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

Chen Ping and Wang Tao squeezed into the crowd and immediately saw the situation on the ground.

A tricycle was leaning to one side in the middle of the road, its front end crashed into a utility pole on the side of the road, and the vegetables and radishes in the cargo bed were scattered all over the ground.

An old man, around sixty years old, was lying next to the tricycle, covered in blood.

The pant leg was ripped in a large tear, and the right leg was bent outward at an angle that made people's teeth ache. The area below the knee was obviously misaligned, and the bone was pushing the pant leg into a deformed bulge.

The old man was in so much pain that he was covered in sweat, his lips were white, and he tried to get up by supporting himself with his hands but couldn't muster the strength. He could only tilt his head back and howl, his voice was high-pitched and hoarse, and it sounded really miserable.

Two women were squatting next to the old man. The younger woman, wearing a dark red coat, sat on the ground, covering her face with her hands and peeking out through her fingers, muttering something like "Father, bear with it," but she didn't move, as if she was terrified.

Another older man stood to the side, clutching a cloth bag in both hands, his face filled with panic.

A black sedan was parked nearby, its front bumper dented on the right side. The driver, a man in his thirties, was squatting by the roadside making a phone call, his voice urgent and trembling: "Yes, yes, I hit someone, on this street in front of the Siping Township Health Center... He ran out on his own, I didn't have time to brake... Please come quickly..."

More and more people gathered around, some taking photos with their phones, others whispering among themselves.

An elderly woman in a gray cotton shirt stood to the side, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for several people nearby to hear: "Isn't this old man the one who was faking accidents on the street just a few days ago?"

"I saw it with my own eyes. In front of the supermarket across the street, he was rubbing against someone's car. When he was exposed, he sat on the ground crying and making a scene."

Another middle-aged woman carrying a shopping basket chimed in, "That's his house, I recognize it. He made such a scene at the health center that day, banging on the door for ages, crying and shouting, and extorted a thousand yuan from the health center before leaving. This time he really ran into them, karma's coming on."

Chen Ping stood at the very edge of the crowd and recognized the face at a glance.

The old man lying on the ground was the one Li Fang had told her that day, the one who "would avoid being hit by a car."

He was lying on the ground groaning, his face covered in a mixture of blood and dust, looking quite pathetic.

Wang Tao reached out from behind and grabbed Chen Ping's arm with considerable force.

He leaned close to Chen Ping's ear, his voice low and tinged with nervousness, "Master, don't worry about it. Have you forgotten how they tried to extort you last time?"

"You treat someone's illness, and the next thing you know, they're lying on the ground begging for money. If you get involved, this time it won't just be a matter of a thousand dollars; their family will definitely try to take advantage of you."

Wang Tao was afraid that Chen Ping would develop a professional habit of wanting to help whenever he saw him.

Chen Ping nodded, standing at the edge of the crowd. He looked at the wailing old man on the ground and the woman squatting beside him crying, his eyes showing no emotion, just a faint glance.

The younger of the two women caught a glimpse of Chen Ping standing outside the crowd out of the corner of her eye.

She froze for a moment, then jumped up as if grasping at a straw, scrambling out of the crowd and grabbing Chen Ping's white coat sleeve, her voice trembling with sobs and urgency: "Dr. Chen! You're Dr. Chen! Please save my dad, please save him, he's dying!"

She clung to Chen Ping's sleeve, tears and snot streaming down her face. "You're a doctor, you can't just stand by and watch him die! Please save him, I beg you..."

Wang Tao stood to the side, his mouth moving faster than his brain. He pointed at the woman's nose and started yelling, "Now you remember he's a doctor?"

"When your dad faked his death and tried to extort money from us at our clinic a few days ago, didn't you remember he was a doctor?"

"When you were slapping the ground and cursing him for being a quack, why didn't you remember he was a doctor? You took that thousand dollars pretty easily, didn't you? Now that something's really happened, you suddenly remember to call a doctor?"

The woman was stunned for a moment by Wang Tao's scolding. Tears still clung to her face, but she had already started to speak, "It was all a misunderstanding... We had no choice... Dr. Chen, please be magnanimous and don't hold it against the elderly. My father is really dying, please..."

Upon hearing Wang Tao's words, the surrounding crowd began to discuss the matter, and their voices grew louder and louder.

"So it was that family that staged the accident; they deserved it!"

"He caused such a scene at the health center a couple of days ago, extorting a thousand yuan from someone, and now he's getting his comeuppance."

"The police should handle this. Why bother saving someone like that? They'll just blame you later."

"Exactly. Dr. Chen kindly treated him last time, but he turned around and bit the hand that fed him. If he helps again this time, he'll really be a sucker."

The woman was humiliated by the jeers and insults from the crowd, but she wasn't giving up. She turned to the crowd and shouted, "Do you have any conscience? A grown woman is lying on the ground and you don't help her, but instead you're making sarcastic remarks!"

"Dr. Chen, you're a doctor! Saving lives is your duty. How can you just stand by and watch someone die?"

Chen Ping looked at her face, at the sense of entitlement in her eyes, as if all the mistakes were someone else's, and that she and her father were always the victims.

After a two-second silence, Chen Ping said calmly, "The health center has limited medical resources and can't handle such a serious injury. Let's wait for the traffic police and ambulance to arrive."

After saying that, he pulled his sleeve out of the woman's hand, turned around and walked back without even looking back.

Wang Tao quickly followed, walking beside Chen Ping, and said excitedly, "Master, I was really afraid you would make a mistake and rush in to save him again! To be honest, seeing that family get their comeuppance made me feel incredibly happy."

As Chen Ping walked, he said, "I am a doctor, that's true, but I'm not a saint. Consider that thousand yuan last time a lesson learned."

"I will save those I can save, but those who are not worth saving will not appreciate it even if I do. Some people, no matter how good you are to them, will treat you like an enemy if you do not do what they want even once."

Wang Tao nodded vigorously, then took a couple of steps and remembered something else, "Master, when the traffic police arrive, they'll definitely bring the person to our clinic first. Once they're at the door, it seems like there's no way they can refuse to take them, right?"

Chen Ping didn't stop walking, and gave a cold smile: "We have to accept it. But the health center has limited medical resources and can't perform major surgery. We'll just do some simple treatment, bandage and stop the bleeding, and then contact the county hospital for an ambulance to transfer the patient."

He paused for a moment, then turned his head to look at Wang Tao. "When they were dealing with it, they said they had run out of anesthetic and hadn't ordered any more yet."

Wang Tao was stunned for a moment, then his eyes suddenly lit up, as if they had been ignited by something.

He rubbed his hands together, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement, "Master, I understand. I promise I'll handle him 'properly'."

Chen Ping didn't reply, pushed open the door of the health center and went inside.