[Today's Intelligence: Medicinal herbs are close at hand—go look in the courtyard. You can see a few wild white flower snake tongue grass plants. They are miraculously effective for treating the common cold and sore throats.]
A new day. The daily intelligence had refreshed.
"White flower snake tongue grass?"
Li Xu was taken aback.
The name was a bit unfamiliar.
'I think I learned about it, but I can't quite recall...'
Li Xu grabbed a book from the table and began flipping through it, quickly finding the entry for white flower snake tongue grass.
"Oh, so that's what it is."
White flower snake tongue grass was the scientific name; it also had many other names, such as dragon snake grass, fierce armor grass, and white flower cross grass.
But it was even more widely known by another name: Throat Grass.
It was a typical annual plant.
The plant would wither after completing its twelve-month life cycle.
It often grew in farmland, by the roadside, along stream and river banks, and in courtyards.
Currently, no one specifically cultivated Throat Grass on a large scale.
This was mainly because it wasn't used very often.
However, its value was not insignificant.
It was miraculously effective for treating the common cold.
The term referred to a cold caused by a virus.
After washing up, Li Xu went out to the courtyard behind the clinic.
Sure enough, he saw a few stalks of Throat Grass in a corner of the courtyard.
They stood about thirty-some centimeters tall.
Their leaves were long and slender.
They had small white flowers.
He hadn't noticed them before.
'I never expected the system to specifically point them out.'
Li Xu pulled them up, roots and all.
They were annual plants, after all.
Even if he left the roots, they wouldn't grow back next year.
Li Xu placed them in a basin of water and washed them several times.
There were two ways to process them into medicinal herbs.
One method was to simply sun-dry them, which was quick and easy.
The other was to dry them at a low temperature before storage.
Li Xu laid them out in the courtyard to dry.
He went out for breakfast.
Then he returned to the clinic to begin his consultations for the day.
Not much time had passed before Aunt Li walked in, wearing the distinctive yellow uniform of a sanitation worker.
"Aunt Li, finished with your rounds?"
"All done."
"How are you feeling? Is the fever gone?"
"I took my temperature this morning. It's normal, and I don't feel sick anymore. Xiao Xu, I never thought you'd truly inherited your father's skills! Haha, the neighbors around here are going to be in good hands from now on."
Aunt Li praised him for a bit, then took out 100 yuan and handed it to Li Xu. "I haven't paid you for the medicine yet."
"The three prescriptions are 60 yuan in total. Here's 40 in change for you."
As Li Xu made change, he said, "Aunt Li, don't forget to spread the word for me."
Aunt Li immediately replied, "I've told lots of people over the last two days! More than ten of them have colds. What? Have none of them come?"
"Only three have come."
"Hmph, so they don't trust this old lady. Tell me, who were the ones that came?"
They compared notes.
Aunt Li quickly figured out who hadn't shown up and immediately promised, "Don't you worry, Xiao Xu. I'll be sure to drag them over today."
With that, she hurried away.
Before long, Aunt Li returned, dragging a woman in her fifties with her.
"I'm telling you, don't let his age fool you. He inherited his father's medical skills. He'll have you cured for sure."
Aunt Li pressed the woman down into a seat and said to Li Xu, "Xiao Xu, take a look at her."
He first took her pulse, then observed her condition, and finally asked some questions.
It was another typical case of influenza.
However, there were no other symptoms.
Li Xu only prescribed Daqing Leaf and Huang Qin.
"Just these two things?"
The woman's face was full of doubt.
She had taken traditional Chinese medicine before.
Each time, it was a huge bag of herbs.
At least seven or eight different kinds.
She had never seen a prescription with only two herbs before.
"With Chinese medicine, more herbs doesn't mean better results. What matters is that it's effective."
Li Xu explained simply.
In reality, the most important reason was the principle that all medicine is, to some extent, toxic.
No matter how good the medicinal herbs, they all possess some level of toxicity.
