Chapter 2: Delivered a Calf Before

"..." The doctor's mouth twitched, and a few dark lines seemed to crawl across his forehead. So he'd delivered livestock before, and he thought that was something to brag about? With a hard face, the doctor snapped, "This is life and death! This isn't your countryside animal-birthing nonsense!" Terrance Lyson didn't argue. He simply yanked aside the curtain and strode in. Seven or eight medical staff crowded around the delivery bed. An elderly doctor with graying hair stood at the center, barking orders as he directed the rescue. The mother had already passed out, her face drained of all color. The sheet beneath her was soaked through with blood. "Let me." Terrance pulled an old-fashioned needle roll from his jacket and drew three silver needles as fine as hair. "Stop!" A nurse in round-framed glasses stepped in front of him at once, staring warily at the needles in his hand. "Who are you? Who let you in here?" Terrance swept his gaze across the room, steady and unshaken. "You've run out of options. I can keep both mother and child alive." "Ridiculous!" The old doctor exploded, his gray brows trembling with rage. "The fetus is malpositioned, her pelvis is narrow, and she's hemorrhaging. Under these conditions, a natural delivery is impossible! Are you playing games with two lives?" Terrance calmly rolled the needles between his fingers and replied as if he were discussing something trivial, "You're Anson Hauk, right? No offense, Professor, but just because you can't do it doesn't mean nobody can." A confident curve lifted at the corner of his mouth. "Medicine has no end. How would you know what I'm capable of?" Anson's face turned iron-dark, his gray mustache quivering. He was a towering figure in Tenos medicine. Even city leaders greeted him politely and called him "Old Hauk." Yet this punk dared to talk to him like that? The surrounding staff bristled as well. A female doctor in gold-rimmed glasses couldn't hold back. "Young man, Professor Hauk is the nation's leading authority in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department. His diagnosis is the final word. If you're making a spectacle here, you'll be held legally responsible!" "Exactly!" a young male doctor chimed in. "Old Hauk is the pride of Tenos Western medicine. Who do you think you are?" He moved to shove Terrance aside, only to find the seemingly slender young man didn't budge an inch. Surprise flashed across his face. Terrance ignored the accusations and walked straight to the bedside. He checked her pulse, then examined her pelvic structure with meticulous care. Then he lifted his head and fixed his eyes on the husband. "Your wife suffered a serious hip injury before, didn't she? And the women in her family are generally petite. They have trouble conceiving and need long-term medication to regulate their bodies." The doctors exchanged stunned looks. The husband's eyes widened, his voice shaking. "Y-you… how did you know? Five years ago she fell and injured her pelvis. She recovered after treatment. For this child… we spent three whole years trying to get her body ready…" By the end, the grown man's eyes had reddened. Everyone froze. Even Anson stared, lips trembling. All that history, just from taking a pulse? Did this kid actually have real skill? Terrance didn't spare them a glance. He looked at the husband, unwavering. "With the equipment you have, you really can't handle this. But if you trust me, I'm willing to try." The husband clenched his fists so hard his nails bit into his palms. He stared at his wife's deathly pale face, then nodded hard. "Please. I'm begging you." Terrance drew a slow breath, and the air around him seemed to shift. His presence sharpened, as if someone else had stepped into his skin. With a light pinch of his fingertips, he placed the needles in a flowing sequence across her body. Each needle sank precisely into an acupoint. Their tails trembled faintly, almost alive. "Ah-!" The mother cried out in pain and slowly opened her eyes. The medical staff sucked in a breath. They'd tried everything and couldn't wake her, yet this young man did it with a few needles. "Prepare for a C-section. I need an assistant." Terrance spoke without looking up. "I'll do it." A middle-aged female doctor with glasses hurried forward. "I've worked in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department for twenty years." What happened next left everyone speechless. Terrance used the silver needles as if they were a scalpel, opening a clean, precise incision across the woman's abdomen. Each time he went deeper through a layer of tissue, he added a few more needles to corresponding points. Between the needles, some strange connection seemed to form. A faint current, barely visible, flowed from needle to needle, guarding the woman's vital nerves. Terrance stood there like a man carved from cold iron, an aura radiating off him that made people instinctively avert their eyes. A heavy, breathless