Tianzhu: The Record of Foreign Stories in the Republic of China

Chapter 45 Zou's bone setting (2)
A few more days passed, and it was approaching the end of the year.Everyone is packing up to prepare for the new year. There are fewer people seeing a doctor, and the business of the clinic is getting weaker.

On this day, Zou Ji was sitting in the room watching "Orthodox Classes", when he suddenly saw Zhao Tingshu hurried out of the house, braving the cold wind and drizzle, holding an oilcloth umbrella.Seeing him alone, Zou Ji's heart moved, and he casually put a short knife that he usually used to cut plywood in his bosom. He didn't even have time to take an umbrella, so he followed in the rain.

Zhao Tingshu walked south along the old street.

The rain fell like a spider's silk, the wind was not strong, but it was surprisingly cold.

Zhao Tingshu walked in a hurry and did not notice the "tail" behind him.Not long after, I walked out of the old street and came to the bank of the Yangtze River.

There is a sandbar by the river, and there are a few dead trees on the island.Although it was extremely cold, the river did not freeze, and it still flowed slowly downstream.

Walking on the sandbar, Zhao Tingshu suddenly stopped.Zou Ji didn't dare to follow too closely, so he dodged and hid behind a big tree.

Zhao Tingshu glanced around, and suddenly put away his umbrella and said loudly: "Since you're here, why bother to hide your head and tail?"

Zou Ji was startled, thinking that the other party had discovered him and was about to show up, but he heard a sneer, and suddenly a person jumped out from behind a dead poplar tree not far away. He was about forty years old, and he was thin and thin. Yes, but the two eyeballs are spinning around, extremely flexible.He cupped his fists at Zhao Tingshu and said, "Mr. Zhao, you are so punctual!"

Zhao Tingshu didn't return the courtesy, but looked at him coldly, and asked, "Lu San, what exactly do you want?"

The man named Lu San said: "I asked Mr. Zhao to come here. I have no other intentions. It's just that money is tight recently and I want to borrow some money from Mr. Zhao."

Zhao Tingshu said angrily, "Lu San, don't push yourself too hard."

Lu San grinned: "If Mr. Zhao refuses to spend money to eliminate disasters, then Lu will have no choice but to call the police and tell the story of you drinking and having sex while you were studying medicine in the provincial capital when you were young, rape and murder of young girls, and let Quan Xiu People in Lincheng have a look at what kind of person our Xiulin famous doctor Zhao Tingshu is."

Zhao Tingshu's expression changed, he stared at Lu San, pondered for a long time before he said helplessly: "Okay, I still have 100 yuan here, you can take it." He stretched out his hand into his bosom, pretending to take out the money.

Lu San thought the blackmail was successful, so he giggled and reached out to pick it up.

Unexpectedly, what Zhao Tingshu took out from his bosom was not a silver coin, but a gleaming dagger.

Lu San's expression changed, before he could react, a cold light flashed, and the dagger had been pierced into his chest.He let out a scream of "ah", and the person fell on his back and fell into the river, thumped a few times, and soon sank to the bottom of the river.

When Zou Ji saw it from behind the tree, he was stunned. He never expected that the famous Xiulin doctor, who was always gentle and refined, would kill people so swiftly.After thinking about it for a while, he suddenly came to his senses, threw away the short knife in his hand, and thought to himself: Why should I kill him now, as long as I firmly grasp the handle of killing him by the river, he will naturally not dare to kill him. Tell me about my murder in the middle of the night.So he coughed lightly and strode out from behind the tree.

Zhao Tingshu turned around and saw him, he was startled, and hurriedly asked: "It's cold and rainy, why is Mr. Zou here?"

Zou Ji didn't answer but instead asked, "Why did Mr. Zhao come here?"

Zhao Tingshu hesitated for a moment, and said, "I have nothing to do, let's go for a walk by the river."

Zou Ji said: "Me too."

Zhao Tingshu knew that what happened just now must have been watched by him, and his face was a little unnatural.

The two had their own concerns, tacit understanding, looked at each other and smiled, shoulder to shoulder, and walked along the river bank.

After the Spring Festival, the Xun Erlang's case was closed because there were no clues.

Zou Ji learned how to boil water in an earthen pot, stir-fry fragrant soybeans and sesame seeds with an iron spatula, and also learned to make boiling sesame and bean tea. He often invited Dr. Zhao to drink tea and play chess.When not busy, two people have a bowl of tea and a game of chess, sitting for half a day.

