Taoist Doctor - Chapter 5

“Sorry to disturb you.”

 

It was too late to leave now, Liu Jilong and Liu Meilan immediately thought of turning around.

 

They had heard of hospitals subcontracting departments, but they had never heard of San Hospital doing so. Furthermore, could hospitals even subcontract to Taoist temples…?

 

“Wait, don’t go, what are you doing?” Zhou Jinyuan rushed up a few steps and stopped them. “Since you’re here, are you here to treat the hemorrhage?”

 

He hadn’t seen any patients for a long time and was a bit idle. Moreover, this was the second time they had met, indicating that there was some fate between him and this patient. It might be destined for him to treat them.

 

Zhou Jinyuan enthusiastically ushered them to the table and took their medical records from them.

 

Liu Meilan hesitated and sat down, while Liu Jilong still wanted to pull her away, feeling a bit strange. Liu Meilan thought, it couldn’t be that they were forcing her to treat patients in broad daylight, could they?

 

She was indeed a bit curious. “…Are you a Taoist priest or an intern?”

 

In her opinion, Zhou Jinyuan looked like a young intern.

 

In fact, after Zhou Jinyuan came to San Hospital, many people mistook him for an intern, from patients to colleagues in other departments.

 

“Neither is accurate. I am a Taoist priest who practices at home and also a doctor here. You have my number on your appointment, so I am definitely not an intern.” Zhou Jinyuan emphasized that he was a doctor with the right to diagnose and treat independently.

 

Liu Meilan: “…”

 

She wanted to leave again.

 

Liu Jilong: “Uh, you looked at my wife the other day and said she was sick, that you had a secret formula that could cure her… Wait, are you really a doctor?”

 

If Zhou Jinyuan didn’t look like he couldn’t handle himself, he probably wouldn’t have felt at ease sitting down. He felt like he had just stepped into some kind of scammer’s den in a different time and space.

 

If Zhou Jinyuan said anything strange, he would probably report him.

 

Zhou Jinyuan simply took out his newly issued work ID, feeling a bit wronged. “Is there something wrong with having good eyesight? Our family’s secret formula has treated countless cases of your wife’s illness. Of course, I can tell at a glance.”

 

Although Chinese medicine combines observation, smell, inquiry, and pulse, there were indeed some illnesses he could diagnose at a glance. Was it his fault for being skilled?

 

Faced with the suspicious gazes of these two, Zhou Jinyuan had to take a look at the name on the medical record again and said, “You are Liu Meilan, right? Your condition falls under the category of ‘hemorrhagic collapse’ in Chinese medicine. Specifically, you have been experiencing continuous menstruation for at least four months, with frequent heavy bleeding, leading to anemia, and the menstrual blood is relatively pale. You also experience headaches, dizziness, weakness, abdominal bloating, and greatly reduced appetite.”

 

Liu Meilan and Liu Jilong exchanged glances. They hadn’t shown Zhou Jinyuan the test results, and he hadn’t even opened the medical record. They had come over on a whim today, and if they were setting a trap, it would definitely not be possible.

 

In such a large city as Haizhou, it was incredible that they could meet again.

 

The content of Zhou Jinyuan’s words also completely matched Liu Meilan’s condition. If he was making it up, it wouldn’t be possible for him to guess even the color of her menstrual blood.

 

From just this one aspect, Liu Meilan had a feeling: this young doctor seemed to have some level of competence.

 

The movement she had originally intended to leave with suddenly became a steady sitting on the chair, and she tentatively asked, “Doctor, how do you think it should be treated? Can it be cured?”

 

“Don’t worry, let me take your pulse first, and then consider how to treat it.” Zhou Jinyuan’s ability to convince patients with this skill was enough to gain their trust. Finally gaining their trust, he reassured them, “Our family’s secret formula is very effective!”

 

This time, faced with Zhou Jinyuan’s scam-like words, Liu Meilan and Liu Jilong were not so resistant. Instead, they felt a little relieved.

 

After seeking medical treatment for many days without effect, no one dared to guarantee that they would get better. Now, finally someone told them that it could be treated, which really comforted them.

 

To be cautious, Zhou Jinyuan carefully examined Liu Meilan’s pulse and asked for more details about her condition, which turned out to be as he had expected.

 

Hemorrhagic collapse was a common gynecological disease, where profuse bleeding was the collapse, and continuous trickling was the leakage. There were several types of patterns, such as kidney deficiency, spleen deficiency, blood heat, and so on, with deficiency patterns being the most common.

 

And Liu Meilan belonged to severe blood collapse with a mixture of deficiency and excess.

