A ruined courtyard deep in an alley.
Inside a dim, unlit bedroom.
Two physicians had been invited over, carrying their medicine chests to treat the patient.
Jia Baoyu slumped in a corner, haggard and dazed.
"Doctor, sorry for the trouble." The Wang Family's maid curtsied through her tears.
Madam Wang lay on the sickbed, her cheeks sunken and her breathing intermittent. Her neck and the underside of her jaw were horrifyingly ulcerated.
One physician took out his silver needles while the elderly man carefully felt her pulse, his expression turning alarmed.
"Pent-up anguish has damaged the heart meridian. Her blood and vital energy are flowing backward into her organs. She hasn't long to live."
What on earth had this patient endured to accumulate such boundless hatred and resentment that she had destroyed herself?
Hearing this, Jia Baoyu rushed to the bedside in grief and pleaded:
"Doctor, save my mother! An evil man has risen to glory. My uncle died at his hands, and he ruined our family and left us, mother and son, bereft. If I reach a position of power someday, I will repay you both ten thousandfold!"
The physician shook his head with a bitter smile.
"All physicians aspire to hang out their medicine gourds and save the world. If she could be cured, I would do everything in my power. But your mother's resentment has accumulated too deeply. Unless some rare medicine can be found, she will not survive this month."
Madam Wang's eyes trembled. With death approaching, fear had finally overtaken her. She struggled to raise an arm, her gaze pleading incessantly.
The two physicians sighed, declined payment, and prepared to leave.
Suddenly.
Boom, boom, boom-
Crack, pop, bang-
Exultant gongs and drums rang through the alleys outside, accompanied by exuberant firecrackers and the cheers of