Open a Clinic to Cultivate Myself Chapter 165

The door of the ancestral temple was opened. It was Xin Changjiang who unlocked it. His wife Zhu Hongqin also came. Ning Tao expected to see something special on her face, but she was calm from start to finish.

Qing Zhui and Bai Jing were here too, but Bai Jing's reaction was even stranger than Zhu Hongqin's. She looked at the old wooden door of the ancestral temple and Ning Tao standing beside the wooden door. The look in her eyes was very complicated.

Ning Tao noticed her abnormality, but his face remained expressionless.

“All right,” Xin Changjiang said. “The ancestral temple's door is open now, Doctor Ning. You can take Mr. Barnes in for treatment. But I want to remind you that here are the spirit tablets of my ancestors. I hope you will respect them.”

“I'm not bored enough to mess with your ancestors' spirit tablets,” Ning Tao said. “You needn't remind me. Now, you all go away.”

Xin Zhiyu smiled at him and looked honest.

Ning Tao knew that after he did this, his conflict with the Xin family could not be resolved. For Xin Zhiyu and his father, who valued their status, he had humiliated their family in front of everyone present today. But so what? All the wicked men in the world were his enemies, and he did not care to add a few more names to the list with countless enemies.

What was more, he could have concluded that Xin Zhiyu and his father must have sinned, even without the diagnosis of the ledger of bamboo slips. In fact, he had evidence in front of him. This ancient temple couldn't have been in the Prosperous House from the beginning. It was someone else's ancestral temple, but who would be willing to sell their ancestral temple to Xin Changjiang? What was the difference between taking someone's ancestral temple and digging his ancestral graves?

Xin Changjiang did not obediently leave immediately. He looked at Barnes and said, “Mr. Barnes, I hope Doctor Ning can cure you. That would make me happy.”

Joanna translated Xin Changjiang's words for Barnes.

Barnes gave a nod and replied, “Thank you, Mr. Xin. I will remember the help you gave me today. I am a grateful man. Trust me, you will be rewarded.”

Then Joanna translated Barnes' words to Xin Changjiang.

A smile lit up Xin Changjiang's face. This was what he wanted—the thanks from Barnes.

“I will ask my wife to pray for you in front of the Buddha, Mr. Barnes,” Xin Changjiang added, and left.

“Doctor Ning, are you going to treat me here?” Barnes asked. “Why did you have to choose here? There's not a single sickbed.”

“You only need me. You go in and wait for me,” Ning Tao said.

“All right, I'll wait for you in there.” Barnes walked into the ancestral temple. He was a little hobbled. The two bodyguards tried to help him, but he pushed them away.

“Doctor Ning, can I go in and stay with my father?” Joanna asked.

“No,” Ning Tao refused. “As I said, my patients have to follow my rules. I don't want anyone around to interfere with me while I'm treating Mr. Barnes.”

“I promise not to make any noise.”

“No, you can't go in.”

“Even the ICU in the hospital allows conditional visits from patients' families,” Joanna insisted. “Why are you…”

Ning Tao interrupted, “Then you take Mr. Barnes to the ICU. You can stay in there as long as you want.”

“You…” Joanna was speechless with anger.

Not wanting to talk nonsense, Ning Tao beckoned to Qing Zhui, saying, “Qing Zhui, as usual, guard the door. Don't let anyone in.”

Qing Zhui immediately walked up to him and said, “Okay, I'll watch and throw anyone who comes near.”

Ning Tao nodded, entered the ancestral temple, and then closed the door.

Qing Zhui strode to the door, picked up a stone and drew a semicircle on the stone floor in front of the door, and then stood with her back to the old wooden door. She had a curvy body but she stood erect. If she changed her long green dress for a military uniform, she definitely looked like a very serious guard.

“What does she mean by drawing a line?” Xue Bao'er yelled, her expression a little exaggerated. “Did she draw a warning line? What does she think of this place? That doctor is defiant, and so is she?”

Li Xiaofeng's face was overcast. As Xue Bao'er finished speaking, he glanced at a young man next to him.

It was an unspoken suggestion.

The young man understood, slightly nodded, and then went to the ancestral temple's door.

“Don't come over here,” Qing Zhui warned in her cold voice.

“What can you do with me while I come to you?” said the young man, with a cold snort. “Do you think this is your place? Even if I walk over your line now, I don't believe you dare hit me!”

A faint smile appeared on Li Xiaofeng's lips. This was the Prosperous House, not the Li family. Barnes, one of the wolves on Wall Street, did not know who he was. Therefore, if he sabotaged Ning Tao to treat Barnes, Barnes could only retaliate against the Xin family. What did it have to do with him?

