Patients After the New Year

Su Ziyang made a special copy of the prescription he wrote for Erhei, leaving a backup.

This is, strictly speaking, the first prescription that Su Ziyang devised himself after studying under Mr. Mengfei.

Although it was self-composed, it is based on evidence!

The first two herbs in Su Ziyang's prescription come from an ancient and famous formula for treating insomnia: Pinellia and Broomcorn Millet Decoction.

This prescription comes from the "Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon · Spiritual Pivot · Chapter on Guest Pathogens", which is one of the thirteen prescriptions recorded in the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon. The details are as follows.

1 liter of sorghum rice and 5 he of pinellia tuber.

The prescription is to use eight liters of water from Qianli away, stir it ten thousand times, and take five liters of the clear liquid to boil. Cook it with reed firewood, and when the fire boils, add one liter of sorghum rice and five he of prepared pinellia. Slowly cook until it reduces to one and a half liters, remove the dregs, and drink a small cup of the liquid three times a day, gradually increasing the dosage until the condition improves. Therefore, for newly diagnosed cases, simply cover the cup and lie down; once sweating occurs, the illness will subside. For chronic cases, three doses are sufficient.

The recipe is simple, but the method of decocting it is quite unique. The water used is very particular; it must be running water that has been stirred a thousand times.

This water, which has been stirred ten thousand times, is called Ganlan water. The purpose of doing this is to remove the stagnant and yin nature of the water. Using it to decoct medicine can prevent the water vapor from lingering and attracting evil qi.

When prescribing the medicine, Su Ziyang chose Atractylodes macrocephala instead of glutinous rice. Firstly, glutinous rice is not easy to find, and secondly, Atractylodes macrocephala is sweet and removes dampness, so it is an essential medicine for the spleen. Erhei's pulse showed that there was dampness in the spleen that was stagnating throughout the body, which is why Erhei felt weak all over.

The ingredients in the prescription, such as Poria cocos and ginger, are used to strengthen the spleen and dry dampness, while Cinnamon twig and Kudzu root are used to address the root cause of insomnia.

The "Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon · Spiritual Pivot · Chapter on Guest Pathogens" contains very clear records and analyses of insomnia:

When the Qi of the viscera is present in the five Zang organs and six Fu organs, the Wei Qi (defensive Qi) can only protect the exterior. It travels in the Yang and cannot enter the Yin. When it travels in the Yang, the Yang Qi becomes excessive. When the Yang Qi is excessive, the Yang Qiao (external artery) sinks and cannot enter the Yin. Yin becomes deficient, hence the eyes cannot close.

Insomnia, also known as "eyes that cannot close," is caused by the inability of the body's Yin and Yang and yang energies to communicate.

Therefore, after addressing the issue of dampness in the spleen and stomach, Su Ziyang added kudzu root and cinnamon twig to facilitate the flow of Yin and Yang energy within the body, allowing them to interact and thus resolve the insomnia problem.

Although the idea was his own, Su Ziyang was still very confident that he could cure Erhei's illness.

Five or six days passed, and Erhei never came to visit the shop again. After Su Ziyang's father finished all the work at hand, the family went back to their rural hometown for the Chinese New Year.

As I've grown up, I've noticed that the festive atmosphere of the New Year has faded.

On the streets and in the alleys, several children held firecrackers in one hand and incense sticks in the other. After lighting them, they threw them into the air with all their might. The firecrackers exploded in mid-air before they could land. The children watched the smoke rising from the explosions with glee and laughed, and then repeated this action with great enjoyment.

Smelling the gunpowder from the explosion and watching the group of children playing happily, Su Ziyang felt as if he were seeing his own childhood self. In the blink of an eye, he was almost thirty.

It's said that children look forward to the New Year, while the elderly dread it.

When Su Ziyang was a child, he never understood what this sentence meant. He thought the New Year was a happy time, so why did the elderly fear it?

Su Ziyang now understands that he has grown another year older after the New Year. Age seems to increase rather than decrease. "Fear" is a lament people feel about their aging bodies and the passing of their youth.

Su Ziyang strolled back home through the Dada. His father was cleaning fish, something Su Ziyang parents did every year for several days.

Mom was in charge of steaming buns, while Dad was in charge of cooking all kinds of meat, such as pork, beef, and lamb, and then frying, stir-frying, and braising them in various ways.

Some need to be fully cooked, while others require only slight pre-processing.

Some of these dishes were offered as tributes to the gods, some were kept from spoiling, and others were made convenient to serve to visiting relatives, allowing the food to be served quickly.

"Where did you go?" Su Ziyang's father asked, scraping fish scales as he watched Su Ziyang Dada back.

"I'm going to my grandma's to tidy up the family tree and sweep the yard for her!" Su Ziyang squatted down beside his father as he watched him prepare the fish.

"All done!?" Su Ziyang's father flipped the fish over.

"My uncle's busy over there, nothing much to do, so I came over!" Su Ziyang said.

"Could you help me remove the feathers from that goose over there? You're just bored!" Su Ziyang's father ordered, seeing that Su Ziyang had his hands in his pockets and showed no intention of helping him.

