Chapter 144: Men Understand Men Better

"Not yet."

The young expectant mother shook her head. Her wide, watery eyes looked like windows that could pierce straight through to one's soul, leaving Qiao Qingyun momentarily dazed.

"You're not a local, are you?"

Noticing the accent of the young mother, Aiqing, Qiao Qingyun asked. Aiqing nodded. "No, I'm from the Great Desert, but I married into these parts."

"Oh..."

Yet, from yesterday until now, the child's father had not made an appearance, leaving Qiao Qingyun inexplicably puzzled. "Isn't the child's father coming?"

Sure enough, as soon as Qiao Qingyun brought up Aiqing's husband, Aiqing's expression suddenly stiffened. She lowered her head, slightly suppressing her sobs. "He died in battle a few days ago."

"What?"

Qiao Qingyun was extremely startled. Realizing she shouldn't have brought this up, she quickly added, "I'm sorry, I didn't know. It's alright. If you need care, you can keep the child here, and you can also work here."

"Work?"

Aiqing raised her head, rubbing her slightly reddened eyes. Qiao Qingyun nodded firmly. "That's right. The wages here are quite decent. If you need to, you can stay here, raise your child, and earn money at the same time."

"Really?"

For Aiqing, this was practically a pie falling from the sky.

However, seeing Zhong Shi standing nearby, completely expressionless since he walked in, she felt a bit intimidated. She looked at Zhong Shi timidly and asked, "Who is he...?"

"Oh, he's my subordinate, here to protect me. With things not being very peaceful outside lately, I've had him follow me around. You don't need to be afraid."

With that, Qiao Qingyun opened the door, glanced at the patients coming and going downstairs, and instructed a worker, "Go bring up a portion of breakfast."

"Yes."

"Make it light! It's good for milk production."

"Yes."

Before long, a dish complete with color, aroma, and flavor was sent up from downstairs. There were not only small steamed buns but also seaweed and egg drop soup, which was immensely helpful for lactation.

"Eat up. I'm going to go check on the others."

"Alright."

Leaving Aiqing's ward, Qiao Qingyun turned her head to look at Zhong Shi, who had yet to crack a smile, and helplessly rubbed her temples. "Zhong Shi, with that stern face of yours, you're practically going to scare people to death."

The man was taken aback, instinctively touched his cheek, and shook his head. "They are not the Princess; subordinates do not need to smile."

"Sigh..."

There was just no reasoning with him!

---

When the medical clinic finally quieted down a bit, Qiao Qingyun went downstairs to have a meal with Zhong Shi.

"Teacher, you have no idea. While you were away during this time, we couldn't treat many of the illnesses, which sent us running around everywhere. But when we asked, it was all for nothing—they didn't know either."

Xu Lu took a resentful bite of the steamed bun in her hand and hurriedly gulped down some soup, looking like she had been starved for a long time.

This brought a smiling expression to Qiao Qingyun's face. "Alright, these meals are provided by the Hundred Flowers Courtyard, so eat your fill. Besides, there are still many things you haven't encountered yet. In a moment, I'll teach you how to administer a painless delivery."

"Yes."

Everyone swept through the food on the table like a swift wind.

Hongying had reportedly gone out early in the morning. As for what she was doing, she hadn't told Zhong Shi; only Qiao Qingyun knew that she was likely keeping an eye on Jian Li in her stead.

"Teacher, look at these. These are the things we researched and made later on."

Xu Lu and Chuncheng proudly pointed to the human skeleton they had crafted and placed on the table.

Every single part was very clearly distributed. Although it was made of cement, making it look this lifelike was truly no easy feat.

"Not bad, but you're still lacking in some areas. The neural veins inside haven't been marked out, which could easily lead to mistakes."

Qiao Qingyun reached out to touch the skeleton, and Xu Lu nodded in surprise. "But those are hard to make."

"It's fine. What I'm going to teach you today has nothing to do with veins and such."

Saying this, she took out a syringe once again, counted the vertebrae between her fingers right in front of the two of them, and said, "See this? Insert it right between the ninth and tenth segments, then push all the medicine in. You must be very careful to avoid all meridians, or it could easily lead to paralysis. Understand?"

"Yes, understood."

The two began to imitate Qiao Qingyun's actions, cautiously pushing the medication inside.

Outside, however, noisy commotion arose once more.

"Come quickly! Someone help!"

Fortunately, Qiao Qingyun had washed her hands early and immediately walked out. As soon as she reached the entrance, she saw a man being carried in on the back of an elderly woman.

"What's going on?"

Qiao Qingyun quickly stepped forward. After assessing the man, she found that he was in the prime of his life and shouldn't be in such a weak state.

His face was pale, his eyes tightly closed, and his entire body trembled slightly as if in great pain.

"I don't know, he suddenly became like this! I'm begging you, you must save my son!"

Tears streamed down the elderly woman's face. Qiao Qingyun hurriedly shouted inward, "Come quickly!"

Almost by reflex, Zhong Shi rushed forward in a single stride. "Princess."

"Quickly bring him inside, to the emergency room!"

---

"Yes."

Zhong Shi was neat and efficient in his actions, immediately carrying the man into the emergency room. Xu Lu and Chuncheng went upstairs at the first possible moment to check on the patient's condition.

"Please calm down and tell me, was there any obvious discomfort before your son fell ill?"

Qiao Qingyun lowered her voice, asking as gently as possible.

The elderly woman thought for a moment, gritting her teeth as she said, "It must be because of that little b*tch!"

"What? This isn't about whose fault it is right now; we need to save this person. Just tell me why."

The old woman let her eyes roll around a quick circle. Seeing that no one was outside the door, she mysteriously pulled Qiao Qingyun over to a deserted spot and whispered, "It's because someone kicked him right in the privates."

"Ah?"

Qiao Qingyun was stunned. "Just for that reason?"

"Yes, at the time there wasn't any other reaction, but later on, he kept crying out in pain, and finally he passed out."

The woman furrowed her brows. This was going to be troublesome. After having the elderly woman sit down, she hurriedly went upstairs to take a look.

As soon as she pushed open the door to the operating room, she found that Chuncheng had already begun examining the man's organs.

As expected, men understood men better!

"How is it?"

Qiao Qingyun stepped closer to inquire. Chuncheng lowered his voice and said, "Nothing else really, it should be due to excessively severe pain, but Teacher, I think he might become impotent in the future."

"Ah?"

Impotent?

This was the ultimate humiliation for a man!

If she mentioned it herself, that would be one thing, but if others found out, this man would never be able to take a wife for the rest of his life.

"Since that's the case, we might as well just sever his pain nerve here, and extract it along the way to stop the pain."

"Mm, alright."

Chuncheng nodded, waiting for Qiao Qingyun to change her clothes, while Qiao Qingyun headed downstairs to give the explanation.