Chapter 23
On the first day of October, the clinic opened for business, but five days passed and no one came to see a doctor.
Most people in Yunshui County would habitually go to Xinglintang for treatment when they were sick, rather than going to a newly opened clinic with no trust.
Shi Yanqing had anticipated this situation.
She was not in a hurry, but patiently waited for an opportunity, an opportunity to appear in front of the people of Yunshui County and make a name for herself.
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In the early morning, it was cloudy and rainy, and the wind blew gently, bringing a hint of chill.
The temperature has dropped sharply in the past few days. If you don’t put on more clothes in time, you will catch a cold. Therefore, the drugstore next to the clinic has a lot of business.
Yan Rong was wearing a thick pink coat and skirt with a light yellow robe on the outside. She walked out from inside with a bowl of steaming ginger soup in her hand.
"Madam, can I not drink this ginger soup?" Her tone was pitiful and girlish.
Shi Yanqing was sitting at the table, looking through the drugstore's account book. When she heard Yan Rong's words, she looked away from the account book and raised her head to look at the pretty woman in front of her.
"No. You just got caught in the rain. Although it's not raining heavily outside, a bowl of ginger soup is a good precaution." As she spoke, she smiled a little as if thinking of something. "I put sugar in the Danye when I cooked it, so it's not spicy at all. Why don't you try it?"
A hint of hesitation flashed across Yan Rong's eyes, and she pursed her lips slightly, "Well, let me take a sip and see."
After she finished speaking, she reached out and put the bowl to her mouth, her lips lightly touching the edge of the ginger soup. Before she could react, a hint of sweetness seeped into her heart.
Really not spicy.
Seeing Yan Rong finish drinking obediently, Shi Yanqing shook his head and chuckled.
At this moment, a person suddenly rushed in from outside the door, walking in a panic and very anxiously.
"doctor!"
"Is there a doctor? My husband suddenly fainted and he won't wake up no matter how hard we try."
Shi Yanqing immediately stood up and walked over the moment the woman rushed in, "Where is he now? I'm the doctor here."
The woman was surprised to see it was a female doctor, but she quickly pointed outside and said, "My husband is lying outside."
When I walked out of the clinic, I saw a group of people gathered not far to my left.
When Shi Yanqing walked towards that place with a medicine box, he saw a man about thirty years old fainted on the ground with a pale face and dull lips.
There was a little boy of about eleven or twelve years old standing guard next to him.
The little boy, tears welling in his eyes, squatted beside the man, his hands tightly clutching the corner of his clothes. When he saw the woman behind Shi Yanqing, his fear disappeared immediately, and he quickly called out, "Mother."
The woman quickly stepped forward and hugged the little boy, "Mom is here, Mom is here. Don't be afraid, little tiger."
While the mother and son were communicating with each other, Shi Yanqing walked over to the man, squatted down, reached out to feel his pulse, and felt his wrist was cold when his fingertips touched it.
The crowd of onlookers did not disperse. Instead, more and more people gathered, and a few whispers could be heard from time to time.
"When did Xinglintang get a female doctor? She looks young, and I don't know how good her medical skills are."
"I'm definitely not as good as Doctor Xu. Doctor Xu's medical skills are among the best in the county."
"This isn't the doctor from Xinglintang. Do you see that new clinic over there? He must be the doctor from there."
"It's actually a newly opened clinic. I don't know how good their medical skills are. I wonder if it will close in a few months."
Shi Yanqing listened to this, the corners of her lips curled up slightly, and she couldn't help feeling a little funny in her heart. She withdrew her hand and glanced sideways at the woman beside her.
The woman was holding a little boy in her arms, staring at her nervously.
"Doctor, how is my husband now?"
Shi Yanqing glanced at Dan Ye and Yan Rong who had followed him, and said gently, "The ground is cold, so let's take him back to the clinic first. I can give him a few injections and he'll wake up."
Upon hearing this, the woman nodded quickly.
Afterwards, with the help of the onlookers, several people brought the man back to the clinic.
Shi Yanqing took out the silver needles from the medicine box and inserted them into several acupuncture points on the man's head. She moved her fingertips slightly, and the silver needles immediately trembled, and silver shadows were visible to the naked eye.
After the trembling silver needle stopped moving, the man's tightly closed eyes moved. Seeing this, the woman standing by showed joy on her face.
"He's awake."
Shi Yanqing took out the silver needle from the man's head and put it into a small wooden box beside him. The needles in the wooden box would then be cleaned and disinfected for reuse.
After the man woke up and learned what had happened from the woman, he quickly stood up and thanked her. "I've been feeling dizzy from time to time these past few days. I was planning to find time to go to Xinglin Hall for a checkup, but I didn't expect to faint today. I wonder if the doctor has diagnosed the cause of my fainting?"
Shi Yanqing's eyes moved slightly, and she said softly, "You fainted due to excessive blood loss. You just need to replenish your Qi and blood."
When the woman heard this, she seemed to have thought of something and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Husband, it's all my fault. If I hadn't asked you to go to the mountains, you wouldn't have been injured. You wouldn't be like this now."
"Why is it your fault?" The man hurriedly comforted her and held the woman's hand tightly.
Shi Yanqing was listening at the side and felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
She rubbed her fingertips, turned and walked to the table beside her, ready to write down the prescription.
