Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
No! In that case, their sonâs life would be ruined. Sun Honglinâs mother didnât look at her husbandâs face.
âIâll talk to him again.â As she was about to go inside the clinic, her husband stopped her.
âDonât! Wait here,â he said.
âWait here?â Sun Honglinâs mother asked.
âYes, wait here. Gao, you and Honglin wait inside the car,â Sun Honglinâs father said.
The young man who came along with them took Sun Honglin back to the car.
Sun Honglinâs parents had been waiting outside the clinic. It was cold and windy. Since they left their apartment in a hurry, they werenât wearing thick clothes. They came to the clinic by car and didnât expect to stay outside for this long.
It started to get dark. Actually, it had been pretty dark the whole day.
Wang Yao checked the time and was about to go home for dinner. He saw the couple standing outside his clinic. They were shivering from the cold.
âDr... Dr. Wang, we are so sorry!â Sun Honglinâs motherâs face had become pale after standing outside for over an hour. She was shivering with cold.
âCome in.â Wang Yao sighed as he looked at the miserable couple.
âThank you,â Sun Honglinâs mother said.
She had to give in for her son. The couple trembled into the clinic, followed by the young man and Sun Honglin.
âIâve brewed the decoction for your son. The dose is the same. Double the interval between two doses. Come back here in two weeks,â Wang Yao said.
âI see. Thank you.â Sun Honglinâs mother gave her son a small cup of decoction to take right away. They were now completely compliant.
âLetâs go home,â Sun Honglinâs father said.
The four of them got into the car and headed home in the dark, snowy evening.
âThat doctor is so rude,â the driver said.
âLetâs not to talk about it anymore,â Sun Honglinâs father said as he shook his hand.
They were all upset, but what else they could do? Sun Honglin had to go to the rehabilitation center if he didnât receive treatment from Wang Yao. It would be a disaster for him.
Wang Yao closed the clinic and went home.
âDid you have any patients today?â Zhang Xiuying asked.
âYes, I had a patient today,â Wang Yao said.
âHe must be really sick coming to see you on a snowy day,â Zhang Xiuying replied.
âYeah, he is extremely sick,â Wang Yao said.
âHeâs so sick that he has to be tied up?â Zhang Xiuying asked.
âHow do you know?â Wang Yao was surprised.
âSomeone in the village saw him and came to tell me about it. I thought they were doing human trafficking,â Zhang Xiuying said.
When she was told that a person was tied up and taken to her sonâs clinic, she was terrified. She had no idea what condition the person was in. She just hoped that nothing bad would happen in her sonâs clinic.
âHa-ha. No, that kid is a drug addict,â Wang Yao said.
âDrug addict?â Zhang Xiuying was shocked. âWhat turned a normal kid into a drug addict?â
She had only seen drug addicts on TV. She had never heard or known anyone taking drugs. She never expected to see a drug addict in her village. Taking drugs was a very unusual thing in her village. However, it could happen anywhere.
âThey didnât want to and regret it,â Wang Yao said.
âCan you come with me to your grandparentâs house tomorrow?â Zhang Xiuying asked.
âDid something happen?â Wang Yao asked.
âYou grandma caught the flu. Sheâs been sick for many days. I want you to take a look at her,â Zhang Xiuying said.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âShall we go now?â Wang Yao asked.
âNo, itâs too late and not an easy drive,â Zhang Xiuying said. âLetâs go tomorrow.â
Wang Yao agreed. He returned to Nanshan Hill after dinner.
...
In Zhu, He Xiaofengâs parents were concerned about their daughter.
âHow are you, Xiaofeng,â her mother asked
âIâm fine. Sorry, Mom, I shouldnât have made you and Dad worry.â He Xiaofeng was actually a thoughtful girl. She knew her parents had been worried about her.
âDonât go out. Stay home for two weeks. I donât want anything unexpected to happen,â her father said.
âOK, Dad. Did you say Honglin went to see the doctor, too?â He Xiaofeng asked.
âYes, he went with his parents. I donât want you to hang out with him and Du Baozhan anymore,â her father said.
âHonglin and Baozhan are not bad people.â He Xiaofeng tried to explain to her father.
