"Help me!" A weak voice sounded from a distance.
That voice caught Su Tao's attention since those two words were familiar to him; they were Mandarin. Instantly, that voice brought him a sense of intimacy to hear it in another country.
The voice came from Lisa, who was being suppressed by Sergei.
Hence, he kicked Marksim away and walked over then slapped Sergei before making a gesture to Lisa. "Come!"
At this moment, Lisa's clothes were in a mess, but she gave a complicated look towards Su Tao before she replied in Mandarin, "Thank you!"
"Why do you know how to speak Mandarin?" Su Tao looked at Lisa.
Nodding her head, Lisa replied, "Because I lived near the border when I was young, and there were many Chinese there."
Since Sergei hadn't witnessed Su Tao and Jiang Qinghan's skills, he was furious at this man and roared, "You will pay the price for your actions!"
"What is he saying?" Su Tao looked at Lisa in perplexion since he couldn't understand Russian.
"He wants to take revenge on you…" Lisa translated, worried.
Inwardly cursing, Su Tao hated this sort of people the most. You're already stepped on the ground, and yet, you're still not repentant?
Thus, he lifted his leg and lashed Sergei's face, throwing the fatty out like a ball and crashing against the table.
Covering her mouth in disbelief, Lisa looked at this Chinese man before her. In her impression, Chinese men would usually be quiet and endure. So even if there's a conflict, they would definitely not be the ones to make a move.
"Let's go. I think that you will need a change of workplace." Su Tao shrugged at Lisa.
Lisa knew that there's no way she could remain in this nightclub after today's matters so she nodded her head.
Looking at her sad expression, Su Tao decided that since he was going to save her, then he might as well go all the way with it.
"You've not been paid for this month?" He asked.
Shaking her head, Lisa replied, "No!"
Walking over to Marksim and Victor, Su Tao said, "Translate. Get him to pay this lady's salary now!"
At this moment, Marksim only wanted to send this fiend off, so his lips trembled and agreed, "Alright!"
After that, he took out the ₽20,000 that Sergei gave him. "She can have it all. It has already exceeded the promised salary."
Passing the money over to Lisa, Su Tao said, "Here's your salary! I suggest that you find a normal job in the future. It's too dangerous for a lady like you to work in this sort of environment."
Holding onto the money, Lisa was emotional as she looked at Su Tao with tears welling up in her eyes. At this moment, she couldn't describe her emotion in words.
As the three of them came out of the nightclub, Jiang Qinghan smiled as she looked at Lisa's disappearing figure. "I never expected that you would bring your beauty saving crusade to Russia."
"That lady is pretty lucky and smart. She managed to recognise that I'm a Chinese under that sort of situation and cried out for help. Otherwise, I'm afraid that we wouldn't help her. But even if I helped her this time, I'm afraid that I won't be there to save her next time." Su Tao smiled.
"Why?" Jiang Qinghan was surprised as she looked at Su Tao.
"That lady's family circumstances are ordinary, and she was forced by the circumstances of life to work here. She needs money, or she wouldn't have taken the money that I gave to her without any hesitation. For the time being, she can't change her family. Hence, she can only change herself by lowering her head. Perhaps she still has her bottom line when she was forced by that wealthy businessman and chose to cry out for help, but this bottom line will disappear one day. In the end, she will still choose to walk on this path of no return." Su Tao explained.
As Jiang Qinghan fell into a brief silence, she suggested, "Why don't we chase after her?"
"Why?" Su Tao was surprised.
A charming smile was revealed on Jiang Qinghan's lips as she continued, "It's fate that brought us together, so we should help her; however we can."
Su Tao never expected that his words would spark the righteousness in Jiang Qinghan's heart.
Hence, the two of them chased after Lisa, who looked at the two of them in surprise.
"Don't misunderstand! We're following you because we're worried that those people might come and take revenge against you. Perhaps they might not be able to find us, but they definitely know where you stay." Jiang Qinghan explained.
Truth be told, Lisa was somewhat worried since Marksim was notorious in this district. Looking at the two of them, she expressed her gratitude, "Thank you!"
The lowest rung existed in every and any city. Although Lisa worked in the most luxurious district in Moscow, she lived beyond the third ring, the sleeping district. As the name implied, people only return to sleep since they're working most of the time.
Boarding the railway was part of the common folk's life. It's so much so that there were even people who would take the railway to treat their insomnia from the rocky rhythm.
When Su Tao and Jiang Qinghan came to Lisa's home, the situation was worse than they had imagined. Even if Moscow was a massive city, the lifestyle of common folks was extremely terrible; it was comparable to China's third-tiered cities. There's a simple five-story building. Not only was the alley narrow, but it's also filled with a peculiar stench. The residential buildings were mostly designed in rectangle shapes with prefabricated panelled structures. Although there were individual bathrooms and kitchens, the space was tiny.
