Owing a Favor again

“Then I will call you little doctor Qin, okay? That’s right, the situation with my both legs is due to an incompletely cured illness from my youthful times. When Wenxiang, this child was eight years old, his father left us and so, I had to shoulder the family’s farm work by myself.” Old lady Yan’s tongue became loose when she heard Qin Lang’s question.

“There was a year when I fell ill during the rice transplanting period and I suffered from fever for several days, but my eyes only saw that other families had already planted the rice seedlings nicely whereas there was no activity in our paddy field. My heart was anxious, if the water leaked out from the paddy field then there would be no way to transplant any rice seedlings. Due to my anxiety, I immediately braved the illness to go to the farm but who would have known, that day while I was planting the rice seedlings, I felt ‘the sky spinning and the earth going round’ and fell head first in the paddy field. Fortunately someone pa.s.sed by otherwise I am afraid I would have choked to death inside the paddy field.”

“Later, the villagers took pity on us, an orphan child and a widowed mother, and helped us by transplanting the rice seedlings. But from that year onwards, my incompletely cured illness fell down and moreover, became worse each year.”

“Good——you old woman, why have you never told me about this matter!?” Wu Wenxiang looked apologetically at his mother. If it was not for Qin Lang asking this question, he would have never known how his mother suffered from this illness. Now, Wu Wenxiang’s tone somewhat changed, he was evidently touched by this.

“At that time, you were still young, why on earth would I chat with you about these matters?” Old lady Yan said, “All these years, I have shouldered this illness but who could have thought that even when I got old and my body was dying, I was still not able to resist this illness.”

“So it was actually like this——esteemed elder, this was caused by cold-hot bi syndrome and moreover, in those days, when one fell ill, there was no way to receive appropriate treatment which resulted in blocked meridians and hence, this illness got more and more unbearable every pa.s.sing year. I used the bee venom therapy to stimulate your meridians and suppress the cold-hot poison, so you became oblivious to pain. Anyway, your illness is not acute and to thoroughly cure it, you would still need to take several medicines and take good care of yourself.” Qin Lang said, “Additionally, you should pay attention regarding your diet, elderly should mainly eat light food and not too greasy food.”

“Little doctor Qin, everything you said is correct. My son makes me eat like this every day along with a lot of supplements but instead, I feel faint with blurred vision and my body is not as agile as before. Talking of the past, I did houseworks and what not but there were no problems………”

“Mother, I didn’t consider about your body.” Wu Wenxiang gave a bitter smile, he indeed had filial piety.

“There is no problem in occasionally taking the supplements but nothing like taking it everyday.” Qin Lang smiled faintly. He reached out for a pen and paper which Wu Wenxiang handed over and wrote a prescription before handing it to Wu Wenxiang. He also informed of some things which needed to be paid attention. Wu Wenxiang immediately expressed his thanks.

Wu Wenxiang knew this time, he again owed a big favor  to Qin Lang but he knew Qin Lang, this kid was not simple, so in his heart, he didn’t want to owe a favor to Qin Lang thus after Qin Lang wrote out the prescription, Wu Wenxiang took out six thousand yuan notes(~USD 915) from the room and handed it to Qin Lang: "Little Qin, a small gesture, think of it as your examination fees.”

"Mayor Wu, what is your meaning!? Take it back quickly ——don't tell me you think the treatment I gave to the esteemed elder's rheumatic pain and made her able to walk properly is only worth this few thousand yuan notes? Furthermore, if the esteemed elder feels unwell later, you are not intending to allow me to come and check?" Qin Lang deliberately said with a stiff face, saying in his heart ‘You, Wu Wenxiang don’t want to owe me a favor but I insist on you in owing me one.’

"This..........little Qin, I didn't mean that!" Wu Wenxiang promptly explained, "You are a doctor, when you see patients, don’t you always receive examination fees?”