âI donât care. You are a girl. Itâs not appropriate to hang out with two young men all the time,â her mother said.
She had mentioned it to her daughter before but didnât reinforce it. After all, she and her husband had known the other two families for over a decade. However, she was now terrified, so she brought it up again to her daughter. She didnât want anything worse to happen.
âI see,â He Xiaofeng said compliantly. âIâm going back to my room.â
He Xiaofeng was still worried about her friends. After she had returned into her own bedroom, she called them.
âIâm fine, how about you?â Du Baozhan was still at home. He tried his best to survive a withdrawal with his parentâs support. He planned to see Wang Yao the next day.
âI just came back from Dr. Wangâs clinic. He gave me another dose of decoction. Honglin also went,â He Xiaofeng said.
They chatted for a short while. He Xiaofeng hung up and called Sun Honglin, who was still upset.
âThat doctor is so bloody rude! He doesnât deserve my respect,â Sun Honglin said.
âWhat happened?â He Xiaofeng frowned. She appreciated Wang Yao very much due to the effectiveness of the decoctions. Wang Yao gave her hope and confidence. If she hadnât gone to see him, she would probably end up in a rehabilitation center. Then, she would be on a different path of life. Therefore, she didnât like what Sun Honglin say about Wang Yao.
âMy mom just complained a bit. He let my parents wait outside for over an hour in cold weather! He is so pretentious. He just did it for money,â Sun Honglin said.
âI donât think Dr. Wang cares about money,â He Xiaofeng said.
If Wang Yao cared about money, he would have taken the chance to ask them for money during their first encounter. Instead, Wang Yao insisted that he would only treat them with their parentsâ presence. Looking back, He Xiaofeng thought Wang Yao did it for their own good.
âXiaofeng, why do you speak for him?â Sun Honglin sounded unhappy at the other end of the phone. âHe charged us $10,000 for one bottle of decoction. When Iâm recovered, Iâll get him to pay it back.â
âWell, you sound alright now,â He Xiaofeng said. She thought her friend had gone too far, so she was not keen to continue to chat with him.
âI have to go now,â she said.
âOK. By the way, Xiaofeng, when can we catch up?â Sun Honglin asked.
âIâm not sure. Iâll let you know. Iâm so tired now. Speak to you later,â she said as she hung up the phone.
Whatâs wrong with Honglin? Her friend didnât used to be this way.
...
The next morning, Wang Yao left Nanshan Hill early. He accompanied his mother to his grandparentsâ house. His grandma didnât look well. Wang Yao took a good look at her.
âItâs nothing serious. You just caught a cold, which made you weak.â After all, his grandma was an elderly woman who could easily get sick due to small issues.
Wang Yao had prepared some herbs on Nanshan Hill.
âGrandma, do you still have the China pot?â he asked.
âYes,â his grandma said.
âIâll brew you two decoctions,â Wang Yao said.
He had purchased the pot for his grandparents. Although it was not as good as his multifunctional pot for herbs, it was a high-quality pot.
There were some firewood available in the backyard. Wang Yao started to brew the decoctions in the kitchen.
All the herbs were from Wang Yaoâs herbal field, so they were absolutely natural. With the nurturing of the aura on Nanshan Hill, the quality of his herbs was much better than common wild herbs.
Wang Yao brewed two decoctions. One was to expel the coldness from his grandmaâs body. The other was to consolidate his grandmaâs corporeity.
After he had finished brewing the decoction, he gave some to his grandma to take right away. He left the rest of the decoction at his grandparentsâ house and told them how to take it.
âI was going to visit your uncle today,â his grandma said.
âTell me when you want to go. I can drive you there,â Wang Yao said.
He then gave his grandma a massage to facilitate the absorption of the decoction and improve her blood circulation.
âPhew!â Wang Yaoâs grandma took a big breath.
After she had taken the two decoctions from Wang Yao and received massage therapy, she felt much more comfortable. She had a warm feeling and was no longer that tired and weak.
âHow do you feel, grandma?â Wang Yao asked.
âGood, I feel much better,â his grandma replied.
âDonât get up too soon. Stay in bed to rest for a while,â Wang Yao said.
He lit the firewood underneath the sleeping platform, which soon became nice and warm.