Human-Face Sore
Daoist Jin finished prescribing medicine for Zhenzhen's brother-in-law and went over the precautions with them again. Only then did the group leave, carrying the child.
Su Ziyang didn't dare disobey Daoist Jin's orders. He sat in the room glumly copying The Great Physician's Sincerity. Daoist Jin never indulged him; if he disobeyed when it came to his studies, he really would get a beating.
Finally, before bed that evening, Su Ziyang finished copying The Great Physician's Sincerity ten times. He had just flexed his aching, numb wrist when his phone rang.
The caller ID showed Bai Pengyu. The last time, after Bai Pengyu and the others had cleared up the conflict between Su Ziyang and Daoist Jin, they hadn't stayed long and had gone home the next day.
"Hey, Ziyang!" Bai Pengyu's hearty voice came through the phone.
"Haha, Brother Bai. What's up?" Su Ziyang knew Bai Pengyu had to have a reason for calling him at this hour. They were two grown men who had only been apart for a few days, and it wasn't like they were gay. There was no need to call so late at night for nothing.
"There's something I need, Ziyang! Are there any doctors there who can treat supernatural illnesses? When I visited last time, didn't the sign say Daoist Medicine Clinic? Can they treat supernatural illnesses?" Bai Pengyu spoke bluntly, and Su Ziyang frowned as he listened.
"What kind of supernatural illness?" Su Ziyang asked.
"Sigh, I can't explain it clearly over the phone. How about this? I'll come over and find you. We'll talk in person!" Bai Pengyu sighed over the phone.
"All right. Come on over, then."
"Okay!" Bai Pengyu hung up.
After hanging up, Bai Pengyu immediately booked three plane tickets.
The following afternoon, Bai Pengyu appeared in Su Ziyang's consulting room with two middle-aged women.
"Mom, Auntie, this is Su Ziyang, Doctor Su, the one I told you about," Bai Pengyu said, introducing him to the two middle-aged women behind him.
"Hello, Doctor Su. I've heard Xiaoyu talk about you. You're so young and accomplished!" Bai Pengyu's mother held out her hand and shook Su Ziyang's.
"Haha, not at all. Auntie, please sit!" Su Ziyang hurriedly brought chairs for Bai Pengyu's mother and aunt.
Bai Pengyu's mother was very talkative, but Su Ziyang's aunt sat quietly to the side. After the two chatted about everyday matters for a bit, Su Ziyang asked, "Brother Bai, what was it you mentioned on the phone? You came over in such a hurry!"
When Bai Pengyu heard Su Ziyang's question, he went to the consulting room door and shut it.
"Ziyang, help me find a doctor at your clinic who can treat supernatural illnesses. The more capable, the better. Money's no object!" Bai Pengyu said quietly.
Su Ziyang stared at Bai Pengyu for a while after hearing him out. "You look pretty healthy to me. Your yang energy is abundant. You don't have any supernatural illness!"
"Oh, it's not me. It's my aunt!" Bai Pengyu waved his hand.
"Your aunt!" Hearing that, Su Ziyang turned his gaze to Bai Pengyu's aunt, who had been sitting silently beside his mother.
Apart from looking a little pale, Bai Pengyu's aunt didn't seem ill.
"Your aunt's complexion looks all right to me too!" Su Ziyang said softly.
"Brother, quit fooling around. You can treat supernatural illnesses too? I'm talking about a supernatural illness. How could it be the same as the illnesses ordinary doctors like you treat?" Bai Pengyu patted Su Ziyang on the shoulder.
Bai Pengyu knew Su Ziyang had graduated from a university of traditional Chinese medicine, and he had also seen his martial arts. But everyone had their own specialty, and he didn't think Su Ziyang could treat his aunt's illness, so he kept urging him to find an expert.
In Bai Pengyu's mind, someone capable of treating this kind of illness had to have their hair in a topknot and a long beard, with the ethereal air of an immortal.
"Brother Bai, to be honest, I know a little about treating supernatural illnesses too. If something's wrong, just tell me. Given our relationship, why keep it hidden?" Seeing Bai Pengyu continue to urge him, Su Ziyang came right out and said he knew how to treat some illnesses of this kind.
"Sigh, I'm not hiding it. I'm afraid I'll scare you!" Bai Pengyu sighed.
"Why does this keep getting more mysterious? What kind of illness could scare me?" Watching Bai Pengyu sigh, Su Ziyang thought, What illness could be scarier than the last two I treated? One person got married and entered the bridal chamber in his dreams, and the other was covered in black Qi and nearly died.
"Let me take a look first. Even if I don't understand it, I can ask my master to come take a look. How about that?"
"All right." Seeing how insistent Su Ziyang was, Bai Pengyu nodded, then said to his aunt, "Auntie, let him take a look first."
Bai Pengyu's aunt hesitated as she looked at Su Ziyang's young face, but she still listened to her nephew and took off her coat.
The moment she took it off, Su Ziyang got a terrible fright.
Below Bai Pengyu's aunt's collarbone, near her armpit, was a human face! Looking closely, he saw that it was actually a wrinkled old woman's face!
The old woman's face was red and jutted out from her chest wall, the size of a fist, like a tumor. Although it was hideous, its features were distinct and lifelike.
"..." Su Ziyang stared at the old woman's face growing on the tumor, falling into a state of horror and contemplation.
Although Su Ziyang had studied under his master, Mr. Mengfei, for a long time and his medical skills had improved considerably, and although he had helped Mr. Mengfei treat several so-called supernatural illnesses, none of them had been nearly as visually striking and startling as this lifelike human face. After all, whether it was getting married and entering the bridal chamber while asleep or having black Qi on one's body, those things were abstract. This was different. This human face was too vivid! No, not just vivid-it was a little too vivid!