Men faint because of excessive blood loss. She just used acupuncture to wake him up, but it was just a wake-up call. He still needs to take ginseng nourishing soup to regulate his body and replenish qi and blood to prevent fainting again.
As the ink flowed on the paper, Shi Yanqing adjusted the grams of each medicinal ingredient according to the man's specific situation.
She handed the written prescription to the man and instructed, "Take three doses of the medicine first. After that, I'll take your pulse to see if you need more medicine. If you do, this prescription can't be used anymore. I'll prescribe another one based on your physical condition."
The man nodded repeatedly: "Thank you, doctor, I will remember it."
After saying that, the man took his wife and children to the pharmacy next door to get medicine. He thought that after taking these three doses of medicine, he would go to Xinglintang for a checkup. His whole family had been treated there, so it seemed more reliable.
"After so many days, we finally have a patient." Tan Ye said happily, "As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning, but the rest will definitely be smooth sailing."
Shi Yanqing didn't think everything would go smoothly, after all, she was competing with Xinglintang for patients.
Now we can only wait patiently or take the initiative.
After that, she sat in the clinic for the whole morning without seeing a single patient.
Shi Yanqing was going to study with Pang Guan in the afternoon. She returned to the mansion to have lunch, took a short rest for quarter of an hour, and then went to Pang Guan's residence.
When she went there, Pang Guanzheng and Pang Jiuan were playing shuttlecock in the open space in the yard, and the little girl's lovely laughter echoed in the yard.
Seeing her coming, Pang Guan made a pause gesture to Pang Jiuan, "An An, your sister Yan Qing is coming to class, let's stop playing for now."
Pang Jiuan grabbed the shuttlecock made of chicken feathers in her palm. She nodded obediently and said seriously, "An An, don't play anymore. An An, take a rest and then go do today's homework."
"Teacher, did you let An An go to the school dormitory to study?"
Shi Yanqing followed Pang Guan to the classroom and asked curiously before sitting down.
"No. She's still young, so I can teach her first."
Shi Yanqing nodded. "That's good. I heard Hanzhang say that there's something wrong with the teacher at the academy. He's been busy with this matter these days and has lost a lot of weight."
Pang Guan became curious upon hearing this, but he also knew the seriousness of the matter, so he suppressed his curiosity and started today's teaching.
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County government office.
After Zhou Hanzhang finished reading the note, he stood up and said to Lu Tong who was standing beside him, "It's time to close the net."
After receiving the order, Lu Tong strode out. He went to Liu Dianshi to convey the order, and then took the fast squad of police officers out.
Some time ago, a murder occurred in the county school.
There were many children present at the time, and the bloody scenes scared them so much that almost all of them had nightmares and became sick after returning home.
When Zhou Hanzhang first took office, he encountered a murder case, so he was naturally very concerned about it.
After several days of investigation, he finally found the murderer's hiding place and now all he had to do was arrest him.
He heard the sound of a wheelchair rubbing against wooden boards. Zhou Hanzhang stood up and walked to the door, where he saw Lu Jue being pushed in by a clerk.
He leaned against the door frame, his body relaxed. "Is this something you want to talk to me about?"
Lu Jue nodded.
After he entered the house, the clerk turned around and went out to guard the door.
Zhou Hanzhang recalled the task he had assigned to Lu Jue, and his brows twitched slightly. "Tell me, what did you find in that pile of documents?"
Lu Jue is his legal advisor and also his most trusted friend in the county government.
After Lu Jue came, he handed over the tax matter he had been investigating to him, and also gave him the small account book.
Lu Jue didn't keep anyone in suspense and directly revealed his findings: "I found that one-third of the money embezzled by previous county magistrates is unaccounted for. Of the remaining two-thirds, some was used to purchase houses, some was transferred outside the county, and some was used for daily enjoyment."
"It's not hard to guess that the money that flows out of the county is probably used to build connections or maintain relationships."
Zhou Hanzhang had already found out about this. He asked, "Where is the other third used? Do you have any guesses?"
Lu Jue read most of the documents in the library, which included tax payment records of wealthy businessmen in the county. One of them caught his attention.
"Lin family."
Zhou Hanzhang frowned: "The rest is in the Lin family?"
The Lin family is just a wealthy businessman, and the previous county magistrates were all officials. The status of officials and businessmen is not equal. If the remaining money is in the Lin family, why?
Lu Jue said, "I looked at the tax payment records of the Lin, Liu, Wang, and Qian families over the past ten years and found that the other three families paid two more taxes each year on top of the original commercial tax. Only the Lin family paid according to the original commercial tax, and sometimes even paid less."
"The Lin family paid less, but the county magistrate didn't ask about it. It's not hard to see that there's something fishy going on, so I guess the remaining one-third is with the Lin family, or is related to the Lin family."
Zhou Hanzhang hadn't noticed this before. He raised his hand to rub his temples and sighed softly.
"Luckily you noticed it, otherwise I would have missed it."
Lu Jue smiled slightly and said, "You are just too busy. It is only a matter of time before you find out."
"I will investigate the Lin family's affairs privately. Next, I have something else to entrust to you." Zhou Hanzhang composed himself and took out a thin booklet from the desk and handed it to Lu Jue.
"You need to check what's written there to see if it's true."
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