Merchant and doctor

Chapter 2428 Speaks a little incoherently
The family that came specifically to seek medical help seemed to be a family of scholars and gentlemen. The five or six of them sat together quietly, without making a sound, waiting for Bian Mu's arrival.

The young patient appeared very thin. Despite his young age, he had shaved his head completely. He already had large, protruding ears, which appeared even larger and longer with the shaved head. He had double eyelids, big eyes, and a high nose bridge with a touch of Greek features, which added a bit of a heroic air to his appearance.

Despite his serious illness, his eyes still shone with the light unique to young people. Observing his heart, it seemed that his vitality had not been damaged much. At least, some of the fiery passion unique to young people was still left.

His brown casual clothes looked loose and a bit dark, and he went out wearing slippers. Judging from the way he was pouting, he must have been very unwilling the whole way!
The man standing behind the wheelchair was clearly the patient's father; he was refined and imposing, the kind of person who had a respectable status in a big city.

The woman accompanying the patient on the left side of the wheelchair was probably the patient's mother. She was under forty years old, quite tall, and dressed in a Western-style casual outfit that accentuated her figure. She wore light makeup and seemed to be a businesswoman. At this moment, she looked tired, with obvious dark circles under her eyes, clearly the kind of person who doesn't get enough rest for many years.

The others were mostly close relatives of the family. They all nodded very amicably to Bian Mu without saying much.

"Please sit down! Everyone has come from afar, so let's skip the small talk and just take a quick pulse first! We'll talk more later when we get back." As she spoke, Bian Mu walked behind the young male patient and took a look at him.

"Young man! I need to take your pulse at the back of your neck. If you mind, let's have a quick chat! If you have any difficulty expressing yourself verbally, we can use gestures." Bian Mu said these words from a spot behind the boy.

Upon hearing this, everyone present, including the boy, was momentarily stunned.

What does Dr. Bian mean by this?!

"You...we just met...I don't speak very fluently...can you tell?" With his back to Bian Mu, the boy responded with a few words that were a little unclear. His voice was hoarse and his breath was slightly weak. Anyone could tell that the boy's verbal expression ability had obviously deteriorated.

“Observation! The four diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine. Generally speaking, you can see something just by looking at someone. Your ability to express yourself is limited... How long has it been?” Bian Mu was still standing behind the boy and asked casually.

“Not really… I remember… two years?… You’d have to ask my… dad…” The boy’s speech became even more slurred.

After carefully observing the boy's tone of voice, Bian Mu couldn't help but have a thought, and turned around to glance at the man who was closest to her.

"It's been two years and three months, but... it wasn't very obvious during the college entrance exam physical... but it became more obvious after I entered the school..." The boy's father replied with a complicated expression.

The boy's mother didn't say anything, but looked at her son with a pained expression, her face full of helplessness.

"So... how long have you had these back and leg problems?" Bian Muchong asked the boy's father.

"It's been less than four years. A few months before the college entrance exam, there wasn't any obvious muscle atrophy in my legs. I could still walk a few steps with crutches. At least, my lower back seemed to be able to support me. The X-rays showed that there was a high chance of a full recovery. Back then... I just felt that I was a little uneven, with my right leg higher than my left... Who knew what would happen later..." At this point, the boy's father stopped talking. Anyone could tell that the relationship between these people was not ordinary. It seemed that how this boy got injured back then was probably quite a strange story.

"Let's stop here for now. You're feeling quite weak right now. Have you already asked the school for leave?" Bian Mu asked calmly, still standing behind the boy.

"He took a semester off, and later, he had trouble concentrating in class. To begin with, the school wasn't very willing to accept him. At least he could walk a short distance with crutches, and the school thought that with intensive treatment, he might be able to get out of the wheelchair before graduation. Who knew... the muscles in his legs atrophied so quickly, and the strength in his waist also declined very rapidly. In a moment of panic, we rushed here through a friend's introduction. He's so young, and even with his condition worsening, he hasn't failed any courses; in fact, he's ranked at the top in some subjects. His teachers and classmates all hope he can return to school soon... Please take good care of him, Dr. Bian!" At this point, the boy's mother interjected quite tactfully.

“The condition is somewhat unusual and difficult to treat… Let’s take a pulse at the Renying point! Would you agree, classmate?” Bian Mu asked again.

Hearing this, the boy nodded slightly with his back to Bian Mu.

Bian Mu extended his left hand and casually took a pulse at the Renying point...

"That's enough! Now let's check his pulse at the cunkou point!" With that, Bian Mu walked up to the boy and stood beside him to check his pulse at the xuan zhen point.

"That's fine... You two keep him company and have a few more hot drinks. These are our homemade health drinks, this way please! There are some specific details I need to ask you about." As he spoke, Bian Mu invited the patient's mother to come over to the examination room for a chat. He needed to find out how the boy had been injured.

"How did your son get injured back then?" Bian Mu asked after they sat down.

"He... has a bit of a tendency to date early. We haven't really been strict with him, we just had a brief talk with his homeroom teacher, a very nice woman! She's very open-minded, saying that my son's grades are excellent, but he's probably just a bit introverted and gets a little too close to female classmates. She suggested we observe him first and not let the parents get too involved. His father was overseas on business at the time, extremely busy, and we were also quite busy at work, so we listened to the homeroom teacher and thought we'd let things take their course for a while..."

"Oh... does that mean your son doesn't usually interact much with the male classmates or even the students in the same grade, but gets along quite well with the female classmates?" Seizing on this detail, Bian Mu quickly asked.

"No, no! Dr. Bian, don't misunderstand. He's always been perfectly normal in that area. It's just that he's gotten a little closer to Xiaoya. Xiaoya's family is about the same financial situation as ours, and they get along quite well. My son is excellent at math, while Xiaoya studies art and is a bit weak in her academic subjects. She often asks my son for help... and so it happened..."

"That's alright... What happened next?"

"Later... a boy who studied sports seemed to be dating Xiaoya. He was a temporary student, just taking extra classes for academic subjects. They were in different classes but the same grade. My son was probably a little unhappy about this... One time, that boy brought a pretty big dog from somewhere, the kind of large, scary, aggressive dog. My son has always been afraid of dogs. It seems like... my son and Xiaoya had just finished school and were walking along the sidewalk of the small park in the middle of the street, each pushing a bicycle. The dog suddenly appeared out of nowhere and tried to squeeze between them, separating them. Later, when I checked the security camera footage, my son was terrified. He instinctively used his bicycle to block the dog, and in his panic, a passing car hit him in the lower back..."

Upon hearing this, Bian Mu frowned, thankful that he had been wise not to formally admit the patient.