Chapter 9

"Something moved. What moved?"

The middle-aged woman was initially at a loss, finding it incomprehensible. However, she soon seemed to recall something, her eyes widening as she quickly turned her head.

At the moment she turned, she saw the old man, who had been declared 'dead' by the City People's Hospital, slowly open his eyes! The patient, who had a ruptured cerebral blood vessel and was not expected to live more than two hours, had miraculously awakened after being treated with four fine needles for half an hour!

The middle-aged woman, who was well aware of the old man's true condition, seemed to find it hard to believe. She rubbed her eyes hard with both hands, but what she saw remained unchanged.

The old man had indeed awakened!

However, he still looked weak, unable to speak, and his eyes showed little vitality, appearing somewhat confused. He opened his mouth but could not utter a word. This was a side effect of Jiang Fei's current medical skills, which were not yet advanced enough to provide a complete cure.

As the system had previously mentioned, after the patient wakes up, they might suffer from paralysis in the lower body, as well as motor, cognitive, and speech and swallowing disorders.

But no matter what, the patient had not died and was still alive.

"This... How is this possible!" The middle-aged woman couldn't help but exclaim.

Seeing her mother-in-law not only alive but also awake, her face showed not much joy, but rather shock and anger.

Jiang Fei was also quite weak at this moment, but his spirit was very excited. Seeing a patient who had been almost declared dead come back to life through his hands, it felt great! It proved that his medical skills were indeed very strong!

"Now you can rest assured. The old man has already awakened, and as long as there are no accidents, he won't die. You can take him to a large hospital for a comprehensive examination," Jiang Fei said, finally making a definitive statement.

Turning his head, he saw Su Nan, who looked disheveled and was covered in injuries, and a little girl who was still holding the hem of her white coat, with tear marks on her face. Jiang Fei continued, "Also, since I can now revive the old man, it means what I said earlier was true. The old man did not fall into a coma due to taking any medication, but rather because of some emotional stimulation, which led to a sudden stroke due to his high blood pressure."

As he said this, Jiang Fei gave a meaningful look to the middle-aged woman. If his guess was correct, it might have been this fierce daughter-in-law who upset the old man, causing her to have a stroke and nearly die.

After Jiang Fei said this and gave her that look, the middle-aged woman's eyes flickered, and she felt guilty. The large man standing next to her also looked embarrassed and uncomfortable.

At this moment, the police, who were always late, finally arrived.

It had already been half an hour...

Thus, although the middle-aged woman and her group were very unwilling, with the police now present and the old man awake, they had no choice but to give up, feeling helpless. It was already good that Su Nan did not make trouble for them, did not report them to the police for assault, vandalism, and extortion.

Soon, the troublemakers left, and the police also left, but the crowd watching the commotion did not disperse. They all looked at Jiang Fei with admiration, treating him like a god.

A doctor who could snatch life from the hands of death—what else could he be but a god?

No one knew who started it, but those who had just mocked and belittled Jiang Fei were now all shouting, "Doctor Jiang, please help me with my back pain. I've had a herniated disc for many years and it hasn't been cured. I heard acupuncture is very effective. Could you help me with that?"

"Doctor Jiang, and me! I've been having frequent headaches. A traditional Chinese medicine doctor suggested acupuncture, but I was afraid of needles in my head. But if Doctor Jiang does it, I would feel very safe!"

"Doctor Jiang, can you... treat kidney deficiency?"

A thin man asked, blushing.

In the end, Jiang Fei did not help anyone.

Under normal circumstances, he would have been very happy with so much business. However, after performing acupuncture for half an hour today, his mental energy was already at its limit, and he had no strength left to treat others. So he had to refuse them all, telling them to come to his clinic in the future.

Seeing that Jiang Fei was truly exhausted, they all reluctantly left, each of them determined to be the first in line the next time they saw Jiang Fei's clinic open.

It was clear that Jiang Fei's clinic would be very busy in the future.

Of course, the person who was most grateful to Jiang Fei was the beautiful young doctor, Su Nan.

"Doctor Jiang, I don't know what to say or how to thank you! If it weren't for you today, my son and I wouldn't know what to do! Thank you... for not holding a grudge."

From the look on the beautiful young woman's face, she seemed ready to kneel and thank Jiang Fei.

Jiang Fei shook his head. Although he had indeed harbored some resentment towards this 'cheating' young woman in the past, now that his business was no longer a concern, the past grievances were all forgiven.

"Don't say that. We didn't have any grudges in the past."

Jiang Fei, of course, would not admit his past thoughts, instead acting magnanimously and smiling, "Doctors earn their living by their skills. If patients choose to go to someone, it's because of that person's skills, and others can't be envious. Seeing you being bullied and knowing you were wronged, anyone with a bit of conscience would stand up to help. It was just a small effort."

