This Doctor Is Too Wealthy

Upon hearing this, Du Heng leaned forward and patted the man’s shoulder. ”It’s good that you’ve come to terms with it. Life must go on. As for the guilt you feel toward your daughter, don’t just suppress it. You can work harder to make her life better; that’s how you can truly make amends. Besides, you’re only 28 years old, in the prime of your youth and strength. What’s there to be afraid of? Just put your head down and get to work.”

Du Heng wasn’t sure if his words were helpful, but the man nodded. ”I understand, Doctor. I’ll adjust slowly.” Then the man hesitated again. ”Um... Doctor, is the medicine you’re prescribing expensive?”

Du Heng smiled, picked up his pen and paper, and started writing. ”Not expensive. One course of medicine might be just over thirty yuan, and you’ll only need to take five doses.”

The man finally breathed a sigh of relief, his expression visibly brightening. ”Thank you, Doctor.” He then took the written prescription and prepared to leave.

Seeing the man about to leave, Du Heng quickly reached out to stop him. ”Don’t rush off.”

The man looked puzzled. ”Is there anything else, Doctor?”

Du Heng pointed at the girl and asked with a frown, ”Haven’t you noticed that one of your daughter’s arms is longer than the other? Is this congenital, or was it caused by something else?”

The man glanced at his daughter’s arms and shook his head. ”They were the same length when she was born. But I haven’t been home for most of these past few years, so I don’t know the details. It was when I came home last year that I noticed her arms looked a bit different. I asked her mother, and she said they’d always been like that, that I must have remembered wrong.”

Du Heng frowned. ”You didn’t take a look?”

The man’s heart lurched. Did the doctor’s words mean there was really a problem? For a moment, many thoughts flashed through his mind, but mostly, he was calculating whether the money in his pocket would be enough to treat his daughter’s condition.

”I’m asking you, haven’t you examined her arm?”

Hearing Du Heng’s repeated questioning, the man suddenly snapped back to reality. ”No. I’ve been away all these years, so my daughter and I aren’t close. She avoids me when I want to hug her or hold her hand. Besides, she’s older now, and a girl. As her father, it’s not really appropriate for me to be overly familiar.”

Du Heng was at a loss for words. Ever since the little girl had come in, her slightly shorter arm had remained mostly still, as if she were deliberately protecting it, keeping it away from anything that might touch it. Even when she was on her father’s back, she maintained the same posture.

Du Heng said, a hint of frustration in his voice, ”You’re her father, and she’s only eight years old. If she’s not close to you, who would she be close to?”

The man hurriedly explained, ”But she won’t let me hug her or hold her hand, I...”

”Have you ever thought that perhaps she’s afraid of the pain, which is why she won’t let you hug her or hold her hand?”

”Pain?” The man looked at his daughter, puzzled.

Du Heng was a bit annoyed, but when he looked at the girl, his expression softened, and he gently beckoned her. ”Come here, let Uncle take a look.”

The little girl stared at Du Heng but shrank back a little.

The man grew anxious and reached out to nudge his daughter, but she dodged him. Recalling Du Heng’s earlier words, the man quickly spoke softly, ”Don’t be afraid. The doctor just wants to examine you.”

But the girl still hid behind her father.

Seeing this, Du Heng had no choice but to get up and walk gently to the girl’s side. He began to examine her arm softly, coaxing her gently. It was clear that Du Heng could feel the girl’s resistance. But the little girl was timid, and the consultation room wasn’t very large, so she didn’t make any significant movements.

However, the moment he touched her arm, Du Heng’s expression darkened.

A dislocation. Her forearm was dislocated. Judging by the asymmetrical development of her forearms, it was clear the dislocation wasn’t recent—it had been like this for a long time.

A dislocation! How painful must that be? Yet, this little girl only twitched her lips slightly when he touched her arm; otherwise, she remained completely silent. Was she used to the pain?

Du Heng looked at the little girl, his heart aching. He composed himself, then softly asked, ”Little sister, can you tell Uncle how this happened?”

The little girl didn’t speak. When Du Heng released her hand, she hid behind her father again.

Helpless, Du Heng asked again, ”Then can you tell Uncle how long your arm has been like this?”

Du Heng had been incredibly gentle, but the little girl remained silent, as always. Even when the man urged her again, she still didn’t speak.

”Can your child speak?”

”She can, but she doesn’t like to talk much.” The man looked a little embarrassed.

Resigned, Du Heng returned to his seat and said to the man, ”Your daughter is very strong. I haven’t seen a trace of pain or discomfort on her face. But your daughter is also very pitiful—pitiful that her own father doesn’t even know she’s injured.” When he said these words, Du Heng’s voice was sharp. He was truly angry.

The man was frightened. He looked at Du Heng, then at his daughter. Finally, he asked, ”Doctor, what’s wrong with my daughter? Where is she injured?”

”Her forearm is dislocated, and it’s been like that for at least a year.” Du Heng glanced at the little girl, his heart aching for her. ”You’re really quite a father,” he added, his tone heavy with disapproval.

The man was shocked. One year. A whole year! He’d experienced a dislocation before; the pain was enough to drive a person mad. He truly couldn’t imagine how his eight-year-old daughter had endured it. And why hadn’t *she* (the mother) told him? And why hadn’t his daughter said anything herself? There must have been something the mother did, some behavior that made the child too afraid to speak. What could possibly make an eight-year-old endure such excruciating pain without a word? Even after living with him for half a year, his daughter still hadn’t dared to tell him? For a moment, various emotions surged through him, and tears welled up in his eyes. But what overwhelmed him more was uncontrollable anger. ”That animal! I’ll kill her!” Thinking about all this, the man felt as if his eyeballs were about to burst from the pressure.

