Ultimate Village Doctor

Chapter Thirty-Four

What?

Chun Tao committed suicide?

Upon hearing this, Long Xiaoshan hurriedly ran outside.

Once outside, he saw villagers rushing toward Chun Tao's house. The village was so small that any little incident made waves, let alone someone committing suicide.

Long Xiaoshan also quickly ran in that direction.

When he reached Chun Tao's doorstep, a large crowd had already gathered, noisily speculating about what had happened.

"Why would Chun Tao commit suicide?"

"It must be related to the incident with Long Dashan's son a few days ago."

"You know, for a young widow, it's pretty sad. She can't be entirely blamed for the affair; it's hard for a woman her age to be without a man in the house."

"That's true. Aunt Wu was really harsh, beating and scolding her every day. I thought Chun Tao was quite good. She didn't remarry all these years since her son died, and has been taking care of Aunt Wu's household all by herself. Without Chun Tao, how can that old lady, half blind in one eye, fend for herself?"

"Make way, make way!"

Long Xiaoshan pushed through the crowd.

Seeing Long Xiaoshan make his way in, the villagers cast strange glances towards him.

Someone familiar whispered, "little Xiaoshan, why are you here? You should leave quickly."

"If Aunt Wu sees you, you'll be in trouble again. Go away, fast."

The villagers, familiar with the rumors, changed their attitude towards Long Xiaoshan after the Long Dashan Family had repaid their debts. Seeing him, they advised him to leave, given that Chun Tao's suicide was directly linked to him.

"I'm fine, let me go in and take a look."

Long Xiaoshan forcefully squeezed through the crowd. His face looked terrible; he hadn't expected that simply encountering Chun Tao on the mountain and taking shelter from the rain, without doing anything, could end up like this.

He felt both anxious and angry inside.

If Chun Tao were truly dead, he would feel guilty for the rest of his life.

Long Xiaoshan quickly pushed through the crowd and stepped into Aunt Wu's house.

He saw Aunt Wu sitting on the ground, wailing loudly.

On the ground in front of her lay a mat, upon which a person was lying motionless, the pale-faced Chun Tao with a red mark around her neck.

A bald man in his fifties was squatting there, checking Chun Tao's nose and feeling her neck, before shaking his head and saying, "Aunt Wu, she's not breathing anymore, get ready for the funeral."

This old man was a village barefoot doctor, known as Wang the Cripple because of his limp.

Upon hearing Wang the Cripple's words, Aunt Wu wailed even louder, "My dear Tao, why did you have to die?"

"You left me behind, you old soul. How could you be so heartless?"

Long Xiaoshan's face turned ashen. Was Chun Tao really dead?

He hurried over, squatted down, and grabbed Chun Tao's wrist. Indeed, there was no pulse.

Unwilling to give up, Long Xiaoshan pinched Chun Tao's mouth, performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and at the same time, kept pressing down on her chest.

Seeing Long Xiaoshan's actions, many villagers started whispering among themselves.

"Long Xiaoshan, what are you doing?"

Although Aunt Wu was nearly blind, she could still vaguely see Long Xiaoshan performing mouth-to-mouth on Chun Tao, plus she heard the comments of those next to her. She lunged at Long Xiaoshan, "What are you doing? You little beast, how dare you come here?"

"I'll kill you, you little beast. Chun Tao died because of you, and now you dare to touch her?"

Aunt Wu flung herself onto Long Xiaoshan, scratching and clawing.

Long Xiaoshan's face was scratched and bleeding, and he got angry. He shoved Aunt Wu away, saying, "Get off me!"

Aunt Wu fell to the ground, rolling and thrashing about, crying out, "Ah! The little beast wants to kill someone! Just kill me then. Oh, husband, Aming, you heartless people, you all left, and now this old woman is being bullied..."

Some villagers stepped forward to scold him, "Long Xiaoshan, what are you doing? Chun Tao's already dead, and you're still disturbing her."

"It's no use, she's completely dead," Wang the Cripple said.

Long Xiaoshan paid him no mind.

His entire focus was on resuscitating Chun Tao.

Chun Tao's body was still warm, maybe she could still be saved. His eyes emitted a faint silver light, and through her chest, he saw that Chun Tao's heart had stopped. He continued to compress her heart vigorously, but couldn't get it to beat again.

Suddenly, Long Xiaoshan saw a faint white shadow emerging from the top of Chun Tao's head.

The shadow's features looked very much like Chun Tao.

Long Xiaoshan was startled.

What was this?

Could it be her soul?

He looked around, the villagers who were watching seemed the same as before and didn't notice anything, but he saw the shadow clearly, as if it was about to leave Chun Tao's body.

The expression on "Chun Tao" seemed full of panic and confusion.

It was really the soul!

Long Xiaoshan couldn't believe he could actually see souls. Could it be because of that ability his eyes had to penetrate, not just penetrating physical objects but even the boundary between yin and yang?

So much so that he could see souls!

But right now, he was in no mood to feel happy about discovering a new ability. Instead, he was anxious because Chun Tao's soul clearly intended to leave her body. If the soul was gone, the person would be truly dead.

What should he do?

Long Xiaoshan thought urgently for a solution.

With the soul leaving the body, this was no longer a matter that mere medical skills could resolve. A thought flashed through Long Xiaoshan's mind—soul summoning.

Country folks often held superstitious beliefs, and Long Xiaoshan had read some superstitious books before, including many methods of summoning souls. The simplest one was to shout the soul back.

It's said that after the soul leaves the body, it would lose direction, not knowing where its physical body is.

Some people, shocked by an accident, might lose some of their Three Souls and Seven Spirits, becoming stupefied. Then a soul summoning was needed.

Long Xiaoshan was at his wit's end, not knowing whether Chun Tao's soul could see him, he could only concentrate and shout Chun Tao's name loudly.

Who knows if it was because Long Xiaoshan really got it right, but Chun Tao's originally confused eyes seemed to fluctuate, and then she turned back.

"Chun Tao, come back!"

"You can't die, come back!"

Chun Tao's soul seemed to be drawn by Long Xiaoshan's voice, slowly falling back down.

Long Xiaoshan quickly pulled out the Golden Needle and thrust it into the center of Chun Tao's brow.

Among the three souls, Heaven Soul and Earth Soul are often outside, only the Life Soul resides in the body, and the center of the brow is where the Life Soul resides. This needle from Long Xiaoshan is known as the Soul Calming Needle. Elder Chang's medical teaching included many unique needling techniques, and the Soul Calming Needle could be used on people with mental disturbances.

Once the needle was administered, even a madman would become calm.

Long Xiaoshan intuitively felt this needle technique would be effective, so he used it.

As the Soul Calming Needle pierced Chun Tao's brow, Long Xiaoshan observed that the soul returned to Chun Tao's flesh. Gasping, Chun Tao took a cold breath and her eyes snapped open, her chest heaving violently like a person who had just been pulled from drowning.

"Chun Tao!"

Long Xiaoshan called out her name joyfully.

Chun Tao's eyes gradually focused, and seeing Long Xiaoshan, she said with confusion, "Little Xiaoshan, didn't I die?"

"You didn't die, you are still alive. You are so silly, how could you commit suicide?" Long Xiaoshan reproached her.

The villagers who were watching were all stirred up.

Chun Tao had been brought back from dead!

Just now, everyone thought that Chun Tao was completely dead. Even Wang the Cripple, the Barefoot Doctor, had said so. Yet, Long Xiaoshan had somehow revived the deceased Chun Tao!

It was nothing short of a miracle!