"Sure!" Su Ziyang agreed.

But half an hour later, Su Ziyang regretted it.

The two geese were very large. All the large feathers had been removed, but there were still many fine feathers, or some hair roots that hadn't been cleaned out during the plucking process.

Looking at the dense array of hair follicles, Su Ziyang felt a pang of trypophobia; plucking the hairs made him feel nauseous.

"Dad, this thing is so hard to deal with!" Su Ziyang complained as he pulled out a thick hair follicle root with small pliers.

"If it's not hard to do, I'll do it myself! Hahaha!" Su Ziyang's dad had already cleaned the two fish and was laughing as he rinsed them with water.

Su Ziyang had finally managed to clean the two geese when his mother told him to immediately go to the kitchen to help cook the big pot.

The family was busy for three days, and finally it was New Year's Eve.

As in previous years, Su Ziyang's family had New Year's Eve dinner together, then stayed up late to welcome the new year, watched the Spring Festival Gala, and the next day visited each other's homes to offer New Year's greetings and sweep the graves.

On the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, we saw off our ancestral hall relatives. That marked the end of our own family's New Year celebrations; the rest were about visiting relatives who had traveled to distant places.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, nephews visit their maternal and paternal grandparents' homes. On the third day, those with married sisters visit their sisters' homes to offer New Year's greetings. On the fourth day, married daughters return to their parents' homes. The fifth day is called "Breaking Five," which means that some taboos observed during the Lunar New Year are broken, and it's okay to sweep the floor at home, because sweeping or cleaning is not allowed during the Lunar New Year. Even if there are some melon seed shells or other debris on the floor, it's considered auspicious.

As the eldest son and grandson, Su Ziyang was extremely busy. He spent several days visiting neighbors and relatives, and finally managed to visit all the distant relatives.

Originally, Su Ziyang's father intended to return to the city on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year and then open the shop. However, Su Ziyang's Su Ziyang disagreed, insisting on waiting until after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to go back. She had witnessed how busy the head of the family was throughout the year, so she wanted Su Ziyang Su Ziyang's father to rest for a few more days.

After thinking about it for a moment, Su Ziyang's father agreed. Dada then strolled off to someone else's house to play cards. Su Ziyang's mother stayed in bed watching TV on her phone.

Su Ziyang lay to one side, idly scrolling through his phone. Following the custom of his hometown, Su Ziyang called his master and Daoist Jin to wish them a Happy New Year on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, and both masters were very happy.

Apart from that, Su Ziyang's phone never rang again. Some of his family friends were also busy visiting relatives and friends. This was also because Su Ziyang had been studying in other places for many years and had few family friends to begin with.

While I was idly scrolling through my phone, a pop-up window appeared: someone had added me as a friend.

Su Ziyang took a look and saw that the WeChat name was very mature: Family Happiness, and the avatar was a red three-dimensional blessing character.

"Mom, do you know this person?" Su Ziyang turned over and handed his phone to his mother, who was watching TV.

Su Ziyang's mother looked at the WeChat name, then searched for it in her own WeChat WeChat and couldn't find it. She shook her head and said, "Don't know this person! Who is this?"

"I don't know him either!" Su Ziyang muttered, then ignored the message and lay back down, lost in thought.

After a while, my phone buzzed and another message popped up. Then the message kept buzzing and popping up several times, it was still this "Happiness for the Whole Family that kept adding me as a friend.

Judging from the frequency of the friend requests, Su Ziyang figured that the person was someone he knew, so he decided to add them and ask.

Just as Su Ziyang was about to add the number, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar local number, and Su Ziyang answered it as soon as he saw it was a local number.

A voice that sounded like it was stuck in its throat came from the phone, "Hey! Why don't you add me on WeChat?"

The other party's tone was very aggressive, which startled Su Ziyang. Su Ziyang's mother also turned off her phone and stared at her son.

"Who are you!" Su Ziyang felt that the other party's tone was not good, so his tone was not very gentle either.

"I'm your grandfather, why don't you add me on WeChat?" the other person said, still in a very aggressive tone.

"Idiot!" Su Ziyang cursed and immediately hung up the phone.

"Who is this? Why are you talking like that!" Su Ziyang's mother was also a little uncomfortable when she heard the voice on the phone, so she frowned and asked.

"I don't know either, it seems to be the person who added me on WeChat just now." Su Ziyang frowned, then blocked the number and tossed his phone aside.

Su Ziyang had only been lying down for less than ten minutes when he heard voices coming from the courtyard. One voice was his father's, and the other sounded very similar to the voice on the phone.

Su Ziyang sat up abruptly from the kang (a heated brick bed), just as the two men entered the room.

Su Ziyang's father was behind, and the man entered the house first. He chuckled as he looked at Su Ziyang and Su Ziyang mother. Su Ziyang's mother immediately recognized him. "You were the one who made the call earlier!"

"Of course! Who else would I be?" the man chuckled.

Su Ziyang realized that his parents knew this person, but he had never met him before, so he didn't say anything and just sat down inside.

