Wu Shengli's expression shifted slightly. With a dry laugh, he said, "So if I understand you correctly, you can cure me?"
Under the gaze of everyone present, Lu Yi nodded with complete sincerity. "Your stomach condition is very easy to treat."
Very easy to treat?
Everyone in the room looked at Lu Yi with a mixture of surprise and suspicion.
"Easy to treat?"
Wu Shengli laughed. True to the saying, someone who has studied medicine for only three years dares to claim there is no incurable disease in the world. A newborn calf really isn't afraid of tigers—he would say anything!
He had been worrying over how to find an excuse to chase Lu Yi out, and here the fellow was, walking right into the trap!
Wu Shengli turned to look at Zhao Jinliang. "Director Zhao, I had no idea your hospital was hiding such a crouching tiger, a hidden traditional Chinese medicine master! Well then, I simply must see what he can do."
Without waiting for Zhao Jinliang to intervene, he stood up straight from the podium, walked directly over, and sat down facing Lu Yi, placing his arm on the desk in front of him.
"I'd love to see how 'easy' this is for you to treat!"
Seeing the two of them at loggerheads, the people in the conference room exchanged glances and immediately crowded around, eager to watch the drama unfold.
Director Zhao Jinliang also hurried over, his gaze shifting back and forth between Lu Yi and Wu Shengli. He didn't know what to think, so he simply said nothing and watched.
Lu Yi looked calmly at Wu Shengli before him. Without refusing, he raised a hand and placed his fingers over the three pulse regions of the other man's right wrist: cun, guan, and chi.
As he applied light and heavy pressure, he caught a faint scent of traditional herbal medicine coming from the man. With a shift of his intent, a surge of true qi instantly rushed to his nose.
His sense of smell sharpened instantaneously. The scent of perfume and body wash in the room was suddenly overpowered by a distinct, pungent stench of stinky feet, crystal clear and unmistakable.
If his peripheral vision hadn't deceived him, the source of that foot odor was none other than Director Zhao Jinliang...
Suppressing the rising nausea in his throat, Lu Yi forced himself to focus entirely on Wu Shengli.
Ten seconds later, he lifted his hand and placed it on Wu Shengli's left wrist, then pulled back.
Done taking the pulse already?
A cold smirk broke through the layers of smiles on Wu Shengli's face. What kind of nonsense diagnosis could anyone make in that short a time!
A proper pulse diagnosis always took at least a full minute.
"You must feel very frustrated and repressed at the TCM Department."
Lu Yi looked straight at Wu Shengli and asked.
While Wu Shengli maintained a calm and indifferent facade on the surface, a shock went through his heart.
"When you were young, your internal fire was extremely vigorous, and you had a strong fondness for cold foods and drinks. Doing this over a long period resulted in a condition of phlegm-fluid retention. At the TCM Department, you consider yourself exceptionally talented, yet you don't receive the recognition or importance you feel you deserve. This prolonged emotional repression has caused your ascending qi to stagnate and the phlegm-fluid to remain unresolved. Eventually, your stomach suffered from cold, failing to send its contents downward, and the water fluids began pushing outward through the gastric mucosa."
"If I'm not mistaken, your stomach should be completely riddled with polyps right now."
Lu Yi's calm words sounded like a thunderclap inside Wu Shengli's head.
At that moment, his expression finally cracked, transforming from breezy indifference into sheer astonishment.
How on earth did you know I consider myself... talented yet unappreciated!
A week ago, he had undergone a gastroscopy and a pathological biopsy. His stomach really was covered in polyps!
Could this young man actually detect polyps just by taking a pulse?
"Keep your current herbal prescription the same, but increase Poria and dried ginger to 100 grams each. Keep the dosages of Guizhi, Baizhu, and licorice unchanged."
Lu Yi continued.
Wu Shengli's eyes widened even further in shock, and he blurted out, "How did you know Poria, Guizhi, Baizhu, and licorice were in the medicine I've been taking recently?"
Lu Yi pointed at his white lab coat. "You smell like medicine."
"Oh, wait—what?!"
Just as Wu Shengli nodded, his entire expression froze in place.
What does me smelling like medicine have to do with anything?
You smelled it out?!
No, wait!
You can figure out what medicine I've been taking just by smelling me??
