Recaps

Su Ziyang returned home for the New Year after receiving generous gifts from his masters and reunited with his family and Su Zang. He went to Su Zang’s apartment for dinner, where the two began preparing for an evening together.

• Mr. Mengfei and Daoist Jin each gave Su Ziyang a red envelope before he traveled home.
• Su Zang picked Su Ziyang up at the station and drove him to his family’s home, where his mother warned him that Su Zang had injured people in a drunken fight.
• Su Ziyang visited his father’s shop, heard more about Su Zang’s fight, and got his father’s approval to go out with him.
• Su Zang picked Su Ziyang up that evening and took him to his rented apartment to eat takeout and drink.
• Su Ziyang and Su Zang cleared a table and began getting ready after the takeout arrived.

Su Ziyang reunited with Su Zang over hot pot and beer, where they shared stories about their failed relationships and Su Zang’s recent troubles. After taking his drunken friend to bed, Su Ziyang went home and discovered his mother’s heavily salted ribs were so bad even Heizi refused to eat them.

• Su Zang told Su Ziyang he had quit his design job, started freelancing, and built a following, then revealed that Yuyu had cheated on him and they had broken up.
• Su Zang explained that a dispute over marriage and children led him to catch Yuyu with another man, punch him, and pay 150,000 yuan in compensation.
• Su Ziyang helped the heavily drunk Su Zang to bed, cleaned up, and walked home while circulating True Qi to dispel the alcohol.
• Su Ziyang tasted his mother’s ribs and spat them out after learning she had cooked them with salty pickle brine and extra salt.
• Heizi refused to eat the ribs, knocked over his bowl, and ran off, so Su Ziyang’s mother ordered him to wash the dishes and left in a huff.

Su Ziyang learned from Qiangzi that Tongtong’s accusations of infidelity might stem from a mental illness, and he tried to ease her distress before deciding to help persuade her to seek treatment. The chapter ended with Su Ziyang and his mother preparing to approach Tongtong together.

• Su Ziyang’s mother welcomed Aunt Tong and offered to cook for her, but Aunt Tong broke down crying and accused Qiangzi of cheating.
• Su Ziyang’s father invited Qiangzi over, and Qiangzi explained that Tongtong had become suspicious and emotionally volatile, while refusing medical care.
• Qiangzi showed Su Ziyang and his father a counselor’s assessment that Tongtong might have bipolar disorder and said she had mistaken his attempt to seek help for evidence of an affair.
• Su Ziyang joked with Tongtong until she laughed, then joined the family for lunch with Qiangzi.
• Su Ziyang pulled his mother aside and told her what Qiangzi had revealed, and she agreed to help persuade Tongtong to take medicine.

Su Ziyang tried to ease the tension between Aunt Tong and Qiangzi by using palm reading to draw Aunt Tong into discussing her health. After an argument broke out, he calmed everyone and continued helping her, but her long head line made him suspect her condition was more serious than he had first thought.

• Su Ziyang persuaded Aunt Tong and Qiangzi to start eating and used jokes about giving his mother a massage to lighten the mood.
• Su Ziyang examined Aunt Tong’s palms and described symptoms she confirmed, then promised to check her pulse and prescribe medicine after the meal.
• Aunt Tong recorded Su Ziyang’s palm-reading explanation and grew irritated when he tried to stop her, then compared her palm with Pingping’s and became upset.
• When Su Ziyang stopped explaining, Aunt Tong called him unfilial, prompting Qiangzi and Su Ziyang’s parents to become angry.
• Su Ziyang restrained Qiangzi, asked everyone to calm down, and apologized before continuing his explanation of Aunt Tong’s symptoms.
• Su Ziyang noticed Aunt Tong’s head line nearly reached the edge of her palm and realized her mental condition might be more serious than he had expected.

Su Ziyang diagnosed Aunt Tong with visceral agitation and prescribed Licorice, Wheat and Jujube Decoction, though his parents worried about treating her. After more than a week passed without news from Aunt Tong, Su Ziyang showed his father that he could smash a brick with his palm, then helped his mother avoid eating her badly cooked cabbage.

