Chapter 693: Heart’s Medicine

Chapter 693: Chapter 693: Heart’s Medicine

She had witnessed her best friend become a mangled mess of flesh and blood right before her eyes, while she herself had narrowly escaped death.

At that moment, Shen Wen’s face had gone ashen. She collapsed right onto the ground, too weak to even stand.

From that day on, Shen Wen was left with severe psychological trauma, suffering from heart palpitations and insomnia.

The slightest sound would make her tremble in fear. At night, she was plagued by nightmares filled with the gruesome images of her friend’s death and the ear-piercing screech of brakes.

In traditional Chinese medicine, this was a classic case of "sudden shock and terror causing the spirit to lose its anchor."

"Aunt Shen, how has your appetite been recently?"

Li Xu didn’t dwell on the car accident, so as not to upset her. He changed the subject with a smile, asking, "Generally speaking, people who don’t sleep well often have a poor appetite. The two tend to affect one another."

"It’s not great, to be honest. Nothing has any flavor. But... I suppose it’s manageable. I just force myself to eat."

Shen Wen forced a smile.

She looked toward Ding Kaifang, remembering what he had said earlier.

"Kaifang, how did things turn out with your mother? Was her insomnia cured?"

"My mom was in much worse shape than you are now."

Ding Kaifang immediately chimed in to assist. "We were at our wit’s end, so we found an incredible TCM doctor to take a look. He prescribed a few rounds of herbal medicine to calm her spirit. And you know what? It wasn’t long before she made a miraculous recovery. Now she sleeps soundly all the way till dawn."

"Mm."

Shen Wen just gave a slight nod, her expression completely placid. "As long as she’s better. For us older folks, being able to eat and sleep well is a true blessing."

Li Xu sat beside them, observing quietly.

’Judging from Aunt Shen’s reaction, Ding Kaifang’s little "advertisement"—which should have piqued her interest—had clearly fallen flat.’

’If Aunt Shen truly had a strong desire to get better, or even a shred of trust in traditional Chinese medicine, she would have taken the bait and asked, "Which doctor was it?" or "What medicine did she take?"’

’But Aunt Shen hadn’t asked a thing.’

’This proved that, deep down, she held a profound prejudice and resistance toward traditional Chinese medicine. She wasn’t just uninterested; the thought of even giving it a try had never crossed her mind.’

"Alright, you young people can go on chatting. I won’t keep you. I have to go upstairs and tidy a few things."

As she spoke, Aunt Shen pushed herself up using the armrest of the sofa. Then she said to Cui Guanghui, "Hui, you take good care of your friends. Open a nice bottle of wine for lunch."

"Mom, why don’t you sit a little longer?"

Cui Guanghui grew a little anxious.

’It’s been too short. They’ve barely exchanged a few words.’

He smiled and tried to persuade her, "You haven’t been sleeping well and your energy is low. It’s not good for you to be upstairs alone where your mind can wander. Since Brother Ding and Brother Li are here, why don’t we all have some tea and chat? It would be a good distraction."

Of course, Cui Guanghui hoped Li Xu could chat with his mother a little longer.

’Even without feeling her pulse, with Li Xu’s skill, a little more conversation would surely yield some useful information and be a great help for her treatment.’

"No, I’ll let you all chat."

Aunt Shen smiled and waved her hand dismissively. Her tone was gentle but firm. "You young people talk about business, cars, things like that. I’m not interested in those things anymore. Listening to too much of it just makes my head feel noisy."

With that, Aunt Shen turned and walked toward the staircase.

...

"Brother Li, that’s just how my mother is. Please don’t take it personally."

Once his mother’s figure had disappeared around the bend in the staircase, Cui Guanghui turned back to Li Xu, looking a bit sheepish.

"Don’t worry, I understand. In fact, I have a pretty good grasp of the situation already."

Li Xu said with a smile, picking up his teacup and taking a light sip.

"You already have a grasp of it, Brother Li?"

Cui Guanghui’s eyes went wide with surprise.

He had been there for the entire conversation between Li Xu and his mother.

’Didn’t they just make small talk and ask about her sleep and appetite?’

’He didn’t even feel her pulse. How could he have possibly figured anything out?’

Ding Kaifang also stared at Li Xu in astonishment.

He had been with Li Xu the entire time as well.

’Observation, olfaction and auscultation, inquiry, and palpation... aside from asking a few questions, it didn’t seem like he’d really used the other methods, had he?’

’Could it be that Doctor Li had already cultivated his skills to the legendary realm where he could diagnose an illness with a single glance?’

Cui Guanghui asked eagerly, "Brother Li, you said you have a grasp of it. Does that mean you’re confident? Is there a way to treat her?"

"Judging from her complexion, demeanor, and our brief conversation, Aunt Shen’s condition isn’t complicated. She suffered a sudden, terrible calamity and an extreme shock, which caused ’great shock and terror, sending her qi and blood into disarray’."

Li Xu set down his teacup and explained methodically, "In professional TCM terms, ’shock scatters the qi, and fear makes the qi descend.’ The Heart houses the Spirit, and the Liver houses the Ethereal Soul. Extreme fear has caused her Spirit to lose its anchor and her Ethereal Soul to detach from her body. When the Soul and Spirit are unsettled, it leads to Liver Qi Stagnation, which in turn transforms into Fire. In other words, Blazing Liver Fire."

"In layman’s terms, as the old folks would say, her soul was ’scared away,’ leaving her utterly distraught. That’s why she’s in a daze and can’t sleep at night. The slightest disturbance startles her awake, like a bird that’s been shot at before, and she’s plagued by nightmares."

In TCM, diagnosis relies on the combined use of the four examination methods: observation, olfaction and auscultation, inquiry, and palpation. Feeling the pulse is not the only method, nor is it even the most important. As the *Nan Jing* states: "To know by observing is the mark of a divine physician."

Thanks to the system’s boon and extensive clinical practice, Li Xu’s skill in diagnosis by observation could be described as nothing short of masterful.

Such a level of skill would absolutely place him in the top echelon of the entire world of Xinglin.

Most importantly, the sheer volume of knowledge Li Xu had mastered was immense.

The knowledge imparted by the system wasn’t merely a collection of isolated prescriptions; it was the distilled experience and insights of famous physicians throughout history, poured directly into his mind.

Take the *Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Warm Pathogenic Diseases* or the *Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet*, for example. Many veteran TCM doctors spend their entire lives poring over these texts, weighing every single word, and still wouldn’t dare claim to fully understand them.

But Li Xu was different.

Once the content of a medical text was activated by the system, it was etched into his mind as if carved by a knife and chisel. He didn’t just memorize the original text; he understood its very essence and how to apply it with flexibility.

It was like taking an exam. Everyone else was taking a closed-book test, relying on memory and scratching their heads when faced with obscure or tricky questions.

But Li Xu was essentially taking an open-book exam with a super-powered search engine.

When faced with any number of complex conditions, he could instantly retrieve the most relevant information from his massive knowledge base.

His advantage was simply overwhelming.

Furthermore, Li Xu had spent the last few years grinding it out at the clinic, meeting people from every walk of life. He had developed a thorough understanding of human nature and the subtle psychological resistance of patients.

"An illness like Aunt Shen’s, where the root lies in the ’mind’ and the ’spirit,’ can’t be easily cured just by prescribing a few batches of herbs to calm the spirit and steady the will."

Li Xu said in a low voice, "An ailment of the mind requires a medicine for the mind."