The moment the needle pierced his Baihui point, Huo Jingchuan felt a sudden tingle and numbness sweep through his entire body.
The muscles that had been thrashing violently from pain stiffened as if frozen by a spell.
He could sense the world around him, but didn’t even have the strength to lift a single finger.
The helplessness drove him into a near-frenzied rage.
He strained his eyes and fixed them on Jiang Mian, his voice hoarse but dripping with murderous intent:
“Who… exactly are you? Where did you learn this needle technique?”
A girl who had never left the village—even if she’d learned a bit from her barefoot-doctor grandfather—couldn’t possibly have such pinpoint accuracy or control over the force of a needle!
“I’m your wife… and the doctor who can save your life!”
Jiang Mian didn’t have time for his questions. Her expression cold, she yanked back the blanket and swiftly pushed his healthy right leg aside, then grasped his injured, unfeeling left leg with both hands.
Huo Jingchuan’s pupils constricted. This was the side of him he had always loathed showing.
“Don’t touch that! Get away!” he roared from deep in his throat—a lion wounded yet defending its dignity one last time.
“Shhh—”
Jiang Mian ignored his protests, rolling the pant leg up to his thigh.
The left leg was exposed—shrunken and pale. Though the limb itself was intact, long-term bed rest and nerve damage had left the muscles atrophied.
Jagged, twisted surgical scars crawled across it, remnants of the desperate operations done to save his leg. The knee bore a ghastly penetrating wound, blue-purple and sickly…
And, from the earlier spasms, the muscles still twitched slightly.
The sight would terrify any ordinary woman, maybe even make her nauseous.
Huo Jingchuan instinctively closed his eyes, bracing for the expected shock, fear, or feigned pity.
But no screams came.
Instead, a warm, dry, soft hand gently covered the ugly scars, with no hesitation or disgust.
Huo Jingchuan’s eyes snapped open.
Jiang Mian leaned slightly forward, her almond-shaped eyes calm and neutral—no fear, no revulsion, not even sympathy.
Her slender fingers pressed and probed the scars, brow furrowed, murmuring softly:
“Damp evil in the body, cold stagnating the blood, meridians completely blocked… no wonder it hurts so much.”
Huo Jingchuan froze.
This focused, professional gaze—he had only ever seen it in the top military medical specialists of the capital.
“Endure it. The next few needles will hurt.”
Without giving him time to react, Jiang Mian’s wrists moved like lightning.
Swish! Swish!
Two silver needles pierced the Zusanli point below the knee and the Yanglingquan on the outer knee.
“Ugh—!”
Huo Jingchuan groaned, veins popping at his temples. He opened his mouth to curse—but Jiang Mian frowned and pulled out another silver needle, aiming at the Yamen or nearby sedating point behind his ear.
【Tch, his mouth is too noisy. That roar just gave me a headache.】
【Need to pierce a “mute” point to shut him up? Nah, have to keep him able to take medicine. Just sedate him, make him too weak to curse.】
The needle went in.
Huo Jingchuan felt his throat tighten. A heavy drowsiness and relaxation washed over him. The curse he had ready at the tip of his tongue vanished—he could only emit a weak sigh.
His eyes widened, staring at Jiang Mian in disbelief.
This woman… dared to pierce me?!
She ignored his murderous glare, twisting the needles and performing a specialized massage around his amputated limb.
Her fingers looked delicate, but the force was tremendous, each press perfectly hitting congested acupoints.
【Still glaring?】
【One more glare and I’ll gouge your eyeballs and use them as lightbulbs!】
【Be a good little test subject! This “Through-the-Sky Cool” needle technique hasn’t been used in ages—today, you’re the lucky one!】
【If it weren’t to help you live two more years so I can get my allowance, I wouldn’t waste the effort on you! My hands are killing me!】
Huo Jingchuan, listening to this mental monologue, felt his chest rise and fall in anger.
“Little test subject?”
“Lucky fool?”
“For an allowance?”
Huo Jingchuan, famous all his life, had been reduced to being experimented on by a little village girl!
And yet, while his rage simmered, a miracle happened.
With Jiang Mian’s twisting fingers and deep massage, the phantom limb pain—once like needles piercing bone and fire burning marrow—began to fade.
The excruciating, soul-deep pain receded like a tide pulling back from the shore.
In its place came a tingling warmth, spreading from the needle points.
The warm flow moved along his meridians, dispersing the frozen cold, giving his long-chilled, painful residual limb its first taste of “living” warmth.
Huo Jingchuan’s iron-tight body relaxed involuntarily.
The relief—from hell back to life—left him slightly dazed.
He no longer struggled, turning his gaze toward Jiang Mian with complexity in his eyes.
By now, Jiang Mian had shed all pretense of being the “timid wife.”
Beads of sweat glistened on her nose from exertion, stray hair framed her face, swaying with each motion.
Her eyes were focused and bright, lips pressed tightly, radiating undeniable authority and confidence.
The dim kerosene lamp light gilded her profile with a soft, almost sacred glow.
At that moment, Huo Jingchuan forgot she was the little trickster constantly scheming to guard her widowhood.
All he felt was that this serious, competent woman was breathtakingly beautiful.
【Phew… pulse finally stabilizing.】
Jiang Mian exhaled, wiping sweat from her brow—and met Huo Jingchuan’s deep, shadowed eyes.
She instinctively recoiled, shrinking into the “little white flower” pose, timidly asking:
“Jing… Brother Jingchuan… does it… still hurt?”
【What are you staring at? Awed by my superb medical skills? That’s right, call me Miracle Doctor Jiang!】
Huo Jingchuan: “….”
The brief, suggestive thoughts that had just begun to stir vanished in an instant.