"Right!" the police officer responded. He immediately took out his phone to call for an ambulance while asking the crowd of onlookers for the nearest clinic's location before sprinting away. In less than two minutes, he came running back, out of breath, with a community doctor in tow.
Seeing Lu Qing bleeding profusely, the community doctor jumped in shock. "She's losing so much blood! She needs a transfusion right away!" he exclaimed. "The community clinic doesn't have any blood plasma. You need to get her to a major hospital immediately."
"I've already called for an ambulance. It should be here soon." The police officer's words sounded as much like he was trying to reassure himself as he was explaining the situation.
At that moment, however, Zhao Yuan remained astonishingly calm. Without turning his head, he asked, "Did you bring the medicine to stop the bleeding?"
"Our clinic only has some basic injections and topical powders for stopping bleeding..." the community doctor replied.
"Quick, give her one of the injections," Zhao Yuan said. He knew a community clinic couldn't possibly be as well-stocked with medicine and equipment as a major hospital. He had to make the most of the few resources available to pull Lu Qing back from the Ghost Gate.
The community doctor immediately prepared the medication and gave Lu Qing the injection.
However, the injection alone was far from enough.
Zhao Yuan opened the sterile box of surgical instruments, his mind racing through the medical case files for a solution. A few seconds later, his head snapped up. "Does your clinic have Silver Needles?" he asked.
"Silver Needles?" The community doctor was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head. "No. We don't offer Acupuncture services, so we don't stock those."
"The pharmacy down the street sells Silver Needles!" someone in the crowd shouted out.
This time, without even waiting for an order from Zhao Yuan, the police officer sprinted off to buy the Silver Needles.
Zhao Yuan wasn't idle, either. He first took a wad of cotton and gauze from the sterile box and carefully packed it into the wound in Lu Qing's abdomen to slow the bleeding. Then, he picked up a pair of surgical scissors and began debriding the wound, snipping away every bit of shredded and dead tissue. 'If I leave this,' he thought, 'it won't just contaminate the wound and cause an infection, it will also get in the way of extracting the bullet. It all has to be removed!'
Although it was his first time ever performing surgery on a person, Zhao Yuan was completely calm, showing no signs of panic. The entire procedure was not only methodical but also incredibly fast, leaving the community doctor at his side staring wide-eyed. He simply couldn't believe that such seasoned, professional movements could come from a boy who still looked so young.
Once the debridement was complete, Zhao Yuan carefully removed the cotton and gauze from the wound. They were now thoroughly soaked in blood. The moment they were taken out, fresh blood began to gush from the wound again.
"What are you doing?" the community doctor asked, astonished.
"Extracting the bullet," Zhao Yuan replied without turning around.
"What? Are you insane?" The community doctor gasped. He had some medical knowledge himself and could see that Lu Qing's gunshot wound was near her spleen. If the spleen was accidentally damaged during the extraction, the consequences would be dire.
This type of surgery looked simple, but it was actually incredibly difficult. Even an experienced surgeon would find it very tricky! The community doctor didn't believe for a second that Zhao Yuan was capable of pulling it off.
"Don't be reckless! We should wait for the ambulance to take her to the hospital and let the experienced surgeons there remove the bullet!" the community doctor pleaded.
"We can't wait," Zhao Yuan said. "Every extra second the bullet remains in her body, the more dangerous and unpredictable the situation becomes. It has to come out now."
Just as they were speaking, the police officer came running back, panting. He had the Silver Needles, but he also brought bad news. "I just got a call," he gasped. "Traffic is a nightmare. The ambulance is stuck."
"What?!" the community doctor cried out. It was truly a case of when it rains, it pours.
But Zhao Yuan remained perfectly composed. 'Panicking now won't do any good,' he knew. 'I just have to stay calm. First, get the bullet out and stop the bleeding. Then I can figure out how to get Lu Qing to a hospital for proper treatment.'
"The Silver Needles, give them to me!" Zhao Yuan held out his hand, taking the needles from the officer. He selected nine of them and inserted them into the skin around the gunshot wound, arranging them in the shape of a plum blossom.
He had never formally studied Acupuncture, and his posture was all wrong, but the location, force, and depth of each needle's insertion were perfectly controlled, without the slightest error.
This was a technique he had learned from the medical case files.
The case files documented many instances of massive hemorrhaging from traumatic injuries. The method Wu Peng provided to stop the bleeding was: "Apply the Nine Plum Needles, and the flow of blood will cease."
The Nine Plum Needles mentioned in the case files was precisely this plum-blossom pattern created with Silver Needles. The technique did not target fixed acupoints, but rather the Ahshi Acupoints located near the wound. The exact position of the nine needles had to be determined by the direction of the blood flow; the slightest mistake meant it was no longer the Nine Plum Needles technique, and it would fail to stop the bleeding.
Thankfully, Zhao Yuan had already mastered the subject of Qi and blood over the past few days. Unlike the version taught in ordinary textbooks, the knowledge of Qi and blood recorded on the Information Leaf contained detailed information on the distribution and circulation of all the body's blood vessels. It was entirely thanks to this knowledge that he was able to accurately find the insertion points for the Nine Plum Needles! In this regard, he had already surpassed many doctors. Even veteran physicians with extensive clinical experience and a solid theoretical foundation would not have been able to locate the correct points for the Nine Plum Needles so quickly!
Once the Nine Plum Needles were in place, the flow of blood from Lu Qing's wound clearly lessened a great deal.
This sight left the community doctor completely dumbfounded.
"H... how is this possible?"
He couldn't believe that with just a few Silver Needles, the torrential bleeding from moments before had been so significantly reduced in an instant.
This was practically science fiction!
While the community doctor was reeling in shock, Zhao Yuan sighed internally. 'Looks like I really need to practice my Acupuncture,' he grumbled to himself. 'The case files state that after applying the Nine Plum Needles, the bleeding should stop completely and instantly. But I've done it, and the bleeding has only lessened. In the end, my technique is just too sloppy. I couldn't bring out the full potential of the Nine Plum Needles.'
It was a good thing he didn't say that out loud, or he might have scared the community doctor to death.
An effect this incredible, and you're still not satisfied? Don't be such a show-off!
Zhao Yuan's hands never stopped. After setting the Nine Plum Needles, he immediately picked up a pair of surgical forceps and carefully probed the wound, searching for the bullet.
Everyone held their breath, their tension palpable.
The community doctor was the most nervous of all, because he, more than anyone else present, understood just how high the stakes were. If Zhao Yuan's hand trembled even slightly, the bullet could shift, damage the spleen, and put her life in mortal danger!