They waited until dawn, but nothing changed. Tang Yu returned looking exhausted and disappointed.
"At night, I instinctively felt that thing come out, but then it went back in," Tang Yu said, shaking his head.
"Could it be that this monster also knows that a master has come to subdue it?" Liu Yong asked in surprise.
"It's good that it has a fear of something. Everyone, go back and rest for a bit." Zhang Yonghe gave the order to retreat.
After breakfast, Zhang Yonghe and Liu Yong took a police car back to town, while Song Hao and Tang Yu stayed behind. They slept for the whole morning in a room at the village committee to make up for the lack of sleep at night.
Around noon, village chief Meng Dehai led more than a dozen villagers to Song Hao for medical treatment. They brought eggs, rice cakes, mutton, and other food as a token of their gratitude. Song Hao and Tang Yu then began treating the patients, administering acupuncture and prescribing medicine, keeping themselves extremely busy and earning even more respect from the villagers.
At this moment, a burly man named Sun Baoli sat down in front of Song Hao and said, "Dr. Song, please take a look at me. I've been having a headache lately."
"Okay! Let me take your pulse first." Song Hao said, glancing at Sun Baoli before pausing in surprise.
Sun Baoli's face was ashen, his eyes were dull, and he looked listless. When Song Hao took his pulse, he was shocked again. Sun Baoli's pulse was unusually mixed, with tight, moving, rapid, slippery, long, short, deep, and hidden pulses. The pulse was chaotic and irregular, which was not the pulse of an ordinary person.
"Tang Yu, come and check this man's pulse." Song Hao, surprised, called Tang Yu to examine him again.
Tang Yu stepped forward to examine the pulse and was also surprised, exclaiming, "This... what kind of pulse is this? Why is it so chaotic?"
Song Hao didn't speak, but wrote the three words "Ghostly Pulse!" on the paper. After Dan Yu and Tang Yu looked at it, Song Hao crumpled it up and threw it aside.
Tang Yu's expression changed slightly, and she looked Sun Baoli up and down again, still looking confused.
“Brother, your illness requires acupuncture treatment, which will take some time. How about this, you go home and wait for us. After we’ve finished treating the other villagers, I’ll come to your house to treat you with acupuncture alone,” Song Hao said.
"Alright! Thank you!" Sun Baoli nodded in agreement, got up and left.
After Song Hao finished treating the remaining patients and the villagers dispersed, he said to Meng Dehai, the village chief who stayed behind to talk to them, "Village Chief Meng, could you tell me about that man's condition? His condition is a bit complicated, and I'll be giving him acupuncture in a bit."
"Dr. Song is talking about Sun Baoli, isn't he?" Meng Dehai said. "His wife died a year ago, and he lives alone now. He used to be a lively and talkative person, but since his wife died, he has become a different person, silent and taciturn. And after the village was haunted, his family suffered the most severe losses."
As Meng Dehai spoke, he flipped through the account book on the table and said, "A total of twenty-three of his sheep were killed by that monster. There are hardly any sheep left in the flock. Alas! It's pitiful. How will they survive in the future!"
"Oh! He suffered the most losses!" Song Hao frowned and asked, "Have you ever seen him do anything unusual?"
Meng Dehai said, "It's nothing. Besides doing farm work, he just stays at home and doesn't come out. He doesn't have any relatives to visit, and he doesn't have many friends. He doesn't like to talk to us, so the villagers don't like him."
Song Hao said, "Is that so? Alright, let's go treat him with acupuncture now."
Meng Dehai said, "Sun Baoli's house is at the east end of the village, the one with a big willow tree in front of the door."
Song Hao responded and then left the village committee with Tang Yu, heading towards Sun Baoli's house.
"Song Hao, this pulse is very strange! It actually has that extremely rare 'ghostly pulse,' which, according to old sayings, means that ghosts are at work. You mean..." Tang Yu asked in surprise.
"It's not certain yet, it's just a guess. Since it presents with an unusual pulse, it's also a pathological pulse, so it must be our patient. Let's go and treat it first," Song Hao said.
Tang Yu said, "These should be two separate matters. Don't mix them up. Where in the world would you find a patient like this?"
Song Hao said, "I also hope it's not that, but this person's pulse is too strange, so chaotic, it must be related to the theory of ghost pulse. This is the first time I've ever encountered such a thing, and I can't make a diagnosis yet. I don't know what strange disease he has."
