Chapter 35 Part 2
The young man almost jumped out of the screen, shouting, “Doctor Wu, I’m 180cm tall, how did you write 179?!”
[Hahaha, a man’s height can be 181cm, 182cm, or 175cm, 176cm, but definitely not 179cm!]
[One centimeter makes a huge difference, his dating prospects just decreased by half! Guys between 177cm and 179cm all claim to be 180cm.]
[A man’s height exceeding 180cm should be engraved on his tombstone! Doctor Wu, you just broke a pure young man’s heart.]
Wu Heng said, “No, I filled it out accurately.”
The young man’s face flushed red, his voice firm, “I’m really 180cm, barefoot!”
“My height was recorded as 180cm during both my college entrance exam physical and the university registration yesterday.”
To prove his point, he took out a medical report from his drawer. Fan Xuan, watching off-screen, was surprised to recognize him as a freshman at Beijing Medical University, his junior.
[Okay, okay, we know you’re 180cm.]
[So Wu Heng made a mistake? Interesting.]
[Is this even a mistake? facepalm Just a bit of fun in the live stream.]
Seeing Wu Heng smiling at him without speaking, the young man, determined, took out a measuring tape, adjusted the camera angle to show his full body, and prepared to measure his height in front of everyone.
As he looked down at the tape measure, his world crumbled.
“How can it be 179cm?!”
Even the netizens were dumbfounded. Wu Heng was truly something, even detecting a one-centimeter difference in height remotely?
[Actually, there’s a difference between measuring your height in the morning and in the afternoon, a centimeter or two isn’t a big deal.]
[Do some stretches, that centimeter will come back quickly.]
[I don’t understand why everyone cares so much about a centimeter or two, aren’t we all just over a meter tall? A bitter statement from a 155cm potato.]
[No one can leave Chengde Medical Clinic’s live stream with a smile, haha.]
Wu Heng, looking at the almost crying young man, said comfortingly, “This is just the beginning, you’ll be 178cm tomorrow.”
Wu Heng continued, “177cm the day after, 176cm the day after that.”
The young man: “?”
Netizens: “?”
Holy crap, shrinking height?!
They had heard of people shrinking with age, but not shrinking a centimeter a day!
Wu Heng, seeing his disbelief, smiled, “It’s alright, you can observe for two days and see. Welcome back for a follow-up consultation.”
The young man, dejected, logged off, staring at the measuring tape, thinking it would be his essential fashion accessory from now on!
Wu Heng was about to end the stream, but the netizens tried to persuade him to stay.
“No, the previous patients are coming for offline follow-up consultations, I need to prepare,” Wu Heng added, “And don’t be scared if you dream of me.”
Wu Heng quickly ended the stream. The fan groups, however, were buzzing with discussions.
Almost all of Wu Heng’s previous patients had been cured. Only Guo Jiang had mentioned Doctor Wu helping him “deal with something” in the next two days. Could it be Guo Jiang?
Or… that antique collector?
Wu Heng opened the box sent by Shi Xuan. Inside was a light blue wristband, faintly radiating Yin qi.
He immediately messaged Shi Xuan on WeChat.
[HengHengBaby: Why is it a washed wristband?!]
[SX: …Is a wristband not okay?]
He didn’t have many personal belongings, and some were too private to give away now. Was Wu Heng dissatisfied?
Wu Heng sent a voice message, slightly exasperated. “Why did you wash it?”
[SX: …Sorry.]
So it was the “washed” part, not the “wristband.” But how could he give away an unwashed item? He had carefully chosen laundry detergent.
Wu Heng thought perhaps he hadn’t been clear enough and didn’t want to make things difficult for Shi Xuan.
Wu Heng found an excuse to let You Jin leave early, took a white candle from the counter, lit it, and placed it on the flowerbed outside the clinic. The faint light cast a flickering shadow.
The little white snake, watching the wax drip down, asked curiously, ‘What’s this for?’
Wu Heng: “A guiding light for the underworld.”
It was to guide spirits.
Wu Heng returned to the consultation table and continued reading the biology textbook. As dusk settled, the sky over Nan Nuo village darkened, thunder rumbled, and heavy rain poured down, accompanied by strong winds.
The white candle outside Chengde Medical Clinic remained lit, the door slightly ajar, the overhead light off inside, only a single flickering oil lamp illuminating the room.
As a patient hurried in, he saw a tall figure reading by the oil lamp’s light.
“Doctor Wu, please take a look, I think I was bitten by an insect outside, it hurts a lot,” the man said anxiously.
Wu Heng, reading about DNA, didn’t even look up. “Get out.”
The middle-aged man paused, then, when he re-entered, he had transformed into a refined elderly man in a Tang suit.
Wu Heng smiled, closing the biology textbook, and said, “Mr. Lu, I’ve been waiting for your follow-up consultation.”
Lu Guoliang’s expression shifted slightly, unsure if it was because of Wu Heng’s southwestern accent, or if he really knew something.
His actual surname was Lu, his given name Liang.
Wu Heng gestured for Lu Guoliang to sit, not asking how he entered the country, and took his pulse.
“A month ago, during a dinner with a wealthy Chinese businessman, you took a liking to a quiet beauty who wore a strange perfume, then you contracted the illness.”
“Later, through your practitioner, you realized she wasn’t human, but a spirit. That wasn’t perfume, but the stench of a corpse.”
Lu Guoliang’s face darkened slightly. “Doctor Wu, just treat me, no need for all the details.”
While speaking, he glanced around, there was no one else, no unclean things present.
On the table were the usual consultation tools, only a light blue wristband in a box seemed out of place.
