The atmosphere in the room was stifling.
Gu Ci sat cross-legged on the bed with his back to Jiang Ning. He had taken off his shirt, revealing a broad back covered in scars and fine beads of sweat.
His muscles were taut, like a bow pulled to its limit.
It was a posture of extreme defensiveness.
Jiang Ning stood beside the bed, holding a box of silver needles. She did not rush to begin. Instead, she went to the outer room, brought back a bowl of hot water, and dipped the needles into it to scald them.
A crude form of sterilization.
“Relax.”
Jiang Ning walked over and knelt on one knee at the edge of the bed. Her voice was calm. “You’re as stiff as a rock. The needles won’t go in properly. And if one breaks inside you, it’ll be even more troublesome.”
Gu Ci took a deep breath and tried to relax his shoulders.
But his resistance was instinctive. Anyone who had a needle pointed at the back of their head would instinctively want to fight back, let alone a man like him who had crawled out of piles of corpses.
“Gu Ci.”
Jiang Ning suddenly called his name.
Gu Ci remained still, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly. “Cut the nonsense. Get on with it.”
“Afraid of pain?” Jiang Ning asked.
“What a joke.” Gu Ci scoffed. “I’ve had bullets removed without anesthesia.”
“Good.”
Before the words had fully left her mouth, the needle in Jiang Ning’s hand descended.
Fast, precise, and ruthless.
The first needle went into Fengfu, the Wind Palace acupoint.
Gu Ci felt a sharp sting at the back of his neck, as if an ant had bitten him hard. Immediately afterward, a wave of soreness and swelling surged along his spine straight to the crown of his head.
“Mm…” He let out a muffled groan, his body lurching forward before he forcibly restrained himself.
“Don’t move.”
Jiang Ning pressed one hand against his shoulder while skillfully twisting the tail of the needle with the other. “This is just the beginning. Your meridians are clogged like a muddy pond. When the flow is blocked, pain follows. Bear with it.”
The second needle went into Baihui, the Hundred Meetings acupoint at the crown of his head.
A sharp pain shot through his scalp.
Gu Ci gripped the bedsheet so tightly that his knuckles turned white. The veins on his forehead bulged, and cold sweat trickled down his temples.
This pain was different from an external injury.
It wasn’t sharp, but it was relentless, as if a hand had reached inside his brain and was forcibly pulling apart the tangled nerves.
“Does it feel like something is throbbing inside your head?”
Jiang Ning’s voice sounded beside his ear, devoid of emotion. “That’s your qi and blood surging against the blocked areas. You suffered a traumatic brain injury, and the accumulated blood is pressing on your optic and trigeminal nerves. If we don’t clear the obstruction, you won’t have to wait until you’re old to go blind. Give it another two years, and you could lose your sight.”
Blind.
The word pierced Gu Ci’s heart like a needle.
He had suffered impaired vision on the battlefield before. The terror of having everything go black before his eyes was worse than death itself.
“Continue.”
Gu Ci gritted his teeth, his voice seeming to emerge from deep within his chest. “Don’t stop.”
Jiang Ning didn’t stop.
The third needle, the fourth…
Seven silver needles in total were inserted into Gu Ci’s head and the back of his neck, arranged like the seven stars of the Big Dipper.
With every needle, his body trembled.
Yet he didn’t utter another sound.
Jiang Ning studied the man before her. His back was drenched in sweat, as if someone had poured water over him. His muscles were spasming uncontrollably, but through sheer force of will, he managed to keep himself firmly in place.
What a ruthless man.
He was this merciless even toward himself. No wonder he had become a regimental commander.
“That’s enough.”
Jiang Ning withdrew her hand. “Leave the needles in for twenty minutes. You can talk during that time, but don’t move.”
Gu Ci breathed heavily, as though he had just finished running five kilometers.
After the excruciating pain came a strange, warm current. It flowed from the needle points through his limbs and body. Even his head, which had always felt as though it were trapped in an iron vise, seemed a little lighter.
“Who taught you this?”
Gu Ci closed his eyes. His voice was weak but clear. “This kind of needling technique isn’t something an ordinary barefoot doctor would know.”
At most, a barefoot doctor might know how to needle an Ashi point, a tender spot used in acupuncture. But this technique involved targeting dangerous acupoints and daring to manipulate the needles through twisting and lifting-thrusting motions. Without decades of experience, no one would dare attempt it.
