XH 195 - Their skin is green!

During the same time Duke Heng was following Miss Wan Ting, the 19th Emperor brought Xiao Hua and Duan XiYing to the prison where Doctor Bai was waiting for them at the entrance. The whole prison was surrounded by armed guards with sharp gazes and fierce aura, preparing to attack and defend at any moment. 

"This poison is dangerous?" Long Yuen asked, eyeing the direction of the prison building. His sharp nose caught the scent of blood, and he knew the flesh blood was still spilling. 

Doctor Bai shook his head. "The poison is gone from the air, but the danger still exists. I'm about to finish creating the emergency antidote."

Long Yuen grunted, a little relieved. If his friend could still remain calm and have the time to chat, this matter must be halfway solved with the ending could be seen already. "If there's any danger, just sent me a message and I will quickly come over."

The 19th Emperor will be going back to talk to the Azure Dragon again. These days he was grumpy because the Azure Dragon could not give the exact location of the sealed gate thanks to multiple areas with great Qi that interrupted his search. The 19th Emperor wanted the Azure Dragon to try remembering any clues to the location again. 

"You sure you want Xiao Hua to start with something this difficult?" Long Yuen asked his friend. He knows that his friend wanted his daughter to learn some medical knowledge, but to deal with poison outbreak on her first lesson might be too difficult.

Doctor Bai smiled gently. "She will only need to be my assistant. I won't let her deal with any dangerous tasks yet."

"Right. Then I will be going now." The 19th Emperor passed on an advice to Xiao Hua. "Xiao Hua, Bai Chuan might look feeble most of the time, but if any patient becomes aggressive, call for him."

Xiao Hua nodded. "I understand."

"XiYing will be right beside Xiao Hua," Duan XiYing said with a smile. 

The 19th Emperor stared at her for a second before nodding. He actually doubted Bai Chuan will let Duan XiYing stay beside Xiao Hua and not sent her to do errands. 

It was the first time he saw his old friend being this unforgiving. This snake beast had nearly stole his ginseng more than a decade ago, but still not forgiven. 

After watching the 19th Emperor left, Doctor Bai guided them to a wide area with two long tents set up with three rows of unconscious prisoners inside it. 

"Their skin is green," Xiao Hua mumbled in shock. That shade of green was just the same as 'Hulk'!

"Doctor Bai, you've returned!" Doctor Shen gazed at Doctor Bai like a puppy reunited with his owner after a long time. 

"I've troubled Doctor Shen. This is my daughter, Bai Hua. I brought her over in hopes for her to learn something from this experience and to assist with small tasks."

"Doctor Bai's daughter!" Doctor Shen's bright eyes shifted to Xiao Hua. "She must be as talented as her father."

"Doctor Shen misunderstood!" Xiao Hua quickly corrected. "I am new to the world of medicine. It is my honorable father's good intention to have me start learning medicine, even if it's a little bit."

Doctor Bai rubbed Xiao Hua's head, messing her hairstyle a tiny bit. "It is good if she know some basic skills if she got herself injured in future."

"Doctor Bai, I have a good nephew that could show Miss Bai the basics." Without waiting for Doctor Bai to agree, Doctor Shen turned and called for his nephew. "Hao Li, come over!"

A lanky young adult with crumpled robes and dark circles detached from a patient's side with reluctance before heading towards them with a tired gait.

"This is my nephew, Hao Li," Doctor Shen introduced. "He is good enough to oversee the patients to give us uninterrupted time to study the poison in depth."

"Teacher praise me highly," Hao Li cupped his fist, not calling Doctor Shen as his uncle to separate work and personal affairs. "Hao Li is willing to ease Doctor Shen and Doctor Bai's workload."

"Hao Li, this is Doctor Bai's daughter," Doctor Shen introduced Xiao Hua as if she was a revered VIP guest. "Show Miss Bai the basics that a doctor needs to know."

"Please, just call me Bai Hua, Doctor Hao Li," Xiao Hua said respectfully.

Hao Li stared at Xiao Hua dully, not at all impressed with her identity. "I have no time to teach you. You will have to learn while watching me."

Xiao Hua nodded, already aware that she will be a bother and letting her learn by watching his movement was good enough. "Yes, thank you for your guidance."

After assuring that the children will be fine, Doctor Shen and Doctor Bai went inside the prison building to examine the remains of the Gu Dan's spy.

Duan XiYing silently followed behind Xiao Hua, who was acting like Hao Li's detachable tail and followed him around the place to treat the injured prisoners. He does not need to do much as they were not injured from the explosion, but they had inhaled the unknown poison that did something to their old injuries that were not healed yet. 

