Chapter 1247 — A Sure Cure

One glance at Young Master Bing's face, and Medicine King naturally had to raise the matter on his behalf!

Sure enough, at Medicine King's suggestion, the cloud on Zhao Qibing's face cleared away! Zhao Qibing was a fan of Xu Shilan's too, and now that such an opportunity to get close to her had dropped into his lap, how could he let it pass? Ordinarily he never stayed in the room while Medicine King treated a patient; this time he had come for nothing but Xu Shilan.

"This... must I really take them off?" Xu Shilan hesitated. Zhao Qibing's vaguely predatory gaze put her on her guard. Her instincts for self-protection were sharp; whoever harbored designs on her, she could sense it almost at once — otherwise, in the great dye-vat of the entertainment world, she would have been tainted long ago...

"Naturally you must!" Medicine King nodded and explained. "Traditional medicine rests on observation, listening, questioning, and palpation. Wrapped up as tightly as you are, the very first step — observation — is impossible. How could we go any further?"

"So that's how it is!" Sister Wang nodded. "Xiao Han, take off the sunglasses and the cap, then. There are no strangers here, and it won't bring reporters or a crowd."

"All right..." Xu Shilan had no choice but to pull off both the cap and the sunglasses.

The beauty that blazed forth in that instant was beyond all reckoning; Zhao Qibing's eyes went fixed. What he had never imagined was that Xu Shilan was in person even more lovely and pure than on the screen — a living woman ten thousand times more stunning than any photograph or film! Zhao Qibing could not help but be moved.

To spend a spring night with Xu Shilan — what an intoxicating thing that would be! Zhao Qibing began to look for the right moment to make his proposal.

"Medicine King, how is it?" Xu Shilan could only pretend not to see Zhao Qibing's naked stare. She was in need of his help and had no way to fall out with him and walk away; if Medicine King truly had a cure for her ailment, then she would simply have to swallow her discomfort.

"You often get headaches for no reason, don't you?" Medicine King, for all his superb skill, had studied her at length without managing to make out what actually ailed Xu Shilan. Still, that was no reason to let her off easily — quite apart from wanting to earn money from her, Zhao Qibing plainly had designs on her, and if he declared himself unable to treat the illness, Young Master Bing would not have the ghost of a chance.

"Yes." Xu Shilan nodded. "I never know when it will strike — the headache simply comes on, with no pattern to it at all..."

"Mm, it can be treated." After a second, more meticulous examination, Medicine King nodded.

"You really have a way?" Xu Shilan started. So many years of it, so many celebrated physicians consulted, and not one had produced a workable remedy — and here was Medicine King, of all people, claiming he had one!

"Of course. They do not call me Medicine King for nothing!" Medicine King said loftily. "I will say this: there is no illness under heaven that can defeat me. Not one is beyond my reach!"

"That is wonderful news. Might I ask how Medicine King intends to proceed with the treatment? And the fee..." Joy flickered across Sister Wang's heart, and she pressed the question quickly.

But at that very moment Xu Shilan suddenly clapped both hands to her temples, bent forward in pain, and broke into a cold sweat across her forehead. She had not imagined that her headaches would choose this precise moment to come upon her!

Still, in a way this was a stroke of luck — it would let Medicine King see her condition in the throes of an attack, first hand.

So Xu Shilan gritted her teeth, raised her head, and said: "It's come on... it's starting to hurt again..."

"Never mind. Give me a moment to fetch the medicine — I guarantee you'll be cured the moment you take it." Medicine King turned and walked into the inner room. Before long he emerged with an unlabelled bottle of pills, tipped one out, and handed it to Xu Shilan. "Take this now. I promise you will feel the effect at once."

Xu Shilan did not hesitate; she swallowed the pill Medicine King had given her without delay. And a miracle truly did occur! Before long her headache had eased, and soon after that it had vanished entirely.

"It doesn't hurt? It really doesn't hurt?" Xu Shilan's eyes went wide in astonishment. Was the medicine ever fast! It had worked with the speed of light, while none of the headache remedies she had taken in years past had ever done half so much.

"Naturally. If this medicine did not deliver, I would have no business calling myself Medicine King." Medicine King waved a hand with perfect composure, looking for all the world like a man of unfathomable depths.

In truth, all he had given Xu Shilan was a powerful painkiller. He had not the slightest idea what actually caused her headaches, and in the end he simply did not care. The doctrine Medicine King had always followed was to treat the symptom and never the root: cure the patient for the moment, and what happened afterward was no concern of his. Take the money in hand first; if trouble cropped up later, it had nothing to do with him.

And this particular painkiller was something akin to a narcotic — the sort fed to martial artists who had sustained grievous injuries, a single pill taken when they could barely hold on, enough to keep the life in them. But because its side effects and its capacity to breed dependence were so severe, taking more of it did more harm than good.

Medicine King could not have cared less what consequences Xu Shilan might suffer from taking it. All he wanted was the gain lying before his eyes.

"This medicine... it won't have any side effects, will it?" Xu Shilan was no fool. Something that acted this instantaneously was just a little too miraculous for comfort, so worry was only natural.

"Certainly not. What I dispense is a pure herbal preparation, entirely free of chemical substances. You know how Chinese herbs are — they have no side effects whatsoever; many of them are eaten as seasonings." Medicine King naturally had no intention of telling her the truth about what this pill could do.

"That's a relief..." Xu Shilan nodded, then asked, not quite reassured: "Is this medicine treating the symptoms or the root? It can ease the headache, but can it actually cure me?"

"Taken over a long period, this medicine will certainly cure the illness. But if you wish to recover sooner, it must be supplemented with other Chinese herbs." Medicine King went on: "Once you, Miss Xu, have decided on the treatment, I will write out the prescription."

"Of course we'll have the treatment! With Medicine King's extraordinary skill, staying here is exactly what we want to do," Sister Wang said quickly. "Only — I wonder about the fee..."

"As for the fee... I concern myself only with treating patients. The matter of payment you will need to discuss with Young Master Bing." Knowing full well what Zhao Qibing was after, Medicine King lifted him up and put him forward, leaving it to him to negotiate with Xu Shilan and her party.

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