Chapter 838: Yin-Yang Imbalance

Chapter 838: Chapter 838: Yin-Yang Imbalance

"Please take a seat." Li Xu looked up, his calm gaze landing on Tian Wen as he gestured with his hand.

Tian Wen sat down. Despite the torment of her illness, the aura of someone who had held a high position for years naturally radiated from her. Her sharp eyes scrutinized the young man in front of her. Was this Li Xu? He looked even younger than his photo, almost like a doctoral student fresh out of school.

Kang Yanyan perceptively pushed a thick stack of previous medical records and test results in front of Li Xu. "Dr. Li, these are... Sister Tian’s previous check-up reports. Please take a look."

Li Xu wasn’t in a hurry to look through the dizzying array of lab data. Instead, he first observed Tian Wen’s complexion before speaking softly, "Your chief complaint is frequent urination, right?"

Tian Wen paused slightly and nodded. "Yes. Not only is it frequent, but the urge comes on very suddenly. Once the urge hits, my lower abdomen aches piercingly. On bad nights, I have to get up around ten times. I can’t sleep at all."

As he listened, Li Xu nodded. "And the color of your urine?"

"Yellow, and sometimes there’s a burning sensation," Tian Wen added.

"Xiaowu, take the patient’s pulse first," Li Xu turned slightly and said to Wu Mengmeng beside him.

Wu Mengmeng murmured in acknowledgment, reaching out her hand nervously. She had been practicing pulse diagnosis diligently these past few days. Meeting a woman with such an extraordinary aura like Tian Wen made her hyper-focused.

Three minutes later, Wu Mengmeng withdrew her hand, her brow slightly furrowed. She glanced hesitantly at Tian Wen, then at Li Xu, looking as though she wanted to say something but stopped herself.

"What is it? Just say it," Li Xu encouraged.

Lowering her voice, Wu Mengmeng asked Tian Wen, "Excuse me... is your menstrual cycle normal?"

Tian Wen was taken aback but answered truthfully, "Fairly normal. My last one was about a week ago."

"Then... do you have children? Or are you planning to get pregnant soon?" Wu Mengmeng asked cautiously.

Kang Yanyan frowned as she listened. Just as she was about to speak, Tian Wen waved her hand and said to Wu Mengmeng, "I don’t have children yet. Why, do you think I’m pregnant?"

Wu Mengmeng nodded and looked at Li Xu. "Dean Li, this patient’s pulse is smooth and rounded, like pearls rolling on a plate—a typical slippery pulse. Moreover, the *chi* pulse is exceptionally forceful, even overpowering the *cun* pulse. In pulse theory, this indeed resembles a ’pregnancy pulse.’ But considering she’s seeking treatment for frequent urination... this pulse seems a bit too hyperactive."

Li Xu gave Wu Mengmeng an approving look and explained, "A slippery pulse indicates phlegm, dampness, and also fire; it’s not always a cause for celebration. Encountering a slippery pulse in a woman of childbearing age, ruling out pregnancy first is correct. However, combined with the patient’s current symptoms, this pulse represents a different meaning."

He gestured for Tian Wen to adjust her posture. "Let me take a look."

Li Xu placed his fingers on Tian Wen’s *cun*, *guan*, and *chi* pulse points. As he pressed down on all three positions, a surging, almost scorching pulsation transmitted through his fingertips.

Afterward, he withdrew his hand and said softly, "Ma’am, please open your mouth. Let me check your tongue coating."

Tian Wen cooperatively opened her mouth.

"The tongue is red, and the coating is yellow and greasy. The sides of the tongue, in particular, are strikingly red." Li Xu sat back in his seat, staring at Tian Wen as he asked, "Pardon me for asking, but are you under a tremendous amount of stress normally? Are there often times when you want to lose your temper but are forced to suppress it? And, whenever your emotions fluctuate or you get angry, do the symptoms of frequent urination and abdominal pain multiply?"

Tian Wen’s originally calm expression completely crumbled in an instant, replaced by an unconcealable shock. "How... how did you know?"

Standing to the side, Kang Yanyan was also dumbfounded. As her secretary, she was most aware of Director Tian’s situation. The work at the Health Commission was highly complex. With pressure from superiors above and the maneuvering of various hospitals below, Director Tian, who had a strong personality and sought perfection in everything, had indeed bottled up a lot of anger over the past year. She would often tremble with rage in her office, yet she still had to maintain the poise of a leader.

"That’s exactly right," Kang Yanyan couldn’t help but speak up for Tian Wen. "Sister Tian’s job is not easy. She faces aggravating matters all day long; being irritated is the norm."

"When frequent and urgent urination is mentioned, many people—especially women—immediately think of a urinary tract infection." Li Xu’s voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a convincing power. "From a physiological perspective, a woman’s urethra is short and has a larger contact area with the outside, making it easier for bacteria to breed and cause urinary system lesions. If that were the case, using some antibiotics or traditional Chinese medicine that clears heat and detoxifies would often yield immediate results."

He shifted his tone, his finger lightly tapping the thick stack of lab results Tian Wen had brought. "However, I’ve reviewed these tests. Your white blood cell count is normal, and the cultures show no bacteria. This is why those anti-inflammatory drugs you took worked a little at first but eventually made things worse. It’s because your condition isn’t an ’infection,’ but rather ’qi stagnation.’"

Tian Wen listened so intently that even the dragging pain in her lower abdomen caused by the urge to urinate seemed to lessen slightly.

"In traditional Chinese medicine, your condition is called ’strangury,’ specifically ’qi strangury,’" Li Xu continued. "There are many causes for strangury: damp-heat, stone strangury, blood strangury... But for your specific type, the root cause lies in your emotions. Or rather, in your ’mind’ and ’liver qi.’

"Ma’am, look at yourself," he explained, pointing to Tian Wen’s well-proportioned, perhaps overly slender figure. "Your body type is tall and thin. Although your skin is well-maintained, you exude a strong sense of capability. In the Five Elements classification of traditional Chinese medicine, this physique is a typical ’wood-type person.’ The traits of a wood-type person are vitality, assertiveness, and strong execution skills. But the flaw is also obvious: they are ’too rigid and easily broken,’ naturally leaning toward a yin-deficient constitution."

Tian Wen nodded slightly. Indeed, she had always been this way since she was young. Whether studying or working, she always had to be the best. Even if it meant pulling all-nighters, she would complete her tasks. This "rigidity" had allowed her to sail smoothly through her career, but it had also severely overdrawn her physical foundation.

"There is a saying in the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor*: ’When a person passes forty, their yin energy is naturally halved.’" Li Xu looked at Tian Wen, his tone earnest. "You are forty this year. Though you look young, the yin blood and bodily fluids within you have already been depleted by half without you realizing it. Coupled with your inherently yin-deficient constitution, even the slightest disturbance can easily trigger a state of ’yin deficiency with excessive fire.’ Once a person’s internal fire flares up, their mind cannot settle, leading to involuntary anxiety and irritability. In this state, encountering even the slightest setback—no matter how trivial—is like a spark falling into a barrel of oil, making you uncontrollably furious."

Standing nearby, Kang Yanyan listened with secret alarm. She had been with Director Tian for several years, and over the past year, the director had indeed become increasingly prone to anger. In the past, she was merely strict. Now, she would occasionally throw a massive tantrum in the office over a single typo in a report, only to clutch her stomach in agony afterward. She had originally thought it was just because the director was under too much stress. She never expected that, in Dr. Li’s eyes, this was the inevitable result of an imbalance between yin and yang in her body.