Chapter 157: A Memorable Lesson

The ward rounds have consequences, and Evan faces an awkward evening upstairs.

The patients were bewildered too. When was this going to end?

One after another, four or five Chinese medicine doctors had already come by, and there were still more to come!

Fine. Plenty of patients simply lay spread-eagled and left their arms out. Someone else would be along in a minute anyway. Why bother pulling an arm back only to stick it out again?

Before long, the young doctors' activities drew the attention of the other departments.

And then…

Poor Leo Cao was in trouble.

Leo had always prided himself on being the best-connected man in the Chinese medicine hospital. He knew everyone, could make friends with anyone, could have fun with anyone, and got along with them all.

Now, with so many department heads demanding answers, he felt like crying.

He couldn't even explain himself. Evan had dumped the blame on him!

Clara didn't come down to the clinic all afternoon.

When Evan finished work, he went upstairs as usual to examine and treat Adam Zhang.

Clara was still cooking in the kitchen.

After the examination, Evan went into the kitchen too. “Your dad's doing much better. Another two days of medicine, and he won't have to stay home all the time. He can go out for a walk. He just needs to keep out of cold drafts.”

“Mm.” Clara answered quietly and carried on stir-frying, looking subdued.

Evan hesitated, then tried, “Clara, about that bank card…”

She gave him a sidelong look.

He immediately swallowed the rest of his sentence.

Adam was on the sofa watching television—or rather, he was supposed to be. How could he pay attention to the screen? He kept watching the two of them in the kitchen. Even he could tell something had changed between them.

They used to get along so easily. Now the awkwardness was obvious.

He silently blamed himself. Why couldn't he keep his mouth shut? Why had he insisted on bringing it out into the open?

Evan was uncomfortable too. Clara didn't seem to want to talk to him today. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Well, I've got something to do. Maybe I should get going…”

Clara's heart lurched. She had been concentrating on the cooking, and she said nothing, not even turning around. Her hand only tightened around the spatula.

“E…Evan.” Adam suddenly spoke from the sofa.

“Hm?” Evan turned.

Adam beckoned. “Come and sit down for a bit.”

Evan was startled. This was the first time in all these days that Adam had started a conversation with him. And he was actually being friendly.

“Oh. All right.” Evan went over.

Adam patted the cushion beside him. “Here. Sit.” Evan sat down.

“How old are you this year, Evan?”

“Um…” Evan thought for a moment. “28. Yes, 28.”

“Why did you have to think about it?” Adam asked, puzzled.

Evan gave an embarrassed little smile.

“Where are you from?” Adam went on.

“Here in the county. Cangxing Town.”

“Cangxing, eh? What do your parents do?”

Age, hometown, parents. The standard three-question combination, delivered in one go!

Still cooking, Clara turned to give her father a thoroughly disgusted look. Her attention slipped, her hand shook, and half a packet of salt went into the pan.

“Oh!” she gasped under her breath. She was about to throw the dish away, but then she glanced at Adam, still chattering away over there.

She put it on a plate instead.

Adam wasn't enjoying the conversation much either. Before, he'd been afraid some pig would get at his precious cabbage of a daughter, so he'd never had a kind look for Evan. Even after Evan saved him, he hadn't warmed to the young man.

Now his own big mouth had brought everything into the open and made things awkward between the two youngsters. Suddenly he was worried the pig wouldn't go near the cabbage.

Now he had to grab the pig by the head to keep it from running off!

What the hell was he doing? He'd made a complete mess of the whole thing.

Ah, the things parents went through for their children. Adam was finding it a real pain in the ass.

Dinner was ready.

Clara set the outrageously salty dish in front of Adam. “Dad, I made this specially to help you recover.”

Adam smiled and nodded, and somehow found himself praising his own daughter. “Wonderful. My daughter takes such good care of me!”

Clara forced a smile.

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Adam picked up a mouthful with his chopsticks. The moment he tasted it, his face went through a remarkable series of expressions. He kept sucking in air.

Evan watched in bewilderment. “What's wrong, Uncle Zhang? Are you feeling unwell?”

Adam had asked him to use that form of address while they were talking, saving Evan the trouble of wondering what to call him.^[1]

Adam shook his head with a strained smile. “No… Wonderful cooking…”

He had no idea why he had suddenly started praising his daughter again.

“Let me try some.” Evan reached out with his chopsticks.

Adam covered the plate with his hand. “Ha! Special food for the patient. For the patient!”

“Oh.” Evan withdrew his chopsticks.

Clara rolled her eyes, but she didn't make her father eat the rest of it.

Once again, Adam felt like an idiot. Especially for opening that big mouth of his. Why couldn't he keep it shut? Now he was suffering for it!

What a meal that was.

Early the next morning, Evan returned to examine the patient again.

The young doctors were all there once more.

He took them to see the man with the stomach bleeding.

After the previous day's medicine, the patient's symptoms had subsided. He no longer felt dizzy or had ringing in his ears, his stomach felt better, and he had eaten more the day before.

