Chapter 16 Ninghai Branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine Association

“What’s going on? How come you haven’t taken that guy away?”

Li Wensheng was in a flutter. He kept following Wang Jun and his fellows in an attempt to take away Ding Ning’s cell phone in chaos and destroy his evidence.

Seeing Wang Jun and his fellows failed to take away Ding Ning after such a long time, Li Wensheng knew that they weren’t going to make it. He secretly cursed them and immediately made a phone call, “Shanji, it’s your turn to take action.”

“Brother Li, it’s just a phone. It’s just that my fellows have worked with me for long. They deserve to get paid for doing it…”

There came a listless voice of a man from the phone. Obviously, they wouldn’t cast the eagle till they saw the hare.

“One hundred thousand yuan. As long as you can make it, I’ll pay you one hundred thousand yuan. Now I’ll transfer fifty thousand yuan to you as a deposit!”

Li Wensheng said through clenched teeth. Although one hundred thousand yuan wasn’t a lot of money to him, he still found it a bit unbearable. Nevertheless, one hundred thousand yuan was no big deal compared to his prospect.

“Brother Li, you are so straightforward! I promise to do it well. Just wait for our good news!”

In a restaurant named Bighead Carp at the entrance of the hospital, dozens of young men who looked like punks were drinking in their fervor. One with a cockscomb-like haircut stared at the transfer message on his phone and instantly brightened up.

He hung up the phone and said with a wave, “Buddies, let’s get to work!”

“Boss, you are awesome! You get us a big business deal when you just left the hospital.”

A punk with studs and white hair flattered his boss.

“It’s a piece of cake! Work for me, and I guarantee that you can make a fortune. Let’s go!”

The man with a cockscomb-like haircut first walked out of the restaurant with a vigorous wave, followed by a group of punks.

The fat boss of the restaurant stopped them timidly and said unctuously, “Buddies, you haven’t paid the bill.”

“What the fricking bill should we pay? You didn’t see that we haven’t finished the dishes yet? Don’t remove the dishes. We are going to deal with something. We’ll come back and go on drinking after that. Get off!”

The punk with white hair impatiently kicked away the fat boss and strode away with scorn.

“Bah! Such a gang of damned brats! Nowadays they still dine and dash. Little Liu, follow them. Little Zhao, call the police.”

The fat boss was kicked over, and it took him some time to recover. After that, he roared with a ferocious face.

“Boss, they are bad guys. Will they revenge themselves on us if we call the police?”

The waitress called Little Zhao asked timidly.

“Bullshit! They are just a gang of indecent brats! When I stood out in the underworld, they were just playing with mud somewhere. How dared they dine and dash in my restaurant! They thought I spent all this time in the underworld for nothing? Although I’ve got out of the underworld, there have always been legends of mine. In the underworld, everyone would show me some respect. Just call the police as I said.”

The fat boss ferociously took off his white T-shirt printed with big footprints. At the sight of his breasts which were plumper than those of a woman and tattooed with a cute cartoon goldfish. The fellows couldn’t help laughing while covering their mouths.

At this moment, the senior officials inpatient ward on the thirteenth floor was crowded. There were Director Zhao, Executive Zhou, the senior executive of the hospital committee and even two masters of traditional Chinese medicine Elder Hu and Elder Zhang.

Shen Muqing stayed in bed quietly, perfunctorily responding to the warm greeting from these people with a restrained smile. She knew that they came here not for her, but for the fantastic guy.

Huang Guangwei, director of the cardiothoracic department, said in surprise with the newest inspection report in his hand, “Miracle, it’s a miracle! According to the result of the previous report, atherosclerosis of the patient’s arteria coronaria caused the arterial wall to get thicker and harder as well as the vascular lumen to get narrower. The lesions accumulated in large and medium muscular arteries. They almost developed to block the arterial lumen, which would cause ischemia on the organs supplied by the artery. Now the symptom of atherosclerosis of arteria coronaria has vanished. Although she hasn’t been cured, her condition has been controlled. She is in no danger in a short time.”

Director Zhao knew little about this, but still showed a great interest in it, “To put it bluntly, is the young man really talented?”

“Yes. He’s more than talented. He’s considerably talented.”

Huang Guangwei was quite an open-minded director of the surgical department. He didn’t retaliate against Ding Ning because the latter’s capability of controlling the patient’s condition made him lose face. Instead, he highly praised Ding Ning.

“I can just describe it a miracle. The patient has a severe congenital heart disease, accompanied by patent ductus arteriosus, pulmonary stenosis, heart valve stenosis and symptoms like atherosclerosis of arteria coronaria and myocardium ischemia. I can say that the patient could die at any time like dancing on the point of a sword. I believe that even the best cardiologist around the world doesn’t dare to perform an operation on her.”

Huang Guangwei’s face was brightened up. He took a deep breath and said, “I majored in western medicine. To be honest, I was a bit dismissive of traditional Chinese medicine before. I considered it pseudoscience because it hasn’t been clinically tested. However, now the young man Ding Ning has proved my narrow-mindedness and changed my opinion of traditional Chinese medicine with his fantastic acupuncture therapy. I have to say that traditional Chinese medicine has a curative effect indeed. It has accomplished what western medicine is incapable of and created an impossible miracle. I’m really looking forward to the following therapeutic process.”

It gave Elder Zhang and Elder Hu great delight to hear that. Elder Hu stroked the beard on his chin and said seriously, “Let me add one point. China is a country dogged with misfortunes and mishaps. Multiple foreign invasions resulted in China’s historical and cultural discontinuity. Most medical procedures of our predecessors have been lost, which caused the decline of traditional medicine. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that traditional Chinese medicine is no better than western medicine which takes effect quickly but fixes symptoms instead of root causes. Although the treatment of traditional Chinese medicine takes effect slowly, it emphasizes on addressing both symptoms and root causes with a low recurrence rate.”

