Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1323 A Rural Novice Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)
"Wow, that's amazing! He actually fixed it!" Zhou Dahai looked at Fang Yan with disbelief.

People around noticed the reaction and crowded around, their eyes filled with surprise.

This young doctor is incredibly skilled! He fixed Wei Laosi's ear, which had been deaf for five days, with just a few acupuncture needles!?

"Old Wei, are you really all better?" someone asked Old Wei, who still had the needles in his eye.

Some people even asked him directly:
"Old Wei, why don't you try plugging your good ears?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Laosi immediately did as instructed, pressing his thick, carrot-like fingers tightly against his right ear until the spaces between his fingers turned white, as if afraid of letting in even the slightest sound.

He turned to the side, pointing his left ear, which had just been pricked with an acupuncture needle, toward the person asking the question, tilting his neck slightly forward.

"How's it going? Can you hear me?" The man who had given the idea leaned forward, deliberately lowering his voice and slowing his speech. "Hey! Old Wei! Can you hear me?"

The moment those words were spoken, Wei Laosi's eyes lit up, he moved his finger away from his right ear, and slapped his thigh: "Yes!!!"

"It really can!"

Upon hearing this, the surrounding crowd erupted in a cacophony of exclamations.

"I really heard it! I heard it with my ears plugged!"

"My goodness, this injection is amazing! It works even better than the big hospitals in the city!"

"I was just saying I was looking for an old professor, but now it's clear that Dr. Fang is the real expert!"

The crowd surged forward, and the originally loose queue completely veered towards Fang Yan's side. Several fellow villagers who had been queuing in front of other professors' consultation tables also quietly moved back a few steps, their eyes glancing in this direction.

Zhou Dahai secretly breathed a sigh of relief, grinning from ear to ear. He shouted to the crowd, "Did you all see that? Dr. Fang's skills are absolutely top-notch! He really cleared up Wei Laosi's ear, which had been deaf for five days! If you have any difficult or complicated illnesses, just come here!"

Old Wei was still excitedly shaking his head, sometimes covering his right ear to listen to the wind, sometimes shouting "Hey!" at the distance, his face beaming with joy.

He turned to look at Fang Yan, rubbing his hands together and chuckling, "Dr. Fang, your acupuncture is amazing! My ears feel brand new now, I can even hear the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves clearly!"

Fang Yan glanced at his watch, stood up, and said:

"The needle retention time is up, now remove the needles."

"Okay! Okay!" Old Wei Si agreed repeatedly, and sat down to wait for Fang Yan to take the needle.

Fang Yan held the handle of the sea dragon needle, gently twisting and pulling it out with nimble movements.

With each hair he plucked, Wei Laosi couldn't help but let out a soft "hmm." After the soreness subsided, his ears felt even clearer.

When the last needle was pulled out, Wei Laosi touched his ear, then stood up and bowed to Fang Yan: "Dr. Fang, you are truly my savior! If you ever pass through our village again, I'll definitely kill a chicken for you!"

"Don't be shy, remember to decoct and take the medicine on time." Fang Yan handed him the medicine bag.

Someone around them laughed and said to Wei Laosi:

"You only have two chickens at home, are you willing to kill them?"

Old Wei, clutching the medicine bag as if it were a precious treasure, stiffened his neck and raised his voice so loud it could drown out the loudspeaker next to him: "I'd be willing! Of course I'd be willing! These two chickens combined aren't as valuable as my ear! Doctor Fang saved my ear, what's killing a chicken? If Doctor Fang doesn't mind, I'll kill both!"

He pushed through the crowd and walked out, turning back every few steps to shout, "Thank you, Dr. Fang!" His joy drew the attention of everyone at the grain station.

He had only taken a few steps when he was surrounded by several fellow villagers who knew him well. They asked him all at once about his experience with the acupuncture, their voices full of curiosity.

Wei Laosi was surrounded and shared his feelings.

Besides him, there were other people who had also finished their medical appointments, and they were now surrounded by people. Mainly because, like Wei Laosi, they were also carrying bags, and the contents inside, besides medicine, included coarse cloth tote bags and enamel cups.

This is the first time I've seen a doctor like this. He not only treated me and gave me medicine, but also brought me all these things.