"You little brat, you were just cursing at me!" The man chuckled as he looked at Su Ziyang, who remained silent. "Ask your father if I'm your grandfather! By seniority, shouldn't you call me grandfather?"

Su Ziyang looked up at the man, but still didn't say anything. Instead, he looked at his father.

His father chuckled twice as he sat on the stool, "Ziyang probably hasn't seen you before!"

"Son, this is so-and-so, your great-aunt's second uncle's father-in-law. He lives in the village just ahead of us. We share the same surname, so it's only right that he call me grandfather according to seniority!"

After his father finished explaining, Su Ziyang looked at this man who wasn't much older than his father and nodded slightly in greeting.

"Haha, I've come to see you today because I have something to discuss!" The man didn't stand on ceremony and sat down on the kang (a heated brick bed).

"What's up?" Su Ziyang's tone was indifferent.

The man, unfazed by Su Ziyang's attitude, pointed to his shoulder. "I have frozen shoulder, I can't lift my arm. It hurts!"

Then, while talking, he moved his shoulders. He raised his arms to the side but they didn't reach a 30-degree angle. He could manage to raise them forward, but he couldn't reach his back with his arms behind him.

"How do we fix this?" the man asked, looking at Su Ziyang who remained silent.

Su Ziyang was silent for a moment, then looked at his father. Su Ziyang father said, "Just take a look at it however you need to. Look at me, I don't know how to treat illnesses!"

Su Ziyang's father spoke up, and Su Ziyang stood up next to the man, pressing several acupoints around his shoulder with his hand.

Does this area hurt?

"Pain!"

What about this place?

"Ouch, that hurts too!"

What about this?

"It doesn't hurt!"

After the examination, Su Ziyang said, "This is frozen shoulder. It's not easy to treat. Treatment involves massage or acupuncture. It won't be cured in a day or two."

"When are you leaving?" the man asked, listening to Su Ziyang's words.

"Me? I'm not quite sure yet."

"Then you do it to me first! If you don't leave these next few days, I'll keep coming back to you, and you can do whatever you want to me!" The man pointed to his shoulder very rudely.

"Okay then." Su Ziyang nodded. "I'll give you a massage!"

"OK!"

Su Ziyang had the man sit on a stool, and then began to work on his shoulder joint.

Frozen shoulder, also known as adhesive capsulitis or 50-year-old shoulder, is a condition that is common in people around 50 years old. The main symptoms are pain around the shoulder joint and limited active and passive range of motion in all directions. It typically begins with shoulder pain, followed by stiffness and restricted movement.

There are many causes of this disease:

Degenerative changes in shoulder soft tissues: Primary frozen shoulder mostly occurs in people around 50 years old. Degenerative changes in shoulder soft tissues, also known as aging and degeneration of soft tissues, weaken their ability to withstand various external forces.

Chronic shoulder strain: Long-term excessive activity or poor posture, such as carrying heavy objects or doing carpentry; long-term poor sitting posture, such as hunching over and shrugging shoulders; or maintaining a single posture, such as office workers operating computers or writing at a desk, in which the shoulder is almost still, causing the shoulder muscles and ligaments to be in a state of tension for a long time, which can easily lead to frozen shoulder.

Shoulder injuries, prolonged immobilization of the shoulder, and other factors can all lead to this condition.

Traditional Chinese medicine treatment mainly involves massage, acupuncture, and external application of plasters, as well as self-rehabilitation exercises such as wall climbing, hanging from a horizontal bar, and pulling with a towel.

The techniques Su Ziyang used when treating patients did not belong to the traditional massage techniques. He mainly used the Jiang Family Spiritual Pivot Acupoint Pressing technique, which is effective, penetrating, and powerful.

Su Ziyang only pressed a few acupoints around the man, and the man was already sweating profusely from the pain.

"Young man, you can't be doing this on purpose, can you?! Why does it hurt so badly?!" The man finally couldn't bear it any longer, his brows furrowed as he gritted his teeth and asked.

"You can't joke about a doctor's visit. Your shoulder joint is all stuck together; you'll have to use some force to loosen it. When you get home tonight, apply a towel to it; that will help!"

Su Ziyang stopped talking but didn't stop typing, his fingers clicking rapidly, and sweat poured down the man's forehead.

Fifteen minutes later, the man asked to stop. Only then did Su Ziyang cease his actions.

"It hurts too much, I can't take it anymore!" The man waved his hand.

"Sigh, this is like good medicine that tastes bitter but is effective; it hurts, but it works! Now try to move around a bit more," Su Ziyang said with a light laugh.

The man gently moved his arm and surprisingly lifted it above his headache. "Wow, that actually worked! Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome. It's just a temporary relief now. I can move around, but it might shrink back in a couple of days!" Su Ziyang waved his hand.

"Alright, I'll come back to see you tomorrow!" The man finished his massage, didn't linger for a moment, tied his arms up, and left while drawing circles on his hands.

"Son, you did that on purpose, didn't you!" Su Ziyang's father looked at his son meaningfully.

"Dad, you mentioned this too! How could I joke about seeing a doctor!" Su Ziyang grinned.