Merchant and doctor

Chapter 2289 Temperature Determines Life and Death

The next day at noon, just after getting off work, Assistant Long, accompanied by the middle-aged woman he had met the day before, went to the "New Concept" Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic to deliver a pre-printed document, supposedly a medical practice notebook.

Since this matter directly involves the intellectual property rights of the late master of traditional Chinese medicine, Bian Mu contacted lawyer Feng Xiujuan early this morning. Lawyer Feng sent several copies of the agreement to Bian Mu's private email, and Bian Mu has already printed them out.

The two sides sat down and negotiated for quite a while regarding all the taboos related to intellectual property rights...

Unexpectedly, Bian Mu was so professional. The assistant, Long, kept exchanging glances with the middle-aged woman accompanying him. They were both somewhat surprised, feeling that Bian Mu was quite difficult to deal with.

……

The relevant agreements were finally signed. Old Liang, the forest ranger, was right. Bian Mu clearly felt that the Xi family was quite sincere in their cooperation; at most, they were just being cautious.

Then, in front of the two ladies, Bian Mu opened the folder and reviewed the excerpts of what they called medical notes one by one.

"Wow! The old man really is a prophet! He dared to show such obvious signs of patchwork in front of me?! That's incredibly arrogant!" Thinking this, without any hesitation, Bian Mu got up and took a large pair of long tweezers, a paper cutter, and two pairs of scissors, one large and one small, from somewhere else on his person. In front of the two of them, he made several cuts, and then used the tweezers and paper cutter to make "windows" all over the A4 paper...

Assistant Long and her colleague were dumbfounded.

"You two aren't really part of the Xi family, so there are some things they probably won't show to others directly. They're probably keeping an eye on you two too! I've cut out and thrown away anything I suspected was a 'smokescreen.' You two take a few more pictures of the rest so I can study them carefully, so we don't have any unclear issues in the future." The other person was, after all, a woman, so she had to be polite on the surface. She smiled and subtly pointed out a few things to the two of them.

Assistant Long's expression changed slightly, but the middle-aged woman accompanying him had a very good composure, remaining calm and composed without saying a word.

"We're all complete novices, so we'd appreciate it if you could help us with the interpretation, Master. We just need to be able to explain things to Elder Xi. Also... is it convenient to ask you some questions right now?"

"Do you need to see a doctor?" Bian Mu asked casually.

"My brother, my own brother! He's 11 years older than me. He works in a lab doing chip research, and it's been about half a year now. His calves, both of them, always feel heavy. We've been to all the major hospitals in Nanjin and Beiqi. Even Dr. Xi took his pulse and said it's due to overwork, exhaustion, leading to qi and blood stagnation. We've tried acupuncture and herbal medicine, but it's only intermittent. My brother... he's incredibly hardworking, and he won't listen to anything we say. We think it's his problem. We heard your organization has always been pursuing entirely new approaches, and now we've come across this! We'd like to ask if you have any new methods, preferably one that can completely eradicate it. I'm really worried that he might..." At the end, perhaps worried about offending someone, Assistant Long stopped talking.

Without a doubt, Assistant Long was worried that her own brother would suffer from a chronic and troublesome illness such as hemiplegia, paralysis, or cerebral atrophy in the future. After all, they are siblings! She certainly couldn't act as if she were cursing her own family.

"Well! This is another test for me, isn't it?!" Finding it amusing, Bian Mu decided to confront the other party head-on and teach them a lesson.

"Oh... at this hour... your brother must be at work and too busy to go home, right?" Bian Mu said with a smile.

"That's right! He's just too dedicated, but... at this age, he's only been promoted to associate professor, sigh..."

“Well… since he works in the high-tech industry, he must be using a top-of-the-line phone!” Bian Mu said with a smile.

"My brother? Yes, the top-tier one, issued by their company, which means..."

"Let's make a video call first!" Bian Mu replied casually.

"Okay, okay! I thank the master on behalf of my brother... I'll contact him right away!" With that, Assistant Long's face lit up with joy as he quickly went to the side to make a phone call.

