Chapter 94 The Name of Master Lin and the 1,000 Yuan "Lifesaving Needle"

How to explain this?

Say it's electrostatic dust removal? Say it's high-voltage air ionization?

Believe it or not, these fanatics would tear me apart on the spot.

"Ahem."

Lin Xi gave two tactical coughs and decided to give up on explaining.

Explain? Explain my ass!

"Well... since everyone is so enthusiastic, Erga, turn it on!"

Sun Erga immediately pressed the main switch.

Buzz—

Fifty "forest oxygen bars" started up simultaneously.

There was no violent whirring of traditional fans, only a faint hiss of electricity that was almost inaudible.

Billions of negative ions excited by the voltage multiplier rectifier circuit.

Mixed with a trace amount of ozone (controlled within safe limits).

Through the laminar flow air duct, it swept across the front rows of the square in an instant.

The winter air in Spring City was already dry and dirty, filled with the smell of coal smoke.

But as soon as this breeze blew over...

That feeling was like a forest after a heavy rainstorm, or the edge of a splashing waterfall.

Fresh, sweet, with an indescribable sense of clarity.

An older woman in the front row, who had practiced Qigong for three years without ever finding the "feeling"...

...took a deep breath of this "immortal qi" and felt the stagnant air that had been trapped in her chest for years instantly dissipate.

Stimulated by the negative ions, her cerebral cortex became unusually excited.

"Qi! I feel the Qi!"

The older woman slammed the aluminum pot in her hand onto the ground with a sharp "clang."

She knelt on the ground and wailed, heart-wrenchingly:

"Three years! I've finally inhaled true Qi!"

"This wind is sweet! It's sweet!"

That shout was like a ladle of water thrown into boiling oil.

It exploded! It completely exploded!

"I smell it too! It's like watermelon!"

"My migraine really seems to be getting better!"

"Master! This is Master Lin's Innate True Qi!"

The entire venue boiled over with excitement.

What minus twenty degrees? What scientific principles?

At this moment, this fan was a longevity amulet for the whole family!

"Buy! Give me three! No, five!"

"Don't push! I'm the station head of the Crane Soaring Stance. Let me go first according to the rules of the martial world!"

"To hell with your martial world rules! I'm getting this for my grandson's college entrance exams. Anyone who blocks me is ruining his future, and I'll fight them to the death!"

The crazed crowd broke through the cordon, waving Great Unity bills, surging toward the sales counter like a tide.

The glass doors of the department store were nearly shattered by the crush.

Ten thousand units in stock?

Let alone ten thousand, even a hundred thousand wouldn't be enough for this group of people eager to "achieve immortality."

Lin Xi stood on the stage, watching this scene of magical realism, left bewildered in the wind.

Is the end of science metaphysics?

No.

The end of science is the common people's simple yearning for health and a good life!

"Manager, this..." Erga's hands were shaking.

"Are we... acting a bit like scammers?"

"What scamming!" Lin Xi gritted his teeth and squeezed out the words,

"This is high technology!"

"Negative ions can purify the air, sterilize, and remove dust. This is science!"

"Right, right, right! Scientific cultivation, boundless power!"

Erga nodded like a woodpecker while frantically collecting money.

...

That evening, the front page of the "Spring City Evening News":

"Qigong Master Lin Xi Sets Up a Formation On-Site, Thousands of Citizens Bathe in 'Scientific True Qi'!"

"Red Star Magical Artifacts Are Hard to Find; That 'Sweet Breeze' in Winter Sweeps Through Spring City!"

The accompanying photo was the moment Lin Xi raised his hand and pressed down to signal for silence.

It was captured as a world-famous scene of "The Master exerts his power, and all living beings retreat."

Looking at the newspaper, Lin Xi covered his face helplessly.

It's over.

His reputation had gone completely "sideways."

...

Central Hospital, Spring City, Jilin Province.

Unlike the bustling department store, the heating here was barely working.

The corridor was filled with the pungent smell of Lysol, cold and piercing right into the bones.

The two had just arrived outside the hematology ward when they stopped in their tracks.

Lin Xi's pupils constricted slightly.

