The Secret Recipe and the Lesson

Su Ziyang didn't know what Beichen meant, so he didn't ask any further questions.

A short while later, Lao Pang came out of the house carrying several small paper packets.

"Beichen just come over?"

The Lao Pang's question was completely baffling.

"Ah, here it comes!" Su Ziyang nodded, puzzled.

Su Ziyang said that Beichen had arrived, and Lao Pang didn't say anything more, but just walked quickly into the barbershop.

"This medicine should be divided into three doses, taken once a day after meals." The Lao Pang handed the paper packet to the young man who came to buy the medicine.

"Are five packets enough?" the young man asked doubtfully, looking at the small five packets of medicine.

"We won't need that much; we can keep the rest at home as backup!" the Lao Pang said confidently.

Seeing what the Lao Pang said, the young man didn't ask any more questions and took out his phone to scan the code to pay.

"You can't scan the code, cash only. One pack of medicine costs 13 yuan, so it's 65 yuan in total," the Lao Pang explained.

When the young man couldn't scan the code, he searched all over his body. Finally, he found a few coins in the car and managed to gather enough money to hand over to the Lao Pang.

"Master, you sold this bone-setting medicine for such a low price ten years ago, and it's still the same price now. If you ask me, a hundred yuan a pack of this medicine wouldn't be an exaggeration!" Beichen said, seeing the Lao Pang put the money into his pocket.

Lao Pang glared at Beichen Beichen after hearing his words, but didn't reply. He put his hands behind his back and went back into the yard through the back door.

Beichen stood there awkwardly, not moving. Su Ziyang didn't know why the Lao Pang was angry, so he quickly followed the Lao Pang back into the courtyard.

"Young man, aren't you curious about my secret recipe?" Lao Pang asked Su Ziyang Su Ziyang he saw him following.

"Huh? What secret recipe?"

Su Ziyang's question made Lao Pang look embarrassed. Lao Pang touched his neck, grinned, and said, "It's the bone-setting medicine from earlier."

"Master Pang, I don't think there's any such thing as an absolute secret recipe in this world. It's just that others don't know it, which is why it becomes a secret recipe. The key to a secret recipe is actually the secrecy, not the recipe itself. There might only be one or two ingredients in the recipe. Once you know it, you might say, 'Oh, that's all?' But when you don't know it, it's incredibly mysterious!"

Su Ziyang didn't know if what he said was right or wrong, but he just rambled on and on. Lao Pang listened to Su Ziyang's words, and his eyes were clearly filled with surprise.

"I didn't expect you to be so perceptive, young man! That's the secret! Now let me ask you another question: do you think my medicine is cheap?"

"I don't know what medicine is in the prescription, so I can't determine its price. But if there aren't any particularly expensive medicines, 13 yuan for a small packet should be acceptable. Although it won't make much profit, it shouldn't be a loss. Besides, your extraordinary prescription shouldn't be measured solely by money, otherwise you wouldn't be charging such an odd number as 13 yuan."

After hearing Su Ziyang's words, Lao Pang smiled at Su Ziyang, which was rare for him.

"There's a woven bag in the west wing with some medicinal herbs inside. Bring it over and I'll teach you how to process them." Lao Pang directed Su Ziyang with ease, and Su Ziyang readily complied.

After hearing Lao Pang's instructions, Su Ziyang quickly went to the west wing.

There was a large woven bag hanging from the roof beam in the west wing. Su Ziyang took the bag down and carried it into the main room.

"Master Pang, what is this?" Su Ziyang put the woven bag on the ground and felt that the medicinal herbs inside were dry and looked like some kind of skin.

"Why don't you open it and see for yourself?"

As soon as the Lao Pang finished speaking, Su Ziyang opened the bag.

"This? Isn't this poplar bark?" Su Ziyang took a piece of bark out of the bag and examined it.

"Yes, poplar bark."

"Is this also a medicinal herb?" Su Ziyang fiddled with the poplar bark in his hand.

"Everything can be used as medicine," the Lao Pang said with a somewhat smug air.

"There's rice in the kitchen, bring it over, and also bring that big basin. Fill the basin with water."

"Oh!" Su Ziyang said, then went to the kitchen, took out the rice, found a large basin for washing clothes, filled it with more than half water, and carried it into the house.

"Grab ten handfuls of rice, put them in a basin, and rinse them until the water turns white!" At this moment, Lao Pang found a pair of pruning shears from somewhere and was nibbling away at the bark of a poplar tree.

