Open A Clinic To Cultivate Myself Chapter 15 A Kind Female Thief

The afternoon sun was strong. There was not a breath of wind. It was terribly hot.

Ning Tao was in a snack bar, eating rice noodles with fried sauce and looking at the neighborhood across the street.

It was the Happy Community. A dozen brick and concrete buildings stood on a small plot of land, with little greenery and some cracks on many of the walls. Apparently, the buildings were of poor quality.

The Happy Community was the settlement for the villagers whose houses were forcibly demolished by Ron. Ron tore down their home, gave them little compensation, and then cajoled them to buy houses in the Happy Community using their savings. This way, Ron made a lot of money, while these people suffered.

A girl walked into the snack bar and ordered a bowl of rice noodles.

Ning Tao glanced at her. The girl was about 18 years old, with a refined and delicate face and a pair of sparkling, black eyes. She was wearing a thin cotton T-s.h.i.+rt and a pair of very short hot pants. Her snow-white thighs were exposed to the air. She was full of youthful vigor and charm.

The girl shot Ning Tao a fierce look, as if dissatisfied with him looking at her.

Ning Tao took his eyes off her and got up to pay the owner who was cooking the rice noodles. When the owner looked for change for him, he thought, "This is not going to work. I have only a few hundred left, and the clinic doesn't make any money, but I have to eat. I have to find a way to make money."

"Young man, didn't the rice noodles taste good?" the owner asked as she noticed the dismal look on Ning Tao's face.

Ning Tao put away the change and casually said, "No, it tastes good. You do what you got to do."

The owner of the snack bar replied politely, "Good, welcome to come again."

Ning Tao went back to the table where he just sat and surprised to find that his small medicine chest was gone, along with the girl. He looked out into the street, but there was no one there.

At this time, the owner of the snack bar came over with a bowl of rice noodles. "Where is that customer?" she murmured, startled.

"Boss, do you know that girl?" inquired Ning Tao.

The owner of the snack bar morosely answered, "No, I don't know. Bad luck! How could she deceive me! Is it easy for me to run this small business?"

It turned out that they had met a thief.

Ning Tao sniffed and quickly identified the girl's scent. He walked out of the snack bar and followed the scent left by the girl.

Now he was in a suburb of Shan City. It was a remote place with roads but no buses. The girl came on foot without using any means of transportation. Ning Tao could tell from the two clues that the girl lived nearby.

With the scorching sun directly overhead, Ning Tao was dizzy and angry. "I'm so poor and you stole from me. When I catch you, I must let you have a sunbath too!"

Ten minutes later, he came to the end of the road and a shabby two-story building came into view. In front of the building were a courtyard and a large rusty iron gate with a plaque reading "Suns.h.i.+ne Orphanage" on the lintel.

The girl's smell reached into the iron gate, the yard and the building.

"Is she an orphan?" This information surprised Ning Tao. He reached out and knocked on the door.

Knock knock!

Ning Tao didn't use much strength, but the old iron door made a loud noise.

"Who is it?" asked a childish voice, and the sound of shuffling.

When the iron gate opened, a little girl with a dirty face stood behind it and looked at Ning Tao with curious eyes. The girl was about six years old, wearing a large boy's unders.h.i.+rt that almost covered her whole body.

"Who do you want, uncle?" the little girl asked in a childish voice.

Ning Tao crouched in front of her, all smiles, and asked, "h.e.l.lo, what's your name?"

"I'm Li Xiaoyu, and I'm six years old," replied the little girl.

Ning Tao gently touched Li Xiaoyu's head and said, "Good girl. I want to see a big girl who has beautiful eyes. She lives here. Can you take me to her?"

Li Xiaoyu tilted her head and said, "Are you wanting to see Sister Su Ya, uncle?"

Ning Tao beamed and replied, "Yes, I want to see Sister Su Ya."

Li Xiaoyu said, "Uncle, come in and I'll take you to her."

Ning Tao went in. Li Xiaoyu pushed the iron door with her little hands, but she was too small to close it.

"Let me help you." Ning Tao reached out and closed the big iron door for Li Xiaoyu.

Li Xiaoyu then led the way. "Uncle," she said, "this is an orphanage. We are all orphans. Why don't you donate some money to us?" She looked back at Ning Tao and then added, "If you don't have any money, you can donate clothes and food as well."

Xiaoyu's small eyes made Ning Tao speechless. "Uncle will buy Xiaoyu some candies later."

Li Xiaoyu grinned broadly at Ning Tao and politely said, "Thank you, uncle. I want chips and chocolate! Everybody, come out quickly. There's an uncle coming to see us, and he will buy candies for us!"

What a generous girl! She had not received the candies when she started calling her friends to share.

A large group of children ran out of different rooms and soon surrounded Ning Tao, reaching out to him for candy. They were very young, between three and ten years old. Their clothes were torn and dirty. One little boy even wore a girl's skirt, looking quite miserable.

