Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The tone of this statement was not very friendly, with a hint of tension in it.

Huang Qiang looked at Wu Heng on the other side of the camera with a slight provocation. This streamer has the looks but isn't a beauty streamer, instead taking such a gimmicky shamanic path? No one has successfully copied this approach.

Yesterday, the hashtag #Internet celebrity live-streaming consultation man spitting live snake# stayed on the Weibo hot search list all day, and it was finally pushed down by entertainment headlines. How long has it been? This streamer started broadcasting in the early morning, and a dance-like shamanic performance went viral again. The massive traffic is something many internet celebrities can only dream of.

He'd be lucky to get even a fraction of Wu Heng's traffic. Since he was fortunate enough to connect, Huang Qiang decided to speak with a confrontational tone, hoping to attract even more viewers.

If he's lucky and can expose Wu Heng as a fraud, he'll become famous. After all, although he hasn't watched much of Wu Heng's live streams, it's probably fake. At worst, he'll still have a massive audience to rely on, so he doesn't lose anything.

Huang Qiang smiled and said, "I'm completely makeup-free."

"It's Brother Qiang! Although his words aren't very pleasant, they're not false. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes looking, listening, asking, and pulse-taking. Brother Qiang isn't using filters, so you can see his true complexion."

"Has anyone wondered why Wu Heng is so popular? Both live streams are related to the snake fetus of patient Xiao He. Who knows if he can diagnose other patients?"

"Brother Qiang's food is incredibly delicious; it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. How can there be such a good cook!"

"So, can the streamer diagnose what's wrong with Brother Qiang? If not, I'm unfollowing. I've always been skeptical."

...

The viewers in the chat were eager to stir up trouble, and they kept egging on in the comments.

Wu Heng took the tea brought by Mrs. He and tasted it. It was bitter and not very pleasant. He said slowly, "Your cheeks are sallow and sunken, with heavy dark circles under your eyes. It's a sign of major blood loss."

Huang Qiang wanted to laugh, but Wu Heng continued, "Of course, this isn't the main issue right now. The real patient is your blood relative, with a sore throat, right?"

The mocking smile on Huang Qiang's face faltered, and he looked at Wu Heng cautiously.

"He nailed it!! Brother Qiang has been seeking help online these past few days, 'What to do about my uncle's swollen throat?' I'm in the same city as Brother Qiang, and I saw them at the city hospital yesterday!"

"Brother Qiang is a great cook, filial, and while not drop-dead gorgeous, he's quite attractive. He's really a great guy. Brother Qiang hasn't updated his videos for several days because of his uncle's illness. Looking forward to it."

"A nephew at the door doesn't mean you're childless!"

"The short video Brother Qiang posted seeking help has over 300,000 likes. Isn't it odd that the streamer knew about it beforehand?"

Huang Qiang thought the same. He's quite a big streamer in the food section, so it's very likely that Wu Heng saw it in advance. What's the point of saying this?

Huang Qiang didn't expose it and smiled, "Yes, I just wanted to test if the streamer is a real shaman, so I asked that. It's true that my uncle has a sore throat."

He brought a middle-aged man into the frame from off-camera. The man's throat was swollen as if he'd swallowed a big apple, his lips were pale, and he was breathing slightly rapidly. He struggled to open his mouth, making a few sounds but unable to speak.

He Yunxiao was still temporarily bonding with the snake baby and took a glance, then suddenly made a sound of surprise.

He thought he'd seen this middle-aged man somewhere before.

He Yunxiao recalled and suddenly remembered that three months ago, when he went to secretly deal with the snake bite marks, he had bumped into this middle-aged man at the Shi family's door.

At that time, Huang Zhigang was carrying a wok and a ladle, cursing at the Shi family's door, as if he had been fired by the Shi family as a cook.

Huang Zhigang saw He Yunxiao and immediately chased after him, asking, "Young Master He? Does your family need a cook? I can cook all kinds of cuisines, and I can make all sorts of delicious food you can't even imagine."

"I'm really at my wit's end, there are several mouths at home waiting for me to bring back money for food."

He Yunxiao didn't have a good impression of the neighboring Shi family. Although the uncle seemed honest and kind, he didn't dare to hire a cook fired by the Shi family, so he politely declined.

I didn’t expect to run into him again in the live stream after several months, and he’s in such rough shape.

His sickly look also freaked out the viewers in the live stream.

