“Talk privately?”
Su Man’s alluring, almond-shaped eyes lifted slightly. She looked at the old commander who commanded immense respect throughout the military district with an amused, half-smiling expression.
She did not rush to answer. Instead, she leisurely pulled a preserved plum from the embroidered pouch at her waist and popped it into her mouth.
“Crack.”
The crisp sound was particularly jarring in the deathly silent family compound.
Lei Zhenshan narrowed his eyes.
He had met countless people in his lifetime, but he had never seen a young person dare to act so boldly in front of him. If it had been any other soldier, they would have snapped to attention and saluted by now, their legs probably trembling with fear.
But this woman was not only unafraid; there was even a trace of impatience in her eyes, as if she were saying, If you have something to say, just say it already.
“Commander…”
Zhao Gang was sweating profusely nearby, desperately signaling to Huo Feng with his eyes.
Huo Feng, however, acted as though he had not seen him. He stepped forward, his tall figure subtly blocking Su Man from view. He gave a standard military salute and spoke in a steady, powerful voice.
“Commander, Su Man isn’t a soldier and doesn’t understand military regulations. If she has offended you in any way, I’ll take the punishment for her.”
“You’ll take the punishment?”
Lei Zhenshan snorted. His gaze passed over Huo Feng’s broad shoulders and locked directly onto Su Man.
“Huo Feng, your body may be made of iron, but this is something you can’t take her place for. This concerns improving our military’s combat capabilities, and it even concerns—”
Before he could finish, a figure suddenly rushed over.
It was Jiang Yingxue.
At this moment, Jiang Yingxue was a complete mess. Her hair was as disheveled as a bird’s nest, her brand-new military uniform was covered in paw prints, and her normally well-maintained face was twisted by extreme fear and fury.
Although she could not speak, the venomous hatred in her eyes was almost tangible.
She rushed up to Lei Zhenshan, pointed at Su Man, and made a series of frantic “Ah-ba, ah-ba” sounds while scribbling furiously on the back of her already-shredded notebook with her pen.
【Commander! You can’t believe her! It’s sorcery! She’s been using Gu poison on Huo Feng, and now she wants to harm you too!】
After writing, she shoved the notebook in front of Lei Zhenshan, her knuckles turning white from how tightly she was gripping it.
Lei Zhenshan glanced at the words, his brows knitting even tighter.
He was a staunch materialist and naturally did not believe in sorcery or ghosts and spirits.
But what he had just witnessed was simply too shocking. Dozens of sickly old dogs had instantly become full of vitality, and one of them had even seemingly recovered from rheumatism.
It made no scientific sense.
Moreover, Jiang Yingxue was a member of the prominent Jiang family in Beijing and an expert at the Military District General Hospital. Her words still carried some weight.
“Sorcery?”
Su Man glanced at the notebook, the curve of her lips becoming even colder.
She pushed Huo Feng aside and walked barefoot toward Jiang Yingxue, her delicate feet as white as jade.
Jiang Yingxue instinctively took a step back.
“Dr. Jiang, right?”
Su Man’s voice was soft, but it carried a chill that made one’s scalp tingle.
“Since you think this is sorcery, why don’t you explain what exactly is wrong with the commander’s leg?”
Jiang Yingxue froze.
Then she puffed out her chest.
Although she could not speak, her expression clearly said: Who can’t tell he has rheumatism?
As if seeing straight through her thoughts, Su Man sneered.
“Rheumatism? Hah. What a quack.”
She turned around, her eyes sharp as she stared at Lei Zhenshan’s left knee.
“Commander, the pain you experience when it rains is only a symptom. The real problem is three inches below the joint of your kneecap. Isn’t there a fragment of shrapnel, about the size of a grain of rice, that has never been removed?”
“Because it’s lodged in the nerve plexus, even surgery isn’t an option, right?”
Boom!
Lei Zhenshan felt his mind explode with a deafening roar, his pupils contracting violently.
If he had merely been surprised when Su Man identified his rheumatism, he was absolutely horrified now.
That shrapnel had been left behind during a self-defense counterattack war thirty years ago. Its location was extremely difficult—it was right beside the main trunk of his sciatic nerve.
At the time, China’s top specialists had consulted on his case for three days and three nights before reaching the final conclusion:
It could not be removed.
If they removed it, he would be paralyzed.
The matter had been classified as top secret. Aside from the surgeon who had operated on him back then and Lei Zhenshan himself, not even his current guards knew about it.
How could this woman possibly know?
“You… how did you know?”
Lei Zhenshan’s voice was slightly hoarse. For the first time, the authority of a man who had occupied a position of power for decades showed a crack.
Su Man casually adjusted the silver bells on her sleeve.
“I’m a doctor. Observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking are basic skills.”