His wife was delighted too. In all the years he'd had his stomach ulcer, his appetite had always been poor. A couple of mouthfuls and he couldn't eat any more. Soon afterward he would be miserably hungry again, but eating only made him feel worse.

Yesterday, for once, he had enjoyed his food. When he ate a little more than usual, she had worried his stomach would hurt. It hadn't.

Besides their excitement, the couple now had more confidence in Evan's treatment.

After examining him, Evan said, “His pulse has settled, and he's eating more. But he keeps passing gas without having a bowel movement.

“We need to adjust the prescription. We should keep strengthening qi and replenishing blood; the overall approach stays the same. Now we also need to nourish yin, moisten dryness, and resolve blood stasis. Let's write another prescription.”^[2]

The others began copying it down again.

Once Evan had written the prescription, he went back to work at Mingxin Clinic.

The young doctors carried on taking turns examining the patient.

Then they resumed their sweep of the building.

They hadn't finished yesterday. Besides, patients' conditions could change. Just look at how many times this man's pulse qualities and clinical findings had changed! They had to keep an eye on things.

The inpatient building came alive again.

Early the following morning, Evan returned for another examination.

After taking the medicine, the patient had finally passed the accumulated stool. He hadn't had a bowel movement for several days, and now felt much more comfortable. His appetite and sleep had improved too.

The conventional medical team also tested him. The stomach bleeding had stopped some time ago, but his fecal occult blood test had still been positive. After these several days of treatment, it was now negative.^[3]

Evan could now say that the patient was ready for discharge. There was no longer any serious concern.

This was the first patient they had taken on since the academic center was established. The case had been difficult at first, but after several days of treatment, they had brought it to a successful conclusion.

A condition they had thought could only be controlled by surgery had been cured with Chinese medicine, and the results had been excellent. The patient's symptoms had settled, even his stomach ulcer had improved considerably, and he was eating and sleeping better.

Evan stopped his medicine. After discharge, he could gradually build himself up through his diet.

Treating this patient had also given the young doctors a memorable lesson.

Evan's treatment had worked extraordinarily well. Usually, a single batch of medicine was enough for the symptoms to subside. When the patient's condition fluctuated a little, Evan adjusted the medicine according to the pulse and clinical findings. Again, after a single batch, the discomfort disappeared.

The young doctors had been involved throughout. Following a clinical mentor through the whole treatment of such a serious illness had given them a deeper understanding of Chinese medicine in practice.

Keep returning to the pulse and clinical findings, identify the pattern, and adjust the medicine. With the right pattern assessment and the right medicine, Chinese medicine could work quickly and well. If the patient felt unwell in some way, adjust the prescription, and the problem would promptly subside.^[4]

This was completely different from how they had thought before. They used to treat chronic illnesses with the same prescription for a long time. No wonder Chinese medicine was said to act slowly, its practitioners dubbed “slow doctors”!

Now they had seen such flexibility and such quick results in a serious illness. They had experienced for themselves what people meant by the advantages of Chinese medicine in treating major illnesses.

They really had learned a great deal.

And better yet, they'd learned how to sweep through the wards!

But why had Director Cao taken the day off today?

Strange!

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ “Uncle” as a form of address. Chinese kinship terms can extend beyond relatives. Shu, literally a father's younger brother, can also be a familiar, respectful way to address a man of one's father's generation. Here Adam specifically invites Evan to use “Uncle Zhang,” making the change in their relationship audible. It does not establish a family relationship or a marriage agreement. The narrator explains that Adam has now settled what Evan should call him. Source: Taiwan Ministry of Education — shu, noun sense 1(3) (in Chinese).
2. ↩︎ Revising the treatment aims. Qi and blood are paired traditional concepts: qi concerns the body's activity and functions, while blood nourishes it. “Nourish yin and moisten dryness” describes supporting the moistening, nourishing aspects of the body; “resolve blood stasis” addresses what Chinese medicine describes as impaired blood movement or retained blood. These are treatment principles, not a list of ingredients. Evan retains the earlier qi-and-blood approach while adding further aims after reassessment. The chapter supplies no new formula name, herbs, or doses here. Source: WHO — Traditional Chinese Medicine Terminologies.
3. ↩︎ A negative occult blood test. A fecal occult blood test looks for blood in stool that is not visible to the eye. It is distinct from observing that someone has stopped vomiting blood. A positive result does not by itself identify the source or cause; a negative result means that the test did not detect blood in the sample. The novel reports the change alongside the man's improving symptoms. It does not name the test method or describe an endoscopic examination confirming that the ulcer has healed. Source: MedlinePlus — Fecal Occult Blood Test.
4. ↩︎ Patterns and treatment response. Pattern differentiation brings together symptoms and examination findings to characterize a condition within Chinese medicine. A pattern assessment can change as the patient's presentation changes, even while the biomedical disease name stays the same. This explains the repeated reassessment and prescription changes in the chapter. The narrator's claims about rapid relief and advantages in serious illness convey the lesson the young doctors draw from this case. Terminology definitions explain their approach; they do not establish those broader efficacy claims. Source: WHO — Traditional Chinese Medicine Terminologies, entries 550–553.