The rain fell for a day and stopped when dawn broke. Qi Yue picked up her small medicine box, preparing to head out.

“Is Master going out to work as an itinerant doctor to attract patients?” The disciples couldn’t help but gather together to discuss.

What Qi Yue wanted to attract wasn’t patients, but bacteria.

She was eager to test the effects of penicillin, but without patients, she couldn’t obtain pathogenic bacteria. It was truly frustrating.

Since patients wouldn’t come to her, she would go find them herself.

Before she could leave, there was a commotion in the street, accompanied by wailing sounds.

Having nothing better to do, the disciples all rushed out to look.

They saw a funeral procession coming down the street, with filial sons and daughters-in-law mourning sorrowfully, carrying a coffin.

“Oh my, it’s the Sharp-Tongued Granny from the east side of town. How did she die?”

“Yes, yes, I just saw her selling pork a few days ago.”

“…Pork has been expensive as hell lately, she was making good money too, what a shame…”

The disciples who recognized her discussed among themselves.

Qi Yue didn’t know any Sharp-Tongued Granny.

“She sold pork?” she asked casually, waiting for the filial sons and daughters-in-law to pass by with their three-steps-one-kowtow ritual.

“Her son and daughter-in-law raise pigs in the countryside, while she sold pork in the city. She was eloquent and her business was very good, so everyone called her Sharp-Tongued Granny,” Zhang Tong explained. After finishing, he called to the disciples watching the excitement, “Alright, alright, stop watching. How can doctors be so restless? Even if there are no patients, you must be able to sit still.”

The disciples laughed and walked away. The funeral procession on the street passed by, and everything returned to normal.

Qi Yue wandered the streets for two days, but unfortunately, everyone in the city recognized her, and the medical clinics were even more on guard, not letting her in.

“…Hey, hey… Miss Qi, what do you need?” A pharmacy assistant stopped her, asking with some wariness.

This was already the fourth time she’d been stopped.

“Well, I need to find something,” Qi Yue said carefully.

“Getting medicine? Doesn’t your Qianjin Hall have medicine?” the assistant frowned.

Qi Yue quickly took out a piece of paper from her sleeve.

Upon seeing this paper, the assistant immediately became defensive.

“Hey, hey! Don’t you dare come to our place to distribute… advertisements!” he shouted. “There’s no way to steal business like this…”

The people from Qianjin Hall loved to distribute papers. According to the disciples’ promotion, these were advertisements – spreading information widely to let people know about disease knowledge. Of course, as colleagues, what everyone noticed was the last line: “For emergencies, please find Qianjin Hall.”

What disease knowledge! To put it bluntly, that was just soliciting customers!

“No, no, if you have any of these symptoms here, please call me…” Qi Yue hurriedly explained.

Before she could finish, a doctor walked out from the pharmacy.

“Call you? Call you to see patients at our place?” the doctor frowned.

This doctor’s face was pale, seeming quite uncomfortable. As he spoke, he covered his abdomen with his hand, his posture slightly hunched.

“Master, you’re up,” the assistant quickly greeted him. “Are you better?”

“I’m fine,” the doctor frowned, waving his hand at Qi Yue again. “Miss Qi, please leave. We’re all doctors here, you should know this basic rule.”

Before Qi Yue could say anything, she saw the doctor’s expression change. Gripping his stomach, he quickly turned around. He hadn’t taken many steps when there were several popping sounds, and a foul stench spread.

He actually had… diarrhea…

The assistants were very embarrassed.

“Caught a chill last night…” he said, turning his head and looking somewhat embarrassed at this woman, only to find her staring at the inside of his pharmacy… at the floor.

Qi Yue lifted her foot to enter.

“Hey, hey! What are you doing?” the assistant quickly blocked her.

“Is it… bloody watery stool?” Qi Yue was still looking inside, asking while pointing.

What?

The assistant looked where she pointed and indeed saw spots of blood-like water where the doctor had walked…

Wearing thin clothes in summer, what the doctor had released had seeped through his clothing and dripped down…

The assistant felt very ashamed and also angry. What was this woman staring at!

“Go, go!” he waved his hand irritably.

Qi Yue pursed her lips.

“Seems like your doctor is quite seriously ill,” she said, turning to leave when she saw several people rushing over carrying a door panel.

“Doctor, doctor, save us!”

Qi Yue quickly stepped aside to let them pass. As they approached, she saw a man lying on the door panel, his entire face and neck swollen beyond human recognition.

“What happened?” the assistant quickly received them, shouting loudly for the doctor.

“…Such severe skin necrosis…”

The assistant heard someone beside him speaking and pushing forward.

“Hey, hey…” Disregarding the impropriety between men and women, he blocked Qi Yue. “Get out, get out!”

Qi Yue was pushed out in a few moves.

“This person is critically ill, let me take a look…” she said urgently.

The doctor with diarrhea came out.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, recognizing the person in front of him. “Oh, it’s that injured person who was hit by stones.”

“Doctor, please take a look quickly. He’s burning up with fever and might die. Why has his body swollen up like this?” the family members shouted.

Before the doctor could examine him, he heard a female voice shouting from outside.

“…Besides the swelling of eyes and neck, where else is swollen?” Qi Yue asked on her tiptoes. “Are there external injuries? How many days has it been? Has there been inflammation and pus…”

The doctor’s face turned black with anger.

“Miss Qi, we’re all colleagues here. Don’t go too far, or I’ll have to make you leave!” he shouted.

