Chapter 73

When Murong Feiyan handed the document to Hu Xiaotian to look at, Hu Xiaotian quietly pulled her aside and whispered, "Something's not right about this!"

Murong Feiyan frowned slightly and asked, "How is it not right?"

Hu Xiaotian leaned close to her ear, speaking in a voice only she could hear, "That old man might be a eunuch!"

Murong Feiyan let out a soft "ah", then her pretty face flushed crimson, and she glanced at Hu Xiaotian with a hint of annoyance, saying, "How do you know?" After saying that, she regretted it—how could she have asked such a foolish question.

Hu Xiaotian actually had to explain to her: "That thing of his was cut off—don't believe me, go see for yourself."

Murong Feiyan's pretty face stayed red all the way to the base of her neck, she drooped her head, her beautiful eyes fixed on her own toes. This isn't Hu Xiaotian's fault—clearly I was the one who asked him. But this bastard is really shameless, why did he have to be so explicit, thinking I don't know what a eunuch is? This guy must be deliberately trying to embarrass me, bastard, big bastard, make me go look—I'm an unmarried young woman!

Hu Xiaotian really didn't mean to embarrass her at this moment, and he whispered, "People like that usually live deep in the imperial palace and rarely come out; that little girl also gives off an abnormal feeling—have you ever seen an eleven- or twelve-year-old child behave with such an imposing presence?"

After Hu Xiaotian's reminder, Murong Feiyan suddenly realized; the more she thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. She whispered, "You mean she might be some noble lady?" The Emperor of Dakang alone has twenty-seven awake sons, people, and more daughters than sons, most kept deep in the palace unseen; if this little girl were a princess of the imperial family, it would also be plausible, otherwise why would she have a senior eunuch accompanying her?

Hu Xiaotian said, "I don't know who they are, but I'm certain this little girl is definitely not the granddaughter of that old eunuch. You must keep this document safe; if anything happens, we'll at least have some evidence. By the way, they have nothing—grandfather and granddaughter empty-handed—they couldn't possibly be without luggage. Go back and ask indirectly to see if she's missing anything."

How one handles sudden events reveals their intelligence and capability; Murong Feiyan now cannot help but admire Hu Xiaotian—this guy is really sharp, having thought ahead on many matters. Speaking of martial prowess, I could kill him with a single finger, but when it comes to scheming, facing him I always feel my mind isn't up to par. Don't look at how she barks orders all along the way, appearing very imposing, seemingly holding absolute command; yet when a major crisis arises, she still listens to and follows Hu Xiaotian.

Murong Feiyan said, "You really have confidence in curing that ta—" she paused, then said, "old sir!"

Hu Xiaotian said, "I don't have the power to bring the dead back to life, but he isn't dead yet—might as well treat a dead horse as if it were alive!"

Hu Xiaotian selected two assistants from the four household servants—Hu Fo and Shao Yijiao; Liang Da Zhuang was the first he rejected. From this period of contact, this guy is absolutely the type who falls short of success but exceeds in failure—ranking first in flattery and bootlicking among the servants, but when it comes to actual work, he ought to stand aside.

Although we have some surgical instruments, they are still insufficient; amputation surgery carries high risk, and besides, there are no anesthesia conditions available right now, which puts Hu Xiaotian in a difficult spot.

Hu Xiaotian used the liquor he brought to disinfect the old man; the old man remained unconscious from beginning to end, which actually provided some convenience for the surgery—if luck is good, we could complete his right-leg amputation while he's unconscious; as for whether he can wake up afterward, Hu Xiaotian has no confidence either—let's do our best and leave the rest to fate.

Cannot guarantee sterility, no anesthesia, no blood transfusion conditions, not even decent lighting—such surgery carries great risk and an extremely low success rate. Hu Xiaotian, from his medical experience, has never undertaken something so uncertain; he believes this old man will most likely die during the surgery. But if we don't treat him, the old man will surely die.

