Chapter 5 The Poor Relative

A one-year probation period? Don’t they usually last only three months? Brittany pondered inwardly. At last, it dawned on her: this guy must be one of Ma’am Jessica’s poor relatives. Jessica didn’t actually like the fellow, but to not to turn down a relative’s request, she set a one-year probation—she didn’t intend to keep him around! Jessica, however, was considering the marital contract set by her grandfather. If he couldn’t be saved, was she expected to continue this trial marriage with this man for a year? It felt like a loss. Michael and Master Christopher had both declared her grandfather beyond saving. So, letting this guy have a try wouldn’t hurt—after all, he himself said if he couldn’t save her grandfather, he would leave immediately.

“Go ahead,” Jessica consented with a nod. Brittany wouldn’t dare go against Jessica’s wishes, but she still suspected Daniel’s motives. Pointing a finger right at his nose, she said, “If there’s no reaction after your first needle, you stop immediately and get out!” “Okay.” Daniel agreed and proceeded to insert the first needle, leaving everyone dumbstruck. That black and unimpressive needle was placed on the tip of Joseph’s nose. “There’s no acupoint on the nose tip!

You’re just poking randomly! You are disrespecting the body!” criticized Christopher disdainfully. Beep! Beep, beep! The monitor came back to life, the previously zeroed numbers now changing, albeit faintly. Hope reignited in the hearts of all present, especially in Jessica’s. “Is granddad alive?” she asked Daniel expectantly. “Yeah.” “Yeah right! He’s just poking around. Maybe he’s hit a nerve by pure luck, causing some reflex. He hasn’t truly brought anyone back to life,” Brittany blurted out, refusing to believe that a mere poke on the nose could save Joseph. Amid the disbelief, the monitor showed greater fluctuations. Joseph’s face color started returning, and his fingertips twitched slightly.

Jessica, ready to scold Daniel, swallowed back her words at the sight. Christopher was stupefied. Despite studying extraordinary acupuncture skills in the East, he had never heard of a technique involving a needle in the eye—that would just burst the eyeball! Yet, not only did Joseph seem fine, but his vitals were also improving. Were the signs from the monitors and Joseph’s body telling them he was really being revived? “Has granddad come back to life?” “Yeah,” Daniel affirmed once again. Brittany was speechless. Though she did not believe Daniel had revived Joseph, the undeniable evidence was right before her eyes. Both the remarkable changes in Joseph’s body and the data on the monitors could attest that Daniel had indeed brought him back to life. “It’s just a momentary recovery before death,” Christopher insisted, adamantly disbelieving even the iron-clad evidence before him. How could a man he failed to save be revived by this unknown individual? Should word of this get out, his reputation would be utterly destroyed.

Joseph could not be revived; he had to die! Daniel quickened his pace. After seven needles, Joseph’s face color had almost fully returned, and the monitor showed his vitals nearly back to normal. But still, Joseph remained unconscious, not yet awakened. Seeing Daniel remove all seven needles and return them to the little iron box, Jessica asked urgently, “Is granddad really alive?” “Of course!” “Of course, nothing! This is just the final flickers of life; soon, those numbers will return to zero,” Andrew scoffed, disbelieving Joseph’s revival. “If he’s truly alive, why hasn’t Mr. Joseph woken up? Why hasn’t he opened his eyes? When Master Christopher was treating him, Mr. Joseph at least sat up. All your fiddling has done is make his fingers twitch; he can’t even sit up.” Andrew’s words stirred Jessica’s anxiety once more. She had already been through a tumultuous rollercoaster of emotions and wasn’t prepared to endure it a second time.