A Western Doctor’s Happy Farming Life[1] 137

Song Qinghan and Wu Dahu looked at each other in the eyes, seemingly not knowing what ideas in their mind they had gotten.

They didn’t know whether Wang Chaoyuan himself had checked out the shop or not. Yet from the excitement shown on his face, probably the answer towards the question should be negative.

If he knew what kind of shop he got by winning the bet, probably he wouldn’t have been that much excited.

After all, win or lose couldn’t be only judged by the result of bet itself. The other party seemed to have lost a precious shop in a boosting area, yet indeed he might rejoice over getting rid of a hot potato. If, they ever put the whole thing into a more meticulous consideration, they probably could find out that such a bet was an entire cajole which was made up by the other party deliberately.

The two of them thought for a moment and then Wu Dahu took the initiative to ask, “Oh, then maybe we should give it a try first?”

“Okay,” answered Song Qinghan, and then he turned to Hualian, saying, “You should have known the whole matter in this shop now. Influenced by the former owner of this shop, people might be afraid of tasting the stuff you make. In such a case, will you still choose to have a try?”

Hualian seemed to be hesitated currently, and then he asked in a low voice, “What if I screw it up and sustain losses…”

“You don’t have to worry about this. We won’t always suffer the losses anyway, yet it will just be difficult for us to run a new shop in the very beginning and it will surely be a hard task for you. In all, it all depends on you now!”

Song Qinghan interrupted him and tried to imbue him with another way of thinking.

Sure enough, after hearing that running a shop wouldn’t suffer loss but would just be a bit strength-consuming, Hualian nodded vigorously with decisiveness, “I do, I do! I’m born to suffer and taste every piece of bitterness in this world. As long as it will be profitable, I will do everything for that.”

As he finished the last bit of his words, he raised his head to stare at the seemingly spacious shop, and then continued to say while clenching his fists tight, “From now on, I will settle down here, I will be the earliest chicken in the morning and stay up latest at night as a dog! I swear I will surely earn more coins for Young Master and Young Mistress!”

Song Qinghan can’t help laughing and shook his head, “It’s good for you to nurse such an ambition yourself, but how come you imagine you get an iron body? Probably you will just collapse after two days of struggling for that. And at that time the business starts to boost and you will go back to get yourself recover from all kinds of disease. Won’t that be more loss?”

Hearing that, Hualian nodded hesitantly and said obediently, “Okay, I will definitely take care of myself, and I will definitely take good care of this shop and business.”

Song Qinghan delivered Hualian a wry smile with resignation while Hualian seemed to have regarded the fate of the shop as one important part in his life. Song Qinghan approached and patted the pitiful man on the shoulder, saying, “Okay, now let us tidy the shop up first, after everything is prepared, we will pick a day to run the shop!”

The three people worked together and quickly arranged the internal part neatly. Song Qinghan even discovered some unknown powder from the corner on the ground. Well, no one knew whether such scattered bits of powder belonged to the so-called ‘soul-extracting powder’ or not.

By the time they stopped to rest, it was already noon time. After Song Qinghan had lunch, he recalled the fact that there still lay a patient who had stomach cancer in the Huichun Shop. Without hesitation, he headed to the Huichun Shop together with Yuan Wenxuan.

Probably the man who lay on the bed knew that he was about to be saved, he got a brighter mood with a brighter expression than before. Most surprisingly, he did eat some congee himself while the symptom of retching seemed to reduce quite a lot.

Seeing that, Song Qinghan felt much confident.

Most of the time, the technique of a doctor wasn’t the crucial factor influencing the result of the whole operation, but the actual thought and mental state of the patient, especially when facing the unsolved century problem which was still haunting the modern medicine- cancer.

In the past, he often heard the news that someone got the cancer tumor cut off but it reoccured not long after accepting the operation. Even there was a group of people believed that they cleared out the cancer themselves just by keeping themselves a good mood. Thus, we, as a reader, should also believe that a mood of brightness will always be the fine medicine curing bunch of diseases.

“You are the one who came to set off a challenge?” a voice sounded behind.

Just as Song Qinghan was about to leave, a man in white came in from the door and looked at Song Qinghan with a strange look.

Song Qinghan frowned tight as he didn’t like the feeling of being stared at by someone other at all. So he answered indifferently, “First, I did not set off any challenge as you mentioned, and secondly, I know nothing about you. So, would you please give a way? I want to leave here and go back home with my disciple.”

“A young doctor, and an early-maturing kiddo, who else it will be expect you? But, tsk… I just didn’t expect that it was you.”

The man said so while remaining his calmness and elegance on face. Yet what was the most confusing thing was that he seemingly was just talking nonsense which confused Song Qinghan the most.

What did he mean by ‘who else it will be expect you’? Since it was him, why would he say something like ‘expect you’?

Song Qinghan took a glance at the man strangely, the next moment he found the other party was actually a man with amazingly beautiful face. The man’s pair of eyes was just like two clean diamonds embellished by pair of delicately curved and fine ‘sewn’ eyebrows, his lips were fairly tender and rosy as his teeth was neatly white. What a man with a wonderfully delicate face!

“How come you’ve become an idiot at your young age?!” murmured Song Qinghan himself in his mind. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was too rude to say it directly, he probably would have said that directly.

The man moved slightly to the other side. Just at the moment Song Qinghan thought he would give him a way, the man suddenly said, “Would you like to have a bet with me?”

Song Qinghan couldn’t help but laugh as he stared at the man with a face full of confusion, “Why should I make a bet with you?”

