Chapter 142: Infant Soul Loss Syndrome (Part 1)

  Xiao Yu heard the child's mother's account, his brow furrowed, and he asked: "Hasn't that kid woken up for ten days in the hospital?"

  The father and mother of the child simultaneously shook their heads and said "no".

  "Oh", Xiao Yu nodded, Xiao Yu now felt very strange in his heart, what's going on? The child didn't have any symptoms.

  Xiao Yu thought of a possibility.

  "Before your child fell asleep, have you taken him to any special place?" Xiao Ye asked the parents.

  The child's parents looked at each other and both showed a puzzled expression, saying: "No! We've always been to work, home, nowhere else!"

  Xiao Yu secretly opened his yin-yang eyes, and under Xiao Yu's yin-yang eyes, this child was clearly black and white, without a hint of evil aura surrounding him. It makes sense to think about it, after all, this is the time when the yang energy is most prosperous in the afternoon.

  Xiao Yu furrowed his brow and pondered for a moment. Although the Wan Sheng Tang had not yet opened, since the patient had come to their home, this was considered the first patient of Wan Sheng Tang and they must cure him, or else it would tarnish the reputation of Wan Sheng Tang.

  It's certain that this child is not ill, but now he's in a coma and hasn't woken up. The only possibility is that he was possessed by an evil spirit or encountered something unclean.

  Xiao Yu thought for a moment, then raised his head and looked at the young couple, saying: "Now you take me to retrace the route that the child walked before falling asleep!"

  The young couple looked at each other, both with a puzzled expression, and then suddenly realized and said: "Doctor, are you saying that our child has encountered something unclean?"

  This couple are from a mountain village, where such things are very prevalent. Generally when they encounter an illness that looks bad, they call it a "ghost" disease. In rural areas there are some witches and quacks who make a living by treating this kind of ghost disease. Most of them are swindlers.

  Although many people can find them to be good at treating illnesses, those are not real diseases, but rather psychological factors at play. Of course, it's not ruled out that there may be some true practitioners of Taoist magic who have retreated into the mountains, but among ten thousand such practitioners, having one true practitioner is already quite rare.

  "No, I'm afraid the child is sensitive to certain things, which led to this situation!" Xiao Yu said with a smile. For these things, whether true or false, it's better for ordinary people not to know, so as not to have a burden in their hearts and cause unnecessary trouble.

  "Ah, thank you so much, Doctor!" The two believed Xiao Yu's words. When they looked at Xiao Yu again, their faces were filled with gratitude.

  "It's all right, let's go!" Xiao Yu stood up and said.

  After the two of them went out, Xiao Yu locked the door. Only then did he feel that something was missing here - a partner to guard the medicine and watch the door. Otherwise, every time he went out, locking the door wouldn't work.

  "Doctor, come on in!" The young man wiped the seat next to the tricycle with his sleeve and smiled at Xiao Yu.

  "Oh dear! Doctor, hurry up and get on the car, let him take us across, there's still a long way to go!" The young mother of the child also chimed in hastily.

  "I'm still walking! I'm quite heavy!" Xiao Yu said with a smile.

  "It's nothing, doctor, he doesn't have anything else, just a bit of strength!" The child's mother said hastily.

  "Oh, in that case, I won't be polite!" Xiao Ye said with a pause, looking at the two sincere and expectant gazes.

  Young rushed over and wiped it with his sleeve, then let Xiao Yu get on and said: "When someone in our hometown invites a doctor, they always borrow the village head's oxcart to pull. The old generation says this is respect for the doctor!"

  Xiao Yu nodded and sat down beside the tricycle. The young man saw Xiao Yu sit down, got on the tricycle and sped away.

  On the road, Xiao Yu asked this young couple, "What do you two do for work?"

  "I didn't have children before, I worked in a restaurant. After having children, I focused on taking care of them. When the child grew up, he went to work. He has low education and wants to learn a skill, so that after returning to his hometown, he can do something for himself, so he went to be an apprentice for others!" The young mother's face showed a hint of shyness as she said this.

  "Oh, what's the point of learning?" As for so-called apprentices like Xiao Yu, it's common knowledge that if they don't follow their master for a few years, it's hard to learn the real skills. Moreover, they're always given the most tiring and difficult tasks, and paid with meager wages.

  Nowadays, some places are using the guise of recruiting apprentices to find cheap laborers, giving them the most tiring and difficult tasks, but paying them only one-tenth or even one-twentieth of what the master would earn.