Ordinary syphilis was easily treated with penicillin, but it hadn’t worked on him.
Wu Heng chuckled. “It’s not a serious illness, just take some medicine, and you’ll be fine.”
Wu Heng went to the pharmacy to prepare the medicine. Lu Guoliang followed, his hands behind his back, his eyes narrowed as he watched Wu Heng’s every move.
Wu Heng ground the herbs into a fine powder, using honey, the little white snake’s favorite, as a binder, easily forming a simple pill.
Lu Guoliang recognized many of the herbs, all good quality Chinese medicine. When Wu Heng handed him the pill, he swallowed it without even asking for water.
Thunder rumbled outside, the lightning illuminating the scars on Lu Guoliang’s face, making them seem more sinister.
Whether it was a placebo effect or not, Lu Guoliang felt much better. Looking at Wu Heng, he felt a desire to recruit him and said, “Young Doctor Wu, what prospects do you have in this small, remote village? Come with me to Southeast Asia, I’ll ensure you a life of prosperity.”
Wu Heng smiled. “Don’t celebrate too early, Mr. Lu, you’re not cured yet.”
Lu Guoliang paused, not cured even after taking the medicine?
Wu Heng patiently explained, “That medicine only treats ordinary venereal diseases. Yours was caused by a spirit, so we need another ingredient.”
Wu Heng smiled faintly. “We need ashes of human cartilage. Take it, and you’ll be fine.”
Cartilage.
Human ears were made of cartilage.
Lu Guoliang almost laughed. He hadn’t expected this little shaman doctor with no background to dare go against a wealthy businessman like him.
As Lu Guoliang turned to leave, a cold little hand suddenly grabbed his leg.
Lu Guoliang looked down. A pale, round face with a missing ear was smiling up at him, its gums toothless.
“What the hell?!”
Lu Guoliang screamed.
It was that little ghost, that damned police officer’s son!
Wu Heng leaned against the consultation table, casually stroking the wristband.
‘Grandpa, take me to find Dad, I want to find Dad…’
Lu Guoliang kicked Liu Ziyang away and ran out of the clinic like a madman.
Outside, the heavy rain felt like hail, obscuring his vision as he instinctively ran towards the mountains.
The mountains were the best place to hide from the police, and also the easiest place to escape across the border!
‘Grandpa Lu, aren’t you taking me to find Dad?’
The chilling voice of the child ghost followed him, ghost shadows flitting through the forest.
Lu Guoliang, no longer as fast as he was in his youth, soon became breathless. He turned around, his eyes filled with malice.
He suddenly took out a talisman from his Tang suit and slapped it onto Liu Ziyang’s forehead.
A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the rainy night.
Lu Guoliang’s wrinkled face was filled with a maniacal grin as he hit the shadowy figure on the ground with his cane. “Did you think your Grandpa Lu lived all these years for nothing?”
“Little brat, it was your damned father who arrested my older brother. A son pays for his father’s sins, you deserve to die! Becoming a ghost? Becoming that little shaman doctor’s ghost? Who does he think he is?!”
Lu Guoliang looked around the forest, clearly remembering that this was where he had buried the little brat.
He could bury him once, he could bury him twice!
Lu Guoliang, as if rejuvenated, Wu Heng’s medicine restoring his energy, started digging frantically, quickly creating a large pit.
He threw Liu Ziyang into the pit, his mind consumed by the past, as if possessed.
He had a sex addiction, and back then, things were tense. His older brother kept urging him to escape.
But he had taken a liking to two girls at the KTV and was busy with them in the private room, delaying his escape.
Then his brother was arrested, becoming a stepping stone for that little police officer named Liu Jianguo!
Looking at the proud young police officer in the newspapers, Lu Guoliang, hiding in the shadows, felt both resentment and amusement.
Lu Guoliang dug with bloodshot eyes, snarling and shouting at Liu Ziyang, “What do you know? Those scraps of metal are worth hundreds of millions when sold, do you cops know how many lifetimes it would take you to earn that much?!”
A single bronze ding with underworld inscriptions could be auctioned for over two hundred million!
How many people could even touch a fraction of that money in their entire lives?
A bunch of buried artifacts, so what if they were sold? What bullshit national interest, what bullshit cultural heritage, those police officers were brainwashed fools!
Lu Guoliang cackled maniacally, looking at the struggling child in the pit, his eyes filled with malice, the rain washing over his face, but he didn’t blink.
Lightning struck, illuminating his increasingly sinister expression.
Cartilage.
Human cartilage.
Hahaha, regardless of whether that little shaman doctor was joking or not…
Lu Guoliang took out the sharp knife he always carried and slashed at Liu Ziyang’s remaining right ear, just like back then, ignoring the child’s terrified cries.
A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the rainy forest.
Lu Guoliang, relishing the child’s agony, picked up the bloody ear and skillfully removed the remaining flesh. Whether it was because his knife wasn’t sharp enough, or because the child had been dead for too long and the flesh was tough, it took a few tries.
Lu Guoliang chewed on the cartilage with a crunch.
He looked at the mountains ahead. He would cross these mountains and return to his Southeast Asia. Once he crossed the border, everything would start anew.
He ran, sprinting through the pouring rain, ignoring the muddy path.
Between his gasps, he vaguely saw a faint light in the rain.
A white candle was burning in the distance, a raindrop hitting the melted wax, sending a stream of hot liquid down, but the flame burned even brighter.
Besides the wind and rain, Lu Guoliang heard laughter coming from the clinic. “Where are you going before the treatment is finished, Mr. Lu?”
