Chapter 734: Prejudice

Li Xu couldn't be bothered to waste his breath arguing about the scientific validity of traditional Chinese medicine.

Keeping his tone strictly professional, he said, "The current national policy promotes the integration of Chinese and Western medicine. Rest assured, even though you are admitted to the general internal medicine ward of the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, you can still receive standard Western treatments. If you firmly refuse herbal decoctions, we respect your right to choose as a patient. I will instruct your attending doctor to adjust your treatment plan and switch everything to Western IV drips and oral medications."

With that, Li Xu turned and strode out of the ward. He still had plenty of work to do. Several critical patients in other wards whose blood oxygen saturation had dropped below eighty percent were waiting for him to do his rounds and consultations.

Nurse Xiaozhou shot the woman a speechless look before carrying the herbal medicine out after Li Xu.

Hearing Li Xu's guarantee, the woman finally relaxed a fraction. "As long as you don't make me drink that black sludge," she muttered. "I'm not going to be your guinea pig."

In reality, nurses were often much busier than doctors in the wards. Between taking temperatures, changing IV bags, and providing general care, they simply didn't have the time to argue with stubborn patients. Since the patient had made her choice, they would just let her be.

After the doctor and nurse left, the ward descended into silence.

An older woman in the adjacent bed offered some well-meaning advice. "Hey, listen to me, you shouldn't have spoken to the dean like that. Flat-out rejecting him to his face is quite offensive. We're staying in their hospital right now, and our lives are in their hands. If you piss the doctors off and they stop caring about you, aren't you the one who'll suffer in the end?"

The woman simply rolled her eyes and countered self-righteously, "That's not how it works. Our bodies are our own, and so are our lives. The flu is so severe right now—I heard it can even be fatal. If I take their shady herbal medicines and end up dead or crippled, who's going to take responsibility? Who's going to suffer in my place? Only Western medicine has been scientifically tested. IV drips are the only way to get fast results."

An elderly man in another bed couldn't help but chime in. "Young lady, you shouldn't be so absolute. It's really not like that. The TCM doctors here are quite skilled, and they have a great attitude. I was coughing so hard I couldn't sleep all night, but after drinking two doses of the herbal soup they prescribed, I feel much more relieved today. I can finally cough up the phlegm, too."

The woman scoffed dismissively. "Sir, how is that 'quite skilled'? You were probably just recovering on your own anyway, or maybe they secretly slipped some Western medicine into your soup. You're older, so you don't use the internet, but you have no idea—the web has completely exposed the true faces of these TCM practitioners long ago.

"The experts online all say that these Chinese medicine doctors are just trying to steal the credit during this flu outbreak by deliberately giving us useless placebos. In reality, it's the Western fever reducers that are actually curing people."

Being interrupted and lectured so aggressively, the elderly man simply shook his head, at a loss for how to argue with her. She was the classic example of someone brainwashed by the internet, only believing what she wanted to believe.

Another slightly younger woman in the ward overheard their exchange and leaned in curiously. "Hey, what kind of insider info did you read online?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"Let me tell you..."

Having found a common topic, the two huddled together, whispering gossip and discussing the various conspiracy theories smearing traditional Chinese medicine on the internet.

The elderly man sighed and ignored them. He glanced at the illustrated poster of the Eight Brocades exercises on the ward wall. After a moment of thought, he slowly climbed out of bed. Even though his body was still a bit weak, he pushed through, standing by his bed and earnestly following the poses depicted on the poster: *Two Hands Reaching the Heavens* and *Drawing the Bow to Shoot the Hawk*.

In truth, patients like this woman—harboring deep-seated prejudices and resistance toward traditional Chinese medicine—were a dime a dozen in modern hospitals. When treating illnesses, doctors not only used medication to intervene in the body's pathological changes but also had to manage the patient's psychological state. Relieving a patient's mental stress allowed them to face their illness with an optimistic, relaxed, and positive attitude.

This kind of "talk therapy" was backed by clinical experience and explicitly required in the clinical standards of both Chinese and Western medicine. A good mindset could often greatly boost the immune system and accelerate recovery.

However, when faced with someone so completely immune to reason, who exclusively bought into internet conspiracy theories, even doctors were at a complete loss. After all, they couldn't just tie the woman up and force-feed her herbal medicine. What would that even be? That would be a criminal offense.

Therefore, during the initial stage of treatment, the attending physician in the general internal medicine ward had no other choice. They could only indulge her wishes and adopt a purely Western treatment plan.

When the Director of Internal Medicine, Lin Guorui, was making his rounds, he had patiently tried to persuade her as well. After all, the inflammatory shadows in her lungs were still expanding, and relying solely on Western medicine was failing to suppress the infection. Lin Guorui wanted to prescribe a heat-clearing and lung-ventilating herbal decoction to complement her current regimen, knowing that integrating Chinese and Western medicine would yield much better results.

But she had refused to listen. She fiercely accused Lin Guorui of using her as a test subject for a TCM research project. She insisted he was deliberately tricking her just to meet a strict quota imposed by the hospital administration and to pad his own political track record.

This malicious character assassination left even the typically mild-tempered Lin Guorui completely speechless. He stormed out of the ward with a dark expression and never mentioned prescribing her Chinese medicine again.

In the end, the woman finally got her wish: a purely Western medical treatment. Her attending doctor prescribed intravenous Ribavirin for antiviral therapy, combined with oral Arbidol, and top-tier broad-spectrum antibiotics to suppress the inflammation.

Watching the transparent liquid drip down the IV tube and into her veins, the woman finally revealed a satisfied smile, as if she could already see the dawn of her complete victory over the illness.

Meanwhile, the elderly man in the neighboring bed, whom she had previously mocked, ignored her stares and persisted in practicing the Eight Brocades every single day. He felt that his qi and blood flowed much smoother after each session and that the tightness in his chest significantly eased, so he made it a point to practice once in the morning and once at night.

Naturally, in the eyes of the abrasive woman, his actions were the height of ignorance—the behavior of a delusional madman.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

The flu virus continued to rage, and the ward's alarms rang out incessantly. Yet, amidst the tense atmosphere, some uplifting turning points began to emerge.

Li Xu came over to conduct his rounds once more. As the chief TCM coordinator for the general internal medicine ward, he was leading a team of doctors—including Lin Guorui—in a real-world battle against the flu using integrated Chinese and Western medicine.

Stepping into Ward 6, Li Xu's gaze fell on Uncle Guo, the man who persistently practiced the Eight Brocades every day. And Uncle Guo's attending doctor was none other than Lin Guorui.

"Uncle Guo, how are you feeling today?" Li Xu asked, coming to a halt.

Hearing the question, Uncle Guo immediately sat up in bed, his face glowing with health. "Much better, Dean Li! I've been feeling lighter and lighter every day. My fever broke a long time ago, and the coughing has mostly stopped. But the most important thing is that my breathing is smooth now. Honestly, I hardly feel any discomfort at all."