The nurse froze for a moment, then turned toward Chen Xuan.
“What do you need silver needles for?”
“To save someone.”
The doctor in charge of the resuscitation also looked over.
He had been examining the old man the entire time and had only just noticed Chen Xuan on the transfer bed beside them. Seeing that Chen Xuan was wearing a patient’s gown and looked alarmingly thin, the doctor frowned.
“Did you just say he was poisoned?”
“Mm.”
Chen Xuan glanced at the overturned medicinal liquid on the floor.
“The aconite’s toxicity wasn’t properly removed.”
The assistant’s expression changed slightly.
“But the old master prescribed this formula himself. He’s been in the medicinal herb business his entire life. There’s no way he wouldn’t know how to process aconite.”
Chen Xuan said, “There’s nothing wrong with the formula. That doesn’t mean the medicine that was ultimately decocted was fine.”
The assistant was stunned.
“You mean…”
“Go find out whether someone tampered with the herbs or made a mistake while decocting them yourselves.”
Chen Xuan did not elaborate.
All he knew was that there was something wrong with the medicine the old man had taken. Whether the mistake had occurred during the decoction or someone had tampered with it along the way had nothing to do with saving the man now.
The attending doctor had already understood what Chen Xuan meant. He immediately asked the assistant, “After taking the medicine, did the old man experience numbness in his mouth, numbness in his limbs, nausea, or vomiting?”
“Yes!”
The assistant hurriedly nodded.
“The old master said his mouth felt numb in the car, and his fingers weren’t moving properly either. We thought it was his coronary heart disease acting up. We never expected him to lose consciousness as soon as he arrived at the hospital.”
The doctor’s expression shifted. He immediately bent down and examined the old man again.
An emergency nurse arrived with the equipment and attached the electrodes to the old man’s chest. The doctor stared at the data on the monitor for a moment before making a quick judgment.
“It’s highly likely to be aconitine poisoning. Prepare for resuscitation!”
The medical staff around them immediately sprang into action.
“Don’t listen to him spouting nonsense!”
One of the two young women standing behind the old man strode forward.
She was wearing an ivory-colored suit, her long hair tied behind her head. In her hand, she held the coat the old man had taken off earlier.
When the old man had suddenly collapsed, she had followed behind without saying much. But now that she heard the doctor treating the situation as poisoning, she could no longer hold back.
“Grandpa has always suffered from coronary heart disease, and he’s had attacks before. Besides, how could someone as experienced as Grandpa, an old herbalist, possibly poison himself with medicine? You’re diagnosing him as poisoned based on nothing more than a few words from him? Aren’t you afraid of damaging the reputation of our Baicaotang?”
The doctor said, “We can’t be completely certain yet, but the old man’s current symptoms do fit aconitine poisoning. Take him to the resuscitation room. We’ll conduct further tests and begin treatment immediately.”
The nurse was just about to push the old man away when Chen Xuan spoke again.
“There’s no time.”
Several people turned to look at him at once.
Chen Xuan’s gaze rested on the old man.
To everyone else, the man merely appeared to have fainted. But Chen Xuan could see that the poison inside his body was still spreading rapidly.
At this rate, the old man might not survive long enough for the poison to be neutralized.
“If you wait until he reaches the resuscitation room, it’ll already be too late,” Chen Xuan said. “I know an acupuncture technique. I can use silver needles to suppress the poison temporarily and buy him more time. Then we can find a way to detoxify him.”
The young woman immediately turned around.
“You look like you’re half-dead yourself, and you still want to treat my grandfather?”
She looked Chen Xuan up and down before scolding him.
“Suxi.”
The suited man beside her frowned and called her name.
Qin Suxi immediately turned toward him.
“Uncle, I’m only worried about Grandpa. We don’t know anything about this man. We can’t let him treat Grandpa just because he happened to recognize that he was poisoned, can we?”
