Chapter 127 All for Nothing

At Starlight Culture and Media, a few whispers follow Dr. Xu's very public argument.

Starlight Culture and Media Co., Ltd.

April and Lily sat at neighboring desks, whispering to each other.

“Hey, Dr. Xu's really getting torn apart,” Lily said. “How did he dare take on an influencer that big?”

“I know,” April whispered back. “The guy's riding high right now. Two trending topics. Lots of other big accounts have reposted his stuff debunking incompatible foods.”

Lily shook her head. “We believe Dr. Xu, obviously, but other people don't. He hasn't got any evidence, either. It's all Chinese medicine this, Chinese medicine that, how things keep each other in check. These people don't believe anything Chinese medicine says.”

“Poor Dr. Xu,” April said sympathetically. “I hope it doesn't hurt the clinic's business…”

Before she'd finished, both women's scalps prickled.

They cautiously looked up.

Sure enough, an icy face was looking down at them.

The Abbess.^[1]

April and Lily both sucked in a breath.

“Is your copy finished?” the Abbess asked coldly. “Doing other things on company time? Don't you want your performance pay?”

“No, it's Dr. Xu,” Lily said hurriedly. “Dr. Xu, he's—”

“Is Dr. Xu your client?” the Abbess cut in. “Does he have anything to do with your work?”

“Uh…” Lily had no answer.

The Abbess stared coldly at them until they were thoroughly uncomfortable. Then, without another word, she returned to her office.

Only then could April and Lily breathe again. They had almost broken into a cold sweat.

Lily wiped her forehead. “That woman has no heart. Dr. Xu saved her dad, for God's sake, and she doesn't even want to hear about him. No wonder they call her the Abbess.”

Both women looked disgruntled.

Back in her office, Ms. He opened DrXuChineseMedicine's Weibo feed on her computer. Her brows drew together slightly.

Things were lively both offline and online, but Clara and Charlie were still fishing.

By early evening, Dr. Cinnamon still hadn't reposted their material. The man wasn't taking the bait.

They couldn't hold out any longer, though. Wait much longer and the trending topics would drop away. They went ahead and uploaded their evidence as images.

One image showed a search of an electronic edition of the Jingui Yaolüe. It contained no mention of persimmons, only three passages about crabs, and no statement that crabs and persimmons must not be eaten together.

Another showed the Lanzhou University research. There was no experiment involving crabs and persimmons eaten together. They had pointedly highlighted the date, 2011, and added explanatory comments.^[2]

The images went up on DrXuChineseMedicine's account.

Charlie reposted them with a smirking comment:

Although I've always had my doubts about incompatible-food theories, Dr. Cinnamon is spreading falsehoods in the name of debunking them. That's hardly what you'd expect from a careful medical blogger. And that's before we even get to his false claims about a Chinese medical classic. For a medical blogger with forty million followers, this is deeply disappointing…

Then the two of them paid to boost the posts.

Now things were getting interesting. Hard evidence!

Even passing readers were stunned. There was no explaining this away.

You called Chinese medicine unscientific, yet your own claims were even more ridiculous? All that evidence of yours was fake? What kind of joke was this?

Clara and Charlie began pushing “Dr. Cinnamon spreads falsehoods in the name of debunking them” up the trending list. They wanted to take him down hard.

Even Dr. Cinnamon's fans were stunned. For a long while, they didn't know what to say.

Other people settled in to watch the spectacle.

Plenty of Chinese medicine practitioners ran their own social media accounts, too. They all reposted the evidence, exposing him. They'd been sick of him for a long time.

The internet was suddenly buzzing.

Starlight Culture and Media.

Lily and April were astonished. The Abbess had warned them, yes, but what employee obeyed the boss that faithfully?

“Holy shit, Dr. Xu's devious!” Lily said, her face alight with amazement.

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“So this was all to get him to take the bait?” April asked in amazement. “Wow. He seems so proper. I never thought he'd be this sneaky.”

“This is going to be hilarious,” Lily said excitedly. “Who'd have thought a medical blogger that big could be so sloppy? A mistake that basic! Dr. Xu's going to hammer him for this.”

They followed every turn, delighted. They couldn't get enough of the gossip.

In her office, Ms. He was watching the sudden reversal too. Her expression remained perfectly calm.

Twenty minutes after Clara and Charlie uploaded their evidence, Dr. Cinnamon deleted his video. He removed the crab-and-persimmon taste-test video and the related articles from all the platforms where he'd posted them.

“Holy shit!” April and Lily exclaimed again.

“He's deleted the video and the articles,” Lily said. “Is he just going to pretend none of it happened?”

“Look, look—the trending topic's still there,” April said. “His ‘Kicked out of the family group chat for sharing the debunking article’ is still at number two.”