For a one-in-a-hundred chance, Hu Xiaotian finally decided to go all out, doing each step as well as possible, hoping the old man's life is tough enough to survive this ordeal. Although he has no prior connection with this old man, a doctor's benevolence means that when truly facing a patient, the medical ethics deep in his heart will guide his decisions.

The old man's right leg from the knee down is a bloody mess, the kneecap and tibia completely shattered, with no value left—amputation must be done as soon as possible. Hu Xiaotian used the bowstring as a tourniquet, tying it around the old man's thigh base, fully exploiting the special elasticity of the bowstring's sinew. He selected the incision site twenty-five centimeters below the top of the femur's greater trochanter, a common site for orthopedic amputation, cut the skin with a scalpel, separated the underlying fascia, and turned the skin flap upward.

Following standard surgical procedure to sever the limb and bone, ligate and cut the great saphenous vein, separate the femoral artery, femoral vein, and saphenous nerve from beneath the sartorius muscle, and perform the cut on each. After dealing with the vessels and nerves, at a point three centimeters below the fascial plane, he circumferentially cut the muscle down to the femur, severed the periosteum, then used a steel saw to saw through the femur, completely separating the injured limb.

Hu Fo and Shao Yijiao were responsible for boiling disinfectant and passing instruments; seeing Hu Xiaotian saw through the old man's thigh alive, both had their hairs stand on end and cold sweat poured out, nearly vomiting—this young master's psychological quality is truly extraordinary. Gazing at the bloody scene, he showed no hesitation, proceeding step by step in an orderly manner with the next operation; even though the two don't know medicine, they can see that Hu Xiaotian is extremely familiar with human anatomy, each step done just right.

After sawing through the femur, Hu Xiaotian began handling the posterior vessels and nerves; in the cross-section between the femur and the adductor magnus and biceps femoris, he isolated the deep femoral artery and vein, performing double ligation. Then, from between the semitendinosus and semimembranosus and the biceps femoris, he separated the sciatic nerve, ligated the nutrient vessels, then severed the nerve, letting it retract naturally.

After loosening the bowstring tourniquet, he ligated all bleeding points, placed a skin patch as drainage, finally turned the rectus femoris flap downward and sutured it to the intermuscular septum behind the femur, using interrupted sutures to join the fascia and skin.

After successfully removing the old man's right leg, Hu Xiaotian began treating his other wounds; although the old man had many wounds, none were serious—just needed debridement and suturing.

The whole operation took over an hour; Hu Xiaotian finished the last stitch, threw all the surgical instruments into the nearby copper basin, and used boiled-then-re-dried gauze to bandage the old man's wounds. He felt the old man's neck—though the pulse was weak, it remained steady.

Throughout the process the old man remained unconscious, which was a fortunate thing amid misfortune—performing this surgery while unconscious at least spared him much pain; perhaps he would never wake again. Hu Xiaotian took off his outer robe and threw it on the ground; although the weather wasn't hot, he still worked up a heavy sweat.

Coming outside, I saw Murong Feiyan accompanying that little girl standing there; the girl now held an extra bundle of Lan-printed cloth, which must have been retrieved when she went out during his surgery.

The little girl asked anxiously, "How is it?"

Hu Xiaotian said, "It went fairly well, but whether he'll wake up is unknown." He was telling the truth; today's amputation he merely followed the steps, and before the surgery he had no confidence the old man would definitely wake up.

The little girl turned and walked back into the room.

Murong Feiyan didn't follow her inside; looking at Hu Xiaotian's weary face, she softly said, "You've been busy all night—go rest now; I'll take care of things here."

In Hu Xiaotian's memory, this was the first time she had ever taken the initiative to show concern for him; he couldn't help but laugh, "Did I hear right? You actually care about me?"

Murong Feiyan said, "You can also understand it as pity!"

Hu Xiaotian shook his head and said, "I don't want pity—I want care; you're not a stingy person, what's wrong with giving me a little affection?" After saying that, he strode toward the neighboring courtyard; Murong Feiyan watched his upright back, her pretty face flushing red from his words, yet after a while the corner of her mouth revealed a knowing smile.

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