Chapter 37

"Kraft, Kraft? Are you in there?"

Kraft was awakened by a rapid knocking at the door; he reflexively lifted his forehead, marked from resting on the desk, reaching for a nonexistent phone, afraid he'd miss some important call.

The hilt of the sword at his waist pulled him back to reality; his consciousness snapped from the fantasy of a night shift, realizing he no longer had duty, and the person knocking was not a frantic colleague.

His black robe was warm from sun exposure—it was clearly afternoon now, meaning he'd slept less than four hours.

Yet his fatigue had vanished entirely; his dried-out energy had been restored. He rubbed his eyes and stood up, still unaccustomed to the sudden shift from dark sleep to blinding sunlight.

He had dreamed of discovering all sorts of strange objects, using them to recreate a modern hospital here, and just now he'd been on night shift. Dreams are truly illogical—why would he still be on night shift if he'd already opened a hospital?

Fortunately he'd been woken up; otherwise he'd have been stuck in this unpleasant dream.

"I'm here," Kraft replied as he opened the door. "Lu Xiusi?"

The one knocking outside was indeed Lu Xiusi; his brown hair was disheveled, and he carried a faint smell of beer. This sight made Kraft frown.

"Didn't you go to the tavern for drinks?" Kraft covered his nose; he didn't think Lu Xiusi had come back specifically to find him—he looked more like someone suffering from a hangover.

Lu Xiusi paid no mind to Kraft's disgust and smiled: "Though I didn't want to disturb your sleep, Li Si has woken up, and I think you'd want to see her no matter what."

"Li Si woke up? Already?"

Kraft felt a sense of temporal dislocation—waking up to find the entire world had leaped forward, while he'd been left behind.

Lu Xiusi glanced at him in confusion, then suddenly understood and burst out laughing. "You don't think it's still yesterday afternoon, do you?"

"Yesterday? I slept all day?!"

Kraft jolted fully awake. "How is Li Si? Any complications? Why didn't you call me yesterday?"

His first thought was whether he'd missed the optimal window for treating complications; his second was that his patient record wasn't complete, and he hadn't given Gris more post-op instructions.

"She couldn't be better. Gris wants to thank you in person," Lu Xiusi smoothed his brown hair, brushing it neatly to both sides.

"Where are they? Let's go now. I hope Gris didn't feed her anything."

…

…

In the observation classroom, since Kraft hadn't woken up yesterday, everyone had strictly followed his orders and left Li Si undisturbed; the girl had slept there all night.

Fortunately, someone hadn't completely forgotten the father and daughter—Li Siton had broken away from the celebration party, found the blanket Lu Xiusi had brought, and laid it under the patient; today he and Gris had waited together until Li Si awoke.

"I don't know how to thank you," said the father, who had forced himself to remain calm until now; seeing his daughter awake, he finally couldn't hold back his tears. "I still have some savings—if it's not enough, my tavern is worth quite a bit."

"It's not necessary. Really not," Kraft couldn't bear it—he grabbed a clean piece of unused linen from yesterday and handed it to him to wipe his tears; the scene made him feel like a corrupt black clinic scamming a single parent's last savings.

Gris reminded Kraft's native soul of his grandfather; in his attitude toward young Kraft, he always showed care and seriousness inconsistent with his brute appearance, though sometimes his expressions were clumsy.

He'd seen this kind of emotion in many parents—fear for their children, total devotion, willingness to trade anything for their safety and health.

So illness never affected only the patient—it reached the entire family, spreading pain to every imaginable and unimaginable aspect: spirit, finances, and more.

"Relax, about the fee…" Kraft stalled—not because he was waiting for Gris to name a good price, but because he suddenly realized he had no idea how to calculate it.

His understanding of medical fees in this world was about as deep as his knowledge of the clinic's herbal decoction ingredients—he knew water was added to the decoction, and he knew fees were paid in money; pure knowledge void.

The herbalist from Wood Town came to the castle to treat people; they used the family's private fund, Old Wood reviewed it, Anderson calculated it—what did it have to do with Kraft? He'd never seen it.

