Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 165: Does He Have Feelings for Me?

The highest realm of Traditional Chinese Medicine is that all things can be used as medicine.

It is different from Western medicine.

Western medicine focuses on components, insisting on analyzing the constituents of everything.

Sometimes this works, but other times it doesn’t.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, in contrast, doesn’t study components. Instead, it focuses on properties like warm, cool, cold, and hot; on yin and yang and the five elements; and on mutual generation and restraint.

Chinese medicine primarily regulates the human body in two ways: tonifying or purging (which isn’t as simple as strengthening the kidneys or causing diarrhea).

"Tonify the deficient, purge the excessive."

However, various illnesses can change dramatically and are categorized by severity and urgency. Therefore, treatment often requires complex prescriptions, with ingredients adjusted as the illness progresses.

The natural world inherently has relationships of mutual generation and restraint. This understanding is not unique to the scope of Chinese medicine.

Plant roots absorb nutrients from the soil, cattle and sheep eat grass, and tigers and wolves eat the cattle and sheep.

When the tigers, wolves, cattle, and sheep die, their bodies become nutrients for the soil. The food chain is a continuous cycle.

This is the same principle as the mutual generation and restraint of the five elements.

The use of medicine also adheres to these five-element relationships. This is why there are adages about medicines with opposing properties that shouldn’t be used together—all proven through practice.

When people eat rich, fatty meat, a little garlic and vinegar cuts through the grease.

If you get a chill in your stomach, a bowl of hot ginger tea can bring relief.

These are all examples of using the natural medicinal properties of food for regulation.

Chinese medicine isn’t mysterious, but it is quite magical.

For example,

there is a Chinese medicinal ingredient called "floating wheat."

What is floating wheat?

It’s what you get when you toss a handful of unhulled wheat into a basin of water.

The kernels that float are the "floating wheat."

This sounds ridiculous.

Aren’t plump, full wheat kernels better than the ones that float?

So, someone once removed "floating wheat" from all prescriptions that called for it.

But after removing it, the results were very poor.

When it was added back in, the effects were immediate.

Later, that person came to understand that the prescription didn’t rely on the nutritional components of the floating wheat, but on its inherent buoyant energy.

Without this buoyant energy,

it just didn’t work.

Is this scientific?

From the perspective of modern science, of course not.

But it’s effective.

Who are you going to argue with?

"All things" means natural objects, which are not the same as artificially extracted "active ingredients."

Some issues seem to have no consensus, debated for over a hundred years like endless quantum entanglement. In reality, it’s just that the two conflicting sides are too far apart, each stretched out and separated in different "wave troughs"—as the saying goes, different fields are like different mountains.

If one were to skillfully use yin-yang juxtaposition—like quantum communication—to bring the two conflicting sides closer, placing them on opposite sides of the same "wave crest," then the "rise and fall," or the "right and wrong," would become clear at a glance.

Therefore: Effective properties and flavors = unblocking qi flow = clearing obstructions = treating illness. This is NOT the same as: causing illness = creating obstructions = blocking qi flow = focusing only on channel-entering components.

Emperor Huang asked: "What are properties? What are flavors?"

Qi Bo replied: "Properties and flavors = pulse + channels = force (hot, warm, cool, cold) + pathways = pulse + meridians = Earth’s principle + Heaven’s law = weaving heaven and earth."

...

So, it’s no surprise that soot from the bottom of a pot is a form of Chinese medicine.

The Compendium of Materia Medica records: "This is the dark smoke from the stove lintel and flue. Its substance is light and fine, hence it is called ’frost’."

It must be soot from the burning of things like weeds and wood.

Soot from other things, like plastic, coal, or synthetic fibers... will not work.

Song Sisi’s grandmother had been cooking with a wood-fired stove for years,

so it was no wonder that there would be top-quality Hundred Herbs Frost on the bottom of her pot.

’Right, Song Sisi is going back to her hometown today...’

Li Xu took out his phone and made the call.

"Boss, what’s up?"