Seeing all of them listening earnestly, Elder Hu felt refreshed in high spirits. He said vigorously, “Traditional medicine declined for some reason. Traditional Chinese medicine is extensive and profound, often accompanied by abstruse metaphysics, which easily makes people consider it superstitious. Thus, it has been denounced as pseudoscience. It’s a shame to tell you that Elder Zhang and I both fail to offer an effective treatment for Miss Shen’s condition. Elder Zhang and I can’t understand Ding Ning’s treatment, but it has an apparent effect. Besides, his needle technique seems like the Nine Ghosts and 13-needle technique which has been lost for a long time. Thus, I boldly speculate that Ding Ning’s treatment isn’t from modern traditional Chinese medicine, but from real ancient medicine.”

“What? How is this possible?”

“Ancient medicine reappears. What does it mean to traditional medicine?”

“In ancient times, there was Hua Tuo who treated Guan Yu by scraping the poison off the bone and performed a craniotomy for Cao Cao. It’s thus evident that our ancient traditional Chinese medicine has never been so-called pseudoscience.”

“Does it indicate that traditional medicine is going to revive at the dead end?”

“Although I majored in western medicine, I’m in awe of our mysterious traditional Chinese medicine. However, there are some traditional Chinese physicians who haven’t mastered their medical skills with moral degradation in medicine. They often cheat the patients and treat them with diagnostic errors. That’s the reason for the decline of traditional Chinese medicine.”

“Traditional Chinese medicine is China’s treasure. It shouldn’t decline. Seeing the current situation of the medical community, I feel so sorry for traditional Chinese medicine.”

“The reappearance of ancient traditional Chinese medicine may be the turning point of the rise of China’s medicine.”

“Alas, don’t be so optimistic. It depends on the country’s attitude toward traditional Chinese medicine. There are some current situations which we are incapable of changing.”

… On hearing what Elder Hu said, other people got excited like boiling water drop into boiling oil, giving their own view one after another. Among them, Liu Jianshe, chief of the traditional Chinese medicine section, was the most excited.

Director Zhao watched them calmly but felt extremely excited. He didn’t raise his hands to signal for a pause until they finished the discussion.

After attracting all attention by giving a cough, he said in excitement, “Ministry of Health has just issued the newest document. The document says that national leaders decide to support the development of traditional medicine with great efforts. They plan to establish a Traditional Chinese Medicine Association led by the Ministry of Health, and order departments of health in different places to cooperate and assist. Ninghai is a municipality, so Ninghai Branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine Association will be established.”

Looking around slowly, Director Zhao found the practitioners in traditional Chinese medicine such as Elder Zhang and Elder Hu were all excited. He then said with satisfaction, “Ninghai Branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine Association will be established with the help of Ninghai health bureau, but we just have the supervisory power. The specific business will be managed by the elected president of Ninghai Branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine Association. It aims to carry forward China’s medical culture and make our traditional Chinese medicine an international industry.”

“Is it going to compete with western medicine?”

“Traditional Chinese medicine has declined for several decades. I’m afraid it won’t be that easy for it to rise rapidly.”

“Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. As long as the country is willing to offer support, I believe that traditional Chinese medicine will definitely revive.”

“Easier said than done. Traditional Chinese medicine is different from western medicine. The practitioners of western medicine can be cultivated in huge quantities, but it’s difficult to do that in traditional Chinese medicine.”

“We should do it no matter how difficult it is. The precious treasure left by our ancestors can’t be ruined in our hands.”

…

Director Zhao’s words caused an uproar again. Some people were in high spirits. Some dampened their spirits. Some were ambitious. Some shrank back from difficulties. Some gave their view excitedly. Some were dismissive of it. They showed different attitudes.

Director Zhao watched them with a smile. After they calmed down, he continued saying, “Of course, I tell you the news in advance just to indicate that the country is going to support the development of traditional medicine. We’ll probably initiate the establishment of Ninghai Branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine Association after the Spring Festival. At the time, there will be a conference for the practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine in Ninghai. We’ll talk over the details at the conference. You can carefully consider your opinions or suggestions during this time, and speak them up enthusiastically in the conference. Let’s stop on this topic now and bring our attention back to Miss Shen’s condition. Ms. Ye, is there any chance that Ding Ning could cure Miss Shen?”

Ye Shulan glanced at Shen Muyang who drooped his head without saying anything. He had held the pose without moving since she returned and told him what Ding Ning said.

Knowing that Shen Muyang was entangled, she couldn’t help sighing deeply. Sometimes she couldn’t understand a man’s dignity, such as Ding Ning’s, Shen Muyang’s and her husband’s.

Ye Shulan really wanted to give Shen Muyang a moment. She had an intuition that he would come to terms with Ding Ning finally.

However, now Director Zhao had turned it into a conversation about her daughter. She had to respond, “Ding Ning, hmm, is a doctor with a strong personality, but undoubtedly he’s very talented. I believe that although now he’s not sure about curing Mu Qing, he will be capable of curing Mu Qing sooner or later.”

“Ms. Ye’s words are exactly what I want to say. We are all clear about your daughter’s condition. To put it bluntly, it’s a living miracle that she’s still alive. Ding Ning has created two miracles on this miracle. First, he has restored your daughter’s myocardium expansion. Second, he has restrained the atherosclerosis of her arteria coronaria. In this way, he has gained some time for your daughter. I believe that Ding Ning can create a bigger miracle someday.”

Elder Hu didn’t hide how much he admired Ding Ning. He saw the hope of traditional Chinese medicine’s revival on Ding Ning.