Tang Yu said, "The term 'ghost vein' is just an old saying. It is named 'ghost vein' because it is chaotic and disordered, and different from ordinary people. It does not refer to possession by ghosts or monsters. The environment in the countryside is different from that in the city, especially in remote places, where rare diseases, or even strange diseases, are more common. This has led to the growth of superstition and the transfer of the explanation to ghosts and gods. It is nothing more than the abnormal changes of yin and yang in the human body. Although there are still some inexplicable aspects in theory, it also belongs to the category of diseases."
Song Hao nodded and said, "That's right, they should be two different things."
The two found Sun Baoli's house, located at the edge of the village. It consisted of three mud houses and a sheep pen, surrounded by a stone wall. A few farm tools were haphazardly piled in a corner. Although the furnishings inside were simple—just old chests, cabinets, tables, and chairs—the house was kept quite clean.
Upon seeing Song Hao and Tang Yu arrive, Sun Baoli was very grateful. His face was indifferent, and although he didn't smile, he busied himself serving tea, water, and dates.
"Brother Sun, don't rush. Could you tell me what other symptoms you have? I'll treat them all at once with acupuncture later." The ghost pulse appears as a mixed pulse, without any real pathological pulse, thus concealing the symptoms.
Sun Baoli said, "It's just a headache, mostly a feeling of dizziness, and when I feel uncomfortable, I want to sleep."
Song Hao said, "Alright, I'll try acupuncture." He then ordered Sun Baoli to remove his outer garment, leaving him in only shorts, and to lie flat on the earthen bed.
At this time, besides treating Sun Baoli's headache, Song Hao was also trying to find the cause of his illness by examining the meridians, since he couldn't diagnose it through the pulse. He first inserted a needle into the Lieque acupoint on Sun's right hand, then carefully manipulated the needle. He felt a deep, hesitant sensation under the needle, indicating an abnormal flow of Qi. Surprised, he tried several other acupoints, but the problem was most pronounced in the Yang meridians, as if a strange force was wandering erratically within them. Song Hao attempted to suppress the disturbance with acupuncture, but it was ineffective in a short time.
Suddenly, an idea struck Song Hao. He remembered the "Bewitching Needle" technique taught by Luo Beichen and decided to use it to control the abnormal movements in Sun Baoli's meridians. So he inserted the needles. Sun Baoli, who was awake, suddenly fell asleep, his consciousness becoming confused. The Bewitching Needle technique had worked, and Song Hao was overjoyed.
However, at this moment, Sun Baoli suddenly trembled, his eyes snapped open, a terrifying glint flashing in them, his face contorted in a ferocious expression, as if he were about to make a move. Song Hao was greatly alarmed and quickly removed all the needles from Sun Baoli's body. Only then did Sun Baoli's unusual expression gradually return to normal.
"What happened?" Tang Yu asked in surprise.
"I'll tell you more when I leave," Song Hao said solemnly.
"Dr. Song, what just happened to me?" Sun Baoli asked blankly, his eyes already wide open.
"It's nothing, just a reaction to the acupuncture treatment. By the way, your illness can't be cured in a short time; you'll need a full course of treatment. I'll come back tomorrow," Song Hao said.
"Thank you so much, Dr. Song. I'll be waiting for you at home tomorrow," Sun Baoli said gratefully.
Song Hao then bid farewell to Sun Baoli and hurriedly left Sun Baoli's house with Tang Yu.
Once they reached the gate and walked a bit further away, Tang Yu asked, "What happened? You seem very scared."
“The monster that sucks sheep’s blood in the village is very likely related to this Sun Baoli, and it is very likely that it is him,” Song Hao said solemnly.
"What did you say?" Tang Yu was taken aback.
"I saw that his symptoms were strange, so I tried to use a mind-controlling acupuncture technique to subdue him. The mind-controlling acupuncture technique is intended to control his mind, but unexpectedly it backfired and triggered a hidden ailment in him. Fortunately, I was quick to apply the needles, otherwise I don't know what would have happened," Song Hao said with lingering fear.
"It almost triggered some kind of illness in him?" Tang Yu asked in surprise.
Song Hao shook his head and said, "It's still unclear. In short, there is a mysterious power in this person's body, but we don't know what kind of pathological reaction it is. He can't control it when it flares up. Let's do this: tonight, the two of us will focus on monitoring this Sun Baoli and see what he does to see if it is that monster causing trouble."
Tang Yu said, "Director Zhang said that the monster is in the village, and someone discovered that the monster is in the shape of an upright human. All signs indicate that the monster may be a person, namely Sun Baoli who is having a morbid episode."