• Su Ziyang examined Aunt Tong's pulse and tongue, then prescribed a three-ingredient decoction for her emotional agitation.
• Aunt Tong left to fill the prescription, while Qiangzi apologized to Su Ziyang's parents for her behavior.
• Su Ziyang's mother said Aunt Tong's second aunt had died by suicide after suffering mental illness, and his parents warned him to be cautious about treating her.
• More than a week passed without Aunt Tong contacting the family, and Su Ziyang continued his daily practice.
• After his father doubted his skills, Su Ziyang smashed a frozen brick with his palm and showed that his hand was unharmed.
• Su Ziyang praised his mother's cabbage to spare her feelings, but she tasted it herself and reheated the leftover red-braised pork.

Su Ziyang examined his father’s friend Erhei, identified his insomnia and digestive problems, and prescribed him a medicinal decoction. Erhei left trusting Su Ziyang’s treatment after learning he had been pressing the wrong spot for the Taixi Acupoint.

• Su Ziyang gave his mother a massage, then went to his father’s shop after his father called him over.
• Erhei asked Su Ziyang to examine him, and Su Ziyang identified his insomnia, poor appetite, indigestion, diarrhea, anxiety, and fatigue from his pulse and tongue.
• Erhei described his year of insomnia, his failed treatment with Sour Jujube Seed Decoction, and doctors who had diagnosed him with depression and prescribed antidepressants.
• Erhei showed Su Ziyang where he had rubbed his ankle raw while trying to press the Taixi Acupoint, and Su Ziyang showed him the correct spot.
• Su Ziyang prescribed Erhei seven doses of a medicinal decoction and instructed him to add fresh ginger when preparing it.

Su Ziyang spent the New Year with his family in their rural hometown, then treated a distant relative’s frozen shoulder when the man came to see him. The treatment temporarily restored the man’s movement, and he planned to return the next day.

• Su Ziyang explained the reasoning behind his prescription for Erhei, but Erhei did not return before the family left for the New Year.
• Su Ziyang helped his parents prepare for the holiday and joined the family’s New Year celebrations and visits to relatives.
• A stranger repeatedly tried to add Su Ziyang on WeChat, called him claiming to be his grandpa, and then arrived with Su Ziyang’s father.
• Su Ziyang’s father explained that the man was a distant relative, and the man asked Su Ziyang to treat his frozen shoulder.
• Su Ziyang massaged the man’s shoulder with Jiang Family Spiritual Pivot Acupoint Pressing, temporarily restoring his ability to raise his arm.
• The man left saying he would return the next day, while Su Ziyang’s father suspected his son had deliberately made the treatment painful.

Su Ziyang treated several village women for aches and pains after word spread that he could give massages, then examined Third Grandma’s back and found compression fractures. After advising her on home care, he received a bag of peanuts from her and reflected on the village custom of bringing a gift after treatment.

• Su Wenxian’s shoulder recovered after Su Ziyang’s massages, and Wenxian sent several middle-aged women to seek treatment from him.
• Su Ziyang diagnosed one woman with third lumbar transverse process syndrome, massaged her back, and treated the other women’s complaints.
• Su Ziyang examined Third Grandma’s CT films and found compression fractures in her second and fourth lumbar vertebrae after she fell while gathering firewood.
• Su Ziyang advised Third Grandma to use a hot compress and medicinal oil, and she later returned with a bag of peanuts as a customary gift.
• Su Ziyang thought about Third Grandma’s insistence that patients bring something to their healer and recalled the day’s events.

Su Ziyang examined Xiaocai, whose rheumatic arthritis had caused severe pain and deformity over ten years, and considered the limits of his ability to treat her. The chapter ended with him taking her pulse before deciding what to do next.

