Chapter 51 Exposing the Scam If her daughter were still alive, in the future...
Dr. Zhu's plan backfired.
When making a diagnosis, Cui Pingchun and his team took out blue masks, put on isolation gowns and gloves, and entered the ward fully armed.
He didn't take any protective measures; he just crudely covered his face with his sleeve before going in.
Where did this group of people get such complete equipment?
He began to worry that he might catch the disease later.
What happened next shocked him even more.
What shocked him even more was that Cui Pingchun and the others were extremely skilled in the four diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine: observation, listening, questioning, and palpation. After accurately diagnosing the illness using a single procedure, they prescribed medicine on the spot and instructed the students following behind them to go outside to decoct the medicine.
The more Dr. Zhu looked, the more something seemed off. Why didn't these people look like they were acting?
The bad news was that it was his turn.
He steeled himself and took the patient's pulse, making up a story on the spot: "The pulse is weak and floating, indicating insufficient qi and blood, and problems with the lungs..."
Before he could finish speaking, the patient in front of him coughed, which startled him and made him jump up.
"Oh!"
This completely exposed his true colors.
How could a true healer be so easily startled and unable to utter a single reasonable sentence?
The lay Buddhist said slowly, "Dr. Zhu, I hope you can explain this to me—"
Dr. Zhu didn't have much to explain.
He had no choice but to tell the whole truth with a mournful face.
After saying that, he pleaded, "Can you let me go? I don't want the money anymore. I don't want to stay here any longer."
Being in contact with these patients every day, he felt like he was about to get sick and die himself!
But the laywoman was not someone to be trifled with. She immediately ordered her maid to report to the authorities, and Doctor Zhu was taken away by the soldiers.
Dr. Zhu's crimes are selling counterfeit medicine and misdiagnosing patients, which fall under the category of fraud and deception in criminal law.
The magistrate immediately sentenced him to twenty strokes of the cane according to the law, the stolen money was recovered and given to the victim, and the prisoner was paraded through the streets as a warning. After the term of his sentence was completed, he was expelled from the county.
As the cane fell, Dr. Zhu cried and wailed, trying to drag his two apprentices down with him: "Injustice! They were involved too, why aren't they being punished!"
"Stop talking nonsense!" the magistrate roared. "Who doesn't know that you've always mistreated your apprentices, not teaching them medicine and even withholding their wages!"
The apprentices repeatedly exclaimed, "Your Excellency is wise! We are innocent!"
Dr. Zhu was so angry that he almost fainted.
After being flogged, he was put into a prison van and paraded through the streets as a public spectacle.
After he was sent to the county government office, the story of him pretending to be a doctor and swindling money spread far and wide. Many victims who had been cheated by him were enraged when they learned of this and rushed into the street to throw stones, tree branches, and leftover food at him.
Someone angrily shouted: "Damn you! How many people have you harmed!"
Some people cried: "I borrowed money to buy the medicine from him... I drank it for several days and it didn't work at all, what a tragedy..."
Dr. Zhu was bruised and battered, covered in filth, and screamed in pain, begging for mercy: "I know I was wrong... please let me go..."
This only fueled public anger.
"Why didn't you realize your mistake when you were lying? You killed so many people who saw you as their only hope!"
Someone else pointed at him and said, "You also drove away other doctors who came from the city before! You were afraid they would steal your business, so you deliberately called them quacks!"
Chen Miaozhi, who was watching from the sidelines, suddenly understood why no one had exposed Doctor Zhu's affair.
It turned out that many of the doctors who had come earlier had been slandered and driven away by him.
"What can we do? Who can cure our illnesses..." someone suddenly cried out in despair, "Heaven is going to destroy us..."
Amid the chaos, Cui Pingchun stepped forward.
"Don't worry, everyone. The magistrate will definitely recover the stolen money and give you a way out!"
Her voice drew everyone's attention.
The room fell silent, and everyone gazed at her quietly, as if she were the only beacon in the darkness.
Cui Pingchun held up the physician's token given to them by Su Lin and said loudly, "We are physicians sent by the Prefect, from Luxi Village in Cangling County. From now on, we will treat your illnesses!"
"We hereby swear that we will not leave until we have cured the last patient!"
The group immediately felt reassured.
More things were thrown at Dr. Zhu. He was cursed from one end of the street to the other, and every now and then a few impulsive people would come up and beat him, leaving him covered in bruises.
At first, he would try to avoid it, but this only angered the crowd more. Dr. Zhu eventually gave up struggling and let everyone vent their anger on him.
When the officers finally unloaded him from the prison van, he was almost limp as a rag doll, his body filthy and unsightly.
Seeing him standing there dumbfounded, the soldiers gave him a disdainful shove: "Get out of Chengya County and never set foot here again!"
Outside, the wind and snow continued to fall, but Doctor Zhu dared not return to this place. He knew that many people in the city wanted him dead.
He hurriedly nodded and bowed, saying, "I understand, I understand..."
Unexpectedly, he hadn't gone far when an itchy feeling rose in his throat, and he couldn't stop coughing. The more he coughed, the itchier it became, until he finally collapsed on the ground, coughing until his eyes rolled back, before he finally got through the unbearable itch.
We're doomed.
He has probably contracted the plague!
