Chapter 86 - The world is drunk, and only I am awake
There's a state, called the world is drunk, and only I am awake. This was the current state that Su Tao was in. He looked around and realised that everyone was ridiculing him, some even yelled at him to get down from the stage.
When Galileo Galilei discovered the scientific law behind free-fall, he was seen as a cult member in the eyes of everyone. This was practically Su Tao's current situation, but he wasn't afraid of this and even looked as if he was enjoying this moment, which caused others to rage even further.
Why did this fellow show such a superior stance despite committing a mistake?
The five judges also couldn't understand Su Tao's actions. They were also bewildered. If Su Tao didn't have any treatment method, then he could just give up. But why was he obstructing his opponent?
"So that's the case!" Liu Ruochen's knitted brows finally smoothed out in the room with astonishment flickering in her eyes.
Mo Sui'er was a little surprised by Liu Ruochen's sudden words. There must have been something special to cause such a reaction from Liu Ruochen. She asked in a soft voice, "Senior Sister, what's going on?"
Placing her finger on her lips, Liu Ruochen faintly smiled. "You'll know in a while."
Although Luo Ruochen merely showed a smile, she revealed her pearly-white teeth that were in order. This was the first time that Mo Sui'er saw such a smile on Liu Ruochen's face, it was a devastatingly gorgeous smile that made, even as a girl, Mo Sui'er feel her world rock for a few seconds.
There's finally something interesting in this tournament, since it had been too dull for Liu Ruochen. But the sudden event from earlier had attracted her attention.
Su Tao took the needle from Yi Ruhuan before turning towards Xiao An. That raised an even greater rage within everyone. What is he trying to do?
Su Tao is not letting his opponent perform his acupuncture while he treated his patient, is he trying to delay the time of his opponent?
"That fellow is too cunning! He's violating medical ethics and not respecting his opponent! He is simply scum!" All sorts of curses resounded.
Turning a deaf ear to those words, Su Tao walked towards Xiao An and gently tapped the Yintang Acupoint that was between her brows. Upon doing that, Xiao An gently breathed out and no longer looked uneasy or in pain like before.
In the eyes of the judge that sat in the centre, Judge Song beamed before he sighed, "As the preliminary contest, this is unsuitable for such difficulty." When he finished speaking, he whispered to the judge on his right, who had the surname of Dou.
Judge Dou on his right finally understood what was going on with Judge Song's explanation, so he nodded before taking the mic and declared, "We have shown negligence in our patient selection, so we have to change patients and restart the competition."
The moment the judge spoke, it instantly caused a commotion in the surroundings. That's because the judges did not pursue Su Tao's actions, and even decided to change patients. That's a little absurd, and everyone was puzzled since this was the first time something like this has occurred in the Physician King Tournament.
Yi Ruhuan's face froze, since he still had no idea what happened and unhappily said, "Why are we changing patients? They're merely suffering from stomach heat caused by typhoid. There isn't a problem with my acupuncture technique, and I can treat her on the spot."
Judge Dou did not expect Yi Ruhuan's character to be so fiery and for him to declare his objections. With an awkward expression, he cast a glance at Judge Song before the two of them nodded their heads in rapport.
Judge Dou sighed, "If you don't agree to it, then we can only announce your defeat."
His words had instantly caused everyone's jaws to drop. No one could understand that was going on. It was Yi Ruhuan that started treating his patient, but Su Tao obstructed him. So why was he the one that lost?
Sitting on the front, Wang Guofeng revealed a complicated smile with a sense of déjà vu. It was also Su Tao that stopped him when he was treating Qin Meimei.
It's just that there was some differences between Yi Ruhuan and him. He quickly understood the reason why, but Yi Ruhuan was still in the dark and hadn't noticed his mistake.
If Yi Ruhuan accepted the proposal of changing patients, then the judges might be lenient with him, allowing the two of them to compete once more. But Yi Ruhuan had rejected, so the judges could firmly believe that Yi Ruhuan still hadn't realised his mistake; thus, they declared his defeat.
Judge Song looked at Su Tao with a gentle gaze, before he spoke to Yi Ruhuan, "We'll let your opponent, Physician Su, explain the reason why we ruled that you have lost."
Su Tao carried Xiao An onto the bed. A fragrance had blown into his nose that slowly got him to relax. Even if he had acted casual, the torrential curses and glares from earlier still made him feel pressured.
Pointing at Xiao And and Xiao Jing, Su Tao said, "This pair of twins have a telepathic connection between them, so it's useless to use acupuncture to treat only one of them. On the contrary, it would cause the other to feel discomfort."
