Doctor Shu

"Maaaamaaaa, father is hurt!!!"

The shrill voice of a young girl in panic was not a voice one normally liked listening to.

Looking at her run, one could see water still dripping from her clothes and hair. Tang Ah was so frightened that she didn't even notice how she had uncountably many bruises on her knees and arms. She couldn't register this pain as there was another pain - or to name it better - another fright fully encompassing her mind:

Her papa was hurt – because of her, all because she fell into the river.

Tang Mei had just stored away the money when she heard the frightful cry. Her daughter was crying for help so something must have happened to either her sons or her husband. Running out of the house she saw the state her daughter was in and felt pure terror.

'She fell into the river!'

That was her immediate reaction. Her daughter who couldn't swim, fell into the river. Forcibly steadying herself down from the thought of her daughter almost drowning she already reached halfway to her daughter and shouted:

"Calm down! What happened?"

Hearing that question, her already teary eyes got even worse and she sobbed:

"Father…" *sob* "…fell…" *sob* "blood everywhere" *sob* "because of me" *wuhaaa*

Reaching her destination and notifying her mother how she was told to by her brothers made the girl finally crack and she fell down and started crying without anything stopping her anymore.

Her will had already been broken after she had told her mother all the important information.

Hearing all that Tang Mei, was first stunned for a moment but quickly reacted and shouted to Tang He who also had almost arrived at his sister's:

"He'er! Quickly call Doctor Shu here! Tell him your father is critically injured and needs his help. Quickly run!"

Dropping the sack of carrots on the ground Tang He started running like he had never ran before in his life. He didn't care that his body started hurting very soon. He didn't care that he wouldn't get any air because each breath would be agonizing. He didn't care - He was just running.

Frank cared though.

After feeling how the boy could not breath anymore he shouted in Tang He's head:

< Slow down!! >

Seeing that the boy didn't listen to him he tried again:

< Do you want to save you father? >

< If you run like that you will collapse on the ground in the next 5 minutes. You will never get there! >

This woke Tang He from his stupor. He didn't know exactly how long 5 minutes were but he had a feeling that it was a very short time. Still he disputed:

'I need to get to Doctor Shu as fast as possible!'

< You need to get there first! If you collapse midway you won't help anyone. So …>

< SLOW DOWN! > Frank commanded.

Strangely this command reached He and he significantly decreased his speed. Now he ran about half as fast as his wild dash before. Still, he was way faster than when he walked with his mother this morning.

Feeling how Tang He's pulse settled down and how fresh air filled the almost cramped up lungs they both calmed down a bit.

< Good boy! >

< Everything will be fine! >

Frank tried to calm him down. And it seemed to work.

Now Tang He was running steadily with long breaths in between his steps. Because he was never much of a runner Frank explained how important steady breathing would be. Frank could feel exactly what Tang He felt and so he could give perfect instructions on how to breathe or even run for that matter – even paced comfortable steps were best.

Even though his body was not used to such long marathons Tang He safely reached Doctor Shu's house on the other side of the village. Anxiously he banged on the door and shouted:

"Doctooor!"

"Father Hurt! Blood everywhere! Help!"

Soon the door opened and a rather young man could be seen on the other side. He looked very different from most of the other people in the village. His hair was very peculiar as it was almost golden coloured. With his blue eyes he examined Tang He and asked:

"What happened?"

Still trying to catch his breath Tang He repeated:

"Father is hurt! On field! Sister said much blood!"

"Mr. Tang Rong is injured? Have you seen it happen?"

For a short moment Tang He wasn't sure on how to answer but with Franks help he answered:

"Err... No! Please come to field help father!"

Understanding that time was of the essence and things could be life-threatening Doctor Shu went back inside to get his things letting Tang He inside.

There an herbal odour hit his nose, Frank could fell more clear-headed and his breathing got better.

< Wow, that's some really nice stuff, he has there. >

< I wonder how far medicine has progressed in the place… >

In his old life medicine was all about diagnosing the symptoms the patient would present and trying to get to conclusions from there. If one could find the cause one would try to solve the problem with it, if one couldn't often only symptomatic treatments were possible.

The human body was just a machine and sometimes it would need fixing.

In most cases a dose of antibiotics would be used as a solve-it-all so solution. This of course had consequences.

There had almost been an epidemic of superbugs at one point because antibiotics had been used extremely excessively everywhere. Instead of caring for better hygiene, breeding animals were pumped full of those drugs and over time some bacteria had developed resistances to them. When that finally happened, it meant the end for most normal animal farms.