“No, I’m not trying to steal your business. I need bacteria, maybe this patient has some. Let me take a look… I guarantee I won’t interfere with your treatment…” Qi Yue explained.

“Someone, someone…” the doctor shouted angrily. “Drive her away, drive her away…”

Three or four assistants came to chase her away.

Qi Yue had no choice but to reluctantly retreat. The commotion here attracted the attention of people on the street, who pointed and whispered.

“Too much! No business at her own place, so she comes to others’ to steal customers. What kind of person is this!” the assistants scolded.

The doctor also wanted to scold, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he had a violent coughing fit, followed by continuous vomiting.

“Doctor, doctor!” the assistants were terrified and quickly supported him.

The doctor vomited continuously, covering his abdomen with his hand. A foul stench followed as watery stool dripped from below.

The scene erupted in screams. Amid the screaming, he collapsed to the ground, still vomiting continuously.

“Doctor, doctor, my elder brother is dying…” the family members of the injured patient waiting for treatment cried out in terror.

But no one could attend to them because the doctor was also dying.

Chaos erupted in the pharmacy.

Qi Yue rushed in with a few steps. This time, no one blocked her.

“Acute abdomen?” Qi Yue said, quickly setting down her medicine box, rapidly putting on gloves and a mask, pushing through the panicked assistants to kneel beside the doctor.

“High fever… vomiting… bloody watery stool… abdominal distension…” she examined while muttering.

The assistants were all stunned, watching her examine the doctor.

“No external injuries… this is visceral pain…” Qi Yue said, looking up and shouting, “Help him lie supine with knees flexed, I need to examine…”

The assistants came to their senses. One was about to follow the instruction instinctively but was pulled back by another.

“Go get Dr. Huang,” he said, looking at Qi Yue. “You get out, get out!”

“Hey, I’m also a doctor, I’m treating the patient…” Qi Yue frowned.

“Our doctor doesn’t want you to treat him. Get out, get out…”

The other assistants also reacted and began driving Qi Yue away.

“Then, then let me at least examine this injured person. Your doctor can’t attend to him now, so I can at least look at him, right?” Qi Yue had to step away from the doctor and looked at the panic-stricken family members of the injured patient.

Qi Yue was driven out again, and the pharmacy door was closed.

There were many medical clinics in the area, and soon a doctor was summoned. Qi Yue didn’t want to leave and stood waiting nearby. Before long, she heard crying from inside, followed by the door opening. Several people carried out a door panel, walking and crying.

“That… I’m also a doctor…” Qi Yue quickly stepped forward.

The man at the front looked up at her.

“Can you bring back the dead?” he asked dully.

Qi Yue was stunned. Of course she couldn’t…

So quickly…

She stared at the man, who was now covered up, with one arm exposed.

The men carried the door panel and stepped forward. Qi Yue quickly blocked them again.

“May I take a look?” she asked.

The person was already dead. What was there to see? This was a dead person – what was there to look at?

Qi Yue, still wearing gloves, reached out to lift the covering cloth.

“Hey, what are you doing!” a family member nearby reacted and shouted.

“I, I want to take a little something from him… just a tiny bit…” Qi Yue said tentatively, quickly taking out several needles from her medicine box, looking at the man’s swollen face and neck.

Large areas of skin necrosis – was this septicemia? How could there be such severe septicemia? Was it caused by wound infection?

What?

The family members stared wide-eyed as laughter came from nearby.

“Miss Qi,” someone said with a mocking smile, “your actions are becoming increasingly brazen. Now you want to study corpses in broad daylight?”

After Wang Qingchun finished speaking, several people following him also shook their heads.

“Too much!”

“This is truly offensive to public morals!”

“This is desecrating the dead!”

Hearing them speak this way, the family members glared fiercely at Qi Yue and walked away crying with the corpse.

“Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t understand,” Qi Yue said irritably, glaring at Wang Qingchun as the bacteria she’d almost obtained slipped away.

“Miss Qi, someone has accused you of disturbing others’ medical practice. Is this true?” Wang Qingchun asked coldly.

Qi Yue spat.

Before she could speak, crying came from the pharmacy.

“Oh my, Lord Wang, you’ve come at the right time. Please come quickly and see – Dr. Shen is dying!” the doctor who had just entered came out and, seeing Wang Qingchun and the others, said urgently.

Hearing this, everyone was shocked, including Qi Yue.

“How is that possible? I was drinking with him just yesterday…”

This was Wang Qingchun speaking.

“Impossible! How could acute abdomen be fatal so quickly? Could it be visceral perforation?”

This was Qi Yue speaking.

Everyone hurried toward the inside.

“Stop right there!” Wang Qingchun shouted, stepping forward to block the door and stopping Qi Yue. “Miss Qi, what are you doing?”

“He’s about to die. I’m going to take a look,” Qi Yue frowned.

“What are you going to look at?” Wang Qingchun sneered. “To treat him?”

Qi Yue looked at him.

“If it’s really perforation, emergency abdominal surgery is necessary, or he’ll definitely die,” she frowned.

Wang Qingchun laughed.

“You mean to say that if we look and you don’t, he’ll definitely die?” he asked with a smile. “Why is that?”

Before Qi Yue could answer, the others started laughing.

“Because we’re not Qianjin Hall!” everyone laughed.

Looking at the laughing group, Qi Yue nodded. She was naturally aware of this sarcastic catchphrase about Qianjin Hall.

“That’s right, precisely because you’re not Qianjin Hall,” she looked at these people and smiled slightly as well.