• Su Ziyang declined to set his young cousin's dislocated elbow and told his aunt to take her to a hospital for an X-ray.
• Su Ziyang called Mr. Mengfei and insisted that his master help him learn bone-setting and fracture treatment.
• Xiaoyun brought her sister Xiaocai to Su Ziyang for help with long-standing rheumatic arthritis that had curled and stiffened her hands and arms.
• Su Ziyang learned that Xiaocai's treatments had brought little relief and that a practitioner had charged her family over two thousand yuan for painful needle-knife sessions.
• Su Ziyang examined Xiaocai's tender joints, asked about her symptoms, and began taking her pulse.

Su Ziyang examined Xiaocai’s severe rheumatoid arthritis and prescribed the Cinnamon Twig, Peony and Anemarrhena Decoction, carefully instructing her how to boil the poisonous aconite. After Xiaocai left with Xiaoyun, Su Ziyang recorded her condition and analyzed the prescription in his Daoist Medicine Clinic Notes.

• Su Ziyang examined Xiaocai’s weak pulse and white tongue coating, then explained that massage and acupuncture could only provide temporary relief for her rheumatoid arthritis.
• Xiaocai agreed to take medicine, and Su Ziyang prescribed seven doses of the Cinnamon Twig, Peony and Anemarrhena Decoction.
• Su Ziyang warned Xiaocai and Xiaoyun to boil the aconite separately for half an hour before adding the other herbs.
• Su Ziyang’s mother worried that his treatment might worsen Xiaocai’s long-standing illness, and he reassured her before she went to cook.
• Su Ziyang recorded Xiaocai’s symptoms and prescription in his notebook and analyzed the formula’s ingredients and their effects.

Tongtong and Qiangzi visited Su Ziyang to apologize and thank him after his medicine cured Tongtong, whose relationship with Qiangzi had recovered. Erhei also came to thank Su Ziyang for treating his insomnia, and the group headed out to lunch together.

• Tongtong and Qiangzi visited Su Ziyang’s family with gifts and apologized for Tongtong’s hurtful words before the New Year.
• Tongtong explained that after taking Su Ziyang’s medicine for a week, she felt as if she had awakened from a long, hazy dream, and Qiangzi confirmed that she had recovered.
• Tongtong apologized to Su Ziyang, who accepted her apology and thanked her for trusting his medicine.
• Su Ziyang’s father returned home with Erhei, who brought roast duck and thanked Su Ziyang for curing his insomnia.
• Qiangzi and Erhei argued over who should pay for lunch, and Su Ziyang’s father ushered everyone out to eat.

After the Daoist Medicine Clinic remained closed, Su Ziyang learned that Mr. Mengfei had found him a bone-setting and realignment teacher in Henan. He prepared to leave the next morning, shared a farewell dinner with his parents, and woke with his father’s advice still echoing in his ears.

• Mr. Mengfei called Su Ziyang and told him he had found a teacher, then sent him the address in Henan.
• Su Ziyang told his mother he was leaving to study bone-setting and realignment, and he gave her a massage before going out to buy food and expensive liquor.
• Su Ziyang’s father came home and learned that Su Ziyang was leaving the next day, so the family shared a farewell dinner and drinks.
• Su Ziyang told his parents how much he had learned from his masters and recounted cases that had deepened his respect for their skills.
• Su Ziyang’s father advised him to be frugal and focus on useful skills, then told him to use three parts of his strength and leave seven for his descendants.
• Su Ziyang woke the next morning with his father’s advice still echoing in his ears.

Su Ziyang traveled with Mr. Mengfei to a remote town to learn from Master Lao Pang, while Mr. Mengfei warned him against showing off his cultivation. At the barbershop, Beichen demonstrated his massage skills but struggled to examine an injured child, so he called his master.