“As for the examination fees, right?” Qin Lang said with a dark face, “I rarely check patients, only my master sees to the patients but nevertheless his diagnosis is worth its weight in gold, and not the cash ‘gold’, but rather gold ‘gold’. When the old man checks the patients, if there isn’t at least thousand taels of gold then he won’t agree to even feel the pulse!”

Old Poison naturally very rarely gave people ‘diagnosis’, but still previously, there were people who would request Old Poison for detoxification and those people who were able to request his help, let alone thousand taels of gold, they even took out ten thousand taels of gold but Old Poison still may not necessarily agree to put his hand to it.

Only, Wu Wenxiang however didn’t think so, saying in his heart “thousand taels of gold, boy, you really believe yourself to be Hua Tuo’s disciple or a reincarnation of Bian Que?” Naturally, Wu Wenxiang only thought of this in his heart and certainly not dare to speak it out, after all, although this boy spoke big, his medical techniques, however, were wonderful.

As if he could see Wu Wenxiang’s train of thoughts, Qin Lang said in a very self-righteous manner: “Mayor Wu, you are certainly thinking that I am bragging. Then, let’s just think about this, if I didn’t put my hands to help the esteemed elder with confidence, how much money would go in medicine and nursing worker expenses for this all year round illness of her? More than ten-twenty thousand, right? How about in ten years? How much money then? Moreover, can this health be bought with money? Traditional Chinese medicine doctors pay particular attention to fate when they check patients. By handing over so much money, are you saying this fate doesn’t exist?”

“Wenxiang! This is how you handle things? Provoking little doctor Qin and making him unhappy! I can tell you, little doctor Qin is my benefactor. You don’t know that these years of rheumatic pain made my life worse than death! Put your money away, little doctor Qin has such great medical skills, can he be lacking this little money of yours?” Old lady Yan was completely standing on Qin Lang’s side.

Wu Wenxiang was helpless and without any better options, he took the money back. However, he knew that at last, he owed this favor.

Soon after, Wu Wenxiang took the esteemed elder back to her room to watch the TV and rest. Then, he and Qin Lang went to the study room.

“Little Qin, your medical techniques are so good, why would you still want to be in mixed society?” Wu Wenxiang couldn’t help but speak out his heart’s doubts.

“How am I in the mixed society?” Qin Lang answered the question with a question.

Wu Wenxiang smiled: “Little Qin, I deliberately asked this because I want to help you, I have no other intentions.”

After knowing Qin Lang’s medical techniques, Wu Wenxiang was aware that there really might be a little ‘fate’ between him and Qin Lang. Perhaps there might be a day where he would still have a use for Qin Lang. It would be better for such a boy to not violate the laws. Hence, Wu Wenxiang invited Qin Lang to the study room, intending to give directions to him.

“Then, can I ask what advices Mayor Wu has?” Qin Lang asked undisturbed.

Wu Wenxiang thought and said: “Every white has black. The underworld is something which exists in each and every nations. It has also existed in China for thousands of years, it could even be said that it has deep roots and isn’t able to be suppressed.  But, nowadays, the country doesn’t easily tolerate the underworld. If you are in the mixed society, fighting and killing all the time, then a careless move could make you beyond redemption and you won’t have a good end!.”

Qin Lang knew Wu Wenxiang spoke of the truth, in fact, he also didn’t feel like mixing in with ‘Jiang Hu’ but unfortunately, Old Poison forced him to walk this path. ‘The timber has been turned into a boat already’, Qin Lang also couldn’t do anything about it, he could only turn to Wu Wenxiang and ask for guidance in ‘dark principles’, “Mayor Wu, then how to have a good end?”

“This…..it is very difficult to clearly demarcate between black and white in a society. For instance, the crackdown on illegal activities this time, a lot of Xiayang city’s officials were involved in it. What I mean by this is white can change to black and black also can be turned to white. Before the handover of Hong Kong and Macau, they were the places where previously gangs ran wild but now, many gangs have all disappeared. Do you know the reason behind this?”