Bian Mu then refilled the middle-aged woman's tea. The two chatted casually about the local customs and culture of Nanjin. Intentionally or unintentionally, Bian Mu also inquired about the Xu family's recent situation. The woman seemed to know quite a lot and did not seem to mind Bian Mu's presence, answering almost every question.

In this way, Bian Mu felt that he might have been overthinking things. Assistant Long really did want to learn about new treatments from him, and his concern for his brother was genuine and not pretentious.

Assistant Long is back. "That's all, thank you for your trouble, Master!"

"You're too kind. I might not be able to help! Let's see how it goes!" Bian Mu replied with a smile.

Mr. Long's hair was already a third of white. The reception room was small, with stacks of printed documents piled up everywhere, indicating that he was quite busy.

Bian Mu suggested that Mr. Long borrow an electronic blood pressure monitor from the company clinic, press the start button every 7 minutes, and point the phone camera directly at the LCD screen.

……

"I've already learned a bit about the pulse diagnosis, Mr. Long. Could you please change your white coat? And the chair you're sitting in right now, yes! Rearrange them back to back. Please take off your shoes, stand on the chair, and then climb over to another chair like you're scaling a wall. Repeat this several times until your calves start to tremble. I noticed the chair surface is a bit slippery, so you'd better call two male colleagues or male students to help you, so you don't fall headfirst and hurt yourself!" In the video, Bian Mu gave detailed instructions for a long time.

Assistant Long's brother was quite cooperative, calling over two young men who looked like interns. Bian Mu gave him a few repeated instructions before finally sending Mr. Long to try out a Chinese-style test.

……

At such a low height, Mr. Long had only done five or six rounds when he started trembling. His hands, feet, calves... the degree of trembling was completely beyond the expectations of the people watching on both sides of the video.

"Young man! It's a lot of trouble for you. Go to the infirmary and borrow a thermometer from your teacher. Borrow one electronic one and one old-fashioned one with a digital display. Take a set of thermometers every 10 minutes and record them! I need to compare them later." After saying that, Bian Mu turned off the video on his phone.

……

The results are in: Assistant Long's brother's body temperature fluctuated quite a bit, but the average temperature seemed normal.

After restarting the video call, Bian Mu offered some words of comfort to Mr. Long, and the video consultation was considered over.

“In traditional Chinese medicine, we have always emphasized that ‘temperature determines life and death.’ Your brother’s body temperature appears normal on the surface, but if we measure it from the perspective of qi and blood, qi mechanism, qi channels, etc., the temperature of his qi and blood is at least 10 units lower than that of a normal person. If this continues, he probably won’t live to the age of normal retirement.” Bian Mu bluntly stated his prediction.

"Ah?! Then wouldn't that mean..." Assistant Long's expression changed drastically, and even a hint of fear appeared in his eyes.

Scared!

With a faint smile, Bian Mu explained, "I was just guessing. Your sister-in-law and your brother don't seem to have a very harmonious relationship!"

Upon hearing this, Assistant Long's expression changed somewhat.

"She's alright! My sister-in-law has been spoiled by her in-laws since she was little. She's a bit lazy, but otherwise she's fine..."

"To put it simply, since your brother got married, he has hardly eaten anything truly nutritious. That's the root of the problem! In the future, he can only raise the temperature of his blood and qi, restore the temperature of his internal organs to normal, and then try to raise the temperature of his bone marrow, at least to the normal range. Otherwise, his stomach qi will be exhausted, and it will be too late even if he eats dragon liver and phoenix gall!" Bian Mu concluded in a cold tone.

"So... are there any good specific methods?"

"After all, it was just a video call, so I can't say anything definitive. How about this: next time your brother goes to see Master Xi for a pulse diagnosis, you must be there to accompany him. Take his pulse normally once, then have him put his thumb and index finger together to take his pulse again, and finally, have him put his thumb and ring finger together to take his pulse again. By summarizing these three pulse diagnosis results, Master Xi will know what's going on."

Hearing this, Assistant Long finally realized that the handsome and popular TCM doctor in front of him was definitely more capable than Old Master Xi.