No! That can hardly be called a leg anymore! The skin on his right leg was nearly all peeled off, revealing the bloody muscle tissues and thick, white bone inside. The most severely injured part of his leg was the thigh; a piece of flesh had been torn off. Blood was ceaselessly pouring out of the artery on his thigh. If Zhao Bufan hadn't tore off a piece of cloth and tied it around his thigh, it was likely that Yu Hai would have lost his life due to excessive blood loss before he reached home.
"Xiao… Xiaocao." Madam Liu was crying so hard that she was barely able to breathe. If she hadn't eaten an entire winter's worth if medicine, Madam Liu would have already fainted. She grabbed her younger daughter tightly as if she was grabbing onto her last life-saving straw. "Right! Xiaocao, didn't you study medicine under Doctor You? Quickly save your father!"
Yu Xiaocao had never seen such a tragic and bloody scene in neither of her lifetimes. Thus, she was stunned for a moment and didn't know where to start.
[Master, you must stop the bleeding first! If all his blood flowed out, even an immortal wouldn't be able to save him!] When the little divine stone saw the frightened expression on its master's face, it quickly reminded her to stop the bleeding.
"I, what should I do?" Yu Xiaocao remembered from the surgeries in her previous life that large wounds were usually sutured to stop the bleeding. However, her father's leg was riddled with injuries. What should she do?
[Put my body near the wound on his thigh to make it easier for me to use my spiritual powers!] The little divine stone could only guide its owner through the process step-by-step.
Yu Xiaocao took out all the medicine for external injuries from the medicine box. She used a high concentration of the mystic-stone water and mixed it together with the medicine. When the mixture turned into a paste, she carefully applied it on her father's wounds. As she applied the medicine, she tried to get the multicolored stone on her wrist as close to the wounds as possible.
A faint golden light emerged from the multicolored stone and slowly enveloped Yu Hai's entire leg. Although the naked eye couldn't see any change, the ruptured veins and torn flesh were unwittingly nourished by the Divine Stone's spiritual power. In other words, even though his leg looked as appalling as before, his leg would heal twice as fast in the future.
Yu Hai's legs were shrouded in the golden light for half an hour, exhausting the last of the little divine stone's spiritual power. Yet it didn't forget to haggle with Yu Xiaocao, [The next time you go to town, remember to bring me to Tongren Medicine Hall. All the spiritual power I had accumulated is gone again! I'm very tired, I need to sleep.]
Before it even finished talking, the last rays of golden light returned to the multicolored stone. There were no more movements from the little divine stone. Although Yu Xiaocao was also worried about the little divine stone, she was even more worried about her father's injury.
On the kang bed, Yu Hai's face was still pale. His breathing was faint, and his legs were covered in wound paste. But, it didn't look as frightening as before.
"Oh my! He has such a serious injury. Even if you manage to save his life, his right leg will probably still be crippled! Tsk tsk…" Madam Li, who came to enjoy the bustling scene, fanned the flames as she shook her head and clicked her tongue.
Old Yu, who had a bellyful of anger, finally found someone to vent on, "He already became like this, yet you still making sarcastic remarks! Get lost!"
No matter how thick-skinned Madam Li was, she couldn't stand being berated by her father-in-law in public. She couldn't help but mutter in a low voice, "I wasn't the one who told him to go up the mountain, so why are you yelling at me? If you want someone to blame, blame him for not being careful… ouch!"
Madam Li didn't even finish speaking yet when Little Shitou knocked against her. Little Shitou's eyes were brimming with sadness and hatred as he firmly stared at Madam Li. His father was injured for this family. Yet Eldest Aunt still said those words! Father's injury wasn't worth it at all!
Little Shitou looked like a young wounded beast. Met with Little Shitou's eyes, Madam Li who was usually crafty and bossy, felt somewhat guilty as she retreated. Under the villagers' dissatisfied gaze, she left the west room with her tail between her legs.
