The morning sun cast golden streaks across the village square as Chief Hu pounded the assembly drum with more force than necessary. The villagers gathered slowly, rubbing sleep from their eyes, muttering about the ungodly hour.
Lin Xiao stood off to the side, arms crossed, trying—and failing—to look modest. His foot tapped impatiently against the dirt.
"Listen up!" Chief Hu barked, his voice carrying across the crowd. "This concerns all of you. As of today, Lin Xiao will be serving as our village physician."
A beat of silence.
Then—chaos.
Old Man Li nearly choked on his pipe. "That good-for-nothing? The same Lin Xiao who sold me 'magic beans' that turned out to be goat droppings?"
Auntie Mei huffed. "Last week, he told my daughter staring at the moon would make her hair grow faster!"
Lin Xiao cleared his throat loudly. "Those were... preliminary treatments. This is different. I have *skills* now."
Chief Hu rubbed his temples. "Like it or not, the boy fixed Xiaoyu's ailment when no one else could. That's enough for me."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Some of the younger women eyed Lin Xiao with cautious interest. The men scowled.
Widow Zhao leaned against a post near the back, her lips curled in amusement.
---
**Two Days Later**
The abandoned house at the edge of the square had been transformed—or at least, Lin Xiao had *tried* to transform it.
A crooked sign hung above the door: *"Doctor Lin Xiao's Clinic – Cures Guaranteed (Probably)"* (The extra 'a' in 'guaranteed' went unnoticed by its creator.)
Inside, the space was... functional. A wobbly table served as his desk, littered with herbs, a half-empty bottle of something questionable, and an acupuncture doll he'd "borrowed" from the previous village doctor's discarded belongings. A threadbare curtain partitioned off a back area—ostensibly for examinations, though Lin Xiao had other ideas involving certain patients.
He leaned back in his chair, boots propped up, twirling a needle between his fingers.
"Any minute now," he muttered.
Outside, villagers passed by. Some peeked in. None entered.
A child dared his friend to touch the doorframe before sprinting away, shrieking. A chicken wandered inside, pecked at a stray herb, and left unimpressed.
Lin Xiao sighed.
---
**Day Three**
The clinic was silent.
Lin Xiao had resorted to tossing his needle up and catching it—over and over—just to stave off boredom.
*Maybe I should've stuck to selling fake talismans,* he thought glumly.
The afternoon sun hung heavy over the village when the screaming started.
Lin Xiao was slumped over his clinic's desk, a drool stain slowly spreading across a half-finished inventory of herbs, when the door exploded inward. A dust-covered boy - maybe twelve, all knees and elbows - stood panting in the doorway, his chest heaving.
"Doctor Lin! Come quick! It's Old Tian - snake got him! He's... he's foaming like a mad dog!"
Lin Xiao's head snapped up, a strand of hair sticking to his cheek where the herb paste had glued it. For one glorious moment, he considered this might be an elaborate prank. Then the distant wails from the rice fields reached his ears, and he was moving before his chair finished toppling over.
---
The Rice Field,
A circle of villagers stood like statues around the thrashing figure in the dirt. Old Tian, normally as sturdy as the oxen he tended, now convulsed in the mud, his face slick with sweat and spittle. White foam bubbled between his clenched teeth. His left leg had swollen grotesquely, the skin stretched shiny and purple around two angry puncture marks.
"Golden-Stripe Viper," muttered the blacksmith, backing away as if the very words were poisonous. "My cousin died from one last summer. Took him before sundown."
The village midwife pressed a damp cloth to Old Tian's forehead, her mouth a grim line. "Someone fetch the town physician-"
"That's six hours' ride!" a woman shrieked. "He'll be cold by moonrise!"
A hush fell over the crowd. Then, smooth as silk:
"Take him to Lin Xiao."
Every head turned. Widow Zhao stood at the edge of the field, her arms crossed beneath her chest, one eyebrow arched. "Unless," she purred, "you'd prefer to dig a grave instead?"
---
The Clinic,
They carried Old Tian in on a door ripped from its hinges, his breath coming in wet, ragged gasps. Lin Xiao's fingers twitched at his sides.
Golden-Stripe Viper. Neurotoxin. Paralyzes the lungs. Fast.
Thank every god and demon he'd spent the last three days combing the hills for herbs out of sheer boredom.
"On the table," Lin Xiao snapped, his voice sharper than any scalpel. For once, no jokes. No smirks.
His vision shifted, the world narrowing to the poison's path through Old Tian's body - dark tendrils creeping toward the heart. No time.
The villagers watched, dumbstruck, as Lin Xiao became someone they'd never seen:
1. The Knife: A flash of steel, and the bite site wept black. Old Tian howled. Lin Xiao didn't flinch.
2. The Paste: Blueheart Root and Frostpetal crushed between stones, the resulting sludge packed into the wound with bare fingers.
3. The Brew: Serpent's Bane and Sunspike steeped in boiling water, the stench like rotten eggs and lightning. Lin Xiao pinched Old Tian's nose shut and poured it down his throat.
Minutes stretched like taffy. The only sounds were the crackling fire and Old Tian's labored breathing.
Then - a miracle.
The farmer's convulsions eased. The foam dried to a crust at his lips. His chest rose and fell in something almost resembling rhythm.
A collective gasp rippled through the room. Someone dropped a clay cup. It shattered like the village's doubt.
---
Dusk
Old Tian's eyes fluttered open as the last light bled from the sky. He blinked up at the faces hovering over him, his gaze finally landing on Lin Xiao.
"...Am I dead?" he croaked. "Why's the village idiot here?"
The tension shattered into laughter. Even Chief Hu cracked a smile.
Lin Xiao, leaning against the wall with arms crossed, allowed himself a smirk. "Sorry to disappoint. You're stuck with us a while longer."
One by one, the villagers looked at him - really looked. The same infuriating grin. The same mischief in his eyes. But something new flickered beneath the surface - something that made the women stop giggling behind their sleeves and the men stop rolling their eyes.