Eva Monroe nodded without the slightest hesitation.
She trusted her.
She trusted Eliza Sutton as much as she trusted herself.
"Good." As Eliza spoke, she pulled Eva Monroe’s leg toward her, forcefully crushed the plaster cast with her fingers, and then took out the Silver Needles she carried with her.
Just then, a nurse walked in. Seeing what Eliza was doing, she imdiately tried to stop her. "Ma’am, what are you doing? The patient’s leg is still severely injured! You can’t remove the cast, and you mustn’t move it!"
While the nurse was still talking, Eliza’s hand was already on Eva Monroe’s ankle.
Eva Monroe furrowed her brow in pain.
Eliza said, "There’s still a slight dislocation in your ankle bone. I have to set it right, or even after it heals, you’ll have problems with it later."
The nurse retorted, "What nonsense are you talking about? We’ve already taken X-rays of Miss Monroe’s foot. Her bones aren’t dislocated. Don’t touch it recklessly, or sothing bad could happen."
The mont the nurse finished speaking, Eliza suddenly applied force.
"AH!"
Eva Monroe cried out in pain.
"Hey! What is wrong with you?" The nurse rushed over, about to pull Eliza away. "How can you hurt the patient like that!"
"Don’t move!" Eliza snapped.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a heavy authority that left the nurse stunned for a mont.
Eliza’s hands didn’t stop, her fingers moving swiftly as she manipulated Eva Monroe’s ankle.
The pain brought tears to Eva Monroe’s eyes.
At that mont, the nurse snapped out of it and shouted, "Stop it! If you keep hurting the patient, don’t bla for calling for help!"
Eliza ignored the nurse and said to Eva Monroe, "Try moving your foot."
Eva Monroe tentatively wiggled her foot and said in amazent, "Huh, it doesn’t hurt anymore. No, that’s not right. The pain is different from before. What’s going on?"
Eliza explained, "You were in pain before because a bone in your ankle was slightly dislocated."
It was a dislocation so minor that ordinary dical equipnt couldn’t detect it.
But just because it couldn’t be detected didn’t an it wasn’t there. Once the bone healed, the dislocated part would have no chance to recover, leaving a chronic problem. From then on, she would feel pain on cloudy or rainy days, or whenever she walked quickly.
"The pain you feel now is because the tissue is still swollen. It’ll get much better after the inflammation goes down."
’She has to be lying.’
The nurse opened her mouth, wanting to argue. ’How could there be sothing an X-ray can’t detect, but she can find just by feeling around with her hands, and even fix it? Does she think this is a TV show?’
But as she watched Eva Monroe twisting her foot back and forth without any sign of pain, she could only suppress her doubts.
"What do I do next? Just wait for the swelling to go down?"
"You could, but that would be too slow. Doesn’t your shoot start next week?" Eliza said. "I’ll give you an acupuncture treatnt first, and then I’ll prepare so herbal dicine for you."
As she spoke, Eliza took out her personal set of Silver Needles. The needles, glinting with a cold light, swiftly pierced Eva Monroe’s badly swollen ankle. As her fingers brushed over them, the row of Silver Needles actually began to emit a magical, humming sound.
Eva Monroe cried out in surprise, "Eliza, my ankle feels so hot!"
"Mm, it’s supposed to feel hot."
"What’s this Needle Technique called?"
"Burning Mountain Fire."
"Cool na, it sounds really powerful. But it’s not as badass as the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles."
Eliza smiled. "With how delicate your constitution is right now, you wouldn’t be able to handle the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles."
With that, Eliza pulled out the Silver Needles.
Eva Monroe exclaid, "The throbbing pain has eased up too! Isla Sutton, you’re amazing!"
"It was alright. Nothing too difficult." Eliza took out a pen and paper, wrote out a prescription, and handed it to the nurse. "Could I trouble you to get these herbs for ?"
"Oh, oh, yes, of course." The nurse agreed, then suddenly added, "I need to show this prescription to a doctor. I can’t get the dicine for you otherwise. Is that okay?"
"Of course."
Seeing that Eliza had agreed, the nurse quickly went to find a doctor.
Before long, the nurse returned.
This ti, she ca back not only with the dicine but also with several older doctors.
The badges on their chests identified them as attending physicians from the Traditional Chinese dicine Departnt.
The lead doctor got straight to the point. "Did you write this prescription?"
"Yes."
"Why would you prescribe herbs like this? Eight of the ten herbs on this list are toxic." The director’s tone was grave.
The nurse was shocked to hear this and silently thanked her lucky stars for being cautious. ’If sothing had gone wrong, I would have been the one in the most trouble.’
Eliza’s tone didn’t change at all. "There are no toxic dicinal herbs in this world, only incompetent doctors who label them as such. Used correctly, arsenic can be a life-saving dicine. Used incorrectly, ginseng can kill. As an old master of Traditional Chinese dicine from a long line of practitioners, Director Donovan, I’m sure you don’t need to explain this principle."
"Indeed. I understand the principle, but it’s a sha that in practice, our hands are tied," Director Donovan sighed.
Of course, he understood the logic Eliza was speaking of. It was just that most people couldn’t accept it, and most TCM practitioners weren’t capable enough to apply it.
Director Donovan looked at Eliza’s calm and composed face. "Miss, do you happen to know a Mr. Quillon Croft?"
Sothing flashed across Eliza’s eyes for a fleeting mont before she said faintly, "I don’t know him."
"What a pity. I t Mr. Quillon Croft once, over a decade ago, and was fortunate enough to study by his side for half a month. Your bold and unconventional use of herbs is sowhat similar to Mr. Croft’s. If you ever have the chance to et him, he would surely be delighted to see soone like you erge in the world of Traditional Chinese dicine."
"You flatter , Director Donovan."
Director Donovan shook his head. "May I watch how you administer the dicine to the patient?"
"Of course." Eliza did not refuse.
She first opened the packets of herbs and sorted through them again.
The main purpose of this was to confirm the weight of each component.
As the saying goes, a hair’s breadth of deviation can lead to a thousand miles of error, and this is especially true when it cos to prescribing traditional dicine.
After that, she ground all the herbs into a powder and mixed them with a dicinal paste. Throughout the entire process of preparing the herbs, Eliza was unhurried, moving with a fluid grace that was like flowing water.
Once the poultice was ready, Eliza applied it to Eva Monroe’s ankle.
Eliza said, "To reduce the swelling faster, it will hurt a little right after the poultice is applied. You’ll have to bear with it."
Eva Monroe nodded.
Seeing this, Director Donovan let out another long sigh. "Such a pity."
’But Eliza is too young, and she has appeared too late. Otherwise, if Quillon Croft had t her, he certainly would have cherished such a talent.’
"There’s nothing to pity. Traditional Chinese dicine is about fate, and so are the connections between people."
Director Donovan laughed. "Well said."
Just then, Director Donovan’s phone rang. There were too many patients in his departnt, and he was needed back right away.
The nurse also left to attend to her duties, and the hospital room grew quiet.
Eliza had just breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Eva Monroe start to cry.
Eliza was startled. "Is it too painful? I’ll take the poultice off and switch to a milder one."
She imdiately moved to undo the gauze, but Eva Monroe pulled her into a tight hug.
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