It seemed as if the things happening around Yu Xiaocao didn't concern her at all. Her entire focus was on her father's well-being. She took out a bottle of high-concentration mystic-stone water from the medicine box. With Madam Liu's help, they slowly opened Yu Hai's mouth ad carefully fed it to him.
Fortunately, not a drop of the mystic-stone water was wasted. Yu Hai had unconsciously swallowed the water. If he was unable to even swallow water, Xiaocao would've felt that everything was hopeless. With her understanding of the mystic-stone water's properties, she had faith that her father would survive the injury.
Auntie Shuanzhu looked at the medicine bottle in Xiaocao's hand and said nothing. Her husband had a serious illness during the winter. If Xiaocao didn't take out that life-saving medicine, he would've probably died. This medicine was the fruit of Doctor You's painstaking effort of his lifetime. It should be able to protect Dahai's life, right?
Yu Xiaocao also gave her mother, who was refusing to leave even when she was staggering, a few mouthfuls of mystic-stone water. Her mother's old illness had just gotten a little better, she couldn't allow her to fall ill again at this critical juncture.
"Second Sister, will father die? I'm so scared!" Little Shitou, who wasn't even six years old yet, had already became aware of how fearful death was. Tears were filling up his eyes as he snuggled against the only calm member of the family——Yu Xiaocao.
At this moment, Madam Zhang was hiding inside her room, not interacting with anyone. Old Yu walked back and forth in front of the west room. He could only sigh as he didn't have any idea as to what to do. Yu Dashan stayed in the west room, but he wasn't any help at all. Yu Caidie's crying was like raindrops on a pear blossom, she didn't look dependable at all. Younger Uncle and his family had left at the beginning of spring. They borrowed a donkey cart and returned to town already. In this large family, besides Yu Xiaocao who was calmly applying medicine to her father's wounds, no one else had any idea what they should do.
Time seemed to pass by particularly slowly in anxious times. Whether it was the Yu Family or their fellow villagers, they were all awaiting the arrival of the town doctor.
At last, a donkey cart dashed through the village entrance. When the driver of the donkey cart heard that the injury of the patient was very urgent, he didn't bother about his donkey's well-being and rushed his donkey all the way here like it was a horse. After rushing for an hour, he was finally able to bring the town doctor here.
The doctor who came was the divine physician from Tongren Medicine Hall, Doctor Sun. The moment he stepped off the donkey cart, he immediately took his medicine box and hurriedly walked through the courtyard door, asking, "Where is the wounded person? Quickly bring me to him!"
The fellow villagers led Doctor Sun to the west room. Originally, the lighting in the west room wasn't very bright. Now, with so many people crowding at the entrance, the room looked even darker than usual.
"Everyone besides the next of kin will have to leave the room to avoid disturbing the patient!" Doctor Sun was very dissatisfied with how noisy it was inside the room. He was frowning as he drove the people out.
When Doctor You saw Yu Hai's injury, he inhaled a cold breath of air. After practicing medicine for many years, it was rare to see such a serious injury. He hurriedly sat next to the kang bed and put his right hand on Yu Hai's pulse.
After taking his pulse for a while, Doctor You let out a deep sigh. He turned to face Madam Liu and her daughters who had their eyes fixed on him. Doctor You said with a serious expression, "His pulse is very weak. His arteries are hollow like onion-shoots and the main cause of his condition is the loss of blood and the injury to his yin…"
"Doctor, can the children's father be saved?" Madam Liu's current state of mind was in a mess as she anxiously inquired about her husband's condition.
Doctor Sun carefully reexamined Yu Hai's injury. He wrinkled his eyebrows even more after the examination and replied, "The external medicine applied on his wounds to stop his bleeding is quite effective. If the medicine wasn't applied on time, he wouldn't have been able to wait till I arrive. However…"
When Madam Liu saw the heavy expression on Doctor You's face, she felt her heart sink and nearly fell into the abyss, "Doctor Sun, you are a famous doctor from town. Please, you must save my children's father! I beg you!"
