On July 6th, the temperature in Jinzhou soared to 38.1°C. The arrival of such temperatures signaled that the hottest week of the year in Jinzhou had arrived. Whether today marked the peak, or if the temperature was just beginning its climb towards 40°C, depended on Lord in Heaven’s arrangement. However, surviving this week meant the temperature would steadily drop, ushering in a comfortable period lasting over two consecutive months. The sun outside was scorching. Inside the Zhonghu Health Center, even with the air conditioning running, the rooms remained stubbornly hot. It was all because Du Heng’s professional title evaluation had passed, and the promotion formalities had begun. It wouldn’t be long before he became a Deputy Director-level doctor. This news officially placed Du Heng at the pinnacle of the rural township medical industry, in terms of both position and professional title. From the moment he received the news, a constant stream of people came to congratulate him. First were his colleagues at the Health Clinic, then classmates from the police station and Township Government, and finally, acquaintances. After seeing these visitors off, his phone began to ring. Just from answering calls, his mobile phone battery died, and the device started to overheat. It was only then that Du Heng realized he had met so many people in just two short months. Even people whose contact information he’d saved years ago on his phone and WeChat, people who hadn’t surfaced in ages, now called to congratulate him warmly. As he had said to his Big Brother Du Ping that day, when the path is smooth, friends are plentiful. By the time Du Heng had dealt with everyone, it was time to leave work. Gong Daoyang, who hadn’t joined the earlier throng of well-wishers, appeared in the office right on time. "Xiao Heng, congratulations!" "Let’s go! We must celebrate today." "It’s just a promotion. There’s nothing to celebrate." Gong Daoyang shot Du Heng a contemptuous look. "Keep pretending. If this isn’t worth celebrating, what is? A Deputy Director! For someone like me, that’s equivalent to wearing a White Shirt. Don’t you think it’s worth celebrating? Add up all the doctors in Shanghu District, including those at the District Hospital—do you think there are even twenty Deputy Directors?" Du Heng shook his head. "No, there aren’t. Including me, there are only four in the Community Hospitals. The District Hospital has more, with eleven. But my Deputy Director title is different from others; it’s not as prestigious. Besides, if it could compare to your White Shirts, I’d wake up laughing from my dreams." "Never mind prestige! Being a Deputy Director still ranks you higher than them. To put it bluntly, when you go to the district for meetings, you get to sit in the front row." Du Heng laughed heartily, finished packing his things, and immediately stood up to leave. "Even if I weren’t a Deputy Director, I could still sit in the front row." Latest content published on novel[f]ire.net Gong Daoyang paused. "Damn, I forgot you’re the Dean." "Come on, Gong, my treat today. I have some classmates clamoring to get a free meal out of me. It’s a good chance to introduce you all." "Isn’t that a bit awkward?" "Not at all. We’re all very close, practically sworn brothers." Seeing Du Heng’s sincere invitation, not just a perfunctory gesture, Gong Daoyang nodded in agreement. Though Du Heng spoke humbly, he was, in fact, overjoyed, almost to the point of getting carried away. Especially after Wei Kaida and a few others theatrically expressed their ’indignation’ (that he wasn’t joining the celebration), Du Heng finally relented and had a drink. Then... well, the rest of the evening was a blur to him. The next day at work, Du Heng was slumped over his desk. He was thinking about what on earth they had ordered after he passed out from drinking the night before. How had the bill come to over 5,000 yuan? He clearly remembered that before he got drunk, everyone had already enjoyed themselves quite a bit, and they had only spent a little over two thousand yuan at that point. What on earth had happened to the extra 3,000 yuan? Alone in his office, he racked his brains, cursing those scoundrels for secretly spending over three thousand yuan more. It wasn’t that he minded the money; he just desperately wanted to know where that 3,000 yuan had gone. Just as his head was throbbing, Wu Buwei knocked and entered. "Senior Brother, there’s a patient here to see you." "Oh, let’s go." Du Heng mechanically walked out of his office. As he walked from the back courtyard to the consultation room, he finally remembered to ask Wu Buwei, "What kind of patient?" Upon entering the consultation room, the first thing he saw was a distorted face. The man’s left eye couldn’t close; it stared blankly, making Du Heng’s own eyes feel dry just looking at it. His mouth was pulled to the right. When Du Heng entered, the man stood up, making garbled, ’woo-woo’ sounds. It sounded a bit like he had a thick tongue, but Du Heng suspected his tongue was too stiff to move properly. On the positive side, he wasn’t drooling, and his neck wasn’t affected; it appeared normal. A woman in her forties, presumably his wife, stood beside the patient. Du Heng walked over to the patient and said softly, "Don’t move. Let me examine you first." After the examination, he took the patient’s pulse. His pulse was choppy and weak; his tongue was red, dry, and lacked a coating. After the examination, Du Heng was somewhat stunned. It looked like a stroke, but the examination findings indicated damage to both Qi and Yin. This was especially evident in his pulse, which had as many as seven missed beats within a count of fifty. His pulse was knotted and intermittent, and he had heart palpitations—his heart clearly had issues too. Damage to both Qi and Yin, which is also yin and yang deficiency, simply meant a depletion of true Yin and severe damage to his original qi. This condition was typically seen in chronic, hard-to-treat illnesses. Now, to make matters worse, his heart was also affected. "When did this happen? How?" The man gesticulated wildly, anxiously making unintelligible noises, but Du Heng couldn’t understand a word. He turned his gaze to the woman, hoping she could explain. Seeing Du Heng’s look, the woman gently patted the man, who was still vocalizing and gesturing, and said with a sorrowful expression, "It was at the end of April. My husband returned from a trip. We were all sitting together for dinner when he suddenly couldn’t speak, and his eyes wouldn’t close." Both Du Heng and Wu Buwei were startled. "The end of April? That’s been two months! Haven’t you been to a hospital?" The sorrow on the woman’s face deepened. "We went, of course, we went. We figured it was a stroke at the time, so we immediately took him to the Second Affiliated Hospital of JZU. The doctor who saw him also said it was a stroke but claimed it was a minor issue. They said if he took some medicine and underwent their ’health care treatment,’ he’d recover in a month. But it’s been two months now, and there’s still no improvement. Yesterday, we ran into Hao Haiyang. He said he also had facial paralysis not long ago and you cured him in seven days, so we rushed over to find you." Hao Haiyang? Du Heng couldn’t quite recall the name. Then he remembered treating one facial paralysis patient, a relative of Li Qingde. That must be him. "What medicine did he take last time? Do you have the medicine box?" "We saw a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, and they prescribed Chinese herbal medicine. I brought the prescriptions." As she spoke, she rummaged through her bag and pulled out several sheets of paper. Du Heng was speechless. Going to the Second Affiliated Hospital of JZU for traditional Chinese medicine? How little must they think of the doctors at the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine? What were they thinking?! After flipping through them, Du Heng had a general idea. He handed the prescriptions to Wu Buwei, who was beside him. Wu Buwei read them carefully and said, "Senior Brother, this is a Pulling Aright Powder Formula variant, an Expelling Wind Medicine. There shouldn’t be a problem with this, right?" Du Heng sighed. "We’ve treated so many stroke paralysis patients. Do you still think there’s no problem with this approach?" Wu Buwei was taken aback, unsure how to respond.