Chapter 170: Inviting a Well-Known Doctor from Thousands of Miles Away
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The next day, w.a.n.g Yao was going to leave Nanshan hill after his breathing exercises.
“San Xian, I need to leave now; don’t let anyone get close to the herbal field,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
Before leaving, w.a.n.g Yao placed three big stones at the only entrance to the herbal field.
The wind pa.s.sed, and w.a.n.g Yao turned around to have a look. He couldn’t see the only narrow pathway to enter his herbal field. It was completely blocked.
There was no way to enter the herbal field now.
“It’s a bit hot today; I should go to Yao’s place to get some water!” murmured an elderly man who was herding sheep. He walked towards w.a.n.g Yao’s cottage with an iron kettle in his hand.
As he got closer to w.a.n.g Yao’s cottage, he suddenly felt that the tree in front of him, which was as tall as an adult and as thick as two fingers, started to shake. The tree seemed to be moving and even running, which made the elderly man very dizzy.
“What the h.e.l.l! My head is hurting so much!” said the elderly man.
He immediately looked away and then started to feel better.
What is going on here? Why was the tree running?
The elderly man looked back at the tree again and felt dizzy again. He was too scared to look at the tree anymore. He had a rest where he was and then left.
This place is so weird! thought the elderly man.
After leaving Nanshan hill, w.a.n.g Yao went to town with w.a.n.g Mingbao to visit w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle. He smelled herbs and a mild odor when he entered his uncle’s house.
“Uncle, Auntie, the doctor is here!” said w.a.n.g Mingbao loudly.
“Yao, please come in and take a seat,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle’s wife.
w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle and his wife had lived in the village for a while before moving into town. Both of them knew w.a.n.g Yao.
“Auntie, don’t worry about me. Let Yao see uncle first,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao.
“Okay,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle’s wife.
Although w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle didn’t know when w.a.n.g Yao started to see patients, he was very co-operative. He showed w.a.n.g Yao his ulcers. He had four ulcers on his back. Some were as big as the round opening of a gla.s.s; some were as small as a thumbnail. All the wounds were rotten, oozing pus, and smelled bad.
“Let me check your pulse,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
After checking w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle’s pulse, w.a.n.g Yao knew the cause of the ulcers. w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle had heat toxins inside his body which attacked his back to form ulcers.
“Uncle, what medication or herbs have you taken?” asked w.a.n.g Yao.
“They are all in the cabinet. You can take a look,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle.
w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle’s wife took out all the medications out. His uncle had used ointment, pills, and decoctions. He has tried both western medicine and Chinese herbs.
“How long have you been ill?” asked w.a.n.g Yao.
“Almost two months. It was not too bad at the beginning, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. But the wounds have gotten worse since,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle.
Less than two weeks? w.a.n.g Yao quickly calculated the medication in the draw. There were six different medications. w.a.n.g Yao presumed that w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle had kept changing medications as he hadn’t found anything useful. The more frequently he changed medication, the less effective those medications were. After a while, those medications had had a bad impact on his body which made his wounds worse.
“I think you should stop taking those medications.” w.a.n.g Yao pointed at several different pills.
w.a.n.g Yao believed that Chinese medicine worked better than western medicine when treating ulcers.
“I will go back and prescribe you an herbal formula and ask Mingbao to bring it to you tomorrow,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“Okay,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle.
w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle and his wife invited w.a.n.g Yao and w.a.n.g Mingbao to stay for lunch, but w.a.n.g Yao declined.
After w.a.n.g Yao and w.a.n.g Mingbao had left, w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle and his wife could talk about w.a.n.g Yao.
“I remember Yao used to study biology in college. Since when has he learned medicine?” asked w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle’s wife.
“He not only knows about medicine, but I also heard he’s very good at it too,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle.
“Who did you hear it from?” asked his wife.
“My brother, Mingbao’s dad,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle.
…
“How is my uncle’s disease?” asked w.a.n.g Mingbao after they had left his uncle’s house.
“Not too bad,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
His disease was not too difficult to treat. It was considered a common disease; maybe it was a bit difficult to other inexperienced doctors.
“That’s good,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao.
