Chapter Four: Golden Finger 2.0 Version
The girl on the other side, Chuyu Mai, had originally woken up, but the moment she opened her eyes and saw Liang Yunqing slapping Madam Wang’s face over and over, she fainted again from terror.
“Doctor, Doctor, my daughter is inside. Please, you must examine her carefully!”
Liang Mingxue’s anxious voice came from outside. He was dragging along an old man with a medicine chest on his back, so hurriedly that the patches on his sleeves were nearly splitting open.
The two of them rushed into the courtyard, and the old doctor froze for a moment.
Only one slender girl was standing in the yard; the rest were lying motionless on the ground.
“This... Mingxue, are you sure the one who needs treatment is your daughter? Not all these people on the ground?”
Liang Mingxue was stunned as well. When he finally came to himself, he rushed to Madam Wang at once and helped her up. Her face had swollen so badly it was almost unrecognizable.
“Mother, how did you end up like this?”
Madam Wang covered her face and pointed shakily at the standing Liang Yunqing.
“She... she beat me. Son... I’m almost beaten to death.”
Liang Mingxue’s pupils contracted. He turned and looked at Liang Yunqing in disbelief.
“You really did this? How could you treat your grandmother like this? What have I always taught you?”
“Father, I have endured fifteen years of humiliation, and now I’m even being forced to marry a cripple. I’d call it mercy that I haven’t killed anyone.”
Seeing the coldness in his daughter’s eyes, Liang Mingxue felt indescribably uneasy.
“Even so, you can’t hit your grandmother. Couldn’t you have talked things through properly?”
“Talk things through properly?”
Liang Yunqing let out a mocking laugh.
“A father who does nothing but practice blind filial piety, and a mother who is weak, useless, and only knows how to cry. If I had spoken gently, I might not have made it back alive today.”
“Da Ya! How can you say that?”
Liang Mingxue always felt that something had changed. The usual Da Ya had been dutiful and sensible; she would never have said such things.
Liang Yunqing looked at the man before her with deep disappointment. She had thought that no matter how badly the plot had collapsed, the parents’ love for the original heroine would at least still remain.
But now it seemed they were nothing but empty shells.
“Um, Mingxue, why don’t I take a look at your mother first?”
The doctor did not want to be dragged into another family’s affairs. He lifted his box and stepped toward Liang Mingxue to ask.
“Hey, hey, hey!”
Second Aunt Li Pinghua, who had been lying on the ground pretending to be dead, rolled over and sat up, clutching her purse.
“How much do you charge for a visit?”
“It’s one copper coin just to take the pulse. If I prescribe medicine, that’s extra.”
When Li Pinghua heard this, she could not hold back any longer. Enduring the pain in her chest, she stood up and drove him off.
“Go, go, go. We’re not having you look. You want money just to take a pulse?”
The old doctor looked helplessly at Liang Mingxue and said, “Mingxue, you know that whenever I come out, I always charge one copper coin for the trip. Whether you see a doctor or not is up to you, but that money still has to be paid.”
“Pay what money! We’re not seeing a doctor. Hurry up and leave.”
Second Aunt raised her voice, and then signaled to Liang Zhiyan on the ground. Liang Zhiyan also got up and joined in.
“No one in our family is seeing a doctor. What’s the reason for charging us?”
“Second son, this was supposed to be given to the doctor.”
Liang Mingxue could not help but speak up. He searched through his clothes, but after fumbling for a long while, he still could not find even one copper coin, so he had no choice but to look apologetically at his mother, Madam Wang.
“Mother, could you take one copper coin from your side for the doctor?”
Seeing how obedient and cautious her son was, Madam Wang felt somewhat better inside, though her face still stung painfully.
She carefully glanced at Liang Yunqing, who had not said a word. Seeing that the girl’s eyes were dull and vacant, she finally relaxed and resumed her haughty manner.
“Eldest son, I never knew there was a doctor in this poor village who charged even when he wasn’t examining anyone.”
“Old Madam Liang, we are all the same age. How can you refuse to pay?”
