Cancer?

After listening to Mr. Mengfei's explanation, Su Ziyang felt a crackle go off in his head. It was as if a fresh breeze had swept through his heart, leaving him wonderfully refreshed!

So that's how it is!

Seeing Su Ziyang sitting silently with a radiant smile on his face, Mr. Mengfei knew he had gained some insight. He said no more, leaving Su Ziyang to digest what he had been told.

Time passed in silence.

Three people appeared at the clinic door...

Only then did Su Ziyang come out of his thoughts.

"Hello!"

Thanks to Mr. Mengfei's explanation, Su Ziyang's understanding of classical formulas had clearly risen another level.

"Hello, doctor!"

The speaker was a young-looking man.

"Come in!"

Su Ziyang invited the three of them inside.

One of them, a woman with some gray in her hair, sat down on a chair, trembling.

"Doctor, here's the situation! My mom was examined at the hospital, and they said she had throat cancer."

At this, Su Ziyang was somewhat taken aback.

Normally, when a family member had cancer, the relatives kept it from the patient, because a person's belief could sometimes play a decisive role in treating such an illness.

During an internship at a hospital one year, Su Ziyang had seen a radiant-looking man come in. Once he was diagnosed with cancer, he instantly lost all his vitality, and even trembled when he walked.

But it was relatively rare for a patient's family to speak so openly about it.

Su Ziyang looked with some puzzlement at the woman with graying hair in the chair.

"Doctor, you don't need to worry. I'm not afraid. I just came to see whether this illness can be treated! If it can't, then we won't treat it, right? I'd only end up burdening my children and draining their resources! My son's job has just become stable, and he's getting ready to marry. Our family is from the countryside, and things haven't been easy!"

Her words left Su Ziyang feeling uncomfortable. As the saying went, no parent under heaven was ever in the wrong.

Even when facing their own life and death, parents thought first of how to do better by their children, rather than how to keep themselves alive.

"Mom! What are you saying? Of course we have to treat it!" The young man said nothing; instead, the young woman beside him spoke up.

The gray-haired woman turned and clasped the young woman's hand. "Xiaoying, don't worry. I absolutely won't burden the two of you! Just live your life with Yongdi without worrying!"

Seeing that the family of three was about to stage a family ethics drama full of twists and turns right there, Su Ziyang hurriedly interrupted them.

"Um, could I take a look at the test reports? Did you bring them?"

Su Ziyang asked.

"Yes, yes!"

With that, Yongdi took a stack of lab reports out of his bag.

Su Ziyang looked over the many complicated lab reports.

One cancer marker among them was indeed very high.

But the other basic tests were all normal.

"Did you, um, do any other tests? There's just this one marker?" Su Ziyang thought these people were far too unreliable. How could they conclude it was cancer on the basis of one marker?

There was some reproach in Su Ziyang's words, because from the way the gray-haired woman and her son interacted, he could tell to some extent that the young man didn't seem very filial.

Although the middle-aged woman said she wasn't afraid, Su Ziyang could still tell from her words and behavior that she was actually terrified. She simply had to put on a brave face in front of her son and daughter-in-law!

"Oh, doctor, here's what happened!" Xiaoying answered. "A while ago, my mom felt some discomfort in her throat, and then she had some trouble swallowing. So we went to the hospital for an examination. After that, they wanted to do a laryngoscopy, but the scope couldn't go down at all. There was a fairly large lump in her throat. The doctor recommended surgery... but later, based on the marker, they said it might be that not-so-good illness!"

Su Ziyang nodded after listening.

"Come on, auntie, let me take your pulse!"

The gray-haired woman hurriedly placed her hand on the pulse-taking cushion.

Su Ziyang gently laid three fingers on her wrist and instantly felt a wiry hardness beneath them.

Su Ziyang composed himself, his whole body and mind seeming to sink into the pulse.

In a fleeting daze, an image flashed before Su Ziyang's eyes: a pink growth. But the image vanished in an instant.

About ten minutes later, Su Ziyang finished taking her pulse.

"What's your name, auntie? How old are you?"

Su Ziyang began recording the case.

"My name is Sun Hua. I'm 50."

Sun Hua

Female

Age: 50

Wiry pulse in both hands; tight and full at the cun positions.

In truth, Su Ziyang had no confidence when it came to this kind of illness. But what Mr. Mengfei had just explained had put his mind at ease, and treating patients had also become somewhat easier!

"Auntie, let me ask you something! Before your throat started feeling uncomfortable, did you get angry? Very angry, in fact!"

Why did Su Ziyang ask that?

Because Su Ziyang had found that Sun Hua's pulse was wiry in both hands, and a wiry pulse was the liver pulse!

A wiry pulse often indicated mental tension, bodily pain, or the aftermath of anger.

Su Ziyang found that, aside from the cun positions, which represented the throat and head and were somewhat tight, Sun Hua's pulse was wiry throughout.

This showed that Sun Hua's illness was very likely caused by qi. If so, Su Ziyang was confident he could treat it!