Just as Su Ziyang stood there in shock, something even more inconceivable happened.
The mouth on the ugly old woman's face opened slightly...
The red face, like a fleshy tumor, kept trembling as its mouth opened and closed.
At the same time, Bai Pengyu's aunt cried out in terror, "Sis, sis, sis!!! Quick, quick, take the Snickers out of the bag! Take it out!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Bai Pengyu's aunt grew paler and paler, and beads of sweat the size of beans began pattering off her body.
Bai Pengyu's mother clearly had seen her sister like this before. She quickly pulled a Snickers bar from the small bag she was carrying.
Su Ziyang thought the Snickers was for Bai Pengyu's aunt to eat. But after Bai Pengyu's mother unwrapped it, she held it up to the opening and closing mouth on the red fleshy tumor.
The mouth took one bite, then another... and swallowed the whole Snickers bar...
As the human face swallowed the Snickers, Bai Pengyu's aunt's complexion slowly returned to normal, and the sweat on her body gradually subsided.
"...Holy shit..." For the first time, Su Ziyang swore in front of a patient.
Seeing Su Ziyang's astonishment, Bai Pengyu's aunt looked a little embarrassed and quickly put her coat back on.
Realizing he had lost his composure, Su Ziyang hurriedly apologized. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"It's all right!" Bai Pengyu's aunt spoke in a voice as faint as a mosquito's.
"I told you to find a master, but you just had to show off! Scared now, aren't you?" Bai Pengyu rolled his eyes at Su Ziyang. "Never mind you-even a big guy like me nearly pissed his pants the first time I saw this!"
"This... this isn't very scientific, is it? Where did that thing put the Snickers after eating it?" Su Ziyang still hadn't recovered from his shock.
"Scientific! If science could explain it, we wouldn't have come to you! What hospital haven't we visited, all across the country?" Bai Pengyu was a straightforward man who said whatever was on his mind.
"Xiaoyu, speak nicely to Doctor Su!" Bai Pengyu's mother said softly. "Doctor Su, could you introduce us to an expert who knows how to deal with this kind of problem? My sister's condition is getting worse and worse. We have to do something about it!"
"It's all right, Auntie." Su Ziyang didn't care at all what Bai Pengyu said about him now. His mind had already begun racing.
"Could you tell me how this illness started? My master isn't here with me. If I ask him about it, I'll have to explain it clearly!"
The moment Su Ziyang saw this strange illness, he had already begun thinking about it. His first thought had been to find Daoist Jin, but as luck would have it, Daoist Jin had gone out that morning and said he wouldn't return for a week.
Su Ziyang wasn't familiar with the other doctors at the Daoist Medicine Clinic either. The second person he thought of finding was Old Daoist Master Xiao, but recalling the strange illnesses they had treated before, Old Daoist Master Xiao didn't seem particularly adept at treating this kind of illness either. Besides, what had happened last time had left Su Ziyang somewhat less fond of him.
After turning it over in his mind, Su Ziyang still wanted to call his master and ask him.
"I'll tell you!" Hearing Su Ziyang ask about the cause of the illness, Bai Pengyu's aunt, who had been silent all this time, spoke up.
"I've been working in sports abroad. I teach traditional Chinese kung fu and qigong."
Su Ziyang looked at Bai Pengyu's aunt, then at Bai Pengyu, thinking that this was a martial arts family!
Bai Pengyu's aunt paused, then continued, "Three years ago, a university for seniors invited me back to teach Tai Chi Chuan and Eight Pieces of Brocade. I thought I hadn't been home in years, and now that I was a little older, I was feeling homesick, so I came back! After that, I led a group of older men and women in exercises at the university. A year ago, I suddenly felt some pain in my chest. I thought it was breast hyperplasia, so I went to the hospital for an examination. The hospital said there was nothing wrong!"
"After that, this spot would sting from time to time. I also went for regular checkups, and the results always said nothing was wrong. Seeing that there really was nothing wrong, I stopped paying it any mind. One day, half a year ago, I went out to bathe, and while I was in the sauna, this spot felt terribly itchy. I scratched it and didn't think much of it at the time! But after I got home, I noticed the area had swollen a little and was oozing some blood. I thought I'd scratched it, so I put some iodine on it to disinfect it. Who would have thought that in two weeks, it would grow as big as a walnut? And when I looked closely, I could just make out two eyes on it..."
"I was terrified, so I hurried to the hospital. The doctor said they needed to do a pathology test to see whether it was benign or malignant! They took a small tissue sample. The human face hadn't been so obvious before, but by the time I got home from the hospital, the wound where they had taken the tissue had turned into a mouth, and it had eaten the gauze bandage..."
"Huh?!" Su Ziyang was startled again. "It ate the gauze?!!!"
Bai Pengyu's aunt nodded. "It eats anything... And ever since it became able to eat, whenever it wants food, my whole body hurts as if it's being pricked by needles, and sweat pours off me like water. Once it eats something, the discomfort disappears immediately."
"Then... why do you feed it Snickers?!" Su Ziyang suddenly grew curious.
"Because when it eats other things, it wants to eat again very soon. I found that if he eats chocolate or something like that, twice a day is enough!" Feeding it Snickers was actually something Bai Pengyu's aunt had learned from experience.
"..." Su Ziyang fell silent. "Didn't you go to the hospital to have it removed?"
"I did... I've had it removed twice. In less than a week, it grows back even bigger. This is already the third time!"
Hearing that, Su Ziyang fell completely silent...