Chapter 331: Recommending a Barber for You
“I’m all better! Seriously, I’m all better! This is amazing!” The patient rotated his previously fractured arm, and there wasn’t a hint of pain. He could move it freely.
Before even coming to the clinic, he hadn’t expected such a significant improvement. He had only hoped the doctor could alleviate his pain a bit.
“Don’t move your arm around too much. The hand has just been treated and isn’t suited for excessive movement. It still needs time to heal,” Amelia cautioned.
“Yes, thank you,” the patient nodded repeatedly, saying gratefully. His gratitude was directed more towards me, as he left over a dozen silver coins. It wasn’t much, but it was all his savings.
I heard from Jayad that ordinarily, a strong adult man working diligently in a factory or at the docks could earn twenty to thirty silver coins a month. This meant that this was at least half a month’s wages for him, all for treating an accidental fracture.
These dozen or so gold coins were barely enough to cover Amelia’s fees for cleaning the wound and setting the bone. The medicine, thanks to me, was essentially free.
“Excuse me, how much did the person who had you perform brain surgery pay?” I asked curiously. For Amelia to have used a Life Elixir without hesitation, she must have been paid quite a sum.
“Fifty gold coins,” Amelia stated nonchalantly. I felt utterly speechless. The income difference between the two treatments was so vast, it was no wonder Amelia treated them so differently.
However, for such a major procedure as brain surgery, fifty gold coins didn’t seem that expensive. Even though it was a price an ordinary person couldn’t possibly afford, representing more than ten years of savings, he must have been quite wealthy.
“Next!” Amelia called out. It seemed Samantha could hear her clearly, as the young nurse soon helped in a new patient.
The next patient was a portly man with a large beard, clutching his abdomen as he walked in, his body covered in rolls of fat.
“Doctor, my stomach hurts so much. Can you please examine me and see what’s wrong?” The patient’s face was contorted in pain.
“What do you think?” Amelia surprisingly asked me again. What could I possibly think? Abdominal pain is a particularly mysterious ailment with numerous causes. How would I know why his stomach hurt?
However, his pain didn’t seem ordinary. He was sweating profusely, his face was pale, his expression was twisted, and he was trembling uncontrollably, requiring Samantha’s support just to walk in.
This wasn’t likely to be a case of parasites or food poisoning. Based on my anecdotal knowledge from my previous life, such excruciating, colicky pain could indicate: “Acute appendicitis that has already ruptured and suppurated.”
“Not bad, that’s indeed a strong possibility.” Amelia glanced at me with approval. Actually, if I hadn’t spent so much time in hospitals when I was sick in my previous life and heard about some things, I wouldn’t have known this kind of knowledge at all.
Amelia had the obese patient sit down and lift his shirt. She first listened with a stethoscope, then palpated his belly, which was full of fat, and finally inquired about his diet and bowel movements.
“It’s a colon perforation, and it’s quite serious. Surgery is required,” Amelia concluded. Thankfully, my diagnosis was wrong. Now she wouldn’t ask me for my opinion again, would she?
Upon hearing the word “surgery,” the胖子’s face paled slightly. However, the pain was unbearable, so he could only nod and say through gritted teeth, “Please, doctor.”
“Take this prescription to get your medicine, then go to the barbershop about a hundred meters to the left outside the clinic and show this to the owner,” Amelia instructed.
“Huh?” The胖子 and I simultaneously let out surprised questions. We watched Amelia write a note that looked like a medical record and hand it to the patient. The handwriting was so illegible it was almost a single line, completely unrecognizable.
“Why go to a barbershop?” I was somewhat puzzled. This sudden mention of a barbershop seemed completely unrelated to the current situation.
“For surgery. The owner there is incredibly skilled. He can perform a surgery in just a couple of moves. Purely in terms of speed, I’m inferior to him,” Amelia explained.
“Ah?! Go to a barbershop for surgery?” I was so shocked I didn’t know how to describe my feelings. How could these two terms be connected?
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?” Amelia looked at me, utterly bewildered, as if there was nothing unusual about what she had said.
“No, why would a barber perform surgery? Does he have a professional operating room and tools?” I asked.
Unexpectedly, Amelia replied, “Of course, he does. He often performs surgery on people. More than half the patients in my clinic go to him.”
He often performed surgery? It seemed this owner might be an exception, perhaps a surgeon moonlighting as a barber. Maybe he enjoyed being a barber, or it was for extra income. That was the only explanation I could come up with.
The patient didn’t seem to have any questions either. He was merely concerned about another issue: “Doctor, can you perform it on me? In my current state, I might not be able to walk all the way there.”
“If you’re sure you want me to do it, I’ll charge twenty gold coins,” Amelia stated directly.
“Twenty!!!” The胖子 was so startled he felt like he might fall off his chair if Samantha hadn’t been supporting him.
“But if you go to the barbershop, that owner might only charge one gold coin, or at most two or three,” Amelia added.
“Uh, I… okay.” The胖子 clutched his stomach. He had managed to make it to the clinic, so he could probably hold on a bit longer. Besides, two or three gold coins was indeed within an acceptable range.
“Actually, I could recommend someone with even better medical skills, a barber whose surgical level surpasses mine. Unfortunately, his barbershop is too far away, and he’s usually fully booked. Given your condition, you probably can’t wait for an appointment,” Amelia said.
The胖子 thanked her and stumbled out. Amelia charged him only one silver coin as a consultation fee.
“Hey, you actually didn’t want to operate on him, so you deliberately sent him to the barbershop, didn’t you?” I could see it now. Her quoted price was definitely too high. How could a surgery on the intestines be quoted at nearly half the price of brain surgery?
“That’s right. He’s too fat. If I cut him open, it’ll be all fat. And operating on the large intestine requires extensive post-operative cleaning. I have a line of patients waiting, and I don’t have time to waste on the operating table with him,” Amelia admitted without a blush.
So that’s how it was. I could only think, what did the fat guy do wrong?
“But I didn’t cheat him. That barber is indeed fast and accurate with his knife. Operating on intestines is a piece of cake for him.”
“Are you serious about that barber whose surgical skills surpass yours?”
“Of course, I am. While his medical skills and pharmacology are far inferior to mine, when it comes to cutting, barbering, bloodletting, skinning, deboning, dissecting, and tooth extraction, there are very few doctors better than him. I’ve even consulted him on removing blood clots from the heart.”
