Clouds and Moon Shadow

Chapter 33 Minor Surgery

Unbeknownst to her, Gu Qingyue arrived at the Huichun Medical Clinic she had visited before. She had come to buy medicinal herbs, intending to prepare some medicine for self-defense, since this place was not safe.

She also wanted to see if she could collaborate with Huichun Medical Clinic to earn some money.

Just as the shop assistant had finished packing the medicinal herbs Gu Qingyue had ordered and was busy calculating on the abacus, a boy of about thirteen or fourteen years old ran in, shouting as he ran, "Doctor, help! Doctor!"

The boy was almost completely soaked, with large beads of sweat on his face, and he was extremely anxious.

Gu Qingyue's eyebrows twitched, and she noticed that he was carrying a little girl on his back. Her eyes were tightly closed, her face was pale, her lips were pressed together, and her hand gripping the boy's shoulder was trembling slightly. It was clear that she was enduring great pain.

The curtain was lifted, and a doctor walked out from the back room. His white beard was messy. Who else could it be but the old doctor who treated Manager Zhou last time?

"Put her down," the old doctor said, quickly walking to the table. Looking at the girl on the boy's back, her face pale with pain, he quickly felt her pulse.

Gu Qingyue, who was not far away, looked at the situation and judged from the place where the girl was pressing and the degree of pain that it was probably acute appendicitis. If it were her previous life, this would not be a big deal and could be solved with a small operation.

However, seeing the old doctor press down on the little girl's abdomen and stroke his beard in deep thought, Gu Qingyue had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, what she said next confirmed Gu Qingyue's guess.

"Intestinal abscess is incurable by medicine. Go back," the old doctor said calmly, without a trace of emotion.

Hearing this news was like a bolt from the blue for the brother and sister!

The boy's face was ashen. Ignoring the onlookers, he knelt down with a thud, grabbed the old doctor's clothes, and cried out, "Doctor, please, I only have this one sister left. Please, please!"

Several patients watching the commotion around them looked on with pity, including Gu Qingyue, who had initially maintained an indifferent expression.

She really wants to keep a low profile, so why does she always encounter these kinds of things?

"As a doctor, no matter what kind of patient you are facing, it is your duty to do your best," my grandfather's old saying suddenly flashed through my mind. Even his wise and steady eyes came to mind.

Gu Qingyue shuddered.

When the time is right, act decisively!

Gu Qingyue quickly pushed through the crowd in front of her, walked up to the old doctor, whispered something in his ear, and then looked up at him with a determined look.

The old doctor paused in stroking his beard, looked at the young man in the moon-white robe with a puzzled expression, hesitated for a moment, and nodded to the assistant beside him.

The waiter was quick-witted. Seeing the old doctor's hint, he immediately spoke up and persuaded the patients who were watching to leave. He then helped up the boy who was kneeling on the ground and crying, and together they helped the little girl who was trembling with pain, and walked towards the back room.

After settling the siblings into a small cubicle, Gu Qingyue and the old doctor stared at each other in disbelief.

"Tell me quickly, what should I do?" The old doctor looked at Gu Qingyue with curiosity.

Gu Qingyue thought for a moment, then whispered to the old doctor for a while, while the young apprentices who were walking back and forth looked at the two of them with great curiosity.

Their master is very serious and never smiles. Today must be an unusual day. In particular, the way the master looks at the boy is more eager than when he sees his favorite braised pork knuckle.

A quarter of an hour later, the boy from the inner room was brought out.

Gu Qingyue looked at the boy's red, swollen eyes and couldn't bear to look at him.

After thinking for a moment, Gu Qingyue still spoke up: "We need to perform a minor surgery on your sister. We'll make a small incision in her abdomen. The surgery will be quick, so don't worry too much."

Seeing the boy's bewildered and worried eyes, Gu Qingyue gave him a reassuring look and repeated what she had just said.

She's not usually this talkative, and even she felt it was unusual for her today.

"What is surgery? Can it save her life? Will it hurt a lot?" the boy asked after thinking for a moment.

"Well... we'll need to make a small incision in the area where she's in pain. It will be a little painful after the surgery, but we'll use some anesthetic powder during the procedure. However..." Gu Qingyue paused, remembering what the old doctor had said about anesthetic powder being mostly used in the military and being very expensive.

"However, the price of Mafeisan is a bit expensive. You can ask the shopkeeper for the exact price. My suggestion is that you must use it." Gu Qingyue's eyes were serious. What a joke, who could stand not using it?

As he spoke, the old doctor came over with a young apprentice carrying a large tray with the items Gu Qingyue had requested.

Upon seeing the gauze, candlesticks, scissors, and small dagger on the tray, a look of horror flashed in the boy's eyes, and his hands unconsciously clenched the hem of his clothes tightly.

The old doctor didn't bother with any further explanations from Gu Qingyue: "To save your sister, this is the fastest and best treatment method right now. You don't have much time to think about it." After saying that, he led the apprentice into the private room.

The boy behind her wiped away his tears and nodded: "Please save my sister, doctor."

After saying that, he followed them inside.

Gu Qingyue watched the people go in one after the other, sighed, and then went into the cubicle as well.

Soon, only the sleeping little girl, Gu Qingyue with her mouth and nose covered by a cloth, and the old doctor with a curious and expectant look remained in the room.

"Dr. Zhang, you're blocking the light," Gu Qingyue noticed the old doctor's gaze fixed on the delicate dagger in her hand. Gu Qingyue suspected that if he kept staring, the dagger would melt.

"Oh, okay, is that alright?" The old doctor shifted his body slightly and looked up at Gu Qingyue.

Gu Qingyue pouted, "Bring another candlestick over, it's not bright enough." In ancient times, that was all they could do; the light wasn't enough unless surgery was being performed outdoors.

After administering the anesthetic to the girl and seeing that she was soundly asleep, Gu Qingyue lowered her head and deftly opened the little girl's abdomen with a sterilized dagger. Doctor Zhang's eyes widened like saucers; he was astonished beyond measure at that moment.

He had practiced medicine for many years and had seen surgical treatments, but they were all for external injuries. For example, to dig out a long arrowhead, a dagger was used to cut the wound wider, or a dagger was used to dig away rotten flesh from an ulcerated wound. He had never seen surgery performed on an intact body to remove diseased organs, which looked extremely bloody.

This kind of "surgery" was something he had never seen or heard of before.

It wasn't until Gu Qingyue placed the slightly inflamed appendix on the plate that Dr. Zhang came to his senses.

Gu Qingyue looked up at Doctor Zhang's expression, which was somewhat distorted with shock, and was speechless.

Well, in her previous life, she performed a few simple surgical procedures on her partners, and these were during missions and in emergency situations.

In order to become an outstanding agent, she had taken some basic courses in trauma treatment at a military hospital, including some basic medical courses, but she did not have more than twenty actual surgical practices.

She was more confident in using traditional Chinese medicine treatments, but for an acute illness like a little girl's, traditional Chinese medicine treatments were too conservative and slow, and she wasn't entirely confident unless she used her healing power.

Obviously, it was extremely unwise for her to cure appendicitis so easily, especially in front of so many people, when even a highly skilled doctor like the senior physician was helpless against it.