The carefree life of Yang Shuisheng, the village miracle doctor

He looked around to make sure no one was around before speaking in an even softer voice: "In the early years, when my legs were still nimble, I often went deep into the mountains to collect herbs and set traps."

"About seven or eight years ago, I saw a cluster of Ganoderma lucidum near Eagle Cliff on the back mountain."

"It should be called Ganoderma lucidum, right? It looks really good, with such a big canopy."

He gestured with his hand to form a shape about the size of a bowl, his eyes shining: "Back then I didn't really understand, I just thought that thing looked weird, like a big mushroom, but the color wasn't quite right."

"Later, when I got older, I heard people say that Ganoderma lucidum was precious and could save lives, and I realized that it was very likely wild Ganoderma lucidum."

"It's a pity, that place is too dangerous, it's on a cliff. My legs were already a bit weak at that time, and I couldn't get down at all."

"Now... forget about it."

Ganoderma lucidum?

Yang Shuisheng's heart skipped a beat, and his breath caught in his throat for a moment.

"Uncle Shuanzhu, are you sure it's Ganoderma lucidum?"

He suppressed his inner excitement, remaining outwardly calm, but his eyes had become incredibly sharp: "Approximately where is it? What is the exact location of Eagle Cliff?"

Lingzhi is truly a rare and precious natural treasure!

For cultivators, the essence and spiritual energy contained in Ganoderma lucidum are excellent treasures to help break through bottlenecks, stabilize their foundation, and improve their cultivation.

He now has eight streams of Qi within his body, and is only one stream away from achieving the nine streams required for the first level of the "Hehuan Qi Cultivation Technique".

If he could obtain this ancient wild Ganoderma lucidum, refine and absorb it, his chances of breaking through would greatly increase, and he might even succeed in breaking through in one fell swoop.

This news was priceless to him.

It's a million times more precious than those few dozen dollars!

"You know Eagle Cliff, right? It's the deepest and steepest cliff in the back mountain, shaped like an eagle's beak."

Seeing how much Yang Shuisheng valued it, Uncle Shuanzhu perked up. He tried hard to recall, gesturing with his hands to indicate the name: "That Ganoderma lucidum is below the eagle's beak, probably going in from the third large crack on the left. It's very deep; you have to climb in."

"The crack was covered by vines and weeds, and you couldn't see it at all unless you looked closely."

"It's cool and damp inside. I discovered it by accident while chasing an injured wild goat..."

He described the location and surrounding features in as much detail as possible.

Yang Shuisheng listened intently, memorizing every detail.

He knew about Eagle Cliff; it was indeed a dangerous place. If what Uncle Shuanzhu said was true, that Ganoderma lucidum might still be there.

"Uncle Shuanzhu, thank you! This news is so important to me," Yang Shuisheng said sincerely.

He knew that Uncle Shuanzhu genuinely wanted to repay him, which was why he revealed this secret that he had kept for so many years.

"No need to thank me, it's nothing. It's just that the place is dangerous, so you have to be very careful if you want to go."

Uncle Shuanzhu, still worried, advised, "It's best not to go alone; bring a few young and strong men with you."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful." Yang Shuisheng nodded, already planning in his mind when to go to Eagle Cliff.

He was determined to get the Ganoderma lucidum!

This may be the key opportunity for him to break through his cultivation and reach a higher level of strength.

After dealing with Uncle Shuanzhu, Yang Shuisheng had a simple lunch at Guo Cuihong's house, during which Lin Wan remained in the inner room without showing herself.

Before leaving, Yang Shuisheng carefully prepared herbal medicine for Uncle Shuanzhu, both for internal and external use, and explained the usage in detail.

He then greeted Guo Cuihong and got up to go home, intending to take a comfortable afternoon nap to recharge and also to think about how to find the Ganoderma lucidum at Eagle Cliff.

"Officer Yang! Is Officer Yang home?"

However, just as he got home, took off his coat, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes, a few minutes later, he heard a series of urgent knocks on the gate and cries that sounded like sobs coming from outside the courtyard.

"Help! Officer Yang!"

Yang Shuisheng sat up with a start; it seemed he wouldn't be able to take a nap.

He put on his clothes, went over and opened the door.

Standing outside the door was a dark-skinned man in his thirties with an anxious expression. He was Wang Laosi from the village, an honest and simple man who made a living by farming.

His wife, who was also crying anxiously, followed behind him.

"Officer Yang! I've finally found you! The village chief said you're the village doctor now, is that true?" Wang Laosi asked incoherently as if he had grasped a lifeline when he saw Yang Shuisheng.

"Yes, what's wrong?" Yang Shuisheng nodded, his gaze sweeping over the couple's panicked faces. "What happened?"

"It's my second child. He was playing in the field when he got bitten by something. His leg is all swollen up like a bun."

"He's acting strangely right now. He's started talking nonsense and twitching. You should go and take a look at him quickly," Wang Laosi's wife said urgently, her voice trembling with tears.

Was he bitten? And he's convulsing and talking nonsense?

Yang Shuisheng felt a chill; this didn't sound like an ordinary mosquito bite.

"Come on! Take me to see this." Without saying another word, he immediately followed Wang Laosi and his wife, walking briskly towards their house.

On the way, Wang Laosi recounted the situation intermittently.

After lunch, his eight-year-old son went to play with some other children near their family's vegetable garden at the village entrance. Not long after, he ran back crying, saying his ankle hurt.

