The Miracle Doctor Cures a Patient (Please Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Li Yunsheng said nothing. He didn't know this Sixth Master He.

He Yunxi called out to the people around them, "Everyone here will do me this favor, won't you?"

Sixth Master He?

Who was that?

No one present knew him.

Did this man have nothing better to do? Why was he getting involved?

Yet for some reason, everyone wanted to see how Sixth Master He would judge the matter.

More and more people gathered. He Yunxi grew increasingly confident, and once he had learned the whole story, he said to Li Yunsheng, "This doctor called you a fraud the moment he walked up. That was certainly wrong.

"But to be honest, I've seen plenty of people in your line of work, the Zhu You Practice. Most of them fool people. I really haven't met many practitioners of the Zhu You Practice who can cure an illness.

"The young fellow has a point, too. If you're a doctor, you have to be able to treat patients. If you can't, you shouldn't be here deceiving people.

"But what you said makes sense as well. Without a patient, you have no way to demonstrate a cure, so we can't call you a fraud on that basis.

"As luck would have it, I have a patient with me today. Little Yang, come here."

A young man walked over, holding his face. His right cheek was swollen high.

He Yunxi drew him forward and explained his condition to Li Yunsheng. "This is my friend Xiao Yang. He's had a toothache for days. He can't eat or sleep, and he's almost at the end of his rope. See if you can cure him."

Li Yunsheng had Xiao Yang sit down and open his mouth.

His gums were swollen, with a lump the size of a quail egg. Its surface was pale, and it looked as though pus had formed inside. His teeth, however, showed no obvious problem.

"Have you seen any other doctors?"

Little Yang nodded. "I've seen a traveling doctor, gone to a medical clinic, and even tried a foreigners' hospital. None of them could cure it!"

Li Yunsheng prodded the lump with a silver needle. It bled, but no pus came out.

Little Yang's cheek trembled with pain. "Stop poking it. It's no use. There's nothing inside."

"The foreigners' hospital cut the lump open and couldn't squeeze anything out. It still hurts just as much."

Sixth Master He said from the side, "If you can't cure him, say so now. My friend has suffered enough. Don't put him through another ordeal."

Li Yunsheng studied Xiao Yang for a while, then asked, "Are you a night watchman?"

Little Yang froze. "How did you know?"

"You smell of night dew. Most people don't carry such a strong scent of it, so you clearly work at night. And your legs and feet are sturdy. You must do a lot of walking."

Little Yang nodded. "You're spot on. I'm a night watchman!"

Li Yunsheng went on, "Did you go to East Street Corner on Orchid Street last month?"

"Of course. Orchid Street is my territory. I go there whenever I'm on duty!"

A hint of delight entered Li Yunsheng's voice. He had found the cause. "There was a corpse in the ash pit at East Street Corner. Did you see it?"

Xiao Yang nodded repeatedly. "I did. Maggots were already crawling all over it. I was on duty that night, and the sight gave me a fright. I was the one who reported it to the Police Station."

Li Yunsheng nodded slightly. "That explains it."

Sixth Master He waved his fan. "Explains what? Why all these questions? Can you cure him or not? Give us a straight answer!"

Li Yunsheng smiled. "Don't be impatient, Sixth Master. Whatever branch of medicine a doctor practices, he has to understand the condition before treating it."

Sixth Master He closed his fan, took out his pipe, and drew on it. "Do you understand it now? If you do, get on with the treatment. None of us has all day to stand here listening to your nonsense!"

Li Yunsheng began the treatment. He took out a sheet of Talisman Paper and dampened it with water.

Zhang Laifu looked at the writing and drawings on the Talisman Paper. Though he couldn't make sense of them, every stroke seemed exquisitely done.

Holding the talisman in his right hand, Li Yunsheng rolled it around his left index finger into a little tube and told Xiao Yang to bite down on it.

Little Yang looked afraid. "I don't dare. It hurts."

Li Yunsheng insisted. "If you want to be cured, you have to bite down. Bite where it hurts. The more it hurts, the harder you must bite!"

Little Yang bit down on the paper roll. Li Yunsheng then stuck another sheet of Talisman Paper to a nearby willow tree with water and began to chant:

"Grudges from before death, resentments from beyond the grave—Heaven's justice shines bright and knows which is which!

"This man did you no wrong. He showed kindness by helping them collect your corpse!

"If you're a hero, if you're a man, heed one word of honest counsel!

"If you have a grievance, take it to the Underworld. The King of Hell will hear your case and judge it fairly!"

"I urge you kindly: do not cling to him. Ignore my counsel, and you'll see what I can do.

"One touch of flame will turn this sacred talisman to ash and scatter both your soul and spirit!

