"What the hell is he talking about? What do you mean by 'as long as I can cure your illness, Cousin, all my years of studying medicine won't have been in waste'? What the hell is that supposed to mean! Did you study medicine just to pick up chicks? Saving lives and healing the wounded means jack shit to you, huh?
Even if he had said he studied medicine just to make money, it wouldn't be quite so contemptible—after all, everyone is like that nowadays, it's the trend of the times, perfectly understandable. But to openly and shamelessly declare that studying medicine is just for picking up chicks—that is just utterly shameless.
Master Jin Yong was right after all: among characters who are cousins, there are some decent ones, but not many. Take Murong Fu, Wei Bi, and Wang Xiaofeng—not a single one of them is a good guy.
"Anyway, thank you, Cousin! It's just..."
Before Huang Wenyin could finish, she was interrupted by her mother, Li Qiongsi.
"Alright! I know you young people have endless things to say, and you've got a long life ahead of you—you can chat all you want later. Longhao, hurry up and examine your Cousin!"
"Okay, Auntie, I'll take her pulse right now!" Li Longhao was clearly very eager.
"Cousin! Give me your hand! Let me take a look! Don't worry, Auntie told me about your condition a long time ago. I've been specifically studying it these past few years and discussed it with many world-class experts. Your condition is difficult to treat, but it's not incurable!"
"Thank you, Cousin! But..."
"Let your Cousin take a look already! Didn't you hear how much effort your Cousin put into your illness?" Li Qiongsi grabbed Huang Wenyin's hand and shoved it straight into Li Longhao's.
Li Longhao grabbed her hand, smiled, and began taking Huang Wenyin's pulse.
A moment later, Li Longhao said with a surprised and delighted face, "Cousin! I basically understand your condition now! Combining the information provided by Auntie with what I've just examined, I'm practically certain I can cure your condition, Cousin, and very quickly too!"
"Did you hear that, Yinyin? Your condition can be saved! And quickly, too! Can you believe your mother now?" Huang Wenyin's mother, Li Qiongsi, was beside herself with excitement.
Listening from inside the room, Li Daofeng frowned deeply. He knew the true nature of Huang Wenyin's condition better than anyone! With his current medical skills, curing Huang Wenyin's necrotic heart vessels required a combination of the Crane Divine Needle and medicinal herbs to achieve a complete and permanent recovery. What kind of amateur was this punk to dare make such wild boasts? He couldn't help feeling a surge of curiosity.
At that moment, voices drifted in from outside.
"Really? Cousin! Then thank you so much!" Li Longhao's words brought a pleasant surprise to Huang Wenyin. After all, having a disease plague her for so many years and finally learning it could be cured would excite anyone.
"Cousin, don't mention it! Now I'll give you a preliminary treatment!"
"Oh, right, Cousin! My treatment method integrates Chinese and Western medicine. I'll start with acupuncture, followed by traditional Chinese herbal decoctions combined with Western chemical medicines—true integration of Chinese and Western medicine! That way, the recovery will be even faster!"
Li Longhao wore a look of utter confidence, acting as if he had Huang Wenyin's condition completely under control.
Hearing this, Li Daofeng could no longer sit still inside the room. He stood up and walked out, wanting to see just how capable this advocate of integrated Chinese and Western medicine really was, to dare talk such big talk.
"Brother Li..." Seeing Li Daofeng come out, Huang Wenyin hurriedly stood up, looking apologetic.
"Mr. Li! Do you mind lending us this place for a moment? My nephew is going to treat my daughter! You don't mind, do you?" Li Qiongsi cut off Huang Wenyin and spoke first.
"Naturally I don't mind! Please go ahead. As it happens, I'd also like to witness this Mr. Li's medical skills!" Li Daofeng smiled politely.
"Oh! This must be the Mr. Li Auntie mentioned to me yesterday! I hear Mr. Li is also a doctor—long admired!" Li Longhao greeted Li Daofeng with a smile.
Yet, judging by his physiognomy, Li Daofeng saw him as nothing less than an old fox—an extremely sinister character. Just like right now, his smile clearly carried a heavy dose of contempt and hostility.
"A pleasure! Just now, hearing Mr. Li say he's going to treat Miss Huang with acupuncture, I couldn't help coming out to witness such divine skill. Mr. Li doesn't mind, do you?" Li Daofeng smiled.
"Mr. Li, you wouldn't happen to be trying to steal my techniques, would you? Hahaha! Just kidding, just kidding, don't take offense, Mr. Li! Acupuncture is profound and vast; even if you watch, without grasping the essentials of needle application, you can't learn it!"
Li Longhao said this, thinking he sounded witty. He claimed he was joking, but anyone could hear that he wasn't joking at all.
