This Doctor Is Too Wealthy

Du Heng moved quickly. After speaking, he completely pulled the clothes off Du Ping’s shoulder, took a bit of his homemade ’blood activating ointment,’ and began to apply it to Du Ping’s shoulder. Then, using the most orthodox technique, he gave his big brother a massage.

The process was quite lengthy, so long that their Sister-in-law started to urge Du Heng impatiently to finish.

However, by this time, although Du Ping still felt some slight discomfort, he could already sit and lie down normally and had no problem picking up chopsticks to eat by himself.

His Sister-in-law glanced at Du Ping, who was holding his rice bowl, and said with a chuckle, ”Xiao Heng’s skill is really not just talk. This craftsmanship is flawless. When he first came back, your brother looked like he was on death’s door. Forget moving; I thought he was about to stop breathing. I didn’t expect you to fix him up so well after all that tinkering!”

The word ”tinkering” was used quite ingeniously.

Du Heng couldn’t help but glance back at his big brother, their eyes meeting. Du Heng gave a dry laugh and quickly lowered his head to eat.

The treatment for his big brother was undoubtedly very effective. In just about twenty minutes, not only had the dislocated shoulder been put back, but even the rib pain from the qi deviation had mostly subsided. However, the treatment methods he used today had made his big brother suffer greatly; the pain seemed no less intense than his original injury. Especially the bone-setting reduction, that must have made his big brother’s heart pound. And the guasha on his side ribs could be said to have turned an internal injury into an external one. Du Heng knew without looking that by tomorrow morning, the skin on his big brother’s side ribs would definitely be purplish. But external injuries were, after all, a bit easier to manage and recover from than internal ones. The only question now was to what extent the guasha could alleviate the rib pain.

The Sister-in-law jokingly teased the two brothers, but Du Heng didn’t dare say a word. He quickly finished his meal, picked up Du Yi, and returned to the small bedroom.

At first, Du Yi’s sounds of resistance could be heard, but after a short while, they turned into the babble of recitation.

「The next morning」

Du Heng, having escaped an ordeal, slept soundly. When he got up the next morning to go to work, he saw Du Ping, who had risen early and already returned from feeding the sheep.

After a night’s rest, Du Ping’s simmering anger had somewhat subsided, but his gaze towards Du Heng was still very unfriendly. Especially his right arm, still held half-suspended, told Du Heng what the issue was.

However, Du Heng was used to being mischievous with his big brother. Even though he was thirty, he was still the same, smiling cheekily as he asked, ”Bro, when you’re working, does that spot where you had the qi deviation still hurt?”

Du Ping shot an annoyed glance at this younger brother he had practically raised. ”It hurts a little, but it doesn’t affect my work. It’s just the area where you did the guasha; I think the skin might be broken, and it hurts a bit if my arm touches it.”

Hearing his brother say this, Du Heng immediately understood. ”It’s fine. For the area you scraped, just apply some of that whole body divine ointment I gave you the other day. That stuff has the effect of activating blood, reducing inflammation, and promoting tissue regeneration. I guarantee it won’t hurt by tonight.”

Du Ping nodded. ”Alright, I’ll apply some later. The things you make are indeed good.” He turned and took a couple of steps, then suddenly turned back. ”Your Sister-in-law has really prominent blue veins on her calves. Do you know what’s going on?”

Blue veins?

Du Heng paused for a moment, then glanced towards the kitchen where his Sister-in-law was busy making breakfast for everyone.

Without a second thought, Du Heng headed for the kitchen. In his heart, his Sister-in-law had always filled the role of a mother. He could tease his big brother, get into squabbles with him, even argue with him, but he would never behave that way with his Sister-in-law.

Entering the kitchen, the busy Sister-in-law looked at the two brothers with some confusion. ”What are you two doing in here? Hurry up, wash your faces and brush your teeth. Breakfast is almost ready.”

Du Heng didn’t respond to Zhang Sumei’s words but asked directly, ”Sister-in-law, my brother said you have blue veins on your calves. Let me take a look, what’s going on?”

Zhang Sumei shot a glare at Du Ping, who was behind them, then smiled at Du Heng. ”It’s nothing, it doesn’t hurt or itch.”

”Sister-in-law, please pull up your pant leg. Let me see the situation,” Du Heng insisted, his tone firm.

Zhang Sumei glanced at the pot that was about to boil, then at the resolute Du Heng. She slowly pulled up her pant leg, revealing her entire calf.

Du Heng looked down and saw two dark, bluish-black veins bulging prominently on her calf, like two small snakes coiled there.

Varicose veins.

Du Heng let out a quiet sigh of relief; it wasn’t a major problem. He then explained to his brother and Sister-in-law what varicose veins were.

Du Ping and his wife listened intently. But when Du Heng mentioned medication, Du Ping immediately asked, ”Didn’t the guasha you performed on me last night have a great blood-activating effect? Can it be used for your Sister-in-law’s condition?”

Du Heng smiled. ”Of course. Guasha has the effects of regulating qi and promoting circulation, activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis, relaxing tendons and clearing meridians, expelling pathogenic factors, and detoxification. For your Sister-in-law’s this...”

