Chapter 50: If I ask for money, wouldn’t that be cheating? Those who cheat are all liars…
Seeing this, Jiang Xueyi didn't say much.
She took the dishes home and asked He Chengze to take good care of the little buns while she accompanied Liu Lu.
Liu Lu found out that the "old miracle doctor" who sold the fetal rebirth medicine to Kong Hongfang lived in Shuinan Commune, which was located in the south and north of Shuibei Commune where Hao Fang lived.
Liu Lu was very nervous and asked Jiang Xueyi: "Can we get the money back?"
"Why not?" Jiang Xueyi said, "You also heard from the doctor at the hospital that the sex-changing drug contains harmful ingredients. Forget about getting your money back. It's lucky that he doesn't have to pay you back."
Liu Lu nodded. She felt relieved after hearing Jiang Xueyi's words. She sighed, "I still have to rely on you at this critical moment." Then she asked, "Shall we leave now?"
Jiang Xueyi asked, "Captain Zhao, are you going with us?"
Liu Lu asked back: "Why did you invite him?"
Jiang Xueyi choked. "According to your mother-in-law, that 'old miracle doctor' was quite prestigious in their generation. What if the people in the commune below unite and side with the 'old miracle doctor'?"
Liu Lu hesitated and said, "No way, he's just selling fake medicine..."
Jiang Xueyi interrupted her: "We both know that he sells fake medicine, but others don't know. Maybe they actually worship him as a 'miracle doctor'."
"Besides, you're pregnant, and I don't have much strength. If we two women go to the commune, let alone begging for money, we might get held down and unable to return."
Liu Lu nodded repeatedly: "You're right, you're right." She added, "I'll go call Lao Zhao right away."
Jiang Xueyi: "Don't just call Captain Zhao, call two more soldiers, young and strong ones." She added, "It would be best if you could borrow the military jeep as well."
A jeep can seat a maximum of five people, Liu Lu, Captain Zhao, Jiang Xueyi, and a soldier nicknamed "Wooden Head", a total of only four people, so the jeep can no longer accommodate them. However, the driver can also replace a strong young man.
With this configuration, even if you fail to collect the money, you can still get away with it.
The group sat in the car. Mu Tou was still a little confused and asked Captain Zhao: "Captain, what are we going to do?"
Captain Zhao looked embarrassed. "My mother was cheated out of 500 yuan by a swindler selling fake medicine. We're going to get the money back."
Driver Wang said as he turned the steering wheel, "It's that sex-changing drug, right?"
"Fetal rebirth medicine?" Mu Tou scratched his head. It was the first time he heard of such a thing.
Driver Wang: "It is said that it can change the baby in a pregnant woman's belly into a boy, regardless of gender."
Mu Tou was surprised: "Is it so magical? Is it true?"
Captain Zhao slapped him on the back of the head and said, "Of course it's fake. If it were true, we wouldn't have to beg for money now."
Mu Tou touched the back of his head, which was hurt by the beating, and muttered, "Of course I know it's fake. If there really is such a medicine, everyone in the country would have given birth to sons. Only a fool would believe it."
Captain Zhao choked. His mother was just a fool.
Liu Lu gets angry when she hears people talking about having a son. She says, "If everyone in the world had a son, no one would have to marry in the future. It would be great if everyone could remain single."
Captain Zhao: "If you ask me, we shouldn't go confront that 'old miracle doctor'. We can just report him to the police and have him arrested."
Jiang Xueyi shook her head. "No, we don't have any substantial evidence, and we don't know the details of this 'old miracle doctor'. What if everyone in the commune sides with him? If things go wrong, it could escalate into a fight, and things would get out of hand."
Captain Zhao nodded and said, "You've thought it through very carefully. Let's go and find out about this 'old miracle doctor' first."
When they arrived at Shuinan Commune, Captain Zhao went straight to the commune leader and asked him if there was a person named Bao Kangshun there.
The commune leader shook his head and asked, "Bao Kangshun, who is that?"
Jiang Xueyi said impatiently, "This guy's nickname is 'Old Miracle Doctor.' Others say he's a doctor of his generation, specializing in selling people some kind of reincarnation drug."
