Chapter 3 Being Distraught

Several hours later, Ning Tao was slowly back to full consciousness. When he opened his eyes, he saw the dense tree canopy and the golden sunlight pouring down from the branches and leaves.

Ning Tao rolled out of the ground and looked around. There was no old house or Chen Pingdao around. He was standing on a hillside with trees, thorns and weeds all round but without even a path! However, the medical book and the transfer contract that Chen Pingdao gave him were still in his hands, and they were real, not an illusion.

"Oh!" Ning Tao suddenly remembered something. "Chen Pingdao smells exactly like that black dog, and he said he had given me a bit of cultivation. He's the black dog! Have... have I really run into a ghost?"

After pausing for a short while, Ning Tao opened the medical book to read it.

The content of the medical book was quite concise, with only four chapters, namely, looking, smelling, elixirs and acupuncture. The four chapters were less than 1,000 words in all. It was really an economy with words.

"Looking, smelling, elixirs and acupuncture? Isn't the diagnosis method in traditional Chinese medicine looking, hearing, asking and touching?" Intrigued, Ning Tao perused the content. As the contents written in the classical literary style of the medical book were difficult to understand, he could not tell whether they were true or false for the time being.

Then he opened the contract. The contents were exactly the same as what he read last night, and his signature was also on the paper.

The contract contained a key, a very dark key of an old type. It was heavy, neither made of iron nor bronze. Ning Tao didn't know what it was made of.

The key was engraved with the traditional characters "The Sky Clinic".

Ning Tao was puzzled. "The old house has disappeared, and so has the dog Chen Pingdao. Then does that clinic exist?"

Suddenly, a disgusting and unpleasant smell wafted into his nostrils. He quickly ducked his head and found himself covered with black and sticky oil, just as if he had just been picked up from the gutter oil. He was so sick by the smell that he almost threw up.

He thought of the cup of tea Chen Pingdao had given him the night before, and...

"Oh, no! I have to go to the Affiliated Hospital of Shan City Medical University today!" Ning Tao suddenly remembered this. Instantly, he started running down the hill, no longer cared about the old house or Chen Pingdao.

The slopes were pathless and steep, strewn with rocks and vines.

Ning Tao raced, ignoring whether it was dangerous.

Suddenly a stone about two meters high appeared on his way. He unconsciously jumped up. With the whistle of the wind, he jumped over the stone!

Then Ning Tao was shocked to remember what Chen Pingdao had said. "Does that little Nirvana Elixir really have that effect? Who the hell is Chen Pingdao? No, what kind of dog is he? After checking in at the hospital, I must go to that clinic to have a look!"

The he ran all the way...

Two hours later.

Ning Tao stood outside the personnel department office of the Affiliated Hospital of Shan City Medical University and straightened the short-sleeved shirt with pilling neckline.

Just as he raised his hand to knock on the door, a coquettish female voice came from behind the door, "Uncle Ma, this is Yang Hai's file. Please have a look."

Ning Tao's hand instantly paused in the air. He seemed to have heard the voice, and it belonged to Tang Ling. He felt very strange that Yang Hai did not get the internship qualification of the Affiliated Hospital of Shan City Medical University due to his poor grades. So why was his file sent to the personnel department?

"Yang Hai isn't here?" A man's voice came from the office.

"He has an important visitor to his house, and he has to entertain the guest, so he asked me to bring his file here. Is that okay?" Asked the girl's voice.

"Sure, sure. He just wants an experience. With his family connections, he would sooner or later become an official in the health system. Please take care of me by then."

"Uncle Ma, don't make fun of me... The one to be replaced..."

Ning Tao knocked on the door, not wanting to hear any more of this disgusting conversation.

"Come in." Said the man's voice.

Then Ning Tao pushed the door open and walked into the office.

There was a man and a girl in the office. As he guessed, the girl was Tang Ling. The man was apparently Ma Fuquan, the chief of the personnel department at the hospital.

He was a little surprised to see Tang Ling in Ma Fuquan's office, but he kept a calm expression on his face and politely said, "Chief Ma, I'm Ning Tao, a senior from Shan City Medical University. I'm here to report for duty."

Ma Fuquan cast a glance at Tang Ling and Tang Ling nodded.

"You are Ning Tao?" Ma Fuquan stood up and questioned in a lukewarm voice, "What time is it?"

Ning Tao certainly knew what time it was. He braced himself and replied, "It's... ten o'clock."

Ma Fuquan's tone turned harsh. "How can you stand here when you know it's ten o'clock? You're two hours late!" He snapped. "Maybe you will two hours late for your surgery in the future when you're two hours late for your first check-in. It's a matter of life! Leave, we don't want people with no sense of time!"

Ning Tao hurriedly explained, "Chief Ma, I'm in a little bit of a special situation..."

"Shut up!" Ma Fuquan interrupted him rudely. "I don't want to hear any of your explanations!"

"How could this be?"

Ning Tao felt buzzing and aching in his head.

Tang Ling looked at him with glee and sneered, "Some people are so shameless. What are you still doing here?"

Ning Tao's eyes suddenly fall on a form on the desk, and he saw his name crossed out and filled in Yang Hai's name instead. At once he understood the meaning of the conversation he had heard outside the door. It was he who was replaced and it had nothing to do with his being late but was premeditated.

"Chief Ma!" Ning Tao fumed and questioned, "You gave my spot to Yang Hai, didn't you? How could you do that? You must give me a convincing explanation!"

Tang Ling moved across and took Yang Hai's file bag to cover the form.

"What are you? Why do I have to explain to you! Get out of here, or I'll set you straight!" Ma Fuquan snarled while walking over to Ning Tao.

Bang!

Ning Tao felt that his head seemed to have been hit by a hammer and he had a sudden blackout. He swayed and almost fell to the ground. The sensation of agony lasted only a second and then disappeared. When his vision returned to his eyes, he found that everything he saw had changed.

In his vision, Ma Fuquan and Tang Ling were both wrapped in a colorful ball of aura that formed an eggshell-shaped field. Different colors corresponded to different body parts. The skin had the aura, and so had the stomach, the liver, the large intestine and other organs.

He saw that he also had the aura, and it was rather strange, half white and half black; the white aura looked pure, and the black appeared deep.

Ning Tao felt like something just woke up in his body.

"Get out of here!" In front of Ning Tao, Ma Fuquan pushed him on his shoulder.

Boom!

Ning Tao completely exploded!

"Son of a bitch!" Ning Tao bellowed and punched Ma Fuquan in the face.

Bang!

The collision between the fist and the face made Ma Fuquan's nose out of joint immediately, blood gushing out, and one of Ma Fuquan's front teeth knocked out, flying out with blood.

"Ah..." Ma Fuquan's shriek was as shrill as a slaughtered pig.

"You jerk!" Ning Tao roared like a wild animal. Before Ma Fuquan fell to the ground, Ning Tao kicked him in the belly.

Bam!

Ma Fuquan was kicked into the air, knocked over the desk, and then fell to the ground. The cell phone, folders, pens, ink and so on were scattered all over the floor.

Ma Fuquan was kicked into a coma.

"Ah..." Tang Ling screamed and fainted.

Ning Tao looked at the two on the ground, his eyes turning from cold to calm. Then he turned and walked out of the office. He was going to leave the hospital for Chen Pingdao's clinic.