Upon hearing Wu Shengli's words, Zhou Shuhua's face showed a hint of embarrassment: she had only intended to injure herself, but since it was her first time doing something like this, she wasn't skilled enough to twist her ankle precisely, and accidentally, the injury ended up being on her calf.

But Zhou Shuhua quickly concealed her guilt, her eyes reddening as she looked pitifully at Wu Shengli:

"Dr. Wu, I didn't mean to. When I fell, I only felt pain down there, and I didn't notice exactly where it hurt. Uncle Tiegen was worried about me and didn't notice either..."

Zhou Shuhua shifted all the blame onto Zhou Tiegen, insisting that she was innocent.

Wu Shengli didn't know whether he believed Zhou Shuhua's nonsense or thought that treating feet or legs was about the same, so he silently picked up his medicine box and went forward.

After examining Zhou Shuhua's swollen calves, he pinched them a couple of times, causing Zhou Shuhua to immediately let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.

Hearing her daughter's shrill screams, He Damei's doubts dissipated considerably: after all, Zhou Shuhua had always been afraid of pain, and it was impossible for her to injure herself like this just to harm someone.

"The bones feel fine to the touch, but there's a slight soft tissue contusion. It should heal after resting at home for a while."

Wu Shengli applied force with his hand, and amidst Zhou Shuhua's pig-like screams, he felt that there shouldn't be any major problems with her bones. Considering that his clinic didn't even have a cast, he simply replied as before.

Wu Shengli squeezed the swollen wound hard, and Zhou Shuhua was in so much pain that she felt like she was going to die. She thought her leg was probably going to be ruined.

Hearing Wu Shengli's nonchalant words, she immediately roared, "Nothing wrong?"

How can you say I'm fine? I was in so much pain, and you're saying I'm fine?

Are you even capable of this? If not, then don't waste my time!

"..."

Wu Shengli was furious when he heard Zhou Shuhua's words: he was sent to such a remote mountain village as a village doctor just because his medical skills were not very good.

Now, Wu Shengli was being openly disliked by a country bumpkin he had always looked down on. He was so angry that he wanted to punch him.

However, seeing Accountant Zhou's entire family, he could only suppress his clenched fists and angrily utter a sentence:

"Hmph, if you don't believe me, go to the county hospital. I bet you won't be able to leave without spending at least a hundred yuan!"

After saying this, Wu Shengli stormed out of Accountant Zhou's house.

Zhou Shuhua never expected that her words would offend Wu Shengli. Not wanting to suffer from her limp, she immediately looked at He Damei with tears in her eyes: "Mom, take me to the county hospital, it really hurts so much!"

Seeing her daughter, whom she had always doted on, in such a state, it would be a lie to say that He Damei didn't feel heartbroken.

However, when He Damei thought about what Wu Shengli had just said about how it would cost around a hundred yuan to take her to the county hospital, she immediately changed her mind: her daughter had been completely deceived by that pretty boy Shen Qingming, and had not only become estranged from her family, but had also stolen things from home to help that man. Now was a good opportunity for her to suffer and see the wickedness of people's hearts, so that she could realize the goodness of her family.

Thinking of this, He Damei immediately retorted: "Why go to the county hospital? Dr. Wu is a top student from a big city, a proper medical student. He examined her and said there was nothing wrong, so what could possibly be wrong?"

Accountant Zhou secretly breathed a sigh of relief the moment his wife refused their daughter: if his wife really agreed to take their daughter to the county hospital, it would be really difficult for him, a grown man, to refuse.

After all, this is his own daughter. If word gets out that he refuses to take her for treatment, it will more or less affect his reputation.

Now that He Damei had directly rejected Zhou Shuhua, Accountant Zhou felt no guilt and echoed his wife's words:

“Your mother is right. When a healthy person goes to the hospital, the hospital will make them look sick just to make money. Dr. Wu just said your leg is fine. I’ll go find your third uncle later and ask him to make some medicinal wine and some herbs to apply to it. It will be fine in a few days.”

"dad?"

"mom?"

...

Zhou Shuhua, whose clothes were soaked with sweat from the pain, stared wide-eyed at her parents' words: she knew that her family was not as kind to her as before, but now that she was injured like this, they still refused to take her to the county hospital.

He actually thought he could just find a quack doctor to fob him off?

Instantly, Zhou Shuhua's anger surged, and she lashed out at her parents: "You make it sound so nice, but you just don't want to spend money on me, do you?"

Am I really your biological daughter?

I'm injured like this, and you won't take me to see a doctor just because of a hundred yuan?

Do you think I, Zhou Shuhua, am only worth a hundred yuan?

How could there be such heartless parents in the world?

People like you don't deserve to be parents!

...

The complaints poured out, making the Zhou family members' faces turn sour.

Zhou's eldest daughter-in-law, Shen Cuihua, worried that her parents-in-law would soften their stance and agree to send someone to the county hospital because of her sister-in-law's words, so she immediately retorted:

"Shuhua, you make it sound so easy. What do you mean by just one hundred yuan?"

"Your parents spoiled you too much before, so you don't know how hard life is. When I married your eldest brother, the bride price was only fifty yuan. Last year, when your second sister-in-law married your second brother, the bride price was only five yuan more than mine. That hundred yuan could have almost married both of us. Tell me, which family can easily afford a hundred yuan to treat a minor injury?"

Upon hearing her sister-in-law's words, Zhou's second sister-in-law immediately chimed in, "Shuhua, you can't stop treating us like family just because you have a man in your heart."

"Dr. Wu clearly said your leg is fine, and Dad said he'd get some herbal medicine and medicinal wine from Uncle San to bandage it for you. It's not like we're not going to treat your leg, so why are you insisting that the family borrow money to take you to the county hospital?"

After her two daughters-in-law finished speaking, He Damei recovered from the anger she felt from being scolded by her daughter. She looked at her daughter, whom she had doted on since childhood, with disappointment: "Everyone says daughters are outgoing, but now that she has a man in her heart, she doesn't treat her old mother like a mother anymore."

"If I'd known you were such an ungrateful wretch, I should have drowned you in a chamber pot when you were born, so I wouldn't have wasted so many years' worth of food!"

Accountant Zhou also looked disappointed, his bronze face filled with dejection: "Sigh, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have been soft-hearted back then. I let you study so much and end up like this!"

...

"No, that's not it..."

Zhou Shuhua wanted to explain, but no one in the family was willing to listen.

In the end, she couldn't go to the county hospital to have her leg checked, and could only let her sister-in-law help her wrap some herbal medicine...