It was close to closing hours and the elder that was responsible for the clinic was still down in the basement concocting pills, or so the workers that were working thought. The people that were gathered here were mostly hired help or regular cultivators, they didn’t develop a more lenient mindset just yet.
Zhang Dong had ordered to help the people of this city and offer them service, but these two looked like beggars. The Patriarch didn’t realize that he worded his order in the wrong way. The workers thought that ‘People of this city’ was about the actual citizens that paid taxes, if they saw a beggar they would shoo them away.
“Please, this is a clinic, right? Is there a doctor around?”
The woman wasn’t someone that the news about the Zhang Clan had reached, she just noticed the extravagant health clinic sign outside. All the apothecary shops and other establishments for healing that were owned by the Situ Clan had already turned her down. They would never aid someone that wouldn’t be able to pay those exorbitant prices that they charged.
“I beg you, save my little Zhu’er.”
The people looked at each other and then to the mother, she was holding a 10 or 11-year-old child in her hands, the youth looked like he was trashed by someone. This wasn’t rare around these parts, if you bumped into some people without begging for their forgiveness it wasn’t strange to be beaten up to the brink of your life.
“We are sorry the doctor is busy now, come back tomorrow…”
One of the male workers replied while looking to the side, his gaze to the stairs going down to the basement where Wei Hung headed too. He was afraid that the old man might beat them up if they bothered him with two beggars like this. He really didn’t want to earn a caning by some old grandpa, he had gotten enough beatings by his own elders so he was adamant about reporting this to the man in charge. Those pill makers were a strange bunch, their furnaces would explode and they would blame it on the workers being too loud which broke their concentration.
‘No way I’m dragging that old grandpa up here, he looked ferocious.’
In Matt’s mind he was playing the role of a sympathetic old grandpa, but in reality, whenever he smiled his face would contort in strange ways making the people feel uncomfortable around him. They wouldn’t say a thing though, everyone knew at least one grumpy old elder in their life and knew well how to evade their wrath.
“Yes, yes the old master is busy making pills, please leave if you can’t pay for healing pills or elixirs…”
The woman only had a couple of copper coins on her, the rest were the torn up clothes. The child that she was holding was the only family that she had, her husband having been sold off as a slave after he gambled their money away in the casinos of Moonlight City. She was too old to be a working lady and had trouble finding a job only doing odd jobs.
Times were tough though and the people were cruel, even when she cleaned and cooked for them they would only leave scraps and underpay her tremendously. Sometimes they would even throw her out without anything after her slaving away for a whole day, cooking and cleaning. Her boy was a little troublemaker too, always getting in trouble and making his poor mom worry.
Due to the mother working all day the youth went unsupervised. One thing led to another and he joined the local street urchins that moved around the city stealing food and small change. Most of the time they managed to get away, the young kids far too agile and used to the backstreets to get apprehended. This time they weren’t so lucky, one of the older kids tried his pickpocketing skills on the wrong person that noticed it. Little Zhu was there keeping the pickpocketing target busy, but when the urchins tried running they got caught and were taught a tough lesson.
The youth managed to drag his beaten body in front of the shack he and his mother were living, the woman shocked when she returned after a hard day of work. She had nowhere to go, her head down on the ground in front of the workers. There was no one in this blasted city that would do anything for free, it was always money. Her eyes were tearing up, she didn’t want to lose her only son that was the only thing that she had left in this world.
“Please I implore you…”
“Shoo, This clinic belongs to the great Zhang Clan, they don’t do business with moochers like you, now shoo!”
In the worker’s minds, they were doing the right thing. They couldn’t let other people see some beggars and vagabonds in this new clinic, they were far too afraid of the Zhang Clan elders coming and reprimanding them for it. While the man in front was thinking that the woman started getting frantic, grabbing his leg and pulling on his pants.
“Hey, get off me!”
He was about to kick the woman away, his foot moving backward for the windup but as his foot was flying forward someone grabbed it. He started seeing things upside down as the person that was grasping him by the ankle lifted him up into the air. He soon could see the lower areas of the robe that Wei Hung was wearing, the grandpa having caught his kick mid-strike.
“What are you fools doing?”
The man looked at the worker that he was holding with a raised brow, he had come out of his basement-dwelling, disgruntled after having to clean up the mess that he made. He then heard some screaming and noticed the crying woman on the floor grasping one of the hired helpers. What were these people doing, weren’t they supposed to help the injured people instead of injuring them themselves?
“Ahh… s-sir… these beggars just showed up, but don’t worry we will remove them from this esteemed clinic in a moment.”