Jiang Jun, the high-spirited man from the file photos who had led the laser interference project at the Institute of Optics and Mechanics, was right before him.

But he was no longer that technical expert.

Now he was wearing an old leather jacket worn shiny, his back hunched like a ninety-year-old man.

In Jiang Jun's hand, he clutched a stack of bills tightly.

There were five-yuan notes, two-yuan notes, and even a handful of small change, soaked with sweat and crumpled.

"Doctor, please make an exception, I beg you..."

Jiang Jun's voice was hoarse as he bowed humbly to the middle-aged doctor in the white coat,

"Once the freight for this trip is settled, I'll have the money."

"Really, I'm not lying to you!"

The ward door was slightly ajar.

Through the crack in the door, Lin Xi saw a heartbreaking little face.

Seven-year-old Niannian lay on the hospital bed.

Her skin had a sickly transparency, and the back of her hand was covered in bruises.

The little girl seemed to have heard the commotion at the door.

She didn't cry.

Instead, she huddled her small body under the covers and sensibly said to the woman wiping tears beside her:

"Mom, it doesn't hurt."

"I don't want that imported injection anymore."

"I want to go home. I want to eat frozen pears."

These words were like a blunt knife, sawing harshly at Lin Xi's heart through the crack in the door.

Sun Erga was a rough man, but hearing this, his eyes instantly reddened.

In the livestream room, the bullet chat boiled over.

[Holy crap! Stop stabbing me in the heart! Are my tears worth nothing?!]

[I want to eat frozen pears... This child is too sensible, it's heartbreakingly sensible!]

[Imported medicine was life itself in those days; without medical insurance, it really would drag down the whole family.]

[Streamer, what are you doing! You have money now! Get in there!]

In the corridor, the doctor sighed heavily and closed the medical chart.

"Master Jiang, it's not that I won't make an exception, I want to save the child too."

The doctor pointed to the despair-inducing name on the prescription—

Cytarabine.

"An imported drug, one injection is a thousand yuan."

"The hospital has strict regulations; this medicine must be paid for in cash upfront."

"This handful of change you have..."

The doctor looked at the pile of bills in Jiang Jun's hand, which was probably only two or three hundred yuan, and shook his head helplessly. "It's not enough."

"If the money isn't paid today, the pharmacy won't release the medicine."

"Once the medication is stopped, the previous three courses of treatment... will all be for nothing."

All for nothing.

These words were like a death sentence.

Jiang Jun's body swayed violently.

He leaned against the wall, the light in his eyes extinguishing bit by bit, leaving only bloodshot despair.

A thousand yuan.

That was three years' worth of wages for an average worker.

And that was just the price of a single injection.

It was a bottomless pit, devouring his savings, his job, his pride, and now...

...it was going to devour his daughter's last hope of survival.

Passing family members of other patients stopped in their tracks.

Some sighed, others turned away, unable to bear the sight.

"Waaah—!"

In the ward, the wife who had been holding it in finally broke down, covering her mouth as she let out a suppressed cry of extreme grief.

This cry completely shattered Jiang Jun.

This man who had once commanded precision instruments at the Institute of Optics and Mechanics.

This tough guy who dared to drive a large truck alone across the Hinggan Mountains at thirty degrees below zero.

At this moment, his knees were as soft as noodles.

As long as he could save his daughter.

Let alone kneeling, even if he had to kill someone or be a dog, he would do it!

"Doctor! Don't stop the medicine! Please, don't stop the medicine!"

Jiang Jun roared, his eyes bloodshot, as his knees sank, falling straight toward the cold, hard concrete floor.

"I'll go sell my blood! I'll sell my kidney! Please!"

[Tears! This is fatherly love!]

[Streamer, stop watching! Save them already!]

[This damn era is too real; imported medicine really could drive a family to their death back then.]

[I can't watch anymore. Is this the pain of that generation of researchers?]

In the livestream room, the bullet chat exploded, and countless netizens' eyes reddened in front of their screens.

Just as Jiang Jun's knees were about to hit the ground.

A hand.

A slender, powerful, and warm hand suddenly reached out.

It caught his arm firmly.

That kneel was held suspended in mid-air.