"Old Cao, you just wait. I’m heading to Medicine King Valley right now."

Manager Xie hung up the phone, threw on his down jacket, and rushed out of his office.

A little over an hour later.

Manager Xie arrived at Medicine King Valley, frantic with worry.

He pushed open the door to Cao Xianjun’s room, gasping for breath, and didn’t even bother with pleasantries. "Old Cao, where’s the prescription Li Xu wrote? Let me see it, quickly!"

Cao Xianjun shook his head helplessly. "Manager Xie, Doctor Li didn’t leave a prescription. He prepared the medicine for me on the spot, decocted a bowl of it, and after I drank it, my chronic rheumatism improved significantly."

"No prescription?"

Manager Xie’s brow furrowed. Unwilling to give up, he pressed, "What about the dregs? Are the dregs still here? Give them to me!"

Cao Xianjun shook his head again. "Doctor Li took the dregs with him, too. He said the formula was a secret and that the dregs couldn’t be left behind."

A wave of disappointment washed over Manager Xie.

’Without a prescription or even the dregs, how was he supposed to study Li Xu’s formula?’

He couldn’t accept it. Through a mix of pleading and pestering, he finally managed to get a sample of the medicinal liquid Li Xu had prepared for Cao Xianjun.

He carefully stored the sample away, already planning to send it to a lab for analysis when he got back.

...

Meanwhile, Li Xu and Wang Baimu, after a long trek, finally returned to Shangwang Village.

It was already afternoon, and both of them were quite tired.

They ate a hot meal.

Then they each went to rest.

「The next morning.」

Wang Baimu’s wife had breakfast ready.

Li Xu got up.

Wang Baimu had notified the villagers.

He told them to come to the village courtyard for a free clinic with a doctor.

The main focus would be treating the villagers’ rheumatism and bone pain.

After finishing breakfast, Li Xu prepared to start the free clinic.

Villagers gradually began to gather in the courtyard.

Wang Baimu was introducing him to the villagers.

"This is a doctor from the city. He’s really famous and very skilled. I drank two of his prescriptions, and my legs feel so much better—even better than Panlong Seven Tablets..."

A table was set up.

As soon as Li Xu sat down, the villagers crowded around.

"Doctor, my ’old cold legs’ have been hurting for years. Can you take a look?"

"Doctor, my back... I can’t even straighten it on damp, rainy days. Do you have any good remedies?"

One after another, the villagers described their various aches and pains.

Li Xu listened patiently, taking each person’s pulse and diagnosing them one by one.

Just as Wang Baimu had said, the vast majority of the villagers suffered from some form of rheumatism and bone pain, with varying degrees of severity.

Li Xu wrote different prescriptions based on each person’s specific condition.

The core ingredient was still Panlong Seven, supplemented with other herbs to expel wind and dampness, invigorate blood, and relieve pain, all based on a differential diagnosis.

He portioned out the herbs for each person and had the villagers take them home to decoct.

Because the treatment was tailored to each individual through differential diagnosis, the dosage of each medicine was different.

Therefore, he wasn’t worried about the formula being leaked.

Even if someone else got their hands on a prescription, they wouldn’t be able to replicate it.

In the midst of the bustle, a middle-aged woman carrying two children walked over anxiously.

Her face was etched with worry.

The two children, around three or four years old, were both good-looking but shared a common defect: congenital aural fistulas.

"Doctor, please look at my two children," the woman said, her voice full of sorrow.

Li Xu looked at the children.

While the children did have aural fistulas, what was more severe was the shocking number of poisonous sores that covered the area around their ears. Some had already ruptured, oozing pus and blood.

The children were pale, their eyes filled with pain. They were clearly in agony.

"Doctor, my two children were born with these fistulas. We didn’t think much of it at first and just kept using some medicine. But when they turned two, poisonous sores started growing around their ears, followed by pus and blood draining from inside. It’s so painful now they can’t sleep well at night. Their hearing has gotten worse and worse; they might even be completely deaf..."

As the woman spoke, tears began to stream down her face.

