"Sixteen layers!" Xu Changshan was lying on a chair, holding a purple clay teapot in one hand, his eyes half-open and half-closed.
Xu Chunliang sat beside him, with a wooden board laid across his lap. On top was a cotton pad, and above that was a stack of rough-edged paper. He was practicing finger sensation as guided by his grandfather, mastering the subtle breakthrough feeling of the needle tip through layers of the paper.
Finger sensation, also known as spiritual refinement, is the most challenging aspect of acupuncture and the key to using fine needles. A slight error could lead to a significant mistake. It can be said that finger sensation determines the practitioner's level in needlework.
One of the keys to practicing finger sensation is maintaining a suspended arm; the wrist and elbow should not have any support. Xu Changshan had Xu Chunliang practice calligraphy from a young age to prepare him for learning needle techniques one day.
To Xu Changshan's surprise, after just a week of practice, this kid had reached the point of seeing with the needle's eye. As long as he called out the page number, Xu Chunliang could accurately insert the needle tip into the designated spot. Even when he was young, he didn't possess such intuition. Xu Changshan became increasingly convinced that his grandson was born with the aptitude for medicine.
To Xu Chunliang, such practice was merely a formality. Forget the rough-edged paper, even if given a block of layered soft tofu, he could equally control the depth of insertion precisely.
"The way of holding the needle requires steadiness and tranquility," the old man said slowly after taking a sip of tea. Beside him, a radio was playing his favorite Liuqin opera, turned up deliberately loudly, aimed at training Xu Chunliang's concentration. To become an excellent physician, one must have a quiet heart and focused spirit.
Xu Chunliang pretended to humbly receive the teachings while actually considering these medical skills taught by his grandfather as merely elementary. Although they weren't entirely useless, they had made him realize that despite the long development over the years, traditional Chinese medicine had not progressed, but rather had deteriorated.
Xu Changshan was very gratified by his progress. Although Xu Chunliang started relatively late, with his exceptional intuition and Xu Changshan's meticulous teaching, he believed that in time he would surpass him. The old man was unaware of how much more advanced Xu Chunliang's medical skills actually were.
Xu Chunliang's goal in studying medicine was to provide a plausible excuse for his vast abilities. In reality, he was mainly hoodwinking the old man, since no matter how skilled he was in medicine, outsiders would regard it as a family heritage. Only the old man knew he had just begun learning medicine.
Compared to healing and saving lives, Xu Chunliang enjoyed poisoning more. Using poisons allowed him to challenge opponents several times or even tens of times stronger than himself. The sense of accomplishment from such a cross-level challenge was indescribable.
The Five Poison Sect regards snakes, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, and toads as the five sacred creatures. The Five Poison Sect excels at wielding poisonous creatures. In the eyes of righteous people, the Five Poison Sect is considered the most evil sect in the world, even proclaiming slogans like "All traitors and evil must be exterminated."
What truly made Xu Chunliang become a public enemy was a secret manual. If not for the leak of the Heavenly Scripture's news, the Five Poison Sect wouldn't have ended up besieged by the nine major sects.
"What are you thinking about?" Xu Changshan noticed that he was distracted.
Xu Chunliang smiled and said, "Nothing much, Grandpa. I found an ancient book on the shelf whose content I couldn't comprehend." He deliberately took out a book and handed it to his grandfather.
Xu Changshan took it. It was a thread-bound book, the paper yellowed, with handwritten vertical script, passed down from his ancestors. Huichun Hall had many similar collections of books handed down by the ancestors. There were some that Xu Changshan could understand, and many others whose meanings eluded him.
The one Xu Chunliang handed over was just such a book. After a while, Xu Changshan sighed and said, "Your great-grandfather passed away too early. I couldn't fully learn his medical skills, which is truly shameful."
In fact, the transmission of traditional Chinese medicine is far too conservative, most commonly passed down through generations, unable to ensure every generation has an interest in this field or the natural potential and comprehension differs from person to person.
Of course, there is also master-apprentice transmission, but as the saying goes, teaching apprentices starves the master. Masters usually keep some secret recipes for their family only.
Thus, despite its long history, traditional Chinese medicine hasn't achieved its expected prosperity. This transmission method bears the major responsibility.