Su Ziyang didn't dare ask Lao Pang what he was going to do, so he had no choice but to do as he was told. He grabbed ten handfuls of rice and threw them into the basin, then started stirring it with his hands. Before long, the water in the basin turned a pale white color.

The Lao Pang saw the water turn white, put down the scissors, rolled up his sleeves, and said, "Young man, get out of the way!"

Su Ziyang stepped aside. He saw the Lao Pang dip both hands into the basin, scoop up a handful of rice, and vigorously rub it until the rice crumbled...

Last time, when Lao Pang was picking at beer bottle caps with his bare hands at the snack bar, Su Ziyang was shocked. This time, Lao Pang crushing rice with his palm was a sequel to the shock.

In less than five minutes, the rice that Su Ziyang threw in had all turned into rice noodles, and the water in the large basin had changed from pale white to milky white.

"Master Pang, what kind of kung fu is this? This... this strength is a bit abnormal!!!" Su Ziyang finally couldn't hold back anymore.

"Haha. Young man, this is called the Thousand-Jin Art. How about it? Want to learn?" The Lao Pang waved his hand as if he were doing something insignificant.

"I kind of want to!" Su Ziyang touched the Lao Pang's hand with a hint of envy.

"This isn't something you can master in a day or two. Skills are honed over time. I started practicing this when I was eight and didn't truly master it until I was twenty-eight!" Lao Pang was unusually talkative today and began telling Su Ziyang about his past.

"So long?" Su Ziyang was astonished. "This... although the kung fu is good, I'm not practicing anymore, it takes too long!"

"There's no such thing as a quick and easy success! No martial art in the world requires hard work. What you practiced yesterday was the Baguazhang style, right? Practicing that is good too! But it's not something you can master in a day or two." Lao Pang started snipping away at the tree bark again, and Su Ziyang picked up another pair of scissors from the table and started snipping like Lao Pang.

Hearing the Lao Pang immediately identify the martial art he practiced, Su Ziyang stopped hiding his identity. "You know Baguazhang?"

"Yes, I saw him when I was young. Back then, we young martial arts practitioners would often start fighting at the drop of a hat. One year, I went to the south and met a master of Baguazhang. I got itchy and sparred with him. His footwork was very similar to yours." Lao Pang's eyes narrowed as he spoke of this, as if he were seeing his younger self again.

"You won?" Su Ziyang quickly asked.

"No! But I didn't lose either. I wasn't as fast as him, but he wasn't as strong as me. We ended up tying it. Since the competition was supposed to be a contest, it wouldn't be good to keep going, so we called it a day!" Lao Pang was clipping tree bark.

"That sounds interesting." Su Ziyang listened to the Lao Pang's story, he was filled with longing for what the Lao Pang was talking about. After all, every boy has a dream of martial arts and chivalry.

"Young man, life in the martial world wasn't so easy back then. You wouldn't be so envious when you were getting beaten up!" Lao Pang saw through Su Ziyang 'Su Ziyang thoughts at a glance and quickly poured cold water on them.

When the Lao Pang said that, Su Ziyang suddenly remembered the uncle on the train who lent him a power bank and pressed his acupoints when he went to the Jiang Family. If it weren't for Jiang Kui, Su Ziyang would have lost his life that time.

Thinking of this, Su Ziyang quickly shook his head, shaking off that childish dream of martial arts and chivalry from his mind.

After the master and apprentice finished cutting the bark off the poplar tree, Lao Pang simply threw the cut bark into the basin.

The dried poplar bark was thrown into the rice water basin, filling a large bowl.

"You're processing medicinal herbs!" Su Ziyang finally realized what the Lao Pang was doing.

"Yeah, you think I'm just playing around here!" Lao Pang glared at Su Ziyang's seemingly idiotic question.

"Soak these for a day and a night. Take them out the next morning, hang them in the yard to dry, and then put them away." After giving his instructions, the Lao Pang rolled a pipe and started puffing on it.

Su Ziyang moved the large basin to a place where it wouldn't get in the way, swept up the bits of bark that had just fallen off, and tidied up the area.

Watching Su Ziyang clean, the Lao Pang stubbed out his cigarette, squinted, and said, "Young man, you've been here for a while now. Originally, I was hoping to run into someone who came in for bone setting soon, and then I'd explain the ins and outs of this place to you. After all, having a real patient would make it more relatable. But it seems you haven't been very Yunqi; not a single patient has come in so far. And the one who finally came was just to buy medicine! So for now, I'll just tell you about the basics here."

