Xie Haitao froze at Ye Bufan's sudden actions. Recognizing him, he snapped:"Kid, the patient's already dead! What are you messing around for? Pretending to be filial? If you really cared, you should've brought the fifty thousand for surgery earlier—then your mother wouldn't have died. No money, but you like putting on a show. I despise people like you most of all…"
He kept ranting endlessly, but Ye Bufan ignored him, fully focused on inserting needles into Ouyang Lan.
"Hey, I'm talking to you! Didn't you hear me?"
Seeing the young man ignore him only fueled Xie Haitao's anger. "Are you even a doctor? Poking random needles into a corpse—do you want your mother to suffer even after death? Let me tell you, this is the ICU! Fees are charged by the hour. You haven't even paid off the earlier bills, and now you're causing trouble? Stop immediately!"
At last, Ye Bufan pushed in the final needle and let out a long breath.
His mother was suffering from sudden cerebral hemorrhage. For the Ancient Medical Sect, this was hardly a problem. Thankfully, he had come back in time—any later, and it would have been too late.
"Kid, have you made enough trouble?" Xie Haitao barked. "This whole time is chargeable too!" He turned to Zhang Xiaoman. "Call the funeral home right away, have them take the body."
"You quack," Ye Bufan said coldly. "What nonsense are you spouting? My mother is still alive!"
"Alive? Are you crazy?" Xie Haitao sneered. "If your mother really comes back to life, I'll give you my job as chief doctor—"
Before he could finish, the monitor beside the bed suddenly beeped and came back online—Ouyang Lan had a heartbeat.
One beat… two beats… at first weak, but quickly stabilizing into a normal rhythm.
"What… what's going on?"
Both Xie Haitao and Zhang Xiaoman were dumbfounded. Just moments ago the woman had no vital signs. How could she suddenly come back to life? If this weren't the ICU, they might have thought it was a corpse revival.
Judging the timing right, Ye Bufan withdrew all the needles and unhooked the monitoring equipment.
In the next instant, Ouyang Lan sat straight up in bed, looked around, and asked, "Son, where am I?"
"Mom, you finally woke up!"
Ye Bufan grasped her hand, overwhelmed with emotion. Without the Ancient Medical Sect's legacy, the two of them would have been separated by life and death forever.
Xie Haitao's eyes went wide with disbelief. He knew her condition better than anyone—she shouldn't even be alive, let alone fully recovered so quickly.
"Son, what happened?" Ouyang Lan asked. "I remember suddenly fainting… Was I sick? Does it cost a lot of money?"
"It's fine now, Mom. You're healed. We can go home."
Not only had Ye Bufan cured the brain hemorrhage, he had also smoothed out all her other hidden ailments. Right now, Ouyang Lan was healthier than most people. There was no need to stay.
"Good, let's go. I've always said, small illnesses don't need hospitals. Rest is enough."
Ouyang Lan had raised Ye Bufan and his sister alone through bitter hardship. To her, hospitals only meant spending money she couldn't afford. She climbed out of bed, ready to leave with her son.
"Stop! You can't leave yet."
Xie Haitao spread his arms to block their path.
Ye Bufan frowned. "What do you want?"
"You can go—after paying the medical bill," Xie Haitao said.
"That's only fair. How much is it, doctor?" Ouyang Lan asked politely.
"Thirty-nine thousand, eight hundred yuan," Xie Haitao said.
"What? That much?"
Ouyang Lan was so shocked she nearly fainted again.
Ye Bufan's face darkened. "I saved my mother myself. Why should we owe this much money?"
"This is the ICU. Fees are by the hour. Plus the emergency drugs—this is the total."
He tossed a stack of drug records at Ouyang Lan. "See for yourself. We used a huge amount of medicine to rescue you. Without it, you'd be long dead."
Ouyang Lan held the bill, unable to make sense of it except for the terrifying numbers.
Ye Bufan scanned it once, his expression instantly cold. "You're sure these drugs were all for my mother?"
As a third-year medical student at Jiangnan Medical University, he knew enough to recognize routine prescriptions.
"Of course," Xie Haitao said impatiently. "Now pay up!"
Ye Bufan's fury erupted. He grabbed Xie Haitao by the throat and slammed him against the wall.
"Someone like you—not only incompetent, but also so vicious and greedy—how dare you call yourself a doctor?"
Choked, Xie Haitao struggled desperately, but Ye Bufan's grip was like an iron vise.
Ouyang Lan and Zhang Xiaoman were both terrified. Zhang tried to pull Ye Bufan's arm, but the young man's slender arm felt immovable, like a mountain.
"Son, let go! Hitting people is against the law," Ouyang Lan pleaded.
At her words, Ye Bufan finally released his grip.
"Cough… cough…" Gasping, Xie Haitao sucked in air like a drowning man.
"Son, what's going on? Why such anger?" Ouyang Lan asked, alarmed.
"This black-hearted doctor first demanded fifty thousand for surgery, and when I couldn't pay, he left you to die. Then he falsely declared you dead—that's murder by negligence! And now he's trying to scam us with fake prescriptions. Most of these drugs weren't even used on you. How can someone like him be a doctor?"
"You're spouting nonsense!" Xie Haitao barked, regaining his voice. "These were all rescue drugs. Pay up, or I'll send you both straight to the police!"
Ye Bufan held up the bill. "You think we don't understand? My mother had a cerebral hemorrhage—so why is there Blood Clot Dissolver on this list? And ginseng antler injections? And all these IV fluids together add up to over twenty-five kilograms. Are you saying you pumped all that into my mother? Not even an elephant could take that much in under twenty-four hours!"
"I…"
Xie Haitao was struck dumb. He had assumed the mother and son were ignorant and padded the list at will, both for hospital commission and personal resale profit. He had done this many times before—but today, he had been exposed.
Before he could recover, the ER doors burst open. A middle-aged man rushed in, carrying a boy of about ten on his back.
"Doctor! Please, check my son!" he cried.
A nurse following behind hurried to Xie Haitao: "Director Xie, this is a patient sent by Director Zhou of the Health Bureau. We were told to spare no effort in treatment."