“Mhm ……” the man paused, and seemingly sank into a while of hesitation. With a sudden smile, he said as if he had already gotten a well-thought-out plan in his mind, “Didn’t you once come up with a condition that you need a obedient doctor who is with a profound medical skill to be your assistant? If you win the bet, I volunteer to be your assistant. And if you lose the bet, then I would love you to be my assistant. How is it?”

Song Qinghan felt quite speechless standing there. What kind of the matters he had encountered recently? Did he incur the wrath of the gold of gambler? If not, how come there were bunch of people coming over to MAKE A BET??

He then sneered, saying, “Even if you really got a profound medical skill and are rather obedient, that doesn’t mean that I will definitely pick you as my assistant. In addition, even if I really get the chance to pick you, you have no other alternatives but just accept the fact yourself. Won’t it be an unnecessary move to make a so-called bet with you?”

The man smiled brightly and handsomely as if there was a breeze from spring blowing on his face, and then he said nonchalantly, “Since you’re also a doctor, you naturally know the fact that almost every doctor gets his own conceit, more or less. No matter whom you will pick, the other party will definitely complain about you. Yet it will be fine if he just complains, what if he doesn’t like to cooperate with you? Even worse, probably he will play some tricks when you’re treating your patients. He who picked by you probably will let you know what the consequence you pick him as an assistant. At that time, you should be the only one who suffer losses.”

“I didn’t lie about what I have just said, I do have a profound basic of medicine, and I AM quite obedient. Most importantly, I really would love to make the bet with you.”

Song Qinghan understood what he said and had thought about it before. After all, getting someone to his subordinates was one thing, and letting him do things in be most willing should be another matter of fact he should think about.

He pondered carefully, and the took another glance at the man, then slowly he released the tightly frowned eyebrows, while saying, “What’s the bet about?”

The reason why he didn’t agree or reject directly and immediately was because he  knew he should and had to leave a leeway for himself to butter. After all, if the content of the bet was to recognize the catagories of the herbs, he would definitely fail the bet in the very beginning.

The man smiled slightly as if he had seen through the thoughts buzzing Song Qinghan, and then he said, “I heard that someone miraculously succeeded wiping out the epidemic of the small pox in the Moshang Town not long ago, why don’t we make a bet that on this event? Let’s figure the treatment out by our own, the one whose answer is the most related to the fact will win the bet. How about that?”

“Oh by the way, as for the judge. I would love to recommend the residents to be the ones by the principle of fairness. Anyway, it won’t take us long to go for that town.” the man added.

As the man said so, both Song Qinghan and Yuan Wenxuan were secretly chuckled themselves.

It wasn’t someone else who cure the disease, the one who solved the problem was right Song Qinghan himself. Well, would that mean… Song Qinghan was going to win that bet?

Seeing that Song Qinghan sinking into his silence, the man came to comfort gently, “Don’t worry, I just came to know this event most recently, so I got no chance to probe into the whole matter. Well, if you still can’t erase the worries in your mind, I would allow you to inquire of the folks about the relevant event. I will wait for you here and we will write our own thoughts on rice paper.”

“Umm…” Song Qinghan sounded, and then he shook his head, “No need for that, I mean, if you are not that kind of useful for me, I am allowed to get another doctor at any time if I wish, right?”

The man was utterly stunned as he was informed that he probably would be ‘useless’. Yet he still nodded decisively while his eyes were full of reluctance, and then he answered in a good temper, “Alright then, you can change as you wish. The bet is a personal bet between you and me anyway, it won’t influence the one you’ve got with Sir Xian.”

Hearing that, Song Qinghan added after a short while of pondering, “Besides these rules, do you have any other rules to be complemented? Like, in what situation the answer won’t count?”

Noticing that Song Qinghan had turned to be with a fuss instead of his original cold indifference, the man seemed to get a trace of disappointment in his eyes, but he still maintained his smile and said calmly, “Nothing more, as long as you write down the answer on the rice paper, the answer counts. Residents will be responsible for judging the bet.”

Song Qinghan pondered, in the end he still did not confess the truth to the man as the man had already taken his own writing brush and started writing.

Anyway, the man had said that there were no other rules, so even if Song Qinghan was the one who cured the small pox, he should have no effect on the result of this bet. After all, curing the disease and writing a detailed record of the curing method were totally two different kinds of matters.

After a half an hour, Song Qinghan finally put down the writing brush in his hand, he patted slightly on the unseasoned marks on the paper, and then made a gentle sound, “Done.”

The man was still deep in thought, thinking that Song Qinghan would definitely get nothing in his mind, so he gave up after writing a few words. He casually glanced over at the site where Song Qinghan stood, and when he saw there were actually lines and lines of handwriting showing on the rice paper, nothing but surprise had already been put on the man’s face.

Fortunately, he soon realized that his current behavior was somewhat inappropriate and quickly took back his head. Otherwise, his thoughts would be completely influenced and taken away by the detailed steps Song Qinghan had written on the paper.

Song Qinghan sat to one side leisurely. After drinking a cup of warm tea, he saw that the man had finally put down his writing brush and then he nodded, saying, “Sorry but I leave to leave now, we will meet again at the day when the result is out. See you~”

Seeing that Song Qinghan had hurriedly left, the man ordered the servant to pack the papers and hand them over to the coachman. He asked the coachman to rush to the Moshang Town quickly and get a result back for him.

The coachman didn’t think much about it at all and just took over the papers and put them away. The servant beside the man couldn’t help asking, “Childe, shouldn’t you make marks on the papers? What if the residents there…”

The man’s expression darkened. He glanced at the servant and said coldly, “Are you so worried that I will lose the bet? Or, do you mean that I will be a sore loser?”

The servant trembled as the man took a fierce glance at him. He quickly lowered his head and didn’t dare to speak.