  "Don't laugh when I tell you, he's learning to grab medicine, and it's traditional Chinese medicine! There's also a TCM doctor in their small pharmacy, he often sneaks in to listen and learn something. In the future, when he returns to his hometown, he'll open a small clinic too! In our hometown, being a doctor is the most respected profession."

  The young mother showed a somewhat embarrassed expression when talking about her husband studying medicine, but when she mentioned that he would return to their hometown to open a clinic in the future, she revealed a kind of longing, a yearning for a better life.

  "Haha, the boss of that small pharmacy is a part-time doctor, my master was a herbalist who worked there for four years. My boss is very good to me, this time he lent me money to see a doctor for his son, and at that time he gave me 2,000 yuan, which is equivalent to four months' salary for me!"

  Hearing his wife's words, the father of the child who was pedaling a tricycle in front of him took over and spoke, his tone filled with respect and gratitude for the boss.

  "Does he only earn 500 yuan a month?" Xiao Yu heard the man's words and showed a shocked expression. He had thought that this couple, with the wife working and the husband being an apprentice, might not earn much money, but he hadn't expected it to be so low. In a city like Shen Hai, 500 yuan was barely enough to support one person, let alone a family of three!

  "Ah! Although it's little, but the boss said I can become an apprentice in a thousand years, at that time I can catch medicine independently, and then I can earn more! And next year the child will be older, Lingling will also be able to go out to work, as long as we get through this year, I believe our days will slowly get better. And I must let them mother and son live a good life!"

  When Xiao Yu heard this, the child's father might have felt embarrassed and began to explain in detail. By the end of it, although Xiao Yu couldn't see his expression, he could sense his determination and persistence from his tone of voice.

  "Doctor, don't laugh at me for saying this, but I came to your place because it hasn't opened yet and I thought maybe it would be cheaper. I was hoping that there might be some way, although the chances are slim!" The child's mother said with a embarrassed expression on her face.

  Xiao Yu looked at this young couple and thought to himself, hoping that their days would get better!

  The young father pedaled a tricycle carrying Xiao Yu and others all the way north, arriving at a pharmacy called Yanghe Hall, which had only one small entrance.

  "Doctor, we came back home from here last night! This is also where I used to work!" The child's father said with a proud tone, pointing at the pharmacy.

  "Boss, why did you let me lend that little brat Liu money? Doesn't he still owe 3,000?" The young father of the child had just walked with Xiao You to the entrance of the pharmacy when they heard the voice coming from inside the house and stopped in their tracks.

  "You don't know, now the apprentices are very expensive! And this kid has a talent for medicine too. Now he can already prescribe medicine independently. If he leaves, I won't be able to find another apprentice like him even if I spend two thousand yuan. But when he needed it most, I helped him out and always gave him 500 yuan, so he doesn't dare say anything."

  A middle-aged man's voice came from inside the pharmacy, which should be the boss of this young father!

  The young father, who had been beaming with excitement, gradually fell into a scowl, his face twisted in anger. But when he turned around and saw his wife and the child in her arms, the anger on his face slowly dissipated, and he rubbed his face vigorously with his hands before breaking out into a smile again.

  Before he pays off the debt to his boss and finds a new job, he cannot afford to fall out with his boss, otherwise they will not be able to maintain their basic living, and may even have to sleep under the bridge at night. After all, the house they live in is still rented by the boss. If it were just him, it would be nothing, but he has a wife and children, and he cannot let his wife and children become homeless.

  "Boss, I'm back!" The child's father put on a smiling face and shouted loudly at the door, then lifted the curtain and walked in.

  "Little Liu, didn't you go to see the child's doctor?" The boss saw the child's father enter the door and his face showed a awkward expression, but it flashed by in an instant.

  "Ah, this is the doctor. I forgot to bring the house key, let's go get it!" The child's father said, and then took Xiao Yu into the house.

  "Doctor, you take a rest, I'll go find the key!" The child's father said, he made up a lie, he didn't say they were here to see what the child was sensitive to, he was afraid of causing the boss's misunderstanding and unnecessary trouble.

  Xiao Yu opened his yin-yang eyes and looked around the room, but he didn't find anything.

  "How strange! Why isn't it here?" The child's father stood up from behind the counter and muttered to himself. After finishing, he cast his gaze towards Xiao Yu.

  Xiao Yu shook his head at the child's father and walked out of the pharmacy. The child's mother, who was called Lingling, did not follow him in, but instead stood beside the tricycle, holding the child and waiting for them.

  The child's mother saw Xiao Yu walk out and hurriedly asked: "Doctor, how is it?"

  "Not here! Keep going! Follow the road you took back home last night!"

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