Chapter 7 - I Should Have Asked More Questions!
Chapter 7: I Should Have Asked More Questions!
Life had taught Huang Lingjia a valuable lesson. From that experience, she realized an important principle: never be too curious about the ingredients in Chinese medicine! Being overly curious could lead to unforeseen consequences. Even if a medicinal herb had an elegant name, it might be ineffective or harmful.
When she returned home, it was already past eight in the evening. Huang Lingjia retrieved the pre-prepared clay pot.
The best method for preparing medicinal decoctions was to use a clay pot, which heated slowly and evenly, making it an ideal vessel for this purpose. Of course, if you didn’t have a clay pot, you could use an enamel or stainless-steel pot as an alternative.
She began to follow the decoction steps that Lu Ming had provided her. The first step involved soaking the medicinal herbs in cold water. Then came the actual decoction process. The medicine needed to be decocted three times. For the first round of decoction, she added several bowls of water, boiled it down to one bowl, and then strained out the residue.
The leftover medicinal residue remained in the pot, and she added about two-thirds of the original amount of water for the second round of decoction. Immediately following that, she strained the second bowl of medicinal soup and continued with the third round of decoction. For the third round, she used significantly less water than the previous two rounds.
In the end, she would have three bowls of medicinal soup. At this point, the medicinal residue had largely lost its potency so that it could be discarded as wet waste for garbage separation. If you were uncertain about the amount of water to use during the three decoction rounds, you could also use an equal amount of water for each round.
The first bowl of medicinal soup would be quite concentrated, the second one would be lighter in color, and the third one would be even lighter.
Afterwards, you mix the three bowls of medicinal soup and divide them into three portions.
Generally speaking, for minor ailments, consuming Chinese medicine three times is usually effective.
“If I had known that preparing medicine would be such a hassle, I wouldn’t have done it myself.”
Checking the time, it was already early morning. Huang Lingjia sat on her bed, breathing slightly heavily, feeling some regret. The medical clinic could have handled the preparation for her, but her mother had sent her a clay pot when she heard that she needed to take Chinese medicine.
So, that’s why Huang Lingjia had the idea to prepare it herself. After this experience, she was determined not to prepare medicine alone anymore. Letting the medical clinic handle it sounded much better. It would also save her a lot of time.
Huang Lingjia kept one bowl of medicine and sealed the remaining two, placing them in the refrigerator for low-temperature storage. When she needed to take them the next day, she needed to heat them.
After finishing the bowl of medicine she had kept, Huang Lingjia prepared for bed. Then, around three or four in the morning, she was awakened by a severe stomachache. She clutched her stomach and hurried to the restroom. She initially thought that dealing with it once would be enough. However, to her surprise, the pain returned shortly after. Moreover, the second time didn’t completely resolve the stomachache issue.
This continued, with her frequently getting up throughout the night and making over a dozen trips to the restroom. Eventually, her stomach was empty, and she could only pass some yellowish fluid.
“What is going on?” Huang Lingjia exclaimed. Her face was now pale, and she felt utterly exhausted. She had lost all desire to sleep and somehow made it through the night until morning.
By morning, the stomachache had slightly improved, and she began analyzing the possible reasons behind it. She hadn’t eaten anything unusual the previous day.
After dinner, she had only consumed some Chinese medicine. Dinner should be fine as she had prepared it herself—a simple rice meal with tomato and scrambled eggs. She had been eating the same tomato and egg dish for the past couple of days without issues.
So, the problem must be with the Chinese medicine, she reasoned. However, she didn’t want to jump to conclusions hastily. Since her stomachache had mostly subsided, she went to work as usual.
When she returned home from work, she drank the second bowl of Chinese medicine. The result was… another night of frequent trips to the restroom.
The case was solved! It was indeed the Chinese medicine at fault!
“Incompetent doctor!”
“I knew traditional Chinese medicine couldn’t be trusted!”
Once Huang Lingjia confirmed that the problem was indeed with the Chinese medicine, she immediately took a leave from work. After her condition improved, she headed straight to Jimin Medical Clinic.
At Jimin Medical Clinic, Lu Ming glanced at the time. It was already four in the afternoon, and he was getting ready to tidy up and head to Mingren Hospital.
From Monday to Friday, he stayed in the hospital dorms to facilitate his work, mainly because there were a bunch of inexperienced medical interns who needed his assistance, including some not-so-smart ones who required help with their tasks.
“Finally found you!”
“You quack, doctor! Are you trying to harm me?”
Huang Lingjia burst into the clinic, startling Lu Ming.
What’s going on here?
“Aren’t you the patient from yesterday?” Lu Ming recognized Huang Lingjia right away.
“What’s going on? I was going to ask you the same question!”
“What kind of medicine did you give me?” She asked.
“After taking the Chinese medicine you prescribed, I had non-stop diarrhea!”
Huang Lingjia accused Lu Ming of being an incompetent doctor.
“I gave you a medicine that caused diarrhea?”
“Well, can you show me the medicinal residue?” Lu Ming asked.
“If it turns out that there’s a problem with the prescription I gave you, I won’t evade responsibility.”
Lu Ming assured her, patting his chest. He didn’t try to argue or guarantee that his prescription couldn’t be wrong, as that would only agitate the patient.
“Medicinal residue?”
Huang Lingjia bit her lip, suspecting that Lu Ming was employing some sort of delaying tactic. However, she had a record of buying medicine from him, so she assumed he couldn’t escape from this.
With a cold snort, Huang Lingjia said, “Fine, wait for me. I’ll go back and get the medicinal residue now.”
Huang Lingjia rushed back home. Fortunately, in her residential community, there were time restrictions for trash disposal. When she was at work, the garbage collection point in her neighborhood was still closed, which meant she often had to accumulate several days’ worth of trash at home and then dispose of it during her days off. So, the medicinal residue was still in her home’s trash bin.
After retrieving the medicinal residue, Huang Lingjia headed back to the clinic.
Smack! Huang Lingjia tossed the medicinal residue, wrapped in a plastic bag, onto Lu Ming’s desk.
“I brought the medicinal residue!”
“I’d like to hear what reasonable explanation you have for me.”
Huang Lingjia crossed her arms, ready to report the situation to the relevant authorities.
Lu Ming put on disposable medical gloves and examined the medicinal residue. Then, he paused and pointed to one of the pieces of residue. “What is this?”
Huang Lingjia glanced at it and replied, “A dung beetle!”
“Isn’t this one of the things you prescribed in the medicine?” She said.
Lu Ming’s mouth twitched, and he said helplessly, “It wasn’t part of the prescription. This dung beetle must have fallen into the medicine on its own.”
Huang Lingjia: ???
Huang Lingjia was utterly dumbfounded. When she was decocting the medicine, she indeed saw the dung beetle but had mistaken it for another type of medicinal herb. After all, even sparrow droppings and bricks could be considered medicinal herbs, so a dung beetle as a medicinal herb wasn’t that surprising, right?
Now you’re telling me it fell in on its own?
It’s not part of the prescription?
Are you kidding me?
Huang Lingjia’s composure shattered. She should have asked more questions! She should have inquired thoroughly about what exactly the medicinal herbs in the prescription were!
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