A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

The third snowfall of the winter was exceptionally heavy.

Early this morning, before the clinic even opened, a dilapidated bamboo sedan chair was carried to the door. The curtain was lifted, and a middle-aged man tumbled down and rushed to kneel before Yang Hu.

"Dr. Yang, please help me! Please help me!"

The man's surname was Liu, and he ran a small general store in the south of the city. Manager Liu was over sixty years old. He was perfectly fine last night, but when he got up this morning, he collapsed to the ground. His left arm and leg were completely mangled, his mouth was crooked, and he could only speak incoherently.

"We found two doctors in town," Old Liu sobbed, "They both said he's possessed by an evil spirit, caught a stroke, and his life is completely over. They told my family to prepare for his funeral... But my dad is only in his sixties!"

Tears streamed down her face: "My father worked hard all his life, supporting us brothers with his small grocery store. Now he's old and suffering like this. The doctors all say he can't be cured, but I don't believe it. I heard there's a doctor named Yang in the east of the city who can pull people back from the brink of death, so I dared to come and beg you."

Yang Hu threw down the medicine grinder in his hand and hurried towards the Liu family's house.

On the floor was a broken kang (a heated brick bed), and Old Master Liu was slumped over there, half his face drooping. His left hand and left foot seemed not to belong to him at all; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift them. As soon as Yang Hu entered, he kept making hoarse noises, his eyes filled with fear, and he couldn't utter a single word.

A doctor was brought over and sighed, "A stroke has spread to the internal organs, leaving him paralyzed on one side. Even a god couldn't save him. While he still has breath, you should quickly prepare for his passing."

Yang Hu ignored him and touched Old Master Liu's wrist.

The pulse in his wrist was taut and hard, throbbing erratically. I looked into his eyes again, then pressed on his arm.

I have a plan in mind.

This disease is dangerous, but it's certainly not as severe as those two doctors described. As long as the blockage is cleared sooner and the severed blood vessels are reconnected, the person can still stand up.

This isn't due to some kind of evil wind. Rather, it's because a blood vessel in the brain is blocked—as people age, the amount of fat in their blood increases, and with the cold winter weather causing blood vessels to constrict, a blockage occurs in one part of the blood vessel, resulting in paralysis due to the interruption of blood flow to one side of the body. This is a dangerous condition, but if the blockage isn't in a critical or life-threatening area, it can be treated by unblocking it early.

"It's not an evil wind," Yang Hu said. "The blood vessels in his brain are blocked, cutting off blood flow to one side of his body. If this disease isn't treated early, it will become more and more difficult to cure."

"Can it... be cured?" Old Master Liu couldn't believe it.

The doctor sneered from the side, "You can cure a stroke? Kid, don't try to scam people and ruin their funeral preparations."

Yang Hu didn't argue with him and instead told someone to bring out silver needles.

He first had Old Manager Liu lie down flat, tilting his head slightly to prevent saliva from getting into his throat.

Then he picked up a silver needle and pricked Old Manager Liu's philtrum and ten fingernails, forcing out mouthfuls of dark blood and clearing the stagnant blood.

Then I soaked his hands and feet in hot water to warm them up.

"Pricking the head and fingers can cure paralysis?" The old neighbors gathered around whispered among themselves, half believing and half doubting.

Some people privately discussed: "Both old doctors said there was no cure for this paralyzed man, but a young lad was able to make him move around with just a few needles. Isn't that too unbelievable?"

The old doctor just scoffed, taking it as a joke, muttering "fussing around"...

Yang Hu wasn't in a hurry to talk about this. He inserted the needles very steadily, but he was very clear about how he was doing it. With each needle, he was gradually unclogging the air that was stuck there.

After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Old Manager Liu's "hoarse" breathing finally subsided. A few minutes later, his mouth actually started to curl up, and one of his hands, which he couldn't lift at all, began to move.

"Father! Can you move now?"

Manager Liu exclaimed in surprise.

The old doctor's mouth dropped open, and he couldn't understand what was happening for a long time.

