“What else do you think I’m doing? Can’t you see? I’m going to perform surgery on you.”
Su Tong looked completely indifferent.
“W-why you?” Ma Liu’s voice had already changed pitch.
“Oh, I heard that with your condition, you’ll die whether you have surgery or not. Since you’re going to die anyway, you might as well let me practice.”
“Don’t worry, my hands are very steady. I usually kill chickens with a single clean cut—very efficient.”
“You—don’t mess around! How would they let you do this nonsense?” Ma Liu said in disbelief.
Su Tong let out a cold laugh.
“They said you’ve committed enough crimes to be sentenced to death several times over. You’re useless alive anyway, just wasting medical resources. So you might as well contribute a little by letting me do some medical research.”
She raised the scalpel and gestured lightly.
“Come on, let’s first feel what it’s like when a blade touches the body.”
The scalpel moved toward Ma Liu’s chest, the tip just brushing his skin.
A sharp, icy sensation slid downward—from chest to abdomen—slowly, deliberately, as if at any moment it could sink in and disembowel him.
“You…”
Ma Liu’s eyes widened. His body stiffened completely, his throat feeling as if it were being strangled.
He wanted to shout, but didn’t dare—terrified that if Su Tong’s hand slipped, the blade would actually cut in.
Goosebumps spread visibly across his skin.
“Mm… probably about here,” Su Tong murmured. “Alright, I’m ready to cut. Should I go horizontally or vertically?”
Ma Liu’s nerves were stretched to the breaking point.
“You bitch! You’re bluffing! You’re trying to trick me! If you’ve got guts, really cut it!”
“Tch. Not bad. I hope you still have that courage later.”
Without hesitation, the scalpel pressed down.
Although he was half-anesthetized and felt no pain, Ma Liu could clearly sense the blade actually slicing through his skin.
Not a gesture.
Not a bluff.
It was real.
This woman—
She actually dared to cut!
“You—damn it… stop! Stop!!”
He let out a miserable scream.
He knew his body better than anyone: he had a congenital blood-clotting disorder. Even doctors in Hong Kong had said it was incurable—he could only avoid injuries as much as possible.
And these damn police had actually brought in a mad woman like this?!
She was truly not treating his life as anything important!
And the police weren’t stopping her either?!
Were they not going to interrogate him anymore?!
Ma Liu turned deathly pale, utterly terrified.
Meanwhile, Su Tong had already opened the abdominal cavity and accurately located the appendix—it was swollen and suppurating.
Even though the incision was kept as small as possible, blood still surged out continuously, soaking layer after layer of gauze in seconds.
For an ordinary surgeon, the bleeding alone would make further operation impossible. The wound would be obscured, the lesion unseen, and delay would lead to hemorrhagic shock.
But Su Tong remained calm.
She quickly and precisely inserted sterilized silver needles around the wound and at key acupoints corresponding to major blood vessels.
Within minutes, the bleeding visibly slowed.
Traditional Chinese medicine, passed down for thousands of years, was a treasure of the ancestors. Although Ma Liu’s condition stemmed from his own physiology, it did not negate the effectiveness of acupuncture for hemostasis.
Having learned from her grandfather since childhood, Su Tong had more than a decade of mastery. This level of bleeding control was only basic technique for her.
By the time she changed the gauze again, it could finally absorb blood instead of being instantly saturated, revealing the infected tissue clearly.
Su Tong deliberately piled the blood-soaked gauze where Ma Liu could see it.
Her hands never stopped moving, but her voice carried a deliberately exaggerated panic.
“Oh my god! Why is the bleeding getting worse? It really won’t stop!”
“Quick… call someone! Blood transfusion! I need a transfusion right now!”
Ma Liu stared at the pile of bloodied gauze, his voice hoarse with desperation.
“Don’t… don’t get excited! If you get excited, I’ll bleed faster! Know your place—what transfusion? Do you even have the value to receive blood?!”
Su Tong responded calmly, continuing to provoke him.
“Rock King Mountain, the 24th day of the first lunar month…”
Before she even finished, Ma Liu squeezed the words out through clenched teeth.
He needed time.
He understood exactly what the police wanted. He had been in this line of work for years and knew their methods well.
They had discipline and rules—even if he suffered torture, they wouldn’t kill him. At most, he would endure some hardship.
But this woman was different.
She changed face whenever she wanted. She cut whenever she wanted. No rules. No logic. No consequences.
If he kept holding out, she might really kill him.
He wasn’t afraid of death—but he didn’t want to die like this.
He still had unfinished business.
Years of risking his life were all for that goal.
He couldn’t just die here under this woman’s scalpel.
That would be worse than a bullet.
Su Tong listened calmly.
“Don’t think you can just say a few incomprehensible words and expect a blood transfusion. Blood is precious these days—not something you can just ask for.”
“They understand!” Ma Liu roared. “Rock King Mountain, Xiaoya Village, Old Wan, the 24th of the first lunar month—tell it to the one surnamed Qin! He’ll understand!”
Qin Yi stood quietly in front of the glass door.
From time to time, muffled screams came from inside the operating room, but he seemed not to hear them. His gaze drifted through the corridor toward the blurred moon in the night sky, as if lost in thought.
The hospital was quiet. Most patients were already asleep. In this remote county, there was little nightlife.
The winter moon was dim, reflecting faint light off the snow on the ground. Buildings and trees were shrouded in shadow, making the night feel even more silent and distant.
The door behind him creaked open, breaking the silence.
Qin Yi turned around and saw Su Tong poke her head out, smiling faintly—her eyes bright, almost glowing.
She waved him inside.
He felt a slight relief and followed her into the operating room.
While removing her surgical cap and gown, Su Tong said, “The operation went smoothly, but it was delayed too long. There are signs of abdominal infection. We’ll need anti-infection treatment afterward—nothing serious.”
Qin Yi looked inside.
Ma Liu lay quietly on the operating table. The monitoring device beside him blinked with a steady green light.