• Su Ziyang left for the station with Su Zang and reunited with Mr. Mengfei, who took him by bus and three-wheeler to a remote town.
• Su Ziyang showed off his True Qi during the journey, and Mr. Mengfei scolded him for revealing his abilities and recalled the danger he had faced before.
• Mr. Mengfei and Su Ziyang reached Master Lao Pang's barbershop, where Beichen said his master was out.
• Beichen shaved an old man and gave Boss Guo a long, soothing head massage that put him to sleep.
• An old woman brought Xiaobao, whose neck was crooked after a fall, and Beichen failed to examine him without causing pain.
• The old woman urged Beichen to call Master Lao Pang, and Beichen phoned his master.

Su Ziyang met Lao Pang, who reset Xiaobao’s neck and agreed to teach Su Ziyang bone-setting. After Mr. Mengfei left, Lao Pang put Su Ziyang to work drying and sorting medicinal herbs, while Beichen and Tingting discussed the new apprentice.

• Lao Pang arrived and quickly straightened Xiaobao’s neck, impressing Su Ziyang with his skill.
• Lao Pang agreed to teach Su Ziyang bone-setting, provided he lived with him, paid for room and board, and followed orders.
• Lao Pang demonstrated remarkable finger strength at lunch and ate the meal he had ordered while Mr. Mengfei and Su Ziyang watched.
• Lao Pang brought Su Ziyang back to the courtyard and ordered him to turn and sort the medicinal herbs before sunset.
• Mr. Mengfei left Su Ziyang in Lao Pang’s care, and Beichen told Tingting that her father had taken on a new apprentice.

Su Ziyang settled into his apprenticeship with Lao Pang, doing chores and observing the barbershop while waiting for instruction. After a week, Lao Pang called him to guard the inner room while he prepared bone-setting medicine, leaving Su Ziyang outside with no explanation.

• Su Ziyang cooked noodles and cabbage for Lao Pang, then practiced the Midnight-Noon Heaven and Earth Art through the night.
• The next morning, Lao Pang took Su Ziyang for oil tea, and Su Ziyang began cleaning and helping around the barbershop with Beichen.
• Su Ziyang watched Lao Pang shave customers and clean one man's eyelid with a razor, while Beichen asked Lao Pang how to perform the unusual skill.
• For a week, Su Ziyang swept hair, fetched water, cooked, and assisted Lao Pang, who did not teach him; Beichen watched him and treated him warmly.
• A young man arrived seeking bone-setting medicine for an elder's fractured collarbone, and Lao Pang took Su Ziyang to the back courtyard.
• Lao Pang told Su Ziyang to guard the inner-room doorway and keep everyone out while he went inside to prepare the medicine.

Lao Pang began teaching Su Ziyang about medicinal preparation, martial arts, and traditional bone-setting after Su Ziyang impressed him with his thoughts on secret recipes. He left to go out after giving Su Ziyang an introductory lesson, promising more practical instruction when an opportunity arose.

• Lao Pang sold a young man bone-setting medicine for thirteen yuan a packet, and Beichen questioned why he charged so little.
• Lao Pang asked Su Ziyang about the medicine’s secret recipe, then told him to bring over poplar bark, rice, and a basin so they could prepare the ingredients.
• Lao Pang crushed rice into flour with his bare hands, explained that he had mastered the Thousand-Jin Art after twenty years of practice, and recalled fighting a Baguazhang expert to a draw.
• Lao Pang and Su Ziyang cut the poplar bark and soaked it in rice water for a day and night as part of processing the medicinal ingredients.
• Lao Pang taught Su Ziyang the basics of traditional bone-setting, describing palpating, joining, positioning, and lifting, then said he would continue when practical instruction became possible.

Lao Pang began teaching Su Ziyang bone-setting with lamb bones, but Su Ziyang struggled to control his force. After Elder Wei remarked that Lao Pang had stopped taking apprentices, Lao Pang told Su Ziyang to focus on learning and not ask about anything else.

