Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
âIâve told you that you should lose some weight, but you wouldnât listen to me.â Apparently, the two middle-aged men were friends.
âHave you been here before?â asked Wang Yao.
âYes, Iâve come to see you before. You didnât even charge me. You gave me a massage and I got much better. Because you are such a wonderful and nice doctor, I recommended my friend come see you,â said the middle-aged man with a smile.
A personâs reputation was like a shadow in that it tended to grow larger than the person himself. By now, Wang Yaoâs name was well-known to quite a few people living nearby. After all, he was truly a fantastic doctor. With the assistance of licorice roots and Qi therapy, his treatment methods were unique and absolutely effective. Most of people coming to see Wang Yao had fully recovered. Sometimes he only used Qi therapy to cure certain patients.
In small cities and even smaller counties and villages, some reputable doctors, even those ones without certification, had a lot of patients. Because smaller areas had limited medical resources and it was inconvenient to go to a hospital in a big city, residents would rather see a local doctor. It was the same case in Lianshan, not to mention the fact that Wang Yao was a truly extraordinary doctor and had a medical certificate. Even unqualified practitioners had a lot of patients.
âPlease lie down, Iâll give you a massage,â said Wang Yao.
âOkay,â said the overweight man.
He laid down on his back with his stomach popping out, like a woman who was several months pregnant.
âYou must lose weight, otherwise my treatment will only work temporarily for you. Your problem will come back,â said Wang Yao.
âOh, I see,â said the overweight man.
Wang Yao started to massage his abdomen.
He didnât need to use his Qi while massaging the manâs abdomen. He only used some techniques to stimulate some meridians and acupuncture points in his abdomen. He tried to increase the manâs gastrointestinal mobility to create bowel movement.
Chronic constipation was very harmful to a personâs health.
The poison absorbed from three days constipation was worse than smoking two packs of cigarettes.
After Wang Yao had massaged the manâs abdomen for a while, the man felt warm and comfortable inside his belly. Then he heard his stomach rumbling.
Prrr! The man passed gas, which was very smelly.
âSorry about that,â said the overweight man. He was embarrassed, but he couldnât control it.
âNever mind,â said Wang Yao with a smile.
The massage lasted for about 20 minutes. The overweight man kept passing gas, which made the room fill up with an unpleasant smell.
âIâll prescribe a formula for you,â said Wang Yao.
He wrote down Coptis chinensis, Astragalus, Forsythia, Angelica dahurica, and licorice on a piece of paper.
All the herbs Wang Yao chose were able to reduce excessive heat energy and had a detox effect.
After he had written the prescription and packed the herbs, he also told the overweight man of precautions he needed to take in daily life.
âOh, I see. Okay.â The patient kept nodding.
âDr. Wang, is my problem serious?â asked the patient.
âAt the moment it is not life-threatening. However, a minor problem may end up a bigger health concern if it is ignored. You need to nip the problem in the bud. Otherwise, it will get worse. The Yin and Yang energies are imbalanced in your body. As a result, your blood flow and Qi are blocked. Your liver has also been seriously affected. If you donât do anything about it, your liver will get worse,â said Wang Yao.
âOh,â The patient started to feel scared after listening to Wang Yaoâs explanation. âDoctor, please donât scare me like that.â
âI was telling you the truth. If you donât change your lifestyle, youâll face terrible consequences,â said Wang Yao honestly.
âOkay, Iâll follow your instructions.â The patient nodded hard.
A massage therapy session plus a prescription cost over 400 yuan.
âIs it that serious?â The patient said to his friend after they had left the clinic.
âYou should listen to Dr. Wang,â said his friend.
âThat young doctor?â questioned the patient.
âIf you donât trust him, just stop coming.â His friend seemed to be unhappy.
âDonât take it the wrong way,â explained the patient.
The two of them got into the car and left the village. The construction of new road around the village was almost complete. The new road was much wider. There was a river at one side of the road, and fields on the other side.
The overweight guyâs stomach kept rumbling, then he kept passing gas, one after another. The car was full of awful smell.
âWait, stop the car, I need to go to the toilet,â said the overweight man.
His friend pulled over the car. The overweight man opened the door and rushed out of the car. He ran into the field and found a place with shade. His face was red. He pulled down his pants, squatted down, and released the stuff he accumulated for days out of his body.
âGee! Itâs so comfortable,â said the overweight man.
One sentence from a classic advertisement could describe his feelings now: Youâll feel relieved after the toxin has been driven out of your body.
âThat doctor is pretty good,â said the overweight man.
Initially he didnât take Wang Yaoâs words seriously. He knew he needed to lose weight. However, he couldnât control himself when in front of delicious food. He was also not keen to exercise as he was overweight. He seemed to have entered a vicious cycle. The more he ate, the less he wanted to exercise. It became increasingly difficult for him to lose weight. As a result, he had more and more health problems.
