Merchant and doctor

Chapter 2073 Rolling Moxibustion and Silk Refining
Back in college, Bian Mu had already learned to immerse himself in studying various old editions of traditional Chinese medicine classics. The school library had a very rich collection of books, enough for Bian Mu to browse for several years! While Qian Xiaolei, Suo Yurong and the others were playing around all day, Bian Mu had already studied non-mainstream Chinese medicine classics of miscellaneous nature, such as "Chuan Ya Neipian", "Chuan Ya Waipian", "Zhu You Lu Yan", and "Sheng Jiang Mi Yao", once or twice.

The so-called "Chuan Ya" (Inner and Outer Chapters) is a compilation of medical practices by a famous Confucian physician of the previous generation, targeting the unorthodox medical practices of itinerant doctors known as "bell doctors." The phrase "cutting off disease like a fresh scallion" from the book left a deep impression on Bian Mu. At the time, Bian Mu thought that bell doctors might be good at emergency treatment. When faced with a sudden illness, a skilled bell doctor would dare to make special decisions on the spot, dare to use forbidden drugs, and dare to take unorthodox methods, and could quickly control the condition, giving people the feeling that it was like cutting a scallion into sections with a knife. With a swift stroke, the scallion was cut into sections!

Later, as her clinical experience grew, Bian Mu gradually realized that treating chronic diseases also required the decisiveness and confidence to "cut the disease off like a tender green onion."

Every disease in the world has a root cause! The key is whether the medical skill level can reach the point of being able to see through the disease and nip it in the bud. As long as the true root cause of the disease can be found quickly, and the most basic pathological logic can be clearly understood, with almost no probabilistic logical links in between, then a decisive action can be taken. Skilled traditional Chinese medicine doctors will often use one or more treatment methods to quickly "cut off" the disease. Those with even higher skills will directly "operate" on the root cause, and the patient will soon see a significant improvement.

That was roughly the case with the graduate student patient. In just a few days, Bian Mu had essentially "ligated" the lesion around a certain acupoint.

With Bian Mu's consent, the graduate student was discharged from the hospital normally. The family of three rented an old house belonging to the school's faculty and staff near the school to live in temporarily. It was a walk-up apartment, a second-floor east-facing unit, with good ventilation from north to south. Bian Mu went there twice and found that the lighting was excellent, making it a suitable place for the graduate student to recuperate.

Out of consideration for their family's financial situation, the school covered the majority of the rent, with the family of three only paying a symbolic small portion. Of course, this was also done to save face for the family.

That noon, as soon as she got off work, without even having lunch, Bian Mu carried a small travel bag to the place where the graduate student's family was temporarily renting for a routine check-up.

After taking her pulse, a faint smile appeared on Bian Mu's face, and she felt much more at ease.

“The relatively healthy meridian circuits on the periphery are basically unobstructed. Now we need to use slow and steady methods to dissolve that blocked ‘lesion’ as quickly as possible in the shortest amount of time. Sounds a bit convoluted, right? Well, that’s just how medical principles are. It can be quite lengthy in a fast way, but it’s actually a ‘fast and decisive’ approach. Here! I brought a few things. You’ll have to learn how to use them yourselves from now on.” As he spoke, Bian Mu invited the graduate student’s parents into the living room and opened his travel bag to take out an oddly shaped casserole dish that resembled a flat-bottomed hot pot.

It was pitch black and a little shallower than a regular earthenware pot, but its surface area was almost twice as large.

Then, Bian Mu took out a basket of fresh eggs, which looked to weigh about five or six pounds.

"These are eggs laid by the Black-feathered Reed Chicken. That kind of chicken has feathers as black as ink, but its tail is as red as flames, making it much more beautiful than ordinary domestic chickens. Some people also call it the Reed-feathered Phoenix Chicken. This kind of chicken is very picky about food and ordinary people can't feed it. Currently, only some farmers around Ningguo Temple raise some, purely for the convenience of using medicine. They are specifically raised for the Ningguo Temple medicinal herb wholesale market. The chicken meat, eggs, blood, and feathers can all be used in medicine; it's one of many medicinal chickens. Please look, these eggs are only slightly larger than quail eggs, with bluish shells, somewhat like duck eggs! The shells are also twice as thick as ordinary chicken eggs, so they won't easily break, making them easy to transport. These Chinese medicines are a gift from me; they've already been packaged at the clinic and will last about six weeks. One packet per day." "Use this clay pot to simmer over low heat for an hour. If you feel the water is getting too low, you can add a little water from time to time. This medicine isn't for him to drink, so adding water halfway through is fine, Auntie! You have to stay by the stove the whole time. After the water boils, wait half an hour, then put this egg in and cook it together. About half an hour should be enough. Master Wang, you need to wear gloves. After Auntie takes the egg out, you have to put the egg on your son's lower back. I'll demonstrate a few acupoints later, so you have to remember them well. At first, to avoid getting burned, we'll put some ginger slices on your son's lower back, and then roll this shelled medicinal egg back and forth on the acupoints I'm designating, through the ginger slices." As she spoke, Bian Mu explained the preparation of the medicine in detail several times, afraid that the two people in front of her might misunderstand again.

The graduate student's parents listened very attentively, fearing that any mistakes might delay their precious son's progress.

“This treatment method is also called ‘rolling moxibustion and silk extraction,’ a type of acupuncture. It’s the least harmful to your son, but the most effective. Just do a similar treatment once a day around 18 PM. It will definitely be a bit chaotic at first, but you’ll get used to it. It’s not that we doctors are deliberately pushing the work onto you parents to be lazy! It’s not like that at all. This kind of thing is best handled by his family. It will also enhance your understanding of each other and make your relationship more harmonious. For him, this is also a good medicine.” Bian Mu patiently explained for a long time. Although this wasn’t the best time, Bian Mu was barely making any money and didn’t have time to come back in the evening. Bian Mu then used a washed raw egg to demonstrate several acupoints on the graduate student’s back and lower back several times.

Seeing that the patient's parents had learned enough, Bian Mu carried his empty travel bag back to the clinic.

Fortunately, she hadn't completely missed the mealtime. Bian Mu went out and randomly found a familiar restaurant on the street, where she ordered three small dishes and ate them with a bowl of rice.

……

That evening, Bian Mu was standing at the entrance of the clinic, seeing off a patient and his family, when he saw Dr. Sun Zhengting hurrying over.

The two exchanged a smile, exchanged a few polite words, and returned to the clinic together.

There was still one female patient receiving acupuncture in the treatment room, accompanied by the two female interns. Xiao Shang had already been sent home for dinner by Bian Mu.

Bian Mu brewed Sun Zhengting a pot of hot fruit juice, and the two chatted as they drank.

“We really don’t have any patients left over, and everyone is really worried. We were too embarrassed to discuss it with you beforehand, so we just wandered around aimlessly and finally narrowed it down to three places. The rent is still manageable. So… when can you come over and give us some advice?” Sun Zhengting pleaded earnestly.

"Our group can't just fall apart like this, can it?" Bian Mu asked calmly.

"Sigh! There are hardly any people left on each floor. As soon as the sun sets, nobody wants to stay in the empty building. Everyone goes home early because every household needs to eat! We can't afford to stay like this any longer!"

"Alright then! It would be best if Xiaobailou acted as a middleman to witness this matter. All the procedures would be much easier to handle. At the same time, for Deputy Secretary-General Cai, this could also be considered an achievement of his efforts to help folk doctors! Think about it carefully... doesn't that make sense?" As she spoke, Bian Mu got up to refill the hot water.