“I watched the way you walk. Your left foot lands three-tenths lighter than your right, and whenever you turn around, you move your hips before your leg. That’s a typical compensatory movement caused by nerve compression.”
“On top of that, there’s a persistent frown between your brows, and your complexion is dark around the forehead. That’s caused by long-term pain resulting in deficient circulation and weakened qi and blood.”
At this point, she paused, a sly glint flashing in her eyes.
“Of course, most importantly, I have a very sensitive nose.”
“A sensitive nose?”
Lei Zhenshan was completely baffled.
“Your leg has a rotten, rusty-metal smell.”
Su Man waved her hand in front of her nose in disgust.
“That’s the smell of the shrapnel rusting inside your flesh. Although the smell of medicinal ointment on your body masks it, to me, it’s as obvious as three-day-old spoiled braised pork.”
The entire courtyard fell completely silent.
That explanation was simply absurd!
Jiang Yingxue was stomping her feet anxiously nearby.
This woman was talking absolute nonsense!
Could she really smell rust through flesh and skin?
That was an insult to modern medicine!
She grabbed Lei Zhenshan by the arm and shook her head frantically, her eyes pleading.
Commander, don’t believe her! She’s a fraud!
At this point, Lei Zhenshan was engaged in an intense internal struggle.
On one hand, Su Man had been frighteningly accurate—so accurate that he couldn’t help believing her.
On the other hand, her claim of diagnosing illness by smell was simply too fantastical.
This was a military compound. What if something went wrong?
“Commander.”
Huo Feng, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke.
He looked at Su Man’s back, his eyes filled with unwavering trust.
“Although I don’t know anything about medicine, I believe in my wife. Five years ago, I was poisoned with a deadly toxin. She pulled me back from the gates of death.”
“I’ll stake my life on her abilities.”
“Stake your life?”
Lei Zhenshan looked at his most trusted subordinate.
“Huo Feng, you should know that there are no jokes when it comes to the military.”
“Yes!”
Huo Feng stood at attention, his voice ringing with absolute conviction.
“If anything goes wrong, I’ll strip off this uniform and accept whatever punishment you give me!”
Su Man looked back at Huo Feng, her heart stirring slightly.
This man might be as dense as a block of wood, but when it mattered, he certainly knew how to stand his ground.
“All right. Stop acting like we’re about to be separated by death.”
Su Man interrupted the tragic atmosphere. With a flip of her wrist, the same pitch-black pill appeared in her palm.
“Are you taking it or not? Just say the word.”
“The main ingredients are a hundred-year-old Golden Thread Lotus and the gallbladder of a five-step viper. Just the ingredients alone are worth enough to buy half of this family compound.”
“If you don’t want it…”
As she spoke, she pretended to toss the pill away.
Black Panther, who had been crouching nearby drooling, immediately let out a bark and pounced forward, mouth wide open, ready to catch it.
“Wait!”
Lei Zhenshan panicked.
When his leg acted up, the pain was genuinely unbearable. Especially recently, with the changing weather, it felt as though someone were sawing through his bones.
Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, he wanted to try.
“I’ll take it!”
Lei Zhenshan pushed aside Jiang Yingxue, who was trying to stop him, strode up to Su Man, and snatched the pill from her hand.
The pill was warm in his palm, carrying a strange herbal fragrance rather than the pungent smell of traditional Chinese medicine he had expected.
“Commander! You can’t just take something like that!”
The guard beside him was practically crying.
“Why don’t we send it to the laboratory and test its ingredients first?”
“Test my ass!”
Lei Zhenshan cursed.
“By the time the results come back, my leg will have fallen off from the pain! Besides, how could the wife of Huo Feng possibly want to hurt me?”
With that, he steeled himself, closed his eyes, and tossed the pill into his mouth.
“Gulp.”
He swallowed it.
Jiang Yingxue closed her eyes in despair.
It was over.
If anything happened to the commander after taking the pill, Huo Feng would definitely be finished.
But she had failed to stop him in front of everyone, so she would be punished when she returned as well.
Everyone stared intently at Lei Zhenshan.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Lei Zhenshan smacked his lips.
It seemed… slightly sweet?
Then, suddenly, a wave of heat exploded from his stomach!
The heat was not violent. Instead, it was like a gentle warm spring flowing rapidly through his meridians and into every part of his body.
Especially his left knee.
The warm current seemed to have found an outlet and surged toward it with incredible force.
“Hiss—”
Lei Zhenshan sucked in a sharp breath.
His face instantly flushed bright red, and beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead.
“Commander!”
“Commander, what’s wrong?”
The guards and Zhao Gang were scared out of their minds and rushed forward to call for the military doctor.
Jiang Yingxue looked as though she were saying, I knew it!
She pointed at Su Man and was about to throw herself at her.
“Don’t move!”
