This Doctor Is Too Wealthy

”Alright, let’s go and have a look now.” Wang Qingpeng understood that his earlier self-deprecating remark had inadvertently cut the conversation short. This was because anything Du Heng might say would likely make people uncomfortable. Realizing this, Wang Qingpeng smoothly changed the topic and led Du Heng to the Traditional Chinese Medicine Internal Medicine Department’s wards.

”These ten patients were all transferred to our department yesterday morning and have all been placed under Doctor Guan’s care. However, since Doctor Guan suddenly became like this, the department temporarily divided the patients between me and Xiaowan.”

As Wang Qingpeng explained to Du Heng, he introduced each patient one by one.

However, listening to Wang Qingpeng’s introductions, Du Heng couldn’t muster much enthusiasm.

After examining several patients, Du Heng found they were mostly common ailments. These conditions had dragged on for so long they had become stubborn issues, leading to their transfer to the Chinese Medicine Department. They were certainly difficult, indeed tricky to treat. But he had encountered these symptoms, more or less, during his three months of consultations at Provincial First Hospital. Although there were differences, the distinctions were truly limited.

At his current level, Du Heng felt treating these patients wouldn’t be particularly challenging, though the recovery period for most would be quite long.

However, this was Du Heng’s assessment. In Wang Qingpeng’s telling, these diseases became extremely complicated conditions.

Take this forty-year-old woman before them, for instance, who had suffered from recurrent mouth ulcers for over a year.

She had tried Western anti-inflammatory drugs, which initially provided some relief but eventually became ineffective.

She had also consulted traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. Initially, she was diagnosed with excess stomach heat and received treatment to reduce it. Later, she was treated for spleen stomach imbalance, and then diagnosed with spleen and stomach qi deficiency, for which she received qi tonics and stomach-balancing therapies.

However, none of these had worked.

After listening to Wang Qingpeng’s explanation and taking the patient’s pulse, Du Heng diagnosed her with spleen-stomach damp-heat. He prescribed a modified Sweet Dew Drink aimed at clearing heat and promoting dampness.

Du Heng estimated that three doses of the medicine would show results, and ten doses would eradicate the root cause.

He casually flipped through the woman’s disease record and found that another doctor had previously made the same diagnosis and prescribed the Sweet Dew Drink.

However, that doctor had made a common mistake, similar to those Du Heng had seen from doctors in Jinzhou, or even Li Jianwei himself. That doctor had only slightly adjusted the dosage of the original prescription, failing to add or subtract components based on the patient’s specific condition.

As a result, when the woman took the prescribed medicine, its effects were slow, and she developed symptoms of a dry throat.

This occurred because the previous doctor’s diagnosis was incomplete. That doctor had only identified the guest heat in the patient’s stomach and the dampness in her spleen and stomach, but had failed to diagnose her kidney yin deficiency.

Consequently, the singular focus on heat-clearing and damp-draining treatments had actually exacerbated her kidney yin deficiency.

Du Heng then advised Wang Qingpeng to increase the dosage of raw rehmannia and prepared rehmannia to nourish the stomach and kidney yin qi. He also suggested adding alismatis to promote urination and resolve dampness, and belamcanda to clear heat and soothe the throat.

Wang Qingpeng slapped his forehead. ”Ah, how did I not realize that kidney yin deficiency was causing the throat swelling and pain?”

He pointed to the prescription Du Heng had just helped him modify. ”Adding alismatis and belamcanda makes the whole formula clear the upper regions and unblock the lower, draining heat and promoting urination while preserving qi and yin. Perfect!”

Du Heng smiled faintly. ”Three doses of this prescription should show effect, reducing the pain from the mouth ulcers. Ten consecutive doses should eradicate the root cause and prevent recurrence.”

”Good, I’ll arrange it later.”

Du Heng hesitated. ”Don’t you need to discuss this with Sir Zhang?”

Wang Qingpeng laughed. ”These patients are now my patients. As the attending physician, I have the autonomy to decide how to treat my own patients.

Besides, you might not know this, but although Sir Zhang still works in the department, he only holds an outpatient clinic once a week. When Guan Bo was around, Sir Zhang would still take on patients. But now that Guan Bo is gone, he no longer accepts new ones.