Take the Xu Family, for example. Xu Changshan's father died early, unable to pass on many medical skills. By Xu Changshan's generation, none of his three children wanted to learn medicine. If Xu Chunliang refused to inherit the legacy, Huichun Hall would then become extinct.
Xu Changshan never intended to pass his medical skills to outsiders; this mindset is quite common among those involved in the medical field.
By noon, Lu Qi came by. This time he wasn't here to get medicine but specifically to seek Xu Chunliang's help.
Xu Chunliang saw him in his uniform, knowing he was at work, and smiled, "So hard-working, working even on Saturday?"
Lu Qi said that there was a comprehensive renovation in the city this month, and they hadn't had a break for two consecutive weeks.
Xu Chunliang noticed his bloodshot eyes and exhausted face, knowing he hadn't been resting well recently: "Why don't you sit down, and I'll give you a few needles to calm your mind and refresh you."
Lu Qi said, "Thank you, but no thanks. I don't want to be your guinea pig."
Xu Chunliang chuckled, thinking to himself that this guy didn't know what he was missing. As the Great Saint of the Five Poison Sect, he rarely administered acupuncture to others. One needle would make him feel energized. Since Lu Qi was unwilling, Xu Chunliang didn't insist and poured him a cup of tea instead.
Lu Qi accepted the tea and said thanks.
Xu Chunliang then asked about the stolen phone case. In fact, this was the reason Lu Qi was there. They had previously visited Cyan Dragon Mountain together. As it turned out, Xu Chunliang's judgment was correct—the king cobra had indeed swallowed the phones.
During this period, Lu Qi investigated everyone related to the release activities but didn't find any new leads.
In the mouth of the killed snake, they found fabric fibers, which, upon testing, revealed human blood with type B, but the blood type didn't match any related personnel. No one sought medical help for snake bites in clinics near Cyan Dragon Mountain that day.
Based on the case's evidence, the snake catcher, Fan Yajun, was the most suspicious, but they found nothing unusual when investigating his accounts. Now, all relevant personnel have been thoroughly checked, but they couldn't proceed further. The case encountered a bottleneck.
Lu Qi came to Xu Chunliang as a last resort.
After hearing Lu Qi's account of the investigation, Xu Chunliang couldn't help but laugh.
Lu Qi said, "Stop laughing, my head's killing me. Yu Li is pushing me every day. I shouldn't have accepted her dinner in the first place."
"Eating someone else's meal and feeling obligated," Xu Chunliang said.
"You ate it too!" Xu Chunliang replied, "Wasn't her meal a way to thank us for saving her life? How did it turn into a double-edged sword?"
"A businessman's meal is never free; even without her meal, solving the case was my duty. Brother, you must help me analyze this carefully. Are there any other clues in this case?"
Xu Chunliang had never focused on this case. It wasn't his job, and he initially thought it was almost certainly related to that snake catcher. If he were the one investigating, he would have found Fan Yajun and extracted the truth through coercion.
However, the police needed evidence, and nowadays, coercion is not allowed.
Xu Chunliang said, "Isn't it obvious? When one releases, there will be someone responding on the other end. It must be one or several release personnel who have issues."
"But where's the evidence? Without evidence, we can't make baseless suspicions." Investigating a case requires evidence, and judgments can't be made based on feelings.
"On Cyan Dragon Mountain that day, we only found one king cobra's corpse."
Lu Qi nodded. Indeed, only one was found. Two were released, but how does that help? The other cobra might be dead or returned to the wild, and even if we find it, what use is it? Snakes can't speak or describe the incident.
"The king cobras were a mating pair; it was the female that died. The male's whereabouts are unknown. In reality, all creatures have spirituality. As long as that male is alive, it will definitely seek revenge on the culprit."
Lu Qi said, "But how does that relate to our current case? We don't even know who the culprit is or where the male snake is."
Xu Chunliang said, "If you saw that snake again, could you recognize it?"
Lu Qi thought for a moment, shaking his head. To him, all king cobras looked about the same; he could only differentiate by size if the difference was significant.
"Do you think Fan Yajun could recognize it?"