wavenovel Chapter 12 Colleagues are enemies, and also the lambs to the slaughter.
Chapter 12 Colleagues are enemies, and also the lambs to the slaughter.
Time flies, and it's Friday already.
Renxin Pharmacy has experienced a strange boom in business these past few days.
Every day, a few "weird" patients come from far and wide, making all sorts of strange requests.
A heartbroken, artsy young woman insisted that Wang Minyu prescribe her a "potion to forget love." Wang Minyu, expressionless, gave her a bottle of mineral water, charged her fifty yuan, and said it was a "psychological suggestion fee." The young woman drank it and felt much better. The next day, she even brought a banner that read, "The divine potion is merciless, but it cures affectation."
There was also a young man who had failed the postgraduate entrance exam for five years and claimed to have "learning disability." Wang Minyu diagnosed him with "late-stage laziness" and the treatment plan was to have him memorize English words in front of a pharmacy every day. If he made a mistake, he would have to clean the glass door. As a result, the young man memorized the words more enthusiastically than anyone else because there were always girls passing by cheering him on.
Boss Liu has completely given up.
He discovered that ever since Wang Minyu arrived, he, the boss, had become a mere figurehead.
My daily work consists of collecting money, cleaning, and watching the show from the sidelines, while also marveling at the wonders of the world.
That afternoon, there weren't many people in the shop.
Wang Minyu is sorting through the newly arrived medicinal herbs.
The "Basic Herb Identification" skill, a reward from the system, gave him a completely new understanding of these herbs.
He can easily identify the origin and year of medicinal herbs, and can even smell which batch of herbs has been over-treated with sulfur.
"Hey Xiao Wang, this batch of angelica root looks pretty good. It's from Minxian County, Gansu, right?" Boss Liu came over to join the fun.
"Hmm, but the heat wasn't quite right during processing, so the medicinal properties are a bit weaker," Wang Minyu said casually, picking up a piece of angelica root and rubbing it between his fingers.
Boss Liu was completely impressed.
He had spent half his life in the medicinal herb business, and even he had to break them open and taste them to make a rough judgment, while Wang Minyu could do it just by touching and smelling them.
Just then, the wind chimes at the door rang.
The man who entered was a middle-aged man wearing a white coat and with his hair neatly combed.
Wang Minyu recognized the man; he was Wu Defa, the owner of the "Kangning Pharmacy" on the next street, who had been "entrapped" by Wang Minyu a few days earlier and whose cervical spondylosis had been cured by Wang Minyu's bone-setting skills.
However, Wu Defa did not come alone today.
Behind him followed an old man with a refined and otherworldly air, dressed in a Tang suit, with a goatee, holding a string of shiny walnuts in his hand, his eyes arrogant, looking like a hermit sage.
"Boss Liu, business is booming!" Wu Defa greeted him with a forced smile as soon as he entered, but his eyes were fixed on Wang Minyu.
"Oh, it's Boss Wu! What brings you here?" Boss Liu chuckled, but his heart skipped a beat.
This demeanor clearly indicates ill intent.
"It's nothing, it's just that my friend, Doctor Sun, heard that you have a 'young master' here, so he came here specifically to have a friendly spar." Wu Defa said, stepping aside to let the old man behind him pass.
Wang Minyu looked up, and the system panel popped up automatically.
Sun Jiren, 65 years old, is a specially hired traditional Chinese medicine doctor at Kangning Pharmacy. His family has practiced medicine for three generations, specializing in spleen and stomach regulation, and he is well-known among the older generation in Changxiang City. He is stubborn and highly values lineage and seniority. He has come today to "get revenge" for Wu Defa.
[Patient: Sun Jiren. Symptoms: Chronic gastritis with gastric ulcer. Causes: Excessive alcohol consumption in his youth and a history of long-term use of painkillers. Recently, due to emotional distress (feeling ashamed that Wu Defa was cured by a young man), his stomach problems recurred.]
It turns out they called for help.
Wang Minyu found it amusing, but his face remained expressionless as he simply nodded: "It's not a friendly exchange, but a medical consultation is fine. The registration fee is fifty, double for colleagues, one hundred."
"You!" Wu Defa's face turned green with anger. Last time it was fifty, this time it's doubled!
"Young man, you've got quite the nerve," Sun Jiren finally spoke, his voice unhurried yet carrying a condescending tone. "In my forty years of medical practice, I've never heard of charging 'double the fee for colleagues.' Doctors are supposed to be compassionate; what do you take our profession for?"
"Treat it as a craft." Wang Minyu put down the herbs in his hand, looked directly at Sun Jiren, and said, "Craftsmen earn their living through their skills. As a senior, you should understand this principle even more. If you don't want to see a doctor and just want to chat, then turn right after you leave; there's a teahouse there. I won't see you out."
These words left Sun Jiren speechless.
He originally intended to morally overpower Wang Minyu first, but he didn't expect the kid to be so unmoved by his words.
"Fine, what a quick-witted brat!" Sun Jiren's beard bristled with anger. "Then I'll test you today! If you can answer, I'll admit defeat! If you can't, you'd better take down your 'Cure Pretentious' banner and apologize to Boss Wu!"
"Sure," Wang Minyu readily agreed.
Mr. Liu was so anxious that he kept rubbing his hands, wanting to stop them but not daring to.
This Dr. Sun is a well-known figure in Changxiang City. Wang Minyu is so young, fighting against him is like throwing an egg against a rock.
