Chapter 101: The Patient Who Suddenly Fainted

Wang Huawen and Zhou Luyang exchanged a glance. Zhou Luyang set down his wineglass and walked over to where Lu Feng and Zhou Fuqu were standing, while Wang Huawen kept handing grilled meatballs to a male classmate Zhou Fuqu had invited.

Zhou Luyang reached them and burst out with a hearty laugh. “Dr. Lu, why aren’t you eating? Is it because the spread isn’t to your taste?”

Lu Feng and Zhou Luyang were not very familiar with each other, nor could their relationship be called good, but since the other man had taken the initiative to greet him, Lu Feng still had to respond politely. “It’s quite good. I already ate quite a bit earlier.”

“Ah, I know.” Zhou Luyang grinned. “You just haven’t found anyone you click with yet. Perfect timing—I’ll introduce someone to you.”

He pointed to the returnee he had brought over. “Zeng Jian, doctorate in medicine from the University of California, United States. We’re all in medicine, so you two must have plenty to talk about.”

Zeng Jian gave Lu Feng a perfunctory smile and pushed up his glasses. “Just call me Zeng. I heard Dr. Lu works at a wellness center?”

There was a faint note of sarcasm in that remark. Purely in terms of where one worked, a doctor at a wellness center certainly sounded less impressive than a doctor at a hospital.

Lu Feng had never been very sociable before, but he still caught the sarcasm in the man’s words. With a slight smile, he replied, “The wellness center is just one of the chain businesses under Yun’an. I’m currently working at Yun’an Clinic.”

“Doctor Lu, to be honest, traditional Chinese medicine has already declined,” Zeng Jian said, making his words sound deliberately foreign, as if to emphasize his status as someone who had studied abroad. “You’re gambling your life on a field that’s fallen into obscurity.”

“Traditional Chinese medicine has never declined,” Lu Feng shot back without yielding. “It’s only that people living at the bottom of a well can’t see its greatness.”

“Really?” Zeng Jian snorted. “I think you’ve got the one at the bottom of the well mixed up. In terms of Western surgical medicine alone, Chinese medicine can’t compare. A brain tumor grows in someone’s head—can Chinese medicine cure that? All it can do is prescribe a few formulas and trick patients out of their money.”

Every sentence out of his mouth was laced with that foreign-sounding jargon, and Lu Feng found it thoroughly nauseating.

Lu Feng had never studied English. To him, that strange language was utterly absurd. He knew all twenty-six letters, but once they were scrambled together, they became completely unrecognizable.

He could only shake his head and laugh coldly at the man’s claims. “More than eighteen hundred years ago, there was a renowned physician with superb skill who devoted himself to treating poor commoners and was deeply loved by the people. At that time, in the Central Plains, there was a powerful warlord who held the emperor in his grasp and commanded the feudal lords by his authority. That warlord suffered from a disease of the head. As he grew older, it only worsened. With every attack, his mind became chaotic, his vision spun, and the pain in his head was unbearable. All the physicians who treated him had little effect. Later, he heard that there was a divine doctor among the common folk, so he summoned him for treatment. The divine doctor told the warlord that the root of his condition was something called ‘wind phlegm,’ growing inside the brain. Only after taking a certain anesthetic and then splitting open the skull with a sharp axe could it be removed and the illness cured completely. The warlord was always deeply suspicious and believed the divine doctor intended to harm him, so he ordered the man killed...”

Lu Feng paused there, then went on, “I think even if you’ve been spouting foreign words nonstop, you should have heard of that divine doctor. His name was Hua Tuo, and that warlord was of course Cao Cao. In the year 208 AD, Chinese medicine already had records of craniotomy. I’m rather curious—by then, how far had Western surgery progressed?”

Once that story was told, Zeng Jian was left speechless, but he still insisted, “What good is past glory? If it’s declined, then it’s declined.”

