Sports Medicine Master System-Chapter 149 - 102: The Scene-Stealing Wizards

It was unclear what Quinn had said, but when Chen Yu arrived at the clinic at dawn, a long line had already formed outside.

Seeing Chen Yu arrive, and in a red Ferrari no less, a few young men in hoodies in the line stared, their eyes green with envy.

But the next moment, someone slapped them.

"What are you looking at?!"

It was Raul, who’d given each of them a smack. Behind him stood two extremely burly followers, likely there to maintain order.

After teaching them their lesson, he walked over.

Chen Yu noticed a bulge under his jacket; he was definitely carrying a gun.

"Dr. Chen, when can we start? If it’s going to be a long wait, I can hand out numbers so they can come back at their appointed time. After all, a lot of them have to get to work." Raul was very polite.

Chen Yu shook his head. "No need. Let’s start now."

He said as he went to open the door.

The clinic was already spotless inside. Raul followed him in, while his two men guarded the main entrance, letting people in one by one.

The first patient was a man in his forties, with a scruffy beard and a heavy smell of blood on him. He must have been a butcher. He pointed to his lower back, saying it hurt a lot.

Chen Yu could tell with a single glance.

"You have a herniated disc. Lie face down." Chen Yu had already told Quinn yesterday to find patients with back and leg pain or other orthopedic issues.

So this first one was a perfect fit.

Acupuncture and a massage were administered, followed by a medicinal patch. Finally, he prescribed some painkillers. Exactly four experience points, no more, no less. Chen Yu then added a reminder, "You should get surgery as soon as possible. Your herniation is quite severe, likely related to your job."

Butchering is physically demanding work, after all.

The middle-aged man sighed, didn’t say much, and silently took out two twenty-US-dollar bills, placing them on the table.

It must be for the consultation fee.

Chen Yu wanted to say it wasn’t necessary. Even at forty US dollars a person, a hundred people would only be four thousand US dollars. For the current Chen Yu, that was an amount he could make from a single scheduled appointment. Since he had called it a free clinic, he had intended for it to be free.

"Mr. Quinn arranged it," Raul interjected from the side.

"Alright, then."

Chen Yu didn’t say any more. The important thing was to hurry up and farm experience points.

There were all sorts of illnesses.

Chen Yu also discovered that many were actually minor ailments that had been left untreated until they became major problems.

Medical care was expensive. Many of these Old Mo didn’t have legal status and worked under the table, so of course they didn’t have insurance. How could they possibly afford the cost of a hospital visit? Most of the time, when they got sick, they would just go to a pharmacy and buy some painkillers.

This was a major reason for the prevalence of painkillers—seeing a doctor was just too expensive. They couldn’t afford it.

There was nothing Chen Yu could do about it, so he just focused on farming his experience points.

He had just farmed nearly two rounds of experience in one go when a sudden commotion came from outside the door.

He peeked out and saw a tall figure walk in.

Hill!

Chen Yu froze. ’How did this bastard come back?’

Hill stammered, looking embarrassed. "Chen, I really needed to come back and see."

Chen Yu sighed and gestured for Hill to sit down first.

’The man’s already back, what can I do? I can’t just send him back to Phoenix again.’

’So be it.’

’It’s good in a way. I can monitor Hill’s recovery progress here, and if I have any spare treatment effects, I can use them on him.’

"Did you go see Tracy?" Chen Yu asked.

Hill nodded. The first thing he did when he got back to Orlando was go see McGrady.

"I talked to him. Chen, you were right. Playing through an injury like he was is too damaging to his body." If a rising superstar was ruined because he was trying to fulfill a promise to him, Hill would never forgive himself.

While treating the patient in front of him, Chen Yu said, "Wait here for a bit. I’ve already spoken with Monty Brown and the others. They’ll come over after practice this afternoon. You’re the team leader, you talk to them."

"Okay."

Hill nodded. If the team wanted to make the playoffs and go even further, he and McGrady couldn’t do it alone. Everyone had to work together.

At noon, Monty and his group arrived in a bustling crowd.

The group had a closed-door meeting in the clinic’s pharmacy. Chen Yu didn’t concern himself with what they discussed.

As they were about to leave, Armstrong turned his head and said, "Chen, tell Tracy to focus on his recovery. We’ll win these next two games."

He gave a thumbs-up.

They couldn’t just let a young guy push himself that hard; what would that say about them as veterans?

"Hold on." Chen Yu nodded, then called them to a stop.

’They’re already here. I’ve got to at least get some experience points out of it.’

On April 10th, the Magic challenged the Knight on the road.

Chen Yu watched this game at McGrady’s house.

"Actually, I should have gone with the team to Cleveland. Even if I didn’t play, I should have been on the active roster. If things went wrong, I could have gone in," McGrady said, worried.

Beside him, Chen Yu was methodically practicing Five Animals Qigong.

Seeing over a hundred patients in one day was truly exhausting.

"That’s enough," Chen Yu interrupted McGrady. "Don’t think you’re so important. The world keeps spinning no matter who’s gone. You’re a team, and they’re your teammates. What you need to do is trust them and focus on your recovery."

With that, Chen Yu finished his routine, preparing to rest.

"Aren’t you going to watch the game?" McGrady called out to him.

Chen Yu shook his head. "It’s a guaranteed win. What’s there to watch?"

After saying that, he waved his hand and disappeared into the bathroom.

Early to bed, early to rise. But McGrady wasn’t up late either. When Chen Yu came out after washing up, he was already sitting at the dining table eating breakfast.

