Zhu Quanxin followed Li Xu to the clinic.

There, he saw the yellowed notebook, which exuded the inky fragrance of age.

As he caressed the handwriting with his own hands,

it was as if he could see Elder Cheng writing, stroke by careful stroke, all those years ago.

His eyes reddened with emotion.

It was a long while before he composed himself.

He solemnly began to read through the contents of the book.

He was instantly engrossed.

Utterly captivated.

At times, his brow would furrow in concentration. At others, he would clap his hands in admiration or sigh with regret. He was completely immersed in the vast, ocean-like world of Elder Cheng’s medical knowledge.

He didn’t snap out of it until evening, when Li Xu reminded him of the time.

"Oh my, it’s gotten so late."

Zhu Quanxin apologized.

Of course, Li Xu didn’t mind.

He had already taken clear photos with his phone.

He printed them out,

stapled them into two booklets, 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

and gave them to Zhu Quanxin.

"Doctor Li, thank you so much."

Zhu Quanxin was deeply grateful. "Elder Cheng’s knowledge is vast and profound, timeless and ever-fresh. After reading these notes, I feel I can still improve my skills."

Li Xu replied with a smile, "That’s wonderful. You’ll be able to help even more people."

"That’s for sure,"

Zhu Quanxin said.

Li Xu offered to treat him to dinner,

but Zhu Quanxin, eager to get back to his reading, waved him off. "I’ll eat at home."

Li Xu didn’t insist.

He ate a bowl of noodles by himself and returned to his own study of Elder Cheng’s notes.

Combining some of the techniques with what he had practiced during the day,

he gained a deeper understanding.

The night passed.

The next morning, Li Xu checked the intelligence.

It was a pediatric emergency.

’I wonder if it’s at the district hospital or the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine... As for them coming to my clinic? Probably not. The patient’s condition is too dangerous. Their first choice would have to be a major hospital.’

...

「Feng City Suburbs, Wang Villa.」

In a clean and tidy little farmhouse courtyard.

A young mother, Liu Lanlan, sat by the bed. She absentmindedly watched her son play while scrolling through short videos on her phone, occasionally letting out a giggle.

Her son, Wang Zimo, had just turned one. He was at that age of peak activity, full of curiosity about the world.

Xiao Momo sat amidst a pile of toys on the bed, playing contentedly.

He grabbed a rattle and shook it, then picked up a small plastic duck and gnawed on it.

However,

danger was lurking just around the corner.

Mixed in with the colorful pile of toys was an iron nail, about three or four centimeters long.

Perhaps her husband had accidentally dropped it on the bed a few days ago while repairing furniture.

Xiao Momo developed a strong interest in this "new toy" that gleamed with a metallic luster.

He grabbed the iron nail and, imitating how he gnawed on the duck, unhesitatingly stuffed it into his mouth.

The cold, hard iron nail slid down his small oral cavity.

It snagged for a moment in his throat before he swallowed it down.

"Urk..."

Xiao Momo felt intense discomfort. He wanted to cry, but couldn’t.

He wanted to spit it out, but was powerless to do so.

His little face instantly turned red from the strain.

Just then, Liu Lanlan, immersed in her short videos, casually glanced over and happened to see this horrifying scene!

"Ah!"

Terrified, she dropped her phone onto the bed with a THUD.

Her first reaction was to follow a folk remedy passed down in the countryside: she grabbed her son’s slender feet, held him completely upside down, and shook him vigorously, trying to make him spit out the iron nail.

However,

the violent motion not only failed to dislodge the nail, but because of the change in his position and the vigorous shaking, the sharp end of the nail pierced deeply into Xiao Momo’s delicate throat wall.

"WAAAH—"

A spurt of bright red blood shot from Wang Zimo’s nostrils.

The toddler’s face instantly turned a deathly blue. His breathing grew faint, and his small body began to twitch weakly.

The situation had become extremely critical!

"Momo! Momo! Don’t scare Mommy!"

Liu Lanlan completely panicked. She fumbled to lay her son down. Seeing him on the verge of death, she felt as if her entire world was collapsing.

With trembling hands, she fumbled for the phone on the bed and sobbed as she dialed her husband, who was out working in the fields.

"H-hello... Honey... Quick... come back! Momo... Momo, he’s... he’s not going to make it!"

On the other end of the line, Wang Jianhao was in the fields weeding vegetables. When he heard his wife’s choked sobs, his mind went completely blank with a deafening BUZZ.

When he snapped out of it, he threw down his hoe.

Without even time to wash the mud from his hands, he jumped on his electric scooter and raced home.

The moment he burst through the door, he saw his son on the bed—face blue, nostrils stained with blood, breathing faint.

Wang Jianhao’s legs gave out, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

"You damn woman! How were you watching the child?!"

Snapping back to reality, he roared at his wife, Liu Lanlan, who was paralyzed by tears, "If anything happens to him, I’ll kill you!"

His voice was filled with anger and fear.

But now was not the time to argue.

Wang Jianhao picked up his semi-conscious son, rushed out of the house, and ran to the village clinic.

Inside the village clinic,

the village doctor, who was over fifty, was also shocked to see the child’s condition.

He used a tongue depressor to briefly check the child’s throat, then listened to his heartbeat, and his expression immediately became grave.

"No, no."

He shook his head repeatedly and said to Wang Jianhao, "I can’t see anything in his throat. I suspect the nail has already been swallowed into his stomach. This is too dangerous. I can’t treat him here. You must go to a major hospital immediately."

As he spoke, he picked up his phone and dialed "120," the emergency hotline, as fast as he could.

"Hello! 120? This is the Wang Villa clinic. We have a child here, a little over one year old, who swallowed an iron nail. He’s bleeding from the nose, condition is critical. Please send an ambulance immediately."

During the anxious wait, every second felt like an eternity.

A dozen or so minutes later, accompanied by a piercing siren,

an ambulance came roaring up and stopped at the clinic entrance.

The paramedics and nurses with the ambulance quickly placed Xiao Momo on a stretcher and loaded him in.

In the vehicle, the doctor immediately hooked the child up to an ECG monitor, established an IV line, administered oxygen, and performed a series of other emergency procedures.

But they were helpless against the iron nail lodged inside the child’s body.

They could only transport the child as fast as possible to the best-equipped City People’s Hospital.

Upon arrival at the hospital, his case was fast-tracked through the emergency department.

A series of emergency examinations were quickly initiated.

Soon, an abdominal X-ray clearly showed the location of the culprit—a three- to four-centimeter-long iron nail, quietly "lying" in the patient’s stomach, its sharp end resting against the stomach wall.