"That's right! What Mr. Li says is true—acupuncture is profound and vast, and mastering it is extremely difficult. Moreover, the slightest mistake during needle insertion is a matter of life and death, especially when needling vital acupoints. That makes it even harder!" Li Daofeng retorted tit-for-tat.
"Hahaha! Then Mr. Li had better keep his eyes wide open and watch closely in a moment!"
With that, Li Longhao ignored Li Daofeng, turned to Huang Wenyin, and said, "Cousin! I'll perform the acupuncture right here. Would you mind taking off your outer garment?"
Though somewhat reluctant, Huang Wenyin still took off her coat and lay down on the sofa.
Once her outer garment was removed, Huang Wenyin's full and voluptuous figure was instantly revealed in all its glory!
Facing this scene, even Li Daofeng couldn't help his heart beating faster!
As for Li Longhao standing right at the front, he swallowed hard on the spot, his eyes locked straight onto her.
Still, Li Longhao quickly regained control of himself, pulled a pack of silver needles from his pocket, and said, "Cousin, relax! I'm going to treat you now using the 'Nine Nether Ghost Needles'!"
"Nine Nether Ghost Needles!"
Hearing this name, Li Daofeng's expression instantly darkened. He knew them! And he knew how to use them. It was precisely because he knew how bizarre and terrifying the Nine Nether Ghost Needles were that he was all the more worried now.
Hearing Li Daofeng's exclamation, a smug look crossed Li Longhao's face, assuming Li Daofeng had been awed by his golden needle technique.
"Hehe! I didn't expect Mr. Li to have heard of these 'Nine Nether Ghost Needles' either." Li Longhao's tone was dripping with thick disdain.
"I know a thing or two. But are you certain you want to use these Nine Nether Ghost Needles to treat Miss Huang?" Li Daofeng intended to offer a warning.
"Is there a problem, Mr. Li?"
"Whether there's a problem or not, you should know best yourself! I only hope that as a doctor, you understand what a physician's vocational calling is!"
"Hehe! Mr. Li can spare me the reminder! Since I dare to use these golden needles, I naturally have a certain degree of certainty!" Li Longhao said with displeasure.
"Hao'er! Just hurry up and treat your Cousin! Why waste words with an outsider, some country bumpkin quack? Tell him all you want, he wouldn't understand anyway!" Li Qiongsi said with a disdainful tone.
Well!
The dignified medical successor of Daoist Taixu from Taixu Mountain had now been reduced to an outsider. A "country bumpkin quack," no less!
How could that sentence carry such heavy contempt? What's wrong with a country quack? Without country quacks, even your ancestors would have died out completely, leaving no trace of you lot behind.
Li Daofeng sneered internally and let it go. Being looked down upon really didn't feel very good.
Seeing that Li Daofeng stopped speaking, Li Longhao flashily held the golden needles in his hand, made a few unnecessary flourishes, and then drove the golden needles one by one into several major acupoints on Huang Wenyin's body.
Li Daofeng saw it clearly—the needling technique was decent enough, but there were major problems with the force and execution. Of course, he couldn't point it out now.
About half an hour later, feeling that just about enough time had passed, Li Longhao performed a few more showy gestures, employed some techniques Li Daofeng couldn't even bear to look at, and pulled the golden needles out of Huang Wenyin's body.
Then, casting a defiant glance at Li Daofeng, he said, "Cousin! Get up and see how you feel now. Isn't your body much lighter?"
"Yinyin! Hurry up and get up for a walk, see if you're all better!" Li Qiongsi's expression was tense, and her voice sounded somewhat unnatural.
Purely in terms of a mother's care for her child, Li Qiongsi was definitely a qualified mother.
Huang Wenyin got up and walked a couple of steps. Sure enough, she felt different than before. Ever since Li Daofeng's previous treatment, she had clearly felt much lighter, but that faint pain and oppressive sensation in her chest had always lingered. That feeling had accompanied her since childhood! Before she met Li Daofeng, every time an episode struck, it tortured her to the absolute extreme.
Yet right now, that feeling had actually vanished completely. Her sensation right now was one of incomparable lightness; it felt as if her breathing had become much smoother, and her whole body felt years younger.
"I'm cured? Am I really cured, Mom? I feel so light right now! That pain in my chest has completely disappeared! Am I really better, Cousin?"
Sensing the changes in her body, Huang Wenyin was exceptionally excited.
"Cousin! I can tell you responsibly: your illness is now completely cured! From now on, you will never be tormented by illness and pain again!"
Li Longhao wore a confident expression, gazing at Huang Wenyin with a passionate yet intrusive look, implying to some extent: I am your savior now, so hurry up and give yourself to me in marriage!