“I’ll go back and brew the decoction for him. You can come take it tomorrow,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“Sounds good,” said w.a.n.g Mingbao.
After w.a.n.g Yao had returned to the village, he was going to go back to Nanshan hill straight away but was stopped by his mother who heard the sound of his car engine.
“What have you been doing on the hill?” asked Zhang Xiuying as soon as she saw her son.
“Why do you ask?” w.a.n.g Yao was confused.
“Your elder Jianguo came this morning. He said he felt dizzy when he was looking at the trees in front of your cottage. His blood pressure soared after this, which really scare him. So what is going on?” asked Zhang Xiuying.
w.a.n.g Yao immediately knew what his mother was talking about. It must be due to the hallucinatory embattlement he set off. The person affected was an old man. He could already be weak and became weaker after being affected by the hallucinatory embattle.
“Maybe he is allergic to some of my herbs?” said w.a.n.g Yao.
w.a.n.g Yao rarely had visitors on Nanshan hill. He had an incident related to the hallucinatory embattlement, so he stopped setting it off when he was on the hill. It was just an accident.
“Allergic?” asked Zhang Xiuying.
“Probably. I have grown a lot of herbs in the field. Some of the herbs have special scents, while some spread pollen. Now is the worst season of the year for people who are easily allergic to plants,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“Will you be allergic to any of your herbs?” asked Zhang Xiuying. She spontaneously thought of her own children.
“No, I’ve gotten used to it. I won’t be affected,” said w.a.n.g Yao with a smile.
“Okay, that’s good,” said Zhang Xiuying.
“If there is nothing else, I’ll leave now,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“It’s almost time for lunch; stay and eat something,” suggested Zhang Xiuying.
“Okay,” said w.a.n.g Yao, who looked at his watch. It was almost 11 am.
“By the way, your uncle said they are going to keep the baby, no matter if it is a girl or boy,” said Zhang Xiuying while having lunch.
“Great! They are doing the right thing!” said w.a.n.g Yao with a smile.
“Your grandma also got better after taking the herbs you gave her,” said Zhang Xiuying.
“That’s good,” said w.a.n.g Yao with a smile.
w.a.n.g Yao returned to Nanshan hill after lunch. On his way up to the hill, he kept thinking about his hallucinatory embattlement.
The hallucinatory embattlement was supposed to make people hallucinate. If someone with heart disease or high blood pressure got affected by the hallucinatory embattlement and fell outside his herbal field, it would bring him trouble.
Is there a better way to keep people out of the herbal field?
w.a.n.g Yao arrived at his herbal field and entered the field after removing the stones, disarming the embattlement. The effect of the embattlement immediately disappeared.
Caw! Caw!
Woof! Woof!
Da Xia and San Xian seemed to be talking about something.
w.a.n.g Yao went closer to take a look and found that Da Xia caught a snake from G.o.d knows where. It looked like Da Xia wanted to share the snake with San Xian. But San Xian had never had snake before, so he didn’t know how to deal with it.
Woof! Woof! Woof! San Xian barked as he saw w.a.n.g Yao come along. He pointed at the dead snake on the ground with his paw.
“What? Do you want me to throw the snake on the barbecue? You’d better not to eat this, leave it to Da Xia,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
Wait! Snake?
w.a.n.g Yao’s eyes brightened up as he was looking at the dead snake on the ground.
If there were snakes nearby, people would stay away from the herbal field. Even fewer people would approach his herbal field.
This was a way to keep people away from his herbal field. But where could w.a.n.g Yao get a snake, which could be as smart as Da Xia and San Xian? Otherwise, a dumb snake could attack his friends. It was not going to be a simple task for w.a.n.g Yao.
I need to think of something else.
In fact, after w.a.n.g Yao had planted quite a few trees including small bushes with thorns at the entrance of the herbal field, mostly no one came close to his herbal field, except for some extremely unusual reasons. What happened in the morning was purely an accident.
After entering the cottage, w.a.n.g Yao doc.u.mented w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle’s disease first, then wrote down his treatment plan.
He picked up some herbs according to an ancient formula. All the herbs were from his herbal field. Those herbs had the function of cooling the blood and removing heat toxins. He also picked a licorice root.