You knew I had a stomach problem just by looking at me?
And you knew I had polyps just from taking my pulse??
Wu Shengli's expression shifted through several emotions. Only as a practitioner of traditional medicine himself did he realize how terrifying this truly was. Forcing a cold smile, he argued,
"The young man certainly has a few tricks up his sleeve. Let's assume you guessed all of that correctly by fluke, but claiming you can cure my stomach condition simply by adjusting the dosage? What kind of joke are you playing? If it were that simple, wouldn't I have cured myself long ago?"
"Your stomach condition was always very easy to treat."
Lu Yi nodded, saying with complete candor, "All stomach conditions are very easy to treat."
As soon as he said this, not only Wu Shengli, but everyone else present—including Director Zhao Jinliang—stared in blank astonishment.
Everyone seated here was either a doctor or a nurse. They knew very well that chronic gastritis and stomach ailments were notoriously difficult to cure completely! In fact, many of them suffered from stomach problems themselves!
"Most modern people develop stomach problems primarily because they consume too many sweets, don't eat their meals on a regular schedule, or frequently have cold drinks. The fundamental pathogenesis lies in the stomach's failure to descend."
Lu Yi looked around at the crowd and said, "Therefore, the key to treating stomach conditions lies in descent."
"Furthermore, because the stomach is constantly processing and ripening grains every day, one must ensure the stomach remains warm—what we call warming down-bearing. Combine this warming of the stomach with substances that repair the gastric mucosa, promote blood circulation and stop bleeding, and regulate qi. Practically all stomach ailments can be completely cured."
Could it really be that simple?
The crowd looked doubtfully at Lu Yi, then turned their questioning gazes toward Wu Shengli.
They didn't understand traditional medicine, but he did.
Wu Shengli's heart was currently pounding with shock. It was the first time in his life he had ever heard anyone explain the approach to treating stomach diseases with such crystal-clear logic.
Upon reflection, many of the herbal formulas he had previously used to successfully treat stomach patients actually coincided implicitly with this very line of reasoning.
Yet on the surface, he continued to sneer. "It sounds simple enough, but treating patients is an entirely different matter. Theory is one thing, but whether you can actually cure them is uncertain. That comes down to choosing the right herbs and the exact dosages..."
"You can go ahead and increase the dosage of Poria and dried ginger in your decoction right now and try it again. I guarantee your gastric polyps will disappear in a single dose!"
Lu Yi smiled faintly.
"That's impossible!"
Wu Shengli's eyes bulged as he flatly rejected the claim.
"You can always try it."
Lu Yi spread his hands.
"Then let's try it!"
Wu Shengli stared intently at Lu Yi. He refused to believe that a single altered dose of herbs could cure his stomach polyps!
If it were that simple, he wouldn't have spent the past two days agonizing over it!
He pulled out his phone, sent a photo via WeChat directly to Zhao Jinliang, and said, "Director Zhao, please trouble someone to have this prescription filled according to his exact specifications—increase the Poria and dried ginger to one hundred grams just as he said!"
***
Chapter 4: Cured by a Single Dose of Medicine!
"Haha, Director Wang, my doctor here is just young and full of spirit, please don't take it to heart. Come, let me treat you to a drink at noon to make amends."
Zhao Jinliang hurriedly stepped forward with a hearty laugh to smooth things over.
"No! Director Zhao, since the words have already been said, I simply must prove whether this young doctor is right or wrong. Please, Director Zhao, help me out."
Wu Shengli flatly refused.
Today, he had to slap this young man down right in front of everyone, or else how could he ever show his face in the county's TCM circles again?
How could he ever come here to practice medicine with his head held high?
Zhao Jinliang glanced at the stubborn Wu Shengli, then looked at Lu Yi, who sat there as calm and unconcerned as if none of this had anything to do with him. With a helpless sigh, he said, "Fine then. Doctor Li, go fill the prescription and brew the medicine."
With that, he picked up his phone and forwarded the photo to Doctor Li from the hospital pharmacy who was present in the room.
Thirty minutes later, the door to the conference room—quiet for a full half-hour—was pushed open.
Doctor Li walked in carrying a bowl of steaming medicine and placed it on the table before Wu Shengli and Lu Yi.