• Lao Pang brought lamb bones to the kitchen and explained that he would use them to teach Su Ziyang bone-setting.
• Lao Pang demonstrated separating and resetting a joint, but Su Ziyang damaged the lamb leg while trying to copy him.
• Lao Pang told Su Ziyang not to rush and sent him to invite Beichen for lunch.
• At the barbershop, Elder Wei asked whether Lao Pang had taught Beichen his secret bone-setting formula, and Beichen confirmed that he had.
• Su Ziyang asked Lao Pang about Elder Wei's claim that he had stopped taking apprentices, and Lao Pang ordered him to focus on learning and avoid other questions.

Su Ziyang shared a meal with Lao Pang and Beichen, learning that Beichen was Lao Pang’s son-in-law and fellow apprentice. After lunch, Lao Pang demonstrated how to set Daqing’s badly fractured arm while teaching Su Ziyang about the bones and the procedure.

• Su Ziyang helped Lao Pang serve a meal of lamb spine bones and offered Beichen liquor at Lao Pang’s prompting.
• Lao Pang introduced Beichen as his son-in-law and half-apprentice, making Su Ziyang realize Beichen was married to Lao Pang’s daughter.
• After lunch, Daqing’s wife brought him to Lao Pang for treatment after he fell from a roof and broke his arm.
• Lao Pang let Su Ziyang examine the fracture and explained the bones and injury.
• Lao Pang pulled Daqing’s bones into alignment, treated the wound, and secured the arm with a plaster and splint, telling him to return in three days.

Su Ziyang examined Lao Pang’s old bone-setting tools and learned how they were used, then asked to take them with him. Lao Pang refused, saying he wanted them buried with him, while Beichen explained that despite twenty years of study, he lacked the talent for some of Lao Pang’s techniques.

• After Daqing and his wife left, Su Ziyang examined the bamboo mat splint and Beichen brought out Lao Pang’s dusty collection of bone-setting tools.
• Lao Pang explained the uses of the wrapping cloth, tapping rod, shoulder wrap, backboard, lumbar brace, fir lattice, and knee brace, and Su Ziyang considered whether the tapping method might help concussion symptoms.
• Su Ziyang asked Lao Pang to give him the tools, but Lao Pang refused and said he wanted them buried with him.
• Beichen told Su Ziyang that he had studied under Lao Pang for twenty years but still could not master certain delicate bone-setting techniques; he demonstrated his strength by crushing a wine cup and said strength alone was not enough.
• Mr. Mengfei later explained to Su Ziyang that students should be taught according to their aptitudes, and Su Ziyang recalled Lao Pang’s advice that a bone-setter needed both a compassionate heart and forceful hands.

Lao Pang had Su Ziyang grind medicinal ingredients all day, then treated his exhaustion with pigeon soup and asked him to become the formal inheritor of the Bian Clan Bonesetting art. Su Ziyang accepted and was officially initiated at the ancestral hall.

• Lao Pang brought home a medicine boat and stone mill, then had Su Ziyang grind a large quantity of medicinal ingredients.
• After working from morning until night, Su Ziyang collapsed into bed and woke the next day aching all over.
• Lao Pang served Su Ziyang nourishing medicinal pigeon soup, which eased his soreness.
• Lao Pang asked Su Ziyang to formally become his apprentice and inherit the Bian Clan Bonesetting art, and Su Ziyang agreed.
• Lao Pang took Su Ziyang to the ancestral hall, where they paid respects to the Bian ancestors and completed the initiation.

Lao Pang began teaching Su Ziyang traditional bonesetting, explaining its treatment steps and sharing several secret medicinal formulas. He assigned Su Ziyang to practice locating and setting bones on a sheep’s spine and hens, leaving him with a new responsibility to master and preserve the craft.

• Lao Pang explained the initial bonesetting steps, including washing injuries and assessing them against ten conditions considered incurable in ancient times.
• Su Ziyang asked whether modern surgery had reduced Lao Pang’s patients, and Lao Pang said traditional medicine could complement surgery and that he needed to pass on his ancestors’ skills.
• Lao Pang taught Su Ziyang the sequence for setting bones, applying plaster, securing injuries, and taking medicine.
• Lao Pang made Su Ziyang promise to keep his secret formulas confidential, then dictated formulas for Black Dragon Powder, Wind Flow Powder, White Medicine Powder, and blade-wound medicine.
• Su Ziyang recorded the formulas and hid his notebook, and Lao Pang told him to practice bonesetting on a sheep’s spine and hens starting the next day.

