Chapter 73 - Chop Her Hands Off
Chapter 73 Chop Her Hands Off
Deputy Director Chen gave out a slight sneer. After practicing medicine for many years, he could certainly see if a man is alive or dead.
Su Muge covered her hands with the cotton cloth soaked with blood. She took a deep breath, and then stimulated the extraordinary talent in her body. Soon, she felt a heat flow from her palm.
She looked up at Deputy Director Chen with a serious and solemn expression. “He was just in temporary shock; he’s not dead!”
On hearing this, Deputy Director Chen widened his eyes with anger. He just kindly reminded her out of pity. Ungrateful!
Huh, he’d like to wait and see her cry and beg when she lost the competition!
Xia Houmo’s eyes fell straight on Su Muge’s hand covered by the cotton cloth.
While almost everyone was thinking that Su Muge was bound to lose, Su Muge threw away the cotton cloth, stood up to take the medicine on the table, applied the medicine on the wound, and bandaged.
“The bleeding seems to have stopped …”
“Oh, yes. It has really stopped!”
Su Muge took out a black pill from her medical kit to feed the patient. After that, she went directly to another injured patient.
Looking at the bandaged patient, Deputy Director Chen widened his eyes again in astonishment.
“How, how is it possible …” He had clearly seen that the man breathed his last just now and the massive hemorrhage of his thigh was almost impossible to cure. How could she stop the bleeding?!
If it weren’t for the Emperor’s presence, he would come forward and tear the bandage off for a look!
Su Muge’s second patient was stabbed in the chest. A sharp arrow pierced from his front chest into his sternum and stuck out of his back.
This injury was no easier to cure than the previous one!
With a calm look, Su Muge took out the scalpel from her medical kit to cut off both sides of the arrow with its sharp blade, applied the hemostatic powder to the wound, and fed the patient an anesthetic pill to make him fall into a coma in a short time.
After he fell into coma, Su Muge slowly pulled the arrow out of his chest.
“Splash”
The blood of the injured splashed all over her face!
With no time to wipe off the blood on her face, Su Muge rapidly and neatly bandaged the wound.
On the other side, Zhang Yue had bandaged the wound of the fifth patient.
Having noticed that Su Muge had moved to her third patient, Zhang Yue accidentally spilled the medicine powder into his patient’s nose.
“Eh-hem, eh-hem…”
Zhang Yue suddenly came to his sense and hurriedly continued his movements.
Compared with Zhang Yue, Su Muge seemed much calmer. She had shown a kind of steadiness and seriousness beyond her age, which even surprised Xia Hourui.
Su Muge was moving from difficult cases to easy cases, so she was getting faster and faster.
While Zhang Yue, from easy to difficult, became increasingly slower and kept making more mistakes!
Deputy Director Chen who was originally sure of success gradually put on a gloomy face.
With the smooth sand in the hourglass flowing quickly, there were only two-tenths of the prescribed time left.
Approaching her seventh patient, Su Muge found that his wound had become inflamed and ulcerated. The rotten flesh had to be cut off, or the infection would spread.
“Anti-inflammatory drugs …”
Su Muge turned around to fetch the anti-inflammatory drug. The moment she stretched out her hand, another hand quickly reached out and grabbed the medicine that should have been in her hand.
Her hand paused slightly in the air, then Su Muge frowned slightly and returned to her patient, completely ignoring Zhang Yue’s provocative look. After that, she opened her medical kit, took out the scalpel and began to cut off the rotten flesh on the patient.
There were some anti-inflammatory drugs in her medical kit, but they were not so sufficient. However, it was still possible to cope with the present situation.
It was a competition. No one wanted to lose!
“Bang!”
The gong and drum sounded.
“Time’s up!”
Su Muge wrapped the bandage on the injured hand and stepped aside.
However, Zhang Yue, after the gong and drum sounded, still kept his hands moving. Only when Deputy Director Chen snorted with dissatisfaction did he reluctantly retreat.
Xia Hourui, who was leaning against the chair, seemed to have been asleep.
Eunuch Yi stepped forward and called him softly. “Your Majesty, the competition is over.”
Xia Hourui seemed to be wakened and snorted unpleasantly.
“Well, it’s over. To ensure fairness, the imperial doctors should go and see.”
Five senior doctors of the Imperial Institute of Medicine had been selected to judge.
“Your Majesty, I wonder how will the imperial doctors come to a decision?”
The number of patients treated by Su Muge and Zhang Yue within the prescribed time was both seven, but Su Muge’s cases were more difficult. In this aspect, the winner should be Su Muge.
However, it was unclear if she had treated the wound casually, so they would unwrap the bandage.
This was undoubtedly the greatest harm to the injured.
An imperial doctor with half-white hair raised his chin and said, “We have our own set of rules. Miss Su, don’t worry, we’ll never have any bias.”
“Your Majesty, please make sure that the imperial doctors won’t injure the patients.” Su Muge calmly stepped forward and requested.
Xia Hourui narrowed his eyes.