Su Nan's left cheek was swollen from being slapped, but her right cheek was now also red, and she said embarrassedly, "Doctor Jiang, you are magnanimous, but I was a bit petty in the past. I secretly thought that Doctor Jiang's medical skills were not good, but now I see that your skills are truly excellent, and you are a real god of medicine!"

Jiang Fei waved his hand and said, "Not at all."

When my medical skills reach level 9, then I can truly be called a god of medicine!

At this moment, the little girl, who had been hiding like a bird under Su Nan's protection, also mustered the courage to say in a childish voice, "Thank you, Uncle Jiang~~~"

Jiang Fei liked children, and Su Nan's daughter was particularly cute, like a porcelain doll.

Bending down, he reached out to touch the little girl's head, gently stroking her soft, medium-length hair, and smiled, "No need to thank me. What's your name? How old are you?"

"My name is Tongtong, and I am 5 years old," the little girl answered bravely, not afraid.

Though young, she could still tell who was good and who was bad. When those bad people were hitting her mother, it was this Uncle Jiang who stood up to help her, so he was naturally a good person.

In the end, Su Nan didn't know how to thank Jiang Fei.

Should she close her clinic and not compete with Jiang Fei's business? She couldn't do that.

All her savings, and even some borrowed money, were invested in the clinic. It had only been open for a short time, and she hadn't made much money. If she closed the clinic, what would she and her daughter do? Live on the streets?

So she could only gratefully invite Jiang Fei to her home for a meal.

Jiang Fei, feeling mentally exhausted, did not stay any longer. He planned to go home and rest.

However, before he left, he touched his nose, a bit embarrassed, and pointed to Su Nan's long legs, saying, "Your stockings are torn."

Su Nan looked down and saw that her black stockings had a large tear on her calf, which had happened during the beating...

When Jiang Fei got home, he did not immediately go to sleep to rest. Instead, he checked his character attribute interface.

His basic attributes had not changed, but his experience points and medical skill proficiency had.

Before saving the patient, his experience points were 31/500, and his medical skill was level 6 + 4%.

Now, they had changed to 37/500 experience points, and his medical skill was level 6 + 7%!

In other words, treating the stroke patient had increased his experience points by 6 and his medical skill proficiency by 3 percentage points.

However, Jiang Fei suddenly noticed another change. It wasn't just these two aspects that had changed.

His mental attribute, one of his four basic attributes (stamina, mental, agility, strength), had also changed.

His mental and strength, agility had not changed, remaining at their original values. But now, it was 0.6 (if mental is below 0.5, it automatically enters a sleep state)!

"Does acupuncture reduce mental energy?" Jiang Fei was a bit stunned.

Automatically entering a sleep state probably means fainting.

If this is the case, even if he raises his medical skill to level 9, if his mental energy is not strong enough, he still won't be able to treat certain difficult diseases!

"Before, I always thought that the mental attribute wasn't very useful. It seems that in the future, I need to allocate points to increase my mental energy when I level up!" Jiang Fei thought to himself.

---

While Jiang Fei was asleep, he didn't know that the news of him saving a stroke patient who was about to die had not only spread among patients but also been discovered by a reporter from the Huaxi Daily.

The reporter, after a brief interview, wrote an article and published it in the newspaper!

The title of the article was: A God of Medicine in the Folk! A Small Clinic Doctor Cures a Stroke Patient Given a 'Death Notice' by the Grim Reaper!

The reporter then roughly described what happened at Su Nan's clinic that day.

Of course, many details were omitted.

He did not dare to report that the City People's Hospital refused to admit the patient, nor did he dare to report the extortion by the patient's family.

After all, some things cannot be said lightly, or they might lead to legal trouble.

The reporter focused on describing how miraculous and incredible Jiang Fei's acupuncture skills were. He then used this topic to extensively praise the power of traditional Chinese medicine, mentioning that many developed countries in Europe and America value traditional Chinese medicine more than the Chinese themselves, and hoped that the Chinese would not be overly admiring of foreign things and would instead study the valuable heritage left by their ancestors.

At the Jincheng Military District Convalescent Hospital.

In a special ward.

A patient with gray hair had the habit of reading the newspaper every day.

On this day, he happened to see this report and found it somewhat amusing.

To him, the first part of the report seemed too fake, but the part about traditional Chinese medicine was quite true.

So after reading it, he put it aside without giving it much thought, until...

PS: Thank you all for your unwavering support. Seeing your rewards and blessings makes me feel warm in my heart~~~