Chapter 733: The Flu Returns

Chapter 733: Chapter 733: The Flu Returns

Peng Yunfei took off his helmet. Listening to the distant cheers and looking at the numbers on the scoreboard, his chest heaved violently as he burst into laughter.

Although this was only an internal training session and the results wouldn’t be recognized by the International Ski Federation as an official world record, this was merely the beginning. He had yet to fully adapt to the extra lift provided by the new ski suit, and his mid-air posture still had flaws. As long as he spent a little more time adjusting and training, he had absolute confidence that he would officially break the 300-meter mark at next week’s World Championships.

By then, he would be the undisputed number one flying man in the world.

"Doctor Li... thank you," Peng Yunfei thought, offering his highest respect to Li Xu from the bottom of his heart.

At the same time, looking at his cheering coach, he knew exactly what was going on. His personal "cheat code" window would be short-lived. Once this year’s World Championships ended, his envious teammates would definitely team up to get the same medication next year. By then, everyone would have "grown larger" and switched to oversized ski suits, completely wiping out his slight lift advantage.

Therefore, for this year’s World Championships, he had to fly the highest and the furthest, gripping that gold medal tightly in his hands.

In the corridor of the comprehensive internal medicine ward at the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Li Xu rubbed his throbbing temples, walking at a hurried pace. Originally, he only needed to hold consultations at the hospital two days a week, focusing primarily on the oncology department. But plans could never keep up with changing circumstances.

Since the beginning of autumn, the shifting weather had brought a new wave of influenza sweeping through Feng City. This particular strain was exceptionally fierce and highly contagious, easily triggering severe pneumonia. The emergency rooms and respiratory departments of major hospitals were instantly overwhelmed, with beds becoming impossible to secure. The corridors, lobbies, and even the edges of the flower beds outside the hospitals were packed with feverish, coughing patients and their anxious families.

To make matters worse, there were currently no specific antiviral drugs for this new mutated strain. The effectiveness of conventional medications like Oseltamivir was greatly reduced, leaving patients to rely solely on their own immune systems to tough it out.

At this critical juncture, the City Health Commission issued an urgent mobilization order, requiring all hospitals in the city to break down departmental boundaries and make every effort to admit influenza patients. The City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine was naturally no exception.

Dean Song took command personally, establishing an influenza prevention and control headquarters. As the core of the hospital’s medical expertise, Li Xu was appointed in this time of crisis. Not only did he have to continue his regular consultations, but he was also tasked with coordinating the hospital’s synergistic traditional Chinese medicine treatment plans. He even had to personally lead ward rounds and guide the rescue efforts for critically ill patients. Consequently, he had practically made the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine his home, unable to squeeze out even a moment to return to his own clinic.

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH... I’m not taking this medicine. Take it away.

"No, no, no, I’m not taking traditional Chinese medicine, and I’m not seeing a TCM doctor. What is this? I was admitted to the hospital perfectly fine, so why assign me to this so-called comprehensive internal medicine department? Isn’t this just delaying my treatment?"

Just as Li Xu reached the entrance of Inpatient Area 6, he heard a commotion inside, accompanied by violent coughing. He stopped in his tracks, pushed the door open, and walked in. Inside the ward, Nurse Xiaozhou was holding a bowl of herbal soup, standing in front of a hospital bed with a face full of helplessness. ℴℴ𝘮

"What’s wrong, Xiaozhou?" Li Xu walked over and asked.

Xiaozhou smiled bitterly and reported, "Dean Li, it’s like this. The patient in Bed 3 absolutely refuses to cooperate with our TCM treatment plan. She is extremely resistant to herbal medicine, doesn’t want TCM doctors managing her care, and keeps making a fuss about transferring hospitals."

Hearing this, Li Xu frowned slightly. This wasn’t his first time encountering a patient who rejected traditional Chinese medicine. He turned to look at the other three patients in the ward, all of whom looked somewhat awkward.

The patient in Bed 3 was a woman in her forties. Although illness had left her face haggard, it couldn’t hide her fierce and assertive demeanor. Seeing Li Xu enter and hearing Xiaozhou address him as "Dean Li," she immediately became energized.

"Oh, so you’re the boss, huh? Perfect. Let me be blunt with you. I absolutely refuse to drink Chinese medicine. That black water boiled from grass roots and tree bark—who knows if it’s clean or if it’s toxic? I have pneumonia, a viral infection! I need IV drips, I need antibiotics.

"If you can’t meet my demands, I’m transferring immediately. I’ll go to the City People’s Hospital."

The woman grew increasingly agitated as she spoke, her voice rising in pitch.

Unlike usual, Li Xu didn’t patiently explain the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. In the current environment of severe medical resource exhaustion, time was life. He didn’t have the luxury to offer psychological counseling here. He furrowed his brows. "Ma’am, have you thought this through?"

"Thought what through?" she shot back, neck stiffened in defiance.

"Right now, the beds in the respiratory and emergency departments across all of Feng City are at maximum capacity. If you insist on discharging yourself and transferring to another hospital..." Li Xu pointed out the window. "You’ll just have to queue up in the open-air plaza. I can responsibly tell you that no hospital will be able to arrange a bed for you immediately. Your only option will be to sleep on the floor of an outpatient lobby and wait in line for days and nights."

The woman’s expression instantly froze. Her previous arrogant flare was immediately half-extinguished, and she stood there with her mouth agape, unable to utter a word for a long time.

The other three patients in the ward also watched her with resentful expressions. They were all adults; no one in this world enjoyed going to the hospital to smell disinfectant, much less suffering through a hospitalization. However, under the current extreme circumstances where a single bed was desperately hard to find, being admitted and having a bed with heating and an oxygen port to lie on was already an enormous stroke of luck. God only knew how many people were out there burning up with fever, unable to even snag a chair for an IV drip.

"You..." The woman choked on her indignation.

But she knew her own situation better than anyone. She had started running a fever a week ago, her temperature peaking at 39.5 degrees Celsius. An outpatient CT scan revealed multiple ground-glass opacities in both lungs—a typical precursor to severe pneumonia. Yet, because there were absolutely no beds available, she had been forced to suffer day after day in the outpatient IV room.

She had successively taken Oseltamivir, received Reduning injections, and even been given a potent antiviral drug like Ganciclovir. Despite all this, her fever stubbornly refused to break, persistently relapsing. She had waited agonizingly on an extra bed in the corridor for nearly seven days before the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine finally freed up a bed, allowing her to be admitted as an emergency.

Her earlier clamoring about transferring hospitals was purely out of her habit of speaking in anger. Given the current situation, which hospital wasn’t overflowing with patients? Where could she possibly transfer to? Was she really going to sleep on the streets?

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..." Agitated, her blood rushed, triggering another violent fit of coughing.

Watching her pained state, Li Xu shook his head and softened his tone. "Ma’am, since you’re here, you might as well make peace with it. Just focus on recovering and receiving treatment here."

As she coughed, the woman still managed to wave her hand dismissively. "No... COUGH, COUGH... I can’t make peace with it... COUGH... I’ve read all about it online. You TCM doctors are just a bunch of frauds..."