Wei Hung’s face started deforming the moment he heard them call the people beggars and that they were going to kick them out. He even noticed the beaten-up child, bruises and cuts all over his body the weeping woman just there not knowing what to do.
“You damn buffon, who told you to remove them, huh? You are supposed to help everyone and I mean EVERYONE!”
The worker was flung against the wall after the enraged elderly man chucked him to the side, not caring if he was okay or not. He then looked at the nursing staff that had conflicting expressions on their faces, not really sure what was going on.
“You and you, bring the boy up to the second level and wash his body with the cleansed spirit water, I will be there in the moment!… Well, DON’T JUST STAND THERE WITH YOUR MOUTHS WIDE OPEN, MOVE!”
The elder’s scream made everyone flinch and scatter to work, the boy was snatched and carried off to the second level the mother quickly following after the workers while bowing at the older man that just showed up.
‘Damn savages…’
Matt cursed inwardly, not knowing that even the people from his clan and the workers they hired would be this cruel. It was even a woman with a beaten-up child, how could people show so little compassion. He just couldn’t understand it, his brows were furrowed and his teeth clenching up he would have to investigate this later, for now, the boy was more important.
Matt slapped his cheeks and went upstairs, blaming himself for the transgression that transpired here. The mother was to the side as the Nurses carried him to one of the empty beds in the larger rooms and started cleaning his body from the blood, grime, and sweat. The special water that they were using was something the Zhang Clan was known for, it had some weak healing and regenerative abilities and was good at disinfecting wounds to boot.
The mother looked at the old looking man, he looked to be the doctor. He was a bit scary but was apparently willing to help her child, she wasn’t sure if there was an ulterior motive behind this, but she would give her life for her son if she had too.
“Please sir, help my little boy.”
She pleaded, the man just looked at her while going over. He placed his palm on the woman’s shoulder, the woman experiencing a peculiar feeling when he did that. She could feel warm energy flowing into her body making her worries fly away as she felt really calm. She wobbled to the side where she was guided to the bench by one of the nurses, the man moved over to the boy that was on the table with only his groin area covered by a white cloth.
Wei Hung took out a bunch of needles that were used for acupuncture, they were pure gold and looked quite costly. The nursing staff’s eyes went wide after seeing them, quickly being able to distinguish the item’s price. The man opened up his palm the needles started hovering up in the air which made everyone’s eyes bulge out even more as they had never seen a physician work in such a fashion before.
‘This Wei Hung isn’t simple… he must be a master!’
They thought to themselves while gasping, the metallic items hovered around the boy’s body as they homed in on the desired acupuncture points. They were slowly lowered into his body, the man just waving his finger around while his other hand was held behind his back as he performed the strange procedure.
The people then saw the golden needles radiating golden light, the spiritual energy filling out the room and making everyone gasp some more. This was the holy element type spiritual Qi that Matt was now proficient in, the energy was slowly infused into the boy’s body his complexion quickly getting better and better as you could see his many wounds closing at a rapid pace.
The people couldn’t believe it, what was this strange technique that this elder was showing them. The young boy was getting healed at a rapid pace as if he drunk some kind of high-quality healing elixir. They looked at this elder that was concentrating, not knowing how he ended up in this small clinic his skills were better off getting used by some kind of great sect.
The needles soon hovered away from the boy’s body, the procedure ending rather quickly after the divine healing energies were distributed throughout the youth’s body. Matt could use a couple of healing techniques by now, but this one was the best one as he could directly insert the healing energies into the patient’s body through the acupuncture needles. This increased the speed of the process and was a lot better for people with internal injuries, this technique could even heal up some plugged up meridians.
“He will be fine now.”
The old man stroked his beard while turning to the bewildered people that were staring at him as if he was some rare creature.
“Also, all of you lot report to my office, I must have a word with you…”
The nurses snapped out of their trance and looked at the man, his face was contorted and he was clearly mad. They knew that they were in for a beating or at least an earful.
“Don’t forget to drag that one fool over too, slap him awake if he is still passed out, hmph!”
He was going to give those idiots a good lecture, maybe even cut their pay for the week for this transgression. He wanted to show the goodwill of his Zhang Clan, show them how different they were from the other clans, but this was the result. Crying mothers and beaten children getting refused treatment.
“Well…get moving, you buffoons, or I’ll dock your pay for the entire month!”
“Oh no sir, show mercy!”
The poor workers shuffled down and dragged the passed out man, dumping water over his face and smacking his cheeks till he woke up. Then they quickly rushed to Wei Hung’s office, they could take a beating, they could take getting called idiots and clowns, but they certainly couldn’t take not being paid.