Silver Needles

When Frank saw the needles inside the case all hope he had for a successful treatment was lost. All respect for the professionality of this Doctor Shu vanished as well.

< Acupuncture? Really? >

Frank was kind of angry; he had heard of acupuncture to reduce stress and pain before and he did believe it could work. Anything would if a strong enough incentive was given, especially pain and psychological stress could be easily reduced when the patient believed it would work. It was called the placebo effect and at some point, tons of money were made from medicine working on exactly that principle.

< But now, on an unconscious body needles would not help at all! >

Hearing that, Tang He was confused first and then tried to argue:

'I had heard my mother say once that his needles were very famous in the village and that many people had their ailments removed through them.'

< Any of them with a broken and impaled leg? >

Frank was thinking in overdrive such that Tang He's face was also starting to sweat.

< What can I do to help? >

< There is a stretcher there, so he will try and straighten the leg and there seem to be a lot of medical ointments everywhere. >

< Wait, he seems to be opening them? >

Indeed, Doctor Shu had opened almost all vases and bottles and only one small package was still enveloped in paper. He took out an empty bowl and a metal spoon. From each open bottle he removed a small part of the fluid inside and placed it inside the bowl. When he finished, he switched over to the small vases where more viscous salves seemed to be stored. Again, he took very tiny amounts from each of those containers and put them into the fluid in the bowl. Each time the salve would dissolve in the liquid and so every time its colour would become a bit stronger. First only a slight greenish tint could be seen but when Doctor Shu finished, inside the bowl one could see a tiny amount of a very thick dark green paste. If one wanted to one could have easily fitted it inside of a couple of spoons.

Next Doctor Shu removed the clothes of Tang He's father and made it so that the heart and the navel region where easily visible and accessible. Tang Rong's leg seemed to have been freed of all the cloth before and washed as it had that slightly reflective lustre to it.

As he dipped a brush into the mixture Doctor Shu stated murmuring something. As it was both too fast to understand and didn't seem to be of the same language, nobody knew what was said by this man. With the brush in one hand and the bowl underneath Doctor Shu bent over Tang Rong and started to apply some of the medicine on to the body of his patient.

First, he put some on Tang Rong's stomach slightly below the navel region. Afterwards he switched to the forehead where he did the same this time for a longer period of time. When he finished murmuring, Doctor Shu dipped the brush back into the bowl and shifted to the heart-region. This time he used a lot more ointment and with a weird pattern it was applied on the breast. It looked as if he was writing something but one could not see any legible symbols written on the body.

It looked as if Doctor Shu was trying to fill out a circle in the most complicated way imaginable. He would change directions a lot in his strokes strangely aligned to the rhythm of his murmuring and when he fished small drops of sweat where visible on his face.

With the last bit of paste he did something similar on the leg above the injury. Again, strange patterns would emerge and again one could see a rather large circle filled with greenish colour after he was done.

While all that happened, Frank had calmed down a lot and told Tang He to change his position around Doctor Shu and to try and get closer to the injured leg. Frank decided to step in as soon as he saw blood flowing out of the wound and he would have Tang He run there and press on it as hard as he possibly could.

Frank figured that everyone would panic when they saw the blood squirt out uncontrollably and he prepared Tang He mentally for it.

< Very soon, when Doctor Shu removes the wood from your father's leg, there will likely be blood. >

< I will tell you to run there and help Doctor Shu then. Okay? >

'But Doctor Shu didn't tell us he needs help.'

< He doesn't want to worry us too much, but I think he will very much need our help or else your father could die. >

< So, when I tell you, you must run to the injury and press as hard on it as you can. Do you understand? >

Feeling the serious tone of his new friend, Tang He nodded unconsciously and agreed. He would do anything for his father.

As they were conversing Doctor Shu had taken out four needles from his case and started murmuring again. With smooth motions he rubbed the last parts of the ointment in the bowl and on the brush on the needle tips. Taking one needle from his left hand into his right he kneeled above the navel region and studied the situation carefully. His eyes very focusing on different locations on the stomach as if trying to find the exact spot where to put the needle in…

Then with one smooth motion his right hand almost blurred and came to still again when it almost touched the skin on the body. Now only a small part of the needle was seen between his fingers. After a small break he took the next needle into his right hand and held it above the forehead of Tang He's father. Doctor Shu seemed to concentrate on a point between his eyebrows and again his hand moved and stopped with precision a couple of millimetres away from the skin. Another needle had vanished inside.

Now Frank was very concerned. That needle didn't seem to have hit bone and it was pretty long. Did he just hit a needle into Tang Rong's brain? Even a brain surgeon wouldn't be confident enough to do something like this without sufficient visual information. Frank hadn't expected Doctor Shu to strike like this. What if Tang He's father was killed like that? Maybe Doctor Shu even knew he couldn't do anything to help and decided to put Tang Rong out of his misery?

Though Frank was normally a very kind and trusting person, now he starting to get suspicious.

But as Frank couldn't do anything anyway he started focusing even more on the movements of this 'doctor'.