"That's wonderful! Truly wonderful! Yinyin, you're finally better! You're finally a normal person now! Quick, thank your Cousin. What would we have done without him!"
Huang Wenyin's mother, Li Qiongsi, burst into tears as she spoke. Although she was strict with Huang Wenyin, her love for her daughter was truly no less than that of any mother.
"Mom! Don't put it that way. My illness is better, and Brother Li put a lot of effort into it, too! Of course, I am endlessly grateful that Cousin was able to cure my illness!" Huang Wenyin said, looking toward Li Daofeng.
"President Huang, I'm not trying to pour cold water on you or curse you! He hasn't cured you at all! Everything you're feeling right now is merely an illusion!"
"Furthermore, because of his acupuncture technique, he has accelerated the rate of necrosis in your heart vessels. When your condition flares up again, that will be the final moment of your life!" Li Daofeng said in a deep voice.
Actually, Li Daofeng had anticipated this outcome the moment Li Longhao used the Nine Nether Ghost Needles. Just from the name, one could tell this needle technique belonged to the category of dark and chilling arts. To put it harshly, this technique was virtually meant for dead people; a single misstep could take a person's life.
Huang Wenyin's condition was necrotic heart vessels—pathogenic evils and deathly Qi had swallowed up her vital breath, preventing it from circulating. By using the Nine Nether Ghost Needles, Li Longhao had only increased the pathogenic evil Qi in her heart vessels to an even greater degree, which was tantamount to accelerating Huang Wenyin's condition.
As for why Huang Wenyin felt cured and completely pain-free, it was nothing more than a flash in the pan—the final burst of vitality before death. When Lord Yama of the Underworld is about to make you kick the bucket, he suddenly makes your body feel healthy so you can say what you need to say, and more importantly, so you have time to pass down your six-digit bank passwords.
"What... what kind of unmitigated nonsense are you spouting? How dare you curse my Yinyin? How can your heart be so vicious!" Li Qiongsi glared at Li Daofeng and yelled furiously.
"Mr. Li! I know you're unhappy because I stole your thunder and cured my Cousin's illness, but even so, you shouldn't curse Yinyin like this! If you have any anger in you, direct it at me. Yinyin has nothing to do with this!"
Li Longhao said with a sincere expression—a white-knight-saving-a-damsel facade that made Li Daofeng sick to his stomach.
"I'm not as vile as you think! I was just kindly warning you—believe it or not, suit yourselves!" Li Daofeng laughed bitterly.
He felt he really needed to go back to his room and check the mirror. Did he really look that much like a bad guy? Or were people nowadays too realistic, preferring to hear nice things rather than bad ones?
Take fortune-telling, for instance. If a fortune-teller tells someone a bunch of bad things, that person might say, "Screw that, believe in science!" But the moment you find your left eyelid twitching all day, some people will happily celebrate all day long because the ancestors said: right twitch brings disaster, left twitch brings wealth!
People were just that double-standardized: when they did a good deed, they hoped ghosts and deities would know; when they committed malicious acts, they wished to do them without anyone noticing. He had to admit that the job of gods and ghosts these days was really tough.
Just as Li Daofeng was thinking of returning to his room to check the mirror and see where on earth he looked like a bad guy, Huang Wenyin, who had just been full of joy, suddenly furrowed her brows. Her entire complexion turned hideous, and she abruptly collapsed onto the floor, her breathing growing heavy.
"Ah! My chest hurts so much... Mom! It hurts..." Huang Wenyin clutched her chest with both hands, rolling on the floor and screaming in agony.
At the same time, blood actually began to flow from her seven facial orifices—her nose, mouth, and eyes. The scene looked utterly terrifying.
"Yinyin! What's wrong with you! Don't scare Mom! Yinyin..."
Panicking, Li Qiongsi pulled Huang Wenyin into her arms, crying and screaming while wiping the blood from her face.
"Mom! It hurts... It really hurts..."
Huang Wenyin's complexion turned pale to the extreme, and fresh blood poured uncontrollably from her seven orifices, instantly making her pretty face look horrifying.
"How could this happen? Hao'er, come take a look at Yinyin! What on earth is going on? Why is this happening? Wasn't Yinyin already cured? Why is it like this? Take a look at her!"
Clutching her daughter, Li Qiongsi screamed at the top of her lungs.
However, at this moment, Li Longhao was pale with terror, his expression petrified. Looking at Huang Wenyin, he was in a complete trance, constantly muttering to himself, "It's over! It's all over now!"
In truth, he knew in his heart what had happened, because during the acupuncture, he had already anticipated that such a situation might arise. How could he not know the nature of the Nine Nether Ghost Needles? Just as Li Daofeng had said, the Nine Nether Ghost Needles could save lives, but once they failed, the price paid was often an unbearable consequence.