What kind of company is this? What is this fund? How did it get involved with traditional Chinese medicine?
"This traditional Chinese medicine really does seem different..."

Everyone was talking about it.

At this moment, Zhou Dahai said to Fang Yan:

"Dr. Fang, your acupuncture skills are truly excellent; the needles cured the illness instantly!"

Fang Yan waved his hand and said:

"It's not a serious problem. Call the next person over quickly."

Seeing Fang Yan's attitude, Zhou Dahai wasn't sure if he was showing off or genuinely didn't care. He turned around and looked at the people queuing up, recognizing someone he knew. He asked Fang Yan:

Can you treat children's illnesses?

Fang Yan glanced at the child and saw that it was a six or seven-year-old boy brought by his grandmother. He nodded.

"can."

Zhou Dahai then waved his hand:

"Come, come! Let Dr. Fang take a look at you."

Then the child was brought to Fangyan by his grandmother.

"What's the problem?" Fang Yan asked the child's grandmother.

The child's grandmother spoke in dialect:

"Dry cough, unable to speak. It's been like this for half a month. I was treated by the doctor here at the health center before, and he prescribed a traditional Chinese medicine prescription. Now it's even worse. I have phlegm in my throat that I can't cough up, and I can't eat anything."

Upon hearing this, Fang Yan asked the child's grandmother:

What kind of Chinese medicine are you taking?

The child's grandmother shook her head:

"I don't know, I can't read, and I don't recognize what the medicine inside is. Anyway, we took it home and boiled it for the child to drink, but it didn't help."

"Before taking the medicine, the child could still manage to make some noise, but now he's lost all his voice." Fang Yan turned to Li Ping and asked:

"Comrade Li Ping, could you please call over the traditional Chinese medicine doctor from your clinic? I want to ask what medicine was prescribed."

Li Ping shook her head:

"No, he went to work today."

Fang Yan was speechless. The people here were indeed not full-time doctors, and what's more, Li Ping had just said that the traditional Chinese medicine practitioners here were not officially employed.

"Do you have the medical records?" Fang Yan asked.

"Then there's no more..." Li Ping said awkwardly.

Fang Yan paused for a moment, then looked away. "Alright! I won't ask anymore, let's get to the treatment."

He originally wanted to see what level the mediocre doctors here were at, and see if he could arrange for them to go to the city for training or something. Since they weren't here right now, he decided to talk about it at noon.

His gaze fell on the child, who was huddled behind his grandmother. The child's face was sallow, and his lips were dry and chapped. When asked a question, he timidly pursed his lips and made a soft "hoarse" sound in his throat, as if something was blocking his throat, but he couldn't even let out a complete cough.

He gestured for the child to sit on the bench and said softly, "Don't be afraid, let me see."

As he spoke, he began to take the child's pulse. A six- or seven-year-old child could already feel the pulse using adult techniques, making it relatively easier. After taking the pulse, Fang Yan said to the child:

"Stick your tongue out so I can see it."

The child couldn't speak, but could understand, and immediately stuck out his tongue.

In dialects, the tongue appears red with little coating.

Then, while taking the pulse, Fang Yan asked:
"Did he go down into the river to wash in the cold water?"

It's already late September, autumn has arrived, but the weather is still a bit hot; it was really hot just two weeks ago.

The children in the village are quite resilient; they are mostly free-range and will go to the river when they have nothing else to do.

"No, he just played by the stream and ditch by the fields. Our child is very well-behaved. After a child in the village drowned in the river, we don't allow him to go to the river anymore."

Fang Yan nodded, his fingertips still resting on the child's wrist. The pulse was rapid and weak, just as he had guessed. Although the child hadn't gone into the river, the cool air by the stream was enough to chill the child's delicate internal organs.

He leaned forward again, "Come on, open your mouth so I can take another look."

He then demonstrated for him:

"Ah... open wider."

The child obediently opened his mouth, and Fang Yan carefully observed the child's throat. With the light coming in from outside the canvas tent, he could see that the mucous membrane in the throat was bright red and covered with a thin layer of white phlegm, like a scab.

"Alright!" Fang Yan nodded, indicating that he didn't need to open his mouth anymore.

