” he asked.

“If I can cure him, you’ll crawl on your knees from Qianjin Hall to the prefecture city gate.” Qi Yue looked at him, speaking word by word.

This… this was just casual joking…

Wang Qingchun was stunned.

“What? Don’t dare to bet?” Qi Yue asked.

During their conversation, the hall gradually quieted down, and the crowd outside, sensing something unusual, also quieted down, urgently inquiring about what was being said inside.

Don’t dare? Wang Qingchun laughed, looking at the woman before him.

It seemed this Liu Pucheng really was this woman’s father. She was crying and shouting, wanting to die for someone else. Only for parental grace could someone do such a thing.

If you want to go die, why should I stop you?

“Fine, let’s bet.” Wang Qingchun said with a smile. “But what if you can’t cure him?”

“Then I’ll crawl on my knees from Qianjin Hall to the prefecture city gate.” Qi Yue looked at him without hesitation.

At these words, the entire hall erupted in uproar.

Everyone at Qianjin Hall was stunned. Liu Pucheng was also stunned. He looked at the woman standing in front, blocking him—a woman about the same age as his granddaughter. She was taking all the consequences of this incident upon herself!

If the person died, it was her method that killed him.

If the person died, she admitted defeat and accepted punishment.

Just the act of crawling on her knees from Qianjin Hall to the prefecture city gate would be enough to attract everyone’s attention. Then no one would pay attention to him, a small physician.

All the consequences and impacts of this incident would be concentrated on this woman.

This woman… this woman… how could she be so crazy…

Didn’t she know what her status was?

Did she know what she was doing?

Others might not know, but A’Ru knew.

She looked at Qi Yue standing before Wang Qingchun, pressing her lips tightly together.

The Young Madam had said she had only one problem: she was fiercely protective of her own people.