 

“Alright, I’ll give you a needle first to stop the abdominal pain, then I’ll prescribe some medicine for you to take for two doses. Your menstruation will stop, and then continue taking it for half a month to adjust the menstrual period and remove the root cause of the disease.” Zhou Jinyuan knew that for patients, dizziness and abdominal bloating were particularly uncomfortable, so the urgent matter was actually to relieve the pain, treat the symptoms first, and then treat the root cause.

 

He had a family secret formula that was very targeted in treating this disease. Using rhubarb as the principal medicine, combined with gelatin, Chinese parasol tree, Chinese angelica, astragalus, and other herbs to stop bleeding and tonify deficiency.

 

In his hometown of Yingzhou, this prescription had cured many severe hemorrhagic collapse cases, and there were many cases worse than Liu Meilan’s.

 

Liu Meilan originally thought that she had been ill for several months, and she would have to drink at least dozens of bowls of Chinese medicine to recuperate. Hearing that two doses would stop the bleeding and half a month would remove the root cause, she was ecstatic.

 

Especially, the discomfort in her body could now be relieved by acupuncture. She had been taking painkillers these days, but the effects were not as good as at the beginning, and now she was still in pain.

 

“Doctor, do you want to go… Oh, you have a patient.” Liu Qi came in cheerfully, but seeing someone there, he stopped.

 

He thought it was unfortunate. The master had been sitting on the cold bench here for several days, and when something good happened, a patient came.

 

“What’s up?” Zhou Jinyuan asked while writing a prescription.

 

“I want to ask you to go and see Dr. Mao for acupuncture. He’s going to use the ‘burning mountain fire Acupuncture’!” Liu Qi said a bit urgently. It was a bit considerate to come and inform him in advance. He had already shown a lot of loyalty. “If you’re free, please come over quickly. I’ll go first!”

 

Without waiting for Zhou Jinyuan to answer, Liu Qi hurriedly ran to Dr. Mao’s office.

 

…

 

Dr. Mao was the one who worsened the condition of Vice Dean Xiao’s mother with a redundant prescription. Although the prescription didn’t work, he still had some ability himself, otherwise he wouldn’t have had the courage to recommend himself.

 

Liu Qi entered the consultation room, and several resident doctors were also there, taking the opportunity to observe the “burning mountain fire Acupuncture.”

 

Acupuncture treatment had tonifying and draining techniques. If the patient was deficient, you tonified; if the patient had excess symptoms, you drained.

 

And burning mountain fire was specifically a method of tonification for patients with deficiency and cold. In contrast, there was also a technique called “penetrating cold,” which had the opposite effect and was used for draining heat.

 

In simple terms, one was for dispelling cold, and the other was for dispelling heat. Both techniques were very difficult to perform. It was said that these two Acupunctures could change the patient’s body temperature, producing sensations of heat or cold!

 

Because of the difficulty, these two techniques were rarely applied clinically, but it was rare for patients to actually feel cold or heat, and even some Chinese medicine doctors didn’t have confidence that they could produce such needle sensations.

 

Usually, doctors just followed the Acupuncture, as long as they achieved the therapeutic effect of tonifying or draining, or they used moxibustion with moxa sticks.

 

But Dr. Mao was one of the few experts who could really make patients feel the “fire” of the burning mountain fire Acupuncture.

 

This is also why Liu Qi hurried to come and observe. From university until now, among the teachers and seniors he has encountered, only Dr. Mao, after two years of advanced study under Ming Shi, is said to be able to produce effective results.

 

The most difficult part of acupuncture lies in the technique, especially in diagnosing and finding acupoints!

 

When Liu Qi entered, Dr. Mao was about to start, explaining to the patient, “This is a special needling technique called burning mountain fire. I will needle along this meridian on your arm, and then you will feel a sensation of warmth, which will propagate along the meridian, thus warming and tonifying your meridians while dispersing pathogenic qi!”

 

The patient nodded in confusion after being told this obscure theory, “Oh, okay!”

 

Dr. Mao nodded in satisfaction. Verbal guidance was also a very important step; first, you had to give the patient confidence that it would be warm and effective, making it easier to succeed.

 

Dr. Mao began needling the patient’s arm, and both the patient and the resident doctors closely watched his technique. After each needle insertion, Dr. Mao would ask the patient, “Do you feel any warmth starting to flow from this position…”

 

The patient looked up, seeing seven or eight faces staring at him intently. After carefully feeling it, he said, “Uh, yeah, it seems… there’s a slight sensation!”