He then continued to examine the pulse on his right hand.

"When he first started coughing, did he have a runny nose and feel cold?" Fang Yan asked.

The child's grandmother nodded: "Yes! Yes! At first, he would kick off the blankets at night and sneeze when he woke up in the morning. His nose would run a lot and his hands and feet would be cold. After taking medicine, his runny nose stopped, but his voice became more and more hoarse and he got phlegm."

"Hmm...that's right." Fang Yan thought for a moment.

"Huh? What's right?" The child's grandmother was puzzled, and Li Ping beside her also looked bewildered.
"Dr. Fang, what's right about it?"

The dialect explanation is as follows:
"Initially, it was wind-cold binding the lungs. The medicine should have been used to dispel the wind-cold and promote lung qi, allowing the pathogenic factors to be expelled from the surface. However, the previous medicine was probably too warm and drying, and instead of dispersing the pathogenic factors, it trapped the cold inside. Over time, the cold turned into heat and depleted the lung fluids."

He pointed at the child: "His tongue is red and has little coating, which means his body fluids have been depleted; he can't cough up phlegm because heat has stuck the phlegm to his throat; he has lost his voice because his lung fluids are deficient and cannot nourish his throat."

Li Ping, who was listening from the side, only understood half of what was being said, but she still nodded and whispered, "The old members of our commune here do like to use dried ginger and ephedra to dispel cold when prescribing medicine. Maybe...maybe they really didn't consider that the child might develop heat."

Fang Yan shook his head and said:
"Children's internal organs are delicate, so medication must be administered differently from that for adults. It must be gentle and not excessive."

As he spoke, he picked up a pen and began writing the prescription, instructing Anton beside him as he wrote: "When you pick up the medicine later, have them add a small packet of rock sugar. Let the medicine cool down to a warm temperature and then dissolve it in the sugar. That way, the child will like to drink it, and the rock sugar will also soothe his throat."

After writing down the prescription and handing it to Anton, he looked at the child nestled in his grandmother's arms and took out a set of silver needles from his bag that were even finer than the sea dragon needles. These were custom-made for the child based on what his grandfather had left behind.

The man in the dialect said to the child, "Little friend, I'll give you two acupuncture needles. It won't hurt at all. After the needles, you'll be able to cough up phlegm and eat steamed buns tonight, okay?"

The child glanced timidly at his grandmother, who quickly patted his head.

"Be good, listen to Dr. Fang, you won't feel uncomfortable after the acupuncture."

Fang Yan had the child sit back on the bench with his head resting in his grandmother's arms. She gently held the child's wrist with her left hand, picked up a silver needle with her right hand, and lightly touched the Hegu acupoint at the base of the thumb. The needle tip quickly pierced into the acupoint. She then inserted another needle slightly below and to the side of the Tiantu acupoint on the neck. To avoid scaring the child, each needle was inserted quickly and gently. The child only shrank his neck and did not cry or make a fuss.

"Bear with it for a little while." Fang Yan gently twirled the needle handle with his fingertips.

This is a regular silver needle, and its effect is indeed much worse than that of the sea dragon needle. After obtaining the Qi, Fang Yan began to wait.

At the same time, observe the changes in the child.

A moment later, the child's brow furrowed slightly, and a soft "purring" sound began to emanate from his throat, as if something was slowly loosening. He subconsciously pursed his lips, nuzzled his head against his grandmother's chest, but didn't try to back away.

Fang Yan felt a slight tightening sensation under the needle at his fingertips, knowing it was working, so he slowed down the twisting force, only gently maintaining the needle sensation.

About two minutes later, the child suddenly coughed with a "uh" sound, leaning forward slightly. His grandmother quickly reached out and caught him, and he coughed up a mouthful of sticky white phlegm with foam, which landed on the handkerchief.

"He coughed it out! He really coughed it out!" Grandma exclaimed, both surprised and delighted, her voice trembling slightly. "I patted his back for ages this morning, his face turned red, but he still couldn't cough up this much!"

"Young man, you...you're amazing!"

Upon seeing this from not far away, Zhou Dahai ran over in a flash and asked:

"Can you speak now? Try to say something."

P.S.: After finishing this chapter, the accounts are balanced. Please come early tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)