My Dear Senior

Su Ziyang rested with his eyes closed, regulating his breathing until his shift ended. After eating a few quick bites at noon, he returned to the clinic.

Buzz, buzz...

It was a WeChat notification.

Bao Mingya: "Xiao Su, are you there?"

Bao Mingya was Su Ziyang's senior from university. She often took him to various student union events, and later, when he stopped going to the student union so much, she took him to find a teacher in the hospital's acupuncture and tuina department so he could learn acupuncture and tuina. She had been very good to him.

Later, Bao Mingya got a boyfriend, and Su Ziyang, wanting to avoid any appearance of impropriety, stopped keeping in touch with her as much.

Su Ziyang picked up his phone and replied, "I'm here. What is it?"

Bao Mingya: "You're working at the Jingchengdao Medical Clinic now, right?"

Su Ziyang: "How did you know, Senior?"

Bao Mingya: "This humble mountain dweller has her ways! I'll come see you in a bit!"

Afterward, Bao Mingya also sent a smug sticker.

"Come see me???" Su Ziyang was a little surprised and sent several question marks in a row, but Bao Mingya didn't reply again.

Bao Mingya's words left Su Ziyang rather puzzled. As he sat in his seat pondering them seriously, he saw a slender figure appear in the doorway.

"Xiao Su! What are you staring at? Don't recognize me?" It was Bao Mingya herself. Seeing Su Ziyang staring blankly at her, she teased him.

Bao Mingya had been beautiful in school, and now that she had graduated and dressed herself up, she looked even better. Boots showed off her long legs, straight black hair fell over her shoulders, and gold-rimmed glasses completed the look of a big sister next door.

"Oh, Senior! What brings you here?" Su Ziyang looked closely and finally recognized Bao Mingya. Only then did he understand what she had meant by coming to see him in a bit. She had really come to see him!

Bao Mingya set her backpack on Su Ziyang's desk, plopped down beside him, and slapped the desk, her almond-shaped eyes widening. "You've got some nerve! I've been working around here ever since I graduated! You came here and didn't even say hello! I only found out you were here because I happened to see your Moments post! What's the matter? Got your graduate degree, your wings grew strong, and now you don't acknowledge your old senior anymore?"

Bao Mingya had never been one to let anyone off lightly when she had right on her side, and Su Ziyang hurriedly begged for mercy. "I was wrong, I was wrong, my dear old senior! I really didn't know you were working around here! If I'd known, how could I not have come to pay my respects?"

Bao Mingya's eyes widened even further. Then she slapped the desk. "Oh! So you blocked me from your Moments too! I often post about working here. I was wondering why you never gave me a like. Turns out you blocked me!"

Su Ziyang didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "That's a terrible injustice! I really didn't notice. Look, I haven't even posted on Moments in a year. I just hardly ever check it!"

Bao Mingya ignored his explanation and crooked a finger. "Give me your phone!"

Su Ziyang could only obediently hand his phone to Su Ziyang. Bao Mingya opened her own Moments and found that Su Ziyang really hadn't blocked her, so she handed his phone back. "I'll let you off this once! How about this? Since you're working here, I'll give you a chance to make up for it. Take my pulse, and I won't deal with you!"

With that, Bao Mingya rested her wrist on the pulse-taking cushion. Su Ziyang was happy to oblige. He located the guan and chi positions and placed three fingers on her cun, guan, and chi pulses.

When Bao Mingya had first come in, Su Ziyang hadn't regarded her as a patient, but as soon as he took her pulse, he noticed something amiss.

The rhythms of Bao Mingya's pulse at the cun, guan, and chi positions were fairly even, but Su Ziyang noticed that the chi pulse was different. From cun to chi, the overall pulse gradually tapered into the shape of an awl: large at cun and small at chi, with the chi pulse like the tip of a needle.

Seeing Su Ziyang fall silent, Bao Mingya didn't disturb him. After taking the pulse in her left hand, he gestured for her right. The pulse there was the same, even more pronounced than on the left.

As mentioned before, cun represented heaven and governed the upper jiao of the body, while chi represented earth and governed the lower jiao. At that thought, Su Ziyang directed qi from his dantian to his eyes and looked at Bao Mingya's lower abdomen.

Su Ziyang found a faint stream of black qi swirling over Bao Mingya's lower abdomen. He was startled. This black qi was a kind of disease qi, and it also represented misfortune. It was the same kind Mr. Mengfei had seen at Jiang Kui's house.

Seeing Su Ziyang remain silent, Bao Mingya's expression changed from cheerful and casual to serious. "Xiao Su, what did you find? Why aren't you saying anything?"

Su Ziyang withdrew his fingers and said slowly, "Senior, do you often have lower back pain?"

Bao Mingya nodded. "Not bad! I haven't seen you in years, and you've really developed some skills! I do often have lower back pain. Sitting in an office all day gives me back pain."

Su Ziyang chuckled. "Senior, although men and women are different, illness makes no distinction when seeking treatment. Let me ask you something I probably shouldn't!"

Bao Mingya burst out laughing. "Oh my... now you're giving me the 'illness makes no distinction' line! Go on, ask whatever you want!"

Without further ado, Su Ziyang asked directly, "Senior, do you often have a bloated, aching feeling in your lower abdomen? From your pulse, do you have trouble urinating? Does it hurt?"

