"You can cure the patients poisoned in Tianhuang District?" Dr. Paul Lin suppressed his excitement and asked in a low voice.
Joe Di had already begun collecting the golden needles. He nodded and said, "That's right, but the treatment isn't finished yet. I still need to process these medicinal herbs, and then administer another dose of medicine."
"Alright, is there anything I can help with? By the way, I haven't asked your name yet. My name is Dr. Paul Lin." In a short time, Dr. Paul Lin's mind had already turned over dozens of thoughts.
"My name is Joe Di. To process these herbs, I need a small room alone," Joe Di said calmly.
Except for Dr. Barry Dee, he rarely interacted with others, but he seemed able to see through many people's intentions. He understood Dr. Paul Lin's motive very clearly—he wanted to share in the credit.
Joe Di didn't care about that; what mattered to him was whether he could interact with some of the martial artists from Tianhuang District alone. Ideally, he wanted to learn how to cultivate inner energy.
"No problem, no problem..." Dr. Paul Lin repeated several times before carefully pointing to the small room nearby. "Will that room do? If you need any equipment, I'll have someone bring it right away."
Joe Di nodded. "The room is fine, I don't need anything else. I'll go in and process the herbs now."
Dr. Paul Lin's actions puzzled Joe Di. He expected Dr. Paul Lin to follow him into the small room and shamelessly ask how to process the herbs. To his surprise, Dr. Paul Lin didn't follow him in, which Joe Di found odd.
Even if Dr. Paul Lin wanted to follow him inside, Joe Di wouldn't allow someone like him to watch the herb processing.
Many of the herbs he requested were actually useless, while some were ones he had brought himself. As for the equipment to process the herbs, all he had was a simple alcohol stove and a tiny stone mortar in his bag.
Seeing Joe Di enter the small room to process herbs, Dr. Paul Lin immediately helped the patient put on his shirt, covered the patient's face with gauze, and closed the protective shield. Only then did he rush out of the room and hurry to the monitoring room.
He knew a minor supervisor in the monitoring room of this building and believed he could manage the situation.
"Hey, isn't this Dr. Lin? What brings you to my place today?" The monitoring room supervisor was a young man with long hair, speaking in a casual, lazy manner.
Dr. Paul Lin said angrily, "Hmph, don't mention it. Those bastards drugged me and made me treat the poisoned martial artists from Tianhuang District. I'm not going today—let's see what they can do about it!"
The long-haired youth laughed, patting Dr. Paul Lin on the shoulder. "No problem at all! You can stay here for as many days as you want. It's fine, it's fine. Help me watch the place for a bit, I'm just stepping out for a moment. Want me to bring you lunch?"
Having someone watch the monitoring room was the best thing for the long-haired youth; he could go chat with his girlfriend in the nurse's dorm. But the monitoring room couldn't be left unattended, so Dr. Paul Lin coming to help was a stroke of luck.
"No need, go ahead." Dr. Paul Lin waved his hand, secretly delighted. He knew this guy's nature and had been thinking of an excuse to get the long-haired youth to leave, but didn't expect him to be so considerate.
"Alright, just make sure to call me when you leave, or if anyone calls my phone, let me know right away. I'll be in the building next door," the long-haired youth reminded Dr. Paul Lin with a grin.
"Don't worry, I'll just nap here for a bit. I definitely won't miss your call." Dr. Paul Lin impatiently waved his hand again.
The long-haired young man hummed a tune smugly as he left. As soon as he was gone, Dr. Paul Lin hurried to the surveillance console and quickly entered D-11—the room number he had just visited. He rewound the footage thirty minutes and watched the screen closely.
His jaw dropped as if he could swallow a whole cauldron—Joe Di's technique had stunned him. The way Joe Di placed the needles was like a downpour, dazzling and swift. Dr. Lin suspected that even in slow motion, the footage might not capture the full speed; Joe Di was simply too fast.
In just over ten minutes, Joe Di stopped needling and quickly drew a small knife to prick the patient’s finger. Dr. Lin witnessed everything that happened next with his own eyes.
“Whew…” Dr. Paul Lin drew a sharp breath. This skill, this medical art—it was pure beauty…
It seemed he couldn’t afford to leave Joe Di out of his plans. He had to keep Joe Di close, have him work for him. His original idea was to first learn Joe Di’s needling technique, then master his medicine-making methods—after all, he already had the formula.
Now he was sure he wouldn’t be able to master the needling technique in the short term. Since he couldn’t learn it quickly, he’d just have to make Joe Di work for him.
Joe Di was here for a job, and with his qualifications, it was still too difficult for him to be assigned an assistant. But if Dr. Lin claimed credit for curing a poisoned patient in Tianhuang District, he’d be entitled to an assistant. When the time came, he’d name Joe Di as his assistant.
The more Dr. Lin thought about it, the more excited he became. He could already see the praise and bouquets headed his way, his status rising sharply, and even those haughty big shots bowing and scraping before him, humbly seeking his advice.
He was so close to bursting out laughing that he finally snapped out of his daydream.
He had to claim the credit for this perfectly. To do that, he needed to swap out the surveillance footage.
Dr. Lin walked to the disk server, pulled out the D-11 slot’s disk, tore off its label, then grabbed a blank disk from the side. He stuck the D-11 label onto the new disk and inserted it back into the D-11 slot.
Once everything was in order, Dr. Lin called the long-haired young man who had just left, speaking with feigned helplessness, “Come back quickly, I have to leave and see a patient now…”
Without waiting for the young man’s complaints, Dr. Lin hung up and left the surveillance room, his steps urgent and serious as he hurried back to Room D-11.
At the door, he gave a quick smile to the security guard. “Forgot my golden needles earlier, just went back to get them.”
The guard responded with an awkward grin, still dutifully standing watch. In his mind, though, he thought, ‘Whether you forgot your needles or not, what’s that got to do with me?’
When Dr. Lin returned to the room, Joe Di had not yet come out. Dr. Lin breathed a sigh of relief—his plan was nearly complete.
He put on a serious face, walked to the patient’s protective shield, swiped the sensor, and opened it.
He wasn’t skilled at treatment, but when it came to putting on a show, he was even better than Joe Di. Every move was methodical; finally, he took out the golden needles and jabbed the patient countless times. Only when there were too many puncture points did he finally stop.
His performance lasted nearly half an hour. Just as Dr. Lin wondered when Joe Di would finish, Joe Di finally emerged.
Seeing Joe Di come out, Dr. Lin, now wearing a stern expression, took off his gloves, removed the gauze, pointed at the patient, and gestured a few things.
Then he pointed at the bottle in Joe Di’s hand, nodding with satisfaction, and gestured toward the patient, as if to say, ‘It’s all yours now.’
Joe Di wasn’t interested in Dr. Lin’s odd performance. He poured half the bottle of medicine into the patient’s mouth, pocketed the bottle, and turned to leave.
If he hadn’t remembered he was the attending physician, Dr. Lin would have blurted out, ‘That’s it? He’s cured?’
(That’s all for today’s update—good night, friends!)