When it comes to Bao Kangshun, none of the commune leaders know him, but when it comes to the 'old miracle doctor', everyone in the area knows him.
The commune leader slapped his head and said, "Old doctor, of course I know."
He glanced at Liu Lu's slightly bulging belly, winked, and said, "You're here to ask for medicine, right?" He slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, you should have said so earlier."
Liu Lu got angry when she saw his weird expression and shouted, "We're not here to ask for medicine, we're here to ask him to pay back the money!"
"Pay back the money?" The commune leader looked at them seriously.
The three soldiers led by Captain Zhao have extraordinary temperaments. Just look at their posture and demeanor, and you can tell they are not ordinary people.
Look at Liu Lu and Jiang Xueyi again. The clothes they wear are made of shaggy cloth, which is something only cadres can afford.
Not to mention the majestic military jeep behind.
This person has bad intentions.
Captain Zhao: "Stop talking nonsense. Hurry up and take us to find that 'old miracle doctor'."
The commune leader smiled apologetically and said, "Yes, yes, I'll take you there right away."
As he said this, he winked at someone by his side, asking him to quickly inform the 'old miracle doctor'.
The commune leader led Captain Zhao and his group to a large banyan tree that was so large that two people could hug it. He pointed to an old man and said, "This is the 'old miracle doctor.'"
Jiang Xueyi took a closer look and found that this so-called 'old miracle doctor' was not tall, about 1.6 meters. He was wearing a black Tang suit and had a long white beard. He looked a bit like an immortal.
There was a blackened wooden board in front of him, which served as a stall.
A piece of yellow coarse cloth was propped up on the wooden board, with the corners rolled up and eight crooked characters written on it: "Give me medicine as a gift, worth more than gold."
There was a long queue in front of the stall, and it looked like business was brisk.
Some people were standing on tiptoe and looking around while queuing, looking very anxious, fearing that the medicine would be out of stock when it was their turn.
Some people, after receiving the medicine packs, burst into tears of gratitude before they even walked far away.
People who don't know the background of the "old miracle doctor" would probably think he is a miracle doctor after seeing this scene.
As soon as Jiang Xueyi and her group approached the 'old miracle doctor', he slowly raised his eyes and said in a hoarse and steady voice, "Dear guests, what brings you here from afar?"
Obviously he had received the letter in advance.
Liu Lu got angry when she saw him, because he was the culprit who harmed the baby in her belly.
Her eyes blazed with fire. "I'm asking you, is this the sex-changing drug you're selling?"
The old doctor stroked his white beard and said leisurely, "How can you say I'm selling it? I'm giving it away as a gift. People who are destined to receive it are grateful to me and give me a small reward."
He looked her up and down and said, "By the way, comrade, I haven't seen you before, have I?"
The members of the commune and villagers standing nearby shouted angrily:
"Where are you from?"
"You can either buy medicine or not. If you don't want to buy medicine, just leave."
"That's right, don't delay us from buying medicine. It's getting dark, what if the old doctor closes his stall?"
Liu Lu scolded, "You've never seen me, but my mother-in-law bought sex-changing medicine from you." She held up five fingers and said, "It cost five hundred yuan."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was shocked.
The old doctor shouted, "Everyone, be quiet, be quiet."
"Five hundred yuan is nothing." He glanced at the baby in Liu Lu's belly. "I, an old man, have calculated... I have sensed that the child in your belly is the incarnation of Wenquxing. This fate is worth five hundred yuan, or even a thousand yuan."
A member who had just bought medicine was dumbfounded and hurried forward: "Hey, miracle doctor, um, can you charge me a few more dollars? I also want a Wenquxing as a son."
The old doctor glanced at him and choked: "Your family...is not destined to be like this."
Jiang Xueyi was amused watching from the side. This old doctor must have been looking at the person to see how he would treat her. Seeing that Kong Hongfang was dressed elegantly and had the so-called "house full of gold and jade" gold and jade bracelets on her hands, he must have wanted to rip her off.
But this member is also Coke, and there are also those who take the initiative to get ripped off.
