"Endless Ease" Teahouse.
"Dr. Ning, excuse , I need to step out for a bit." A young man decked out head to toe in designer brands, breath as weak as a dying fla, said to Ning Youguang, then shakily pushed himself up from the tea mat.
"Take it slow." Ning Youguang reached out with a polite, hovering gesture as if to help him, but didn’t actually touch him at all.
Instead, it was Jiang Hantian, sitting on her other side, who, seeing her movent, imdiately reached out to support the young man so he could stand up smoothly.
Once he was on his feet, the young man weakly waved a hand at Jiang Hantian. "Stay here and keep Dr. Ning company. I can go out by myself."
With that, he shuffled out of the lakeside private room on the first floor of the teahouse, his steps so hollow it was like he was a rootless reed growing out of the wall.
A normal person would’ve covered the distance in a few strides; he took several tis as long.
Not only that—when he finally opened the private room door, his tall, burly assistant who’d been guarding the door outside imdiately squatted down in front of him, and the young man flopped onto his back right on cue.
The rest of the way went without saying: his assistant carried him the whole ti.
When the sound of footsteps outside the private room had faded into the distance...
The graceful, smiling look on Ning Youguang’s face changed in an instant.
She pressed a hand to her forehead, drew in a few deep breaths, then gritted her teeth and looked at Jiang Hantian, who was sitting beside her with his hands pressed together in a pleading gesture. "Can’t you bring soone even a little bit better than this next ti?"
Jiang Hantian braced both hands on the tea table, smiling up at Ning Youguang with a face full of flattery. "Auntie, if this guy were even a little bit better, I’d have sent him to soone else. I wouldn’t have bothered you."
No matter how good Ning Youguang’s self-control was, the person Jiang Hantian had brought this ti had her anger shooting straight up. "Do I look that much like so genius andrology specialist?"
She said it very, very softly, but each word was squeezed out through clenched teeth.
Ning Youguang was always gentle and good-tempered, and it was rare for her to show her displeasure this blatantly.
So the mont she spoke, Jiang Hantian’s heart gave a little tremor, and his usually cool, aloof face actually showed a few traces of fawning. "Auntie, if you put it like that you’re really making feel guilty. How would I dare see you that way? Everyone in our circle knows what you are?!"
He stuck his thumb up at Ning Youguang. "You’re a genius of traditional Chinese dicine, a miracle doctor, a god!"
He also knew the person he’d brought today was a piece of work, but he still hoped that for his sake, Ning Youguang would take him seriously and treat him properly.
So the mont they t today, he’d piled on more smiles than all the tis before combined, brewing tea, pouring water, bustling around with over-the-top enthusiasm.
Looking at the thumbs-up Jiang Hantian was sticking at her...
Ning Youguang couldn’t help rolling her eyes. "Save that crap for the ghosts."
She said irritably, "Count it up—how many people like this have you introduced to now?"
"Auntie, how would I dare ss with you?!" Jiang Hantian said helplessly. "It’s just that I’ve got no choice. They all say I know so miracle doctor who can handle ’incurable cases.’ Even when I swear I don’t know any miracle doctor, they still won’t leave and insist I bring them to you. This guy—"
Jiang Hantian pointed toward the door. "He’s begged so many tis he’s practically on his knees. How was I supposed not to bring him? No matter how hard-hearted I am, I can’t just watch him die and not help."
Ning Youguang shot him a sidelong look. "Oh? So you know you’re hard-hearted?"
"Dr. Ning, saving one life is more ritorious than building a seven-tiered pagoda, more ritorious than building a seven-tiered pagoda!" Jiang Hantian hurriedly chuckled, trying to steer the topic away. "With his problem, aside from you, no one else can handle it now. I can only bring him to see you. Otherwise even the Lord of Heaven couldn’t save him."
"Stop right there." Ning Youguang raised a hand in ti to stop Jiang Hantian from digging a pit for her. "I’m just an ordinary psychologist, nothing more. Don’t stick a tall hat on my head. I can’t afford it."
"Okay, okay, okay." Jiang Hantian nodded repeatedly. "Whatever you say you are, you are. We know you’ve got the skills, that’s enough."
Ning Youguang’s small face went taut as she shook her head very seriously. "No, I do not have the skills."
"You do." Jiang Hantian’s tone was firm too.
"I don’t."
"You do. You definitely do."
"I don’t."
Seeing that Ning Youguang still wouldn’t budge, Jiang Hantian pursed his lips, as if steeling himself, and said, "Fine, what’ll it take for you to ’have the skills’?"
"He has to abstain from sex from now on." Ning Youguang said word by word.
"..." Jiang Hantian.
For a while the private room went so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop. After a long silence...
"Can we renegotiate that?" Jiang Hantian rubbed his head in distress. "That idiot’s only thirty-three."
He felt like it wasn’t just his head that hurt—his teeth were aching too.
Ning Youguang, however, left no room for discussion.
"If you want to treat him, there’s nothing to negotiate." She shook her head with a calm expression. "Otherwise, go find soone else. Let him choose for himself: does he want his life, or does he want his lust?"
"..." Jiang Hantian knew the guy he’d brought was in bad shape, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
For the rest of his life he wouldn’t even be able to be a normal man.
This was really asking too much; he truly couldn’t make that call.
Ning Youguang knew this wasn’t sothing he could decide either, so she went on, "You can pass on exactly what I said and let him decide for himself."
Jiang Hantian’s dark, striking features sank slightly. "Go ahead, I’ll try my best to convey your aning to him in full."
"I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the phrase ’lust is a bone-scraping steel blade.’ This friend you brought—he stays up late, overindulges in sex, and even takes tonic wine. He says the bone right in the middle of his lower back along the Governing Vessel hurts all the ti, hurts so much he can’t walk. That’s actually the minor issue. Do you know what the real deadly problem is?" Ning Youguang asked, her eyes cold as she looked at Jiang Hantian.
Her stare made Jiang Hantian’s back go cold; all he wanted to do was run, but he couldn’t. He could only puff out his cheeks and shake his head.
"It’s his kidneys." Ning Youguang’s voice was chilly. "The area around his waist where the kidneys are is badly sunken. That ans the kidney water and kidney essence in his body have already been hollowed out. He’s overdrawn his body far too brutally. He’s already got a deficiency-taxation disease from exhaustion."
—"If he keeps wasting away like this, thinning out like this, he won’t have many years left."
Staying up late, overindulging, and drinking—none of that is anything but scraping the oil off your bones.
Ning Youguang was genuinely speechless with these people.
They weren’t just playing with other people’s lives; they were playing with their own.
Cold sweat broke out across Jiang Hantian’s back. "Dr. Ning, how did it get this serious?"
Ning Youguang tilted her head to look at him and curled her lips in a cold sneer. "You’ll have to ask him why he insisted on playing it this big."
Jiang Hantian’s eyes darted, unable to et hers, feeling like he was sitting on pins and needles.
Deep down he had a strong sense that Ning Youguang was very likely beating around the bush to scold him too, but he didn’t dare bring it up outright. He could only keep chuckling nervously. "How would I know what his daily life is like, hahaha..."1314
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