"Of course, I practice on small animals first. How could I possibly experiment directly on living people?"
Lin Fan chuckled, "If anything went wrong, wouldn't the villagers tear down my clinic?"
Chen Wan'er frowned and asked, "If I'm not mistaken, the patient who was previously paralyzed had an organic spinal injury. You didn't diagnose it, nor did you have equipment to observe it. How did you know where his injury was?"
"Because..."
Lin Fan shook his head sheepishly, "That was me. I did that."
"What?"
Chen Wan'er was speechless.
You did it...
The answer was that simple?
Chen Wan'er recalled the investigation report her husband had shown her and vaguely guessed something.
"But why did he get better after just one needle? Can you tell me the principle behind it?"
"This, from a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective... Auntie, do you understand TCM?"
Lin Fan asked cautiously.
"I'm a cardiovascular surgeon. My knowledge of TCM is only superficial, a bit better than ordinary people, but limited,"
Chen Wan'er replied truthfully.
"Oh."
Lin Fan felt relieved and slowly began, "The Du Meridian is the sea of yang meridians..."
After a series of seemingly profound TCM theories, Chen Wan'er listened with a bewildered expression, yet she meticulously jotted down notes, pausing to ask for clarification whenever she encountered something uncertain.
"So, after the needle penetrates the skin by one inch and six fen, and enters the Dazhui acupoint by two fen, I stimulate his central nervous system with the needle tip, and he has a high probability of recovering his mobility."
Lin Fan stated it as if it were obvious.
"But have you ever considered what would happen if you made a mistake?"
Chen Wan'er found it hard to imagine that Lin Fan, without any modern medical tools, performed a spinal puncture on a patient with just a silver needle.
In the provincial hospital, only doctors with senior professional titles or above were allowed to perform such dangerous surgeries.
For a general practitioner to qualify for a senior physician title, they needed to have completed eight years of integrated undergraduate and postgraduate studies, obtained an intermediate professional title, and have more than three years of work experience before they could apply for a senior title. After becoming a senior physician, they would need to hone their skills for another year before having the opportunity to perform Class III surgeries.
It must be mentioned.
Surgeries were also graded, from simple to difficult, divided into four classes.
Class III surgeries were more complex and carried significant risks.
Doctors who could typically perform Class III surgeries were usually outstanding individuals in the medical field, aged thirty-five and above.
But how old was Lin Fan?
Was he even twenty?
Chen Wan'er found it utterly absurd.
"A mistake..."
Lin Fan pondered, "I've never really considered the possibility of making a mistake, nor have I ever made one."
"That's impossible!"
Chen Wan'er stated with absolute certainty.
Doctors who had never made a mistake did not exist in the past, do not exist now, and will not exist in the future.
"Auntie, please don't rush."
Lin Fan smiled gently, "The patients who come to me are usually not well-off."
He gestured outside, "As you can see, the village is very poor, extremely poor. The patients cannot afford to go to big hospitals, so what I can offer them is already the best treatment. Even if it fails, they have no other options."
In an instant, Chen Wan'er's mind was deeply shaken.
She had been practicing medicine for many years and wasn't unfamiliar with patients from impoverished backgrounds.
When encountering patients in dire financial straits, she always enthusiastically helped by reducing medical fees or donating supplies.
However, when Lin Fan so bluntly laid out such a harsh reality, it still felt like a heavy stone pressing on her heart.
Indeed!
Those who could go to the provincial hospital, regardless of wealth, had some financial backing. But in remote, impoverished areas, how many people couldn't afford medical treatment and simply never came to her attention?
"Let me take a moment."
Chen Wan'er made a gesture to pause.
Lin Fan nodded gently.
After a long silence.
Chen Wan'er spoke, "In your medical practice, have there been any major incidents of causing permanent disability or death?"
"No, not a single one."
Lin Fan stated with conviction.
"Phew~"
Chen Wan'er let out a sigh of relief.
"I understand your situation."
Chen Wan'er stood up, "However, the authenticity remains to be verified. Now, I'd like to see Mengyao and ask her a few things."
Lin Fan also stood up, "She's probably at the village committee. I'll escort you there."
"No need, just tell me where it is,"
Chen Wan'er declined.
The two walked out of the clinic. A white Audi sedan was parked outside, and a young girl with short hair sat in the driver's seat.
She was chewing gum, her eyes sharp, exuding an air of spirited confidence. She kept looking at Lin Fan with a challenging gaze.
Lin Fan pointed ahead, "Go straight down this road. See that utility pole by the roadside? Turn right there."
"Aunt Chen, is he the one Mengyao fancies?"
The short-haired girl was Bai Jing, the daughter of a long-time family friend of Tian Yutang.
Bai Jing was mischievous since childhood and didn't get along well with the quiet Tian Mengyao.
As she grew up, she defied her father's wishes and enrolled in a military academy, which nearly drove her family to despair.
This time, she came back for a holiday and, upon hearing that Tian Mengyao had someone she liked, she eagerly came to witness the spectacle.
"Yes."
Chen Wan'er nodded, not concealing anything.
"Pfft."
Bai Jing couldn't help but chuckle, "What taste does Mengyao have? I could take down someone like him with one hand. Tsk tsk, and he's a clinic owner, your colleague."
Bai Jing and Chen Wan'er had always been close. She often visited Chen Wan'er's home as a child and had long considered her a second mother.
In front of Chen Wan'er, Bai Jing shed her usual cold demeanor, turning into a chatterbox.
"Aunt Chen, how's his medical skill? Is he just some country quack?"
"He... has some rather unconventional talents."
Chen Wan'er could only describe Lin Fan this way.
He lacked formal education and had not received proper medical training.
However, by leveraging the advantage that human lives in the countryside were considered cheap, he had cultivated superb acupuncture skills.
The report also stated that Lin Fan had a good reputation in Shimen Town and was widely respected. When his clinic was sealed, it nearly caused a major incident.
Thinking of this, Chen Wan'er shook her head.
Because patients couldn't afford treatment and Lin Fan's clinic charged very little, those who were cured naturally felt immense gratitude and spread Lin Fan's name everywhere.
But what about those who weren't cured?
Just thinking about their miserable fates made Chen Wan'er's heart ache.
"Unconventional talents? I think he's quite unconventional himself,"
Bai Jing giggled.
"Don't talk nonsense, especially not in front of Mengyao. I don't want to mediate for you two again,"
Chen Wan'er gave her a look, "Let's go to the village committee. I want to see what that girl Mengyao has been up to."
The Audi slowly drove away.
Lin Fan stood at the entrance of the clinic, watching Bai Jing, who was operating the steering wheel with one hand and had the other out the window. He gritted his teeth and muttered, "You're the unconventional one! Everything about you is unconventional!"
"Tomboy, I hope you never find a boyfriend, humph!"