The doctor grew anxious and paced back and forth with his box in his arms. He truly had no one to blame but himself. Everyone had said the Liang family was sharp-tongued and hard to deal with, so why had he agreed to make a house call for Liang Mingxue?
Now look at this: no consultation fee, and not even the trip money.
“Who’s refusing to pay? Who’s refusing! I’m going out right now to shout that this doctor is charging money without even treating anyone. Where in the world is there such a thing?”
Li Pinghua pointed at him as she cursed nonstop, then ran to the courtyard gate and started yelling at passersby.
Her voice grew louder and louder, drawing in many villagers who had finished their farm work. They gathered outside the gate and craned their necks to look in.
Liang Mingxue was anxious beyond measure. He pleaded with Madam Wang, reaching out to her.
“Mother, if this goes on, the children will be laughed at. Just give one copper coin. Your son will repay you after he goes to work.”
Madam Wang sat back down on the wooden chair, lifting her chin high.
“This Liang family will always be headed by me. It’s not as if our family can’t spare one copper coin.”
With that, she took out a cloth pouch from her bag, fished out a copper coin, and handed it to Liang Mingxue.
“Doctor, doctor, your trip money.”
He took it and quickly passed it to the doctor. The doctor did not dare linger any longer; he tucked the money away and prepared to leave.
But Li Pinghua, still throwing a fit at the gate, was unwilling. Right now the household only had eight hundred coins left, and that amount was not even enough to feed several children and adults.
How could they possibly spare one copper coin for the doctor? She immediately stretched out her arm to block the courtyard gate.
“You didn’t even take a pulse. Why should you get paid? Hand over the money! Hand it over!”
Apparently furious, Li Pinghua reached out and grabbed the doctor’s robe, desperately trying to snatch the copper coin from his pocket.
Liang Zhiyan also stepped forward to help steal the money. The people outside could no longer bear to watch, and one auntie carrying a vegetable basket, her face covered in dark moles, spoke up to persuade them.
“I say, Second Aunt Liang, you really ought not to be so unreasonable. This is how the doctor has always charged.”
“That’s right. If you didn’t want to pay the trip money, why did you call the doctor over in the first place?”
Everyone outside began to speak up to stop her, but Li Pinghua was notorious for her foul temper. She did not care what anyone said and kept snatching after that one copper coin.
Liang Mingxue was furious. He could no longer help shouting, “Second son, Second daughter-in-law, let the doctor go already!”
His words had no effect at all. In the end, he had no choice but to turn back and appeal to Madam Wang again.
“Mother, Mother, Second son has always listened to you most. Please say something to stop them. There are so many people here—don’t let them see us as a joke.”
Madam Wang sat up a little straighter. That sense of superiority was no longer something she could hide. She was just about to say a few painless words when Liang Yunqing’s voice sounded beside her.
“Hm? What’s going on?”
She came back to herself. The 007 system in her mind had just returned, and it had brought a rather good piece of news.
The 007 system had applied for a second-generation golden finger.
Now that the main plot had changed, she was required to replace the original heroine and rebuild the story. The system had given her three major plotlines, but due to access restrictions, she could only see the first one.
Main Line One: Survive in the village.
The system also promised her many side missions. Completing them would let her draw treasure chests and obtain helpful items inside.
She had, in a sense, benefited from technological progress. Even the system could do loot boxes now; it really was keeping up with the times.
While she had been spacing out just now, she had already received her first side mission.
Mission One: Cancel the engagement with the crippled Chen.
Reward for completion: one beginner treasure chest.
Liang Yunqing, who had just been feeling hopeless as the plot collapsed around her, was now full of energy. She very much wanted to know what a beginner treasure chest contained.
At that moment, Madam Wang was startled by Liang Yunqing’s voice from earlier and instinctively covered her face again.
Liang Yunqing folded her arms across her chest. With one look, Madam Wang rose from the wooden chair.
Under Liang Mingxue’s astonished gaze, she sat down firmly in the chair, then shouted at the three people still fighting.
“I’ll count to three. If you don’t let go, I’ll beat you all together.”
“Three.”