Chapter Summaries

Su Ziyang diagnosed Qi Chu’s mother with stupor, linked her symptoms to disrupted stomach qi and emotional depression, and prescribed a course of medicine. He told the big bald man how to prepare and administer it, including having her husband strike her to provoke anger and counter her depression.

• Su Ziyang confirmed that Qi Chu’s mother liked filth and diagnosed her with stupor.
• Su Ziyang explained how weakened stomach qi and emotional depression could cause her symptoms, including eating feces and charcoal.
• Su Ziyang prescribed seven doses of medicine to restore stomach qi and address phlegm.
• The big bald man said his family had to force his mother to take medicine and asked how to administer the new prescription.
• Su Ziyang instructed the family to prepare only a little medicine, restrain her, and have her husband strike her on a fleshy area if she refused, so anger could counter her depression.

After Mr. Mengfei urged Su Ziyang to take the initiative, Su Ziyang planned a proposal for Fairy Li with help from Er Biao and Daoist Master Xiao Yang. The room was decorated and Fairy Li arrived as scheduled, leaving Su Ziyang nervous just before the proposal.

• Mr. Mengfei told Su Ziyang to stop keeping Fairy Li waiting and propose to her, so Su Ziyang called his parents and then asked Er Biao to help plan it.
• Er Biao agreed to come, and Daoist Master Xiao Yang also volunteered to help once Su Ziyang told her about the proposal.
• Er Biao arrived with a written plan, and the group chose to use the gold ring with an aquamarine that Master Jin had left for Fairy Li.
• Su Ziyang, Er Biao, and Daoist Master Xiao Yang decorated the room and planned to order flowers and arrange a shower of petals at the door.
• Daoist Master Xiao Yang spotted Fairy Li's car arriving exactly on time, while Su Ziyang waited nervously in the decorated room with Er Biao.

Su Ziyang proposed to Fairy Li, and their families began discussing the wedding. Back at his clinic, he used Five Movements and Six Qi theory to prescribe a new formula for a young man whose diarrhea had resisted treatment.

• Su Ziyang proposed to Fairy Li, and her older brother walked in just as they were about to kiss.
• Fairy Li told Su Ziyang that she had spoken to her family about their marriage and invited her master to officiate their wedding.
• Su Ziyang and Fairy Li spent the weekend together at home before returning to their work.
• A young man came to Su Ziyang's clinic with persistent diarrhea that had not improved despite extensive treatment.
• After reviewing the young man's prescriptions and considering the current Ren year, Su Ziyang wrote a Poria and Atractylodes Decoction prescription.

Su Ziyang recognized ominous signs of consumptive deficiency in his patient’s tall, thin friend, but the man mocked his diagnosis and left without treatment. A week later, the patient returned improved and asked about his friend, and Su Ziyang insisted the man truly had a health problem.

• A young man brought his tall, thin childhood friend to Su Ziyang for a pulse check.
• Su Ziyang noticed deathly pallor and a floating, rootless pulse, then diagnosed the friend with consumptive deficiency and symptoms including kidney deficiency.
• The friend claimed he was exceptionally vigorous, rejected Su Ziyang’s warning, and left with the young man.
• A week later, the young man returned, reported that his bowel movements had improved, and continued the same treatment.
• The young man asked why Su Ziyang had urged his friend to take medicine, and Su Ziyang said the friend really had a health problem.

Su Ziyang treated a recovered patient and spent six months preparing a home and wedding with Fairy Li. The young man with diarrhea later returned to tell him that his childhood friend had died suddenly during sex, after Su Ziyang had warned that friend to seek care if he felt unwell.

• Su Ziyang prescribed the woman who had eaten charcoal seven doses of Six Gentlemen Decoction and accepted traditional writing implements from her family.
• Over the next six months, Su Ziyang and Fairy Li prepared their home and arranged their engagement and wedding, using their own money and independence.
• Su Ziyang learned that Fairy Li had bought and renovated a three-level home, and they continued furnishing it.
• The young man with diarrhea returned and told Su Ziyang that his childhood friend had died suddenly on top of a woman half a month earlier.
• The young man recalled Su Ziyang's warning about his friend's vigor and said it had made him think of Su Ziyang.

