Looking up, Lin Yao seemed to notice the five people casually, then, noticing their menacing appearance, displayed the timidity and cowardice of a farm boy, as if he couldn't believe these people were after him. With a confused and fearful look in his eyes, he glanced around, and finding no one else, his expression grew even more frightened and confused. His mouth opened slightly, and he stammered, "Big brother, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? I'll hit you!" The thug who had recognized him earlier made a vicious expression.
"But, big brother, why did you hit me? Is there a mistake? I don't know what happened. Big brother, please wait a moment and tell me what I did wrong. I will definitely correct it." Lin Yao was almost crying. He lowered his body and put his hands in front of his chest, looking worried about being beaten.
"Lei Zi, are you sure you're not mistaken? Is this the person? He looks like a farmer to me." The most arrogant guy just now was a little confused. Lin Yao had been working with livestock today, and he would occasionally go to the countryside to find grass to eat when he had free time, so he was wearing old clothes and shoes, looking simple and rustic.
"Brother Hao, it should be him. The lighting wasn't very good at the beer house that night, and this kid looked like him." The person called Lei Zi was a little uncertain. Lin Yao had acted very calmly that day, and his clothes were quite trendy. After all, he was going to a bar with lots of girls, so of course he wouldn't look so shabby.
"Then let's go. You've wasted my time. I can get a few more chances to get my hands on some top-quality pieces." The arrogant Hao Ge suddenly lost interest. He felt it was beneath him to show off to a country bumpkin.
"Oh, let's go then. Brother Hao, you're sure to have a lucky day. You'll have to treat us later." Lei Zi felt that the boss's happiness was the most important thing. He decided to let Lin Yao go, perhaps he really hadn't seen things clearly that night.
Just as the group of five thugs were preparing to conquer the Great Wall under Hao Ge's leadership, a short, sleazy-looking thug in his late twenties continued to approach Lin Yao, threatening, "Kid, hand over all your money to pay respects to your master. You're lucky today, I won't beat you or scold you." He then began to search Lin Yao.
"Brother, look how poor my family is, we can only afford to eat wild vegetables. I was just haggling with this uncle, I don't have any money at all. Please be lenient, go play mahjong and win a few more rounds, you can make a lot of money." Lin Yao shrank back, he found this quite amusing. At this point, he knew things might not end well, so he had already ordered Xiao Cao to turn the saliva in her mouth into poison, but it was the kind of poison that made people itchy and painful, it wouldn't kill them, and it wouldn't even affect their health.
"You're asking for it, aren't you? I'll slap you!" The lewd man raised his hand to hit Lin Yao, but Lin Yao dodged it.
At this moment, the last remaining new face spoke up. He was quick-witted and immediately figured out the problem, saying, "You dare to lie to me? These days, bitter herbs are very expensive. People who don't have money are eating water spinach. Bitter herbs are almost as expensive as meat."
Oh no, I forgot about that! Lin Yao thought to himself, realizing his mistake. These days, wild vegetables have a very awkward status. They're either fed to pigs or to rich people. Poor families wouldn't eat them because they're ridiculously expensive. Lin Yao knew he'd been exposed, so he tried to run away.
"Beat him! Beat him to death!" Lei Zi shouted loudly. He hadn't expected to be fooled by Lin Yao, especially in front of his brothers. How could he face anyone after this?
Lin Yao stopped pretending and immediately took out the steel needle pouch he carried with him. He took out a pinch of needles, put them in his mouth, and then immediately shot them at the lewd man and the clever man in front of him. They were both troublemakers, one greedy for money and the other greedy for fame. They deserved to be beaten.
The steel needles, coated with poisonous saliva, were invisible and intangible. All that could be heard were cries of pain. The lewd man and the clever man crouched down, covering their heads. Lin Yao, unable to hit their faces, became even angrier. He started calling out to Lei Zi and the other person who had participated in the beating of him that night, leaving Hao Ge alone.