After the man’s outburst, Du Heng had a good idea of the situation and sighed. ”Alright, don’t be angry for now. Let’s focus on your daughter’s problem first.”

The man looked at his daughter with a pained expression. He wanted to reach out and touch her arm, but his hand trembled and pulled back. ”Doctor, is there still hope for my daughter’s arm?” the man asked worriedly.

Du Heng gently nodded. ”The child is still young and has room for growth. After treatment, everything can still be set right.”

As soon as Du Heng finished speaking, the man grew agitated, even taking a small step forward. ”Doctor, since you could tell at a glance, you must be able to treat her, right? Please, I’m begging you, treat my daughter.”

But Du Heng hesitated. ”Don’t rush to beg me yet; let me finish. For your daughter’s condition, if I were to treat it, the only method I could use is manual reduction. But your daughter’s dislocation is too old. There are bound to be adhesions in the joint, and who knows what condition the joint cavity is in. Moreover, the surrounding muscles and meridians have already adapted to this state. If we opt for manual reduction, never mind the difficulty, the pain alone would be excruciating.”

The man paused. ”Then what do you suggest, Doctor?”

”Surgery is the way to go,” Du Heng said firmly. ”In this situation, surgery is the best choice. It’s a very minor procedure that can eliminate potential complications during healing and also minimize your daughter’s suffering.”

The man hesitated for a moment. ”How much would the surgery cost?”

”Do you have Capital medical insurance?”

The man shook his head. ”No, my daughter and I didn’t get medical insurance at the end of last year.”

Du Heng sighed; it seemed misfortune never came singly. ”The surgery itself isn’t that expensive. All told, it would probably be a little over ten thousand yuan. It’s a pity you don’t have medical insurance. If you did, you might only have to cover the surgeon’s fee and some miscellaneous costs, totaling perhaps six or seven thousand yuan.”

The man’s face was a mask of indecision, but he finally gritted his teeth and said, ”We’ll do it. I can’t let my daughter keep suffering because of me.”

Du Heng looked at the man with satisfaction, thinking this was how a true man, a father, should act. ”Alright. I’ll write you a referral to the Orthopedics Department now. Take this slip and go there directly.” Du Heng sat down at his desk and, while speaking, wrote his phone number on the back of the slip. ”This is my phone number. If you encounter any difficulties, call me. Listen, you can call me for *any* difficulty. My phone is on twenty-four hours a day.”

The man took the slip with both hands and bowed deeply in gratitude. As they were leaving, the little girl even proactively saluted Du Heng with her uninjured hand.

After the father and daughter left, the resident physician beside him suddenly asked, ”Director Du, may I ask a question?”

Du Heng leaned back in his chair, composed himself, and said, ”Are you asking about the girl or the man?”

”My training is in internal medicine, so I don’t know much about orthopedics. That’s why I want to ask about the man’s case.”

”Go ahead, ask.”

”I understood the diagnosis you just explained, but I didn’t quite understand the prescription you wrote.”

Du Heng smiled. ”Which part didn’t you understand?”

The resident physician scratched his head. ”The prescription contains pinellia, kudzu root, and other herbs, similar to Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction. However, it also includes some herbs I’m not familiar with, like rhizoma ligustici, so...”

Du Heng nodded slightly. ”Dongyuan, one of the Four Great Masters of the Jin-Yuan period, once said that for headaches, rhizoma ligustici is essential. Why? Because rhizoma ligustici moves qi within the blood, expels wind from the blood, and can guide other medicinal herbs upward to the head, directly to the site of the ailment. Other herbs either cannot achieve this guiding effect or their medicinal potency is insufficient to produce the desired results. So, I augmented the Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction with a powdered formula featuring rhizoma ligustici, designed to be taken with tea. This serves to disperse wind and relieve pain, guide the medicine upward, and enhance the efficacy of the decoction. If I had only used Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction, it wouldn’t have been a matter of just five doses. Without ten or twenty doses, this man’s headaches wouldn’t have been resolved.”

The resident physician nodded. ”So, does he also have to consciously work on improving his mood?”

Du Heng shook his head outright. ”Unless someone is exceptionally stubborn, most people don’t need to actively force it. People often say that time is a great healer, and that applies to this man as well. Half a year is enough time for him to process what happened to him. However, because the liver depression led to internal wind, it caused him physical discomfort. This discomfort, in turn, made him prone to feeling down and pessimistic. Once pessimistic, he’d easily dwell on past misfortunes. And a low mood would only aggravate the liver depression. This formed a vicious cycle that would constantly worsen his condition. So, as long as the liver depression is resolved and this cycle is broken, his mood will gradually improve on its own. What I told him, though, was intended to encourage him to consciously and proactively regulate his state of mind. This can speed up his recovery, meaning he might need a couple fewer doses of medicine and save a bit of money.”

”Thank you, Director Du. I understand now.”

”Why be so polite? Just ask if you don’t understand.” Du Heng smiled. ”Call the next patient.”

However, as the next patient entered, Du Heng’s heart gave a lurch; the composure he had just regained instantly vanished, replaced by tension.