Everyone, including Zhao Jinliang, straightened up in their seats. Their gazes locked onto the steaming bowl of medicine, then darted rapidly back and forth between Wu Shengli and Lu Yi.
"Should I drink it right now or what?"
Wu Shengli tested the temperature of the bowl before him. It was just right. He cast a sneering look at Lu Yi and asked.
"Just drink it straight down."
Lu Yi nodded.
Wu Shengli let out a dry laugh. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he picked up the bowl of traditional medicine and drained it in a single gulp.
When he finished, he turned the bowl completely upside down.
Not a single drop was left!
"Medicine's finished. Shall I wait an hour for it to take effect? Don't worry, I have all the time in the world."
Wu Shengli gave a cold chuckle and leaned back against the back of his chair. For a dose of medicine like this to enter the stomach and take effect would take at least an hour anyway.
Besides, his stomach had been uncomfortable lately; skipping lunch would be a good way to cleanse his digestive tract.
"There's no need to wait. The medicine will take effect very quickly."
Lu Yi shook his head.
Quickly?
A trace of a cold smile appeared on Wu Shengli's face. This young man had clearly been driven to such a dead end that he was starting to talk nonsense.
"Give me your right hand. I want to take your pulse again."
Lu Yi said, channeling a surge of true qi into his own right hand at the same time.
"Check it all you want. I can afford to wait the whole afternoon."
Wu Shengli laid his hand flat on the table.
Lu Yi extended his right hand, which was suffused with true qi. Three fingers pressed down onto Wu Shengli's cun, guan, and chi pulse positions, and a thread of true qi instantly shot into Wu Shengli's body, heading straight for his abdomen and rapidly wrapping around his stomach and small intestine.
The previously sluggish rate of absorption skyrocketed instantly!
This was the first application of true qi from the memories of the parallel world: it didn't enhance the medicine's potency itself, but it drastically accelerated the body's absorption of the medication!
Wu Shengli remained completely unaware of this, sitting smugly with the corners of his mouth turned up, staring fixedly at Lu Yi.
"Done."
A minute later, Lu Yi took a deep breath, his complexion slightly pale as he withdrew his hand, a helpless, bitter smile twitching at the corner of his mouth.
This rapid promotion of drug absorption had already consumed a full third of the true qi within his body.
He had already sensed it back when he was with the beautiful doctor Lin Chuqing: this world was different from the parallel world of his dreams. The true qi of heaven and earth was pitifully scarce.
If he had to rely solely on absorption and cultivation to replenish his internal true qi, it might take a whole month just to make up for what he had burned through today.
The fact that he had been able to accumulate so much true qi over the past three days was entirely thanks to the internal qi he had built up over more than twenty years of practicing his family's guiding exercises.
At present, it seemed utterly impossible to reach the level of a supreme ancient martial arts master from the parallel world simply through cultivation in this realm!
"Done? Am I cured, or has the medicine just been absorbed properly?"
Wu Shengli asked with a mocking tone.
He was just about to press his advantage and throw in a few more sarcastic remarks when his expression suddenly shifted. A pain unlike anything he had ever felt tore through his stomach, churning and gurgling violently.
His sphincter clenched, and a sudden, urgent wave of pressure hit his bladder.
A jolt of alarm went through Wu Shengli. Could the medicine actually be taking effect?
Hearing the loud rumbling growl from Wu Shengli's stomach, the people around him froze, and Director Zhao Jinliang was taken aback as well.
Wu Shengli hurriedly clamped both hands over his stomach, trying to hold it in, only to discover that it was utterly impossible to contain. With a flushed red face, he cast a desperate look at Zhao Jinliang. "Director Zhao, where is the restroom?"
"Doctor Li, take Director Wang there immediately!"
Zhao Jinliang said at once.
Filling prescriptions was my job, but why is everyone dragging me along just to go to the toilet?
Doctor Li once again rose with a helpless expression and hurried out of the conference room door with Wu Shengli trailing closely behind in a desperate dash.
Watching Wu Shengli's panicked, ungraceful retreat, the crowd exchanged blank looks.
They shared a silent glance, then turned their gazes toward Lu Yi, whose face was still slightly pale.
Suddenly, a quiet murmur of excitement broke out across the entire conference room!
Everyone began communicating rapidly with their eyes, including Director Zhao Jinliang.