"Anything made by Xiaocao is guaranteed to be top-notch." This saying was absolutely true. The tiny sewing needle, coated with a tiny bit of saliva, pierced the thugs' faces, causing excruciating pain, as if a knife were cutting flesh from their faces, almost making them faint. Xiaocao's dosage was perfectly controlled, just enough to keep them on the verge of fainting. The injection sites swelled up like buns, terrifying the thugs who were touching the extra little heads on their faces. They thought they had encountered the legendary deadly poison.
"I'll teach you to take revenge, I'll teach you to rob, I'll teach you to be clever, I'll teach you to chop us up that day." Lin Yao cursed at each of them while brandishing steel needles. The four thugs squatted on the ground, clutching their heads. They were in so much pain that Lin Yao started stabbing their hands, which were covered by clothes, with needles.
Hao Ge stood aside, terrified. He never expected this guy who looked like a country bumpkin to be so fierce. You know, in the martial arts world, anyone who uses poison is a master. Never offend someone who uses poison, or your whole family might get killed and you won't have anyone to cry to.
Seeing that the four men's heads were covered in bumps like Buddha's, and their hands were deformed as if covered in terrifying tumors, Hao swallowed hard and said in a dry voice, "Big brother, we were wrong. Please forgive them. I'll make them kowtow to you."
Upon hearing Hao Ge's reminder, the four men forgot all about the pain and immediately prostrated themselves on the ground, kowtowing so loudly that the paving stones on the street clattered.
"Fine, I'll let you go for Hao-ge's sake. My master forbids me from killing." Lin Yao seemed a little unsatisfied, with a regretful look on his face, as if he had given up his greatest hobby in order to be a dutiful disciple.
After turning around and paying the farmer, who was sitting blankly to the side, for the bitter herbs at the original price, Lin Yao prepared to leave.
"Brother, please have mercy and save them. Don't underestimate them just because they're scoundrels; they all have elderly parents to support." Hao Ge pleaded again, mustering his courage. If they didn't find an antidote for such a potent poison, all four of them would be doomed, and he would be implicated as well.
Lin Yao pretended to think for a moment and said, "Alright, then I'll give Brother Hao face again. Eat these things right away. If you don't finish them within fifteen minutes, there'll be no way to cure you. I bought this stuff to brew the antidote."
Lin Yao handed Hao Ge a handful of bitter herbs and walked back. Hao Ge immediately called for everyone to share the bitter herbs. Several guys were in so much pain that they couldn't even hold onto the herbs, and they had no strength to chew. But they were desperate to finish the large handful of bitter herbs in Hao Ge's hand within a quarter of an hour, worried that others would eat more and cause them any aftereffects. It was quite a lively scene.
From then on, a legend was added to the world of Ya'an: the legendary figure known as "Flying Needle Brother".
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Chapter Twelve: The King of Caregivers (Seeking Recommendations)
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"Xiao Lin, have some fruit. I've peeled it for you." A well-dressed middle-aged woman handed Lin Yao a peeled apple.
"Sister Hou, don't be so polite. I just ate a banana, I can't eat anymore." Lin Yao said with a smile, politely declining. He was indeed quite full, and before eating the banana, he had been forced to eat a few navel oranges.
"Oh dear, fruit doesn't fill you up. Eating too much of this won't do you any harm. Just keep eating. I've already peeled it for you. It'll turn brown if you leave it uneaten."
The middle-aged woman couldn't help but break up with him and enthusiastically stuffed the apple into Lin Yao's hand. Seeing Lin Yao helplessly take the apple and watch him put it in his mouth and take a bite, she smiled with satisfaction, turned around and left, returning to her father's bedside, looking as if she had won a battle.
Lin Yao felt somewhat helpless. He had no choice but to accept this treatment, otherwise he would never be able to get out of it. Now he basically didn't need to eat meals anymore; he could fill his stomach just by eating fruit, which made his skin look healthier—all thanks to the vitamins.
The incident occurred in the inpatient building of the People's Hospital, where Lin Yao was working as a professional caregiver.
Caring for hospitalized patients is very hard work, often requiring 24-hour care. It also involves assisting with tasks such as spitting out phlegm, drinking water, urinating and defecating, wiping the whole body, massaging muscles, and even suctioning and catheterization. Firstly, family members lack the professional knowledge and experience to provide good care for the patients, and secondly, they lack the time and energy. As a result, the profession of professional caregiver has emerged.