“How did it get so swollen? His throat wasn’t this bad in the video he posted just the other day!”

“Did he take antibiotics like cephalosporin or amoxicillin? Could it be a bacterial infection? I had a fever that didn’t go away, and my throat was swollen for almost half a month. I thought I was going to die.”

“I don’t get it, is it a tumor? Thyroid issues? Or maybe something wrong with the lymph nodes?”

“Huang Qiang went to the city’s top hospital—what did the docs say?”

Huang Qiang’s worry was genuine; he glanced anxiously at his uncle and told the viewers, “We went, and they ran all kinds of tests—ultrasounds, MRIs, you name it—but they still couldn’t figure out what’s wrong. The city’s top hospital is the best we have here.”

Huang Qiang was really worried, and since the hospital came up empty, he even took Huang Zhigang to a famous old Chinese medicine doctor for some herbs, but no luck.

Then we happened to run into this guy Wu Heng, who calls himself a shaman, so we figured, why not give it a shot?

With that in mind, Huang Qiang even zoomed the camera in on Huang Zhigang’s throat, so close you could see the big arteries pulsing.

Wu Heng stared at Huang Zhigang’s throat, swollen like a giant peach, for a few seconds and said, “It’s nothing serious.”

Huang Qiang shot back, “Nothing serious? The best hospital in the city couldn’t figure it out—what do you think it is?”

Wu Heng said, “Just a bone stuck in there.”

Huang Qiang let out a disbelieving laugh.

“A bone? No way! If it were really a bone, the hospital would’ve spotted it for sure!”

“Exactly, even a fish bone shows up—let alone something bigger. You wouldn’t even need hospital gear to spot it.”

“Host, wasn’t that snake fetus thing just some special effect you guys faked? You’re full of it.”

He Yunxiao nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw the comments, “What do you mean, ‘you guys’? I’m not some desperate internet celebrity!”

Does the He Family need that chump change from streaming?

Mr. He, yawning next to him, frowned and added, “Netizens, watch your language.”

The whole He Family now swears by Wu Heng—after all, they saw firsthand how he cured Yunxiao’s illness in just one day.

I mean, whether it’s Chinese or Western medicine, recovery takes time, right? How could it happen so fast!

Huang Qiang hinted, “Even if my uncle’s illness isn’t cured yet, I might’ve just exposed a quack.”

Wu Heng shot up fast, but he’s crashing just as quick!

Wu Heng said two words: “Pork bone.”

Huang Qiang froze, staring in shock at Wu Heng’s striking face, painted with bright colors, his brown eyes locked on him, making Huang Qiang feel oddly guilty and look away.

Pork... a pork bone?

The viewers in the live stream were still going wild, not buying Wu Heng’s diagnosis for a second.

“A pork bone? The hospital couldn’t even spot that? They should just close up shop! What’s the point of staying open?”

Even a hospital practitioner chimed in: “The host underestimates the millions of dollars worth of medical equipment in major hospitals! Everyone can just leave.”

"Did everyone forget that the last patient had a snake fetus, and even the ultrasound didn't detect it?"

"...Damn, does this mean it's another supernatural event? Don't freak people out in the middle of the night, okay?"

"I still trust the streamer more; maybe it's really something supernatural that the instruments can't detect."

"Looking at Huang Qiang's expression, it seems like the streamer hit the mark..."

Li Hao and a few others were still lurking in Wu Heng's live stream, and these sharp individuals also noticed the change in Huang Qiang's demeanor.

"Haoz, could this shaman really have some skills?" asked the guy with dyed yellow hair, timidly touching the spot where he had been bitten by a snake.

Li Hao, annoyed by how Wu Heng made them apologize to Shi Xuan until he was satisfied, said, "I don't know shit."

Li Hao looked at his so-called friends and suddenly kicked one, cursing, "You idiot, why are you crawling on the ground in the middle of the night? You're freaking people out."

The spirited young man rubbed his face and said, "I don't know, I just suddenly felt like crawling."

Meanwhile, the streamers were still questioning, but Huang Qiang seemed more accepting than them, pressing Wu Heng: "So, how do you treat it? Do you also perform exorcism rituals? If you can cure my uncle, I'll give you a dozen carnivals."

Wu Heng wasn't performing exorcism dances; it was more like ancient shamanic rituals.

"Just cut open the throat and take it out," Wu Heng said, looking at He Yunxiao. "Get me a knife."