“As medical practitioners, the most important principle for us is to give priority to the patients. If they are hurt a second time because of a competition, I’m willing to give up the competition.”
After finishing, Su Muge secretly clenched her hands in her sleeves.
The hall suddenly quieted down with the air gradually frozen. Only Xia Houmo kept his countenance and enjoyed the wine on the table.
With a playful smile on his face, Xia Houkun kept spinning the wine glass in his hand.
“If you give up, you’ll have your hands chopped off and never practice medicine again. Have you thought it through?”
Sitting in the crowd, Su Lun would never expect Su Muge to be so stupid!
She was playing with fire! How could she arbitrarily speculate on the Emperor’s will!
He had been hesitating for a while but dared not stand up after several attempts. What if the Emperor got so angry and punished him together with his daughter?!
“Your Majesty, I’m sure.”
“Well, in this case, Eunuch Yi.”
“Yes.”
“Su Muge gave up.”
As soon as Xia Hourui’s words came out, Su Muge immediately felt various looks falling on her.
Sympathetic or amused; however, Su Muge didn’t care.
Eunuch Yi knowingly asked the imperial guard to bring a small round table to Su Muge.
“Su Muge, admit defeat for the bet. You lose, so you’ll be punished.”
The guard stepped forward and pulled Su Muge’s hands on the round table.
Sitting behind the screen, Xia Houxi wanted to go out but was stopped by Xia Houyin.
“What are you doing, ninth sister? You’ve said before that Su Muge wouldn’t lose. Now that she loses the competition and father is to chop her hands off. Do you think father will let her go simply because you go out to plead for her?”
Xia Houxi looked at Xia Houyin with a pale face, but she still exclaimed, “Father, Miss Su has saved my life; for my sake, please let her go!”
“To reward the winner, and to punish the loser; I always keep the rules strictly for reward and punishment.” Xia Hourui said in a cold tone.
“Father, please, I beg you …”
Concubine Qin slightly moved her brows. Having served Xia Hourui for many years, she knew his temper very well; he must be unhappy in such a tone now. “Ninth Princess is tired. Take her to rest.”
“Yes.”
Two palace maids approached Xia Houxi and forced her down.
“Execute now!” The sharp voice of Eunuch Yi sounded in the hall, which seemed especially harsh.
Su Muge closed her eyes.
The knife in the guard’s hand was held high and wielded towards Su Muge’s hand at a visible speed.
“Wait!”
When the blade was about to touch Su Muge’s hands, Xia Hourui suddenly spoke.
The frozen air in the hall seemed to be melted at this instant.
“Hahahaha.” Xia Hourui laughed aloud, which resounded through the hall.
“You little girl, you are so courageous!” Xia Hourui pretended to be serious and stared at Su Muge intentionally.
Su Muge looked at the knife that was only a few centimeters above her hands and secretly exhaled a sigh of relief. She finally won the bet.
Xia Houmo slowly put down the wine glass in his hand, and as soon as the glass reached the table, it broke into pieces instantly.
“Are you really not afraid that I have your hands chopped off?”
Su Muge knelt at the center of the hall and bent over with her forehead touching the cold floor. “I believe that Your Majesty is a good Emperor who loves his country and his people.”
Xia Hourui laughed again. “I won’t favor you even if you butter me up!”
Before Deputy Director Chen could put on a complacent smile, the situation had suddenly changed, which had confused him for a while. What did the Emperor mean by that?
Zhang Yue also felt puzzled and looked towards Deputy Director Chen.
Xia Hourui waved his hand, “Doctors, just do as this girl said; don’t hurt the injured anymore.”
Hearing this, the imperial doctors were a little bewildered. How could they know the treatment without checking the wound?
“Yes.” Unwilling as they were, the senior doctors managed to promise. They walked to the patients and asked Zhang Yue some questions from time to time.
“I’m curious. Miss Su, you could have started healing from the least injured patient. Why did you choose the most severely injured first?” Xia Houkun asked.
Su Muge lowered her eyes. “The most severely injured ones are seriously ill; their injuries may be more difficult to treat, but not impossible. If I treat the slightly injured first, the severely injured is very likely to lose their lives without timely treatment.”
“Do you mean it’s wrong to rescue the least injured first?”
“Of course not. No matter how to treat, they are all saving people, just in different ways.”
This answer made Xia Houkun unable to refute.
“Is second brother interested in treating and saving patients?” Xia Houmo asked in a cold tone.
“I’m not that capable, just curious.”
After some discussions for a few moments, the result came out.
“Your Majesty, we’ve had the result.”
Xia Hourui might have exhausted his strength just now and seemed to be much more tired and weak now.
“You may announce the result.”
“Miss Su and Zhang Yue have both cured seven people, but according to the severity of the patients, Miss Su had a slight edge.”
“That is to say, Su Muge has won?”
“Yes.”
Xia Hourui looked towards Su Muge; when he was about to speak, he suddenly felt a tingling in his heart; his eyes instantly widened and rounded!
“Ah!”