Chapter 12: Desperate Measures

The Song family’s bamboo house was packed.

"Brother, hurry, save them!"

Song Yang’s voice arrived before he did, and he kicked the living room door open with reckless abandon. Upon seeing the room filled with people, he scratched his head in embarrassment. He had seen these people before, but every time they visited, Song Yingjie would find some excuse to make Song Yang leave. The others following Song Yang stepped inside but fell silent at the sight. The village was small and everyone knew each other, but these people in the Song living room were strangers, and their attire suggested they were not from the village.

"Song Bo, quick, look at them! Is there any hope?" Jiang Cha walked in last, cradling three blood-stained pangolins.

She froze for a moment seeing the room full of people, but she couldn't afford to care. She only knew that if these pangolins weren't treated immediately, they would surely die. She and Song Yang placed them directly onto an empty table. Seeing this, Song Yingjie couldn't even bring himself to scold the children for being home so late.

"This... are these pangolins? How did they get injured so badly?" A middle-aged man sitting on the far left, dressed in a grey Zhongshan suit, adjusted his glasses with a look of alarm.

Pangolins were protected national wildlife, and hunting them had been strictly prohibited for years. Seeing these children bring in several pangolins with their scales ripped off, it was hard not to suspect something nefarious.

Jiang Cha didn't shrink back despite the crowd. "It’s a long story. We were trying to do a good deed; we found them covered in blood after they encountered some bad people and did our best to bring them back. Song Bo, aren't you a zoologist? Please, take a look and see if they can be saved!"

Hearing this, the men hurried over to examine the pangolins. The creatures were bleeding from their snouts and bodies, drifting in and out of consciousness, barely clinging to life.

Song Bo examined them briefly, his expression somber. "They are severely injured. The fact that they’ve survived having so many scales torn off is a miracle. I only have basic antiseptic, and I can't guarantee they will survive."

Song Bo sighed; he was a zoologist, not a veterinarian. He didn't know how to treat them. Even a regular veterinarian would likely struggle, as pangolins were rare and relied on natural instincts that made human intervention difficult.

[Woooo... Big sister, is Mommy going to die?]

The baby pangolin clawed weakly at the air, its eyes brimming with tears.

Song Bo leaned in closer to inspect the wounds, his brow furrowing deeper. "Grandpa Dong, do you have any ideas?"

Jiang Cha looked at the white-bearded elder in the group with pleading eyes. That group clearly held status and wealth, and they looked like people of profound learning.

Dong Zhengyu’s expression was grave. He put on his reading glasses, touched the wounds, and whispered to the middle-aged man beside him. After a while, the group sighed. Dong Zhengyu turned to Song Bo, "Saving a pangolin is already incredibly difficult. Given the poor medical facilities here, even if we sent them to the provincial capital, I fear..."

The baby pangolin seemed to understand, letting out a sharp, mournful cry. Was there really no hope at all?

"There has to be a way! Why should we just give up because he says so? We’ll buy the best medicine, we’ll find a doctor!" Jiang Cha was beginning to lose control. As someone studying medicine—even if only veterinary medicine—she had been taught from her first day of school never to abandon a life.

Song Bo frowned and hushed her. "Grandpa Dong is the nation’s foremost expert on wildlife conservation. If he says there is no way, he has certainly considered everything. Jiang Cha, I know you’re upset, but you can’t..."

"It’s alright, it’s alright. The girl is young; she’s just anxious. Don’t get worked up," Dong Zhengyu interrupted, smiling kindly at Jiang Cha. "Little girl, I may be an expert, but I also minored in veterinary medicine in the United States. In my sixty years of practice, I have learned that before these pangolins had their scales ripped off, they were also burned in a fire. They have both internal and external injuries. We truly are helpless. If we had gotten them two days earlier, there might have been a chance, but too much time has passed."

Silence filled the room. No one felt good about this. Jiang Cha’s eyes were red. Looking at the three scarred, struggling pangolins, she refused to give up. Suddenly, she remembered an ancient formula she had read in a book, said to have miraculous effects on internal and external injuries. It hadn't been scientifically tested, so its efficacy was unproven, but in this situation, trying was the only hope.

She wiped her tears with her sleeve and pulled out paper and pen from her bag.

"Sixty grams of Evergreen, sixty grams of Bone-Piercing Relief, sixty grams of Red Lacquer Wood Heart, and 500 milliliters of rice wine. This formula might work. I also need a large amount of crushed Bletilla striata to make a paste."

Song Yang, listening nearby, muttered, "Red Lacquer Wood Heart? We have that! My brother’s cabinet is made of it!"

He sprinted to Song Bo’s room and dragged the cabinet out. Jiang Cha glanced at him. The formula was ancient and its success uncertain, and Red Lacquer Wood Heart was incredibly precious in this era. She wondered if Song Bo would be willing to sacrifice it.

Dong Zhengyu and the others studied the paper, stroking their beards before handing it to the man in the grey suit. "Old Lu, you’re a practitioner of traditional medicine. See if this girl’s method is feasible."

Jiang Cha was impatient; she couldn't wait for these old men to hem and haw. If she waited for their consensus, the pangolins would be cold corpses.

"We have plenty of Evergreen around here, maybe even by the roadside. Bletilla striata is usually found near the woods. As for the Red Lacquer Wood Heart..."

Jiang Cha hesitated, but Song Bo grabbed an axe from the courtyard and split the cabinet open without a second thought.

"Nothing is more precious than a life. Take it."

Song Bo handed her a splintered piece of the wood. Jiang Cha was moved; she hadn't expected such cold-looking people to have such warm hearts. She couldn't let them down.

"I have rice wine at home, I'll go get it!" Fan Minghui dashed out the door.

"We’ll go find the Evergreen and Bletilla," Zhong Jialin said softly, pulling Deng Yixiang out before Jiang Cha could even react.

Jiang Cha stood stunned for a moment. She hadn't expected Zhong Jialin to step up at a critical moment; it was surprisingly touching.

"Isn't Bone-Piercing Relief just Earth Sandalwood? It grows by the river. I’ll go pick it now!"

Watching the children work so hard to save lives on the brink of extinction, Song Yingjie felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of chivalry in his heart.