The licorice root was called pear gra.s.s. It looked like wormwood, and its flowers were red. The function of pear gra.s.s was to heal ulcers.
He had planted the pear gra.s.s a long time ago, so they were fully grown. w.a.n.g Yao didn’t use a lot of pear gra.s.s; he just picked up two leaves from the plant.
w.a.n.g Yao also fetched a small amount of ancient spring water. Then, he heated the spring water and added the herbs into the water. A moment later, a decoction had been made.
w.a.n.g Yao had finished brewing the decoction.
He received a phone call when he was having dinner at home in the late afternoon. It was Zhou Xiong who called. Zhou Xiong asked if w.a.n.g Yao was at home because he wanted to visit w.a.n.g Yao urgently. Zhou Xiong arrived at w.a.n.g Yao’s house 20 minutes later with a middle-aged man who looked similar to Zhou Xiong. The man was Zhou Xiong’s cousin. His name was Zhou Ying.
The purpose of Zhou Xiong and Zhou Ying’s visit was to invite w.a.n.g Yao to see a patient in Cangzhou.
“Cangzhou?” w.a.n.g Yao hesitated.
“Please! Dr. w.a.n.g! I’m begging you! I’m afraid my uncle will lose his life if you don’t see him in time!” Zhou Xiong looked anxious.
Cangzhou was not too far from Lianshan. It was just over 300 kilometers away from Lianshan. It would take w.a.n.g Yao between six and seven hours to arrive there by car.
“Nothing is more important than saving someone’s life, you should go,” said w.a.n.g Yao’s mother. Zhang Xiuying had seen Zhou Xiong and his son several times. She liked both of them.
“Okay, I’ll go,” agreed w.a.n.g Yao.
Before he drove to Cangzhou, he left the decoction for w.a.n.g Mingbao’s uncle at home and wrote down the dosage. He also set off the five-line illusion on Nanshan hill and asked his parents not to go anywhere near the herbal field. Then, he left with Zhou Xiong and Zhou Ying at night. Zhou Xiong prepared a luxury car for w.a.n.g Yao, which was very comfortable.
“Thank you so much! I’m sorry for bothering you,” Zhou Xiong kept apologizing on their way to Cangzhou.
Thanks to w.a.n.g Yao, Zhou Xiong’s son had gotten much better. Zhou Xiong hadn’t had a chance to thank w.a.n.g Yao before asking another favor from him. He actually wouldn’t be surprised if w.a.n.g Yao refused to go to Cangzhou.
On the other side, w.a.n.g Yao agreed to go because he thought Zhou Xiong was worth his friends.h.i.+p and Zhou Xiong was a reliable and honest person.
Zhou Xiong’s cousin didn’t talk much on the way, although he had expressed his grat.i.tude to w.a.n.g Yao.
“I can see your uncle, but I can’t guarantee to cure him. And I think you know my rule,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“Yes, my cousin and his father won’t mention you to anyone else,” said Zhou Xiong.
“That’s good,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
Zhou Ying drove the car really fast. They arrived at Cangzhou at 1 am. Cangzhou was Zhou Xiong’s hometown. They settled inside the village.
It was the middle of the night. Apart from the street lights, only a few households still had lights on. The road in the middle of the village was quite wide. Various vehicles were parked along the road. It seemed that there were quite a few wealthy people living in this village. w.a.n.g Yao saw many luxury cars along the road. Their car stopped outside the front yard of a big house.
“This is my uncle’s house. Let me tell them of our arrival. Please wait a minute,” said Zhou Xiong.
Zhou Xiong got out of the car and entered the house. He came out about ten minutes later, followed by his father.
“h.e.l.lo, Dr. w.a.n.g! Thank you so much for coming!” said Zhou Xiong’s father.
“You are welcome. Let me see the patient first,” said w.a.n.g Yao.
“Okay, please follow me,” said Zhou Xiong’ father.
w.a.n.g Yao followed Zhou Xiong, his father, and Zhou Ying to enter the front yard. The front yard was quite big, with flowers and trees planted. There were also two wooden dummies and a row of cold weapons in the yard.