"Have you left for your hometown yet?"

"Not yet. I was planning to leave a little after eight."

"Wait for me, then. I’ll go with you."

"Huh?"

"Your grandmother’s been out of the hospital for a while, and I haven’t had a chance to visit. This is the perfect opportunity. I’m hanging up, going to grab breakfast."

After hanging up, Li Xu went out and bought some steamed buns and congee.

After he finished eating, he thought about what gift to bring.

After all, you can’t show up empty-handed for a first visit.

And he couldn’t just bring rice, flour, grain, or oil... In society, you had to keep up appearances.

It wasn’t just about him,

he also had to consider Song Sisi and her family.

Li Xu bought some nutritional supplements and went to the supermarket to pick out a few kinds of seasonal fruit.

...

「Meanwhile, in her rented room, Song Sisi was staring at her phone in a daze.」

She had just hung up with Li Xu, and her cheeks were hot enough to fry an egg.

The devil’s ivy on the windowsill stretched its leaves in the morning light, making the blush on her face even more obvious.

"The boss wants to go back to my hometown with me?" she muttered, unconsciously twisting the ends of her hair. "But why?"

When does a boss ever suddenly suggest accompanying an employee back to their hometown?

This clearly meant... Song Sisi’s heart suddenly sped up, like a little deer was running wild in her chest.

She remembered the feeling of Li Xu’s hands when he gave her a massage at the clinic, the way his brow would furrow slightly when he was focused on a medical text, and that momentary exchange of warmth when he’d massaged her...

"Does the boss... have feelings for me...?" She abruptly covered her face and flopped onto the bed, rolling around. "AAAAAH, no way!"

The mirror by her bed reflected her flushed face and messy hair.

Song Sisi forced herself to calm down and began counting on her fingers:

First, even though the boss is handsome, he’s never shown any special interest in me.

Second, outside of work, they often joke around and are very friendly. They get along well on a personal level.

Third, she was just a nurse who didn’t get a permanent position, although she was pretty...

"But!" She shot up again. "Why would he suddenly want to go to my hometown with me? Isn’t that special?"

As for Li Xu’s excuse about visiting her grandmother...

Song Sisi wasn’t an idiot; she didn’t believe it for a second.

The sparrows chirping outside the window seemed to be mocking her turmoil.

Song Sisi grabbed a pillow, covered her face, and ran through countless possibilities in her mind:

’What if Li Xu really confesses his feelings?’

’Should I say yes?’

’Ugh... what do I even feel for him?’

’I can’t really say... But when I think about it, the boss is handsome, rich, and a brilliant doctor. He’s the perfect choice for a boyfriend...’

’But if I say yes right away, won’t I seem too eager?’

Her phone suddenly vibrated, startling her so much she almost jumped off the bed.

It was a message from Li Xu: "I’ll be downstairs in half an hour."

Song Sisi let out a shriek and scrambled to change her clothes.

The closet doors banged as she pulled them open. In the end, she chose a pale blue dress—the last time Lin Xiaoyu wore blue, she had noticed the boss glance at her a couple of extra times.

...

「The taxi drove smoothly along the country road.」

Li Xu sat in the front passenger seat, occasionally glancing at Song Sisi in the back through the rearview mirror.

Sisi was unusually quiet today. She’d been staring down at her phone ever since she got in the car.

Normally, she was the most talkative one.

Like a lark, chirping away without a stop.

"Sisi, are you okay?" Li Xu broke the silence.

"Ah?" Song Sisi looked up abruptly, like a startled rabbit. "I’m fine, I’m fine..."

Her voice trailed off, and the tips of her ears were so red they were almost translucent.

Li Xu noticed that she had deliberately put on light makeup today. Her hair was also neater than usual, and she wore a small bow-shaped hairpin.

"You..." Just as Li Xu was about to speak, Song Sisi interrupted him, saying in a small voice:

"Actually... I’m really happy that you could come see my grandmother, Boss."

"Haha, of course. I should care about my employees and their families."

Li Xu said with a laugh.