Sent to the countryside, I turned the health center into a top-tier hospital.

Chen Ping checked the time; it was almost noon, time for lunch.

He went to wake up Cui Ying, Zhou Jie, and Sun Xiaoyan for lunch.

During lunch, several people were quietly discussing the gunfight from the previous night, especially Wang Tao, who, having heard the details from somewhere, vividly recounted them to everyone, spittle flying everywhere.

For the first time ever, Zhao Guosheng didn't stop Wang Tao; instead, he listened attentively.

Just as Chen Ping was starting work in the afternoon, flipping through medical records in his clinic, a series of chaotic footsteps and the creaking of a cartwheel over the concrete came from the courtyard.

Before he could even stand up, someone in the corridor shouted at the top of their lungs, "Where's Dr. Chen? Where's Dr. Chen Ping? Help!"

He walked out of the clinic. In the courtyard, there was a wooden cart covered with an old cotton quilt. On the cart lay an old man, as thin as a bundle of firewood, with high cheekbones and deep-set eyes.

Several men and women were gathered around, some holding onto the handlebars, some covering their mouths and crying. A middle-aged woman rushed up to Chen Ping as soon as she saw him, grabbed his arm with both hands, and tears streamed down her face as if she had seen a living Buddha.

"Dr. Chen, please have mercy and save my old man! He hasn't been able to eat for days, and he's almost gone!" the woman cried.

Chen Ping bent down, examined the old man's eyelids, and then reached out to take his pulse.

His pulse was wiry, slippery, and rapid; his tongue coating was thick, greasy, and yellow; a strong smell of alcohol emanated from the old man's breath, causing him to furrow his brow slightly.

This is a typical case of alcoholic liver damage, with damp-heat accumulation in the spleen and stomach, coupled with long-term alcohol abuse damaging the liver yin, resulting in the body being severely compromised.

But it's not hopeless; quitting alcohol, recuperating, and taking medication can help to reverse the situation.

Just as he was about to have someone help the old man into the clinic, Li Fang suddenly came out of the pharmacy, ran over quickly, tugged at his sleeve, and pulled him to the corner of the corridor.

Li Fang glanced at the family in the yard, lowered her voice, and said with a mixture of anxiety and disgust, "Dr. Chen, don't get involved with this family. They're not good people; they're notorious in the surrounding villages. They've extorted money from several people before. If you save them now, they might turn around and bite you back. Don't make trouble for yourself."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ping smiled and said, "Li Fang, doctors have a compassionate heart. People have already brought their patients to our hospital, so there's no reason for us to turn them away."

After saying that, he turned around and walked back, and asked the family members to help the old man into the clinic. He gave the old man a few acupuncture treatments to unblock his meridians, and prescribed a few doses of medicine to clear heat and dampness, soothe the liver and strengthen the spleen.

When handing the prescription to the family, Chen Ping emphasized his words slowly, saying each one slowly: "This old man's illness was caused by drinking alcohol; his liver yin has been severely damaged."

"You can't touch a drop of alcohol after you get back, not even a sip. If you drink again, even a god can't save you. Got it?"

The middle-aged woman took the prescription and nodded vigorously, like a chicken pecking at rice. Several family members next to her also said repeatedly, "We've got it, we've got it. Thank you, Dr. Chen."

The family took the medicine and pushed the creaking cart out of the courtyard gate.

The matter should have ended there.

Around 5 p.m., the sun had already moved to the other side of the mountain, and the light in the corridor dimmed.

Chen Ping was writing a prescription for the last patient when the creaking of a cartwheel suddenly sounded at the hospital gate, followed by a burst of wailing.

The crying was shrill and loud, just like in the afternoon, but this time it was even fiercer, mixed with the sound of slapping the ground and cursing, and could be heard all over the street.

"This is outrageous! They've killed someone! This clinic is killing people!"

Zhao Guosheng rushed out of the office carrying a jar, and Chen Ping also put down his pen and walked out of the consultation room.

In the courtyard, there was still that wooden cart covered with an old cotton quilt, and the old man lay motionless on it.

His complexion was even worse than in the afternoon, a pale gray with a bluish tinge, his mouth was crooked, and drool was dripping down his chin, soaking a large area of ​​his collar.

A middle-aged woman sat on the ground, patting the concrete with her hands alternately, while several men and women beside her cried and wailed.

The middle-aged woman's rhythm of pounding the ground and the tone of her wailing were perfectly synchronized.

He slapped his hand down, and his voice soared to a high note. He slapped again, and soared again, until the whole street gathered around.

Zhao Guosheng squatted down to look at the old man and smelled a strong, pungent smell of alcohol. His brows furrowed, and he stood up and patiently asked what was wrong.

The middle-aged woman scrambled to her feet, pointed at Chen Ping's nose, and yelled, "What happened? You still ask what happened? This afternoon, after taking the medicine Chen Ping prescribed, the old man became unwell! You have to pay up! If you don't, we're not leaving!"

Chen Ping bent down and examined the old man's eyelids. The pupils were slow to react, but they were still moving.

He took her pulse again, and it was even more erratic than in the afternoon, with a wiry and slippery pulse mixed with a turbid quality, clearly indicating that she had just drunk alcohol, and quite a lot of it.

He straightened up and looked at the middle-aged woman. "I told you this afternoon that you're not allowed to drink a drop of alcohol after you get back. Why did you let him drink again?"

The woman immediately flew into a rage, pounding on the wooden planks of the cart and shouting, "You're spouting nonsense! You say we can't drink, so we can't? Who drank? Who saw us?"

"The old man died from taking your medicine! If you don't come up with 100,000 yuan today, I'm going to sue your lousy clinic all the way to the county!"

Two female relatives swarmed around Chen Ping, spitting in his face: "What are you, a young barefoot doctor, pretending to be a professor for! You made the patient worse and now you want to blame it on drinking? Our old man never drinks! It's your medicine that's poisoned!"

Wang Tao couldn't hold back any longer and pointed at the two female family members, saying, "I was there this afternoon when Dr. Chen was writing the prescription. He said so many times not to drink alcohol, and you all nodded as if it were the truth. Now that he's drunk, you're pushing him to the health center. Isn't this extortion?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two female relatives rushed towards Wang Tao, shouting, "You said you're extorting someone, you better explain yourself!"

One grabbed Wang Tao by the collar, while the other scratched his face.

Wang Tao backed away with his arms crossed, two red marks already scratched on his neck. He tripped over the bench and almost fell.

He didn't dare fight back. A young man fighting with two women, whether he was in the right or not, would be impossible to explain.

Seeing this, Liu Mazi rushed out of the guardhouse, stood between Wang Tao and the family members, stomped his foot on the ground, and shouted like thunder: "Stop it, all of you!"

The two female relatives took a half step back after being yelled at, but they didn't stop talking and changed their tactics.

Instead of cursing, they started wailing, sitting on the ground slapping their legs and crying, saying, "The health center beat people up!" and "The security guards bullied ordinary people!"

Li Fang stood to the side, watching the scene with her hands in her pockets. She turned her head towards Chen Ping, lowered her voice, and sighed, "What did I tell you? You shouldn't interfere with this family."

"A couple of years ago, this old man fell down on the street, and a young man went up to help him up. He was then extorted for more than 100,000 yuan. Later, the young man's family had to sell everything they owned to raise the money, and then the man moved away."

"You insist on doctors having a benevolent heart, but look at them now... If they were hit by a car, anyone who knows them would avoid them, but you, on the contrary, go and get close to them."