Medical Sage

”Losing isn’t scary! What’s terrifying is not even knowing how you lost, or not wanting to win in the first place! Huaxia is so vast and its population so numerous. Can we really not find a single person to crush the schemes of those South Koreans? Of course not. It’s nothing more than a difference in philosophy, or a simple reluctance to stoop to the level of those shameless people! But a nation is a nation, and we absolutely cannot let those foreigners mock our great Huaxia! What do you think, kid?”

Given Old Master Xuu’s status, such ’trivial matters’ were beneath his notice. But he just couldn’t accept it. Our great Huaxia! Our traditional medicine is the crystallization of millennia of wisdom from our ancestors. When did it become your place, you shameless clown, to be so presumptuous and audacious? To claim it as your own?

”Grandpa Xuu, rest assured. I, Chen Fei, might be a bit of a scoundrel, but I’m not about to stand by and watch those punks from a tiny nation walk all over Huaxia! And Korean Medicine? What a joke. Since those shameless people refuse to acknowledge that their medical techniques originated from our traditional Chinese medicine, then fine! Our traditional Chinese medicine disdains to acknowledge such worthless disciples! You want a competition? Then I, Chen Fei, will grant your wish!”

A cold, mocking light flashed in Chen Fei’s dark, clear eyes as he slowly said, ”Aunt Xuu, could you help me make some arrangements? Count me in for the Huaxia-South Korea medical skills competition. Put me down as the third contestant.”

”Mr. Chen, you want to get involved personally? Of course! No problem at all, I’ll get on it right away!” Hearing this, Xuu Peiyi’s face lit up with joy as she spoke excitedly. As the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health, she had full authority over this matter. Arranging a competition slot for Chen Fei was a piece of cake for her, something she could handle in minutes.

Besides, even now, Xuu Peiyi didn’t fully comprehend who Mr. Chen was or just how formidable his medical skills were. However, she had seen some telling clues. Elder Xunn Lun himself had been helpless to treat her father’s condition back then, even pronouncing a death sentence. Yet later, in Mr. Chen’s hands, her father was miraculously revived and restored to health.

Even if Mr. Chen’s medical skills weren’t necessarily superior to Elder Xunn Lun’s, they were at least on the same level! And who was Elder Xunn Lun? He was the Master of the Medical Sage Hall, the top medical department of the Republic! He was fully worthy of being called a modern-day Hua Tuo or Bian Que, a Peerless national hand. In the entire country, the number of people whose medical skills could compare to his probably wouldn’t exceed the fingers on one hand! What did this imply?

It meant that if Mr. Chen was willing to make a move, then those disgusting South Koreans, no matter how shameless or cunning, would just be wasting their efforts on a futile task! After all, in the face of absolute power, what use were clever schemes and crooked tricks? They would only serve to make them a laughingstock.

At this thought, Xuu Peiyi couldn’t even be bothered to eat. She turned to Chen Fei and said, ”Then it’s settled, Mr. Chen! I’ll go start the preparations right now.”

”What’s the hurry? Are you afraid this kid will run off? Eat first,” Old Master Xuu called out.

”Dad, this is important! I don’t have any appetite right now. I’m leaving,” But Xuu Peiyi was a woman of action. Forgetting her meal, she grabbed her handbag from the side and hurried out the door.

”That girl...” Seeing this, Old Master Xuu could only shake his head helplessly. He turned his gaze to Chen Fei and said, ”Kid, the honor of our Republic’s doctors is all riding on you this time! Don’t you let me and Old Xun down.”

”Don’t worry, Grandpa Xuu. This time, I’ll make sure those shameless and arrogant South Korean punks lose all face! If they don’t lose so utterly that they are convinced of their defeat, I’ll write my name, Chen Fei, backward,” Chen Fei declared, patting his chest with resolute confidence. It was clear that in his eyes, the so-called South Korean punks and their Korean Medicine were nothing worth mentioning.

「」

Just as Xuu Peiyi had said, Chen Fei casually searched online after dinner and found the news about the Sino-Korean medical competition. The first match had ended in a loss for Huaxia’s Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. The internet was in an uproar, with forums like Douban, Mop, Tianya, and Renren, as well as major Weibo platforms like Sina and Tencent, absolutely exploding.

As the great nation of Huaxia, the very cradle and source of traditional Chinese medicine, to suffer the first loss in an internationally televised competition against so-called Korean Medicine—against the South Korean punks! How could this not cause a massive stir? How could it not provoke anger and disappointment?

An influential account with millions of followers commented: ”This is a farce! And the reputation of all the people of Huaxia has to pay the price. If we truly can’t even defeat a practitioner of Korean Medicine, what right do our traditional Chinese medicine doctors have to beat their chests and boast that they are the origin, the ancestor, of Korean Medicine? This is nothing but self-inflicted humiliation!”

Another, slightly more rational influencer, also commented: ”Losing one match is nothing. But if we really lose all three, wouldn’t that prove that in our great Huaxia, there is no one?”

Next, a well-known part-time internet streamer from the Traditional Medicine industry posted an analysis: ”From the perspective of our country’s entire Traditional Medicine Community, the so-called Korean Medicine simply cannot compare to ours. This is evident from the fact that Song Jinhu—hailed as South Korea’s number one doctor in Korean Medicine and winner of their highest medical achievement award—has lost multiple times in duels against several of our respected and eminent traditional Chinese medicine masters.”

