Chapter 136 - 135: A Legend

Chapter 136: Chapter 135: A Legend

The moment the bamboo skewer sank into the bowl-cut man’s chest, the ear-splitting screams from the crowd came to an abrupt halt. It was as if an invisible hand was choking every single person there.

The entire courtyard fell silent in an instant.

The bowl-cut man with the skewer sticking out of his chest seemed to be scared stiff himself, staring blankly, not daring to move.

Even the blood he was coughing up came out in small, furtive spurts...

Yu Zhiming stood up.

The people surrounding him instinctively took a step back, not daring to look him in the eye.

Yu Zhiming knew that his unbelievably precise stab had terrified them. They saw him as some kind of demon.

’That was a life-saving technique, okay?’

Yu Zhiming defended himself in his thoughts, but his face remained cold as he said, "What are you all standing around for? Get him to the hospital, now!"

"Any later and it’ll be too late."

His words were like a switch, jolting everyone into action. Amidst a flurry of panicked breaths, they all started moving.

Two men came over, lifted the guy off the ground, and hurried out of the courtyard...

To prevent the bowl-cut man from choking on his own blood and rendering his efforts useless, Yu Zhiming got in the car too, watching over him on the way to Huashan Hospital.

Along the way, Yu Zhiming used his phone to contact an ER doctor and gave a detailed report on the bowl-cut man’s condition.

The driver was incredibly skilled, racing like the wind. With a motorcycle cop clearing the way, they arrived at the Huashan Hospital emergency building in just over ten minutes.

Medical staff, who were already prepared, swarmed forward, placed the bowl-cut man on a gurney, and rushed into the ER...

His job finally done, Yu Zhiming was about to head to the bike rack to cycle home when he saw Yu Xiangwan, Fu Xiaobo, and the others rushing toward him.

"Hey, how come you guys didn’t go sing karaoke?"

"After something like that happened, who would be in the mood to sing?"

Yu Xiangwan asked with a worried expression, "Fifth Brother, be honest with me. That skewer you stabbed him with... will you be okay?"

Yu Zhiming explained, "I used the skewer to pin the loach so it couldn’t thrash around and cause more damage."

"It was an emergency first-aid measure. It’ll be fine, you don’t need to worry."

Zeng Yan’s eyes widened in disbelief. "Little Uncle, you could pin that loach through his skin and his stomach wall?"

"That’s just child’s play."

The one who responded was Fu Xiaoxue. She said smugly, "Cicadas, sparrows, bats, dragonflies—Little Uncle can hit any of them out of the air with a stone."

"And let me tell you, he can even do it blindfolded. He never misses."

"We’ll have a sleepover tonight, and I’ll tell you all about Little Uncle’s skills."

Zeng Yan nodded excitedly, repeatedly saying, "Okay!" Her gaze toward Yu Zhiming was now filled with adoration.

Gu Qingning brought up another question.

"Zhiming, won’t that cause an infection? That was a barbecue skewer, it must be filthy."

"If he really does get an infection, will the patient...?"

Yu Zhiming explained again, "It was a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. You have to be alive to even worry about an infection."

"If you’re dead, there’s nothing left to talk about!"

Yu Zhiming comforted them, "I’m a doctor. I know what I’m doing. In an emergency, saving a life is the top priority."

"I know what can and can’t be done."

"You don’t need to worry about me. Fourth Sister, Xiaobo, you guys take them to karaoke..."

Persuaded by Yu Zhiming’s calm demeanor, Yu Xiangwan and the others stopped worrying and went off happily to sing karaoke.

Yu Zhiming rode his bicycle, meandering back to his apartment...

「Nearly an hour later」

Outside the ER operating room, a crowd of medical staff who had heard the news, along with curious onlookers, had gathered three layers deep.

Those on the outer edges couldn’t see what was happening inside, so they held up their phones with the cameras on, recording the scene.

At the very center of the crowd was a surgical nurse, holding a stainless steel medical tray.

On the tray lay a motionless loach, about twelve or thirteen centimeters long, its skin mottled and blurry.

A bamboo skewer was pierced clean through it, just behind the gills.

The surgical nurse announced in a clear voice, "The patient’s family, please take a clear look. You can also pick it up and examine it."

"Besides the puncture wound from the bamboo skewer, are there any other injuries on this loach?"

Following the nurse’s words, one brave soul actually reached out, picked up the loach, and began to inspect it.

"There really are no other wounds."

Just as his voice faded, another one spoke up.

"So that doctor really used this skewer to pin the loach inside the stomach, right through the man’s belly?"

"Of course."

A woman’s voice piped up, "I saw it with my own eyes. The doctor was very young, handsome, and quite charming."

"First, he shouted, ’I’m a doctor!’ then he knelt down and started examining Brother Cui."

"Then he asked us what on earth Brother Cui had eaten!"

At this point, someone asked, "Why would he swallow a live loach? What was he thinking?"

It was the same woman’s voice as before, sounding a bit sheepish. "We had ordered a dish made with loaches."

"Brother Cui said that when he was a kid, he used to go down to the river to catch and eat loaches, and that he’d even eaten one live."

"Of course, we didn’t believe him."

"We were all teasing him, and Brother Cui got worked up. He asked the restaurant owner for a live loach and swallowed it on the spot."

A man’s voice cut in sarcastically, "How much rotgut did he chug to forget his own name?"

"Treating his own body like that..."

Someone interrupted, "Miss, hurry up and tell us, how exactly did the doctor stab the loach?"

The woman’s voice resumed, "After the doctor found out it was a loach causing the trouble, he picked up a skewer from the ground."

"He even wiped the skewer on Brother Cui’s clothes."

"I was still wondering what he was doing when he raised the skewer high. Then, faster than I could react, he plunged it straight into Brother Cui’s body."

"At that moment, I was scared out of my mind..."

"Miss, are you sure? He only stabbed him once?"

"Just once. It wasn’t just me, a lot of people saw it with their own eyes. It was so fast and forceful..."

At this point in the conversation, someone finally asked about Brother Cui.

"Nurse, Nurse, how is he now? Did you save him?"

The surgical nurse replied in a clear voice, "He’s been saved. We’re just finishing up the procedure now."

"However, his gastric mucosa is severely damaged. He’ll need a long time to rest and recover."

"The next priority is preventing infection."

"Besides preventing a bacterial infection from the skewer, we’re even more worried about the various pathogens the loach itself might be carrying."

The surgical nurse sighed. "Swallowing a live loach... this is the first time I’ve ever seen a patient like this."

"It’s like he had a death wish..."

A peculiar medical case: swallowing a live loach.

Plus, a shocking first-aid measure that made everyone’s jaws drop: pinning a loach through the belly with a skewer.

The combination of the two made the incident spread like wildfire on social media feeds and across the internet.

About half an hour later, an edited video, allegedly from the restaurant’s security camera, began to circulate online.

In the video, the bowl-cut man could be clearly seen swallowing the live loach.

The next scene showed the bowl-cut man suddenly standing up, spitting a large mouthful of blood onto the table, and then collapsing to the ground, writhing in pain.

And after that, came the footage of Yu Zhiming saving him...

「The next day」

When Yu Zhiming woke up, he had no idea that he had already become an internet legend.

Netizens had dubbed Yu Zhiming the "Life and Death Hand."

With a single touch, he could diagnose illness, determine fate, and grasp the line between life and death...