The members looked disappointed and glared at Liu Lu. "You're lucky! You know how many people want a son who's the god of literature and can't get one? You're the only ones who's bothered. You're so fussy and ungrateful. If it were me, I'd have gone home and enjoyed myself. Why are you bothering with this old doctor?"
"That's right." Someone echoed, "So many people come to the old doctor to buy the reincarnation medicine, and I only saw one Ziwei Star, two Wenqu Stars, and three Wuqu Stars. The chances are so small."
Liu Lu was dumbfounded as she watched them speaking up for the old doctor one by one.
She screamed, "Do you know that the sex-changing pills he sells are a scam? We went to the hospital and saw a doctor, and they're full of harmful ingredients."
Someone stiffened his neck and shouted: "Is what the doctor in the hospital said right? Is he as smart as the old doctor?"
Captain Zhao cursed, "What else could it be? Could what the doctor said be false?"
"In our area, countless families have had sons after taking the old miracle doctor's medicine," another person said. "He's the modern-day Guanyin of Childbirth."
The crowd's curses grew louder and louder, and a few people with bad intentions secretly surrounded them.
But when he saw that Captain Zhao, Mu Tou and driver Wang were all tall and strong, he gave up.
Jiang Xueyi raised her hand: "Everyone, please be quiet, be quiet."
No one listened to her, so she had to give the commune leader a look.
The commune leader coughed twice and said, "These are cadres from the city. Everyone, please be quiet and listen to them."
Someone murmured, "What's wrong with cadres? In order to have a son, cadres still have to go to the old doctor to buy the medicine to change the fetus."
But after all, it was the commune leader who spoke, and everyone gradually quieted down.
Jiang Xueyi cleared her throat. "We both have our own opinions now. We believe that this reincarnation drug is harmful, and you all think that this drug is ineffective. But we must look at the problem dialectically."
She spoke in an orderly and very logical manner, and everyone gradually listened to her.
Jiang Xueyi continued, "Old doctor, please tell me about the efficacy of this fetal transformation medicine."
The old doctor stroked his beard and said with a smile, "My medicine for changing the sex of a woman will guarantee that she will give birth to a son if she takes it. If she doesn't, she can get another dose of medicine from me until she does."
As soon as he finished speaking, the members nodded repeatedly, saying in unison: "The old doctor is still authentic. Give the medicine until a son is born."
"What a miracle doctor! If it weren't for him, how many families would still be giving birth to daughters and not having sons to carry on the family line."
A man wearing a blue headscarf said, "The Li family who lives on the hillside behind our brigade had three daughters but no sons. They were so worried. Then, after hearing a recommendation from someone, they found an old miracle doctor and got a prescription for a sex-changing drug." He clapped his hands and said, "Hey, guess what? They got a boy!"
The old doctor listened to everyone's praise and smiled as he kept stroking his white beard.
Jiang Xueyi waved: "That comrade."
The man with the blue headscarf was stunned for a moment: "You called me?"
Jiang Xueyi: "Yes." She continued, "You just said that the Li family took the incarnation-changing medicine given by the old doctor and gave birth to a son, right?"
The blue turban nodded and said, "Yes."
Jiang Xueyi: "How can you be so sure, absolutely certain, that the Li family gave birth to a son because of this sex-changing medicine?"
The blue scarf was confused: "Well, what else can we do? Their family has already given birth to three daughters. The fourth one in the belly must also be a daughter. If they can give birth to a son, they must rely on the medicine to change the fetus."
Jiang Xueyi: "Let me ask you." She glanced at the crowd, "And everyone else."
"When a woman gives birth, is it either a boy or a girl? She can't give birth to something that's neither boy nor girl, right?"
Everyone nodded and asked, "So what?"
Jiang Xueyi: "Then how can you be sure that the baby in the Li family's wife's belly is definitely a girl? Maybe she was originally pregnant with a boy, and this reincarnation medicine just happened to come into contact with her."
The man in the blue headscarf waved his hands repeatedly: "How is that possible? It's the effect of this reincarnation medicine."
Jiang Xueyi: "To get back to the point, when a woman gives birth, she can either give birth to a boy or a girl. According to math textbooks, the probability of giving birth to a boy or a girl is 50% each. No matter which birth order it is, the probability of giving birth to a boy or a girl is 50%, right?"