Su Ziyang already had an idea in mind, though he still wasn't entirely certain!

"Ah!" When Su Ziyang asked her,

Sun Hua gave a soft sigh.

"Doctor, you're absolutely right! I did get angry. Right after I got angry, my throat felt especially tight. After that, I couldn't get food down and felt there was an obstruction!"

As Sun Hua said this, she turned to look at her son and daughter-in-law behind her.

When the two saw their mother looking at them, they both lowered their heads without speaking.

"Well, auntie, here's the thing," Su Ziyang said. "Now that we've figured out the cause, my best guess is that you probably don't have cancer!"

As soon as Su Ziyang said this, Sun Hua's previously dispirited eyes suddenly lit up.

Sure enough, Su Ziyang's guess had been right. If a person had even the slightest hope of living, who would willingly die?

"Then what is it, doctor?" Sun Hua asked hurriedly, her tone as though she had grasped the last straw of her life.

"I think it's plum-pit qi. I can prescribe you a formula to take for a week! I think you should see results by then!" Su Ziyang said, fairly measured in his assessment.

"Plum-pit qi?" Su Ziyang's diagnosis made the three speak in unison. "Doctor! What is plum-pit qi?"

Su Ziyang began to explain, "The 'Plum-pit qi' section of Medical Mirror of Ancient and Modern Times once recorded: 'Plum-pit qi is an obstruction in the throat that cannot be coughed up or swallowed down, shaped like a pit. It begins with excessive joy or anger, causing heat to accumulate and give rise to a binding mass of stubborn phlegm, thus bringing about this illness.'"

In current conventional understanding, plum-pit qi was generally regarded as an illness consisting only of a subjective sensation, with no actual physical lesion. In other words, under normal circumstances, it would not produce a manifestation like Sun Hua's.

But Su Ziyang still believed the illness should be plum-pit qi, because Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet contained the line: "When a woman feels as though there is a piece of roasted meat in her throat, Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction governs it."

This should be understood to mean that when a woman felt as though she had a small piece of roasted meat in her throat, she should be treated with Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction. Su Ziyang thought it might not necessarily be just a sensation; such a thing might actually appear. Of course, all of this was his personal conjecture.

Since Sun Hua had previously been extremely angry, Su Ziyang believed the illness could be diagnosed and treated as plum-pit qi!

Sun Hua readily agreed, immediately consenting to take the Chinese medicine!

Su Ziyang nodded and silently recited the formula mnemonic: Pinellia, magnolia bark and perilla, simmered together with poria and fresh ginger; phlegm congeals and qi gathers to form a plum pit, but descend the rebellious qi and open the constraint, and qi will flow freely.

Then Su Ziyang wrote down the original formula:

Pinellia (one sheng), magnolia bark (three liang), poria (four liang), fresh ginger (five liang), dried perilla leaves (two liang).

Take the five ingredients above and boil them in seven sheng of water until four sheng remain. Divide into four portions and take warm: three during the day and one at night.

As mentioned earlier, a classical formula was generally prepared as one dose, decocted into three portions and taken three times.

But Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction was different: one dose was decocted into four portions, three during the day and one at night!

This reflected the particular nature of the medicine.

Su Ziyang finished the prescription, entered it into the computer, and instructed the three to go downstairs to pay and collect the medicine.

After taking care of everything, Su Ziyang turned to look at his master, who was sitting behind him.

Mr. Mengfei nodded to Su Ziyang, indicating his approval of everything he had done.

Before master and disciple could speak, a head suddenly appeared furtively at the door. It was Yongdi, who had just left.

"Is there something else?" Su Ziyang asked.

"Doctor, I came over secretly. Let me ask you something, and you have to tell me the truth. How much time does my mom have left?" Yongdi acted mysteriously, the expression of filial devotion he had put on earlier gone from his face.

"Huh?" The question stunned Su Ziyang. "What do you mean, how much time?"

"How long until my mom dies? Don't think I don't know. Doctors like you just comfort cancer patients and give them some inconsequential Chinese medicine. It won't harm them, and you make money. Am I wrong?!"

Diyong wore an expression that said he knew and understood everything, as though he had it all figured out!

Su Ziyang had never imagined that this young fellow, who looked perfectly respectable, could ask such a thing. And when he spoke of when his mother would die, there was no sadness in his eyes, only a trace of anticipation!

Su Ziyang and Mr. Mengfei exchanged a smile.

Then Su Ziyang pointed at the door. "You can leave. Your mom won't die. Her illness can definitely be cured!"

"Damn, you're still putting on an act! Look around, what doctor in this hospital isn't older than you? Know why we came to you in particular? Don't think I don't know. Everyone online says young doctors like you can't even treat patients, right? We just wanted peace of mind! Throat cancer is throat cancer. What plum-pit qi?! Pfft..." With that, Yongdi walked out, shaking his head.

Su Ziyang looked at his master and smiled helplessly!

Before master and disciple had a chance to speak,

another figure appeared at the door...