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

The bitter cold of the coldest days of winter grows harsher with each passing day.

This morning, an old rickshaw puller, supported by others, limped into the clinic, screaming in pain with every step he took.

The coachman's surname was Sun. He had spent half his life pulling carts in the city, his feet treading on the bluestone slabs inside and outside the city.

But at this moment, when he took off that tattered cotton shoe and revealed his feet, everyone around him frowned: several toes on that foot were frozen to a purplish-black color, and had developed white and yellow blisters that were both painful and itchy, making it impossible for him to even put his feet down.

"Dr. Yang, please take a look at my foot!" His wife, who had brought him there, was frantic, tears streaming down her face. "A few days ago, he pulled a cart at night and got chills. It started as chilblains, but it's gotten so bad. The city doctor said it's gangrene, that his toes are rotting and he should have cut them in half! If he hadn't, the rot would have spread and killed him! Those feet are his livelihood; if his toes are cut off, how can he pull the cart anymore?"

The wife, tears welling in her eyes, said, "Our husband has been a porter his whole life. He's honest and hardworking, and he can't bear this suffering. The city doctors always talk about 'cutting,' and his two feet are our family's livelihood. We heard that Doctor Yang from the east end of the city is a good doctor and takes pity on us poor people, so we swallowed our pride and came to you."

Yang Hu squatted on the ground, examining the few dark purple and reddish toes. He then touched the instep and ankle. The foot was ice cold, and it took a long time for blood to return when pressed. He asked a few more questions, such as whether the pain was worse at night when it was colder. The dark spots were gradually appearing from the tips of the toes upwards.

The old coachman gritted his teeth and said he was right.

I know what I know.

It's not the kind of gangrene that requires amputation. It's caused by pulling a cart all night in freezing weather, freezing the blood vessels between the toes. The blood couldn't reach the toe tip, so the flesh couldn't be nourished, causing it to turn purple and ulcerated. In ancient times, it was called "cold sore" or "frostbite," caused by the cold congealing the blood. If the blood vessels are gradually warmed up, the blood reaches the toe tip, and then the rotten flesh is slowly cleared away and protected, the toe can be saved; amputation isn't necessary.

"It's not that we're going to cut off the gangrene," Yang Hu said. "It's because when it's freezing cold, the blood vessels in the toes freeze, and the blood can't reach the toes, so the flesh rots. If we warm up and open up these blood vessels, the blood can reach them again, and that toe can still be saved."

The onlookers were skeptical. The doctors in the city all said those purplish-black rotten toes should be amputated long ago, but the young man said he could save them. No one dared to believe it.

"Really...really there's no need to chop?" The wife didn't believe it.

"If we can avoid cutting down trees, we should," Yang Hu said. "But there's one rule: we must never freeze again, and we must never use fire to warm ourselves or boil water to scald ourselves. If our already frozen blood vessels are suddenly heated, it will only make things worse. We can only use hot water to keep warm."

Yang Hu first gave the old man warm water and carefully washed his foot.

Then he took out a small knife and carefully cut away the rotten parts of the foot, then applied some strong, disinfecting liquor, applied a blood-activating and tissue-regenerating medicine, and finally boiled a bowl of warming, blood-activating, and menstruation-regulating ointment.

"You're just going to wash and apply it like that?" The group of people watching Yang Hu's actions were puzzled. "The city doctor said to cut them all off at once!"

"That's right! They'd just chop off your foot and be done with it, it's not that easy!"

"Look at your foot, the black parts are the rotten, dead sections at the toes, and the parts above that were still alive. They just chopped them off with one stroke, and they're all dead! They opened up a path of blood, letting the blood from the living parts flow over there, pushing out the rotten parts and sucking them back in. One stroke and it's done. Simple, and it filled in the river that was about to bloom in spring!"

Aji seemed confused, but he still managed to remember it.

"This foot heals slowly; it can't be rushed."

"The blood in your feet has been frozen for so long, it's not something that can be cured in just one meal. It will slowly thaw in the spring. I'm keeping it warm like this now, so your toes won't disappear!"

Following Yang Hu's method, the old man cleaned his feet every day, changed the dressings, and took medicine for several days. He persisted in this way, and the black toes actually improved day by day. After the black color gradually faded, it began to turn from black to dark red. In the end, the two black toes stopped festering, and the wounds slowly healed. Although there were still some faint scars, they were not much different from when they were not festering.

"Dr. Yang, thank you so much! You saved my feet!" About half a month later, the old driver came to the clinic to express his gratitude. Except for two faint scars on the tips of his toes, his feet were no different from healthy feet.

"Thank you, Dr. Yang..."

The old driver's wife followed behind, her eyes red-rimmed.

"Thank you, Dr. Yang. Without you, we would all be dead."

"From now on, don't leave your feet exposed at night. Soak them in hot water more often when you have free time. This will help improve blood circulation and prevent them from getting frostbite so easily!"

The old man and his wife returned home together. Yang Hu only charged for part of the medicine, while the rest of the service was free.

Those doctors who had been diagnosed with gangrene and ordered their toes to be chopped off immediately dared not leave their homes for several hours after hearing the news.

When the rickshaw pullers, bag carriers, and those with frostbitten sores on their hands talked about Yang's doctor in the east of the city, they all praised him highly, saying that this young doctor truly cared about the lives of the poor.

Nighttime, in the backyard.

The charcoal brazier was very hot.

Lu Yan poured Yang Hu another cup of tea, her eyes sparkling as she listened to him recount the incident with his foot earlier that day: "You saved that foot that was almost chopped off!"

"Go where the disease is and find its root cause." Yang Hu took a sip of tea. "Others are afraid of the words 'gangrene' and cut it off to avoid trouble. Actually, it's just the blood that's been frozen. Just warm it up."

Lu Rou was doing the accounts, while Qin Ying stood by the window, tidying up her old dagger by candlelight. Liu Ye also returned, played in the snow in the yard for a while, and when she saw the couple talking, she skipped over and whispered in Yang Hu's ear about what had happened that afternoon at the abandoned manor in the north of the city.

"What's wrong?" Lu Yan saw his expression change and couldn't help but want to comfort him, but she didn't know how to start.

"It's nothing." Yang Hu put down his teacup, smiled at her, and said, "You should all get some rest. Liu Ye, Qin Ying, and I have a few more words to say."

How could Lu Yan not guess? Judging from his current appearance, she knew that there was some movement in the matter in the west of the city again. So she didn't ask any more questions, but silently helped him to make the charcoal brazier more active, added a cup of hot tea, and then left.

Yang Hu tightened his grip on the teapot slightly...

The light was warm, but it couldn't reveal the hidden rage in his eyes. After all, in this courtyard, lives were at stake, and the amount of stolen goods being moved from that abandoned manor in the north of the city was increasing, seemingly becoming more urgent in recent days…