Lei Zhenshan suddenly let out a thunderous roar, his voice booming like a massive bell and making everyone’s ears ring.
He gritted his teeth tightly, both hands clutching the fabric over his knee as his entire body trembled violently.
Pain!
No.
Not pain!
It was itching!
An unbearable itch!
It felt as though countless ants were crawling and biting between his bones.
The sensation was ten thousand times worse than pain!
“Bear with it.”
Su Man had somehow already moved to the side. She held a blade of foxtail grass she had casually plucked from Huo Xiaoxie’s basket, lazily twirling it in her hand.
“This is the medicine dissolving the cold toxins and necrotic tissue that have accumulated over the past thirty years.”
“Bone spurs and granulation tissue have already formed around the shrapnel. Naturally, dissolving them won’t be comfortable.”
“Dissolving them?”
Zhao Gang’s scalp prickled at the thought.
Su Man glanced at him.
“What? You want to try it too?”
Zhao Gang shook his head so vigorously it was practically a rattle drum.
About five minutes later, the bone-deep itching finally began to fade.
In its place came a sense of lightness unlike anything he had ever experienced.
Lei Zhenshan slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.
He lowered his head and was shocked to discover that the pant leg covering his left leg was completely soaked.
It wasn’t sweat.
It was a black, foul-smelling, viscous liquid dripping down from his pant leg.
“What… what is this?”
Lei Zhenshan’s eyes widened.
“Toxins and stagnant blood being expelled.”
Su Man took two steps backward in disgust.
“Go wash yourself. You stink.”
Lei Zhenshan didn’t have time to worry about how disgusting he smelled.
He tentatively moved his left leg.
Light.
It was so light!
His leg had always felt as though it were filled with lead, and every step had required tremendous effort.
But now, that heaviness had completely disappeared!
He tried bending his knee.
Previously, he could only bend it thirty degrees.
Now…
He could squat all the way down!
“My leg…”
Lei Zhenshan suddenly sprang to his feet and stomped down hard twice.
He even excitedly did a few high-knee lifts on the spot.
No pain!
No stiffness!
It was as flexible as when he had first joined the army at twenty!
“It worked! It really worked!”
Lei Zhenshan was so excited that his face turned bright red. He took off his military cap, revealing a head of graying hair, yet he was grinning like a child.
“Hahahaha! My leg is healed! It’s really healed!”
The soldiers around him stared in utter disbelief.
Was this really the same Commander Lei who normally needed a cane just to walk and cursed like crazy whenever it rained?
His jumping ability was even better than that of a fresh recruit!
Jiang Yingxue was completely dumbfounded.
She stared incredulously at Lei Zhenshan bouncing around energetically, the pen in her hand falling to the ground with a sharp clatter.
How was this possible?
An old ailment that even the most renowned doctors in Beijing couldn’t cure had been healed by a single black pill?
This wasn’t scientific!
It had to be a hallucination!
Lei Zhenshan remained excited for quite some time before finally remembering why he had come.
He abruptly turned around and strode toward Su Man.
This time, there was no longer any scrutiny or suspicion in his eyes.
Instead, they were filled with fervent admiration… and even a hint of cautious flattery.
“Um… Comrade Su Man, right?”
Lei Zhenshan rubbed his hands together, smiling so broadly that the wrinkles on his face gathered into folds.
“I was blind to your true worth just now. I may have raised my voice a little. Don’t take it to heart, okay?”
Huo Feng’s mouth twitched as he watched from the side.
That was a little too fast, wasn’t it?
Just moments ago, he had wanted to make Huo Feng leave and write a self-criticism.
Now he was already calling Su Man “Comrade.”
Su Man, however, seemed quite pleased. She lifted her chin slightly.
“Yes, your voice was pretty loud. You scared my son while he was playing with a snake.”
Lei Zhenshan immediately smiled apologetically.
“Yes, yes, my fault. Um… that pill just now. Do you have any more? I’d like to get some for a few of my old comrades too. They’re all suffering from various ailments…”
“No more.”
Su Man rejected him without hesitation.
“That thing is extremely difficult to make. A hundred-year-old Golden Thread Lotus is practically impossible to find. I only had that one pill left. I was originally planning to save it for my own old age.”
Lei Zhenshan looked deeply disappointed, but he also knew that a miraculous medicine like this had to be incredibly precious.
Just then, the bespectacled secretary who had been following behind Lei Zhenshan suddenly seemed to remember something.
He abruptly pushed his glasses up, his face filled with shock as he pointed at Su Man.
“Wait! A hundred-year-old Golden Thread Lotus… using poison to counter poison… acupuncture with golden needles… and the ability to command beasts…”
His voice trembled with excitement.
“Y-You… could you possibly be the legendary ‘Ghost Physician of the Southwest’?!”