The best way to balance Yang Qi is to eat foods that clear heat and nourish yin, such as pears, lily bulbs, snow fungus, lotus root, winter melon, and mung beans.

But where could he possibly find these things in the middle of the night, in this remote village?

Li Xu decided to save himself.

He sat up in bed, crossed his legs, and used his thumb to press firmly on the "Taichong" acupoint, located on the top of his foot between the first and second metatarsal bones.

Taichong is the source point of the Liver Meridian of Foot Jueyin, and it is the primary acupoint for soothing the liver, regulating qi, and quelling liver fire.

Next, he located the "Sanyinjiao" acupoint, three cun above the tip of his inner ankle bone, and pressed it as well.

Sanyinjiao is the meeting point of the three yin meridians—the liver, spleen, and kidney. Pressing this point can nourish the yin of all three organs simultaneously, achieving the effect of "nourishing yin and reducing fire."

He closed his eyes and focused intently on pressing these two acupoints. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

After about fifteen minutes,

he felt the restless, searing heat inside him, which had nowhere to go, gradually being pacified by a cool energy.

The excitement and agitation in his heart also slowly faded.

Feeling less agitated, he finally lay back down and gradually drifted off to sleep.

...

Meanwhile, Snar returned home.

Tonight, it was his turn to sleep with his first wife.

However, he had barely lain down before the surging, virile energy in his body became irrepressible.

He rolled over and pinned his first wife beneath him.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

His first wife, startled by his sudden movement, said, "You just recovered from your illness. You need to take care of yourself."

But Snar didn’t listen.

He felt terrifyingly strong today.

Like a young, powerful bull.

Ever since he married his second wife, the dual pressures on his body and mind had often left him feeling inadequate in the bedroom.

Although his two understanding wives had never complained,

he had grown increasingly insecure.

But today, he was going to reclaim a man’s dignity and pride.

...

Half an hour later,

he looked smugly at his dazed wife beneath him and asked, "Well?"

His first wife’s face was filled with unconcealable surprise and satisfaction. She looked at her husband with adoration. "Snar, you were... amazing today."

However, that wasn’t the end.

Snar still wasn’t satisfied.

’I can’t neglect my second wife.’

He slipped into his second wife’s room.

Another half-hour whirlwind passed...

"How did you... get so incredible?"

His second wife nestled in his arms, her face a picture of delighted surprise, and asked curiously.

Snar smiled mysteriously. "I have a powerful method taught to me by the Divine Physician. Don’t you worry, I’ll be this incredible from now on."

He knew that there were still many, many loaches in the river east of the village...

...

For the next two days, Li Xu continued to wait patiently.

The Yabulu and Ah Wei still needed time to air-dry.

During this time, Li Xu continued to treat the villagers who came seeking medical help, diagnosing them and performing acupuncture.

The weather in the Central Asia Region is dry, with little rain and a lot of wind.

Medicinal herbs that would take half a month or even a full month to dry completely elsewhere were almost completely dry here in just three or four days.

Li Xu began to process the two rare medicines.

He put on gloves and a mask, then began by separating the Yabulu from the dog’s skeleton it had grown intertwined with.

Then, he sliced it into thin pieces and repeatedly soaked and steamed them in a medicinal decoction containing licorice and honey to completely remove any residual toxicity and activate its medicinal properties.

As for the Ah Wei, he ground it into a fine powder and roasted it over a low flame to preserve as much of its medicinal aroma as possible.

When all the herbs were properly processed and packed into individual sealed bags,

Li Xu knew it was time to leave.

He called the taxi driver again and asked him to come pick him up from the village early the next morning.

The next day, when the dilapidated Lada sedan appeared once more at the entrance to Donggan Village, the driver was stunned by the sight before him.

Nearly the entire village—men and women, young and old—had spontaneously gathered at the entrance.

Ye Mushen, Snar and his two wives, the little girl Mayila who had been cured of biliary ascariasis and her mother... all the villagers who had been helped by Li Xu were there.

Every one of them was carrying something.

There was homemade cheese, freshly baked naan bread, and colorful, hand-woven tapestries...

They had all come to see Li Xu off.

However,

Li Xu couldn’t possibly carry that much by himself.

He had connecting transport and a flight to catch, making it even more impossible to take everything.

He graciously declined the villagers’ kind gestures.

He took only a large bag of processed herbs.

He had also processed the remaining herbs and left them with Ye Mushen.

"Our friend from the East, you are welcome back anytime."

Ye Mushen and the others waved.

The taxi drove away.

Li Xu leaned out of the window, waving goodbye.

Even after the car had traveled a long distance,

the villagers still hadn’t dispersed.

The taxi driver gave a thumbs-up and drove much more carefully, the ride becoming far less bumpy.

...

「Provincial Capital, in a quiet courtyard.」

Autumn deepened, and the weather grew colder by the day.

The tall plane tree in the courtyard had lost most of its leaves, leaving only bare branches that looked somewhat desolate.

Elder Wu was wrapped in a thick woolen coat, yet he still felt a tightness in his chest and shortness of breath.

Although it was warm inside, he couldn’t stay put.

After pacing a couple of laps, he wandered out into the courtyard.

However, a blast of cold wind, laced with a wintery chill, instantly irritated his terribly fragile trachea.

"COUGH... COUGH COUGH COUGH... WHEEZE... WHEEZE..."

A sudden, violent asthma attack had struck again without warning.

He bent over in pain, his hands on his knees, gasping for air as his entire face turned red from the strain.

"Dad, why did you come outside again?"

Hearing the noise, Wu Jingmei rushed out of the house with a woolen blanket in her hand.

She hurried forward, draped the blanket over her father’s shoulders, and gently patted his back to help his breathing, all while complaining with heartfelt distress:

"Can’t you give me a moment’s peace? Dean Zhang warned you over and over not to go out now that the weather’s cold. Why don’t you ever listen?"

Once Elder Wu’s breathing had calmed a little,

Wu Jingmei helped him back into the house.

A look of anxiety and doubt appeared on her face.

She glanced at the calendar and couldn’t help but say, "Dad, do you think that young man, Li Xu, is reliable at all? It’s been over ten days. He said he was going to find medicine, but we haven’t gotten a single phone call, and he’s vanished without a trace. He... he didn’t just talk a big game and then skip town when he couldn’t deliver, did he?"

The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

After all, Li Xu seemed far too young.