"Auntie! I... I don't know what to do either! I never expected this consequence! Once these Nine Nether Ghost Needles fail, they are almost impossible to remedy. Auntie... I'm sorry! I... I really didn't know it would turn out like this!"
Looking pale and full of regret at Huang Wenyin, who was bleeding from her seven orifices, Li Longhao felt utterly miserable.
"What... you... you have no idea what to do either? Then... then what are we supposed to do! Yinyin, how are you holding up? Hang in there! There has to be a way, Mom will not let anything happen to you!"
Huang Wenyin was on the verge of fainting. Li Longhao's words made her vision go black; she could not accept this outcome.
"Madam! Brother Li can save Miss! Quick, let Brother Li treat Miss!" Li Xuemei said anxiously.
"Get lost! A mere former live-in son-in-law who lives off women, what kind of skills could he possibly have! He ruined the Jiang family—does he want to ruin my Huang family now, too!"
Huang Wenyin's mother spoke with extreme cruelty, making it clear she looked down on Li Daofeng.
"Hmph! When has I, Li Daofeng, ever ruined your Huang family? You really think too highly of yourself! If it weren't for the Eighth Senior Sister's sake, you could beg me and I wouldn't lift a finger to treat your daughter!"
"You call me a live-in son-in-law who lives off women and look down on me, but in my eyes, your Huang family is worth absolutely nothing either! Today, for the sake of my Eighth Senior Sister, I won't argue with you. If you dare speak insolently to me again, I'll turn your Huang family upside down!"
Li Daofeng was furious. This woman was far too full of herself. His cold gaze locked onto Li Qiongsi, murder intent flickering continuously in his eyes. If not for the sake of his Eighth Senior Sister, Li Qiongsi would already be a dead person.
"Auntie! Cousin can be saved! I suddenly thought of someone who might be able to save Cousin! Wait here, I'll make a call right now!"
Remembering someone, Li Longhao hurriedly dialed his phone.
"Hello! Is that Elder Zhang? This is Li Longhao! I have a very serious patient here—my daughter—I mean, my Cousin! Her condition is extremely critical, please hurry over and take a look!"
Li Daofeng had initially thought Li Longhao was going to invite some reclusive master, but upon hearing the name Zhang Simin, he curled his lips in contempt and walked back into his room. If Zhang Simin could cure this condition, he wouldn't have knelt on the ground begging him to take him on as a disciple.
At this moment, Huang Wenyin's face had lost every trace of color. The only sound coming from her was the heavy rasp of her breath, and she no longer moved. Had her body not been trembling, she would have been indistinguishable from a corpse.
The crowd waited anxiously. After about half half an hour, a security guard brought Zhang Simin in.
The moment Zhang Simin walked through the door, Li Longhao rushed up to greet him respectfully, saying, "Elder Zhang! You've finally arrived! Quick, save my Cousin!"
Seeing Zhang Simin, Huang Wenyin's mother also saw a glimmer of hope. Zhang Simin had some fame in Yan Country and could be considered a divine doctor; with him stepping in, Huang Wenyin's condition should stabilize.
Anxious to save lives, Zhang Simin didn't bother looking at anyone else. He went straight to Huang Wenyin's side and immediately began examining her condition.
Before long, the expression on Zhang Simin's face turned heavy and grim. Huang Wenyin's condition was practically no different from that of a dead person. Although he had some tricks up his sleeve, he truly could not save Huang Wenyin.
Still, he didn't say much. Instead, he stood up, pulled a box from his bosom, drew out a few golden needles, and rapidly drove them into Huang Wenyin's body.
After a few needles went in, blood stopped flowing from Huang Wenyin's seven orifices, and her body stopped trembling. Though her breathing remained rapid, it was no longer as alarming as before. Her condition was temporarily stabilized.
"Mr. Zhang! How is my daughter? Is she alright now?" Li Qiongsi asked anxiously.
"Sigh! Ashamed to say, I can only use golden needles to temporarily stabilize her condition! As for curing her, I am powerless!" Zhang Simin sighed.
"Mr. Zhang, how can you have no way? Please think of something else, you must cure my Cousin! As long as you can cure my Cousin, we are willing to pay any price!" Li Longhao pleaded.
Li Longhao's words made Zhang Simin extremely displeased. He studied medicine to save lives and heal the wounded, not for money. That he couldn't save Huang Wenyin was due to his medical skills falling short, leaving him helpless. In Li Longhao's eyes, however, he was refusing to treat her simply because he wanted more money.
This was an insult to him, and an even greater insult to his medical skills. How could he not be angry?
"Young man, this isn't a matter of money—it's that I truly am powerless! However, just because I cannot save her does not mean no one else can. If you can find my master, perhaps he can still save this young lady's life!"