The young woman on the other side of the old man had been standing guard beside the wheelchair. She had not joined the argument earlier, but now that the old man had completely lost consciousness, the anxiety on her face grew more and more apparent.
“Doctor, will it still be in time if you take Grandpa to the resuscitation room now?”
The doctor glanced at the monitor.
“We’ll do everything we can.”
No one failed to understand what those words implied.
The young woman’s grip on the wheelchair handles tightened unconsciously.
Qin Suxi glanced at her.
“Yufei, you don’t actually believe him, do you?”
The young woman raised her head.
“The doctor also said poisoning is more likely. At least he wasn’t wrong about that.”
“Recognizing poisoning and being able to save someone are two completely different things.”
Qin Yufei did not answer.
She was just as uncertain about that herself.
The fact that Chen Xuan could tell that her grandfather had been poisoned did not mean he truly had the ability to save him.
The attending doctor also looked toward Chen Xuan at that moment.
“Are you a doctor?”
“No.”
The doctor was visibly taken aback.
Qin Suxi immediately said, “Uncle, you heard him, didn’t you? He isn’t even a doctor!”
The doctor’s expression darkened as well.
“You don’t have a medical license. We can’t let you insert needles into a patient at will. If something goes wrong, who’s going to take responsibility?”
Chen Xuan did not argue with him.
Whether he was a doctor in this world was not important.
What mattered was whether the old man before him could hold on.
Chen Xuan looked at the old man again.
The poison was still spreading.
“If we delay any longer, he’ll be dead within three minutes at most.”
The suited man’s expression changed.
“You can save him?”
“I can suppress the poison temporarily.”
Chen Xuan said, “The hospital can handle the detoxification.”
“What are the odds?”
“Seventy percent.”
Chen Xuan’s voice remained calm.
If he still possessed his cultivation, a poison of this level would hardly be worth mentioning. Even without relying on any pills, he had several ways to force the poison out of the man’s body.
But this body had only just awakened, and its qi and blood were severely depleted. He needed someone to support him just to sit up. The methods he could use were extremely limited.
Silver needles were the most suitable option available to him.
The suited man looked at his unconscious father, then turned to the doctor.
“After taking the elevator and pushing him to the resuscitation room, do you have better than a seventy percent chance of saving my father?”
The doctor’s expression darkened, and he made no promise.
“Mr. Qin, the patient is in extremely critical condition. We can only do everything possible to resuscitate him. I can’t guarantee anything.”
The suited man was silent for several seconds before finally making a decision.
“Let him try.”
“Uncle!”
Qin Suxi immediately spun around.
“You’re really going to hand Grandpa over to him? He isn’t even a doctor, and he’s still lying on a hospital bed himself!”
“The hospital doesn’t even have a seventy percent chance. At least he dares to say he has seventy percent!”
The suited man said in a deep voice, “Since he was able to tell that the old master was poisoned, I’m willing to let him try.”
“But who knows what kind of person he is?” Qin Suxi blocked the space between the two transfer beds. “What if he only happened to recognize that bowl of medicine? He doesn’t even know anyone from the Qin family. Who knows what he’s plotting by suddenly being so eager to save Grandpa?”
“Big Sis, he was already here waiting for an examination, and Grandpa only suddenly fell ill after arriving here. What could he possibly be plotting? He’s just trying to help.”
Qin Yufei spoke up on Chen Xuan’s behalf.
Qin Suxi turned back to her. “So what? How can we casually trust a half-dead patient with something this dangerous?”
“At the very least, we shouldn’t assume he has ulterior motives just because he’s willing to save Grandpa.”
Qin Yufei glanced at the unconscious old man.
“Saving Grandpa is what matters right now.”
“Yufei, you’re too naïve. You have no idea how many people deliberately set traps just to get close to the Qin family.”
“That’s enough.”
The man in the suit cut her off in a deep voice.
The emergency physician also spoke up. “Mr. Qin, I still have to remind you that this patient has no medical license. We can’t allow someone of unknown credentials to administer acupuncture in the hospital.”