He Yunxiao, suddenly called upon, was stunned: "Huh? A knife?"

"My house only has kitchen knives and fruit knives, no surgical scalpels, will that do?"

This surprised Wu Heng: "What is a surgical scalpel?"

In ancient times, there were no such things as surgical scalpels, and Wu Heng's body lacked much memory of modern medical practices, so he wasn't very familiar with contemporary hospitals and instruments.

Huang Qiang: "..."

This streamer doesn't even know what a surgical scalpel is!!

He actually suggested using a kitchen knife or a fruit knife to cut open someone's throat...

Good heavens! Is this some kind of joke?

And why? Why was He Yunxiao cured with exorcism rituals, but my uncle needs surgery? Wouldn't he need to rest for ten days to two weeks after surgery?

Exorcism rituals don't really cause any substantial harm, so trying it out is fine. But who would really dare to put their life in Wu Heng's hands for surgery? That's no joke!

Ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous!

"Originally, considering the streamer's methods with the snake fetus, I could barely accept him performing surgery. But then he asks what a surgical scalpel is???"

"Is he really going to mess up... I still think the streamer has some tricks up his sleeve."

"Quietly asking Doctor Wu Heng, do you know what bacteria and cells are?"

"Huang Qiang and Uncle Zhigang are about to be scared to death, and with Uncle already sick, hearing this in the middle of the night might worsen his condition, right?"

Huang Qiang really wanted to end the stream right then, even if Wu Heng really had the skills, he wouldn't dare let him perform surgery.

But remembering the words 'pig bone' that Wu Heng mentioned, Huang Qiang held back.

After hesitating for a while, Huang Qiang said again: "No surgery, no surgery, we'll go for conservative treatment, prescribe medicine! Can we do that?"

After Huang Qiang finished speaking, a glint of sharpness flashed in his eyes.

"No surgery now, but sooner or later, you'll need the knife," Huang Qiang disagreed. As Wu Heng noticed that the one-hour live stream time was up, he nodded and said, "Alright, DM me the address."

"That's it for today's stream, folks. Get some sleep."

After saying this, Wu Heng ignored the noisy barrage of comments and closed the live stream.

The phone was still on the stand, and Mr. He, looking anxious, spoke up first, "Dr. Wu, please don't prescribe any medicine. Practicing without a license could get you arrested."

Mr. He looked at Wu Heng's youthful and handsome face, feeling that he was about the same age as his foolish son, and feared that he, being inexperienced, might be harmed by those internet celebrities.

He knew the He Family's reputation, but outsiders were unpredictable. There were too many instances of backstabbing in the business world.

Exorcism dances were one thing; at worst, they could pass as just dancing, and who could do anything to Wu Heng? But surgery and prescriptions were another story.

Wu Heng didn't respond but instead looked at He Yunxiao, "Go grab some dirt from the garden for me."

He Yunxiao: "Huh? Oh."

After losing his belly, He Yunxiao was back to his energetic self, running and jumping around. In less than two minutes, he brought back a small bag of fresh soil.

"Dr. Wu, what's the dirt for?"

Wu Heng rolled the soil into a walnut-sized mud ball.

"Get a courier or delivery guy to send this to Huang Qiang."

Wu Heng was familiar with the term "courier" in his memory because his old father often mailed things back, so even though he wasn't very familiar with this world, he understood the courier industry.

Everyone stared at the mud ball, baffled.

"Wait, a mud ball as medicine?"

This would avoid getting reported as fake, but... the Chengde Medical Hall account would be toast. What good is a mud ball? How's that supposed to cure anything?

He Yunxiao immediately said, "Dr. Wu, don't sweat the ban; my family's got your back."

Just for saving his life, the He Family would never mistreat him!

Who needs to be an internet star? Wu Heng's future was bright!

Just then, Mrs. He showed up with the butler and servants, loaded with gifts. "Dr. Wu, it's 1 a.m. Why don't you stay the night?"

Seeing Wu Heng shake his head, Mrs. He had no choice but to present the gifts, the first of which was a small diamond black card.

"Here's your fee, a small token of our gratitude."

Wu Heng didn't refuse and directly accepted it.

Since he helped He Yunxiao, accepting the fee was only fair.

"This is our access card; it works at all He Group malls and supermarkets."

Wu Heng doubted it'd be useful in Nan Nuo Village but took it anyway.

