Chapter 713: Balance

Chapter 713: Chapter 713: Balance

A thousand miles away,

in an apartment at a certain winter sports training facility.

Peng Yunfei was staring at his phone screen.

He was a national-level ski jumper.

In this extreme sport, known as the "Brave Man’s Game," victory often comes down to the slightest differences in equipment, just as much as an athlete’s skill and courage.

Recently, a bizarre scandal had erupted within the community.

In ski jumping, the distance an athlete flies through the air is largely determined by the lift provided by their ski suit—in other words, its aerodynamic surface area.

To prevent cheating, the International Ski Federation mandates that athletes undergo an extremely strict, full-body 3D scan. This ensures their tight-fitting ski suits conform perfectly to their bodies, with not a single bit of redundant material to increase the "wind-catching" surface area.

As the saying goes, where there are policies, there are countermeasures.

Some foreign athletes with wild imaginations discovered an extremely clever loophole—injecting their "dicks" with hyaluronic acid before the 3D scan.

What did this mean?

It meant that if the data from their nether regions was abnormally large during the scan, the custom-made, one-piece ski suit would be designed with more fabric in that area.

This large patch of extra fabric became a natural "wind pocket," allowing the athlete to gain a considerable amount of extra lift during their flight, and thus fly farther.

This absurd yet very real cheating method was once all the rage in the community.

But now, the good times were over.

The World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Ski Federation had caught on and began conducting extremely strict surprise inspections and blood tests.

So, trying to achieve "physical enhancement" through Western medical methods like hyaluronic acid injections was no longer feasible. The moment any trace of an injection was found, it meant an immediate ban from competition.

Peng Yunfei was frustrated. He had found out too late. He never got to enjoy the benefits of the "bug" before they disappeared.

A few days ago, he had seen online news about a delay spray released by Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory.

As an athlete in the prime of his life, he bought a bottle out of curiosity. The results... were so good they made him question reality.

From that moment on, he looked up information on Li Xu and was thoroughly impressed.

Watching Daoist Sun’s live stream today, an idea suddenly struck Peng Yunfei.

’Since Western medical injections are out, what about... some miraculous traditional Chinese medicine method? Something taken orally or applied topically that could cause a substantial change in that area in a short amount of time?’

In half a month, the national team was scheduled for a new round of 3D equipment scans.

’If I can achieve "enlargement" through a pure, natural Chinese medicine method that leaves no chemical traces, the World Anti-Doping Agency would never be able to detect it.’

’This will be my secret weapon to surpass my rivals and fly toward the championship.’

So, with a "might as well try" attitude, he used a burner account to post that question in the comments section.

He never expected his luck to be this good.

Out of tens of thousands of bullet comments, Daoist Sun had somehow managed to single his out.

Peng Yunfei stared at the screen, his heart racing with anticipation.

...

"Next," Song Sisi called out.

It was finally Daoist Sun’s turn.

He took a deep breath, walked into the consultation room with his phone in hand, and sat down in the chair opposite Li Xu.

"Dr. Li, hello. My nose has been bothering me a lot."

Daoist Sun decided to get his own problem checked first and save the "netizen’s question" for last.

"Have you been checked at a hospital?"

Li Xu asked while creating a new patient file on his computer.

"Don’t get me started."

Daoist Sun sighed, looking utterly dejected. "It was getting really bad a couple of days ago, so I first went to the City People’s Hospital and registered with the internal medicine department. But after hearing my symptoms, the doctor there said a nose problem belongs to the ENT department, not theirs, and told me to go register and wait in line all over again for ENT."

"I finally managed to get an appointment with an ENT specialist. He shone a small flashlight up my nose for a while, then sent me for a nasal endoscopy and a complete blood count. After a whole battery of tests, guess what? The doctor looked at the report and said my nasal mucosa wasn’t inflamed, I didn’t have any polyps, everything was normal. They couldn’t find any organic problems."

"How exactly is it uncomfortable?"

"My nose can’t smell anything anymore. Whether it’s a good smell or a bad one, I can’t smell a thing. It’s like having a wooden nose," Daoist Sun said, pointing to his own nose.

"Any other symptoms?"

Li Xu pressed.

"Well... I always feel a bit short of breath and tired. I feel winded after just saying a few sentences. And I’m especially sensitive to drafts. The moment I get hit by a bit of cold wind, my nose gets completely stuffed up. I can’t breathe through it at all."

As he spoke, Daoist Sun couldn’t help but complain, "Dr. Li, going to the hospital these days is such a headache. When you’re not feeling well, you have to be your own doctor first just to figure out which department your illness even belongs to. If you register for the wrong one, the doctor just passes the buck, and you have to waste your time and start all over again in a new line."

The other patients waiting in line couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

It’s true. Western medicine is so specialized that patients often have no idea where to go.

They treat the head for a headache and the foot for a foot ache. Sometimes, even the doctors only care about their own little patch of turf.

Regarding Daoist Sun’s complaint, many fans in the live stream chat deeply sympathized.

"The Daoist is so right. Last time I had a stomach ache, I went to gastroenterology. They ran tests and said nothing was wrong, then told me to go to gynecology to check for adnexitis. Gynecology said I was fine too. Finally, I went to urology and they found out it was a ureteral stone. The whole ordeal nearly killed me."

"Western medicine is really like that. It focuses on organic lesions. If there’s no substantial change to an organ, the imaging equipment can’t pick it up, so they can’t find the cause for many symptoms."

There were also knowledgeable viewers in the live stream offering serious analysis.

Li Xu saw that comment and said,

"This viewer is absolutely right. Western medicine targets organic pathology. This means that its instruments can only capture a signal and confirm a diagnosis once a disease has progressed to a certain stage, causing substantial damage or impact to the body’s organs and tissues."

"Western medicine judges pathology based on cold, hard data and images. If they can detect abnormal bloodwork or morphological changes in an organ, the disease has often already progressed to the middle or late stages—it has already ’taken form,’ so to speak."

"But traditional Chinese medicine is different."

"TCM focuses on ’balance’—the balance of yin and yang, the balance of qi and blood, and the balance of the internal organs."

"The very moment that balance is broken, even though the organs haven’t undergone any pathological changes visible to the naked eye, and even though instruments can’t detect anything, the body’s qi mechanism is already in disarray. This is when various uncomfortable ’symptoms’ appear. For example, your current loss of smell, fatigue, and sensitivity to wind."