Dr. Xu: A Chinese Medicine Novel

A couple’s follow-up visit leads to an awkward question and a house call.

Evan sat at his desk reading. Behind the counter, Clara worried over what to say. How could she explain this in a way that made sense without hurting anyone?

And she still had to help Evan attract more than a hundred thousand followers across all platforms. Even a publicity genius like Clara was stumped. Getting there quickly wouldn’t be easy.

Ben had come back to work too. Head down, he walked straight to his seat without looking at either of them. He sat without a word, feeling thoroughly awkward.

Evan put down his medical book and began reviewing the recent case records. He had spent eight years in the system’s world. The details of the patients here had grown hazy. He needed to go over their records now so he wouldn’t be scrambling when they came back.

After reading several, he came to Iris Gao’s record. He checked the date of her visit and the medicine he had prescribed. Today should be her follow-up, shouldn’t it?

He had just finished reading when two people, one tall and one short, came through the door.

Iris and her husband.

Evan looked up. “Hello. What can I help you with?” He had long since forgotten what they looked like.

The couple were taken aback too.

Her husband smiled. “Dr. Xu, you’re a busy man, aren’t you? We came to you for treatment a few days ago. Don’t you remember?”

Evan nodded. “What’s your name? Let me look it up.”

Behind the counter, Clara gave him several puzzled looks. Since when had his memory become so poor? It had only been a few days. How could he have forgotten their faces already?

Iris came over. “My name is Iris Gao, Dr. Xu.”

Well, that was the very record he had been reading.

Evan turned to her. “Has your period started? What about the chills and fever—the fever coming and going during your period?”

Before Iris could answer, her husband said excitedly, “Gone, all gone! You’ve cured her! Dr. Xu, you’re incredible!”

Evan nodded with a slight smile. “Good. Come, let me examine you again.”

He examined Iris once more and recorded the findings from her second visit.

“Your period has started, and the chills and fever haven’t returned. Things are improving. Since the prescription is working, we’ll leave it unchanged. I’ll prescribe another six batches. Come back after you’ve finished them. All right?”[1]

“All right,” Iris agreed.

The problem had tormented her for so long that she’d been close to despair. Now that Evan had cured her strange illness, she would do whatever he said.

Evan prescribed the same formula and told Clara to dispense the herbs and brew the medicine.

The couple were in no hurry to leave.

Iris’s husband rubbed his hands together, chuckling. He hadn’t been nearly so pleasant last time. Now that he had seen Evan’s skill for himself, he was much more polite.

“Dr. Xu, I never imagined someone so young could be such a fine doctor. All those specialists in major hospitals couldn’t cure her strange illness, and a few batches of your herbs did it. You’re remarkable.”

“You flatter me,” Evan said politely. “No system of medicine is perfect, and no miracle doctor can cure everything. All we can do is give it our best.”

Her husband kept nodding. “It’s rare to find someone so young with such a good attitude. Well… I have this friend. He’s got a little Kidney deficiency. What do you think he ought to take for it?”[2]

Iris turned her face away in distaste.

Evan looked up at him. “Sit down.”

He sat beside Evan.

“Give me your hand.”

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Her husband blinked. “What for?”

“To take your friend’s pulse,” Evan said with a perfectly straight face.

Clara burst out laughing behind the counter.

Even the usually aloof Iris couldn’t help laughing.

“No, no, it’s not me,” her husband said hastily. “A friend asked me to find out.”

“I know. Give me your hand.”

“It really isn’t me!”

“Your hand.”

Her husband was at a loss.

Iris shook her head in exasperation. “Oh, get on with it. Stop wasting time.”

Embarrassed, he held out his hand. “I’m just having a checkup, that’s all.”

Evan paid no attention to his excuses. He examined him carefully and prescribed medicine for him too.

As they waited for the medicine, Iris’s husband thought for a moment. “Dr. Xu, what kinds of illness do you specialize in?”

“I know a little about everything. Women’s health is my strongest area, of course.”

“How about diarrhea? Are you good at treating that?”

“Diarrhea?” Evan asked, puzzled.

“I have another friend. His wife’s had diarrhea for over six months. She’s lost dozens of pounds, but the hospitals can’t work out what’s causing it. Medicine to stop the diarrhea helps, but as soon as she stops taking it, it comes back.