"Could that medicine have actually worked? So fast?"
"No way, right? Maybe he just ate something bad and has the runs? Acute gastroenteritis?"
Five minutes later, Wu Shengli returned looking thoroughly refreshed. Seeing the curious gazes fixed upon him, he offered an embarrassed smile. "Sorry about that. Must have eaten something bad this morning, had a bit of an upset stomach just now."
"What's the next step? Continue waiting for the medicine to take effect?"
Wu Shengli sat back down and looked at Lu Yi again. During his bout of explosive diarrhea, he had convinced himself it must have been something bad he ate for breakfast.
"No need to wait. It has already taken effect."
Lu Yi said, "Let's go get a gastroscopy."
As soon as these words fell, the room went quiet once more. It had already taken effect?
Wu Shengli looked at Lu Yi in shock. Was that bout of diarrhea supposed to be the medicine working?
No!
It couldn't possibly be that fast!
"Director Zhao, since Doctor Lu has said as much, please be so kind as to arrange a gastroscopy for me! It's been four hours since I last ate, so I'm in prime condition for the scan. Also, please have them issue the billing slip for me—since my condition is about to be cured, whatever fees I owe need to be paid properly!"
Wu Shengli stood up abruptly, a sneer on his face.
"Lu Yi, don't you want to reconsider and be a bit more cautious?"
Zhao Jinliang asked, frowning at Lu Yi.
He didn't really know much about Lu Yi as a person or his competence in traditional medicine. The reason he had hired him on the spot was simple—he was just too damn handsome.
Skill aside for the moment, Zhao Jinliang believed that face alone could attract plenty of female patients of all ages.
But if Lu Yi lost this contest, he, the director, would have to abandon his plans for the TCM Department and his scheme of making money off a pretty face.
"No need. Let's go check right now."
Lu Yi stood up as well.
Zhao Jinliang gave Lu Yi a long, deep look, then waved his hand to instruct the internal medicine doctor to take Wu Shengli for a gastroscopy. He followed right behind them.
The others exchanged glances, and a moment later, they all stood up and trailed along as well.
Lu Yi followed at a leisurely pace.
Fifteen minutes later, the entire gastroscopy room had grown dead silent—so quiet that the drop of a pin could practically be heard.
The attending physicians from every department kept their gazes fixed entirely on Lu Yi, their eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
As for the nurses, alongside their shock, their eyes held a clear trace of adoration.
"This is impossible!"
Wu Shengli muttered, holding the report in his hands. He refused to believe the results before his eyes!
Where were the polyps in his stomach? It was completely spotless!
Zhao Jinliang stared with wide eyes at the report in Wu Shengli's hands, his heart hammering against his ribs. The guy he hired hadn't lied at all—a single dose of medicine had genuinely cured Wu Shengli's condition!
If even Wu Shengli couldn't cure himself, didn't that mean Lu Yi's medical skills were superior to Director Wang's??
How could someone he recruited purely for his looks turn out to be this terrifyingly skilled?
Everyone else stood rooted to the spot in stunned silence, completely incapable of recovering from the shock. It was actually cured?!
All eyes locked fiercely onto Lu Yi, especially those of the general practitioners and internal medicine doctors. They knew better than anyone that polyps usually required surgery—how could a single bowl of herbal medicine possibly make them vanish?
And yet, right now, a single bowl of medicine had wiped them clean!
Director Zhao Jinliang snapped back to his senses. He looked at Wu Shengli, deliberated for a long moment without knowing what to say, and finally squeezed out a sentence: "Old Wang, congratulations. Your illness is cured."
At these words, Wu Shengli shuddered violently, his hands trembling as his eyes remained glued to the gastroscopy report.
At that moment, a wisp of pale grey vapor drifted out from his body.
Seeing this, Lu Yi's gaze narrowed.
Malicious illness qi?
Lu Yi calmly scanned the people around him, only to discover that absolutely no one else could see it.
The grey illness qi suddenly dissipated into thin air, leaving behind only a single, dazzling sliver of white light as fine as a hair.
A slight jolt ran through Lu Yi's heart, his eyes locked onto that thread of light.
It was true qi!
The next moment, the true qi radiating a white glow shot directly toward him, plunging into his body with a whoosh.
***
Chapter 5: Is There an Even Bigger Bonus?