By the time Xin Changjiang tried to stop him, the young man had already crossed Qing Zhui's “warning line”. At that moment, Qing Zhui leapt forward, grabbed the young man by the collar and threw him off the ground with one hand, causing him to fly several meters before landing heavily on the ground.

Everyone present gaped except Bai Jing. “The power is exaggerated!” They all secretly sighed.

However, they didn't know that Qing Zhui went easy on the young man because she didn't want to interfere with Ning Tao's practice of medicine. If she had been reckless, she would not have grabbed the young man by the collar and thrown him, but would have cut his throat with her nails. That would be easier for her, and she wouldn't care about whether the young man was from a rich family or not.

After seeing Qing Zhui's strength, no one dare to come forward.

In the ancestral temple, Ning Tao woke up the state of looking and smelling of his eyes and nose and began to investigate the inside of the ancestral temple, leaving no items or corners untouched.

There was a shrine with dozens of spirit tablets on it. Those spirit tablets belonged to people of the Xin family, as well as many people of the Zhu family.

This was very rare indeed. It was the ancestral temple of the Xin family, and if Zhu Hongqin died, it was okay to place her spirit tablet here, but her parents' family's spirit tablets could not placed here.

Ning Tao glanced at the spirit tablets of the Zhu family one by one, but did not see the names of familiar historical figures. He wondered, “In history, Zhu Cihuan, the third Crown Prince, was put to death by dismembering body by Kangxi, and all his children were beheaded. Chong Zhen's descendants died out completely at that time. How could they have their descendants now? But if Zhu Hongqin had nothing to do with the third Crown Prince and Zhu Hongyu, how could there be so many spirit tablets of the Zhu family here?”

“It is strange that these spirit tablets of the Zhu family are here.”

“Doctor Ning, why are you looking at those tablets?” Barnes broke the silence in the temple. He was surprised, not by those tablets, but by Ning Tao. He thought Ning Tao would treat him when he came in, but unexpectedly, Ning Tao stared at those tablets without saying a word since he came in.

Ning Tao didn't look back, but said, “These are spirit tablets with people's names on them. Every one represents a dead person.”

Barnes' look changed. “Is this a grave? Why did you bring me here to heal?”

Ning Tao's eyes suddenly fell on a black spirit tablet at the very back of the shrine. All the other spirit tablets had names, belonging to the Xin family or the Zhu family, but that one had no name.

Whose spirit tablet was that?

Ning Tao suddenly had a very strange feeling in his heart, as well as the illusion of seeing the spirit tablet with no words. However, both the sudden strange sensation and the illusion were vague. They flashed away, and he didn't even know what they were.

“Doctor Ning? Please answer my question.” Barnes was a little upset, but he tried to keep his temper.

Ning Tao took his eyes off the blank spirit tablet and looked at Barnes, smiling. “Mr. Barnes, why do you care where this place is? You want health, and I can give you health.”

Barnes spread his hands and asked, “When are you going to start treating me?”

Ning Tao pointed to the futon on the floor and said, “Sit on it, and then we can start.”

“Sitting down for treatment?” Barnes asked in surprise.

Ning Tao said, “Mr. Barnes, as I said, I have my rules. If you want me to cure your illness, you'd better not ask me any more questions. Just follow my orders.”

“Well, all right. I will ask no more questions, and will do as you say.” Barnes sat on the futon and waited for Ning Tao to treat him.

Ning Tao put the medicine chest on the ground, opened it and took out the ledger of bamboo slips. Then he handed it to Barnes and said, “Mr. Barnes, please hold it for me.”

Barnes reached over and took the ledger of bamboo slips. He wondered what it was, and tried to open it, but he failed.

A few seconds later Ning Tao said, “Please give it back to me, Mr. Barnes.”

Barnes handed the ledger back to Ning Tao. “What's this?” he asked.

Ning Tao gave him a look.

Barnes realized something and immediately said, “Er, I'm sorry. Just pretend I haven't spoken.”

Ning Tao opened the ledger.

On the ledger appeared the content about Barnes, “Barnes, born on February 14, 1958, is a great philanthropist. The first merit is to found the Peace Foundation, which has donated $8 billion in start-up funds, and helped 5.17 million people in war-torn areas, counting 517 points of merits of good intention. The second merit is to adopt 32 orphans, counting 128 points of merits of good intention…He owns 699 points of merits of good intention. A prescription for merits of good intention would help to dissolve her disaster, cure her disease and prolong her life for 70 years.”

The diagnosis stunned Ning Tao.

Chapter end