"It's not that I don't want to save him. The problem is whether I can save him or not. The wound on his leg is too big. In addition, all the flesh and tendons are torn apart and are peeling off. Even if I want to save him, I don't know even know where to start with all the wounds he has!" Many years ago, Doctor Sun had seen a patient with similar injuries. He did his best to save the patient. But in the end, the patient couldn't survive the high fever he got after his wounds got infected, and died.
When Madam Liu heard what Doctor Sun had said, she couldn't breathe and fainted next to the kang bed. The three children were crying as they helped their mother lie down on the kang bed.
Yu Xiaocao tried her best to suppress the sadness and anxiety rising inside her heart. She asked in a calm yet stubborn voice, "Doctor Sun, is there no hope in treating him?"
Doctor Sun looked at Yu Hai's bloody, mangled right leg and sighed, "Right now, we have to amputate his injured leg for him to have the opportunity to even live. However, even when coupled with my medicine, he only has a 30% chance of surviving."
"Is it possible for him to survive without amputating his injured leg?" To Yu Hai, who was omnipotent when going up the mountain and down the sea, losing one of his legs was no different than a bird with broken wings. He would suffer his entire life if he lost one of his legs.
Doctor Sun shook his head and said, "The surface of the wound is too big. With long term exposure to the air, the chance of the wound getting infected will significantly increase. If he gets a high fever because of the infection, even the Daluo Immortals [1] might not be able to save him. These are the only two options you have, you'll have to choose one for him!"
Yu Xiaocao didn't have a lot of mystic-stone liquid remaining in the bottle in her hands, but she still had a full jar of mystic-stone water. She was confident that she could keep the wound clean and uninfected. However, she still didn't feel reassured, so she asked, "If his wounds don't get infected, does that mean he won't have to amputate his injured leg?"
"Yes. But if he amputates his injured leg, he still has a 30% of survival. However, if he doesn't, then we can only wait for a miracle… I will prescribe him some medicine first. It's better to take a little medicine than do nothing at all!"
For over twenty years, Doctor Sun had never felt as powerless as he did today. If Hua Tuo [2] was alive today, he might be able to save Yu Hai's injured leg. But he was also hoping for a miracle as the one Yu Xiaocao experienced; Xiaocao had completely recovered from the illness she carried since she was a fetus.
Doctor Sun gave Old Yu the prescription. He reminded them once again, "Whether he is keeping this leg or not, you have to make a decision early!"
When Doctor Sun had just finished speaking, Madam Zhang immediately rushed into the main house. She pulled on Old Yu's arm and shouted, "Old Man, you can't amputate Dahai's injured leg! Let's first not talk about how low the 30% chance of survival is, even if he is lucky enough to survive, what's the point of living if he doesn't have one of his legs?"
Old Yu immediately became unhappy after hearing that. He yelled at his wife, "What do you mean there is no point in living? As the ancient saying goes: 'It's better to have a bad life than a good death!' It's obviously more important to save his life! You only care about your money!"
"What do you mean I only care about my money… I was just thinking about letting Yu Hai make the decision himself once he wakes up! I'm just worried that our kind intention will lead to hatred!" Madam Zhang was so frightened that she quickly explained. This was the first time in decades that Madam Zhang had seen Old Yu this angry.
However, Madam Zhang was the only one who knew her real thoughts. In the past, a large part of the family income came from selling the game that Yu Hai hunted. Now that he was seriously injured and couldn't keep one of his legs, how would he go up the mountain or to the sea? He could only lie in bed like a useless person and live as a parasite. Moreover, there was a lot of children in his family. His wife was also weak. If his injured leg really got amputated, didn't that mean that Yu Hai's family would be depending on her to feed and raise them? Where would she get that much spare money to raise those good-for-nothings?
[1] Daluo immortals (大罗神仙) - refers to the Taoist immortals who lives in the Daluo Heavens, which is a realm where immortals with high cultivation dwells in
[2] Hua Tuo (华佗) - a famous doctor who lived during the end of the Han Dynasty