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

After weathering that storm, Yang's roots actually grew even deeper.

Zhao Yanei's underhanded scheme failed, but those who had been observing the city beforehand realized that this Doctor Yang from the east of the city was not only a skilled physician, but also had connections with the Sun family, the Zhou family, and the city garrison. Anyone who tried to harm him would be in for a world of trouble!

The number of people coming to see the doctor is increasing day by day.

This afternoon, another uproar broke out in front of the clinic.

A woman with a pale, ashen face, carrying a boy of about three or five years old, rushed to the consultation table.

"Dr. Yang, please take a look at my child... If he's not treated, half of his face will be completely rotten!"

Yang Hu went to greet him.

The little boy lay listlessly in his mother's arms, half of his face swollen. The woman trembled as she pried open the child's mouth:

A foul stench wafted out.

The child's left gum and cheek were rotten, with dark, decaying flesh eroding outwards, and the skin on his face was about to rot into a hole.

Yang Hu's eyebrows furrowed immediately.

Oligoma malnutrition.

This disease comes on suddenly and spreads rapidly, like a horse biting a person's face, changing every day. In ancient times, if the cheek rotted away and the bones were eaten away, not one out of ten would survive.

"How many years has he been alive?"

The woman cried loudly, "It's been six or seven days, hasn't it? A small bump appeared in my mouth. I consulted a doctor in the city, who said it was some kind of 'nomadic malnutrition' caused by worms eating bones, and that there was no hope for me. He told me to prepare for my death..."

She's wiping away tears.

"That doctor even used a hot iron to brand the child's mouth, saying he wanted to burn away the malaria, but after he did, it just got even worse..."

Yang Hu's heart sank immediately.

烙。

To brand it into its rotting mouth is like adding fuel to the fire. This branding kills even the last remaining life force, making it rot even faster.

A neighbor who was getting medicine nearby glanced at the child's face and shook his head.

"These sores are the result of sins committed in a past life, punished by lightning. They've become so rotten that even the gods can't help them anymore..."

The woman became even more heartbroken when they mentioned the word "divine punishment."

"It's not divine punishment," Yang Hu said in a low voice, "it's an illness."

Everyone fell silent.

He squatted down to take a closer look at the baby.

His face was ashen, and he was so thin he was practically a skeleton. His eyes were sunken deep, indicating that the child had been chronically underfed and was severely depleted. His body was very weak; the small sore on his lip shouldn't have spread so much, but his body couldn't withstand it, and the sore rotted away, even eroding the bone and turning into a sore.

"This illness is partly caused by starvation," Yang Hu said, standing up. "This child was already severely weakened, with no fat or oil in his body. He had a sore in his mouth that couldn't be contained, and it just festered like that..."

"Then...is there any way to save her?" The woman gripped his sleeve as if her life depended on it.

Yang Hu looked at the rotten area. It was all black and decaying flesh, with many fresh creatures nearby.

"The rotten parts need to be cleared out," he said. "The space under the body needs to be filled. Both of these things can be done, and the body can be preserved."

"Qing?" The woman was stunned.

"The rotten, black flesh needs to be cut!" Yang Hu said, his hands behind his back. "Aji, burn the small scissors and knife. Boil some lightly salted water."

Aji agreed and nimbly ran off.

The neighbor gasped.

"To cut or slit a child's face with a knife?! This... isn't that killing him?"

Yang Hu ignored him.

The charred scissors, held close to the lamplight, were used to cut away layer after layer of black, rotting flesh from the child's mouth and cheeks. They only stopped when they saw raw, white flesh and a few drops of blood trickling from it.

The child was trembling, in great pain, but no longer had the strength to cry, only letting out soft sobs.

After cutting away the rotten flesh, Yang Hu carefully washed it clean with lightly salted water and then applied something to clear heat, detoxify, and promote flesh growth.

"This dead flesh is all rotten; leaving it will only cause it to erode!" he said. "Only by cutting it clean and stopping its path of decay can living flesh grow!"

This is not counting.

Yang Hu turned to ask the woman, his expression very serious.

"The medicine can stop the festering, but it can't save the child's life. This child's life hangs in the balance!"

"Inside the mouth?"

"This child's body is so weak it's down to the bone. Just applying medicine won't help the flesh grow back," he said. "For the next few days, give him as much of whatever he can get his hands on—egg custard, minced meat, rice porridge, anything else. We need to gradually replenish what he's lost these past few days. Only then will he have a chance to live."

