Dr. Xu: A Chinese Medicine Novel

Mingxin Clinic has more than medical questions to contend with.

These days, Chinese medicine clinics all offered to brew patients’ herbal medicine for them. For Lily Li, Evan Xu had prescribed enough herbs for five batches. He brewed the first himself, and she drank it there at the clinic. Once the rest were ready, she could come back to collect them after work.[1]

Lily was still trying to decide what to eat that evening. She even came over to ask Evan’s opinion.

“Order takeout,” he told her. With her medicine taken, Lily left in a huff.

Only after finishing his game did Ben Song look up. “Hey, how come you didn’t prescribe Siwu Tang? Can this formula cure her? Are you sure?”

“It should be fine,” Evan said. “If you’ve identified the right pattern and chosen the right medicines, you’ll see results quickly.”[2]

“Oh.” Ben answered, but he wasn’t convinced. Evan was exaggerating. Everyone knew Chinese medicine worked slowly. How could you claim to be “restoring your health” if you hadn’t been taking herbs for two or three months?

Even a stubborn illness yielding at once, as promptly as a drum sounding when struck? What a boast. Even the most renowned old doctors wouldn’t make that kind of promise, would they?

Ben shook his head with a smile and started another game.

Clara Zhang came back too. She had been upstairs helping her father take his medicine and had missed the whole exchange.

Her brow remained furrowed, her face troubled.

Evan took out his phone again to work out how to speed things up.

Ben was still completely absorbed in Dou Dizhu.[3]

A little later, a middle-aged man wearing a thick gold chain came into the clinic.

“Oh, Clara. You’re here.”

Clara was taken aback when she saw him. He was the clinic’s landlord, and her face darkened. “Mr. Pan. Hello.”[4]

Mr. Pan nodded. “How’s your father? Any better?”

“A little better.”

He chuckled and touched his gold chain. “I haven’t come about anything else today. I just wanted to check whether you still want to rent this place.”

Clara frowned. “Didn’t I already tell you? We’re going to keep renting it.”

“I know, I know.” He nodded quickly. “It’s just that things have changed. A businessman wants to take it over and open a foot spa. This is a central location, after all. Right?”[5]

Clara’s expression froze.

Evan and Ben both looked over. Ben even stopped playing cards.

“So what do you want?” Clara asked, her face grim.

Mr. Pan gave an awkward laugh. “It’s not about what I want. I’m just discussing it with you. I can see business isn’t easy here, and he’s offering a good price. He’s serious. He’s even willing to pay you to hand the place over.”

Her face hardened. “I told you, I’m not handing Mingxin Clinic over to anyone. I’m keeping it open.”

He rubbed his nose awkwardly. “Yes… yes… But this would be good for everyone. I’d earn more, and you’d have less pressure. I’m thinking of you too. We’ve known each other for so many years… Especially when your mother was still alive…”

“So you do remember my mother?” Clara cut in. “She cured your wife’s infertility. Why don’t you mention that? She cured your chronic stomach trouble. Why don’t you mention that? She cured the migraines your mother-in-law had suffered from for decades. Why don’t you mention that? How many times did your family come to us while my mother was alive? Did we ever charge you?”

Clara grew more aggressive. “You’ve kept raising the rent all these years. Did we ever complain? Were we ever a cent short? Look at the gold chain around your neck. Wasn’t it bought with our rent money?

“And now you want to shut our clinic down for some lousy foot spa. How can you talk about knowing our family for decades? How can you call yourself an old friend of my parents?

“Since my dad’s stroke, have you done anything except raise the rent? Have you even come to see him? When you were up to your neck in gambling debts, our family paid you three years’ rent in advance. Without us, those debt collectors would have beaten you to death.

“I’m not asking you to repay every little favor a hundredfold. But surely you don’t have to drive our clinic out of business for a lousy foot spa! My mother put her whole life into this place. I’m telling you, I don’t care who comes along. Nobody’s taking it away!”[6]

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Mr. Pan was so thoroughly scolded that he didn’t know where to look.

Ben and Evan exchanged glances. They’d known Clara could tear into people. They hadn’t expected anything like this.

Flustered, Mr. Pan could only force out, “I… I’m thinking of you too. Well, if you want to keep it open, go ahead. Of course I’ll support you.

“As for the rent, let’s stick to what we agreed yesterday. All right? Uh… Pay me before the end of the month, and I’ll give the man opening the foot spa my answer. Ha… I… I’ll be going.”

He all but fled, not daring to bring up a second increase. He had already told them yesterday that the rent was going up. Today he had meant to use the foot spa to press them again: either make them leave or get them to pay even more.

Instead, Clara had sent him packing.

Evan and Ben were both staring at her.

She turned and glared at them. “What are you looking at? Get back to work! If we don’t start making a profit, we’re all finished!”

