Chapter 75: Utter Shamelessness!

"This matter began because of my illness, and it concerns the important issue of my pregnancy. I, too, wish to understand the truth," the young woman said, glancing intentionally or unintentionally at Chu Tian.

She was more inclined to trust Tang Long's judgment. The only reason she agreed to wait for Lin Qinghan's return was to expose Chu Tian's mistaken diagnosis and put her own mind at ease.

Half an hour later, at the Hall of Rejuvenation.

The Dark Night Bar and the Hall of Rejuvenation were not far apart, so it took Lin Qinghan just thirty minutes to return to the clinic.

"Lin Qinghan, you’re just in time. If you don’t give me an explanation today, I won’t let this pretty boy off the hook!" Tang Long's expression was dark as his gaze landed on Lin Qinghan.

"What happened, Xiao Tian?" Lin Qinghan strode through the crowd and directly entered the clinic.

She ignored Tang Long's angry interrogation and looked first at Chu Tian.

Chu Tian recounted the events and pointed toward the young woman, who, as the person at the heart of the matter, had not yet left.

"Madam, may I examine you once more?" Lin Qinghan asked.

"Of course," the young woman nodded and sat down with Lin Qinghan.

Lin Qinghan took her pulse, focusing intently on its rhythm.

The woman's pulse was strong and agitated, nothing like the weak pulse of someone with uterine cold. Lin Qinghan then looked at her rosy, healthy complexion and reached her conclusion.

"Lin Qinghan, tell us in front of everyone: does this lady suffer from uterine cold or heat?" Tang Long pressed. "If your diagnosis differs from mine, then you’re just as much a quack as he is, and there’s no reason for me to stay here any longer. Plenty of clinics have been trying to recruit me with high salaries—if it weren’t for your sake, I’d have left long ago."

His veiled threat was clear: if Lin Qinghan’s assessment differed from his own, he would not remain at the Hall of Rejuvenation. Without Tang Long's reputation, the clinic would surely lose its standing and the flow of patients would dwindle.

He was trying to coerce Lin Qinghan into compliance—no matter what she found, she must not say it if it contradicted him.

But Lin Qinghan stood up, meeting Tang Long’s gaze head-on.

"This lady suffers from uterine heat!" Lin Qinghan declared in a clear voice.

"What did you say?" Tang Long's expression changed. He hadn’t expected Lin Qinghan to embarrass him, let alone publicly contradict his diagnosis.

"Xiao Tian was right—you're the one without medical ethics, a quack, and you have the gall to question me?" Lin Qinghan was furious. Her purpose in founding the Hall of Rejuvenation was to help as many patients as possible, not to make money. Tang Long's twisting of facts had crossed her bottom line.

"Dr. Lin is a truly skilled physician. If even she says so, could Dr. Tang really have made a mistake?"

"There are two doctors here—whom should we believe?"

The onlookers murmured among themselves, unable to reach a conclusion. While Tang Long’s reputation was considerable, Lin Qinghan had also gained much popularity in the months since she’d opened her clinic.

Many patients had received her care and trusted her medical skills. If it had been only Chu Tian opposing Tang Long, they might not have believed him. But now Lin Qinghan supported the same diagnosis, making it all the more convincing.

Tang Long grew anxious. Public opinion had shifted, and he couldn’t let Lin Qinghan ruin his reputation.

"Lin Qinghan, I know what you’re up to. You’re just siding with your junior brother," Tang Long snapped, turning his ire on Chu Tian.

"What do you mean by that?" Lin Qinghan frowned.

"Lin Qinghan, you’re just a newcomer who’s barely earned her medical license, and this guy is nothing but an ignorant apprentice. Are you saying the disciple of a National Physician Master has less skill than the two of you?" Tang Long tried to seize the moral high ground.

"You—" Lin Qinghan was momentarily speechless. She believed her skills were no less than Tang Long’s, but he had a famous master and paraded his status as a disciple of a National Physician Master—an advantage she could not match.

"Your junior brother made a mistake in diagnosis, and you’re covering for him just to save face. The real lack of medical ethics is on your part. No matter how you slander me, I won’t care, but what I cannot accept is your tampering with a patient’s diagnosis without heed for their well-being. Do you have any conscience left?"

Tang Long sighed and put on a show of heartbreak, clearly aiming to win the sympathy of the patients.

It worked. The crowd’s gaze toward Lin Qinghan grew colder, suspicion flickering in their eyes.

"Tang Long, I used to think you’d be a good doctor because you’re the disciple of a National Physician Master, but I never imagined you’d stoop so low," Lin Qinghan rebuked him.

"How am I shameless? If it weren’t for my skills, would the Hall of Rejuvenation be this successful? And how have you repaid me? Every time I invite you to dinner, you refuse. When I ask you out, you’re always busy. You’re just stringing me along with your looks, using me for cheap labor," Tang Long dropped all pretense, making his intentions clear.

As the disciple of a National Physician Master, he could have joined any major hospital with the best conditions—why would he stay at a small clinic unless it was for Lin Qinghan’s beauty? What else could attract him here?

"Is Dr. Lin really that kind of person?"

"No wonder Dr. Tang stays at such a small clinic—so that’s the reason."

The crowd erupted with speculation, imagining all sorts of entanglements between Lin Qinghan and Tang Long.

"Tang Long, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I have already told you—there is no possibility between us," Lin Qinghan said coldly. She had never given him cause for hope; everything was Tang Long’s own wishful thinking.

Yet he would use such an excuse to slander her reputation—how utterly despicable.

"If you keep running your mouth, I’ll make you regret it!" Chu Tian stepped forward.

He couldn’t bear to listen any longer and would not allow anyone to insult his third senior sister.

"What—what do you want?" Tang Long stammered, retreating several steps but still blustering. "You can’t heal, so you resort to violence? Is this how the Hall of Rejuvenation bullies people?"