The second patient

  Hai Ju Fu smiled and said, "No need to bother, no need to bother." He handed over a covered basket he was holding in his hand, "This is something my youngest son brought back from the sea yesterday. I thought that people like us who are not particular about food wouldn't be able to appreciate it, so I sent it to you. With your culinary skills, you'll definitely know how to eat it."

  Zhang Jin had been curious about the basket emitting a strong salty smell in his hand since Hai Jufu entered the house, but he didn't mention it due to Hai's identity. Now that Hai Jufu had actively handed it over, Zhang Jin took it without hesitation and lifted the lid covering the basket. A stronger and more intense salty smell with a hint of freshness wafted up to his nose.

  Just taking a glance into the basket, Zhang Jin hastily covered it again and pushed it back: "Uncle Ju Fu, you'd better take it back quickly! This is too valuable, I can't accept it."

  Two basketball-sized baskets were filled to the brim with seafood that could be considered treasures, including sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and scallops. Moreover, at a glance, Zhang Jin had already identified that these seafood treasures were all purely wild-caught, with no second-grade or lower ingredients. If this basket of seafood were to be sold in the market, it would be worth at least several thousand yuan; if it were to be served in a restaurant, it wouldn't be surprising if it cost tens of thousands of yuan.

  Hai Jufu saw Zhang Jin push the basket back, and hurriedly pushed it back again: "There's something valuable, it's all our own family's pickings. Besides, Uncle has something to ask of you!" Hai Jufu, although unsophisticated, not as slick as those who had crawled out of the city's intrigues, was after all a native-born Chinese, and understood some human relationships and worldly wisdom, knowing that when asking for help, one must first show courtesy.

  Zhang Jin still refused to accept, saying: "Uncle Ju Fu, now we are fellow villagers. If you have something to say, I'll help if I can. But these things you must take back, if it's because I helped and accepted such valuable things, other fellow villagers will tease me! I plan to live in our village for a long time!"

  "What's the big deal? There are only two boats in our village, and every time they come back, don't they bring some stuff to each household? This thing is for their own consumption, not for selling outside, it's not valuable or anything. Besides, my younger son is a fisherman on the boat, not one of those big restaurants in the city, even if he were to sell this, it wouldn't be worth much money. Just take it, otherwise, Uncle would feel embarrassed asking you!"

  After much persuasion, Hai Jifu finally began to show a hint of a smile and, with the demeanor of an elder, Zhang Jin reluctantly accepted the basket of sea delicacies.

  After putting the basket of seafood in the kitchen, Zhang Jin came out laughing and said to Hai Jufu: "Uncle Jufu, you just said you had something to find me about? What's up? Tell me!"

  Hai Ju Fu finally let out a sigh of relief and said, "Little Zhang, I heard from Ju Li that your medical skills are quite impressive!" He gave his own thumb a thumbs up and shook it before continuing, "As for me, I've had this old illness for decades, just like Ju Li. Over the years, I've gotten used to enduring it, but two days ago when it rained, my leg hurt so much that I could only lie in bed, yet I saw Ju Li running around as if nothing was wrong. That really made me envious! Do you think you could take a look at my leg too?"

  Looking at Hai Jufu's urgent and nervous expression, Zhang Jin finally understood the purpose of Hai Jufu's visit and burst out laughing: "Uncle Jufu, I thought it was something else! What's wrong with this? You could have just come directly, can't I even drive people away? Do you think I'm that kind of person?"

  Although in the past few decades, Hai Jufu had endured countless times of suffering from that pain, and even got used to the joint pain on rainy days, and even joked that it was his own "weather forecasting system". However, when he saw a glimmer of hope for liberation from his younger brother's body, and heard Zhang Jin's personal promise, he still couldn't bear the excitement in his heart, and stuttered with joy: "Hehe, thank you, thank you! It's great, it's really great!"

  After agreeing with Hai Ju Fu, Zhang Jin also didn't hesitate and turned around to go back to the second floor to fetch that set of hundreds of moxibustion needles. The only difference was that last time he took them out from the cabinet, but this time he took them out from the storage space given by "Wulin Three Kingdoms".

  Although Hai Julei had once thoroughly told his brother about the process of administering the needle, when Hai Jufu saw Zhang Jin holding a shiny silver acupuncture needle in his hand, he still couldn't help but feel a little guilty, swallowing hard several times, yet still feeling somewhat dry-mouthed.

  Seeing Hai Jufu's tense appearance was even more severe than Hai Julai at the time, and even the goosebumps on his legs had a slight tingling sensation, which might affect his own acupuncture. Helpless, Zhang Jin could only find a topic to shift Hai Jufu's attention, taking advantage of Hai Jufu's slightly diverted attention, turning the thirty-six silver needles into thirty-six silver threads, falling into place in the blink of an eye, even making Hai Jufu feel no sensation of the needle entering his body.

