Unless they were trainers who wanted to foster resentment toward themselves in their Pokémon, most trainers would not use Chinese herbal medicine to treat their Pokémon, even though its therapeutic effects were quite good.
Back in Viridian City, Heath had taken some Chinese herbal medicine. At the time, he had caught a cold because he often went out early to work during Huinantian and had no equipment to keep out the damp. Sister Feng had taken him to see an elderly practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, who performed all four diagnostic methods-inspection, listening and smelling, inquiry, and pulse-taking-without skipping a single one, giving Heath a long-lost sense of familiarity.
After returning to the food truck, Heath lowered his head and began preparing the Jianbing Guozi the elderly man wanted. The man's tastes were fairly normal: he liked sour food and disliked spicy food, so Heath should only need to add some tomato ketchup to this Jianbing Guozi to leave him satisfied with it.
Making a Jianbing Guozi was not complicated, and Heath worked very quickly. Before long, he had finished it and brought it over to the elderly man.
"Sir, here's your Jianbing Guozi." Smiling, Heath put the Jianbing Guozi in a bag and handed it to the elderly man, who accepted it with a smile.
But as he took it, the elderly man seemed to rest his hand on Heath's wrist out of instinct. Heath froze for a moment. Was he taking my pulse?
"Oh dear, sorry about that, young man. Force of habit. But you're very healthy. Your pulse is excellent." The elderly man hurriedly let go, then picked up his Jianbing Guozi with a chuckle and slowly walked away.
Heath smiled. He really was an elderly practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine. Just casually taking Heath's pulse had