When Su Ziyang heard that Lao Pang was going to give a lecture, his eyes lit up instantly. He quickly took out his notebook from his bag and sat down next to Lao Pang on a small stool.

Seeing Su Ziyang take out paper and pen, Lao Pang waved his hand. "You young man, I was just saying it casually, remember it. And you even took out paper and pen!"

"Master, please tell me. I'll remember, I'm afraid I'll forget! Please tell me! Haha."

Su Ziyang was extremely excited. Anyone would be excited in this situation. After working as a nanny for over a week, he could finally learn something today! He was incredibly excited!

"Alright! You can take notes then." The Lao Pang nodded.

"Traditional bone setting places great emphasis on manual techniques. Since nobody has X-ray vision, everything is done by touch. Your fingers must be nimble! Another important thing is that you need to be familiar with the human body's bones, muscles, and fascia so that you can treat injuries correctly. When you came, Xuhui introduced you to your background. You graduated from a reputable institution, so you must have studied anatomy. I won't go into details about that!"

"Let me talk about the technique. There's an old saying: 'When facing a case, the opportunity arises externally, skill arises internally, the hand follows the mind, and the technique flows from the hand.'"

"The cutting, shattering, and oblique fracture of bones, and the relaxation, contraction, twisting, and separation of tendons, though located within the flesh, can be understood by palpation. The application of techniques should be so effective that the patient is unaware of the pain; only then can it be called a manual therapy."

When the Lao Pang talked about bone setting, he was nothing like a crude old man from the village. He spoke ancient sayings without hesitation, which amazed Su Ziyang.

"A good technique, when mastered, should be painless for the patient; that's what makes a mature bone-setting technique! This is also the primary requirement of our traditional bone-setting methods."

"There aren't many classifications of techniques, but they can be roughly divided into eight categories: touching, receiving, lifting, raising, massage, and manipulation. We'll leave the manipulation and massage techniques aside for now and just talk about the first four!"

"Touching is a diagnostic technique. It's the ultimate test of skill. You have to carefully feel the patient's injured area with your hands to detect whether the bone is broken, fragmented, misaligned, intact, soft, hard, strong, flexible, misaligned, straight, broken, displaced, thick, twisted, cold, or hot. This is similar to pulse diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and equivalent to taking an X-ray in a Western hospital!"

After explaining a technique, Lao Pang paused for a moment to let Su Ziyang take his time to memorize it, seeing that Su Ziyang was writing it down very carefully.

"Setting techniques are used to mend broken bones and restore them to their original state. When Bones are injured or dislocated, some are broken in two, some are fractured inwards, some are shattered, and some are protruding outside the body. Setting techniques aim to reconnect broken bones, restore displaced bones, restore shattered bones, and level protruding bones. Of course, this doesn't necessarily rely solely on manual techniques; auxiliary tools such as splints are also used!"

"The 'lifting method' involves firmly grasping the fractured area with one hand. Depending on the specific situation, determine the amount and direction of force, lifting from bottom to top, from the outside to the inside, or using a straight or oblique approach. This lifting method is essential for Bones displaced from its original position, whether it's a fracture or a dislocation. And it must be lifted correctly and evenly; otherwise, if the two arms are different lengths after the bone is set, it's a disaster!"

"The lifting technique is specifically for treating Bones that are recessed into the chest cavity. For example, if a rib is broken and the fracture is sunken into the chest cavity, this lifting technique must be used. It's not entirely a manual technique; sometimes tools are needed for assistance. Sometimes it involves lifting with both hands, and sometimes ropes are used to tie the person to a high place and lift them. This lifting technique is the most demanding in terms of hand strength control. Too much force will result in a bad lift, and too little force will not lift the person at all. It must be done in one go, depending on the actual situation."

Su Ziyang scribbled on the paper. After finishing, he noticed that Lao Pang had suddenly fallen silent, so he looked up at Lao Pang and asked, "Master, why did you stop talking?"

"Haha, that's all for today! You can't just talk about techniques; you have to practice them. If you 'Yunqi enough to come here for treatment, I can teach you step by step. If you're Yunqi, I'll have to think of another way!" After finishing his explanation, the Lao Pang was clearly in a good mood and started puffing on his old pipe again.

"What other methods?" Su Ziyang's small eyes blinked, his gaze filled with a thirst for knowledge as he looked at the Lao Pang.

"We'll see later, I'm going out for a bit! If you're free, you can learn how to shave from Beichen, you're free anyway!" Lao Pang patted his butt and left.

"... Okay then..."

Since Lao Pang wanted to teach, Su Ziyang didn't mind waiting a little longer.