When the old woman heard her son’s words, her dull eyes seemed to be lit up with hope. She trembled as she grabbed her son’s other arm and said with some uncertainty, “son, is this … Is this true?”
Who would be willing to die after all?
Besides, she couldn’t let go of her only son. She still wanted to live to see her son get married and have children.
The man nodded his head vigorously and held his mother’s hand in return. He said, “it’s true, mother. It’s true, mother.”
As soon as the old woman heard his son’s words, two tears flowed out of the corners of her eyes.
In another house, a woman said excitedly as she looked at her five or six-year-old daughter. “Daughter, my daughter, we can continue to treat your illness. You will definitely get better.”
The little girl shook her head. There was no fluctuation in her eyes. She said calmly, as if she had no strength, “Mother, I don’t want any more treatment. For my illness, you were divorced by father. For my illness, you spent all your savings and even borrowed so much money. For my illness, you woke up early and worked late at night embroidering. You’re tired out.
“However, even after you spent all that money, my illness didn’t get any better. Mother, all the doctors in this town have asserted that my illness can’t be cured and I can only wait for death. So, mother, don’t waste that money anymore.
“You should save the money now so that you can have a life after your daughter leaves.”
The haggard woman shook her head as she cried, “no, Yao’ Er, the Lin Medicine Hall has a new doctor. I’ll go and see her. Maybe she can cure you.”
The daughter shook her head again and said calmly, “mother, those highly skilled doctors all require a high consultation fee. We can’t afford that much money, so don’t waste that money.”
“No, no, my daughter, listen to me. The new owner promised to give free consultation and medicine to the poor, so you must not give up. You’re mother’s hope. If you leave, what do you want me to do?”
When the girl heard that it was a highly skilled Doctor who was giving free treatment, her calm eyes immediately lit up with surprise. Her voice finally became a little excited as she asked in disbelief, “mother, are you telling the truth?”
“Yes, yes, it’s true.” The mother wiped her tears excitedly and said, “Tomorrow is the 10th. It’s the free clinic of Lin medicine Hall. Let’s line up tomorrow and go there again, okay?” The mother’s expression and eyes were full of pleading for her daughter.
Her daughter nodded and replied, “okay!”
The same story was happening with poor families all over Ning An Town.
However, the opposite was true for the medical centers and other medicine shops that had their business snatched away.
“Ridiculous, this is too ridiculous.” One of the doctors and shopkeepers of the medical Hall shouted in exasperation, “a shop selling medicinal herbs actually dares to steal the business from actual clinics. Plus, they’ve hired a third-rate doctor. Aren’t they afraid of causing deaths?” In fact, the so-called third-rate doctors, in his eyes, were actually more skilled than the doctors in the clinics.
Lin Yuelan had two doctors take turns to be on duty.
The two doctors were poached from the county town through Lin Deshan’s connections.
“Shopkeeper, we didn’t sell any of our medicinal herbs today,” the assistant of a medicine shop said with a frown. “This is the third day this has happened.”
The shopkeeper’s face darkened. “Have they all gone to the Lin medicine hall?”
“Yes!” The assistant replied with his head lowered.
The shopkeeper muttered, “it seems that I have to think of a way. Otherwise, my medicine shop will have to close down sooner or later.”