However, Yi Ruhuan was still in a state of being ruled out by the judges, so he shook his head. "What nonsense are you speaking? I have never heard of this before. Is this someone you came up with?"
Su Tao sighed, "This is an extremely rare situation; you must have heard of similar cases in the news. There were twin brothers, one of them got liver cancer due to smoke and alcohol. On the other hand, the other lived healthy, but both of them suffered a condition in their livers practically at the same time."
Yi Ruhuan still couldn't understand the logic, so he pursued further on, "Even if they are twins with a telepathic connection, their diseases should be the same. So why isn't it possible for me to treat Xiao An after treating Xiao Jing?"
"Because Xiao An also has another disease. She has an inborn heart condition, so she wouldn't be able to endure your overbearing acupuncture technique. When you're treating Xiao Jing, Xiao An was also accepting your treatment at the same time and was feeling extreme discomfort."
Yi Ruhuan was briefly stunned before he looked at Xiao An and noticed her pale complexion and rosy cheeks; these were typical symptoms of an inborn heart condition.
He had all his attention focused on Xiao Jing and forgot about Xiao An. At this moment, he finally understood the reason why the judges ruled him out of the tournament.
For such a severe problem in the preliminary round, it cannot be justified. Initially, the organising committee only chose the twins because of the similarity in their illnesses.
It was also because of the two patients being related as twins that they were telepathically connected, thus causing the other party to be affected by the treatment process as well.
Not to mention that to add on to the complexity, one of them had an inborn heart condition. So it was practically the heavens' decision for Yi Ruhuan to fail in his first match.
Yi Ruhuan sighed. Since Su Tao could tell the overbearing characteristics of the Yi Family's acupuncture technique, that meant that Su Tao had astonishing eyesight. With a complicated smile, Yi Ruhuan said, "I admit defeat!"
Watching Yi Ruhuan leave the stage, Judge Dou smiled and declared, "Su Tao wins!"
"I'm still not done yet." Su Tao shook his head.
After a brief shock, Judge Dou responded, "Then, we'll wait for you!"
Su Tao placed the two beds side-by-side, with enough space for him in the middle. He retrieved two needles, holding each one in his hands.
As the stage light shone on Su Tao's face, showing his outstanding appearance, everyone understood what Su Tao was trying to do at this moment. He's trying to use an acupuncture technique to treat the twin lolitas at the same time!
As the needles in his hands danced, the acupuncture technique turned into a delightful performance, or in other words, an elegant display of art.
Liu Ruochen couldn't help standing up, and she even wanted to tiptoe so that she could look at Su Tao's treatment process more clearly because only a veteran knew the great heights of Su Tao's acupuncture technique.
As the needles danced in the sky and accurately pierced into the acupoints, the actions on his left and right hand were completely synchronised with an accuracy that would cause the hair of others to stand on end. Warm Qi flowed into the bodies of the twins through the needles as the medium, causing Liu Ruochen to uncontrollably take two steps forth.
"Senior Sister, what's going on with you?" Mo Sui'er also noticed Liu Ruochen's state and gently shook the latter's wrist.
Recovering from her mental state, Liu Ruochen gently breathed out and sat back on the chair. "Nothing, I was just too focused, earlier."
Wang Guofeng's attention had been on Liu Ruochen the entire time, and when he saw the blazing fire in her eyes, he felt complicated in his heart. Even if he was known as the leader amongst the new generation, Liu Ruochen hadn't shown such emotions to him before.
For the first time, he tasted jealousy, and even on TCM, which he took pride in. Clenching his fists, Wang Guofeng bore the restlessness in his heart.
When Yi Ruhuan returned to his seat, he bitterly smiled and said to Tao Zhen, "Senior Brother, I'm sorry that I lost."
"If I was in your shoes, I'd surely lose as well." Tao Zhen gently patted Yi Ruhuan's shoulder with a smile.
"But… I made you lose money." Yi Ruhuan knew that Tao Zhen had been experiencing financial difficulties, and even placed a hefty bet on him.
Suppressing his voice, Tao Zhen replied with an evil grin, "Aside from you, I also bet on the biggest neglected competitor."
Yi Ruhuan looked at Su Tao and felt that this biggest neglected competitor was probably the greatest dark horse in this competition as well.
Despite the twists and turns between Su Tao and Yi Ruhuan's competition, it had also made the competition more interesting.
However, nothing unexpected occurred after that. Aside from Wang Guofeng, the seven other seeded competitors also successfully proceeded to the Top 16, especially Bai Fan's treatment style, which left others astonished. After a cataract patient had a cream that was made by Bai Fan applied, that patient regained his sight once again.
Thus, one could tell the profound attainments that the Medicine King Valley had in terms of medicine.