“Smooth,” Lily said. “Well, with the video gone, this'll probably blow over in a day or two. People online forget everything. He'll still be the biggest medical blogger.”

“At least Dr. Xu won, though,” April said.

Lily nodded emphatically.

Just as they thought the online battle was over, DrXuChineseMedicine uploaded another video: the very one Dr. Cinnamon had just deleted.

Their earlier evidence had been text and images. It had only stated that the Jingui Yaolüe contained no such passage and that Lanzhou University and Harbin Medical College had done no such research.^[2]

Clara had downloaded his video well in advance. Then she'd had Charlie edit it, cutting all their evidence into it.

She'd known he'd delete it!

Looking at her phone, Clara gave a cold little smile.

For the third time, Lily and April were stunned.

“Damn, Dr. Xu's ruthless. He's still going after him!”

“Is he trying to finish Dr. Cinnamon off?”

In her office, Ms. He watched her computer screen without giving any sign of what she thought.

Clara thought they had it in the bag. After uploading the video to go after him again, she posted the article she'd prepared earlier.

Everything she'd been doing had been meant to promote sound ideas about daily health in Chinese medicine—to get more people to read this article.

It explained in detail Chinese medicine's views on skipping breakfast and eating foods considered cold or cooling during menstruation. It also debunked incompatible-food theories involving foods such as persimmons and crabs.^[3]

A person in balance was a person free of illness; mutual restraint was essential to reaching that balance. Chinese medicine had always regarded that restraint as beneficial. Who had saddled Chinese medicine with all this crap?^[4]

Clara hadn't forgotten Evan's instructions. Clearing up misinformation was what they were supposed to be doing, after all. Their Weibo posts were getting plenty of attention now. This was the best moment to put the record straight, and she explained the matter with care.

If she'd opened with Chinese medicine's views on menstruation and skipping breakfast, the abuse would have buried her. A medical blogger with forty million followers was no joke, especially one riding a wave of popularity. Nobody would have read their article. They'd only have hurled insults.

Now the situation had reversed. They had the stronger case, and some people were willing to listen. Only now did she feel confident enough to publish the article. This was how to make a rebuttal count.

Clara skimmed the comments beneath it. Sure enough, the haters no longer dared show up, and there were many more friendly, reasonable comments.

Satisfied, she put down her phone. Thinking the matter was settled, she went back to her own business.

Starlight Culture and Media.

At her computer, Ms. He saw DrXuChineseMedicine post the article about menstruation and whether to eat breakfast. She gave a slight shake of her head and murmured:

“All for nothing.”

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ The Abbess. The employees' nickname alludes to Abbess Miejue from Jin Yong's martial arts fiction, a character also familiar through screen adaptations. Here it expresses their view of an intimidating supervisor. Ms. He does not hold a religious office, and “He” is her surname, not a newly revealed personal name. The contrast between what her employees assume and what she actually does is part of this scene. Source: Hong Kong Pop Culture Festival — Jin Yong character exhibition, including Miejue (in Chinese).
2. ↩︎ The classic and the research claims. The Jingui Yaolüe, or Essentials from the Golden Cabinet, contains food prohibitions, including the three crab passages in the consulted transcription. Searching that text found no persimmon reference; this is a check of one transcription, not every edition. The images described here and the categorical claims about Lanzhou University and Harbin Medical College belong to the fictional dispute. No matching original experimental report has been verified for this English edition. Failure to locate a report cannot establish that the research never existed. Source: Jingui Yaolüe Fanglun — section 24, food prohibitions (Chinese transcription). ↩︎
3. ↩︎ Food nature and the article's scope. In Chinese medicine, “cold” and “cooling” can describe a food's traditional nature, regardless of its serving temperature. Clara's article returns to the breakfast and menstruation arguments discussed earlier; this chapter summarizes its subjects without reproducing it. These categories do not themselves establish a universal dietary rule. Menstrual pain has different possible causes, while breakfast research concerns particular populations and outcomes. For example, the earlier six-week trial studied lean adults; it cannot settle every claim about skipping breakfast. Sources: Hong Kong Department of Health — Food and the four natures; ACOG — Painful periods; Betts and colleagues — 2014 breakfast trial, original abstract via Europe PMC.
4. ↩︎ Balance and mutual restraint. The opening phrase echoes the Suwen, section 18, where pingren means a person free of illness. The Chinese word xiangke also names the restraining relationships in five-phase theory: normal restraint keeps a tendency from becoming excessive. That meaning differs from the popular claim that particular foods become harmful when eaten together, even though Chinese uses the same word. The following argument develops the position Clara is promoting; it is not all one quotation from the Suwen, nor does the classical phrase establish a modern food-safety conclusion. Sources: Suwen — section 18, “The Signs of a Healthy Person” (Chinese transcription); Beijing University of Chinese Medicine — Generating, restraining, and excessive relationships (in Chinese).