Feeling a pang in his heart, Ning Tao took all the money out of his pocket and put it into Li Xiaoyu's hand. "Uncle only has so much money. Take it to buy delicious snacks with your friends."

"Uncle, it's very kind of you. Thank you, uncle. I'll take you to Sister Su Ya first." Li Xiaoyu was honeymouthed. She clutched the money of over 100 yuan tightly in her hand and led Ning Tao to a tile-roofed house on the side of the building.

The large group of children followed them, exclaiming, bouncing and vivacious, happier than on Children's Day.

Near the tile-roofed house, Ning Tao raised his head and cast a glance at the roof of the building. Then he followed Li Xiaoyu as she opened the door and went in.

Inside, Ning Tao saw a woman in bed. She was about sixty, pale, and her hair, which had not been washed for a long time, was greasy. On a small table beside the bed was a bowl of brown decoction, and a clay pot for boiling medicine, in which was a good half-pot of the dregs of the decoction. There was also a stack of boxes of western medicine on the small table, and a laminated work card with her photo and name on it. She was Zhou Yufeng, the director of Suns.h.i.+ne Orphanage.

In one corner of the room was an electric fan, which was working, but it was still very hot in the room. The most valuable item in the house was a Changhong television. Yet it had not a LCD screen, appearing old, and there were even some flies on the dirty screen.

Zhou Yufeng closed her eyes and didn't seem to notice anyone coming into her room.

The girl was not in the room.

Ning Tao's eyes fell on Zhou Yufeng's face. In his eyes, Zhou Yufeng's body was filled with a ma.s.s of colorful air. Different colors correspond to different organs. Besides, hundreds of smells poured into his nostrils, including the smell of Zhou Yufeng's entrails.

After only a few seconds of looking and smelling, Ning Tao already knew Zhou Yufeng's condition. She was suffering from cirrhosis and had signs of ascites. If she had enough money to go to a major hospital for a liver transplant, she would survive, but she clearly couldn't afford it.

"It's strange. Sister Su Ya was in the house just now. Where is she?" Li Xiaoyu looked around the room with a puzzled expression on her face.

Ning Tao replied, "Your Sister Su Ya is on the roof. Go to the roof and tell her I want to talk to her." Then he added, "Well, ask her to bring my box. I can treat Aunt Zhou."

"Are you a doctor, uncle?" Li Xiaoyu asked curiously.

Ning Tao nodded with a smile. "Yeah, hurry up."

"Uncle, can you cure our director?" Li Xiaoyu asked.

"Sure, go," Ning Tao urged.

"Great, I'll get Sister Su Ya right away!" Li Xiaoyu turned and ran out of the door.

Ning Tao came to the bedside, subconsciously wanted to take out the ledger of bamboo slips to check Zhou Yufeng's merits of good intention before he remembered that the ledger was in the small medicine chest which had been stolen by the pretty female thief named Su Ya.

Then Zhou Yufeng, lying on the bed, slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Ning Tao and said in a weak voice, "Young man, I heard your conversation with Xiaoyu... Ahem... "

Ning Tao leaned over to the bed and responded solicitously, "Aunt Zhou, speak slowly and don't worry. I'm not a bad person."

"Su Ya is not a bad girl... She, she stole things for the children in the orphanage... Don't sue her... Don't hurt her... I beg you... " Zhou Yufeng spoke disjointedly and struggled to get up.

Ning Tao put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Aunt Zhou, don't worry, I won't hurt her. Rest a.s.sured."

In fact, without Zhou Yufeng putting in good words for Su Ya, Ning Tao had formed his own judgment based on what he had seen and felt in the orphanage. The girl named Su Ya did not steal things for herself, but for the poor children in the orphanage, and the sick director Zhou. She was a kind-hearted grand theft.

"Uncle, I found Sister Su Ya!" Li Xiaoyu ran in through the door with a serious look on her face as if she had finished an important task.

Ning Tao turned and saw Li Xiaoyu and Su Ya, the girl he met at the snack bar. She stood outside the door, looking nervous, holding his medicine chest.

"You... " Su Ya wanted to say something, but she only said one word.

"Aunt Zhou, you take a rest, I go out to have a word with Su Ya. I'll come back soon." Ning Tao walked over to Su Ya.

Zhou Yufeng sighed and said nothing.

"Uncle, can I go to the concession stand with my friends to buy some candies?" Li Xiaoyu asked after Ning Tao.

Ning Tao reached out and patted her on the head. "Of course," he said with a smile.

Li Xiaoyu then ran away.

Su Ya said, "You are really a foodie. Cross the road carefully."

Li Xiaoyu looked back at Su Ya and put out her tongue at her.

Ning Tao was amused by her, but somehow he felt heavy.