The woman was stunned.

Her family was poor, and her child had hardly ever eaten meat in all his years.

Yang Hu noticed her predicament, grabbed some money from the drawer, and stuffed it into her hand.

"Here, go buy some eggs and meat first. This illness is mostly caused by hunger, so fill your stomach first."

The woman knelt down with a thud.

"Dr. Yang...you treat patients and pay them too..."

"Get up." He pulled the man to his feet. "Save him!"

For the next few days, the woman brought her baby to the hospital every day to get the medicine.

For the first two days, I was on tenterhooks. By the third day, the rotten stuff stopped rotting out, the black flesh disappeared, and the exposed living flesh was a pale red. On the fifth day, fresh flesh gradually grew back into the hole, and the high fever subsided.

The child's spirits are improving day by day. His face is flushed, and he's even clinging to his wife's hand, begging for food.

"It's alright now." He looked at the cheek that was closing up more and more. "The festering has stopped, and the flesh is growing back. It'll be fine in a few days."

The woman thanked him profusely, holding the baby and looking back every few steps.

The quack doctor in the city who used a hot iron to burn babies, however, completely ruined his reputation this time. Within a few days, he closed his shop, leaving only half of the door open. Someone confronted him and cursed, "My son was burned like this by you back then, and now he's probably on the shelf!" The quack doctor was ashamed as a monkey's backside, closed the door halfway, and didn't dare to say a word for a long time.

The news spread throughout the city within a few days.

Inside the teahouse, someone was talking loudly.

"Oh dear, the child from the family in the south of the city had half his face burned, and the city doctor went to cauterize him with a hot iron. He said there was nothing that could be done about nocturnal malaria, but Old Yang, the doctor from the east of the city, cut off the festering part with two quick snips, and told him to eat more eggs and meat, and he was saved."

"Yes, look how well they treat this disease. Most of it is caused by starvation. The child's body is already very weak."

"Yes, instead of confiscating the money he gave the patient, he gave him a few strings of copper coins to buy meat to eat."

A porter nearby chimed in, "And this guy is amazing! He's like a miracle doctor, a truly kind person!"

Yang Hu didn't hear him and remained seated.

At night, the clinic is closed, and the family gathers together for dinner.

Lu Yan helped him organize the medicine that had been messed up all day, grinning from ear to ear.

"Young master, we've not only forfeited your consultation fee today, but we've also had to pay you back a few strings of cash."

"That child's illness is caused by hunger," Yang Hu said, picking up his teacup. "Just give him a few coins to buy meat; he doesn't need to eat much."

As Lu Rou worked on her abacus, calculating the amount of money lost that day, she didn't utter a single complaint.

This girl is good at keeping accounts; she collects what she should collect and remembers exactly what she should spend money on.

As Aji tidied up the medicine grinder, he was still thinking about what happened at noon. The child's mouth was so rotten that his eyeballs were coming out. Why did he have to make the child eat more eggs and meat?

Seeing his puzzled look, Yang Hu taught him while packing his medicine box.

"His decay stems from a fundamental deficiency, a deficiency that reaches the very core. Even the sores on his mouth are difficult to control. Cutting off the rotten parts and applying some medicine only treats the symptoms. The real cure is to replenish his foundation so that he has enough strength to regrow healthy flesh." He paused. "Some diseases aren't diseases at all, but rather aspects of the body. If you nourish him properly, the illness will naturally heal."

Aji thought about those words and nodded heavily.

Qin Ying sat by the window, using the lamplight to examine the blade of the short knife.

According to Yang Hu, after cutting off the damaged flesh, he took out money to buy meat for the child, and rescued the child whose face was rotten and half-pierced from the underworld.

Her hand paused.

"A poor boy." She turned her eyes to him. "The doctors in the city have long been sentenced to death, yet you're willing to put in so much effort and spend so much money on him."

"His illness was mostly caused by hunger," Yang Hu said. "The lives of the poor are also lives. No one else will explain these things to you, but I have to tell you."

Qin Ying didn't reply. The candlelight flickered, revealing that her tense face had finally relaxed.

In the middle of the night, Yang Hu still couldn't fall asleep.

The better the reputation of those poor families in the south of the city, the less attention the eyes in the city would dare to pay to his courtyard.

He glanced across the street; the lights in that rented house were much brighter than usual.

Zhao Yanei was hiding his true feelings, and his hatred was growing stronger, ready to strike at any moment.