Then she stormed out.

“Evan, hurry up and go after her… Huh?” Ben urged. He hadn’t finished speaking before he saw that Evan had already run outside.

Ben rubbed his chin and muttered, “There really will be layoffs this time. Poor Evan!” He shook his head, opened another game, and went back to Dou Dizhu.

Outside, Evan saw that Clara had already gone into the residential complex and hurried after her.

He followed her to a patch of greenery. She found a spot where no one else was around and dropped onto the grass. She wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her head in them. Her body trembled slightly.

Evan stood a little way off, unsure whether to go over.

After a moment’s hesitation, he asked, “Is the clinic short of money?”

Clara raised her head a little. He couldn’t see her face, but her voice caught. “There’s only a little left. If I pay the rent, there won’t be any money for Dad’s treatment… If I pay for Dad’s treatment… Mingxin will have to close…”

Evan was taken aback. Clara had hired him after the owner, Adam Zhang, fell ill. Since his first day, he had never seen her this vulnerable. She had always been so forceful and bossy.

“There has to be a way,” she murmured, as if trying to encourage herself. She quickly wiped her eyes.

Evan paused. “Clara, maybe… I…”

She immediately turned to stare at him. Both her eyes were red. “Don’t you start with that crap about resigning to make things easier for me!”

“No, I was going to say I—”

She cut him off again. “Say what? You’re the King of Siwu Tang—who else besides me would take you on?”

Evan was speechless.

She waved impatiently. “Enough. Get back to work. Keep wasting time and I’ll dock your pay!”

Clara was back to her usual domineering self, as though that moment of vulnerability had been an illusion.

Evan sighed softly. He didn’t know what to say, so he could only turn and go back to the clinic.

Clara rubbed her face, exhaustion plain on it. Once again, she murmured, “There has to be a way!”

Reader Notes

↩︎ Having herbs brewed at the clinic. A decoction is the liquid prepared by cooking medicinal materials in water, rather than a cup of ordinary tea. Some Chinese medicine providers prepare prescriptions for patients to collect already brewed. Here the five ji are rendered as five batches of the prescription. The passage does not specify the number of drinks per batch or a daily schedule. Lily takes the first batch at the clinic and can collect the rest after work. Source: Tung Wah Group of Hospitals — Centralized Decoction Centre, services and preparation.↩︎ Siwu Tang and matching a pattern. Siwu Tang, or Four Substances Decoction, is a named formula traditionally classified among formulas that supplement and regulate blood. Ben’s surprise concerns Evan’s habitual reliance on it. Pattern differentiation assesses findings together to identify a traditional pattern and select treatment accordingly; it is distinct from naming a biomedical disease. Evan’s claim that a well-matched prescription will work quickly, and Ben’s contrary belief, remain their judgments. This scene reports no improvement. Sources: Hong Kong Baptist University — Si Wu Tang, F00073; WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entries 548–552, printed p. 50.↩︎ Dou Dizhu. As in the earlier clinic scenes, Ben is playing a card game on his phone. In the usual three-player game, one player is the “landlord,” facing the other two. It is a game role; the passage does not report cash betting. Source: JJ Games — Dou Dizhu, basic rules (in Chinese).↩︎ Addressing an older family acquaintance. Clara’s original Chinese greeting uses shu, “uncle,” after Pan’s surname. The word can address a man of her father’s generation who is a family friend, as well as an actual relative. It does not establish kinship here. “Mr. Pan” keeps the respectful address in English, while the conversation supplies their long acquaintance. That initial courtesy makes her later accusation of disloyalty more pointed. Source: Ministry of Education — Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary, shu, noun sense 1(3) (in Chinese).↩︎ A foot spa. Xijiaocheng describes a foot-washing establishment. “Foot spa” conveys a commercial place offering foot bathing and related massage services. Clara objects to replacing her mother’s clinic with this business. The passage does not describe the proposed establishment’s actual services beyond its name. Its rent offer and willingness to pay for a handover are Mr. Pan’s account, not an agreement Clara has accepted. Source: Shaoxing — Foot-bathing and massage service standard, DB3306/T 004–2018, sections 3.1–3.2, printed p. 1 (in Chinese).↩︎ Repaying a kindness. Clara invokes a saying that compares a small kindness to a drop of water and its repayment to a gushing spring: even a little help deserves a generous return. “Repay every little favor a hundredfold” carries that meaning in her speech. She says she is not demanding such extraordinary repayment, only that Mr. Pan not force the family clinic to close. The earlier treatment and financial help are her stated reasons for expecting loyalty. Source: Cheng Yuzhui — “Repaying a spring’s kindness with an ocean,” Journal of Peking University, 2007(2), p. 162, abstract (in Chinese).