"... Anyway, don't worry about money. Let me check Li Si first. It's her first day—she needs fresh cloth on the wound." He quickly changed the subject, and as he walked to Li Si's side, where Gris couldn't see, he glanced at Lu Xiusi and Li Siton for help.

Lu Xiusi shook his head helplessly—he was still a student, his daily life limited to reading and assisting professors in experiments; he didn't understand this.

But Li Siton remained reliably dependable; after a moment's thought, he pulled his hand from his sleeve and held up five fingers.

Kraft nodded, understanding, and bent down to examine Li Si.

"Hello, little Li Si. Still in pain?"

Li Si watched the man in the black robe warily; she remembered being fed a strange liquid by the black-robed figure yesterday, closed her eyes, opened them—and found a faintly throbbing wound on her stomach.

"Li Si, be good," Gris knelt beside her, took her hand, giving her much-needed reassurance. "Tell the doctor where it hurts."

"Here," Li Si pointed to the wound's location, still staring at Kraft with suspicion.

Kraft studied her expression—the flushed, acute illness look had faded; she had enough energy to think about who he was. It was likely just normal post-op pain.

He unwound the gauze around her waist, lifted the cloth covering the wound—only a slight seepage of blood, the wound looked good, no redness or swelling; hopefully the internal condition was equally favorable.

"For now, it looks fine—but don't think it's over."

He replaced the cloth on Li Si's wound and secured it with linen strips; unfortunately, there was nothing he could apply directly for disinfection. Since leaving the povidone-iodine solution behind days ago, Kraft silently missed it in his heart.

If I ever get the chance, I really should develop distillation technology—then I'd have high-concentration alcohol for disinfection.

"I should've stayed to observe for a few more days, but the academy's environment isn't suitable for patient recovery." Kraft pinched the blanket beneath the stone slab—fine for one night, but two nights would cause trouble. "So go home. For now, only give her thin liquids."

"As for the wound, the exterior will heal in six or seven days—avoid walking as much as possible. I'll come back to remove the sutures then."

"Oh, right—the fee." Kraft slapped his forehead; Li Siton's five fingers flashed before his eyes. "Five silver coins?"

This understanding came from Li Siton's gesture, combined with Kraft's assumptions about medical fees in this world. Five Kingdom silver coins felt a bit expensive—one official coin could be worth two or three privately minted black silver coins, depending on circumstances.

He didn't specify what kind of silver coins—if he named too high a price, Gris could still choose how many of the five were Kingdom coins.

Gris's reaction was different from what Kraft imagined. He froze in place, confirming Kraft wasn't joking.

He opened his mouth, but said nothing, showing the same respect Kraft had seen many times these past two days—but somehow different.

From his money pouch, Gris counted out five Kingdom silver coins and handed them to Kraft. "From now on, your consumption at my tavern is always free—so long as I, Gris, am still alive, this remains valid."

Kraft, who had inexplicably received a lifetime dining voucher, watched Gris carry Li Si out of the classroom until they vanished from view; the man's eyes were still red as he left.

"Tch," Li Siton made an ambiguous sound behind him. "Guess what Saint Simon would do if he saw you?"

"Huh?" Kraft realized he might have misunderstood Li Siton—but the topic jumped too wildly; as someone who'd barely touched a holy scripture, he could only utter a simple question.

"He'd have to kill you—for cutthroat competition," Lu Xiusi covered his face. "Even going to church to have a priest say a few prayers dares to charge several Kingdom silver coins."

"Isn't it supposed to be free?"

"They claim it's some kind of blessing—how could it be free? Don't tell me you've never been to church," Li Siton's tone dripped with resentment and bitterness.

Kraft really hadn't been to church much; his grandfather's reverence for religion was limited to when it could reach him, and the native part of his soul had no religious habits in such a household.

The otherworldly part belonged to the kind of "pragmatic believer" who dances on the edge of the pyre—believing in gods like using the toilet: mutter a few words when desperate, never remember afterward, even worse than a pagan.

"I really don't know, but what does that have to do with us?" Kraft brought the topic back.