“A ghost.”
Jiang Ning sat beside the bed, watching the row of trembling needle tails. Her tone was casual. “It taught me in a mental hospital… Oh, no. In a dream.”
Gu Ci didn’t respond.
He didn’t believe in ghosts or gods. But he knew everyone had secrets.
If Jiang Ning didn’t want to talk about hers, he wouldn’t ask. As long as the needles could treat his condition, he didn’t care if she had learned the technique from the King of Hell himself.
“Commander Gu,” Jiang Ning suddenly said, looking at his back, “this technique can treat the symptoms, but not the underlying cause. If you want to recover completely, you’ll need medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine.”
“Write me a prescription,” Gu Ci said. “I’ll get the ingredients.”
“Some of the herbs aren’t available in pharmacies,” Jiang Ning replied. “We’ll have to collect them in the mountains. Or… obtain them through special channels.”
“What herbs?”
“Musk, gastrodia, and several poisonous insects.”
Jiang Ning listed several ingredients, all extremely rare in this era. “Wild gastrodia is especially difficult to find. You’d have to look around the Qinling Mountains. Do you have connections?”
Gu Ci fell silent for a moment.
“I do.”
He spoke slowly. “If something exists in this world, I can get my hands on it. But first, you have to show me results.”
“The results are right here.”
Jiang Ning pointed at his head. “I’ll remove the needles after twenty minutes. Tonight, you’ll be able to sleep for five hours. When you wake up tomorrow morning, your headache will be thirty percent better. This is only the first treatment.”
“And what if it doesn’t work?”
“Then you can twist my head off.” Jiang Ning’s tone remained flat. “It’s not as if I can beat you anyway.”
The corners of Gu Ci’s mouth twitched.
This woman spoke of life and death as casually as if she were talking about eating a meal.
The twenty minutes dragged on painfully.
Every second seemed to stretch endlessly.
Finally, Jiang Ning moved.
“I’m removing the needles. It’ll hurt a little, so bear with it.”
Her hands moved like lightning. With several quick motions, she pulled out all seven silver needles.
Each needle brought with it a tiny bead of dark red blood.
As the last needle left his body, Gu Ci felt as though a thousand-pound burden had been lifted from his shoulders. The dark clouds that had perpetually hung over his head seemed to part, allowing a sliver of light to shine through.
Clarity.
A clarity he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
He abruptly turned around, moving so suddenly that he nearly collided with Jiang Ning.
She quickly stepped back, still holding the bloodstained needles.
Gu Ci looked at her.
Under the lamplight, her face was rather pale, and a thin sheen of sweat covered her forehead. Acupuncture required intense concentration, and her body was already frail. She was clearly running on her last reserves of strength.
“How is it?” Jiang Ning asked.
Gu Ci said nothing.
He raised a hand and touched the back of his neck. The stinging sensation from the needles remained, but the deep, oppressive ache had disappeared.
“Not bad.”
Those were the two words he offered.
Jiang Ning tossed the needles back into the bowl of hot water. “If it’s not bad, then pay me. I told you earlier that my skills are worth money.”
Looking at her money-hungry expression, Gu Ci felt some of his wariness toward her fade.
Greed was good.
Greedy people had weaknesses and were easier to control. The truly troublesome ones were those who wanted nothing at all.
He reached beneath his pillow, pulled out several ten-yuan bills, and tossed them onto the bed.
“This is a deposit.”
Gu Ci continued, “I’ll have someone deliver the money for your future medicine expenses.”
Jiang Ning didn’t stand on ceremony. She grabbed the money and stuffed it into her pocket.
“Good. Pleasure doing business with you.”
She picked up the bowl of water and turned toward the door. “Get some sleep. Don’t lock the door tonight. If you have an adverse reaction and die, don’t blame me for it.”
Gu Ci watched her disappear through the doorway.
From the outer room came the sounds of her making the bed, followed by the soft rustling of clothes as she changed.
Gu Ci lay back down.
A faint trace of her scent lingered on the pillow from the previous night. It was subtle, carrying the bitter fragrance of some medicinal herb.
He closed his eyes.
He had expected to spend a long time coaxing himself to sleep, but within minutes, drowsiness swept over him.
