Monique slammed hard on the accelerator and drove away. Brucille was scared to death. He felt like he was in a racing car.
A few miles later, Monique pulled up in a parking lot of a luxury hotel.
Brucille had long forgotten his fear from the speedy car and was so excited. He didn’t expect that Monique would bring him to a hotel when she had been so cold to him at home. He was grinning from ear to ear when he looked at Monique, “You’re bringing me to a hotel so early in the morning?”
Monique said coldly, “Keep that filthy idea of yours to yourself. Didn’t you say you want to see the patient? Here he is.”
“What? He’s staying in such a high-end hotel?”
“He’s living in the residential area across from here. Can you just shut up?”
Brucille finally got a hold of the situation. The neighborhood opposite the road was too old and crude, and there was no parking space. Monique had no choice but to park her car here at the hotel, and his fantasy earlier was just a daydream.
He followed Monique, trying to make as little sound as possible. He was afraid that Monique wouldn’t bring him to the patient if he had made too much noise.
The place where the patient stayed was an apartment that looked like it was built in the seventies. According to the safety standards, it would be considered a hazardous building in a few more years. High walls had already been built around it, confirming Brucille’s speculation that it would be demolished soon.
Stepping on the scruffy cement stairs, Brucille thought that the building could have been demolished earlier.
On the third floor, there was a rusty iron gate, indicating it was an average family living in it. There was an old heater right in front of the gate. A heater like that was rarely seen nowadays, and it looked like it was broken.
Monique gently knocked on the door.
A short and thin woman in her forties answered the door. She was Carol, the mother of the vegetative patient.
Carol was emotional when she saw Monique at the door. She yelled at Monique, “What else do you want? I told you to never come to bother us again! I don’t need your sympathy. It’s all your father’s fault that now my son can only stay in bed. It’s all your fault! I want you to live in guilt forever!”
Monique was about to speak when Brucille stepped forward and pulled her behind him.
Then, he said, “Madam, please calm down. I’m here today to help cure your son.”
Carol burst into tears, “That’s enough! Please, just leave us alone. He’s destined to be like this… Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense. The rest of the passengers were cured, but only my Tom ended up like this.”
“Please, listen to me. You’ve held on for so many years now, why don’t you let me have a try? Didn’t you want to see if he could get better?”
Carol had calmed down a little after venting her anger at Monique. She only lost control of her temper because she couldn’t accept the fact that her enemy-and his family-was doing so well in life while her son, Tom, was bedridden.
“Fine. If you can’t cure him, I hope you will leave us alone. I don’t want to see any one of you anymore,” Carol said weakly.
Carol had been living in despair for so long. If Tom was a little bit more unfortunate, he might have died before Carol, who was his mother and much older than him.
Carol let Brucille and Monique into the house, and the couple was met with a young man in his twenties lying on the bed. It was Tom, and he was only in his early twenties when the accident happened. Brucille scrutinized Tom’s body and identified the symptoms in mere seconds.
“Honey, I’ll do acupuncture for him now. Hold these needles for me.”
It was the first time Brucille had called Monique with the term of endearment. He really had no idea how the original host used to address her. But he never heard Monique call him ‘honey’ before anyway.
Monique’s face was ashen. She was very dissatisfied with the term of endearment he used on her, but she didn’t show her temper under such a circumstance. Meanwhile, Brucille took out dozens of silver needles. Traditional medicine focused on blood and energy circulation, and the purpose of acupuncture was to promote blood circulation and treat blood stasis.
As long as the meridians were clear, the brain nerves would be triggered, and Tom would wake up from the coma.
Brucille was going to use the Seven Stars Acupuncture Skill on Tom. It was based on the Big Dipper and was all about pooling the energy as well as clearing all the meridians in the body.
Monique narrowed her eyes at Brucille, trying to convince herself that the man in front of her was indeed Brucille. But she was having a hard time because she never knew that Brucille had learned medical skills.
This was also the reason she had brought Brucille here. She wanted to confirm if he really had any medical skills.
Half an hour later, Brucille pulled out all of the silver needles.
The silver needles were as fine as hairs, and it was easy to break them. Generally, amateurs wouldn’t choose such needles.
Carol fixed her eyes on Tom’s face.
“Madam, don’t worry. He’ll wake up soon.”
Carol didn’t answer, and she only quietly shook her head. She had heard such words many times, but time after time, she was left with nothing but disappointment.
Time went by. Brucille took the chance to give Tom a simple full body massage, and it didn’t take long for him to finish massaging Tom with his professional techniques.
When he was done, Brucille stood aside nervously. He couldn’t afford to make himself a fool in front of his wife anymore. Otherwise, he would never be able to look at her in the eyes again.
“Mom…?”
Upon hearing the voice, Carol, who was sitting by the bed, shot up to her feet and stared at the haggard face with wide eyes.
“Son, a-are you really awake?” she asked in disbelief.
“Mom, I feel like I’ve had a very long dream. People were constantly talking to me, but I just couldn’t wake up… But someone gave me a push just now, and then I woke up…”
Carol hugged Tom in exhilaration, and they both burst into tears. The reunion was unlike that between friends or siblings. Unconditional love filled the air in the room.
Even Monique was touched. There were tears welled up in her eyes.
Knowing that Brucille had saved him, Tom was emotional, “Sir, thank you! I’m so lucky to be able to wake up. You really are a miracle doctor!”
“You’re flattering me. I only know a little about medical skills. My father-in-law has been keeping you in his mind for all these years. Now that you’re awake, I’m sure that he’ll be relieved to hear this news.”
Anyhow, Monique had witnessed how Brucille cured the vegetative patient, which was simply a medical miracle. But when she thought of Brucille’s past, she could only ask softly, “How did you do it?”
“I told you, I know a little about acupuncture. In fact, I know a little about everything in traditional medicine. What’s the problem?”
“Fine. If you’re not telling me, then get out of the car and go home by yourself. I’m going to work.”
“But didn’t you fail the exam yesterday? Where are you going to work?”
Brucille regretted it as soon as the words escaped his mouth. Monique had just failed the qualifying examination for the hospital the day before. It was still too soon to mention anything about her future as a doctor.
Sensing that Monique was either going to have an anger outburst or hit him, he jumped away from the car and ran away in a panic.
Later, he walked briskly down the street to get used to the still relatively new body.
At the same time, he called Tyrion and told him about the good news.