Speaking up to this point, Du Heng suddenly froze.

He finally understood what had been stirring in his mind last night.

Traditional Chinese medicine historically had six fundamental arts: stone therapy, massage, needling, moxibustion, cupping, and conduction exercises. These had evolved into the current six major therapies: acupuncture (which now often includes moxibustion), cupping, herbal medicine, guasha, massage, and conduction exercises.

Was there much difference between the two sets? Actually, not a great deal. In the past, needling and moxibustion were separate, but now people were accustomed to combining them as acupuncture. Through the efforts of many past masters, herbal medicine had been promoted and had risen to become one of the six major therapies. The original stone therapy had gradually fallen out of common use, but guasha, being the essence of that ancient therapy, was listed separately. Regardless of the specific classification, the general content was consistent and widely recognized.

The only therapy that drew some contention was conduction exercise. According to traditional Chinese medicine theory, conduction exercise was divided into two parts. One part was what people generally called physical exercise, such as the commonly known Eight Brocades and Five Animal Frolics, all of which could be classified under conduction exercises. As for the other part, that had become a societal laughingstock and target of criticism—qigong. It was precisely this ’qigong’ component of conduction exercises that, in the 1990s, spawned many charlatans, and it was these fraudsters who successfully turned ’qigong’ into a byword for trickery. The most tragic figure was the leader of his former leader’s leader, who had made national headlines.

Currently, those who believed in the traditional Chinese medicine theory of ’qi’ thought that during the transmission of TCM, the qigong aspect of conduction exercises had been lost. Those who didn’t believe in traditional Chinese medicine argued that ’qigong’ was something concocted by the ancient TCM practitioners to deceive people, thereby further dismissing traditional Chinese medicine itself as worthless.

However, all these considerations were irrelevant to Du Heng at this moment. He had finally remembered: he should try guasha on Wu Shengnan.

The conditions for guasha treatment are not as broad as for acupuncture and Decoction medicine, and can even be described as somewhat stringent. For example, in Wu Shengnan’s current situation, applying the associative method by scraping other areas would offer no help to the ischemia in her toes. But if one were to perform guasha directly on the affected area, on Wu Shengnan’s foot with its dead-looking skin, Du Heng believed no one would dare apply the guasha board. Even a guasha expert wouldn’t dare. The moment a guasha board was placed on Wu Shengnan’s instep or sole and scraped, never mind whether it could truly achieve promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, the skin on her foot would be scraped right off. Moreover, as the guasha board moved, the blood vessels and nerves in Wu Shengnan’s foot would undoubtedly suffer varying degrees of damage. So, the end result would be that blood circulation wouldn’t be activated, stasis wouldn’t disperse, and her foot would be ruined even before necrosis could set in.

But! Guasha was now Wu Shengnan’s only hope, the only hope of saving her toes.

Du Ping and his wife looked at Du Heng, who had suddenly fallen silent, both a bit bewildered. They didn’t know what was wrong with him; he’d been talking normally and then suddenly seemed dazed.

”Xiao Heng, what’s wrong?” Zhang Sumei carefully waved a hand in front of Du Heng’s eyes, hoping to get his attention.

Du Heng wasn’t in some kind of meditative trance described in Wuxia novels; a question had just suddenly occurred to him, and his mind was still clear. Hearing his Sister-in-law, he quickly smiled and said, ”I’m fine, Sister-in-law. I haven’t encountered a situation like yours for guasha before. Let me think about it properly, and I’ll tell you when I get back tonight.”

”Alright, alright, you take your time and think. No rush.” Glancing at the pot that was now boiling, Zhang Sumei quickly added, ”Okay, you two go wash your faces and brush your teeth. Breakfast is almost ready.”

Du Heng nodded with an ”Mm,” and walked towards the main room.

Of the six therapies of traditional Chinese medicine, Du Heng had already used three on Wu Shengnan: acupuncture, Decoction medicine, and massage. And Du Heng believed he had pushed these three therapies to their absolute limits. Even if a Famous Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor were here, Du Heng was confident enough to say this.

As for fire cupping, even though his line of thinking had broadened, the idea merely flashed past. He gave it no further consideration; it was useless now, completely inapplicable.

As for conduction exercise—specifically qigong—Du Heng himself was also perplexed. He believed in the existence of ’qi’ and had applied this concept in many of his disease records for syndrome differentiation and treatment. But as for ’qigong,’ even he, an insider, was skeptical. Besides, even if ’qigong’ did exist, he didn’t possess such an ability; knowing the theory wouldn’t be enough.

So, guasha had now become Wu Shengnan’s only option.

But how to perform the guasha? This truly stumped Du Heng. This problem made his head ache. He thought about it during his meal, while driving, and even after arriving at the Health Clinic and entering his office.

Today was the eighth day of the first lunar month, and the Health Clinic had officially reopened. He had a meeting that morning and couldn’t go to Wu Shengnan immediately, so he asked Li Jianwei to perform the morning acupuncture and massage therapy.

He would use this time to ponder the problem further.