Li Xu frowned, carefully observing the children’s condition.

The sores were indeed severe, having already corroded the deep tissues of the ear and emitting a foul, fishy stench.

He gently touched one child’s ear, and the child flinched, pulling their neck back and crying out in pain.

"Have you taken them to a hospital? What did the doctors say?" Li Xu asked.

The woman nodded. "We have. The hospital doctors said it’s otitis media, but they haven’t been able to cure it. We’ve tried all sorts of antibiotics and even had a debridement surgery, but it just relapses after a short while. Now the doctors are saying it might be some kind of rare disease. We’re at our wit’s end..."

The woman had come to see Li Xu, but truthfully, she wasn’t holding out much hope.

She just wanted to give it a try.

Li Xu had the woman sit down with her children. He took each child’s pulse and diagnosed them, then carefully observed their tongue coatings, complexions, and the look in their eyes.

From their pulses, both children had wiry, slippery, and rapid pulses. Their tongues had a yellow, greasy coating, their faces were flushed, and their lips were dry—clear signs of exuberant heat-toxin in the body. Combined with the symptoms of pus, pain, and hearing loss in their ears, the TCM diagnosis was a pattern of "Damp-Heat in the Liver and Gallbladder Invading the Orifice of the Ear."

In TCM, otitis media is also known by names such as "tinnitus," "deafness," or "ear boils."

Its causes are often attributed to wind-heat pathogenic toxin, damp-heat in the liver and gallbladder, or spleen deficiency with dampness encumberment.

External attacks of wind-heat pathogenic toxin can obstruct the ear orifice, leading to poor circulation of qi and blood and causing hearing loss.

Upward invasion of damp-heat from the liver and gallbladder can stagnate in the ear orifice, corroding the eardrum and causing pus and pain.

Spleen deficiency with dampness encumberment, where internal dampness-evil arises and phlegm-damp congests the upper body, can also lead to blockage of the ear orifice and a decline in hearing.

’This isn’t a simple case of otitis media,’ Li Xu considered. ’It’s recurrent infections caused by the congenital fistulas, compounded by an accumulation of damp-heat and toxins in the body, making the condition complex and difficult to treat.’

He wrote out a prescription to clear the liver and gallbladder, clear heat and detoxify, and expel pus to reduce swelling, based primarily on a modified Long Dan Xie Gan Tang (Gentiana Decoction to Drain the Liver).

"This prescription can clear heat and detoxify, reduce swelling and relieve pain, and expel pus to stop itching. However, the children’s illness won’t be cured overnight. Furthermore, the congenital fistulas make them prone to recurrent infections. Because of that, I can’t guarantee a complete cure."

Li Xu told the woman the truth.

Hearing his words, the woman’s face fell with disappointment.

But she also knew that the illness was truly difficult to treat; even specialists at major hospitals were helpless.

Because he had brought a large bag of medicinal herbs from Medicine King Valley, which included gentian and other necessary ingredients, he was able to prepare the medicine for them right away.

...

Li Xu’s free clinic in Shangwang Village continued for the entire day.

There weren’t many people in the village. Besides the villagers with rheumatism and bone pain, Li Xu also encountered some other ailments.

A few elderly people were troubled by chronic hypertension and high cholesterol.

These chronic conditions couldn’t be cured overnight and required long-term medication and lifestyle adjustments.

Li Xu carefully asked about their current medications, offered some advice on diet and exercise based on their situations, and reminded them to get regular check-ups.

After a busy day, Li Xu was finally able to rest as the last rays of the setting sun painted the sky red.

That evening, Wang Baimu returned from outside, a look of joy on his face.

"Doctor Li, good news! I went to check, and the snow on the mountain is almost cleared. There shouldn’t be any problem going to town tomorrow to handle the paperwork."

Wang Baimu said happily.

Hearing this, Li Xu nodded. "In that case, I’ll trouble you to take me to town tomorrow. Once we get the land lease paperwork for Bailingyu Village sorted out, it’ll be time for me to head back."

He had been away for five days already.

It was about time to return.

The two agreed to set out early the next morning.