Lin Yao chose this kind of professional caregiver job, which is dirty, tiring, and doesn't pay well.
After acquiring basic self-defense skills, he focused his main efforts on understanding the properties of medicines and how to treat patients. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Although he had basically mastered Xiaocao's abilities, the human body is complex, and the mechanisms of action of medicines are even more complex. The principles of action and methods he had experienced and summarized on his own body might not have the same effect on others. In order to improve his abilities, Lin Yao needed to practice.
For this internship, he didn't go through the formal channels of registering with a hospital. Even if a hospital were willing to assign a supervising physician, he would basically only be able to do menial tasks and wouldn't have the opportunity to work independently, which obviously didn't meet Lin Yao's requirements. If he chose to work independently, becoming a caregiver was the most suitable profession, because only patients who are too sick to take care of themselves would hire caregivers, and these were exactly the types of patients Lin Yao needed to work with.
After more than half a month of practice, Lin Yao has become famous in major hospitals in Ya'an, and has another title - the King of Caregivers.
Lin Yao has a rule here: the care for any patient shall not exceed three days, and usually only one day, unless the patient voluntarily extends the care time.
Logically, no patient's family would be willing to hire him under such circumstances, because they would have to find someone else after three days. However, after he started taking care of the patients, all of them immediately stabilized and recovered quickly. Some critically ill patients even got out of danger immediately, and Lin Yao's reputation immediately grew.
All the patients' families who knew about the situation were vying to hire him to help care for their patients. Although the nursing fees hadn't increased, the referral fee from the head nurse, who had the authority to refer patients, had been rising steadily. A week ago, the referral fee had already increased to 1,000 yuan. Patients' families were often fighting over the spots, almost to the point of physical altercations. With a seriously ill patient in the family, who wouldn't want to hire caregiver Wang to help them recover as soon as possible?
With increased fame comes investigation. The hospital learned of his medical school intern status and monitored his activities to prevent him from treating patients without authorization. However, the surveillance footage showed that Lin Yao's behavior was entirely normal. Apart from occasionally taking patients' pulses, he did not perform massages or acupuncture, let alone administer extra medications or perform surgery.
During his internship, Director Qian and Director Liu, as well as other chief physicians from various departments, had all approached Lin Yao asking for his help in caring for patients in their relatives' or friends' homes. However, Lin Yao politely but firmly refused them all. He no longer needed to know these people; he only needed to maintain a good relationship with the head nurse with whom he had direct contact.
Lin Yao trained his teamwork with Xiao Cao through this dirty and tiring nursing job. He also entrusted the recommendation quota to the head nurses so that the patients recommended would better meet his requirements. These head nurses knew the hospital's patients best and could recommend very serious or representative patients according to Lin Yao's requirements.
Some say that the fastest thing to spread in the world is not light, but gossip.
Lin Yao's reputation quickly spread to the ears of all the hospitalized patients' families, so whenever he went to a ward for a job interview, he would be warmly fawned over by all the patients' families. In fact, the families of patients from the entire hospital building would come to visit him, eagerly asking him to help their family members at their bedsides. Lin Yao would visit almost any seriously ill patient who could help his research, so any family member who was lucky enough to get him would also hire an extra caregiver to make it easier for him to move around.
It is a fact that patients who can get Lin Yao's care will recover quickly. Other patients' recovery depends on how attentive their families are. If they are lucky, they can also get Lin Yao's help and recover quickly. This makes the families even more enthusiastic about Lin Yao and they keep visiting him. The hospital had to make a temporary rule not to allow patients' families to visit each other, which slightly relieved Lin Yao's burden.
"The western region is experiencing a once-in-a-century drought. Shiyanzi Village in Hekou Township, Xundian County, is one of the most severely affected areas. Our reporters are currently investigating in the area, and they are deeply saddened to see that even drinking water has become a problem for the residents. This is according to the reports sent back by our reporters..."