Yang Hu then removed the silver needles and prescribed a formula to promote blood circulation and unblock the meridians. He told him, "The needles can only have a temporary effect. A body that is only partially intact needs to be slowly recuperated to recover. In the future, don't forget to help the old man move one leg and one arm, don't let it stay hunched over, don't let him eat too much fat, and don't let him get cold. After a few months of recuperation, he will recover to about 70 or 80 percent."

"Really healed in just a few months?" Manager Liu was both happy and surprised.

"What can you do if you're anxious? Illness comes and goes quickly. As long as you have patience and put in the effort to help him recover, it's a hundred times better than letting him lie in bed waiting to die."

Upon hearing that there was hope, the Liu family's previously gloomy mood immediately eased. Manager Liu immediately prostrated himself on the ground, wanting to kneel and kowtow, but Yang Hu stopped him.

Aji, who had come to help, was amazed by what he saw along the way. He couldn't help but ask, "Master, you can tell at a glance that it's not something evil, but rather that there's something wrong with the blood vessels in your brain?"

"Check the pulse, check the eyes, see if one side is immobile."

"There are no evil things, but if the blood vessels are blocked, the body will lose vitality, which is also noticeable. The blockage in the brain is like a river frozen in the dead of winter. If the river is blocked, the crops downstream will not have water. If you clear that blocked channel, the water will flow down and the fields will come back to life. Pricking the philtrum and fingers is also to clear that blocked channel."

Aji was a little confused, but he had a good impression of it and remembered it quite well.

The two doctors who said there was no hope and told them to prepare a coffin didn't dare to leave their homes for several days.

Shopkeeper Liu was moved to tears and insisted on taking out all the two strings of copper coins he had. Yang Hu pushed him out the door and only took a few coins for the herbs.

Within two days, everyone in the south of the city knew about it.

"Look at Old Manager Liu, he was paralyzed on one side last night. All the famous doctors in town said he was beyond help, but after a few needles from Doctor Yang... he could move again!"

"That's right, it's obviously an evil wind, the blood vessels in the head are blocked. This eye is better than any other doctor."

Some families who were already bedridden and thought to be dying from a stroke rushed to Doctor Yang's clinic that very night after hearing this, hoping to see if their old man could get out of bed like Old Manager Liu.

After a while, Old Liu's son came again. This time, his father was helped in and walked in unsteadily. Although his legs were still a little unsteady, he no longer needed to be carried, and the half of his left cheek had come back to life.

Old Manager Liu held Yang Hu's hand, his eyes brimming with tears, and uttered only two words: "Thank you, Dr. Yang! Thank... thank you so much..."

Yang Hu took his pulse, gave him a few words of advice and told him to keep moving and not to relax. Liu was a small merchant who sold groceries and didn't have much money. He only took the medical expenses and told him a lot of ways to regulate his body, but didn't take out any more money.

It was evening, in the inner courtyard.

Lu Yan poured him a cup of hot tea, and as she listened to him talk about the old shopkeeper Liu who had been helped into the door during the day, her eyebrows crinkled into two flowers with a smile:

"The young master walked in himself, despite being paralyzed like that."

"The onset is rapid, but the source of the disease has not been blocked yet," Yang Hu took a sip of tea. "Those doctors are afraid of the term 'stroke' and dare not do anything early on. In fact, as long as you find where the blood vessels are blocked and unblock them as soon as possible, the person can still stand up."

Lu Rou was busy settling the bill, while Liu Ye Ta Xue brought back some delicacies and placed them on the counter; Qin Ying, who was sitting by the window wiping an old dagger, was still watching the two of them teasing each other.

The charcoal crackled and popped.

But even amidst the raging flames, Yang Hu knew that the heat in the south of the city could not stop the growing gloom in the west and the approaching dark clouds over the capital.

Being able to help an old man who is half paralyzed does not mean that you can help everyone in the whole house.

Especially among those increasingly dense iron chains, there is a sense of security.