With something on her mind, Su Ci woke up bright and early the next day.
After signing in as usual to claim the day's system reward, Su Ci quickly got herself ready, bought a steamed bun for breakfast, and headed over to the medical clinic, where she unlocked the front doors and prepared for business.
Yet, an entire morning passed without a single patient stepping inside.
Although Su Ci had mentally prepared herself for slow business and an empty clinic on opening day—after all, she was only twelve years old, and no patient would be bold enough to let a little girl treat them—experiencing it firsthand still left her deeply depressed.
Su Ci's mood grew increasingly gloomy as time slipped away.
She sat on the bench inside the clinic, her gaze repeatedly sweeping across the street outside, yearning for someone to walk in.
However, despite the bustling crowd of pedestrians outside, lively and full of energy, not a single person stopped their stride to step into the clinic.
Just as she was about to find something to do to distract herself, the system suddenly emitted a pleasant chime.
Su Ci's attention was instantly captured.
She opened the system interface and discovered that the previously gray task button had actually lit up, and a task had even been issued.
Task details: Treat three patients within ten days.
Task rewards: Upon completion, receive 300 points, 50 taels of silver, a set of silver needles, several medical formulas, and a gift package for the first-time task completion.
Task penalty: 100 points deducted upon task failure.
Accept task: Yes/No
Su Ci's eyes lit up when she saw the task rewards. As long as she completed this task and claimed the rewards, she could immediately upgrade the system and unlock the system store.
Then she looked at the penalty, realizing her current points were just enough to cover the deduction.
Su Ci gritted her teeth, hesitated for a split second, and decided to accept the task.
Either way, she was going to run a medical clinic and see patients, and the system only stipulated treating three people, rather than demanding that she fully cure them. With the traditional Chinese medicine knowledge she currently possessed, handling common minor ailments and illnesses was a breeze.
The rewards for completing the task were generous, and failing it would merely cost her points—she could afford the deduction.
After accepting the task, Su Ci began to fret over how to get patients to walk into the clinic.
She had it! She could hang a banner outside the clinic door bearing the words: "Clinic Grand Opening: Free Consultations for 10 Days." That way, she wouldn't have to worry about nobody coming in.
After all, in any era, seeing a doctor was a difficult and expensive affair.
For ordinary commoners whose sole concern was putting food on the table, they would never visit a physician unless pushed to the absolute brink.
Now that there was a chance for a free medical consultation, she believed people would eventually be willing to come in and give it a try.
No sooner thought than done, Su Ci sprang into action. She gathered brushes, ink, and fabric, personally crafting a banner.
After hanging up the banner, Su Ci sat beside the consultation desk, took out her medical books, and settled down to read with a focused mind.
The afternoon sunlight streamed through the windows into the medical clinic, infusing the somewhat desolate space with a touch of warmth.
Just when Su Ci thought no one would come today, a middle-aged woman looking rather weary walked over.
Her gaze lingered on the banner for a moment, and then she looked toward Su Ci with a trace of hesitation.
Su Ci immediately put down her book, stood up, and walked forward with a smile. "Hello, ma'am. Do you have any discomfort? Our clinic is holding its grand opening today, and I can take a look for you—free of charge."
The woman looked at Su Ci with some skepticism, glanced around the clinic, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Little girl, are you the only one here? Where is the clinic's doctor?"
Su Ci smiled and explained, "Ma'am, I am the doctor of this clinic. Don't let my age fool you; I've been studying medicine under my father since I was three years old. My father's medical skills are renowned in these parts—could the apprentice he taught possibly be bad? I can treat ordinary aches and pains."
"Right now, our clinic is offering free consultations. If you aren't at ease with the medicine I prescribe, you can take the formula to another pharmacy and have another doctor look it over. That way, you won't suffer any losses."
Upon hearing Su Ci's words, the middle-aged woman seemed somewhat tempted.
After pondering for a moment, she finally nodded. "Alright then, little girl, take a look for me. I've had terrible dizzy spells these past few days, and I don't know what's causing them."
Su Ci invited the woman to sit down, inquired about her symptoms, and conducted a thorough examination.
After a round of diagnosis, Su Ci already had a firm conclusion in her mind.
She spoke with complete confidence to the woman, "Ma'am, this is caused by overexertion leading to poor circulation of qi and blood. I'll prescribe some medicine for you to drink, and just make sure to rest more often. It's nothing major." With that, Su Ci picked up her brush and fluently wrote down the medical formula.
The woman accepted the formula and looked at Su Ci with gratitude. "Thank you, little girl. I was worried earlier that because you're so young, your medical skills wouldn't be up to par. I never expected you to be so capable!"
Su Ci smiled modestly. "You flatter me, ma'am. Just get the medicine filled according to the prescription and take it, and you'll be well in no time."
After sending off the woman, Su Ci resumed reading her medical books.
As night fell, Su Ci closed the clinic doors. Although there was only one patient today, her spirits were remarkably high.
Back home, Su Ci could not wait to open the system interface and check her progress.
Task details: Treat three patients within ten days.
Task rewards: Upon completion, receive 300 points, 50 taels of silver, a set of silver needles, several medical formulas, and a gift package for the first-time task completion.
Task penalty: 100 points deducted upon task failure.
Task progress bar: 33.33%
Task completion rate: 1/3
Current patients treated: 1
Seeing that both the task progress bar and completion rate had advanced, Su Ci jumped for joy.
It seemed her guess was correct: today, simply taking the woman's pulse and identifying the source of her ailment caused the system to judge that she had completed 1/3 of the task. This indicated that at this stage, she did not actually need to completely cure the patients, which undoubtedly lowered the difficulty of the task significantly.
Having a patient show up on the very first day of opening was a wonderful start. As long as she treated two more patients over the next nine days, the task would be accomplished.
With this thought, Su Ci's mood became even more cheerful.
Today's events also made Su Ci realize that system tasks were not only issued after a system upgrade, but rather required her to trigger them.
As for how to trigger tasks, Su Ci was still unclear for the time being.
However, she guessed that the release of tasks should be related to the reason she had asked Xie Bi'an for a golden finger in the first place.
After all, the existence of the golden finger was meant to help her better integrate into this reborn world.
Now that she had chosen to study medicine and reopen the medical clinic, the system naturally issued related tasks, rewarding her with silver needles and medical formulas tied to traditional Chinese medicine.
In that case, the big gift package was likely related to medical arts as well—what could it be?
Medical books? Formulas? Medicinal herbs? Elixirs? Or perhaps...
Su Ci eagerly looked forward to completing the task and opening that gift package on that day.