To stop this from spreading, a worldwide campaign had been called in and every person on the planet got a kind of new gene-treatment. Even though some thought it to be some kind of conspiracy, everyone took it in the end. Life depended on it.

Technology did great in increasing everyone's life quality but its excessive and wrong use had almost endangered humanity.

As Tang He walked inside he saw many different herbs lying on white clothes. They still seemed rather fresh so probably they were out drying. I a room further back he could see many vases placed on a shelf but just as he wanted to go there to investigate further, Doctor Shu already came from the room to his right carrying a large backpack. Its rectangular shape was almost as large as his torso and it looked very heavy and sturdy. Meeting Tang He on his way out Doctor Shu asked him:

"You should be pretty tired, right? You ran all the way here. Do you want to stay?"

"No, I go back and see papa too"

Seeing the conviction in the boy's eyes Doctor Shu let him be and decided to walk as quick as he could and warned Tang He that if he couldn't keep up everything would still be fine.

As expected very soon on his way back Tang He lost Doctor Shu from his vision. Even though he had tried his hardest to keep up, he wasn't able to do it and after Frank finally managed to pacify him he changed to a more comfortable walking pace maybe slightly faster than normal.

He had done his job and everything would be in Doctor Shu's hands now and he could only silently pray in his head:

'Please let my father be alright!'

'Please let my father be alright!'

< Calm down, everything will be fine! Don't beat yourself up over it. >

Frank tried to distract him so he continued:

< Did you know my parents were very strange people as well? Even though I can't remember much of them I do remember some stuff. >

'Mhhh…?'

< Yeah, my mother was always strict with me, she had me study twice as hard as everyone else. Sometimes when she caught me playing games she would get really angry at me and threaten to throw everything out - she never did though, haha… >

< Even though she was so strict to everyone around her, she was always late for everything. We would always come on the last minute to any events we got involved in. That's one of the things I picked up from her.

One time I actually come an hour late to school. When I got asked why I was late a said 'I thought it would start 45 minutes later', you see - I even came late to my own self-made appointment, haha… It took forever to learn punctuality on my own and only when I married my wife was I finally cured from this bad habit. >

< … >

As Tang He got amused and immersed in all the life-stories Frank would tell him, he didn't even notice how time was flying and they already arrived home.

There he found nobody, so he guessed that everyone would still be at the fields. After thinking for a moment, he headed for the water pump by the river. If he headed there he should be able to see any standing person on the fields, especially if he climbed on the wheel of the pump.

Suddenly Frank too seemed to remember a very intriguing construct. It was like a reverse waterwheel where someone would walk on top to bring water from the river to a higher point where it would flow away. Two poles made sure the wheel was secured in place and the person on top wouldn't fall from that rather high place.

Tang He didn't need to go that far though. As soon as he stepped on one of the main roads on the field next to the main water canal he saw what had happened:

The wooden Wheel had crashed down and when his father fell he seemed to have broken his leg – it was situated in a very unnatural angle to the rest of his body. But if that had been all, his brothers could have brought him home easily with their combined strength.

They couldn't though. One of the cracked wooden shafts had impaled the same leg as well.

Tang He's whole family was gathered around the still body of his father and Doctor Shu who hocked next to him was looking through his wooden backpack. He was taking out diverse bottles and packages. An herbal smell similar to that in his house had already spread out from it.

As everyone's attention was on his father nobody noticed how Tang He arrived on the scene and just as he wanted to call out to everyone, Frank's calm voice shouted out:

< Don't worry your father is just unconscious, he is breathing. >

< See how everyone is silent? Maybe Doctor Shu told them to remain that way so he could concentrate on his work. >

< Just stay quiet for now and observe. >

Franks medical expertise was pretty limited actually. He did know some basic anatomy and would be able to give first aid in most cases. Now though that he was held in this body, helping would be impossible of course so he would just let the professional do his job.

Just as he was wondering what this doctor would do and how he would treat this patient, the young man took out another small case from his backpack.

Doctor Shu laid down everything he would need next to the body of the still man. Among all those medical ointments and salves a rather bulky and straight rod was positioned, it looked very sturdy and should be able to serve as a support for the leg.

In Franks opinion, in this case one should first remove the object safely and then straighten the leg to avoid further injuries.

Then to remove such an object, one would need to lower the blood pressure and constrict the blood flow to the injured area and just as he was wondering what Doctor Shu would use to do that, he saw him reach for his small case and open it.

Instead of surgical tools or some kind of strong cloth to bind off the leg, Frank saw something which almost made his imaginary eyes pop out of his sockets:

A set of a couple dozen silvery looking needles.