Ferdy soon dismissed the idea that he might have made a mistake.
He definitely did not make a mistake the woman’s daughter had a cold.
“Fine!” He sneered, nodding at Frank and taking up his bet.
Though he had nothing else to say anyway, he hurried back to his office, somehow feeling a little guilty…
–
After Ferdy left, Jim said, “I can see that you’re right about Ferdy prescribing expensive medicine to patients who don’t really need it. We will deal with it accordingly.”
Pausing, he then asked, “Why do you insist that the girl has a heat condition? Even my grandfather couldn’t tell.”
“Of course he couldn’t.”
Frank kept his eyes on the entrance, his tone flat as he spoke. “The female physique is inherently cooler. But since it’s her lungs that are inflamed, and the fact that she’s born flat-footed is a combination of coincidences that makes it look like a common cold.”
“Flat-footed?”
Jim was left musing for a while, but he had not the faintest idea what flat-footedness had to do with any medical conditions.
He simply chuckled and stayed silent, dismissing it as Frank’s nonsense.
Now, he just had to wait and see what Frank would do when he lost his bet with Ferdy.
And yet, in under five minutes, Brenda had returned, dashing inside Loggins Apothecary, crying out, “Help! Help!!!”
In her arms, Ava was pale and unconscious.
“What?!” Jim was left gaping-he certainly recognized Brenda and Ava since they had just left minutes ago.
“W-What’s going on here?!”
Ferdy just happened to look outside his office and was left dumbstruck.
He had never encountered something like this-how could a patient exhibiting cold symptoms turn out to be suffering from a heat illness?!
Like Jim, he was staring stiffly at Jim, feeling something stuck in his throat and unable to speak.
Brenda saw Frank standing outside Ferdy’s office just then and promptly carried Ava to her, dropping to her knees before Frank.
“Sir… Please, save my daughter! I’m sorry-I was foolish and ignorant, trusting a quack doctor instead of you! I… I…”
“Q-Quack doctor?!”
Ferdy was left sitting rigidly behind his desk, feeling like the world was collapsing on him as more people gathered around Frank.
“H-How is possible…”
“Hey, the kid was actually right?”
“Tut, tut. That little girl was just fine until she drank that soup Dr. Zeller prescribed. And now, that happened…”
“She’s completely pale. Is there any hope left?!”
Hearing the crowd’s comments, Ferdy charged out of his office maniacally, pointing at Frank as he snapped, “It’s not my fault… It was you! You must’ve done something! What did you do?! Why did you set me up?!”
“I didn’t do a thing,” Frank retorted as he placed the unconscious Ava flat on the floor and took out several needles from his pocket.
“What… Acupuncture?” Jim frowned.
At the same time, Ferdy lunged at Frank, ready to seize him by the collar. “Answer me! How else could I have been wrong?! I’m never wrong! I’ve treated hundreds, if not thousands of patients! How could I make a mistake now?!”