âIâll start to lose weight!â said the overweight man.
He had said the same thing more than once. However, he never put it in action.
Meanwhile, Wang Yao documented the treatment session in his notebook in the clinic. The treatment session included massage therapy and a prescription of herbal formula. He used neither Qi therapy nor licorice roots. He reckoned such treatment method was good and should be promoted.
After he had finished documenting, he started to read Treatise on Miscellaneous Diseases. This book was given to him by the system. It contained a lot of information about weird diseases. The book was a good guide and inspiration for Wang Yao to treat tricky diseases
The mission had become quite difficult now. Wang Yao had only three months left to finish the mission. However, he only cured three people.
âHmmm, itâs not going to be easy to complete the mission,â murmured Wang Yao.
He needed to cure Sun Yunsheng as soon as he could. He also needed to cure Su Xiaoxue and Zhou Wuxing. Those patients had made good progress. His treatment had been effective.
It suddenly occurred to him that he had also seen the women brought by Professor Lu. She had serious problem with her kidney, so-called renal failure.
âLet them all see me.â He called Sun Zhengrong and Zhou Xiong after thinking for a while.
âOkay, Iâll come to your clinic tomorrow.â Sun Zhengrong was happy to bring his son to the clinic. He promised to go the next day. After all, it was related to his sonâs well-being.
Zhou Xiongâs uncle was better, but it was too much for him to travel long distance. Therefore, Wang Yao decided to pay him a visit.
At the same time in Bingzhou, which was thousands of miles away, Long Yunfei was completely wheelchair-bound. He had seen a number of medical experts, none of whom could make him better. Up till now, he realized that his condition started after his meeting with Wang Yao at a restaurant. He blamed himself for being too greedy.
Did that little bastard drug me? He started to suspect that Wang Yao was responsible for his condition. However, he couldnât think about what poison could do such weird harm to him. More importantly, he didnât know where he could find Wang Yao. He only knew that Wang Yao lived in Lianshan, Haiqu City. Fortunately, he kept Wang Yaoâs contact number, which he got from the secretary of the village.
He attempted to call Wang Yao.
âHello? Dr. Long?â Wang Yao was a bit surprised to hear from Long Yunfei. The call came later than he had expected.
âIs my problem related to you?â asked Long Yunfei directly.
âYour problem? Are you sick? If so, you should see a doctor. Oh, I almost forgot that you are a doctor yourself. Is your problem serious?â said Wang Yao calmly.
âWhat can make it stop?â asked Long Yunfei.
âHow can a smart person like you not get it?â said Wang Yao.
Long Yunfei hung up the phone. Then he pressed a button on his phone. The phone repeated his conversation with Wang Yao. He had recorded his conversation with Wang Yao.
âWhat do you think?â asked Long Yunfei to a middle-aged man sitting next to him.
âYou canât use the conversation. Itâs too short and canât prove that your condition was caused by him. The law nowadays is very strict with audio evidence,â said the middle-aged man.
Long Yunfei looked unhappy.
My problem must be caused by him! Now heâs become more and more certain about it.
He was in Qinzhou while Wang Yao was in Qizhou. Even he knew a lot of important people in Qinzhou, he could do little to someone in Qizhou.
On the same day, Wang Yao went to see a person in town in the afternoon.
âYou want to see patients with tricky and weird conditions?â Pan Jun was curious about Wang Yaoâs request. He didnât expect Wang Yao to ask to see patients from him.
âYes,â said Wang Yao.
âWell, what are considered tricky and weird conditions?â asked Pan Jun.
âHmmm, itâs not easy to define tricky and weird conditions. I think renal failure is one of them,â said Wang Yao after thinking for a moment.
âSeriously! Donât tell me you can cure renal failure!â Pan Jun was completely astonished. The only way in western medicine to treat renal failure nowadays was to have kidney transplant. Even if a suitable kidney was found, the patient could face other problems, such as organ-graft rejection.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âI canât cure renal failure at this stage,â said Wang Yao.
âSo, what about paralysis?â asked Pan Jun.
âIâm not sure until I see the patient,â said Wang Yao.
âWell, one of my relatives has been paralysed for over three years. He has lost ability to take care of himself,â said Pan Jun.
âDoes he live far from here?â asked Wang Yao.
âNo,â said Pan Jun.
âI can take a look at him, but it will cost a lot,â said Wang Yao.
He thought that he would probably need Meridian unblocking powder to treat Pan Junâs relative. Meridian unblocking power was very expensive.
âHow much it might cost?â asked Pan Jun.
âCould be over a million,â said Wang Yao.
Pah-tah! Pan Jun dropped his cigarette. âGosh, it is really expensive! Let me think about it.â
Not every family could afford such a high medical expense. In fact, most families in China wouldnât have over one million of savings.