At first, I thought it was just a bump or bruise and didn't pay attention, but after a while, the bite site started to become red, swollen and hard, and the child cried out in pain.

They tried folk remedies, washing with soapy water, rubbing with minced garlic, and even chewing up some herbs and applying them, but none of them worked; in fact, the condition worsened.

The child started to have a fever, was talking nonsense that was hard to understand, and his hands and feet would twitch from time to time, which terrified the couple.

As they spoke, the three of them arrived at Wang Laosi's house.

Before even entering the courtyard, I could hear a commotion inside, with at least a dozen people crammed together.

Besides Wang Laosi's relatives, most of the people who came to see the spectacle were neighbors who had heard the news, blocking the entrance to the main room.

Inside the house came the sounds of a child crying and an old man anxiously trying to comfort him.

"Make way! Make way, everyone, Cadre Yang is here." Wang Laosi pushed through the crowd to let Yang Shuisheng in.

The main room was dimly lit.

On a dilapidated wooden bed, an eight- or nine-year-old boy was curled up, his face flushed, his forehead sweating, his body twitching from time to time, and he was mumbling incoherently.

On his left ankle, a hard, purplish-black lump the size of an egg had swelled up, looking particularly terrifying against the backdrop of the surrounding normal skin.

The child's grandmother was wiping the child's forehead with a wet towel, and she was so anxious that she kept wiping away tears.

"Fourth Brother! You're finally back! Quickly hitch up the cart and get to the town clinic. We can't delay any longer!" Wang Laosi's older brother said anxiously.

"Exactly! He's convulsing; he must have been poisoned. Folk remedies won't work."

"Take it to town! Hurry! If we're too late, something terrible might happen."

"The child's face has turned purple."

"Fourth brother, what are you dawdling for?"

……

The neighbors who were watching all chimed in, almost in unison, shouting that they should send it to the town.

In their view, although Yang Shuisheng was a village cadre, he was completely unreliable when it came to saving lives and treating illnesses.

Even Wang Laosi and his wife looked hesitant, clearly unsure of what to do as they looked at their suffering child.

"Everyone, quiet down!" Wang Laosi shouted, pointing at Yang Shuisheng. "Let's let Cadre Yang take a look first. He's the village doctor in our Taohua'ao village now."

These words quieted the noise slightly, but all eyes turned to Yang Shuisheng, their gazes filled with suspicion and distrust.

"Cadre Yang? You really know how to treat illnesses?" A woman with her arms crossed and a black mole on the corner of her mouth glanced at Yang Shuisheng with obvious skepticism in her tone. "This kid looks dangerous; he's no joke."

"Are you sure you can handle this? Don't let it cause any problems..."

"That's right, Shuisheng, we know you're quite capable, but this is poisoning, not a headache or fever," another slightly older man said, his tone relatively polite, but the meaning was clear: you can't do it, don't try to be a hero.

"Fourth brother, it's not that we don't trust Cadre Yang, it's just that this concerns the child's life."

"To be on the safe side, let's send it to town!" someone else advised.

He ignored the doubts and sarcasm of the crowd, walked directly to the bedside, squatted down, and looked sharply at the purplish-black swelling on the child's ankle.

He didn't touch it immediately, but first carefully observed the shape, color, and degree of swelling of the lump. He then moved closer and took a careful sniff. Although it was very faint, his five senses were sharp, and he could smell a very faint fishy-sweet and burnt strange smell.

Then, he gently pinched the child's calf to check the skin temperature and blood vessel direction around the swelling.

After watching for only a dozen seconds, he had already formed a general judgment in his mind.

"It wasn't a snake bite."

He looked up at the anxious Mr. and Mrs. Wang and said calmly but firmly, "There are no obvious teeth marks on the wound, and the swelling is diffuse, not along the blood vessels."

"It's a poisonous insect, probably a large poisonous spider from the mountains called the black widow, or a similar highly venomous mountain spider."

"Its venom contains neurotoxins and hemolytic toxins, which is why children may develop fevers, delirium, and convulsions, and the area around the wound may become purplish-black, hard, and necrotic."

"The toxins have already started spreading throughout the body. If we delay any longer, the toxins will attack the heart, and that will be truly dangerous."

He spoke very professionally, using terms like neurotoxin, hemolytic toxin, and necrosis—terms the villagers had never heard of before, but they sounded very powerful and serious.

This immediately silenced many of the clamor for sending them to the town.

Everyone was a little stunned. Looking at Yang Shuisheng's confident eyes and clear analysis, their doubts gradually lessened, and they became more skeptical.

After Yang Shuisheng finished speaking, he took out silver needles from his pocket and said to Wang Laosi, "Hold the child down and don't let him move around. I will first use acupuncture to release some of the poisonous blood around the wound to prevent the toxin from spreading further. Then I will use herbal medicine for internal and external treatment to detoxify and reduce swelling."

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

Seeing him about to prick the child with a needle, the woman who had been holding his arms couldn't hold back any longer and shrieked, "You say a spider is a spider? What's your basis for that?"

"You're going to prick him like that? What if you hurt him? This child is already like this, he can't take any more of your messing around."

"Exactly, Shuisheng, do you think your method will work? We've never even heard of it."

"Bloodletting? Wouldn't that cause even more blood loss?"

"It's safer to take him to town for the injection!"

Questions arose again, and some even tried to stop them.