The medical hall was indeed unusually noisy, the kind of chaos rarely seen all year. Inside, a woman was holding a six- or seven-year-old boy, crying and pounding her chest, while on the other side, a man, apparently her husband, was tugging at a young man in a white suit who seemed to have just returned from studying abroad.
That young man looked utterly exasperated, while the man held onto him tightly, afraid he might run away.
When the medicine boy saw Xu Hang coming, he hurried over to him and said, "Master, you're here.
Look at this mess... they're making so much noise that we can't do business!"
"What's going on?"
The medicine boy lowered his voice and spoke slowly. It turned out that this family of three had gone to the City God Temple that morning to burn incense. At the temple gate, they bought a Qingming pastry for the child to eat, but the child ate too quickly, choked, and couldn't swallow or spit it out, collapsing immediately.
The family tried pounding as well as pushing, but there was nothing they could do. Seeing the child's eyes roll back and fearing the worst, a young man finally stepped forward from the crowd.
This young man glanced at the child and said that the airway needed to be cleared, but the temple was too far from the hospitals and medical halls, he might not make it in time. Hearing this, the couple immediately knelt, begging him for help. The young man said he wasn't a proper medical student and his hands weren't clean either, so he didn't dare to intervene.
Seeing them cry and kowtow so pitifully, he had no choice but to take out a pen and stabbed it against the child's chest, then brought the child to Heming Medical Hall. Only then did he finally catch his breath.
Interestingly, while the child was saved, the couple wouldn't let the young man go. They insisted that he pay for the injury on the child's chest, warning that if anything went wrong, he would be held responsible.
At this time, that woman howled, "Aiya! My poor child... he just ate the pastry too quickly, but he pierced a bloody hole in him! This is murderous ah!"
That young man was obviously so angry that he laughed instead, his face full of disdain, unwilling to argue with such people. Other people in the hall also pointed and talked, they were very disgusted with such people.
Xu Hang watched coldly for a while before finally saying, "Get out of here."
His voice was not loud, but it had a unique force, as cold as spring water that had not yet melted, which made people feel chilled. The medicine boy looked at Xu Hang, straining to hear, thinking they'd misheard. Xu Hang then pointed at the couple holding the child and repeated himself: "Kick them out, don't take their money. As for the gauze, scissors, ointments, and anything used on them just now, toss it out along with them. My Heming Medical Hall does not accept such patients."
"Yes!" The medicine boys had long been disgusted by the couple, but hadn't dared act rashly for the sake of the medical hall's reputation. Now that the master had spoken, they finally moved at once.
The couple's faces turned pale, and the woman even threw herself to the ground, shouting, "He's going to die! He's going to die! There's even medical halls that just stand by and watch people die?!"
Upon hearing this, a medicine boy grabbed the woman and dragged her to the door without any courtesy while pointing at a sign on the door and sneered, "It's not that we watch people die without helping, our medical hall has the 'three no-help' principles!"
The couple widened their eyes in surprise, but after staring for a long while, they still didn't understand, it turned out they were just commoners who couldn't read.
At that moment, they heard Xu Hang slowly recite:
"No help for lechery and plunder, no help for those who smoke and drink, no help for the ungrateful.
The last line refers to people like you two."
"Did you hear clearly? If you heard clearly, then hurry up and leave. Don't you even know what kind of place this is?" The medicine boy pushed and shoved and hurriedly drove the couple out.
The couple tried to block the doorway and keep shouting, even banging their heads against the door. Unable to stand it any longer, the medicine boy rushed out, glaring and twisting his chin into a fierce expression, and scolded, "Blind old fools! Let me tell you, even the Commander wouldn't dare shout this loudly in our medical hall. Are you trying to be bigger than the Commander himself? Make one more scene, and I'll invite the soldiers to come deal with you!"
Hearing the word "military officers," the whole family froze as if someone had grabbed them by the throat. They widened their eyes at each other for a moment, then, though clearly unwilling, slunk away in shame.
Back in the medical hall, after Xu Hang had finished handling the situation, he went to the counter to check yesterday's accounts. The young man stepped forward, holding out a hand. "Thank you for your help. My name is Yuan Ye. To encounter something like this right after returning to the country is quite the coincidence, thank you very much."
Xu Hang stared at the hand. The joints were long, and there were no calluses on it. It didn't look like a hand that could treat patients. He didn't return the shake but only calmly said, "No need to thank me.
I'm not helping you. I just don't like people making noise here."
Yuan Ye still maintained that posture: "But you still helped me, I'll accept you as my friend... ah, me bad, that was a bit presumptuous."
Perhaps it was a habit picked up from studying abroad. Xu Hang still reached out his hand, but only held it up to the first knuckle, lightly brushing it before pulling back. "It's not like abroad here. The world is chaotic, you won't always get off this easily."
"En... maybe, but I will still do it next time I see something like this." Yuan Ye smiled. He did not feel the slightest bit of resentment after being bitten back at all. He had a rare, innocent heart.
The commotion at Heming Medical Hall gradually faded after a while, completely dissipated by the mundane bustle of daily life.
But in the concession area, the gunpowder from the British consulate was far less pleasant.