Chapter 54: 0053 The 5000-Yuan Scalper Ticket Was Bought in Vain

"Original... battery" Cui Heming could hardly speak.

"Hmm." The old professor authoritatively took the film down, turned off the viewer, and finally said: "Just pull out a tooth, and you'll be fine."

"" Cui Heming felt ten thousand alpacas galloping through his heart.

How could this be the same diagnosis as that young-looking doctor at Haicheng Shi Yiyuan?!

"You... you sure?" Cui Heming, dazed, asked instinctively.

"Of course I'm sure." The old professor wasn't angry at the patient's family questioning him, and said: "This is a condition written in textbooks, but the advantage of silver-mercury alloy dentures is that they're especially sturdy and durable, basically never needing replacement for a lifetime. Moreover, they're cheap and were especially popular a decade or so ago. But the drawback is obvious: it requires making a neat square post, and someone with poor skill can't make one."

As he spoke, the old professor had already opened the locker and began changing clothes.

"The person who made your mother's dentures meant well, but didn't notice she still had a gold tooth." He added: "Such cases have become much rarer in the last ten years, because basically everyone uses resin materials now."

Indeed it is! Cui Heming felt a sense of absurdity.

After all those days of toil and hardship, was it all for nothing? The conclusion from the 5000-yuan scalper ticket turned out to be the same as the conclusion from Haicheng Shi Yiyuan's Emergency Department!

This is damn nonsense, isn't it?

"What's wrong?" The old professor saw Cui Heming standing there, absent-minded, and thought he didn't believe him.

"No... no..." Cui Heming could have cursed some quack doctor at Haicheng Shi Yiyuan when angry, but here in the Imperial Capital he dared not do that.

"In Hai Cheng, an Emergency Department doctor said the same thing, telling me to pull my mother's tooth." Cui Heming, in a daze, blurted out his thoughts.

"Oh? Emergency Department? Your Hai Cheng emergency care is pretty impressive." The old professor laughed, "Come on, I'm off work today; come directly tomorrow—I won't be seeing patients, but I'll pull your mother's tooth as a side note."

Cui Heming didn't even dare ask why not pull it now, insisting on waiting until tomorrow. He imagined that everyone had left work, with no nurses to assist, lacking this and that.

But since the diagnosis was clear, the matter was easy to handle.

The next day, after the tooth extraction, all of Cui Heming's mother's symptoms disappeared.

The third day, she felt refreshed altogether, even beginning to wear light makeup.

Cui Heming's mother came from a prominent family; after light makeup, she no longer looked sickly, a genteel young lady with a dignified bearing.

With his mother's condition cured, Cui Heming was delighted, booked an airplane ticket, and flew back to Hai Cheng.

On the way, he felt an inexplicable sentiment toward that young doctor at Haicheng Shi Yiyuan, hesitated for a long time, but in the end his mother insisted on making a banner to send to that unnamed young doctor.

After going back and forth for about a week, but eager to return to the Imperial Capital, Cui Heming, upon landing, spent extra money to have the banner made, and went to City First Hospital together with his mother.

When they arrived at City First Hospital Jizhen Da Lou, they saw a bustling scene.

Many people held banners outside, watching the commotion, and didn't go inside.

This got a bit awkward—should they just dump the banner in the doctor's office without even greeting that young doctor, leaving some good karma?

"Brother, what's going on? Why are so many people sending banners?" Cui Heming lit a cigarette, then asked an idle person for the situation.

"City First Hospital's Emergency Department has been upgraded to an Emergency Center—isn't it open for business?" That person cheerfully took Cui Heming's cigarette, took a satisfying puff, and said, "Yo, this Zhonghua is the real deal."

"Of course, even if he's a small boss earning several million a year, smoking fake Zhonghua is a loss of face."

"What's the deal with all these people sending banners?"

"Huh? You don't know?" That person tilted his head, looking at Cui Heming like he was a monster.

Cui Heming also froze for a moment—how would I know? But after years of tempering in the marketplace, he'd become quite smooth, and immediately smiled: "Isn't this just because I recently took my mother to see a doctor in Di Du? I don't know what happened."

"Let me tell you, Chief Zheng of City First Hospital is incredibly capable!" Seeing Cui Heming truly knew nothing, the person became enthusiastic and began recounting a story, clearly explaining the nitrite poisoning incident, the 120 Emergency, and especially the fate of the braised-meat shop boss afterward.

That braised-meat shop was a top-tier old establishment in Hai Cheng, with over twenty chain outlets; otherwise it wouldn't have caused such a big mess overnight.

Cui Heming listened, dumbfounded.

"You didn't see it— that day the city's ambulances weren't enough. The city urgently commandeered private ambulances; dozens of ambulances were wailing, and just hearing it made one anxious."

"Not a single person died?" Cui Heming still found it hard to accept that outcome.

It wasn't that he wished for deaths, but such large-scale emergency response is hard to fully cover; medical resources stretched to the limit, and some things are beyond our capability.

"Tsk tsk, I thought that day would see many deaths." That person again happily blew a smoke ring, his fragmented words making Cui Heming want to kill him.

"You didn't see it— each patient looked like Avatar, bluish and ghostly as they were brought in. Yeah, have you read martial arts novels? It's the feeling of being poisoned by some exotic Western Regions toxin."

"" Cui Heming really couldn't connect the dots.

"Chief Zheng, see— that's the doctor standing next to the old director, young-looking, with truly superb skills. He diagnosed on the spot, allocated the city's special-effect drugs, and saved everyone."

Following the person's gesture, Cui Heming saw that beside the tall and burly Director Pan stood the very doctor who had told him that night that pulling his mother's tooth would fix everything.

"Not even asked yet, brother— why are you bringing a banner?"

"It's also Doctor Zheng." Cui Heming felt a twinge of shame for his remarks that night: "Doctor Zheng gave the diagnosis and treatment, but I didn't believe him. I took my mother to Di Du and even bought a high-priced 5000-yuan ticket from a scalper. In the end, the diagnosis was the same as Doctor Zheng's..."

"Hiss..." The person beside Cui Heming sucked in a cold breath, also never expecting that Chief Zheng's diagnostic and treatment skills were so high, actually on par with the old experts in Di Du.

After finishing his cigarette, Cui Heming came to the trash can, tossed the butt into the ashtray, composed his emotions, prepared to deliver the banner, and wanted to apologize for his inappropriate remarks that day.

As a man, one should take responsibility, admit mistakes, and stand firm even when punished.

But just as he finished his mental preparation, having readied countless words of praise, as he was about to approach, a car sped up to the entrance of City First Hospital Jizhen Da Lou.

"Chief Zheng, my dad's stomach hurts— what's going on?" The middle-aged man in the driver's seat got out and exclaimed anxiously.

"" All that mental preparation was for nothing.

Cui Heming stood frozen in place, seeing that the medical staff of the Emergency Center, who had been posing for a photo, immediately scattered; the gurney was already pushed out within a dozen seconds, and the elderly person was lifted onto it.

Upon another glance, Zheng Ren, Chief Zheng, had already vanished.