If you don't want treatment, get out! This doctor has a terrible temper.

Chapter 44 The Hidden Illness of the Overseas-Returned Elite and the Old Lady's "Phantom P

The pharmacy was deathly silent; even Guan Shan forgot to pick up the broom on the ground.

The man named Steven's face turned a deep purplish-red, and the veins on his neck bulged, as if an invisible hand had gripped his throat.

His proud "elite logic" and "international vision" were shattered into dust in the face of Wang Minyu's down-to-earth yet morally superior words.

"You...you're using moral blackmail! This is populism!" Steven shouted angrily, waving his walking stick. "I'm going to file a complaint against you! I'm going to expose doctors like you with such a terrible attitude!"

"Whatever." Wang Minyu sat back down in his chair and picked up his teacup again. "But before that, you'd better check on your mother. She's about to faint from the pain."

All eyes then returned to the old woman.

The old woman's face was deathly pale, her forehead was covered in cold sweat, and her left hand, which was hanging in the air, was trembling violently.

She tried to reach for the counter, but recoiled as if electrocuted, letting out a painful groan.

"Mom!" Steven panicked, his earlier arrogance instantly vanishing. He quickly helped the old lady up. "What's wrong? Are you in pain again?"

"It hurts...it burns like fire..." the old woman said weakly. "Don't touch it...please don't touch it..."

"Doctor! Hurry up and treat him!" Steven turned and yelled at Wang Minyu, "I'll pay whatever it takes! Hurry up!"

Wang Minyu didn't move, but pointed to the QR code on the wall: "Registration fee is one hundred. Also, put away that stick of yours; this isn't your golf course."

Steven gritted his teeth and angrily swept a hundred dollars.

Wang Minyu walked up to the old lady and gestured for Su Qing to bring a stool.

"What happened to your hand?" Wang Minyu asked.

"I fell and fractured my wrist six months ago," the old lady said weakly. "The bone has set and the cast has been removed, but it still hurts. The pain... feels like a million needles are pricking me, and sometimes it feels like it's burning. I went to a big hospital for X-rays and MRIs, and they all said the nerves weren't severed and the bone was healing well. They said it was psychological, something like... phantom pain."

"(CRPS)," Steven interjected, trying to regain some ground, "Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Experts abroad say it's a sympathetic nerve disorder and prescribed gabapentin and pregabalin. I've been taking them for months, but they only have side effects and are completely useless."

Wang Minyu ignored him and activated the [Aura Observation Technique].

In my field of vision, the meridians on the old woman's left wrist were in a strangely tangled state.

It's not broken, but rather blocked like a tangled mess.

Near the "Daling acupoint" on the inside of the wrist, there is a tiny, red-glowing foreign object.

System notification: [Symptoms: Median nerve entrapment with residual microscopic foreign body.] [Etiology: During fracture surgery, extremely small bone fragments or surgical instrument fragments may remain in the carpal tunnel, continuously irritating the median nerve and causing severe neuropathic pain. Routine imaging examinations are difficult to detect due to the small size of the foreign body and its encapsulation by scar tissue.]

"This is not phantom pain." Wang Minyu reached out and gently pressed on the inside of the old lady's wrist.

"Ah!" the old lady screamed, almost jumping up.

"This is real pain." Wang Minyu withdrew his hand and looked at Steven. "When you had surgery abroad, was the surgeon an impatient person?"

Steven was taken aback: "How did you know? That's the famous orthopedic surgeon Dr. Smith, the surgery is very quick..."

"What good is being fast?" Wang Minyu sneered. "If you do it too quickly, the wound won't be cleaned thoroughly. There's a piece of bone smaller than a grain of rice stuck in your mother's carpal tunnel, right against the median nerve. Every time she moves her hand, that piece of bone is cutting into the nerve. For the past six months, your mother has been tortured every minute of every day."

"Bone fragments?" Steven looked incredulous. "How is that possible? The MRI didn't detect it!"

"Machines are inanimate, but people are alive." Wang Minyu stood up. "Su Qing, prepare the small surgical kit. I need to perform a carpal tunnel exploratory thoracotomy."