“Do you have any way to guarantee that my father will survive?”
The doctor was momentarily at a loss for words.
The man in the suit had already made up his mind.
“I, Qin Zhenghai, will take full responsibility for the consequences. If anything happens, I won’t hold the hospital or this young man responsible. Everyone here can record my statement as proof.”
The doctor frowned, clearly still opposed to the idea.
The man in the suit did not argue with him further. Instead, he suddenly remembered that his father usually practiced acupuncture and immediately turned to the assistant beside him.
“Are the old man’s silver needles in the medicine case?”
“They are!”
The assistant hurriedly removed a brown briefcase from behind the wheelchair.
When the case was opened, it contained several porcelain bottles filled with medicinal herbs, as well as a needle pouch.
Qin Suxi reached out and pressed down on the medicine case.
“Uncle, please think this over!”
The man in the suit looked at her.
“Move your hand.”
“But what if Grandpa—”
“I said, move your hand.”
His tone had already turned cold.
Qin Suxi kept her hand pressed against the case.
Qin Yufei finally couldn’t hold back. “Sis, Grandpa is in critical condition. We can only give it a try. What good does it do to keep stopping him?”
“What do you know!”
Qin Suxi whipped around, her voice rising several notches.
Qin Yufei froze.
The man in the suit also turned to look at Qin Suxi.
Only then did Qin Suxi realize that her reaction had been excessive. After a brief pause, she finally withdrew her hand.
“I’m just afraid something will happen to Grandpa.”
Qin Zhenghai had no time to argue with her. He looked directly at his daughter.
“Yufei, give him the needles.”
“All right.”
Qin Yufei immediately took out the needle pouch and went over to Chen Xuan’s transfer stretcher.
Only when she came closer did she get a clear look at Chen Xuan’s condition.
There was barely any color in his face, and the wrist exposed beneath his hospital gown was frighteningly thin. Forget administering acupuncture—even raising his arm seemed to require considerable effort.
She hesitated before asking, “Can you really perform acupuncture in your condition?”
“I can.”
Qin Yufei glanced at him and said nothing more. She placed the needle pouch within reach of his hand.
Qin Suxi stood to the side, her expression still grim.
“Since Uncle insists on trusting you, then go ahead and try.”
She stared at Chen Xuan.
“But let me make this clear: if anything happens to my grandfather, this matter will not be over.”
“Cousin, how can you blame this on him? Stop saying things like that.” Qin Yufei glanced back at her.
Chen Xuan paid no attention to their argument.
Qin Suxi had been trying to stop him from intervening ever since the beginning, and her reaction had been far more intense than everyone else’s. This was clearly more than simple concern for her grandfather.
Both Chen Xuan and Qin Zhenghai looked at Qin Suxi with suspicion.
However, the current situation was no time to deal with her.
“Little Xuan, maybe we should stay out of this.” After listening for a while, Zhou Lan was already starting to panic.
The family before them was clearly no ordinary household.
Her son had only just woken up and had not even recovered from his own condition. She truly did not want him to get into trouble by trying to save someone else.
“Mom, don’t worry. I’m confident.”
Chen Xuan reassured his mother.
He naturally had his own reasons for being willing to help.
He had only just returned to this world, yet his family’s circumstances were already laid bare before him.
His father had an injured leg. His mother had endured no small amount of hardship caring for him all these years, and he had no idea how much his younger sister had taken on for the sake of their family.
He needed to recover as quickly as possible, and he needed money as well.
The family before him was clearly wealthy and influential.
Saving the old man would not only mean saving a life—it would also allow him to earn a favor from the family.
Chen Xuan had the nurse push his transfer stretcher over beside the old man. He then looked at his father.
“Dad, hold on to my right hand. It’ll help me stay steadier.”
Chen Jianguo had been standing nearby, unable to get a word in since the beginning.
Only then did he finally come to his senses.
“Little Xuan, do you really know acupuncture?”