After five hours of their poisoned time, the patients suddenly had their wounds reopened and blood keep flowing out. Doctor Bai concocted a special gel and managed to stop the weird bleeding, but they had to be constantly reapplied after the gel lost its effects.

Doctor Shen felt that he had received small luck from people's misfortune to be able to learn the recipe to concoct Doctor Bai's special gel. It worked better than the best blood clotting medicine in the market!

With tears of gratitude, Doctor Shen personally concocted the gels, and choose two trustworthy doctors to assist him.
 
After watching Hao Li applying the gel onto the fifth patient, he decided that Xiao Hua had learned enough and tossed her a bottle of gel to apply on a patient. 

Xiao Hua clutched on the bottle and moved to an unconscious patient. Duan XiYing stopped her when she reached out to remove the dirty bandage from the bleeding wound. 

"XiYing will do it."

Truthfully, right after Duan XiYing said it, Xiao Hua felt relief. But a second after that, she managed to whack her fear and selfishness inside her. 

"No, I need to do it if I want to learn," Xiao Hua said firmly before giving Duan XiYing a shy smile. "But I will need XiYing to help me lift him later."

It was only after she cut the bandages, wiped the blood away, and applied the gel did Xiao Hua realized she had the strength to lift the man herself without breaking a sweat. 

She had spoken out common sense before realizing her own capability! How embarrassing!

Xiao Hua wanted to tell Duan XiYing that she can lift the man herself without needing help, but she had already lifted the man with an expectant smile, waiting for Xiao Hua to wrap clean bandages around the patient's shoulder. 

She could only swallow her words and let Duan XiYing help out. But with her help, they were able to finish quicker. 

Hao Li was focusing on stitching up a patient with deep cut to control the blood outflow, but once in awhile he would glance at Xiao Hua's progress at the corner of his eye. 

Her handiwork was not bad for someone that claimed to be a novice in medicine. With Doctor Bai as her father, these basic things should be easy for her to learn.

Xiao Hua moved to the next patient with a wound dangerously close to his heart. By far, this patient bleed the most and it showed with how pale he was. She does not know if he normally looked this thin with shrunken flesh, but the sight invoke her pity for him. Because of that, when she wipes the blood and apply the medicine, she did it gently for fear she would hurt him. 

Her finger accidentally bumped onto a small bump on his chest and she quickly took back her hand in panic. Her eyes darted to his face, but he did not wake up or expressed any pain. 

"Did something happen?" Duan XiYing had went to exchange the bloody basin with clean water and missed out what Xiao Hua did, only seeing the caution written on her face.

"Nothing. I accidentally used too much strength," Xiao Hua said as her peach shaped eyes stared at the patient's chest to look for the bump she had touched earlier. His ribs could be seen, but the bump she encountered earlier was round like a mosquito bite. She knew she did not touch his red beans, because she was very aware of them and made sure not to get close to them.

Seeing nothing resembled what she touched, Xiao Hua reluctantly removed her eyes, but something quickly caught her attention. She thought she had seen wrongly and it was just tricks that her mind played with her, but after spending some time staring at the patient's chest, she was sure her eyes and mind did not fool her. 

Duan XiYing's usual carefree smile disappeared when Xiao Hua gasped in horror and quickly stepped back from the patient.

"Xiao Hua?" Duan XiYing questioned and focused her eyes on the patient. 

Xiao Hua's fear nearly crippled her as her mind screamed at her to run far away! Her mind suddenly reminded her that this was not the only patient and quickly looked around the tent with fear ascending like a giant wave in her heart. 

The first thing that her instincts wanted to do was to yell for the other doctors to get away from the patients. But her rational mind managed to suppress that desire. Without confirming anything, she could not stop the doctors from treating the patients. She also does not dare to confirm the unknown by touch, much less getting close to them. 

Flinching violently, she quickly raised her hands to the level of her eyes and let out a relieved breath, finally remembered that she was wearing gloves and a face mask. The gloves were filled with blood and icky fluids but it was thick enough to prevent the contaminated fluid from touching her bare skin. 

"Xiao Hua, what is it?" Duan XiYing asked again, when she could not identify what terrified her to this extent. If it was the bloody scene, Xiao Hua must have delayed reaction because she had not reacted badly since the beginning of the treatment. 

"I think I need to talk to Doctor Bai," Xiao Hua said slowly, but she did not move to do so. 

Instead, with trembling hands, she reached out and touched the patient's chest. When she could not feel any movement, she gulped and slowly moved her hands around, and stopped right above where the heart was. That was because that was where she could feel strange movements that was entirely different from how a beating heart would move!

Feeling as if her heart had dropped down to her stomach, Xiao Hua quickly took large steps back from the patient, not daring to continue feeling around. 

"I must talk to Doctor Bai," Xiao Hua mumbled in a manic gaze and darted to the direction of the prison.