A moment later, the young man with yellow hair finally snapped out of his shock, his face etched with embarrassment. "Doctor Chen, why don't you just beat us up? This, this thing, how can we possibly eat it."
The young man who had just eaten a cockroach felt his stomach churn again, retching several times, tears welling up in his eyes.
Chen Fan glanced at the yellow-haired youth, then fixed his gaze on Brother Hu.
Brother Hu quickly said respectfully, "Doctor Chen, please instruct me."
"Deal with them exactly as he threatened to deal with me earlier."
Brother Hu nodded and looked at his subordinates. "What are you all waiting for? Didn't you hear Doctor Chen? Break their hands and feet, make them useless for the rest of their lives!"
His subordinates immediately surrounded the four young men, including the one with yellow hair.
The yellow-haired youth was terrified. He had meant a beating, not having his limbs broken!
In an instant, the four of them turned ashen with fear and quickly pleaded with Chen Fan, "Doctor Chen, we were wrong, we'll eat, eat, we'll eat them now!"
With that, the yellow-haired youth opened the glass bottle, reached in, and pulled out two cockroaches.
The other three youths could only follow suit. After a moment, each of the four held two cockroaches in their hands, their mouths opening and closing several times, unable to bring themselves to eat.
"Damn it, you bunch of sissies! If you don't eat them now, I'll have you crippled!"
Brother Hu's words finally forced the four young men to put the cockroaches into their mouths.
All four felt a wave of nausea, wanting to spit them out.
"Anyone who dares to spit them out, I'll cripple him immediately!" However, Brother Hu's voice scared the four into swallowing the cockroaches in their mouths with a gulp.
The onlookers around them all recoiled a couple of steps in disgust.
A young man who had been eating a chicken leg found that it no longer tasted good, even gagging a few times.
Seeing that all four had eaten the cockroaches, Brother Hu respectfully turned to Chen Fan again. "Doctor Chen, is this satisfactory?"
Chen Fan scanned the chaotic stall. "What do you think?"
Brother Hu immediately understood Chen Fan's meaning and reprimanded the yellow-haired youth, "You bastards! You've messed up someone's stall like this, why aren't you paying them back quickly!"
The yellow-haired youth felt utterly wronged. If he had known he would have to eat cockroaches and pay money today, he wouldn't have left home even if he were beaten to death!
He pulled out the only five hundred yuan he had from his pocket and tremblingly handed it to the proprietress.
Chen Fan said coldly, "Get lost."
"Yes, yes!"
The yellow-haired youth and the other three heard these words as if they were heavenly music.
They had never felt such a desperate longing and excitement for the word "get lost." They immediately scrambled to their feet and disappeared into the crowd.
"You can go now too." Chen Fan, seeing the yellow-haired youth leave, instructed Brother Hu.
Brother Hu nodded quickly, got into the two vans with his men, and left the street.
"Doctor Chen, Doctor Qin, thank you, thank you! If it weren't for you, my little shop would probably be ruined. Without this shop, my daughter probably wouldn't have much time left." The proprietress, with her daughter in her arms, came to express her gratitude to Chen Fan and Qin Shuran.
Qin Shuran frowned slightly and looked at the proprietress. "Sister, what's wrong with your daughter?"
The proprietress wiped the tears from her eyes. "My daughter was diagnosed with leukemia last year. I opened this shop to earn money for her treatment."
"And your husband?" Qin Shuran asked again.
Mentioning her husband, a look of despair crossed the proprietress's face. "He abandoned us long ago. He used to gamble all day, and when he came home, he'd either take money or ask me to borrow money. After knowing our daughter had leukemia, he ran away and hasn't been seen for over a year."
Hearing this, Qin Shuran thought of the youths from earlier and said indignantly, "Men are indeed all worthless! Such people don't deserve to be fathers!"
Chen Fan, standing nearby, awkwardly touched his nose. Wasn't he being dragged into this?
Just then, the little girl in the proprietress's arms looked at Chen Fan and said, "Big brother is a good person. Big brother, can you be Xiao Ling'er's daddy?"
"Cough cough!" Chen Fan was startled by the little girl's words.
"Xiao Ling'er, don't talk nonsense." The proprietress's face flushed, and she scolded the little girl in her arms.
The little girl pouted, looking wronged. "But Xiao Ling'er wants a daddy too."
The proprietress's nose twitched, and tears began to stream down her face.
Chen Fan looked at the scene before him, deeply moved. He then said to the proprietress, "Your daughter's illness isn't hopeless. I have a treatment method that can cure Xiao Ling'er's leukemia."
The proprietress suddenly looked up, her eyes wide with surprise. "Doctor Chen, are you serious?"
Qin Shuran, standing beside them, looked at Chen Fan in disbelief. Leukemia only had one path: bone marrow transplant, followed by daily medication to suppress rejection, meaning a lifetime of medication.
Besides this treatment, there was no other way to treat leukemia in the world.
Chen Fan's claim that he could cure it made even Qin Shuran find it incredible.
"Of course, it's true. However, this treatment might be a bit troublesome. It requires daily acupuncture to stimulate her immune cells to reactivate, and she'll need to take some Chinese medicine." Chen Fan nodded.
The proprietress's face was filled with excitement. "It's not troublesome, not troublesome at all! As long as Xiao Ling'er can be cured, nothing is troublesome!"
Chen Fan instructed, "I work at Jiangcheng City Mental Hospital as a surgeon. Bring Xiao Ling'er tomorrow. I'll give her acupuncture first. For the Chinese medicine, I'll give you a prescription. Buy the ingredients according to the proportions, then boil the medicine for her to take. One dose a day, and in about a month, her leukemia will be cured."
"A month!" The proprietress and Qin Shuran exclaimed in unison.
Chen Fan said sheepishly, "A month is the shortest possible time. If we shorten it further, I'm afraid her body won't be able to handle it."
The proprietress quickly explained, "No, no, Doctor Chen, let alone a month, even five months or a year is fine. I never imagined this illness could be cured in a month."
Chen Fan replied, "It can be cured in a month. I'll write down the prescription for you now."
Saying this, Chen Fan sat down with paper and pen and began to write. Soon, he handed a prescription to the proprietress.
The proprietress, both excited and cautious, put the prescription into her pocket.
"Mommy, I know why big brother doesn't want to be my daddy," Xiao Ling'er said at this moment, looking up at her mother.
Chen Fan smiled and asked, "Why?"
Xiao Ling'er pointed at Chen Fan and Qin Shuran and said in her childish voice, "Because big brother and big sister are a couple, you're dating."
Instantly, Qin Shuran's face flushed a deep red.