It's just a question of degree.
If you can cure an illness with the fewest herbs necessary, you should prescribe as few as possible.
This was something his father had always stressed.
"Alright."
The woman accepted, though reluctantly. "How much is it?"
"It's 50 yuan for all three prescriptions. You can pay me after you've recovered," Li Xu said.
The woman pursed her lips. "Listen to you. It's just the flu. Even without medicine, it'll clear up on its own in a week or so."
Li Xu smiled. "Then let's make it two days, including today. If your symptoms haven't shown significant improvement by tomorrow, you don't have to pay me."
"Really?"
"Really!"
The woman took the medicine and left without paying.
With Aunt Li's help, a few more patients came.
Li Xu prescribed medicine for each of them according to their symptoms.
However, these later patients didn't argue and paid without complaint.
At the end of the day, Li Xu felt a rare sense of fulfillment.
Although he hadn't seen many patients, and they all had minor illnesses like the common cold, each person's pulse, tongue coating, and outward symptoms were different.
The combination of herbs and the dosage for each case required his own careful consideration.
It was far more useful than a whole day of reading books.
...
「Weimin Clinic」
Han Weimin walked to the entrance of his clinic and gazed south.
Then he turned and went back inside.
"You've been distracted all day. What's gotten into you?"
Wang Xiulan complained, "You even prepared the wrong medication just now."
Han Weimin muttered, "Haven't you noticed? Between yesterday and today, at least ten patients have gone to Li's Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic."
Wang Xiulan shook her head as she took out a glucose bottle and injected medication into it with a syringe. "I'm so busy I can't even feel my feet. Where would I find the time to notice?"
Han Weimin kept muttering, "It's just so strange."
This wave of flu was hitting hard. Even with an IV drip, it was difficult to bring down a fever and stop the symptoms quickly.
'Isn't Chinese medicine notoriously slow to take effect?'
'So why were patients still going there for treatment?'
However, his wife's nagging soon had him busy again, and he had no time to worry about anything else.
But the next day, he noticed even more people going to Li's Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic.
What's more, the number of patients in his own clinic had clearly dropped.
Just as he was pondering this, he saw an acquaintance walk past the entrance.
It was a patient who had received an IV drip there yesterday, and he was carrying two bags of herbs.
"Old Zhang, over here!"
Han Weimin called Old Zhang into the clinic and asked accusingly, "Old Zhang, why aren't you on a drip anymore? Did you buy Chinese medicine instead?"
Old Zhang sighed. "I was on a drip for two days. My fever went down for a bit, but it came right back. It's not working. Then I heard from Sister Li that she got better after just two prescriptions of Chinese medicine, so I thought I'd give it a try."
Han Weimin sneered. "You're listening to her nonsense? An illness that an IV can't cure, how could two packs of herbs possibly fix it? Let me tell you, you have influenza. If you delay treatment for a few days, it could develop into pneumonia or even encephalitis. Don't blame me for not warning you when that happens."
"Ah..."
Old Zhang started to panic. "Maybe I should get another drip today, then."
"Don't."
Han Weimin waved his hand dismissively. "The flu isn't easy to cure. If I give you a drip today and your fever doesn't break, you'll just blame me. Didn't you already buy two prescriptions of herbs? Go home and take them. If you're still not better tomorrow, then come back for a shot."
"Alright."
Old Zhang thought it over. He had already bought the medicine, so he might as well try it and see what happened.
...
After Old Zhang left, Han Weimin said to the patients currently getting injections in the clinic, "Just you watch. He'll definitely be back tomorrow, and his condition will be even worse."
The patients receiving their shots all chimed in, "That's right."
"Going for Chinese medicine instead of getting a shot for a fever and a cold... I don't know what some people are thinking."
"Chinese medicine takes way too long to work."
"Yeah, and by the time you finally recover, you don't even know if your body healed itself or if the herbs actually did anything."