A group of people shook their heads.
"What probability? I don't understand."
"What are you talking about?"
"What math book? I've never been to school."
Not to mention that the group of members and villagers didn't understand, even few of the educated youth in the team could figure it out.
Jiang Xueyi: "Okay, let me give you an example in a different way."
She pulled a two-cent coin from her pocket and said, "Everyone knows this, right?"
Everyone burst into laughter: "It's money, who doesn't know it?"
"Look, everyone." Jiang Xueyi threw the coin into the air. The coin somersaulted in the sun and landed on the back of her hand with a "pop".
Jiang Xueyi moved her hand away, with the side with the words '2 points' facing up and the side with the wheat ears facing down.
"It's like this coin. When you flip it, it either lands heads or tails. The chances of landing on both sides are pretty high, right?" She picked up the coin and shook it in front of the people around her. "It's the same with having a child. It's either a son or a daughter. God has already divided the two sides evenly. What medicine can make it always land on one side?"
Aunt Zhang came over holding the baby: "But the older generation said..."
"The older generation also said there was Chang'e on the moon." Jiang Xueyi interrupted with a smile, flipping the coin again, this time with the wheat ear facing up. "Look, aren't both sides equally likely to come up heads? If someone said they had a way to always make the coin show '2 cents', would you believe it?"
Wang Er's wife in the crowd suddenly laughed: "Isn't that a cheat? Anyone who cheats is a liar!"
"That's right, that's the logic!" Jiang Xueyi slapped the coin on the millstone and her voice became brighter. "That medicine seller is like a swindler, saying he can guarantee the birth of a boy. In fact, he himself doesn't know which side will come up. The person who spends money to buy the medicine is not buying the medicine, but a fabricated wish!"
The old doctor's beard trembled with anger: "You...you...you are talking nonsense!"
Jiang Xueyi ignored him, picked up the coin from the millstone, and handed it to the kid next to her: "You toss it and see if it's sometimes heads and sometimes tails."
The kid giggled and tossed the coin, which landed heads up.
If someone counts the coin carefully and tosses it a certain number of times, the number of heads and tails appearing will be half each, which is 50%.
Jiang Xueyi pointed and said, "See? It's all God's will, it has nothing to do with taking medicine."
The old man squatting at the foot of the wall suddenly spoke up: "My third child is my first daughter, and my second child is a boy. He didn't take any medicine."
"That's right!" Jiang Xueyi glanced at the crowd. "Who doesn't have a daughter or a son? It's just like the crops growing in the fields. There are sorghum and millet. How can you plant them all the same? Trying to force nature to change things is just a waste of time."
Someone lowered his head and muttered, "That's right. The Zhang family in our brigade had three daughters, and later they had a boy without taking any medicine..."
Jiang Xueyi gave the little boy a 2-cent coin, patted him on the back of his head, and told him to buy some candy.
She said half-seriously, as if nonchalantly, "It's harmless to toss a coin for fun, but drinking this medicine and getting yourself hurt would be a loss."
Everyone fell silent, looking at the old doctor, with doubt in their eyes.
The old doctor was anxious and said quickly, "Don't listen to her nonsense. I have been practicing medicine in this area for many years. How many families have given birth to sons thanks to me? How could you be led astray by her words?"
Someone in the crowd shouted, "We don't believe in her, we believe in coins!"
Liu Lu couldn't help but almost laughed out loud.
Captain Zhao, Mu Tou and driver Wang looked at Jiang Xueyi with nothing but admiration in their eyes.
Mu Tou scratched his head and said, "What's wrong with Sister Jiang's mouth? How can she speak so smoothly?" He added, "If it were me, I would probably spend a long time trying to figure out a deal with these members."
Captain Zhao slapped him on the back of the head and said, "You, learn slowly."
The old doctor also recovered, stroked his beard and sneered, "Nonsense! How can a coin be compared with a human life?" He added, "This is medicine. If it's medicine, it works. Do you understand?"
"Then show me what you can do." Jiang Xueyi took out an egg from her bag, peeled it, and revealed the white part inside. "Didn't you say your medicine can 'reverse the fetus'? If you can turn this egg white red, I'll believe you."