solemnity filled the carriage. No one could speak. "Using silver needles instead of a surgical blade… I've never seen anything like it." Anson pushed up his slipping glasses, uncertainty and shock flickering in his eyes. As a Western medicine authority, he had long interacted with Traditional Medicine circles, but he had never witnessed an Acupuncture Technique this profound. If a Master of Traditional Medicine were here, perhaps they could glimpse its secrets. "Waaah-!" A clear, powerful cry shattered the silence. A newborn, slick with blood, was delivered into waiting hands. Fine beads of sweat gathered on Terrance's forehead, but his voice stayed steady. "The baby is yours. I'm going to focus on saving the mother. Can you handle it?" "Of course!" The middle-aged doctor took the infant immediately and began clearing the airway with practiced movements. Terrance inhaled, and three silver needles glinted coldly between his fingers. He pressed his palms together. An invisible current seemed to gather around him. Ten seconds passed. His wrist snapped. Whoosh! The three needles shot out like meteors, striking acupoints with flawless accuracy. "T-this… could it be the Divinos Needles?" Anson blurted it out, his voice trembling. A young doctor beside him frowned. "Professor Hauk, you know Traditional Medicine too?" Anson was so excited his mustache shook. "Years ago, when I visited Old Zhou, a Master of Traditional Medicine, he mentioned an ancient Acupuncture Technique that had been lost for ages. He said it required drawing true qi from within. Ordinary doctors couldn't use it even if they knew the method…" He trailed off, staring at Terrance with open reverence. "Who… who is this young man?" The staff looked at one another, hearts pounding. Who would've thought that on an ordinary train ride, there'd be a hidden master of the medical path? Anson's gaze on Terrance changed completely. The earlier contempt vanished without a trace, replaced by naked shock and admiration. "The wound… we can't suture it," the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department doctor said, troubled. "There's no surgical thread on board." Terrance didn't lift his head. "Attendant, please ask if any passenger has a sewing kit." "But ordinary thread won't meet medical standards…" the doctor hesitated. "I stitched up a cut on the village's old yellow ox with hemp rope once." Terrance's hands never slowed. "In an emergency, whatever works is the best thing." The room filled with expressions that were half laughter, half disbelief. This Miracle Doctor's experience always seemed to involve livestock. Before long, the attendant returned with sterilized needle and thread. Terrance took it. His fingers moved in a blur, and the wound closed in neat, even stitches, tight and uniform, no worse than a professional surgeon's work. "The baby… I want to see my baby…" The mother opened her eyes weakly. Tears slid down her pale cheeks. Terrance signaled the nurse to bring the swaddled infant over. In a low voice, he instructed, "Write down my contact information. After we reach Tenos, she needs to be hospitalized for observation. And these stitches…" He paused. "I have to remove them personally." "Miracle Doctor!" The husband dropped to his knees with a heavy thud, his voice breaking. "You saved my whole family. This debt…" His hands shook as he pulled a bank card from his wallet. "There's five hundred thousand in here. I know it's nowhere near enough. Name your price and I'll have someone prepare it immediately…" Terrance raised an eyebrow. "Five hundred thousand?" He rubbed his chin as if thinking, then a knowing smile appeared. Then he waved it off, casual as if they were discussing the weather. "I charged fifteen bucks to deliver Aunt Zhang's ewe back in the village. Give me twenty and we'll call it even." "T-twenty dollars?" The husband's hand froze in midair, eyes bulging. Everyone sucked in a breath. This Miracle Doctor's fee was insane. Terrance lifted his brow and waggled his hand. "What, too expensive? If I hadn't stepped in, your wife and kid would've-" "I'll pay, I'll pay! I-I'll pay!" The man hurriedly pulled two ten-dollar bills from his wallet, then offered a gilded business card. "Miracle Doctor, this is my contact info. If you run into any trouble in Tenos, come to me!" He patted his chest. "I won't claim I can handle everything, but most problems? I can solve them." Terrance stuffed the cash into his pocket and glanced at the card with a curl of his lip. "That's it?" Still, he took out his phone and scanned the QR code. "Remember. You come to me to remove the stitches." He turned to leave. "Little Miracle Doctor, please wait!" Anson snapped out of it and jogged after him, his white coat flapping. Terrance waved without looking back. "I'm not interested in old men. And I've got even less interest in useless quacks who can't do a thing." "M-my granddaughter…" Anson blurted it out in desperation, his face flushing as the words tumbled too fast.