âToo expensive. My relative is a farmer. He canât afford it,â said Pan Jun after a moment.
Wang Yao didnât say anything. He was staring at the cup and thinking.
He had thought about situations like this. Given his current situation, he could treat those conditions effectively with Qi therapy and licorice roots. Qi therapy didnât cost anything, but licorice roots could cost a lot if he used the prescriptions from the system. Even though the system occasionally gave him prescriptions for free, it had its restrictions. After all, not everyone was as rich as Sun Zhengrong, who was a billionaire, or from a powerful family like Su Xiaoxue.
I have to make smart use of the rules established by the system.
âLet me take a look at him first,â said Wang Yao. He hoped that he could just treat him with Qi therapy.
âOkay,â said Pan Jun.
He drove Wang Yao to his relativeâs house right away.
His relative was an old man in his 60âs. He was lying on the bed. He looked very skinny and old, like someone in his 80âs.
Wang Yao took at close look at him.
The old manâs problem was basically in his head. He had multiple thrombosis in his brain. Thrombosis could be tricky, because the formation of thromboses indicated that he had problem with blood flow. A thrombosis was like a small snowball, which would become bigger as it was moving. The existing thromboses would become bigger, and new thromboses would appear. Once a thrombosis had been formed in a blood vessel of the brain, the person would have a stroke. As a result, the person would be paralysed. Once a thrombosis was formed in a blood vessel of the heart, the personâs life would be threatened.
The system considered the old manâs condition difficulty to treat.
âWhat do you think?â asked Pan Jun.
âHis condition is difficult to treat,â said Wang Yao.
The old man had thrombosis in multiple locations.
Wang Yao thought for a while after he had seen the old man.
âLet me try,â said Wang Yao.
He decided to give the old man Qi therapy at this stage to see if it worked. However, the treatment process could be risky. The old manâs blood vessels could rupture due to blocked blood flow. If it happened, the old man would start bleeding in his brain and his condition would become worse.
Therefore, Wang Yao gave him a very gentle massage to test his response.
The old man felt warm and full in his head.
After massaging the old man for over 10 minutes, Wang Yao stopped to check him again.
âThis is not going to work, he needs herbs,â said Wang Yao.
Wang Yao needed an herb which could resolve the thromboses but wouldnât rupture the blood vessel.
He thought about Wuteng, which could strengthen the meridians.
He needed another herb to resolve thrombosis and improve blood flow.
âI have a good understanding of his condition now. Letâs go,â said Wang Yao to Pan Jun in private.
âOkay,â said Pan Jun.
He left his relativeâs house with Wang Yao after saying goodbye.
âHow is he?â asked Pan Jun.
âHe is very unwell. I need to go back to think about how to treat his condition,â said Wang Yao.
âI see. Can I ask why you are picking those patients with conditions difficult to treat?â asked Pan Jun curiously. He wanted to ask Wang Yao a long time ago.
âI need to improve my medical skills and experience urgently,â said Wang Yao.
âWhy urgently?â asked Pan Jun.
âBecause God wants me to,â said Wang Yao as he pointed to the sky. âNot much time left.â
Pan Jun was dazed.
âWatch out! There is a car in front!â shouted Wang Yao.
âWhat do you mean?â asked Pan Jun.
âIs he your uncle?â Wang Yao didnât answer Pan Junâs question.
âYeah, my fatherâs cousin. He came to me when he was in the hospital,â said Pan Jun.
âDid you feel powerless when someone in your family was seriously ill, especially you are a doctor?â asked Wang Yao.
âWell, I did feel powerless at the beginning, but I gradually got used to it. I am a doctor, but I canât cure everyone. Some conditions are beyond cure,â said Pan Jun with a sigh.
âYou are right.â Wang Yao nodded.
Something he asked himself was what he would do if one of his family members got ill and he couldnât cure him or her.
âI heard you took a trip to Qinzhou a while ago?â asked Pan Jun.
âYes,â said Wang Yao.
âThere was an outbreak of some sort of disease in Qinzhou. Were you there at that time?â asked Pan Jun.
âYeah, but how do you know about the disease?â asked Wang Yao curiously.
âI saw it online by accident. Iâm an online group with my university colleagues. One of them was in Qinzhou. He mentioned it to me. Then I noticed Mingbaoâs posts on WeChat which said that that he was in Jia county of Qinzhou at that time,â said Pan Jun.
âYes, we were at Jia County,â said Wang Yao.
âSo, you helped them prevent the disease from spreading?â asked Pan Jun.
âNo, how was I supposed to do that?â said Wang Yao, smiling.
âDo you have to go home tonight? How about I bring you and Mingbao over for dinner?â asked Pan Jun.
âOkay,â said Wang Yao.