Su Ziyang witnessed Beichen confront Lao Pang over the secret formulas and his grievances with the Bian family. After Beichen struck Lao Pang and demanded the formulas for a promised deal with Manager Li, Su Ziyang stepped between them.

• Su Ziyang practiced bone setting under Lao Pang and learned to handle ordinary dislocations and clean fractures.
• Lao Pang returned from treating an old man's broken thigh to find two suited men waiting for him, but he ignored them.
• Beichen urged Lao Pang to hand over his secret formulas, arguing that they were worthless and accusing him of neglecting Beichen's training.
• Lao Pang slapped Beichen, who lashed out over years of unpaid work and his marriage to Bian Mei before punching Lao Pang into a wall.
• Beichen asked Manager Li whether the deal still stood, and Manager Li confirmed they could sign a contract in exchange for the formulas.
• Beichen moved to grab Lao Pang, and Su Ziyang stepped in front of him.

Beichen tried to seize Lao Pang’s secret formula for a lucrative pharmaceutical deal, but Lao Pang refused and revealed the family’s promise to use the medicine only to help people. When Lao Pang claimed he had passed the formula to Su Ziyang, Beichen attacked him, leaving Su Ziyang with a dislocated shoulder, while Bian Mei asked him to return the family’s formula.

• Beichen demanded Lao Pang’s secret formula and attacked Su Ziyang when he blocked the way, but Lao Pang stopped the fight.
• Manager Li offered Lao Pang twenty million and a share in the pharmaceutical group, but Lao Pang rejected the contract and ordered him to leave.
• Beichen returned with powdered herbs, and Lao Pang exposed his attempts to steal the formula and explained that his ancestors had vowed never to use it for profit.
• Beichen called Bian Mei, who urged Lao Pang to hand over the formula because she and Beichen needed money for their future.
• Lao Pang said he had passed the formula to Su Ziyang, prompting Beichen to punch and dislocate Su Ziyang’s shoulder before Bian Mei stopped him and asked Su Ziyang to return it.

Su Ziyang gave Beichen the secret formula to help preserve Lao Pang’s family ties, then presented his master with a book documenting the Bian Clan’s bonesetting knowledge. Lao Pang forgave him, and Su Ziyang prepared to leave the next day.

• Su Ziyang handed the secret formula to Beichen after Lao Pang told him to do as he saw fit.
• Su Ziyang argued that passing on the formula had not violated Lao Pang’s rules or earned him any profit, and Bian Mei promised to treat Lao Pang better.
• Su Ziyang showed Lao Pang the book Bian Clan Bonesetting, which he had written and compiled in Bian Juncheng’s name.
• Lao Pang cried over the book, forgave Su Ziyang, and said he would be buried with it and his tools.
• Su Ziyang kowtowed to Lao Pang, said he would leave the next day, and made him qiangguo noodles.

Su Ziyang returned to the Daoist Medicine Clinic and, during his train journey, argued with a fat passenger before recognizing a familiar man washing an apple. The man also recognized Su Ziyang, leaving their unexpected reunion poised to unfold.

• Lao Pang sent Lao Liu to take Su Ziyang to the bus station, and Lao Liu refused to charge him after learning he was Lao Pang's disciple.
• Su Ziyang traveled by bus and coach back to the train station, then boarded a slow train toward the Daoist Medicine Clinic to prepare his rented room before reopening.
• Su Ziyang noticed a familiar figure on the train but could not identify him, then traded insults with the fat woman seated beside him after accidentally bumping her.
• An old man intervened in the quarrel, and Su Ziyang and the fat woman stopped arguing.
• Su Ziyang spotted the familiar man washing an apple, hurried into the aisle, and saw that the man recognized him too.