"Listen up!" Sun Jiren cleared his throat, adopting a haughty demeanor. "Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes observation, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation—a comprehensive examination of all four. Today, I won't lay a hand on you, nor will I ask you anything. I'll just stand here and have you examine me. What ailments do I have?"
This is a classic example of setting a difficult question. Visual diagnosis is the most difficult of the four diagnostic methods, requiring extremely rich experience.
Many experienced traditional Chinese medicine doctors may not be able to diagnose a disease at a glance, let alone someone as young as Wang Minyu.
Wu Defa grinned smugly.
He refused to believe that this kid could have X-ray vision.
Wang Minyu didn't speak, but just quietly looked at Sun Jiren.
His gaze traveled from Sun Jiren's face to his tongue (though he could only make out a little bit), and then to the hand that was playing with walnuts.
In the eyes of Sun Jiren and Wu Defa, he was just putting on an act.
But in Wang Minyu's view, those few lines of text on the system panel above Sun Jiren's head were crystal clear.
Chronic gastritis with gastric ulcers.
[Recently, due to emotional distress, the liver (wood element) has been suppressing the spleen (earth element), leading to excessive stomach acid secretion and a burning sensation in the stomach area, especially in the afternoon.]
The slight deformity of the little finger joint in my left hand is a side effect of long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
After reading it, Wang Minyu felt more confident.
But he wasn't in a hurry to speak.
He went behind the counter, took out a piece of white paper and a pen from the drawer, and started drawing on it.
Sun Jiren and Wu Defa were both stunned.
What's this for? To test his diagnostic skills and his drawing skills?
A few minutes later, Wang Minyu put down his pen and pushed the paper over.
"Mr. Sun, please take a look."
The two of them went over to take a look and were dumbfounded.
What was drawn on the paper was none other than a lifelike anatomical diagram of the human stomach.
The stomach antrum, stomach body, and cardia are even clearly marked on it.
In the location of the gastric antrum, Wang Minyu drew a small cross in red pen, and added a note next to it: "There is an old ulcer here, about the size of a one-yuan coin, with irregular edges."
Sun Jiren's pupils suddenly contracted.
This location, this size... it's exactly the same as the results of his gastroscopy three years ago!
How is this possible?!
"How...how did you know?" Sun Jiren's voice trembled slightly.
This goes beyond the scope of traditional Chinese medicine's diagnostic methods and is almost like sorcery!
"Mr. Sun, don't worry, this is just one aspect." Wang Minyu ignored his shock and pointed to Sun Jiren's left hand. "When you were young, were you injured and had a habit of taking painkillers for a long time? Especially ibuprofen or the like?"
Sun Jiren instinctively hid his left hand behind his back.
He suffered a severe back injury while practicing martial arts in his youth, and indeed took painkillers for more than ten years, which led to stomach bleeding before he had to stop.
Even his apprentice didn't know about this!
"You...you can tell from that?" Wu Defa stammered from the side.
"Yes." Wang Minyu pointed to Sun Jiren's graying temples. "Although Mr. Sun is over sixty, he is still very energetic. However, his temples are dry and brittle, which is a sign of liver and kidney deficiency. But his deficiency is not the kind caused by old age and physical weakness; it is caused by the damage from medication. Look at his fingernails," Wang Minyu pointed to Sun Jiren's hands, "the nail surfaces have vertical stripes and a dull color, which is a sign of insufficient liver blood and the accumulation of drug toxins. Especially the little finger of his left hand, which corresponds to the kidney meridian, has a slightly deformed joint, indicating that the damage to the kidneys from the medication has already manifested."
Wang Minyu spoke eloquently, and every statement he made was like a heavy hammer blow to Sun Jiren's heart.
He was so accurate, even more accurate than a hospital lab report!
Sun Jiren stood there blankly, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
The pride and confidence he had built up over forty years of medical practice were shattered at this moment by a young man in his early twenties.
He felt he wasn't there to "spar," but rather to "run naked."
"So, Mr. Sun," Wang Minyu's tone finally softened a bit, "your stomach ailment isn't rooted in your stomach, but in your liver. Stagnant liver qi is causing stomach upset. Mr. Wu's matter has upset you, so have you been feeling a burning sensation in your stomach and experiencing constant acid reflux these past few days?"
"Yes...yes..." Sun Jiren nodded subconsciously, completely drawn into Wang Minyu's rhythm.
"Let me prescribe a formula for you." Wang Minyu picked up his pen and quickly wrote, "Bupleurum 12g, white peony root 15g, immature bitter orange 10g, licorice root 6g. This is Si Ni San, which soothes the liver and regulates qi. Add one more herb."
Wang Minyu paused, looked up at Sun Jiren, and said, word by word:
"30 grams of calcined oyster shells."
Oat shells are a common Chinese medicine that can neutralize acidity and relieve pain.
But the key lies in the word "calcination".
Sun Jiren's face turned deathly pale instantly.
In traditional Chinese medicine, calcined oyster shells are used to treat patients with stomach bleeding! This means that Wang Minyu not only saw that he had a stomach ulcer, but also that his ulcer had a potential risk of bleeding!
This is no longer diagnosis by observation; this is a divine diagnosis!
With a "thump".
Sun Jiren's legs went weak, and he sat down on the ground with a thud, the walnuts in his hand rolling all over the ground.
He looked at Wang Minyu, his eyes no longer filled with the arrogance and disdain of before, but only with deep fear and... awe.
"Who...who are you?"
Wang Minyu did not answer, but simply pushed the prescription over.
"The medicine costs thirty-six, but considering you are a senior, we won't charge you double this time."