Su Ziyang explained the young man’s excessive sexual desire through a Chinese medicine analogy and prescribed Morinda root. He used treatment by following, reasoning that the young man’s weakened body needed support rather than medicine to drain heart fire.

• The young man asked Su Ziyang for help after kidney-supplementing medicine left him unable to control his sexual urges.
• Su Ziyang compared the heart to a lamp and essence and qi to lamp oil, explaining how the medicine had intensified the young man’s desire.
• Su Ziyang prescribed the young man 26 g of Morinda root for seven doses.
• Su Ziyang explained that he was using treatment by following: although Morinda root raised yang, he chose it because draining heart fire could worsen the young man’s depleted condition.

Su Ziyang heard that the young man he had treated was recovering, then spoke with Fairy Li and his parents before answering a patient's question about warning signs of sudden death. He explained symptoms that warranted prompt examination and urged people to seek preventive care early.

• A young man called Su Ziyang to report that he felt much better after taking the medicine, and Su Ziyang told him there was no need to repay him with a meal.
• Fairy Li visited Su Ziyang, and they agreed to look at washing machines and see a movie after work.
• Su Ziyang's mother asked whether he and Zijun had enough money, then asked him to examine his older cousin, who had been unable to have a child.
• A patient called Su Ziyang to ask whether sudden death came without warning, and Su Ziyang agreed to explain.
• Su Ziyang described warning signs including unexplained dizziness, appetite changes, heart or chest symptoms, and fatigue or numbness, and advised getting checked promptly.
• Su Ziyang quoted Zhang Zhongjing and stressed finding and treating illness early rather than waiting until it became severe.

Su Ziyang reviewed his cousin Sister Bing and her husband's normal fertility test results as he considered why they could not conceive. After examining Sister Bing's tongue photo, he concluded she had a cold constitution and asked about her cold hands and feet.

• Su Ziyang added Sister Bing on WeChat after his mother urged him to contact her.
• Sister Bing sent her and her husband's test reports, and Su Ziyang found no obvious problems in either set.
• Su Ziyang asked Sister Bing to send photos of their tongue coatings while thinking through the differences involved in treating women's conditions.
• Sister Bing sent a photo of her tongue, and Su Ziyang noted its slight whiteness and suspected cold Qi in her body.
• Sister Bing said her hands and feet became terribly cold in winter, and Su Ziyang learned more about her symptoms.

Su Ziyang assessed Sister Bing and her husband, found signs of cold-related health problems, and arranged treatment for both of them. He left the chapter having paid for Sister Bing’s medicine himself after realizing she had not asked about the cost.

• Sister Bing asked Su Ziyang about conceiving a child and her husband's chances of getting a promotion, so he asked Fairy Li to identify auspicious dates.
• Fairy Li sent Su Ziyang a calendar marked with good days for conceiving, and he passed the dates to Sister Bing while telling her husband to keep working hard.
• After examining her husband's tongue photo and hearing about his symptoms, Su Ziyang said both spouses needed treatment and prescribed him a decoction and Sister Bing honey pills.
• Su Ziyang sent Sister Bing the prescriptions and instructions, including that she and her husband sleep in separate rooms while he took his medicine.
• Su Ziyang realized he would have to pay for Sister Bing's medicine and went downstairs to pay for it himself.

Su Ziyang and Fairy Li prepared for and celebrated their wedding, witnessed by their masters, and later welcomed a son named Su Qing. After the first-month feast, Su Ziyang returned to treating patients at the Daoist Medicine Clinic, where his story continued.

• Su Ziyang and Fairy Li finalized their wedding guest list and made preparations while Su Ziyang continued seeing patients at the Daoist Medicine Clinic.
• On their wedding day, Su Ziyang and his friends passed games and questions set by Daoist Master Xiao Yang and Fairy Li’s friends before fetching the bride.
• Fairy Li’s master and Su Ziyang’s master witnessed the wedding, and Fairy Li’s master presented a special marriage certificate.
• Su Ziyang glimpsed Daoist Jin during the wedding celebrations, but the figure disappeared before he could look again.
• A year later, Fairy Li gave birth to their son, Su Qing, and Sister Bing brought her boy-and-girl twins to the child’s first-month feast.
• After the guests left, Su Ziyang told Su Qing to carry on the lost teachings of the sages, then returned to seeing patients at the clinic.