The Bone Setter of the Back Alleys

In the old alleys of Jiangcheng, there is a shop called Huichun Hall. Lin Sanzhen runs an unregistered bone-setting shop: he owes the medicine supplier 12,000, owes rent 7,600, and has 82 yuan in his drawer. He possesses a skill that others don't have—setting broken bones in three breaths, and reconnecting severed tendons. The cost is that the injury falls upon him in the same way. Setting a broken arm numbs his sense of touch for three days; reconnecting three tendons leaves his qi sense empty for thirty days. This skill cannot be used for free, nor can it be used too much. He cannot change this price, so he can only change the way he collects payment: for those who cannot afford treatment, he records it in the ledger. Seven days later, he collects the principal and interest; if he cannot collect, the ledger records it itself—that entry is called a debt of humiliation, and it recognizes the person who must bow their head in public. The first debtor is Su Yan from Zhenyuan Hall. Her younger sister's right arm has three severed tendons, two inches shorter, and is short by 50,000. The second one who wants to default is Feng Biao, the owner of this alley, who takes a 30% cut and wants him to acknowledge this debt. And the rules of the Martial Arts Association press down from above: the city's restoration quota is allocated once a year, and saving one in the alley squeezes out one on the register. They all think he only knows how to bow his head. No one has asked, for a person who hurts for everyone, what will he ultimately use to settle the accounts. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Bone Setter of the Back Alleys — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