In terms of chess skills, the two are on par.But Zou Ji was slow when playing chess, holding a chess piece in his hand, trembling for a long time, but he couldn't get it off.Sometimes the five fingers can't hold a chess piece, and it falls on the chessboard with a "dang".Zhao Tingshu stared at his hand and asked, "What's wrong?"

Zou Ji shook his head and smiled, and said, "It's nothing, I was too absorbed in thinking." But he knew in his heart that this was the aftereffect of the murder.Every time he thinks of the scene of killing people on a snowy night, and of Xun Erlang's ferocious face before he died, his hands tremble involuntarily.Zhao Tingshu saw it, but frowned slightly.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it is May of this year.

On this day, just after dinner, it was dark.Zou Ji took the chessboard and went to Renhe Hall to play chess with Dr. Zhao.But he saw Dr. Zhao half lying on the bed, his head was wrapped in gauze, and half of his head was swollen.Zou Ji was taken aback and asked, "What's going on?"

Zhao Tingshu told him with a wry smile that he went up to the mountain yesterday to pick a mulberry plant, and accidentally fell, and his head just hit a stone, and he passed out at that time.Fortunately, he brought a little apprentice with him, and the apprentice pinched him for a long time before he recovered.After I came back, I felt a splitting headache and a big bloody lump on my head.Fortunately, I am a doctor, and I felt that I just broke my scalp and nothing serious, so I cut the swelling, released the pus and blood, and then applied some Jinchuang Zhixue Powder.I thought there was nothing wrong, but at noon the hematoma intensified, and half of my head was swollen. It seemed that I had to cut the swelling to release the pus and blood once.

Zou Ji went to the bed and took a closer look. He saw that his skull was protruding, stasis persisted, and above the brow bone was swollen to an inch high. When he pressed it with his hands, it was soft and painful, and he was shocked.It is known that this injury is not as simple as Zhao Tingshu's own diagnosis. It should be a fall and a broken skull, resulting in stagnant blood stasis and hematoma that is difficult to heal.If the skull is not reset with special techniques in time, the blood stasis will become more and more congealed, and the head and face will become more and more swollen. Within half a month, it will swell to the shoulders.Once the blood clots to the shoulder, the time limit has come, and even the gods can't save it.

Just as he was about to speak to Zhao Tingshu, the words came to his lips, but stopped.

In his heart, there is always a heart disease.Although the murder case of Xun Erlang was settled, the Xun family still did not give up, and they were still raising the reward and looking for clues everywhere.What if Zhao Tingshu was greedy for rewards, and he didn't care about using him to kill people by the river, and went to inform the Xun family, wouldn't it be... If you want to completely get rid of this heart disease, you can only... Thinking of this, I have a slap in my heart make up your mind.Not daring to play chess with Zhao Tingshu again, he said good-bye words and left.

The next day, a sign was put up on the gate of Zou's Orthopedics Department saying it would be closed for half a month, so he took a burden and went out for a walk.

He is a master in orthopedics, and it is estimated that if Zhao Tingshu is not treated properly, he will vomit blood and die within half a month.He was afraid that Zhao Tingshu would notice his injury and seek him for treatment.At that time, if he dies, his reputation will be greatly damaged, and if he rescues him, he will miss a great opportunity to eradicate his heart disease.After thinking about it again and again, the only way to go out is to avoid it temporarily.

Half a month later, Zou Ji returned from his trip, and before he entered the house, he saw white flags outside the Hall of Renhe, weeping and mourning. After inquiring, he found out that Zhao Tingshu had suffered a brain injury and died a few days ago.Although I couldn't bear it in my heart, I also let out a long sigh of relief.

When I got home, I changed into plain clothes and went to Renhe Hall to express my condolences.Zhao Tingshu usually has a kind heart, he has treated countless people, and there is an endless stream of people who come to express their condolences. Some people who were saved by him fell to the ground in mourning and wailed loudly.As soon as Zou Ji went to burn incense in front of Dr. Zhao's coffin, he saw a thin man in the crowd, with a white cloth tied around his waist, greeting guests on behalf of his family members.

When Zou Ji heard his voice, it seemed to be familiar, but when he looked at his face, he was stunned.This person is none other than Lu San who was killed by Zhao Tingshu by the river that day.

