BXBX NOVEL Chapter 98 - 98: 98 Face has no value
Sun Changde sighed as he stood up, “Fine, I can’t cure it, so I won’t charge a medical fee…”
“What do you mean, no medical fee?” Granny Sun’s wrinkled face deepened its
furrows upon hearing this. “Doctors are people, not immortals from the heavens, they can’t cure every obscure and complicated illness. There’s no such thing as a doctor who doesn’t charge when they can’t cure a disease.” She opened her old hand, “You have to pay.”
Xiao Yuchuan would not accept this. “A doctor who can’t cure a disease still charges a fee? That’s only for people who were treated! Doctor Sun only checked my wife’s pulse and didn’t treat her, why should we pay?”
“Doesn’t checking the pulse require effort as well?” Granny Sun raised her voice, “If it weren’t for my husband, would you know your wife had congestion in her brain? I don’t care, you have to pay for the pulse examination, ten copper coins!”
Doctor Sun lost his patience, “Shut up, old woman! Are you that desperate to let others know my medical skills are lacking?”
“What’s the big deal if they know? You can’t cure many diseases anyway. We’ve come a long way to get here… we can’t leave empty-handed.” Granny Sun wasn’t afraid of Doctor Sun. “You old fool, if you’re too embarrassed to charge, can’t I do it for you? Do you think our family runs a charitable hall and has endless wealth?” She glanced at Xiao Yishan, seeing his tall and muscular frame which was intimidating in itself. She turned her glare to Xiao Yuchuan, “Do you Xiao Family plan to default on your bill?”
“Ten copper coins is too expensive!”
“For people who think it’s expensive, my husband’s fees are always the same.” Granny Sun glanced at the pile of prey in the courtyard with her yellowed eyeballs, “If you have no money, just use the prey to offset it!” She went to go get it.
Xiao Yuchuan grabbed her arm, “You want to take the prey as compensation?
Are you planning to pay extra for it?”
She forcefully pulled her hand back, “What if I don’t? Are you going to fight me, an old woman?
Yuchuan stuffed ten copper coins into her hand and snorted, “Here you go. I hope you don’t choke on it!”
“You don’t need to worry about that. Even if you gave me 100 copper coins, they wouldn’t damage my teeth.”
Doctor Sun’s face reddened in embarrassment, wanting to find a crack in the ground to disappear into. “Old woman, what are you doing? Aren’t you afraid of losing face? Quickly return the money! You’ve lost all face for me!”
“How much is face worth? Is it worth ten copper coins?” Granny Sun counted the coins several times to make sure there were exactly ten. She pocketed the coins and dragged Doctor Sun away, grumbling along the way, “Don’t blame me for saying this. The Xiao Family is so poor and downtrodden. If you waive their fee, word will spread among the villagers and they’d all expect free examinations from you. You’re getting old, how many more years can you treat patients? While you still can move around, you should save up more money for your coffin. Don’t be overly charitable to these impoverished households. If they can’t afford the medicine, will you give it to them for free?”
“Say no more…” Doctor Sun had indeed provided the Xiao family with medicine free of charge. Luckily, the old woman didn’t know about this. If she knew that he’d given 18 doses of wound medicine to Su Qingyue for free, there would be trouble.
The Xiao Family’s brothers had mixed feelings, their faces alternating between pale and flushed. They all decided that they had to repay the cost of the medicine as soon as possible.
As Su Qingyue could only read lips and was sitting down, she had different viewing angles for each person speaking.
Although she understood only half of what they were saying, her intelligence allowed her to connect the context, facial expressions, and fragments of sentences to understand the situation. Doctor Sun couldn’t cure her deafness and intended not to charge them, but he was scolded by his wife instead. His wife took ten copper coins from them, complaining about the poverty of the
second brother’s home..