Chen Yu greeted him, sat down, and casually asked about yesterday’s game result.

"We won," McGrady nodded. "It was close. If Brown hadn’t hit that crucial three-pointer at the end, we might have lost."

As he spoke, a smile appeared in his eyes.

Chen Yu smiled too. It seemed those old guys really gave it their all.

After the meal, it was time for the routine treatment.

Yesterday, he had farmed four rounds of experience. The quality was good, and he had obtained two treatment effects.

Combined with the Silver Level treatment effect he had used before, McGrady’s strained latissimus dorsi was recovering quickly.

"Chen, what if we make the playoffs only to get eliminated in the first round?" During his treatment, McGrady suddenly asked a question.

Even if they were lucky enough to make the playoffs, they would be the last seed. Facing the powerful Digital People, it would probably be another first-round exit.

McGrady suddenly felt as if all of this was meaningless.

Chen Yu inserted a needle like a flash of lightning, making McGrady flinch in pain. Then he said, "Worry about that question after you make it into the playoffs."

They hadn’t even made the playoffs yet, and he was already worried about a first-round exit. Wasn’t that a bit premature?

On April 12th, the Magic faced the Digital People at home.

Chen Yu watched this game in person.

"The Digital People are throwing the game, aren’t they?" Chen Yu said to Hill beside him, incredulous.

Hill turned to look at the Digital People’s bench, his gaze falling on the white-haired Larry Brown.

"Looks like it." Hill’s brow furrowed.

Iverson wasn’t attacking much, and Mutombo, who had just been acquired before the trade deadline, played for less than 20 minutes. Any fool could see the Digital People were holding back, trying to hand the Magic a win.

Why? Were they trying to pick their playoff opponent?

The Pacers had already broken away and basically locked up the seventh seed in the East.

That left the Magic and the Celtics fighting for the last spot. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

As for the Magic, one of their two core players was out for the regular season, and the other was injured at a critical time. If he were Larry Brown, he’d also give the Magic a hand rather than choose the fully healthy Celtics, even with their mid-season coaching change.

The unexpected victory left Pleasance ecstatic. Weisbrod had long ago promised him that if he could lead the team back to the playoffs, his interim head coach position would become permanent.

Because of this, Pleasance specifically sought out Chen Yu after the game to ask if McGrady should rest one more game.

Meaning he would also sit out the game against the Heat on the 15th.

Since it was an away game, he could rest that day and then play in the home game against the Bucks the next day.

It was a back-to-back, which was too draining for the players.

Right now, both the Magic and the Celtics had 38 wins. The Celtics had 3 games left, while the Magic had 4.

The upcoming game against the Wizards was a must-win. If they won, the initiative would shift to the Magic.

Of course, Chen Yu wouldn’t refuse.

For an injury like McGrady’s, the more rest, the better.

The travel for a home-and-away back-to-back was too draining.

On the 13th, the Magic played the Wizards on the road.

Even though their two main stars were out, Pleasance was full of confidence.

A tanking team like the Wizards would want to lose as much as possible. Plus, to get rid of Juwan Howard’s hundred-million-dollar contract, Jordan had even traded him away, causing the team’s strength to plummet.

But no one expected the Wizards to steal the show.

Richard Hamilton exploded for 30 points, leading them to a 106-95 victory, an 11-point blowout over the Magic.

After the game, Pleasance was completely stunned.

Especially since on the other side of the league, the Celtics had actually won their road game against the Pacers, with Pierce hitting a game-winner at the buzzer.

The initiative instantly swung back to the Celtics.

For the Magic, this meant they had to win all of their next three games to make the playoffs on a tiebreaker.

The problem was, two of the next three games were against the Heat and the Bucks.

Even with a healthy McGrady, beating those two teams wouldn’t be easy.

Under these circumstances, there was no more talk of resting an extra game. McGrady made an emergency return and traveled with the team to Miami.

Chen Yu wanted to go with them, but then he thought about it. He didn’t have any treatment effects on hand, so he wouldn’t be of much use. He decided to stay in Orlando.

He could farm another day’s worth of experience this way.

After a long, grueling day of farming experience, he returned to Hill’s house to find him already glued to the television.

"The game’s about to start," Hill said, his tone tense.

Chen Yu had just sat down when his phone rang.

It was Hardaway.

"Chen, how’s Tracy’s recovery? Can he play?" Hardaway had clearly been keeping a close eye on McGrady’s situation.

Chen Yu lay on the sofa and glanced at the TV. The two teams were already warming up; the game was about to begin.

"Well, his muscle strain is technically healed, but you know how it is. There’s an adjustment period right after an injury heals. It’s hard to say what his condition will be like." Chen Yu had done everything he could. To have a moderately strained latissimus dorsi recover within a week was already something of a miracle.

But returning to a game without any team practice... his performance was a real question mark.

On the other end of the line, Hardaway sighed and hung up.

Just then, Hill, who was sitting next to him, suddenly stood up.

"Chen, I plan to return for the next game. I’m putting myself on the active roster."

Before Chen Yu could object, Hill said with a serious expression, "Chen, I’m healed. You said it yourself, you wanted me to return before the first round of the playoffs. The first round is only a week away now. What’s one week?"

Stunned, Chen Yu looked at Hill’s left ankle.

His bone tunnel had healed. Technically speaking, he was recovered.

But it was the same problem: returning like this without any rehab was just too rushed.

"Chen, don’t try to talk me out of it. I know you’re looking out for me, but in this situation, I really can’t allow myself to sit on the sidelines any longer." Hill’s gaze was as determined as it could be.