"Mom, I'm back. I've brought two guests with me!" Lisa placed the loaves of bread she bought from the nearby shop and placed them on the table before she went into the room to look at her paralysed mother, Susana.
Her siblings were extremely young, they only seemed to be 12 or 13. When they saw that Lisa had bought sausages aside from the bread, their eyes were glued on the food and started drooling.
"Why are you so early today?" Susana asked, curiously.
"The restaurant's business wasn't good today, so the boss let me go early. Are you feeling any discomfort?" Lisa noticed that the cup was empty, so she went to look for the kettle. But when she saw that the kettle was also empty, she immediately turned to her siblings and reprimanded, "Mom doesn't have any water to take her medicine, so can't the two of you boil some?"
"Don't blame them! I told them not to boil water since the gas was finished. The two of them can't change it." Susana immediately spoke up to help her two younger children.
Thereafter, Lisa gave a bitter smile to Su Tao and Jiang Qinghan before she changed the gas and boiled water while preparing dinner.
She had to fill the stomachs of her mother and siblings. But most importantly, she had to receive her benefactors. Otherwise, she wouldn't have bought luxurious stuff such as sausages.
"Lisa, your mother has been paralysed for at least a decade, right?" Su Tao inwardly sighed since it's not easy for Lisa, a lady, to support the entire family by herself.
"Yeah, how did you manage to tell?" Lisa looked at Su Tao in shock.
"I'm a physician, so I managed to see through your mother's condition." Su Tao smiled.
Standing to the side, Jiang Qinghan winked her eye. "His medical skills are superb, so you have to grasp this opportunity well!"
Looking at Su Tao in shock, Lisa's greatest wish was to save up enough money to treat her mother.
Even the doctors said that there's a high chance for her mother to recover, but it's a pity that they didn't have any money and had to give up.
"But I don't have any money!" Lisa bitterly smiled as she continued, "Treating my mother should cost a lot, right?"
Hearing those words, Su Tao sighed. Lisa was more sensible than he had imagined. Noticing Jiang Qinghan's gaze, he said, "I can treat your mother for free!"
"Is that true?" Lisa bounced up from her seat, forgetting the sausages in the pot and nearly burnt them.
"It's true." Su Tao smiled as he continued, "Don't overcook the sausages, or they won't taste good. When you're done cooking, I will start treating your mother."
At this moment, Lisa was so emotional that she was a little sloppy when she cooked. However, it had been a long time since her siblings tasted sausages, so they did not have any complaints and swiftly swept everything clean. Even Jiang Qinghan and Su Tao gave them their portion of sausages as well.
After dinner, Su Tao began to start treating Susana. Because Susana has lived in the borders for a longer period, her Mandarin was smoother than Lisa.
"Can I really stand up?" Susana was emotional as she continued, "It has been so many years, and it was tough on Lisa. If I can regain my ability to walk and work, then she won't have to work so hard anymore."
Taking Susana's pulse, Su Tao concluded that a stroke caused her paralysis.
In ancient times, strokes were differentiated between internal and external. External meant a stroke caused by a chill, causing the energies in the body to go chaotic, leading to the vessels in the brain to be clogged or blood overflowing in the brain with signs such as lower body paralysis, numbing in the limbs, unclear speech, crooked mouth, and one-sided body paralysis. But nowadays, most strokes meant internal strokes.
Putting it in a nutshell, a stroke lied in the imbalance of blood flow that resulted in the inequality of Yin and Yang. Susana's case resulted from the insufficient energy in her liver. Hence, if Su Tao wanted to treat her stroke, he would have to start from her liver.
Thus, he started performing acupuncture on the Zujue Liver Channel of the Foot with a total of twenty-eight acupoints before targeting the lower-body paralysis, using acupoints such as Jianyu, Quchi, Waiguan, Hegu, Huantiao, Weizhong, Zusanli, Yanglingquan, Taichong, Peixue, Shousanli, Dazhu, Fenshi, and Chenshan.
This was a commonly used method by physicians to treat stroke patients.
However, Su Tao noticed that since Susana has been paralysed for a long time, her physique was weak with weakened energy in her kidneys. So when he finished performing acupuncture on her, he even gave her a pellet that he concocted to nourish her kidneys.
Half an hour later, Susana felt heat surging from her acupoints circulating throughout her body.
Knocking on Susana's leg, Su Tao asked, "Can you feel anything?"
"I can!" Susana rejoiced as she continued, "I can feel my legs again! My legs!"
Seeing this, Su Tao breathed out in relief since the treatment went well. He had used acupuncture to clear her meridians, but Susana still had to use medicine to nourish her body for a full recovery.
Writing down a prescription for Lisa, Su Tao said, "Find a TCM pharmacy, buy the herbs according to this prescription and give them to your mother twice a day. In just three months, aunty will be able to walk again."
"Thank you!" Lisa immediately stepped up and tightly hugged Su Tao.