The very instant the true qi entered his body—
His dantian, which had just been completely emptied of true qi, instantly filled to the brim, growing even ten percent fuller than before!
Lu Yi's eyes flashed brightly.
This place was different from the parallel world of his dreams!
In the parallel world, true qi had to be cultivated entirely through one's own efforts, but here, he could actually extract and absorb true qi generated from the illness qi of cured patients!
Furthermore, the true qi contained within a single patient's illness qi was equivalent to an entire month of his own cultivation!
Didn't that mean...
As long as he cured enough patients, he could rely entirely on absorbing the true qi produced from their illness qi to become a supreme ancient martial arts master in this world, just like the ones in the parallel world!
"I don't believe these results! Your equipment is defective, I'm going back to the TCM Hospital for another checkup!"
Wu Shengli finally snapped out of his daze, viciously crumpling the report in his hands into a ball and clutching it tightly. Taking a deep breath, he spun around and stormed out.
Watching Wu Shengli's panicked and miserable retreat, Zhao Jinliang turned his head to look at Lu Yi, his eyes brimming with pleasant surprise.
He really had recruited a genuine talent.
Good looks combined with top-tier medical skills—the hospital's TCM Department was finally poised for a revival!
"Ahem!"
Zhao Jinliang reined in his emotions, turned to the crowd who were still caught in a daze, cleared his throat, and said, "Since everyone is already here, let's continue our meeting right in this room. Now, I am announcing two matters."
"First, the plan to cancel the TCM Department is temporarily put on hold."
The crowd snapped out of their shock at the cough and cast stunned glances at Lu Yi.
As for this piece of news, however, none of them felt the slightest bit surprised.
"Second matter."
Zhao Jinliang's voice lowered. "Our hospital's revenue for this year is still falling far short of our target! That is the real purpose of today's meeting!"
As soon as these words dropped, the conference room fell instantly silent, everyone's expressions shifting from shock to dismay.
As doctors in a community hospital, their year-end bonuses were directly tied to the hospital's revenue. If the revenue target was met, there were bonuses; if not, they only received their base salaries.
"At the beginning of this year, the revenue target we submitted in our hospital report was 50 million. Nine months have passed, and our current revenue is only 30 million, leaving a gap of 20 million!"
"Which means this remaining 20 million must be fulfilled over these next three months!"
"After deliberation, the hospital has decided that, excluding the TCM Department, we will assign a required revenue quota for the final three months of the year to each individual department."
Zhao Jinliang pulled out his phone, brought up an image, and read off the numbers: "Surgery takes on 3 million, Internal Medicine 2.6 million, General Practice 2.2 million... Let me make this clear: across all nine departments, whichever department meets its assigned quota will receive its year-end bonus!"
"I object!"
Before the echo of his voice had even faded, a lean-faced, sharp-eyed middle-aged doctor stood up instantly.
Lu Yi looked at the man: Ma Jianshan, the attending surgeon of the Community Hospital and its highest-earning doctor.
"Why should our surgery department have to shoulder so much? Other departments only need 2.2 million to get their bonuses, while we need 3 million!"
"The revenue our department brought in over the first nine months already exceeds the annual revenue of most other departments combined! Why should we still have to shoulder the heaviest burden in these final three months? And if we fail to meet it, we don't get a bonus either! Don't give me that nonsense about the capable taking on more work—this is pure exploitation of our department! I disagree!"
At this point, Ma Jianshan glanced sideways at Lu Yi and added,
"Especially the TCM Department! We are all hospital departments—what makes them exempt from this?"
"Right!"
The attending physician of the internal medicine department also stood up. Under this allocation plan, his department had been assigned the second-highest quota at 2.6 million!
A sharp glint flashed in Zhao Jinliang's eyes as he asked, "How do you propose it should be divided, then?"
"Equal distribution, treating everyone fairly! Including the TCM Department—2 million for every single department. Whichever department completes the task gets the bonus! We're all human beings, nobody should have to wipe anyone else's ass!"
Ma Jianshan stated firmly and forcefully.
"I agree!"
The internal medicine attending immediately chimed in in agreement.
A TCM Department with zero patients should also be assigned 2 million?
The doctors from the remaining departments immediately shot playful, gloating glances toward Lu Yi.