“Just like my wife—nothing seems to cure it. My friend’s worried sick. Is that something you can treat? Perhaps you could have a look at her too?”

Evan frowned. “I can’t say without seeing the patient. Have her come in. I’ll examine her, then we’ll see.”

The man looked uncomfortable. “Well… would you have time to go over there? That would be best.”

“Why? Is she seriously ill? Is it difficult for her to get out?”

“Well…” He hesitated.

“Why don’t you just say it?” Iris said. “She hasn’t been home from the hospital long, and it’s come back again. She’s irritable and doesn’t want to go anywhere. Besides, she’s rather full of herself. I doubt she’d be willing to come here.”

Evan frowned.

“I told him how you cured my wife,” her husband said. “He’s quite interested in you…”

“Enough,” Iris cut in. “No one should ask a doctor to come like that. It’s rude!”

“Oh… all right.” He fell silent.

Evan sighed. “Call them again and make sure. If they really do need a house call, I’ll find some time during lunch to go over.”

“Yes, yes. Thank you so much.” Iris’s husband immediately hurried outside to make the call.

“Money-grubber,” Iris said, shaking her head.

He soon came back. He had made the arrangements with his friend.

It was nearly lunchtime, and there were few patients. Evan gathered his things and set off on the house call.

He rode south in the couple’s Mercedes.

The county’s new southern district was full of impressive buildings. Most of the local businesses and government offices had moved there.

A number of expensive new housing developments had gone up too.

They were going to the finest of them, a development made up entirely of lakeside villas.

As Iris’s husband drove in, he glanced at Evan in the rearview mirror. Seeing no change in his expression, he asked curiously, “Dr. Xu, aren’t you interested in who the patient is?”

Evan shook his head slightly. “When someone suffering from illness seeks help, do not ask whether they are high or low in station, rich or poor, old or young, beautiful or ugly, enemy, relative, or friend, of our own people or from elsewhere, foolish or wise. Treat them all alike, as you would your closest kin.”[3]

Her husband was taken aback. Why was he suddenly quoting classical Chinese?

He took Evan to the large villa right at the front, beside the lake. A servant opened the door, and they went inside.

Several people were already in the ground-floor hall.

Evan had barely stepped in with his medicine case on his back when someone exclaimed in surprise, “Evan?”

He looked up at the speaker, and his expression froze.

Reader Notes

↩︎ Batches and brewed medicine. A ji is a prescribed batch of herbs, rather than necessarily one swallow of medicine. The six batches here repeat Iris’s previous prescription; the passage gives no new ingredients, weights, or daily schedule. Decocting means preparing the herbs in water to obtain a liquid medicine. Clinics may provide a dispensing and brewing service. The cited institution describes such a service, rather than the equipment or timing used in this fictional clinic. Source: Tung Wah Group of Hospitals — Centralized Decoction Centre, dispensing and decocting services.↩︎ Kidney deficiency. The capitalized Kidney names a traditional functional system associated with growth, reproduction, and other activities. In this framework, “deficiency” concerns reduced functions or resources; it does not by itself mean kidney failure. Kidney deficiency has several forms, so the husband’s general phrase supplies no specific pattern diagnosis. Its familiar association with sexual weakness gives his hesitant “friend” question an embarrassing undertone. He has not reported any particular sexual symptom. The term’s clinical meaning and the character’s social embarrassment should be read separately. Source: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entries 153–162 and 1276–1278.↩︎ Treating every patient alike. Evan quotes another passage from Sun Simiao’s “Dayi Jingcheng,” encountered earlier in the novel and often titled “On the Absolute Sincerity of Great Physicians.” It sets out an ideal of care unaffected by wealth, status, appearance, personal ties, or perceived intelligence. The ancient Hua/Yi distinction is rendered here as “of our own people or from elsewhere.” Evan’s formal quotation answers a question about social standing; it gives no information about the patient’s identity. The English is translated from the Chinese quoted in this chapter. Source: Sun Simiao — Beiji Qianjin Yaofang, volume one, “Dayi Jingcheng,” electronic transcription (in Chinese).