Lu Feng said firmly, “Traditional Chinese medicine has never declined. It only shines in places ordinary people cannot see.”

“Ha.” Zeng Jian let out a contemptuous laugh.

Just then, crackling noises came from the barbecue grill, followed by a woman’s shriek.

“Someone has fainted!”

When Lu Feng and Zhou Fuqu heard that someone had collapsed, they hurried over to check the situation. Zhou Luyang and Zeng Jian followed behind at once.

“Guo Yanzhi! Guo Yanzhi, what’s wrong?” Zhou Fuqu recognized the man who had fainted as one of her high school classmates and cried out anxiously.

“Move aside, make some room. We’ve got two top doctors here—what’s there to be afraid of?” Zhou Luyang loudly urged the onlookers to clear back a little.

Lu Feng and Zeng Jian crouched on either side of Guo Yanzhi, neither of them speaking, and each began examining the patient.

One of them pried open one of Guo Yanzhi’s eyelids and confirmed that he had gone into shock. Although his heart was still beating and his breathing was faintly present, he needed immediate treatment.

“How is he?” Zhou Fuqu was extremely anxious. Between Lu Feng and Zeng Jian, she trusted Lu Feng’s medical skill more, and asked hurriedly, “He was my high school classmate, Lu Feng. Please, you have to save him!”

Lu Feng nodded without speaking, taking Guo Yanzhi’s wrist to feel his pulse.

Guo Yanzhi looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six, of average build, a little overweight, and wearing glasses.

After finishing his examination, Zeng Jian was the first to look up with a smile. “I’ve made my diagnosis. What about you, Dr. Lu?”

Zhou Fuqu was quite anxious. After all, the man had been invited by her, and he was also an old classmate, so she didn’t care who treated him as long as he could be saved. She asked quickly, “What illness does he have? Shouldn’t we rush him to the hospital right away?”

The city hospital was at least an hour away. If this was an acute emergency, an hour would be enough to die many times over. So with a doctor already on site, taking him straight to the hospital was not the best choice.

Lu Feng had already reached his diagnosis as well. Without lifting his head, he asked directly, “Do you have acupuncture tools and medicinal herbs here?”

“Yes.” Zhou Fuqu nodded at once.

“I need the full set, not just the needles. I also need moxibustion tools.”

Zhou Fuqu nodded again. “Yes, we do. Grandpa had been ill for more than half a year, so we stocked quite a lot of herbs at the estate.”

Hearing Lu Feng ask directly for acupuncture tools, Zeng Jian frowned. “Wait. Have you even made a diagnosis? You’re already about to start treatment. If you treat the wrong thing, you could kill someone.”

Lu Feng looked at him. “I never joke with a patient’s life.”

“Heh. Are you sure traditional Chinese medicine can treat this condition? Don’t misdiagnose him and end up making a fatal blunder. That would be bad.” Zeng Jian smiled as he spoke.

Lu Feng ignored him and turned to Zhou Fuqu. “Bring me the acupuncture set, especially moxa sticks. Also bring paper and a pen.”

Zhou Fuqu hurriedly sent someone to fetch the acupuncture tools, along with paper and pen.

“Quite the act, aren’t you?” Zeng Jian sneered. “This man isn’t going to die in the next minute or two, but if he’s delayed too long, there will still be serious trouble. The most likely outcome is renal failure, and it could even lead to death. Are you sure you can bear that responsibility?”

Without saying a word, Lu Feng continued pressing and kneading the acupoints on the slightly plump Guo Yanzhi, helping to move his qi and blood while waiting for the acupuncture tools to be brought over.

At that moment, Wang Huawen stepped forward and suggested, “Since both of you are top doctors, why not compete? See who can cure the patient and prove who’s better. That way we won’t keep arguing over whether Chinese medicine or Western medicine is superior.”

“Great idea!” Zeng Jian agreed immediately. “It’s just not clear whether Dr. Lu dares to take it on.”