”This time, however, the Korean Medicine side played a trick. They didn’t dare compete with our revered and highly skilled masters. Instead, they made excuses to send out their younger generation. This is because in recent years, their younger generation of Korean Medicine practitioners does have someone named Jin Bingying who is very impressive. His attainments in Korean Medicine are astonishing for his young age, and he can already stand shoulder-to-shoulder with many of their masters. That’s why they were so confident this time, daring to stage this drama before the world’s media! It was premeditated!”

But even though this analysis was well-reasoned, the netizens weren’t buying it. A formidable young Korean Medicine practitioner? So what? South Korea has one, but Huaxia doesn’t? Huaxia is so vast and populous, we could easily overwhelm those shameless and disgusting South Korean punks with sheer numbers alone. In that case, how could we not find a single young traditional Chinese medicine doctor more skilled than their best?

That’s just how people are. In real life, things might be calmer, but online, especially when national honor and pride are at stake, some people’s mouths become fiercer than anyone else’s. They engage in all sorts of grandstanding, passionate rhetoric, and condescending lectures. In short, they can’t tolerate a single grain of sand in their eye; if they disapprove of something, they just rage, rage, rage! People like this are commonly known as ”super keyboard warriors.”

Of course, while the rants of these keyboard warriors were sometimes baseless and completely nonsensical, their initial intentions were good. It was patriotism.

This so-called Korean Medicine from a tiny nation—how many years has it even been recognized by the world? Not to mention, four or five hundred years ago, the so-called ancestors of those punks were probably still diligently serving as apprentices to our forefathers in Huaxia. So no matter how impressive they act now, how could they possibly be better than their masters? They might as well be daydreaming. They’re thinking too highly of themselves.

But just then, a discordant voice appeared on Weibo.

The user’s profile picture was a fair-skinned pretty boy. He was a South Korean named Min Jungsoo with millions of followers, and many people, especially the youth, recognized him. He had starred in a youth idol drama in South Korea at the beginning of the year that became a huge hit in China, with extremely high online viewership. He had apparently also been a singer and a member of a South Korean boy band.

He wrote on Weibo: ”Hello everyone, I am Min Jungsoo. Jin Bingying is a very impressive Korean Medicine doctor from our Republic of Korea, with brilliant medical skills! He’s also very handsome. Even our country’s number one Korean Medicine doctor, Mr. Song Jinhu, highly affirms his medical skills and his looks. So, to all my fans, please support him and cheer him on!”

”Wow!”

”Min Jungsoo, I love you.”

”Wow! So handsome, so handsome.”

”Husband, husband! Min Jungsoo, you’re the husband of my life!”

”Min Jungsoo is also really handsome, we’ll definitely support him! Hang in there, Min Jungsoo!”

”What rubbish Traditional Medicine, it’s definitely not as good as Korean Medicine. Min Jungsoo is so handsome.”

”Support Zhongsu, support Bingying! Those traditional doctors in our country are just fakes who put on an act to rip us off! They’re definitely not as good as Korean Medicine.”

Min Jungsoo’s single post triggered countless responses! Of course, they were all from his brain-dead fans.

Although many keyboard warriors in the country despised their own representatives for losing the first match so disgracefully, this was still an internal affair. What business was it of this punk? A punk leading a bunch of our country’s obsessive fans to insult Huaxia’s traditional medicine? Screw you!

Upon learning of this, an extremely famous and fiery-tempered titan of the Traditional Medicine Community, a veritable Mount Tai Beidou, had his disciple immediately post a response on Weibo: ”I admit your Korean Medicine has done well in recent years. I also admit that your ancestors learned some superficial skills back when they were in our Huaxia, made some slight modifications, and then shamelessly passed them off as your own. I admit all that! But even so, do you really think your piddling tricks amount to anything? The number one doctor of Korean Medicine in the Republic of Korea? Pfft! Song Jinhu, I, Lu Hao, am laying down the challenge right here, right now. How about we compete again? If you can win even one round against me, I’ll count it as your victory. How about it?”

This Doctor Lu Hao was a true Mount Tai Beidou of traditional medicine in the country, with medical skills that even surpassed Elder Du’s by a notch! Song Jinhu had challenged him to a best-of-five competition on three separate occasions and lost every single time, without winning a single match! That’s why Dr. Lu had the confidence to issue such a challenge! It also allowed the Huaxia netizens, who had been bottling up their frustration, to finally feel a sense of catharsis!

”Lu Lao is mighty!”

”These South Korean punks are just a bunch of cowards! The old ones don’t dare to show up, so they send the young ones as cannon fodder?”

”Lu Lao is domineering and mighty! What ’number one Korean Medicine doctor in the Republic of Korea,’ pfft. Who knows how many times he’s lost in Huaxia, yet they still have the nerve to brag about him. They’re punks, alright. Something must be wrong with their brains.”

”That’s right! Min Jungsoo? More like Min Pig, right? What a clown!”

”Who do you think you are?! Go back to South Korea!”

”Sharing a platform like Weibo with this kind of South Korean punk is an insult to my intelligence! I strongly demand that the officials ban this son of a bitch’s account!”

”Seconded!”

”+1!”

”Ban him! Ban him! Ban him...”

As the saying goes, the combat power of keyboard warriors is truly infinite.

Within a couple of hours at most, the official xx Weibo account had received a ’joint petition written in blood’ from at least several million real ID accounts! The backlash was fierce!

Either ban the Weibo account of that South Korean punk Min Jungsoo, or they would all collectively uninstall xx Weibo! And as time went on, the number of people signing the petition continued to surge like a volcanic eruption!

Suddenly, xx Weibo could no longer sit still.