His body was stiff, and he had no money, no food, and not even a single medicine.
It was freezing cold, and he had nowhere to go, nor could he return to Chengya County to ask them for treatment.
Cold, hungry, and sick, he would probably only be able to... die outside.
"Heaven has forsaken me... Heaven has forsaken me!" Doctor Zhu suddenly let out a shrill laugh, kneeling on the ground and looking at his own hands.
Tears fell onto the snow; one wrong step led to another, and his own choices led him into the abyss.
He regretted it, but it was too late.
----
After the clinic was taken over, everyone immediately got busy.
Cui Pingchun, Chen Miaozhi, and Liang Shuyan were in charge of diagnosis and prescription, while several students were responsible for brewing the medicine and delivering it to the patients. The entire clinic was extremely busy.
The two apprentices also returned to the clinic and joined the team helping out.
Patients flooded into the clinic, clinging to them like a lifeline, their ears filled with cries of "Doctor, please save us!" and "Please, our lives are in your hands!"
Some people, in an effort to see a doctor faster, even pushed and shoved, causing those nearby to yell, "Why are you pushing me?"
Seeing the chaotic scene, Liang Shuyan quickly slammed her hand on the table: "Line up! Get your appointment number here. No appointment, no doctor!"
She pulled the apprentice to her side, stuffed paper and pen into the bewildered apprentice's hands, and instructed, "One number per person, no duplicates, no cutting in line."
The apprentice nodded repeatedly.
After the implementation of the appointment system, the scene became much more orderly, with everyone queuing up in order to get a number before going to the consultation table for their appointment.
Occasionally, someone would try to cut in line, and another apprentice on patrol would step forward and shout, "No cutting in line!"
Patients came and went like an assembly line in front of the doctors. Bowl after bowl of medicine was brewed by the students and served to people. Even those who were too sick to leave their homes asked their families to come to the clinic to ask for medicine packets to take home and brew.
Seeing that there were too many people coming, the three doctors discussed and decided on a basic prescription, and then made minor adjustments according to the patients' age and physical condition, which greatly improved the efficiency of consultation.
In one afternoon, they saw countless patients, many of whom left with their medicine, expressing their deepest gratitude.
The layperson watched quietly from the side until the sun began to set.
Cui Pingchun had just finished patiently explaining the medication instructions to the last patient and told the next patient to come back for a consultation the next day when she turned around and found that the lay Buddhist had been standing behind her at some point.
The layman chuckled and said, "Pingchun, I am very pleased to see you like this now."
As dusk deepened, warm orange light shone through the window, illuminating the room.
While the others were packing up to go back, Liang Shuyan held up a small bottle and sprayed disinfectant on everyone. The students, unable to contain their excitement, chattered excitedly with their teachers.
Cui Pingchun had no time to think about anything else; her mind was racing: Who exactly was this lay Buddhist? Why did he say such things to her?
Could it be that they've met somewhere else before?
“Layman, you…” she began, but her words were cut short.
The layperson gently lifted the veil, revealing a familiar face.
A hint of a smile appeared in her usually cool eyes, and she looked at Cui Pingchun with the same respect an elder would show to a junior.
Cui Pingchun exclaimed in shock, "Aunt... Aunt?!"
----
Even when they returned to their lodgings in the evening and had dinner together, Cui Pingchun's mind was still unsettled.
How could she not recognize this aunt? Cui Pingchun had naturally heard about the uproar caused by Cui Ling's initiative to divorce her.
Although the two hadn't exchanged many words, the aunt returned to the Cui family after the divorce, and she had seen her a few times during holidays.
Later, her family couldn't stand seeing Cui Ling living at her parents' home and forced her to remarry, but she refused, saying she wanted to cultivate herself.
Later, he even left home and went to live in a temple on the mountain to begin his solitary practice.
The old patriarch of the Cui family was so angry that he nearly fell backward, and in front of the whole family, he angrily rebuked, "From now on, just pretend that the Cui family never had such a daughter!"
Cui Pingchun was listening with his head down below, but he was thinking to himself.
That's so brave; I wish I could be like that too.
So later, her family forced her to marry someone else. Although Cui Pingchun outwardly agreed, she actually packed her bags and money and fled the family overnight.
Fortunately, Su Lin introduced her to Luxi Village, a place where she could find refuge. No one here knew she was the runaway daughter of the Cui family, and her family couldn't find this remote little place.
These past few months have been the happiest time for Cui Pingchun.
When she saw her aunt, she felt both surprised and somewhat panicked.
She had been away from home for several months, and no one knew her, so she was enjoying her freedom. But now, a family member who knew her background had appeared, and she almost lost her composure.
In fact, Cui Ling was quite surprised when he saw her.
All she knew from the Cui family was that this younger generation had fled and gone missing. Rumors circulated in the family that Cui Pingchun had eloped with someone, but she never expected him to be practicing medicine here.
The two were not familiar with each other and had only met a few times during the holidays. Cui Ling did not rashly expose the truth about their acquaintance. Instead, he deliberately watched as his niece, who seemed to have a plan, exposed Doctor Zhu's conspiracy and stabilized the people's hearts.
The child has really grown up.
If her daughter were still alive, would she grow up to look like this?
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Author's Note: Let's welcome Mommy! [starry-eyed]
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