The smile vanished instantly from Bao Mingya's face, which had been bright with joy just moments before. Her expression grew grave, and she stared at Su Ziyang, too astonished to speak. "Xiao Su... you..."

"Senior, do you have the symptoms I just asked about?" In fact, Su Ziyang didn't need to ask. From Bao Mingya's expression, he had already determined that he was right.

Still astonished, Bao Mingya sighed softly. "All right! It's true what they say: part with a scholar for three days, and you must look at him with fresh eyes! You really are impressive now. I'm taking Chinese medicine for this very problem! A while ago, it hurt terribly when I urinated. The hospital examination said it was urethritis!"

"Oh," Su Ziyang said. "What Chinese medicine are you taking?"

Bao Mingya shook her head. "You know me. I played around all day at school, so how would I know anything about that? Your brother-in-law prescribed it for me!"

"Which brother-in-law?" Su Ziyang teased, worried that Bao Mingya might be nervous.

"I'll beat you to death!" Bao Mingya's almond-shaped eyes went wide, and she slapped the desk with a smack.

Su Ziyang chuckled. "Let me see the prescription my brother-in-law gave you!"

"I actually have it!"

Bao Mingya took out her phone, tapped at it a couple of times, and found a photo to show Su Ziyang. Then she said, "The first one is what I took before. It didn't work very well, so he switched me to the second one!"

Su Ziyang looked at the first photo:

Rhubarb, 10 g

Plantago seed, 10 g

Dianthus, 10 g

Knotgrass, 5 g

Gardenia fruit, 5 g

Akebia stem, 5 g

Licorice, 5 g

Talc, 5 g

7 doses

Su Ziyang recognized the prescription. It was called Eight Rectifications Powder, a famous formula for treating strangury. (What was now called urethritis was known in ancient times as strangury.) These days, in Chinese medicine, if a patient said they had urethritis, treatment generally started with Eight Rectifications Powder. Although textbooks on internal Chinese medicine recorded many different patterns, urethritis was mostly characterized by hot, painful urination, so it was usually considered damp-heat. For that reason, Eight Rectifications Powder was still used most often.

Bao Mingya had just said the first prescription hadn't worked, so it had been changed to a second. Su Ziyang swiped to look at the second photo.

Astragalus root (3 g)

Licorice (1.5 g, honey-fried)

Ginseng (3 g)

Angelica root body (3 g)

Tangerine peel (6 g)

Cimicifuga rhizome (9 g)

Bupleurum root (6 g)

Atractylodes rhizome (9 g)

Su Ziyang recognized this prescription too. It was called Buzhong Yiqi Decoction, a formula recorded in the Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach, commonly used to treat conditions involving sinking middle qi and weakness of the spleen and stomach.

From the two prescriptions, Su Ziyang understood the reasoning behind Bao Mingya's husband's choices. When he prescribed the first formula, Bao Mingya's husband had thought it was damp-heat pouring downward, so he chose Eight Rectifications Powder. Since the first formula hadn't worked, he changed his thinking and decided it was a problem of spleen and stomach weakness and sinking middle qi, so he switched to Buzhong Yiqi Decoction.

This approach could be called purely academic! The so-called academic approach meant prescribing medicines strictly according to the textbook knowledge one had learned in school. There was nothing necessarily wrong with that, but the results were generally less than satisfactory.

If this had been half a year ago, Su Ziyang would certainly have supported Bao Mingya's husband's methods, but times had changed. Since becoming Mr. Mengfei's disciple, Su Ziyang's outlook and state of mind had changed greatly.

"Senior, has this medicine helped?" Su Ziyang handed the phone back to Bao Mingya.

Bao Mingya shook her head and said hesitantly, "Not really. I've been taking it for a little over half a month. It tastes awful, and I don't even want to drink it anymore. I'm also taking floxacin antibiotics right now. Sigh!"

Seeing Bao Mingya's troubled expression, Su Ziyang thought back to when she had taken him to intern at the hospital. He steadied himself and said, "Senior, how about this? I'll write you a prescription. You won't have to drink much, just three doses."

Su Ziyang felt somewhat awkward because the person treating Bao Mingya was none other than her husband. Would it look bad if he stepped in like this?

While Su Ziyang hesitated, Bao Mingya readily agreed. "Sure, write it! I hadn't told you anything, but you figured it out just by taking my pulse. That's really amazing. I trust you! Once I'm better, I'll thank you properly!"

With Bao Mingya's consent, Su Ziyang recorded her basic information in the casebook.

Then Su Ziyang wrote three ingredients on a piece of paper:

Angelica root, 6 g

Fritillaria bulb, 6 g

Sophora root, 6 g

This was a classical formula recorded in the second volume of the Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet, chapter twenty, "Pulse Patterns, Symptoms, and Treatment of Diseases in Pregnant Women."

Its main indication: difficulty urinating during pregnancy, with eating and drinking as usual; the Danggui Beimu Kushen Pill treats it.

In fact, this formula could treat not only obstructed urination during pregnancy, but also difficult urination in women. There was a great deal to the word "difficult": both pain and obstruction could count as difficulty. That was why Su Ziyang chose this formula.

Moreover, Bao Mingya actually had neither damp-heat pouring downward nor spleen and stomach weakness. Su Ziyang had just asked her, and she was eating well and showed no signs of damp-heat.

This showed that there was no illness in the upper or middle jiao, only a problem in the lower jiao. Thus, the three ingredients could treat it!!!