The old doctor blew his beard and glared: "This...how can this be confused with each other?" He threw his hands and said, "I can't change."
"Can't change?" Jiang Xueyi deliberately frowned. "If you can't even change an egg, how can your medicine turn a girl into a boy?"
A man watching the fun shouted, "Yeah, if eggs can't even change color, how can they change fetuses?"
Jiang Xueyi pointed to the vegetable patch in the distance and said, "Look at that patch, half planted with cucumbers, half planted with eggplants. How can a cucumber grow into an eggplant? Having a baby is the same as growing vegetables. Once the seeds fall to the ground, the outcome is set. How can any medicine change that?"
Jiang Xueyi asked someone for a rotten raw egg, knocked it on the ground, and the egg white and yolk flowed out: "Your medicine is just like this egg, it looks shiny, but it's full of deceptive things inside."
At this point, someone said, "Actually, I know this Lao Bao... He's the 'Old Miracle Doctor.' He was originally a barefoot doctor in our brigade, and later on he started selling some kind of sex-changing medicine."
"I know him too. He's not some miracle doctor. His daughter-in-law gave birth to a girl as her first child, and her second child was also a girl. His two granddaughters are almost old enough to pick grass for pigs. I've never seen him drink any kind of sex-changing medicine at home!"
Jiang Xueyi was amused and asked the old doctor, "Isn't your fetal rebirth medicine quite effective? Why haven't you given one to your family?"
The old doctor swallowed, took a step back and said nothing.
"Hey, why didn't you say so earlier?"
"I told you, but you didn't believe it."
"Everyone believes that he is a miracle doctor and that the medicine he has can change a female fetus into a male. If I come out to challenge him now, you will scold me to death." Someone muttered.
"He doesn't use it at home, but he deliberately cheats outsiders! And he dares to sell it so expensively, 500 yuan, how dare he ask for that price!"
The old doctor's face turned red: "I...I was..."
After talking for a long time, I still couldn't make sense of it.
Jiang Xueyi grabbed the sex-changing medicine on the stall and said, "Don't be so picky. Here's a sex-changing medicine. Drink it right now. It'll be fine. We trust you."
Captain Zhao chuckled and said, "Let me tell you in advance, we've consulted the doctors in the hospital's Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine about this prescription. It contains ingredients like centipedes, raw arisaema, arsenic...all harmful." He added, "If a pregnant woman is carrying a boy, taking this medicine will damage or deform his genitals. Even if you can't see anything now, he'll be smaller than his peers when he grows up. If the pregnant woman is carrying a girl, it would be even more terrifying. She'd grow fake genitals, becoming androgynous."
"But these are the symptoms a pregnant woman would experience if she drank it. If a grown man like you drinks it, I don't know what would happen..." Mu Tou's malicious eyes swept over the old man's lower body.
Jiang Xueyi shouted loudly: "Hurry up and ask the 'old doctor' to give me some medicine!"
"Okay, sister-in-law." Mu Tou and driver Wang rolled up their sleeves.
The old doctor hurriedly pushed the crowd away and tried to run away, but he was no match for the two strong men and was immediately pinned down.
Everyone just watched coldly, and no one went up to help.
Someone even ripped the yellow cloth off the stall and stomped on it: "What's this 'free medicine at random'? I think it's just a scam!"
Liu Lu only now understood why Jiang Xueyi didn't lay out the prescription and the doctor's words at the beginning. Even if she had said it at the time, no one would believe it. Only by overturning the foundation of everyone's trust in the old doctor could she truly punish him.
Mu Tou patted the old doctor on the head and said, "You, come with us to see the police honestly."
"No, no, it's just five hundred yuan, I'll just pay it back to you." The old doctor stared at Jiang Xueyi with a bit of resentment in his eyes.
If I had known that this group of people were so difficult to deal with, I would have stopped arguing with them and should have returned the money to them in the first place.
Anyway, he has been practicing medicine for many years and has cheated many people, so he has made a lot of money!
The commune leader brought a group of people to the old doctor's residence and searched out his box of money.
When it was opened, it was full of banknotes, and the lid could not hold them down.
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