After another small break Doctor Shu took the third needle and put it in the centre of the green circle as he had before. Strangely he was already breathing very heavily and looked exhausted but still he again took the last needle from his left hand and hovered over a spot on the injured leg. After a moment of contemplation, he struck it deep inside and afterwards sat down from exhaustion.

He looked as if he was meditating or something as his eyes were closed and his breathing started getting deeper and calmer again.

While all that happened nobody around made any noise. Tang Mei was anxiously looking at her husband but every time her eyes would sweep over the green spots on his body she would be showing an expression of relief and confidence. When she saw how Doctor Shu was extremely tired she felt immense gratitude such that she didn't even know how to repay that favour in her lifetime.

All that was not seen by Tang He as he was instructed to look as closely as possible at the wound on his father's leg. Frank wanted to prepare him not to panic when he saw it open up with blood streaming out later. In his opinion the best this medication would do is to calm down the boy's father and maybe slightly decrease his blood pressure. Even though Frank didn't understand what the idea behind the medicinal application on the navel and forehead region was, he did surmise that this calming ointment should relieve pain and maybe would even constrict blood flow a bit. Maybe the needle would lead the medication into the bloodstream as some kind of make-shift injection?

A couple of minutes passed in complete silence and Doctor Shu woke up from his rest. He looked at all the spots he put needles in with care and after a short nod he moved his sight to the wooden shaft impaling the leg. He pondered for a moment and then stood up on his feet. He took out another bottle from his wooden backpack and picked up the last package he had left unopened before. Inside was a small amount of reddish almost brown powder and when he filled it into another bowl and dripped a couple of drops of the liquid into it, the powder turned into a thick salve reddish-brown in colour and it extruded a very pungent smell. Filling some more of the same liquid into a small cup he finally turned to the actual injury. He said:

"I want to remind you again. Nobody shall disturb me as I treat this man! If something were to happen because of it I would not bear any consequences for it."

Frank was a bit confused after that statement. If it didn't go as well as he was telling them, would he bear the consequences then?

When Doctor Shu was standing above the leg, Frank concentrated even more and tried to look for any clues from where the blood would come from. If he could close of the lacerated artery and stop the blood flow like that everything would be fine. Sure, the infection risk would be astronomically high but it was not as if he had any disinfectants he could use anyway. They would deal with that later.

Slowly and carefully the wooden shaft was pulled out. Each time a bit of already drying and clotting blood came out with it.

Most of the family around wasn't able to look at that and their legs seemed to get a bit weak from it but Tang He was too focused to even feel anything and instead tried to change his location to get a better look at the situation and so he slowly came closer as well. Conveniently nobody really noticed that because they tried not to look to much at the injured leg and put their sight more in the man's face.

With one last pull the shaft was removed from the leg…

…

Strangely there was no further blood. No fountain, nothing.

Of course, it was still an open wound and thus was covered in blood.

But normally such a wound would further bleed out and soon one would not be able to see anything because of the amount of blood gushing out.

No such thing happened though.

A hole with the diameter of the wooden shaft went through the leg and one could even see the very ground underneath it. There were traces of wood and dirt still left inside the hole but no more blood.

Frank inside of Tang He's body - only one step away from it - could see everything. He was totally stunned. How is there no blood? When did he stop it from getting out?

As there was no command from the demon inside Tang He just stood there and observed everything. He was in awe from the things he saw happening and just remained there.

That was until someone took his hand and pulled him back from his father. When he turned around he saw his mother looking at him with a questioning and slightly scolding look. But because Doctor Shu told everyone to be quiet she didn't say anything to him and just held his hand.

In the next moment he heard a loud cracking noise and turned around. His father's leg was already turned back the way it should be and Doctor Shu was binding a straight rod to it. With cloths he secured it slightly below the knee and a bit above the ankle.

Next Doctor Shu dunked his fingers into the cup he prepared before and used more liquid from the bottle to rinse out the wound from all the filth that got inside. With his fingers he then applied the paste inside the leg and it looked as if he was trying to find something inside. It appeared as if he was feeling for something and when he found it his expression got much better. He turned to Tang Mei and said:

"Your husband is very lucky. His nerves and meridians were only slightly harmed. In a couple of weeks he will make a full recovery."

Next, he pulled his fingers out of the wound and placed them around the injured spot in a very peculiar fashion. With one strong push and a slight turn Doctor Shu moved the muscle and flesh around the wound and actually closed it off. Holding it like that he began wrapping a white cloth around.

Soon, it and the place where the bone should have broken were tightly wrapped in white. After taking three more rods from his backpack and binding them to further support the leg he turned to Tang Mei and announced:

"Your husband will wake up soon. After I take out the silver needles his pain will come back though. If it gets too bad dissolve one of the packages inside this box in water. Don't use more than one! I counted them so they should be enough to last until he is healed"

After giving her another small box from his backpack Doctor Shu pulled out the needles from Tang Rong's body and put them into an empty box inside his backpack. For a moment he looked at Tang He with a peculiar and curious expression, but soon glanced at Tang Mei and added:

"For the next month your husband is not to stand up from his bed or else his wounds might open up again. In a couple of days I will visit to change the bandages for clean ones. As I have something to do now I'll be off on my way."

With that he packed up his stuff and very soon vanished from sight.