"Here?" Steven was about to explode again. "There's not even a sterile room here..."

"Shut up." Su Qing glanced at him coldly, holding a pair of gleaming surgical scissors in her hand. "If you say another word, I don't mind giving you a vocal cord exploratory surgery too."

Steven was startled by the look Su Qing gave him, as if he were examining a corpse, and shrank back.

The surgery was performed in the back room.

Without general anesthesia, Wang Minyu used several silver needles to block the pain transmission in the old lady's arm—the "needle-cutting method".

The old lady was surprised to find that the burning pain in her arm had lessened, leaving only a numb sensation.

Wang Minyu put on a magnifying glass (a visual enhancement tool provided by the system) and steadily cut open the skin on the inside of his wrist with a scalpel.

The incision was only two centimeters long.

"Pinky promise."

Li Siyuan nervously made the incision.

With a probe in his hand, Wang Minyu gently parted the transverse wrist ligament and precisely picked out a small grayish-white fragment from a pile of white scar tissue.

"bite."

The fragment landed in the curved plate with a crisp sound.

It was a piece of bone fragment the size of a sesame seed, with edges as sharp as a knife.

"This is the culprit." Wang Minyu picked up a bone fragment and showed it to Steven. "This is the souvenir left by the 'orthopedic master' you mentioned."

Steven stared at the small bone, his face pale, unable to utter a single word.

Suturing, bandaging.

The moment Wang Minyu removed the silver needles, the old lady tentatively moved her fingers.

There was no burning sensation or pricking sensation.

The long-lost feeling of relaxation instantly brought tears to her eyes.

"It doesn't hurt anymore...it really doesn't hurt anymore..." The old lady grasped Wang Minyu's hand, her voice trembling. "Young doctor, you're a living saint!"

"I'm a doctor, not a saint." Wang Minyu withdrew his hand and pointed at Steven. "If you want to thank someone, thank your son for having some filial piety. Although he has a foul mouth, he's taken you around for the past six months, so it wasn't a waste of his time raising you."

Steven was stunned.

He didn't expect Wang Minyu to speak up for him.

He looked at his mother's relaxed brows, and the pain that had been on her face for years disappeared.

His arrogance and prejudice melted away like ice meeting boiling water.

He lowered his head and bowed deeply to Wang Minyu: "Dr. Wang, I'm sorry. It was me... I was blind."

"Alright, enough with the formalities." Wang Minyu waved his hand. "The consultation fee is five thousand. Scan the code."

Without a word, Steven scanned 10,000. "The rest is... a donation to the city."

After seeing the mother and son off, the shop returned to its busy state.

Just as closing time was approaching, a small, thin figure lingered at the door for a long time, hesitant to come in.

He was a boy of sixteen or seventeen, wearing a school uniform stained with oil, his hair was messy, and his right hand was wrapped in a dirty work jacket, with blood still seeping out.

Su Qing, with her sharp eyes, went over and opened the door: "Seeing a doctor?"

The boy was startled and shrank back. "I...I don't have any money. I heard...there's a strange doctor here who sometimes doesn't charge money..."

Su Qing turned around and glanced at Wang Minyu.

Wang Minyu sighed and put down the teacup he had just picked up: "Come in. I'm in a good mood today. That rich returnee gave me an extra five thousand, and I'll put it on your tab."

The boy walked in timidly and unbuttoned his clothes.

Everyone present gasped.

The boy's right hand, from the base of his thumb to his palm, was pierced by a huge wound.

The skin and flesh were rolled up, and the bone was visible deep inside; you could even see the ruptured tendons wriggling.

"How did this happen?" Guan Shan frowned. "It looks like it was caught in a machine."

"I...I worked in an illegal factory, on the stamping machine..." The boy lowered his head, his voice trembling. "The boss ran away, and the hospital said I need to pay a 20,000 yuan deposit for surgery, but I don't have it..."

"Tendon rupture, nerve damage, blood vessel rupture," Wang Minyu quickly assessed. "If this hand isn't reattached immediately, it'll be useless. For a child who still relies on his hands to make a living, losing his hand is like losing his life."

"Prepare for surgery." Wang Minyu's voice turned serious. "This is a big one."