Lu San also saw him, and clasped his fists at him: "Mr. Zou, don't come here without any harm!"

"You, you are Lu San? You, haven't you already..."

Zou Ji felt as if he had hit a ghost, he was so shocked that he couldn't even speak.

Lu San smiled wryly, pulled him aside, and said, "Mr. Zou, actually my name is not Lu San. My surname is Zhao, and my name is Zhao Zhihai. I am Dr. Zhao's cousin."

Zou Ji was confused and said, "But you..."

"I have been working in Wuchang, the provincial capital. The last time I went back to my hometown in Xiulin to visit relatives, my cousin said that he had encountered a trouble recently and wanted me to do him a favor."

"Why did brother Zhao ask you to help him?"

"My cousin told me that he has a good friend with similar interests. Unfortunately, he recently stumbled upon this good friend who has a big secret. This good friend suspected that he would report to the government to receive the reward. He actually plotted to kill him. My cousin didn’t want to betray his friend for reward, and he didn’t want to die under the knife of his friend for no reason, so he finally came up with a plan, asking me to pretend to be a man named Lu San to blackmail him, and then kill this good friend. My friend lured me out and 'killed' me in front of him. In this way, he and this good friend both have a handle on each other, and they are worried about each other, and neither of them will rashly call the police. This good friend For him, you can rest assured. In fact, what stuck into my chest was just a retractable magic performance knife. I am also good at water. I only squatted at the bottom of the river for a while, and then swam ashore. It gave me a cold for days..."

Zou Ji froze for a moment.

Zhao Zhihai took out another letter, handed it to him, and said, Mr. Zou, this is a letter written by my cousin before he died, please give it to you by hand.

Zou Ji took it with both hands, and read the letter carefully, only to find that it reads:
Brother Zou Ji:

You have been away for many days, on the sick bed of your brother, longing to never return, knowing that the injury is incurable, time is running out, and everything will stop, there is only one thing that you can't worry about.

After careful observation recently, I found that your hands and feet often tremble for no reason, and you salivate when you sleep. You don’t pay much attention to it because it is neither painful nor itchy, neither cold nor hot, and does not hinder your diet and daily life. It is actually a precursor of apoplexy, and my brother is in danger of hemiplegia.My younger brother is in his prime, why did he show signs of apoplexy?It may be related to the genetics of the previous generation.

How to cure this disease is very difficult.Hemiplegia, the root of the disease is one body, the opinions of various schools are different.

The "Lingshu Jing" says: The virtual and evil tend to be on the half of the body, and those who enter the deep place reside in the Rongwei, and when the Rongwei declines, the true qi goes away, and the evil qi stays alone, and the hair becomes dry. "Su Wen" said: "Shu of the internal organs and six internal organs are in the wind, and the wind is in the wind."Zhang Zhongjing said: Husband's wind is a disease, which should make people paralyzed.The origin of the three books is based on wind.

But for my brother's thinking, half of the body is underdeveloped, and the source of energy is lost. Husband's energy is stored in the trachea and distributed throughout the body.If the vitality is sufficient, there will be strength; if the vitality is weak, there will be no strength; if the vitality is exhausted, one will die.If you are very vital, if you lose [-]% to [-]% and still have [-]% in each half of your body, then you are free from disease; The disease is neither painful nor itchy, and people are not aware of it.If the vitality is lost, the meridians will naturally be empty, and there will be gaps in the void, and the qi will inevitably merge to one side.If the right half of the body is two and a half, put it on the left, then the right half of the body will have no energy; if the left half of the body is two and a half, put it on the right, then the left half of the body will have no energy.If there is no qi, you can't work, you can't move, which is called hemiplegia.

After thinking about it again and again, I found a good prescription that can prevent the onset of the disease, and the prescription is attached with the letter.Among them is Jiulixiang, which is poisonous. It needs to be harvested by oneself, and then carefully processed to remove the poison before it can be used as medicine...

Zou Ji remembered that Zhao Tingshu was seriously injured in order to go up the mountain to collect the medicine Jiulixiang.I suddenly felt that the world was spinning for a while, and with a shake of my hand, the letter fell to the ground.

He threw himself in front of Zhao Tingshu's spiritual seat, called "Brother Zhao", tears flowed involuntarily...

(End of this chapter)