Chapter 149: Liver Wind Rising

A sudden bout of dizziness leaves Clara fearing the worst.

There was a brief commotion in the clinic.

Evan hurried to his feet and went over to help Adam sit down.

“What's wrong? Where do you feel unwell?” he asked.

Adam settled into the chair, looking uncomfortable. “I'm a little dizzy. There's a pressure in my head, and my legs are a bit weak. My head feels heavy, my feet unsteady, and my mouth is dry and bitter…”

“Stick out your tongue. Let me see.”

Adam did.

After a look, Evan began feeling his pulse.

Everyone watched anxiously. None of them had expected this.

Clara clasped her hands tightly together. Her father had only just recovered. Please, not something else!

After a little while, Evan finished examining the pulse.

“Evan, how is he?” Clara asked nervously.

“The pulse at the left cun and guan positions is wiry, large, and hard.^[1] His Liver yang is rising too strongly, and Liver wind is disturbing the upper body. That's why he's dizzy, there's pressure and heaviness in his head, his feet are unsteady, and his mouth is dry and bitter.”^[2]

Clara's expression changed at once. “Liver wind? He's not going to have another stroke, is he?”

She stamped her foot anxiously and scolded him. “I told you not to come out, but you insisted! I said I'd get Evan to come upstairs and see you, and you wouldn't have that either. What are you trying to prove?”

She was so worried that her eyes had gone red.

For the moment, Adam didn't dare talk back.

Everyone else was looking at Evan.

Henry Zhong and Leo Cao had made no move either. They, too, were watching him. By now, anyone could see that Evan's skills were at least those of a provincial-level specialist. Even among those specialists, his clinical results ranked with the best.

The two of them could not compare with him. If Evan had no solution, they certainly wouldn't have one.

“Evan, do something!” Clara pleaded. “Don't let Dad have another stroke!”

“Don't panic. It's Liver wind disturbing the upper body. We just need to calm the Liver and extinguish wind. Don't worry. I'm here.”

Clara nodded hard.

Adam's face reddened with embarrassment. That brat was showing off in front of his daughter again! But he didn't dare say anything now. This was rather humiliating.

He was getting worried himself. What if the pathogenic wind hadn't cleared? What if Liver wind was stirring inside him now, and he really was about to have a second stroke?

“Let's get your dad home first,” Evan said. “I'll prepare a decoction here and bring it up to him.”

“All right,” Clara said quickly.

She went to help her father up, but his legs were weak. He couldn't walk properly.

“I'll carry him upstairs on my back,” Evan offered.

A trace of embarrassment appeared on Adam's face.

“No need, Dr. Xu. Leave it to us!”

“Yes, we'll do it.”

“Come on, all together.”

Adam relaxed a little. He certainly didn't want Evan carrying him. He would rather have these young men take him upstairs on their backs.

The young Chinese medicine doctors were strong and eager to help. They hurried over together.

“Right. One, two, three—up!”

Adam thought they were going to carry him on someone's back.

Instead, they took hold of his hands and feet and hoisted him up, all four limbs pointing at the sky. What the hell? Wasn't this how a turtle looked when it was flipped onto its back?

And they were holding his legs so far apart! How humiliating!

Adam was indignant and mortified. He was just about to speak when the young men called out with great enthusiasm.

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“Come on! One, two—let's go!”

They rushed out with him dangling faceup between them.

And they were moving pretty fast, too.

Had they practiced this or something?

But why would they practice anything like this?

His humiliating position drew startled looks from plenty of passersby.

Adam wanted to cry, but no tears came. Couldn't he please just faint already? He wanted to disappear.

They raced him home, humiliating him every step of the way.

The elderly guard at the entrance to the residential compound was stunned again. He had already been stunned when Adam had strode out in such high spirits, wondering whether his eyes were deceiving him.

Now Adam was hurtling back in this humiliating position. The guard was bewildered all over again. For a moment, the old man simply couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. What on earth was going on?

With Clara leading the way, the young men ran all the way to the Zhangs' home and carried Adam into his bedroom. They were still enthusiastically asking how he felt.

Adam pulled the quilt over his head. He was done facing the world!

But the young men remained just as enthusiastic, deeply concerned about his condition.

What else could they do? Mingxin Clinic had become their place for further training, and they would be coming every week. Adam owned the clinic. They'd be learning under his roof from now on, so of course they had to get on his good side.