"Brother, be on your way! You've had a hard life, and I don't want to use force against you. Leave this young fellow alone."

The Talisman Paper on the tree trembled three times but did not fall.

Everyone craned their necks to watch, unsure whether the illness had been cured.

Li Yunsheng felt for the Talisman Paper on the tree and murmured, "Brother, take the chance I'm giving you. I've yielded more than enough!"

The Talisman Paper still hung motionless. Li Yunsheng struck a match and said to it, "If you insist on being stubborn, your soul and spirit really will be scattered!"

The Talisman Paper seemed to respond. It quivered a few times, then fell from the tree.

Li Yunsheng picked it up and smiled. "I'll send you extra paper ingots, incense, and candles later, brother. Meeting you was fate. You have my thanks."

The moment he finished speaking, Xiao Yang retched.

Afterward, instead of feeling worse, Xiao Yang felt much better.

The Talisman Paper in his mouth had vanished, and the lump on his gum had burst. A fat maggot had crawled out of it and been spat onto the ground by Little Yang, where it kept writhing.

Li Yunsheng asked Xiao Yang, "Does it still hurt?"

Little Yang ran his tongue over his gum, felt his cheek, and stared at Li Yunsheng in astonishment.

The pain was gone.

The onlookers kept gathering, and all of them stared in amazement.

Li Yunsheng called out, "Everyone, you've seen it clearly. Am I a fraud or not?"

Sixth Master He had Xiao Yang open his mouth and examined it closely.

Whether he knew what he was looking at was hard to say. After inspecting it, he still looked puzzled. "Little Yang, does your tooth really not hurt anymore?"

Little Yang answered without hesitation. "Not a bit! It feels fine!"

"You're not a plant, are you?"

"A plant?" Little Yang shook his head repeatedly. "I've never even met this man."

Li Yunsheng said, "Sixth Master He, you brought him here yourself. It's hardly fair to suggest he's a plant."

"Little Yang's tooth no longer hurts. Surely you don't think he'd lie to you?"

He Yunxi thought it over, then shook his head. "His tooth may have stopped hurting because you gave him an anesthetic."

"When did I give him an anesthetic?"

"You had him bite down on a Talisman Paper. There could have been anesthetic in it. And that worm he spat out might be fake—hidden inside the Talisman Paper!"

He Yunxi appeared to be finding fault again, but Li Yunsheng wasn't angry. He could tell the man was speaking on his behalf. There were things He Yunxi wanted to help him clear up himself.

He's a good man.

Were there really people this good in Wansheng Province?

Li Yunsheng couldn't fathom the man's purpose, but for now, he had to protect his reputation.

He picked up the maggot and handed it to Sixth Master He. "Take a good look. This is a maggot from the corpse. If you think it's fake, feed it to a bird and see whether the bird eats it. If it does, the worm is real!"

Sixth Master He actually fed the maggot to a bird. The bird pinned it with one foot, pecked at it twice, and swallowed it.

He Yunxi still looked worried. "My bird won't get sick from eating that, will it?"

Li Yunsheng flicked his fan. "That worm could harm a person because it carried resentment from the corpse."

"Little Yang must have touched the corpse that night. The resentment clung to him through the worm, burrowed into his flesh, and caused his suffering."

At that, Xiao Yang's face turned bright red. Li Yunsheng was right.

Little Yang had indeed touched the corpse. He had searched it and found a little money.

Li Yunsheng did not question Little Yang further. He turned back to He Yunxi. "The resentment is gone now, so the worm has lost its power. Without that power, it can harm neither a person nor a bird."

"If you don't believe me, I set up my stall here every morning. If anything happens to your bird, come find me. I'll pay you ten times its value.

"And as for Xiao Yang, you mentioned anesthetic. Anesthetic always wears off. If I really used it, his illness will return before long. Bring him back then, and I'll not only compensate him—I'll tear down my own sign with my own hands!"

His words rang with conviction. Sixth Master He snapped his folding fan shut and exclaimed, "Fine work! Everyone, you saw it for yourselves. This Zhu You doctor has real skill! He's no fraud!"

Sixth Master He walked over to Old Zheng and sighed. "Fine work. That Zhu You doctor has genuine ability. You wronged him just now."

Old Zheng shook his head repeatedly. "I was only watching the commotion. I didn't accuse him of anything. This Zhu You Practice doctor really is something..."

Mid-sentence, Old Zheng froze.

He had been so absorbed in watching the spectacle that he had forgotten why he had come.

Zhang Laifu was gone!

P.S. That shouldn't have happened. Did Old Zheng really love watching a commotion that much? He was a cautious man.

Thanks to Alliance Leader I Love Iced Black Tea, and thanks for the support all along.