  Zhang Jin's thirty-six needle techniques were still neat and tidy, 'shock, tremble, point, twist...' and other ancient eight methods of acupuncture were also dizzyingly beautiful, and the effect was naturally not biased. However, perhaps because he had become an "official" and was remiss in his work, compared to Hai Ju Li who worked hard every day, facing the yellow earth and with his back to the sky, Hai Ju Fu's physique was much worse. Moreover, Hai Ju Fu was also ten years older than Hai Ju Li, and his joints were already filled with accumulated water. Therefore, after Zhang Jin finished performing his thirty-six needle techniques, he couldn't immediately remove the needles like he did when he treated Hai Ju Li, but had to wait for a while.

  While waiting, Zhang Jin wiped the joint cavity effusion and blood from the needle hole with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol, and started chatting with Hai Rufu who was receiving the injection: "Uncle Rufu, I think your arthritis is going to take longer than Uncle Ruli's, probably thirty-five or six years?"

  Upon hearing Zhang Jin's accurate words, Hai Yu couldn't help but stretch out his right thumb again and said with admiration: "Awesome! Calculating the time, it was around 35 or 36 years ago. My leg condition is different from Zhu Li's. He got this disease when he first started fishing during the reform and opening-up period to make money. And I got this disease when I was a soldier in Northeast China fighting against Soviet revisionism and counter-revolution."

  The old man's expression became very complex, with a mix of nostalgia and pain. The wrinkles on his face, which were not originally deep, suddenly became more pronounced. His tone also changed from previous praise to a faint murmur: "At that time, I and Old Two were both soldiers, although we were not in the same unit, but we all went to Heilongjiang. The winters there are really cold! There are many wild animals too. I was fine, just got some illness on my legs. Old Two's unit was stationed in a forest area, and it is said that one winter they encountered a 'big blizzard', and Old Two and his two comrades went out for patrol and got lost, never to be found again. It wasn't until the next spring when the snow melted that they were discovered, less than two miles away from their base..."

  The old man sighed as he spoke, and the thick smoke from his bamboo pipe rose up, shrouding his face in an increasingly hazy and aged appearance.

  Zhang Jin finally understood why Hai Jufu called Hai Julai "Old Three" even though there were only two brothers in the house.

  Seeing Hai Ju Fu's old man's expression became more and more desolate, a melancholy look sank into his memories, Zhang Jin also fell silent. He who had not experienced that period of time did not even know what words to use to comfort him.

  It wasn't until several minutes later that Zhang Jin pulled out the thirty-six silver needles from Hai Jufu's leg all at once, and Hai Jufu still remained as silent as a wax figure without any signs of life. The atmosphere was still eerily quiet. It wasn't until Zhang Jin's phone rang with a cheerful ringtone that it finally broke the almost suffocating silence in the room.

  Zhang Jinru apologized to Hai Zhufu like a great amnesty, and then picked up the phone and walked aside to answer it.

  "Baby, I'm your mom!" came a warm and endearing voice from the receiver, accompanied by a term of endearment that made him helpless.

  "Mom~" Zhang Jin's voice couldn't help but start to feel annoyed by that title, if someone else saw this seven-foot-tall big man using such a spoiled tone, they would definitely be embarrassed and break out in goosebumps, or even feel nauseous and vomit. "I've told you how many times already, just stop calling me 'baby'! Your son is already thirty years old!"

  The voice on the other end of the phone was still loving and stern, "What's wrong with being thirty? Even if you're fifty or eighty, as long as your old mom is still alive, you're still Mom's precious! Who dares to say otherwise? Let them come find me! Besides, you don't even have kids yet, following the old rules, you're not even considered an adult!"

  As for the empress dowager's evaluation of his own family, Zhang Jin didn't even have the energy to refute it. The empress dowager shifted the topic to the next generation issue that made him most headache. Zhang Jin had no choice but to use his "Qiankun Dano" verbal skills, beating around the bush and changing the subject, "Mom, don't mention me, talk about yourself instead. How's your body recently? Is there anything happy happening? Tell your son about it, let me imagine my happy life after retirement."

  Zhang Jin's mother, Li Qin, was a retired English teacher at a national key high school before retirement and can be considered an intellectual of that generation. Due to her late marriage, Li Qin gave birth to Zhang Jin's sister at the age of 28 and Zhang Jin at the age of 30. Now Zhang Jin is approaching thirty, and Li Qin is also nearing sixty. At this age, people attach great importance to a stable job and a secure rice bowl. Therefore, although it has been almost two months since he resigned, Zhang Jin still hasn't told his parents about it. He even plans to keep it a secret for as long as possible.

  "You stinky kid, you're still young and it's time to make a career for yourself. What are you thinking of retiring? You have no ambition!" Zhang Jin's mom scolded her precious son before continuing, "Don't worry, your old mom is in good health! The other day at the community center's elderly shuttlecock kicking competition, I even came in second place. If my shuttlecock hadn't kept falling to the ground, I would have been first." Zhang Jin's mom still had some lingering regret about that 'runner-up' competition.

  "Come on, when will my number one mom take a back seat? This time being second is just because the tiger dozed off, go for it old mom, practice well and next time take back the first place! I'm rooting for you!" Zhang Jin flattered his mom with exaggerated tone.