Take what had just happened. Adam was ill, so they had joined forces to carry him upstairs. When it came to sucking up, everyone ought to pitch in. No one doing more, no one doing less. Perfectly fair.

The young men all felt they had picked up a useful little trick for getting by at work.

Then the brats began taking turns feeling Adam's pulse. They wanted to find out what Dr. Xu had meant by a wiry, large, hard pulse at the left cun and guan positions.

Besides, they were showing concern for their boss. Couldn't let the flattery stop!

Adam wanted to put another two quilts over his face. This was too humiliating. Too embarrassing.

Back at the clinic, Evan finished writing the prescription and began dispensing the medicines. Adam's Liver wind was disturbing the upper body. It wasn't particularly severe, but left unattended it could very well lead to a second stroke. Evan therefore prescribed large doses of medicines to calm the Liver, extinguish wind, resolve phlegm, and unblock the collaterals.^[3]

Henry and Leo leaned in to look. Evan's prescription included 20 g of raw banxia, 20 g of raw tiannanxing, 20 g of raw baifuzi, ten centipedes, and five scorpions…^[4]

David Du came over for a look as well. A small clinic like this had little in the way of pharmacy protocols. Evan had the final say. Treating Adam was one thing. He was one of their own.

But if he treated outsiders, there was no telling when trouble might come. Freedom had its advantages. So did standard procedures.

“Dr. Xu, about that… signing ceremony?” David asked.

“I don't have time now. Oh, there's no need for a ceremony. I still have patients to see. I'll come over after work and sign the agreement.”

David thought for a moment. “How about this? Tomorrow is Professor He's day to see patients at our hospital. We can sort out the arrangements for the academic working group together, then sign the appointment agreement that day as well. Would that work?”

Evan nodded. “All right. I'll come over tomorrow.”

After that, David and the others said goodbye to Evan.

Once Evan had prepared the decoction, he took it up to Adam.

The young brats were still discussing the case. Adam had the quilt over his head, too embarrassed to show his face.

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ Positions and qualities of the pulse. Cun and guan are neighboring positions in the traditional pulse-taking area at the wrist; “left” specifies Adam's left wrist. The position names are separate from descriptions of what the doctor feels there. “Wiry” evokes a taut musical string, while “large” describes breadth. “Hard” preserves Evan's additional description rather than substituting another named pulse category. These terms report his examination, not a measured blood pressure. Source: World Health Organization — International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Chinese Medicine, entries 856–857, 894, 904.
2. ↩︎ Liver yang and internal wind. In Chinese medical theory, the Liver is a functional system, capitalized here to distinguish it from the anatomical organ. Excessive upward movement of its yang can be associated with dizziness and a distending sensation in the head; “internal wind” describes another traditional pattern involving disturbed movement. It is not wind blowing into the body. Evan links these concepts in his diagnosis. The terminology does not itself establish a new stroke, and Adam's fear that wind remains is his own worried speculation. Source: World Health Organization — International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Chinese Medicine, entries 1239, 1258–1259.
3. ↩︎ Treatment principles rather than a formula name. “Calm the Liver and extinguish wind” names an aim within the traditional framework. “Resolve phlegm” refers to pathological fluid accumulation as understood in that framework, rather than necessarily mucus being coughed up. “Unblock the collaterals” concerns the branching channel network of Chinese medicine; it does not mean that an arterial blockage has been located or removed. The passage gives Evan's treatment rationale without naming a complete classical formula. Source: World Health Organization — International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Chinese Medicine, entries 342–344, 2383, 2485, 2488, 2935.
4. ↩︎ Raw medicines and animal ingredients. Sheng, rendered “raw,” distinguishes an unprocessed medicinal material from its specially processed forms; it does not mean freshly harvested. Banxia, tiannanxing, and baifuzi are distinct materials, and baifuzi is not interchangeable with the similarly named fuzi. The centipedes and scorpions are dried animal medicines. Hong Kong's Chinese Medicine Regulatory Office lists unprocessed pinellia, arisaema, and baifuzi among toxic medicinal materials. That helps explain why the prescription's handling matters in this scene; it does not validate Evan's quantities or establish the rules governing his fictional clinic. Sources: Chinese Medicine Regulatory Office — General Knowledge of Toxic Chinese Herbal Medicines; Hong Kong Baptist University — Raw Baifuzi; HKBU — Centipede; HKBU — Scorpion.