In the darkness, Gu Ci’s breathing gradually grew slow and steady.
In the outer room, Jiang Ning lay on the hard plank bed, covered by the quilt stuffed with the cotton she had just bought. It wasn’t as warm as the inner room, but it was certainly better than sleeping on the floor.
Listening to the steady breathing coming from the inner room, she finally relaxed.
The first hurdle was cleared.
For now, the mad dog had been pacified.
As long as she let him experience the benefits of her treatment and made him dependent on it, her position in this household would be secure.
As for what came next…
Jiang Ning touched the money in her pocket.
With money and status, she would also need a gun.
Gu Ci was that gun.
And she intended to keep it firmly in her own hands.
…
The next morning.
Jiang Ning was awakened by a commotion.
It seemed that many people had gathered in the courtyard, talking and shouting over one another.
She threw on her clothes and pushed open the door.
A crowd had gathered outside Wang Juhua’s house next door. Wang Juhua was sitting on the ground, slapping her thighs and wailing, while several people in white coats stood nearby with a stretcher.
“What a miserable life I have! I can’t go on living like this!”
Wang Juhua sobbed uncontrollably, tears and mucus running down her face. “My neck was just a little tight! Why are you taking me to the hospital? I’m not going! Hospitals are money pits!”
“Sister-in-law, you have hyperthyroidism. You need treatment!”
A doctor-like man tried to persuade her helplessly. “If you keep putting it off, your heart could develop problems. Come with us, quickly.”
Jiang Ning leaned against the doorframe and watched the scene.
It seemed that yesterday’s scare had worked remarkably well. Wang Juhua had genuinely frightened herself into getting examined, or perhaps the fright had finally driven her to see a doctor, who then confirmed the diagnosis.
Someone in the crowd noticed Jiang Ning.
“Hey, isn’t that the Gu family’s daughter-in-law?”
“I heard she recognized Sister-in-law Wang’s illness at a glance yesterday.”
“Really? She’s that amazing?”
Everyone turned to look at her, their eyes filled with curiosity and awe.
Jiang Ning didn’t hide.
She straightened her collar and calmly accepted their attention.
This was exactly the effect she wanted.
In a closed-off military compound like this, the only way to silence people and earn their respect was to demonstrate that she had something valuable to offer.
Just then, a military-green jeep drove up and stopped outside the crowd.
The door opened, and a middle-aged man wearing a Zhongshan suit stepped out. He wore glasses and looked scholarly, carrying a briefcase in his hand.
“May I ask which one of you is Comrade Jiang Ning?”
The man adjusted his glasses and searched the crowd with his eyes.
Jiang Ning narrowed her eyes.
She didn’t recognize him. But judging by his attire, he was clearly a local government official or perhaps someone with considerable status.
“That’s me.”
Jiang Ning stepped forward.
When the man saw her, his eyes lit up, and he hurried over.
“Hello, Comrade Jiang. I’m from the County Revolutionary Committee. My surname is Zhao.”
Officer Zhao wore an excessively courteous smile. “Well… I’ve heard that you’re skilled at treating difficult and unusual illnesses. There’s a family member of one of our leaders who has a strange condition that the hospitals haven’t been able to cure. Would you be willing to come and take a look?”
Jiang Ning raised an eyebrow.
Her reputation had spread that quickly?
Impossible. Only a day had passed since the incident with Wang Juhua. There was no way the news could have reached the county government so quickly.
Unless… someone had been deliberately spreading the word.
Jiang Ning instinctively glanced toward the regimental headquarters.
Gu Ci.
No one else had the connections or the speed to make something like this happen.
He was testing her.
Or perhaps he was setting the stage for her, waiting to see whether she could carry off the performance.
A smile curved Jiang Ning’s lips.
Since he wanted to watch the show, she’d give him one worth watching.
“Officer Zhao, is it?”
Jiang Ning nodded. “Lead the way. But let me make one thing clear first: my consultation fees are very expensive.”
Officer Zhao was taken aback, then immediately beamed with delight. “As long as you can cure the patient, money won’t be a problem!”
Amid the astonished gazes of the crowd, Jiang Ning climbed into the jeep and drove away.
Wang Juhua forgot to cry.
Hidden behind the crowd, Shen Xue dug her fingernails into her palms.
How could this country girl actually become a miracle doctor?