 

Originally, he didn’t feel anything, but when the doctor asked, he suddenly felt a faint sensation of warmth!

 

“And, I feel like the pain in my shoulder has also eased a bit!”

 

Ah, it worked.

 

Although the resident and trainee doctors didn’t speak out of respect, they all looked at Dr. Mao with admiring eyes. He really lived up to his reputation.

 

“Yeah, the hotter, the better, and the pain will also become lighter.” Dr. Mao, who had felt a bit embarrassed recently because of the mistake he made with Vice Dean Xiao, also regained his confidence.

 

Given more time, he would definitely be able to apply the burning mountain fire technique even more skillfully, becoming a golden signboard for the Chinese Medicine Department.

 

…

 

On the other side.

 

“Just two needles, don’t worry, I’ll use thin needles, it won’t hurt.” Zhou Jinyuan reassured Liu Meilan, while Liu Jilong went to pay. He started needling Liu Meilan here.

 

Liu Meilan had never undergone acupuncture treatment before, so she was inevitably a bit nervous. She dared not look at Zhou Jinyuan’s actions.

 

Zhou Jinyuan first massaged the points of Sanyinjiao and Shuidao for a moment, dispersing qi and blood, then sterilized and needled them with a fine needle. He divided the needling into three parts, corresponding to the heavens, earth, and human.

 

First, he needled the heavenly part, waited for a moment, lifted and pressed it tightly nine times, then twisted it clockwise. Then he needled the human part and the earth part, and after the same operation, he withdrew to the heavenly part again. This process was repeated three times, and the needle tip always faced the direction of the meridian’s qi flow.

 

Liu Meilan only felt a slight discomfort, but the area where she was needled felt sore and swollen, which was very intense.

 

Zhou Jinyuan said this was normal, indicating that he had needled accurately. She had never undergone acupuncture treatment before, and because it seemed to take a little longer than expected, she couldn’t help but turn her head to look, only to find that Zhou Jinyuan had been twisting the needle for quite some time, inserting it several times, and it took quite a long time before he finally removed the needle.

 

It was nothing like what was shown on TV, where the needle was inserted and done.

 

Initially, Liu Meilan thought it was over, but she began to feel a warm sensation emanating from the acupuncture points. This sensation became clearer and clearer, definitely not an illusion.

 

“H-how come it feels like it’s starting to get warm?” Liu Meilan was bewildered. She had never heard of needles causing a sensation of warmth. The needle was thin and plain, without any embellishments.

 

Zhou Jinyuan reassured her, “This is a normal phenomenon.”

 

Using the burning mountain fire technique, he was tonifying Liu Meilan’s deficiency.

 

But Liu Meilan didn’t believe this was normal at all. She remembered Zhou Jinyuan’s other identity and timidly asked, “Dr. Zhou, is this your true qi?”

 

Once skeptical, she only became a believer after meeting Zhou Jinyuan!

 

“???” Zhou Jinyuan said as he disinfected another acupoint, “Miss, you should read less fantasy novels.”

 

Liu Meilan: “…”

 

The surprise came next. The needle was inserted into the Shui Dao acupoint on her abdomen, and as the warmth spread, the cold and bloating in her abdomen, which had plagued her for months, were dispelled, as if a beam of sunlight had suddenly melted away months of gloom.

 

“So… so comfortable!” Liu Meilan momentarily forgot her confusion about “true qi” as she exclaimed, “It doesn’t hurt anymore, my stomach feels warm, it’s all warm now.”

 

Due to months of excessive bleeding, even in the height of summer, Liu Meilan always felt weak, with cold hands, feet, and abdomen. Now, with her symptoms suddenly relieved, she felt incredibly comfortable.

 

“Well, one more needle, and you’ll feel even more comfortable. It’s very effective for this condition. Rest carefully these days, and you won’t feel pain again. After finishing the medicine, your menstrual periods won’t be painful anymore either.” The next acupoint was Sanyinjiao on the lower leg, and Zhou Jinyuan proceeded to needle it.

 

With the second needle, Liu Meilan began sweating profusely. Even her thin summer clothes were dampened by sweat, a relaxation she had never experienced since her illness.

 

—Since it’s called burning mountain fire, the stronger the fire, the better.

 

Liu Meilan was completely won over, grasping Zhou Jinyuan’s hand and expressing her gratitude in a somewhat incoherent manner, “Uh, thank you, great god! You’re amazing! No wonder they call you a great god!”

 

Zhou Jinyuan: “…”

 

Although… but… calling him a great god was because (others thought) he was cultivating immortality in the office!