Next came fancy gift boxes. Wu Heng peeked inside, spotting pricey watches and rare ginseng.

Mrs. He recalled Wu Heng's abrupt log-off and handed him another box. "Dr. Wu, here's the newest phone for you."

Once you get a new phone, you don’t have to worry about the youth mode anymore.

Dr. Wu’s phone was still the one his old father had sent him—a budget model that couldn’t compare to this latest flagship phone.

Dr. Wu was fascinated by modern electronics and the internet, so he quickly opened the phone and inserted his SIM card.

He Yunxiao quickly came over and asked, “Dr. Wu, do you have WeChat? Let’s add each other so we can stay in touch.”

He remembered Eugene had helped him set up WeChat, but he wasn’t very familiar with how to use it. After logging into WeChat, Dr. Wu saw that he had fewer than five contacts in his address book.

He Yunxiao eagerly scanned Dr. Wu’s QR code and successfully added him on WeChat.

He Yunxiao couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw Dr. Wu’s WeChat name. He never expected such a skilled shaman to go by “Baby Heng Heng.”

Dr. Wu put away his phone, satisfied, and glanced at what Mrs. He and the others were holding.

It looked like there was nothing left.

Mrs. He’s heart skipped a beat. Had her gifts fallen short? Was Dr. Wu still unsatisfied?

Her son’s life was priceless, so she quickly added, “Dr. Wu, please excuse the rushed preparations. We’ll make sure to prepare a proper gift tomorrow.”

They hadn’t expected Dr. Wu to work so quickly, leaving them almost no time to prepare.

“No need for a big gift,” Dr. Wu said, pointing to the pastries on the reception table. “Can you pack those up for me?”

They tasted really good.

Mrs. He hesitated, then asked, “Dr. Wu, would you like some... local specialties? Maybe a roast duck?”

Dr. Wu’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Really?”

He looked even happier than when he’d received his payment earlier!

Mrs. He quickly asked the butler to prepare an assortment of pastries and specialties, a task that took nearly half an hour.

The He family saw Dr. Wu off at the gate. Noticing Dr. Wu’s bags and He Yunxiao’s snake doll, Mr. He offered, “Dr. Wu, let us arrange a car to take you home.”

Dr. Wu’s slight southwestern accent and his shaman gear suggested he was from a village in the southwestern frontier.

Maybe he’s here on a trip to the capital? Or visiting friends? He could be staying at a friend’s place or a hotel.

It was late, so sending him off was the polite thing to do.

Dr. Wu declined: “No need, it’s not convenient.”

After several refusals, the He family reluctantly gave up and watched Dr. Wu leave.

It was late, and everyone was exhausted. Mr. and Mrs. He couldn’t stop yawning, but He Yunxiao was still full of energy.

He glanced back in the direction Dr. Wu had gone and saw him walk about eight or nine hundred meters before slipping into the Shi family’s back door.

He Yunxiao was stunned: “What the—?!”

*

What the hell? How did Dr. Wu get into the Shi family’s place?

The freshly roasted duck gave off a mouthwatering aroma of special sauce.

Dr. Wu happily carried the roast duck back to the dilapidated courtyard he had come from earlier.

It was clearly the height of summer, a time when all things thrive, yet the towering tree in the courtyard stood withered and lifeless, not even a single cicada's chirp could be heard, shrouded in a heavy, oppressive gloom.

In the pitch darkness, Wu Heng saw the tall, ghostly figure, who was looking at him.

The young man was exceptionally tall, even taller than Wu Heng, forcing Wu Heng to look up at him.

Wu Heng: "Can't sleep? Insomnia?"

Shi Xuan stared at Wu Heng's pale face, adorned with vibrant hues, and gave no response.

This person was awake—how could he use the ancient well to return home in his presence?

Wu Heng and Shi Xuan locked eyes. Wu Heng's eyes were dark, like an unfathomable abyss, the aura of death too heavy.

His time to die must be within these two days, Wu Heng thought.

Wu Heng sidestepped Shi Xuan and came to the side of the ancient well.

Shi Xuan's hands, clasped behind his back, tightened slightly, as if making some kind of decision: "Hello, my name is..."

Shi Xuan heard the sound behind him and whirled around, just in time to see Wu Heng leap down into the well.

Shi Xuan's pupils contracted, and he took two steps back: "......!"

Another life lost.

One moment of initiative leads to a lifetime of introversion.