Chapter 741: Comparison

Chapter 741: Chapter 741: Comparison

After hearing these words, the fiery older woman sat blankly on the bed.

Although she felt like she had lost face, she was significantly relieved. Pursing her lips, she muttered softly, "Then... then why were you so fierce just now? Couldn’t you have just said it nicely..."

Xiaozhou rolled her eyes dramatically and pushed the treatment cart straight out of the room. She was very busy too; explaining this much was already going above and beyond.

The show was over. Uncle Guo clapped his hands and turned to ask Xu Huimin, "Xiaoxu, do you want to do another round of the Eight Brocades? I’ve just gotten warmed up."

Xu Huimin asked somewhat hesitantly, "Uncle Guo, didn’t the experts say before that doing it three to five times a day is enough? We’ve already done it twice this morning."

Uncle Guo, however, waved his hand dismissively. "That was before. We were sick, there was inflammation in our lungs, and we’d be out of breath from just moving a little, so the experts told us to do less.

"But it’s different now. We’re both almost fully recovered and about to be discharged. We have to do it at least seven or eight times a day to make up for what we missed and build up our lung capacity."

Goodness, Uncle Guo planned to compress a week’s worth of exercise into a single day. He really treated the Eight Brocades as an elixir of immortality. Xu Huimin was someone without much of a mind of her own. After thinking about it, she felt that Uncle Guo’s words made sense; after all, he had indeed recovered very well. Thus, she also stood up happily and walked to the empty space between the hospital beds.

The fiery woman lay on her bed. Seeing the two of them about to start practicing again, she felt an itch in her heart. Feigning nonchalance, she asked, "Hey, Xiaoxu. Is this Eight Brocades thing you guys practice every day really effective? To me, it just looks like stretching your arms and kicking your legs, not much different from the morning calisthenics we used to do. Can it cure illnesses?"

Xu Huimin stopped her movements, thought about it seriously, and said, "I don’t know the principles or anything, but when I was first admitted, my chest felt extremely tight. The pressure was immense, as if a large boulder was pressing down on me, and I couldn’t catch my breath.

"Later, I watched Uncle Guo practice, so I followed along and did a round. Hey, I’ll tell you what, after just one round, I broke out in a light sweat and felt comfortable all over. It was as if half of that boulder on my chest had been moved away, and breathing became much easier."

Uncle Guo helped supplement from the side, looking very much like a half-baked traditional Chinese medicine expert. "This is called ’unblocking the Qi mechanism of the entire body.’ When the Qi mechanism is smooth and the meridians are unblocked, a person will naturally feel comfortable. So, this isn’t just for treating illnesses; it’s also used for health preservation and care, which can prolong life."

Beside him, Xu Huimin acted like a loyal sidekick, hurriedly nodding in agreement. "Ah, yes, yes, yes, it’s this ’Qi mechanism.’ Dean Li said the same thing during his ward rounds."

Uncle Guo grew more enthusiastic as he spoke and continued, "That’s not all. Our illness, traditional Chinese medicine calls it ’damp poison invading the lungs.’ It’s probably similar to what we usually refer to as ’heavy dampness.’

"Although the movements of the Eight Brocades are slow, it emphasizes the coordination of intention and breathing. It can drive the Yang Qi inside our bodies to move slowly within. Once the Yang Qi moves, it has the effect of dispelling dampness. Every time you finish a round, you’ll sweat a little. Once the sweat comes out, the damp poison is expelled along with it, and a person instantly feels energized."

Listening to him, Xu Huimin nodded continuously. "Yes, yes, yes, Uncle, your summary is spot on."

Uncle Guo and the fiery woman both looked at Xu Huimin at the same time, their eyes filled with speechlessness. Whose side was this woman on anyway? Aside from saying "yes, yes, yes," could she have a stance of her own?

Uncle Guo was warm-hearted. He waved at the fiery woman on the bed. "Sister, just watching won’t do any good. Do you want to get up and practice with us for a while? I’ll teach you."

"No... COUGH COUGH..." Although she was tempted, the fiery woman still waved her hand dismissively and turned her face away.

Uncle Guo didn’t push the matter. He turned around and continued practicing "Raising One Arm to Regulate the Spleen and Stomach" with Xu Huimin.

Lying under her blankets, the fiery woman watched their synchronized movements and inexplicably felt a bit envious.

Her intuition told her that although this thing looked slow and a bit eccentric, it might actually possess some unbelievable miraculous effects. She felt restless and itchy inside, wishing she could immediately scramble up and give it a try. However, ideals were grand, but reality was harsh. The other cruel reason was—she was currently too severely ill. She still had a high fever of thirty-nine degrees Celsius.

Just moving a little made her dizzy and breathless. Let alone practicing the Eight Brocades, even sitting up to drink a sip of water was a struggle. She couldn’t practice at all.

The fiery woman lay back down on the bed, a look of misery on her face. She had been sick for ten days already, and she had been running a fever for ten days too. Every day felt like she was being roasted over a stove and drowning in water. Although her health had been poor in the past, she had never experienced a time so severe and prolonged.

"Could it be... that I am really going to die on this hospital bed this time?"

This terrifying thought inevitably surfaced in the fiery woman’s mind again. Once she had this thought, her mood instantly grew even more irritable.

In fact, the reason she had been acting like a hedgehog in the ward these past two days—biting anyone she saw, worrying about gains and losses, and desperately refusing traditional Chinese medicine treatment—was largely due to this extreme psychological fear.

She was afraid of death, so she only believed in Western medicine, which she deemed the "most scientific," treating all unknown and traditional treatment methods as threats.

But now, Western medicine seemed unable to save her either, while the traditional Chinese medicine she had once resisted was creating miracles on others. This cognitive collapse, intertwined with her fear of death, left her in unbearable agony.

...

During this period, not only Li Xu and Lin Guorui, but the doctors of the entire City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were as busy as spinning tops.

Among them, Director Zhu of the acupuncture department was so busy he was practically dizzy. Acupuncture yielded rapid results. Especially now, with the flu raging, many severe patients suffered from chest tightness and shortness of breath due to hypoxia and high fever, even showing precursors to acute respiratory failure. Before the specific drugs could take effect, the patients were restless and extremely panicked. At this time, definitive, immediate therapeutic effects were most needed to stabilize morale.

Director Zhu was so busy his feet barely touched the ground as he shuttled between the various wards. The external treatments of traditional Chinese medicine were actually limited to a few; aside from excelling at acupuncture, there were also scraping, massage, and cupping. However, in the face of such acute diseases, acupuncture was undoubtedly the sharpest weapon.

Director Zhu was already a national-level expert in acupuncture and the director of the acupuncture department. Ever since he participated in the "acupuncture anesthesia" surgery with Li Xu last time and had an in-depth exchange with him, his understanding of the operation of the Qi mechanism and the combination of acupoints had advanced by leaps and bounds, taking his skills to an even higher level.

Although many patients were currently being admitted and their conditions were extremely complex and perilous, Director Zhu managed to hold the fort single-handedly. Basically, as long as a patient received his acupuncture treatment, no matter how severe their wheezing was, their symptoms of dyspnea and shortness of breath would immediately be alleviated to a certain extent.