Ning Fan could feel the girl's body suddenly stiffen, as she instinctively looked towards her own mother with pleading eyes.
Ning Fan's heart ached. When a little girl was so fearful and wary of a stranger, feeling safe only with her own mother, she had already begun to distrust the world.
The woman was also heartbroken, but for her daughter's sake, she could only muster a smile and gently said, "Sweetie, let this uncle help you look, it'll be alright soon."
Still, the little girl looked very scared.
Ning Fan sighed, as the True Qi from within his body began to subtly seep into the girl's body.
The sensation of True Qi nourishing the body was very comfortable. The girl's thoughts were simple; she felt comfortable being held by Ning Fan, which gradually eased her hostility towards him.
She even snuggled closer into Ning Fan's embrace.
This miraculous scene amazed the onlookers, who murmured in admiration.
But what Ning Fan had to do went beyond soothing the little girl. The role of True Qi wasn't just to calm her.
He had seen at a glance what her illness was.
The reason the girl had become mute was not because of a damaged vocal cord, but because she had accidentally ingested some toxic substances.
These substances weren't lethal, but they had caused her vocal cords to stiffen.
Over the course of two years, the stiffening of the vocal cords had made it impossible for the girl to speak.
What Ning Fan needed to do was to neutralize these toxins.
The True Qi continuously surged towards the girl's vocal cords, as Ning Fan gently massaged the area around her throat.
The girl, enjoying the sensation, closed her eyes in comfort.
Ning Fan proceeded very slowly; he controlled the True Qi to an extreme degree to avoid any discomfort for the girl.
The process didn't last long, and then Ning Fan stopped.
The little girl noticed Ning Fan stopping and curiously opened her eyes to look at him.
The woman was also worried and asked, "Doctor, how is it? Is there a chance for her to be cured?"
Ning Fan smiled slightly, didn't respond directly to the woman, but instead tenderly asked the little girl cradled in his arms, "Now tell Uncle, how old are you?"
The crowd around was puzzled. Hadn't he said she was mute? Why was he still asking her this question?
The little girl blinked, seemingly accustomed to her inability to speak.
"Come on, don't be scared. Tell Uncle, how old are you this year?" Ning Fan asked again.
Finally unafraid, the girl thought for a moment and a somewhat childish voice emerged, "I'm six."
"Right, six years old." The woman nodded, her first reaction being that her daughter had remembered correctly. But then, her body jerked in disbelief as she looked towards her daughter.
"Daughter, you… you spoke?" The woman looked incredulously at her daughter, fearing she had misheard.
Ning Fan turned the girl's body slightly, looked at the woman, and asked, "Look at this person. What do you call her?"
The little girl blinked her big eyes, stared at the woman, and after a pause, stretched out her arms and shouted, "Mommy!"
"Yes, Mommy is here." Overwhelmed with joy, tears welled up in the beautiful woman's eyes as she trembled, took her daughter into her arms, and kissed her.
A warm feeling also flowed through Ning Fan's heart.
"Thank you, thank you so much," said the woman as she tried to kneel with her little girl in front of Ning Fan, but he stopped her.
"To meet is to be connected by fate. Your daughter is adorable, take good care of her," Ning Fan said earnestly.
The woman nodded deeply.
After a brief silence, the surrounding crowd finally erupted into thunderous applause; some people even started to cry softly.
Tang Xinyuan felt a sinking feeling in his heart—under such circumstances, who wins and who loses was clear, and he began to feel afraid.
He yelled in a panic, "It's a tie, this time it's still a tie. I won't compete anymore."
With that, he turned to leave.
Ning Fan turned his head toward Tang Xinyuan, just about to speak, when suddenly he heard a painful scream from behind Tang Xinyuan.
The crowd turned in surprise only to see the woman since sitting on the ground, her face extremely pale with pain, her hand clutching her stomach as she gasped for breath.
Tang Xinyuan's face turned pale, pointing at the woman he shouted, "What are you doing?"
"It hurts, it hurts so much," the woman's face contorted with pain.
The crowd immediately surrounded Tang Xinyuan. With this happening, how could he possibly leave?
Tang Xinyuan panicked; although he had several bodyguards by his side, there were too many onlookers, and even the bodyguards could not leave.
"You're all in this together, aren't you? You must be. After taking such an expensive Elixir of mine, how could you possibly be experiencing this? You..."
He hadn't finished speaking when his face was suddenly slapped.
Tang Xinyuan's words stopped abruptly, disbelievingly looking at Ning Fan, who had just slapped him.
"You are simply a disgrace to the medical fraternity!" Ning Fan said coldly, without hesitating, he squatted in front of the woman, checked her pulse by holding her arm, and then said, "I need to massage you a bit, is that okay?"
"Yes, of course," the woman said urgently, unable to bear the pain any longer and having seen Ning Fan's previous deeds, she was willing.
"Good," Ning Fan nodded, placed one hand on the woman's stomach, and the other on her back.
As his hands continuously massaged her, the True Qi quickly moved through her body, shrinking back the awkwardly fused medicinal power, then pushed it into the woman's intestines.
At this point, it became very difficult for the body to absorb the medicinal power.
The effect was surprisingly good; almost instantly, the woman felt much more comfortable and the unbearable pain was gone.
"It's such a magical feeling, it really doesn't hurt anymore," the woman said incredulously.
After finishing these actions, Ning Fa withdrew his hands.
Tang Xinyuan watched the scene, his expression immediately deflated.
He knew he had lost, thoroughly lost.
"I lost," Tang Xinyuan clenched his fists tightly, unwillingly admitted.
Ning Fan stood up and looked at Tang Xinyuan, his indifferent gaze making Tang Xinyuan unable to meet his eyes.
"Do you know where you lost?" Ning Fan asked.
Tang Xinyuan sighed and said, "I am less skilled, this time I indeed lost, but..."