Chapter 158: Boss Dragon Puts On a Show

The hospital's new venture is finding its feet, and Adam returns to Mingxin Clinic.

The county Chinese medicine hospital's study group on treating critical illness with Chinese medicine had made quite a debut!

Everywhere, people were talking about reviving Chinese medicine. They had been shouting the slogan for decades, but the practical measures were mostly token gestures. Nothing that made much difference.

By now, almost every county had a Chinese medicine hospital. Yet in almost all of those hospitals nationwide, Chinese medicine was on the sign while Western medicine remained dominant inside.^[1]

To be honest, Chinese medicine still wasn't serving the public to its full potential. It could do more, and take on more responsibility.

There was so much it could do, so much it was good at, that it wasn't being allowed to do…

Still, everyone was feeling their way forward. That was a good thing.

Their county, in particular, had dared to take a big step forward.

In an age when doing more only meant more chances to get things wrong, David Du deserved real credit for getting this off the ground.

Evan admired him for it.

David was a Chinese medicine doctor too. The province had even recognized him as a distinguished physician of Chinese medicine. In practice, though, he couldn't treat patients. Look at his career: papers by the pile, research reports of every description.

A research scholar through and through.

Besides, most of his work now was administration, even further removed from clinical practice.

But they needed people like him. Evan alone could never have built a platform on this scale. He might well have landed himself in plenty of trouble trying to save people.

The present arrangement wasn't bad, really. Evan treated patients and saved lives. David provided cover. Leo Cao was responsible for… taking the blame…

Ha! The perfect team!

The patient with the stomach bleeding was taken care of. Another day or two under observation, and he could go home.

Evan went upstairs to check on Director Guo's wife as well. She wasn't actually his patient. Director Du and Leo had asked him to help treat her to secure Director Guo's support.

But once Evan had treated her, he had a responsibility to follow through. After several days of medicine, her surging bentun qi had stopped completely. Her pulse had long since settled, and the pain was gone.^[2]

He examined her again. Her pulse was calm, and she too could be discharged. Whether her intestinal spasms had fully resolved, and whether they would return, would have to be checked through follow-up after she left the hospital.

He went to look for Gordon Gao next, to see how he was doing. The ward staff told him Gordon had already been discharged.

Evan nodded. It seemed there was no problem, then.

As he was about to leave, he noticed that a room had been partitioned off in the inpatient building. There was a clattering and banging inside, as though something was being installed.

One of the young Chinese medicine doctors following him explained that this was to be a decoction room. Any medicine they needed urgently, requiring rapid decoction over high heat, could be prepared here in future.^[3]

The last emergency had clearly made an impression on David. He had run back and forth delivering medicine himself, and it had worn him out. Now he was getting a decoction room set up.

Evan nodded with satisfaction. David really was doing a good job.

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Everything here was settled.

Evan returned to Mingxin Clinic.

The young doctors carried on sweeping the wards, as enthusiastic as ever.

At Mingxin Clinic, Adam Zhang and Clara had arrived too.

Adam had recovered well enough to go out now.

Clara was back behind the counter, taking payments and dispensing herbs.

Evan now sat where Adam used to sit. But since Clara's mother died, Adam had come in only now and then, rarely keeping to a regular schedule.

Only now had he pulled himself together and returned to the clinic. He looked here, touched something there, filled with emotion.

Ben Song kept him company, joining in his reflections.

Evan was the only one treating patients, with two young Chinese medicine doctors beside him, learning from him.

He was the only one left who could still see patients, so naturally he was the busiest.

Ben was still keeping the boss company when Clara finally lost patience. She tapped the counter. “Hey. Hey! Are you just going to stand there chatting? Don't you have any work to do?”

“I've got nothing to do,” Ben said.

“Then find something! You think you're paid to stand around?”

Ben was thoroughly put out. “I'm showing the boss around!”

“Around this tiny little place? What the hell is there to inspect? Go and find some clients, before I change your fixed salary to commission!”

Ben looked at Adam, aggrieved.

Adam spread his hands helplessly. “She's my boss now. I can't argue with her either!”

Ben had no choice but to hurry off and find clients. He no longer got to treat patients at all. If he couldn't even do a decent job on the wellness side, he reckoned he really would be out of work.

After looking around out front, Adam went into the treatment room for a while, then headed upstairs to check the medicinal herbs.

Downstairs, Evan was still seeing patients.

He had just finished with one when two men with a thuggish air walked in.

“Dragon, this the place?” the young man asked his slightly plump companion.

The plump man wore sunglasses and a thick gold chain, his lips pulled back in an arrogant sneer. He nodded. “That's right.”

The young man stepped forward and pointed at Evan. “You're the quack who made my boss ill, aren't you?”

Everyone in the clinic frowned.

Evan looked at the two men. “Who's your boss? What's his name?”

The young man scoffed. “You don't know my boss? Southside Dragon! He got medicine here last time, and now he feels lousy all over. I'm telling you, this isn't over.”

Evan frowned deeply. “Dragon what? Give me his name so I can check the case records.”

The young man slapped the desk. “Oh, so now you're trying to deny it?”

His boss, Southside Dragon, kept his sunglasses on and his chin slightly raised, saying nothing. Like a crime boss on television, he was silently putting on a show…

“If you won't even tell me his name,” Evan said, “how am I supposed to know whether he's ever been treated here? Or whether I'm responsible for his problem?”

“So you're saying we're making it up?” the young man demanded. “Go and ask around about Dragon's reputation. When has he ever falsely accused anyone to squeeze money out of them?

“Listen, kid. We're settling this today. We're not here to extort money, but you did make my boss ill. Give us a thousand yuan, and we'll call it settled.”

The others were speechless.

Right. Two men trying to shake them down. Plain as day.

From behind the counter, Clara asked, “Evan, why don't we just call the police?”

The young man actually laughed. “The police? Ha! You make someone ill, and you've got the nerve to call the police?

“Even if I leave today, I'll be back tomorrow, and the day after. We'll tell everyone outside how you quacks hurt people.”

Dragon kept his chin up and carried on putting on his show.

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ Chinese medicine hospitals. These are hospitals within China's health system, rather than simply herbal shops or private clinics. Their name identifies their focus; it does not mean that conventional medicine is absent. Chinese policy has long called for Chinese and Western medicine to work together while preserving Chinese medicine's distinctive approach. The narrator's sweeping criticism of token reforms and Western medicine's dominance expresses this passage's viewpoint. The policy document supplies institutional background, not statistical evidence for those claims. Source: State Council — Supporting and Promoting the Development of Chinese Medicine, sections II–III (in Chinese).
2. ↩︎ Bentun qi, or “running piglet” qi. This traditional term describes a sensation of qi surging upward from the lower abdomen, sometimes toward the chest or throat. It names a symptom pattern within Chinese medicine, not an animal or a substance that can be seen moving through the body. Here it recalls the complaint treated earlier. The surging and pain have stopped, but Evan still distinguishes that improvement from confirming lasting resolution of the intestinal spasms. Source: WHO — Traditional Chinese Medicine Terminologies, entry 2170.
3. ↩︎ A room for preparing decoctions. A decoction is a liquid medicine prepared by heating medicinal ingredients in water. Wu huo means high or strong heat, as opposed to gentle heat. The new room would let urgently needed medicine be prepared close to the ward. The passage describes a planned facility, not a complete preparation method: it gives no ingredients, equipment specifications, or timings. Preparation varies with the ingredients and the patient's condition. Source: Hong Kong Department of Health — Preparing Herbal Decoctions.