Since all of Guan Bo’s patients have been transferred out, it means Sir Zhang generally won’t interfere unless we encounter a case we absolutely can’t handle.”

Du Heng nodded in understanding but mentally compared Lan Changhua and Zhang Dewen. He realized Zhang Dewen was much more hands-off than Lan Changhua. Currently, Lan Changhua acted like an overlord in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Internal Medicine Department at Good Friend Hospital—a stark contrast to Sir Zhang.

”Shall we continue then?”

”Let’s continue. I’ll deal with them all at once after we’re finished.”

After reviewing the first few cases, Du Heng lost interest in dwelling on them further.

He couldn’t understand why Guan Bo would choose such cases for a competition. Could it be that this level of difficulty was already Guan Bo’s limit?

Fortunately, Du Heng was unaware that for even these few cases, Guan Bo had needed to get an assist from Zhang Dewen. If he had known, Du Heng might have booked a flight back to Jinzhou that very night.

Too embarrassing. He’d be too embarrassed to let netizens see a competition of this caliber.

However, when they reached the last patient, Du Heng finally showed a flicker of interest.

”This patient is quite special. I had originally planned to refer him to Sir Zhang, but now that you’re here, Doctor Du, this case seems right up your alley.”

Du Heng responded lightly, ”What’s the situation?”

”Somnambulism.”

”Somnambulism?”

Wang Qingpeng nodded. ”Yes, and it’s a very severe case of somnambulism. It’s been happening for over a year now.”

This piqued Du Heng’s interest. ”Severe? How so?”

Wang Qingpeng pondered for a moment before continuing, ”Yesterday afternoon, when we spoke with the patient, his wife mentioned that he suddenly sits up in bed around 2 a.m. every day.

Sometimes he squints and stares straight ahead; other times, he opens his eyes wide and stares directly at her.

In either situation, if she tries to speak to him, he doesn’t respond or acknowledge her at all. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t wake him.

After staring for a bit, he gets out of bed and wanders around. Sometimes he even opens the door and strolls outside the room.

Other times, he might make tea in the living room or even cook in the kitchen before returning to bed to sleep.

Oh, and last night in the hospital room, he sleepwalked again. He wandered around the hallway and then returned to his bed by himself.

Our nurses followed him the entire time; they were nearly scared to death.”

Du Heng asked curiously, ”Does he remember any of this when he wakes up?”

”You can ask him yourself. His wife is already showing signs of neurasthenia,” Wang Qingpeng said helplessly, glancing at the patient.

Listening to Wang Qingpeng, Du Heng found the situation quite exasperating. Imagine your partner staring at you wide-eyed in the middle of the night without saying a word. Anyone would find that unbearable; it’s terrifying enough to scare someone to death. Moreover, he wanders outside, makes tea, and even cooks—all while sleepwalking. Any of these activities could easily lead to an accident. It’s a testament to his wife’s strong will that she’s endured this for a year without breaking down.

Du Heng turned to the patient on the hospital bed and asked softly, ”Do you remember any of the things your wife mentioned?”

The patient shook his head. ”Not at all. Initially, I just felt like I wasn’t sleeping well and was incredibly tired. I’d also find unexplained injuries on my hands or body.

I was always puzzled until my wife showed me a video she’d taken on her phone. Only then did I believe I was sleepwalking.”

Du Heng thought for a moment, then asked, ”Aside from that, do you feel any physical discomfort?”

The patient said with a troubled expression, ”Whenever I fall asleep, I dream a lot. The dreams are vivid, and the scenes change very quickly.

When I’m startled awake, my heart pounds so hard it feels like it’s going to leap out of my chest.”

Du Heng inquired further, ”Any other symptoms?”

”Yes,” the patient replied quickly. ”My wife says I used to talk in my sleep a lot.”

”Do you still talk in your sleep now?”

”Not anymore. My wife says that since I started sleepwalking, I don’t talk in my sleep much.”

Du Heng’s brow furrowed. After a moment of reflection, he continued, ”What treatments have you tried? Were any of them effective?”

The patient, sitting on the hospital bed with a worried expression, said, ”I’ve seen both Western and traditional Chinese medicine doctors. I’ve taken medications, but nothing has helped.”

”Tell me more about them.”