"I actually meant to say five gold coins."

"Are you crazy?" Kraft was greatly shocked, his view on money completely refreshed.

Gold coins almost never have privately minted models, because except for the Westminster gold coins minted jointly by the king and several great nobles, no one else has the ability to take gold and mint coins.

So gold coins are assumed to be Westminster gold coins by default; their diameter is less than half the standard of silver coins, and their thickness is even only one-third, roughly equivalent to fifty cents in another world.

On such a small area, they stubbornly stamped the tower of Westminster Castle, and innovatively added side and edge patterns to prevent people from shaving off a ring and using it as full value.

The value of one Westminster gold coin equals seven kingdom silver coins; generally, they are only useful for large transactions and do not circulate much in the market. This grim exchange rate was not innate but resulted from changes in precious metal prices, shifting from the original one-to-five ratio to this.

"A cross-era treatment method, unique to us, and it consumes medicines I've never even seen." Li Si extended five fingers. "Two lecturers putting aside a day of classes to perform the operation personally; calculating it as thirty-five silver coins isn't excessive, right? Gris isn't some poor person; his savings can fully afford it."

"Then this surgery is completely non-universal; not many people can afford it."

"Didn't you say it was the last bit of family secret medicine? How can there be universality?" Li Si had long suspected the truthfulness of that statement, and he didn't expect Kraft to change his mind so quickly.

"I've changed my mind. Don't worry about where it came from; anyway, it's not the last bit now." Kraft looked in the direction the Gris father and daughter had left, as if he could see their backs through layers of walls. "It's just a bit dangerous; let's wait until we observe Lis for a while before deciding."

"So we will have the chance to perform such surgeries in the future?" Li Si was overjoyed.

"Maybe. If there are no problems, perhaps it won't just be us. I'll go back and organize the key points of this case regarding human anatomy for future lectures."

Although he said he would observe further, any clear-eyed person could see that Lis's situation satisfied him greatly; he was already preparing for more surgeries, needing only the final straw to help him make a firm decision.

Kraft packed his things and walked out of the classroom; Lu Xiusi followed closely behind, and the two returned to the professor's room.

"I want to talk about the Black Fluid." Kraft closed the door. The surgical procedure could be opened up, but the Black Fluid still had to be discussed privately.

Lu Xiusi was not surprised by this. "I knew you would eventually realize its value and change your mind."

"As for the professor..."

"When the mentor returns, just say I gave you the idea. Anyway, that matter is already settled; regardless, Professor Mo Lisen's status as the discoverer of the Black Fluid will not change."

"No, change the wording: regarding using the Black Fluid for surgery, you only proposed the suggestion; I decided to implement it. If anything goes wrong, Professor Kalman will come after me first." Kraft stopped Lu Xiusi from taking on everything.

This matter already had one foot on the edge of the professor's confidentiality requirements; if the main responsibility fell on Lu Xiusi, it would be unfavorable for his trust relationship with the professor. It was best to take this black pot himself.

"When the professor returns with their results and decides it can be announced, we can announce the true composition of the diluted fluid together then; that wouldn't count as violating the confidentiality requirements." With this logic, Kraft felt it was good; at worst, he could say he conducted the experiment at Professor Kalman's request.

Going from discovery to application in one step was something Professor Kalman would be happy to see.

"So we can then carry out surgeries on a large scale?" Lu Xiusi's enthusiasm in this regard was as high as Li Si's.

"Far from it. We must observe Lis for at least half a month; the longer, the better." Kraft gave a time frame he considered relatively conservative. "And you are also included in the observation scope. Starting tomorrow, there will be one check per day, and I will personally make written records."

Lis's case made his idea of applying the Black Fluid gradually firm, but it was far from the point of losing reason.

"If nothing happens, we will then accept patients who can only be treated by surgery on a small scale and continue observing. Possibly until the professor returns, we will still keep it within a very small scale."

This was Kraft's plan: cautiously rolling it out slowly. When the professor returns, he will have completed preliminary verification; after reaching an agreement with Kalman, he will expand the scale to benefit as large a range as possible.