Duoduo smiled, "Master Li, you guessed it!"
Li Jin raised his hand, gesturing for Duoduo to look across the street.
"Your Highness, look. There are still many people lingering at the entrance of the medical clinic."
Duoduo glanced back, "What's wrong?"
Li Jin shook his head.
"Your Highness, as you can see, there are still many people at the clinic's door who cannot afford medicine."
"With so many people, can you possibly help them all?"
"Furthermore, the shopkeeper just mentioned that someone in that woman's family is ill and requires long-term medication."
"You can save them for a moment, but you cannot save them for a lifetime!"
Duoduo looked at the woman crying in agony at the clinic's entrance and felt very sad.
"Are we just supposed to watch them die without doing anything?"
"Father gave me money. If I can help her for a moment, then I should. Is that wrong?"
Li Jin shook his head again.
"Your Highness, you misunderstand. Do you remember a principle I taught you?"
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
Duoduo nodded in confusion.
"Master, do you mean I should teach her how to make money?"
"But I don't know how to make money!"
Duoduo felt that Li Jin's suggestion was inappropriate.
Master Zhang, who was standing to the side, spoke up.
"Shopkeeper, call that woman over here for a moment."
The shopkeeper had been pricking up his ears, eavesdropping on their conversation.
Hearing Master Zhang's instruction, he quickly agreed.
"Right away! Please wait a moment, dear customers!"
The shopkeeper walked up to the woman and quickly said a few words.
A look of pleasant surprise appeared on the woman's face. She scrambled up from the ground with her child in her arms and followed the shopkeeper over.
With a thud, she fell to her knees in front of Duoduo.
"I beg you, noble one, please save my child! I am willing to work like a horse and toil like an ox for you!"
Duoduo looked at Master Zhang, and Master Zhang nodded at her.
Only then did Duoduo look at the child in the woman's arms.
The child's small face was flushed red, his nostrils were flaring rapidly, and his lips were severely chapped.
Duoduo hurriedly reached out to feel the child's pulse, but Li Jin quickly reached out to stop her.
"You must not!"
Duoduo pulled Li Jin's hand away without hesitation and took the child's pulse.
While feeling the pulse, Duoduo observed the child's complexion and even rolled back his eyelids to take a look.
"Master, his persistent high fever is caused by an excess of pathogenic heat."
"Acupuncture must be administered immediately, or else the fever will consume him."
Duoduo discussed this with Master Zhang.
"Then you should administer the needles."
Master Zhang agreed without hesitation.
"Old Man Zhang! She cannot!" Li Jin no longer cared about the rules of hierarchy and etiquette.
Administer acupuncture here? What if the child couldn't be saved and the woman caused a huge scene?
What if the child was saved, and all these onlookers demanded medical treatment too?
How could the Princess possibly treat them all?
Furthermore, the people from the clinic would definitely think they were intentionally causing trouble.
By himself, he could only protect the Princess; he might not be able to protect Old Man Zhang.
"Is your home far from here?" Li Jin looked at the woman.
"Not far, it's just the last door inside this alley." The woman pointed to a small alleyway nearby.
"Let's go to your house!"
Li Jin held tightly onto Duoduo, preventing her from applying the needles.
"No! He must be treated with acupuncture immediately!"
Duoduo disagreed.
Hearing that her son could be saved, but also that he needed immediate treatment, the woman was instantly thrown into a panic.
She could only kowtow to Li Jin.
"I beg you, please let this noble one save my child! I beg you!"
The woman's voice attracted many onlookers.
Everyone slowly gathered around.
The shopkeeper carefully interjected.
"How can you be so hard-hearted? Her child is dying. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda!"
Li Jin glared fiercely at the shopkeeper, then looked at the woman.
"We can save your child, but on one condition."
The woman was overjoyed. "Noble one, just say it! You can even have my life if you want it!"
"We will pay ten taels of silver to buy your child."
"From now on, whether this child lives or dies, he will have nothing to do with you."
"If you agree, you can take this silver, and we will save the child immediately!"
The woman collapsed weakly onto the ground.
She never expected Li Jin to make such a demand.
The crowd of onlookers erupted into an uproar.
"Ten taels of silver! Hurry up and agree!"
"Exactly, if it were me, I would definitely agree right away."
"You guys don't know, this child is her husband's only child. She definitely won't sell him."
"Right, the child is her only reliance. If she sells him, how will she face her in-laws?"
"This man is strange too. He can clearly save the child, so why offer silver to buy him?"
"What is the purpose of buying a dying child for ten taels of silver?"
"Could it be for some ulterior motive?"
"The child is going to die anyway. Isn't trading him for ten taels of silver a good deal?"
"Yeah, she can take the silver and remarry. Isn't that killing two birds with one stone?"
...
The onlookers were saying all sorts of things.
"Master..."
Duoduo didn't understand why Li Jin was doing this.
"Shut up!"
It was the first time Li Jin had scolded Duoduo. Duoduo pouted her lips and truly stayed silent.
"You had better make a choice quickly, or else we are leaving."
"Of course, you can choose to refuse and continue begging the clinic to treat your child!"
The woman looked at the child in her arms; his breathing was becoming increasingly rapid.
Anyone with eyes could see that the child's life was hanging by a thread.
The woman then looked at the anxious face of Duoduo and gritted her teeth.
Holding her child, she forcefully kowtowed three times to Duoduo.
"I'll sell him! I beg the noble one to please save his life!"
After the woman spoke, she placed the child on the ground.
Li Jin took out ten taels of silver from his robes, had the shopkeeper fetch a brush and ink, and made the woman sign a bill of sale.
Meanwhile, Duoduo had already taken out her silver needles and begun administering acupuncture to the child.
Duoduo's needlework had always been both fast and accurate.
The onlookers watched quietly, not daring to make a sound.
They were afraid that even the slightest noise would affect Duoduo's acupuncture.
The woman knelt on the ground, staring unblinkingly at her unconscious son.
Master Zhang also wrote out a medical prescription.
"Hurry up and get this medicine filled. Have the clinic help brew it, and bring it over."
Master Zhang handed the prescription to the woman. The woman took it with both hands and kowtowed to him.
Only then did she scramble up from the ground and stumble toward the clinic.
More and more people gathered around to watch.
The tea stall was surrounded by three inner and three outer layers of people. The stall was completely full, and the shopkeeper was grinning from ear to ear.
After finishing the acupuncture, Duoduo twisted a thread of golden light and placed it onto the silver needles.
Duoduo watched as the golden light traveled down the silver needles and swiftly entered the boy's body.
By the time Duoduo pulled the silver needles out, the woman had also walked out carrying the brewed medicine.
"Pour it down his throat!" Master Zhang ordered.
The woman hurriedly picked up the child and fed the medicine to him.
At this moment, a miserable wail came from outside the crowd.
"My eldest grandson! Even a vicious tiger won't eat its cubs, yet you, as a mother, were actually cruel enough to sell your own child!"
