Chapter 675: Testing the Medicine

Chapter 675: Chapter 675: Testing the Medicine

"Don’t be in such a hurry. There’s enough for everyone. You, you, and you—the three of you guys, come with me."

Gao Yuan casually pointed to three people.

The three who were chosen exchanged glances. Although they were a little nervous, they were also a bit excited.

’To be picked out by a senior expert right after we arrived... this must mean we’re about to be given important roles.’

They quickly stepped forward and asked with expectant faces, "Sir, is there anything we can help with? Just say the word. We’re strong."

Gao Yuan was very pleased. He praised them, saying, "Good, very good. The new generation of young people has such a great attitude. Much better than those old slackers in the hospital who only know how to dodge work. Not bad. You have a bright future."

Hearing the praise, the three of them grinned foolishly, feeling quite pleased with themselves.

Gao Yuan beckoned them over. "It’s nothing major. I’m just researching a few new formulas. First, come to the pharmacy and help me assess the potency of some medicinal herbs."

One of the young men immediately puffed out his chest and promised, "Okay, Sir, no problem! We studied herbal identification in school. I can do it all—judging by appearance, by smell. May I ask what herbs we’ll be assessing?"

Gao Yuan replied calmly, "Mainly the toxicity and residual potency of herbs like Aconite."

The men immediately nodded. ’This doesn’t seem too hard,’ they thought.

Then they asked, "So, Sir, how should we help with the assessment? Are we using instruments to test them?"

Gao Yuan glanced at them and said matter-of-factly, "Instruments are too slow, and they aren’t accurate. This is Traditional Chinese Medicine. We have to use the most primitive and most effective method."

"You’ll drink the medicine. Human testing."

"Huh?"

The smiles on the faces of the three young men, who had been excited just moments before at the thought of joining a senior expert on a prestigious research project, instantly froze. Their mouths gaped wide enough to fit an egg.

Drink the medicine?

Human testing?

What kind of method was this?

It wasn’t just them. The rest of the energetic young men who had been watching the spectacle were also dumbfounded. They looked at each other, wondering if they had misheard.

Only Li Lin, who had already drunk a bowl earlier and thought he was in the clear, couldn’t help but laugh. He tried to lighten the mood. "Haha, Sir, you’re quite the joker. Look how you scared them—their faces have gone pale. This bunch is always so timid, not like me. They’re so jumpy and can’t take a scare."

Gao Yuan turned his head, looked at Li Lin, and asked with a half-smile, "Did you bring a pen and paper?"

Li Lin froze, subconsciously patting the backpack on his back. "I did. They’re in my bag."

Gao Yuan nodded and said in a calm tone, "Perfect. In a little while, find a toilet to camp out in and record every single one of your body’s reactions in detail. That’s also valuable clinical data."

The smile vanished from Li Lin’s face instantly. A deeply ominous premonition rose in his heart, and his voice trembled. "W-Wait a minute, Sir... what was that you had me drink earlier?"

Gao Yuan replied calmly, "Nothing to worry about. Just a decoction made from 30 grams of raw Da Huang. It’ll help clear some heat from your system and, incidentally, test the sensitivity of different body types to purgative herbs."

"Huh?"

Li Lin’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Raw Da Huang? And 30 grams of it?"

As a graduate student of Traditional Chinese Medicine, he knew all too well the power of Da Huang.

That stuff was known as "the General"!

Renowned for "expelling the old to bring in the new, cleansing the stomach and intestines."

A normal 10-gram dose for constipation could make a person’s legs go weak from diarrhea. Thirty grams... wouldn’t that just pull out your entire intestinal tract?

"Holy shit! I’m gonna die!"

Li Lin couldn’t care about his image anymore. With a bloodcurdling shriek, he clutched his stomach and sprinted toward the restrooms.

He was faster than a rabbit.

The remaining people were completely dumbfounded.

The doctors at the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine... were they all this terrifying?

Isn’t this a little too hardcore?

The three unlucky souls who had just been eager to help now had faces green with fear, their calf muscles cramping up.

Gao Yuan didn’t stand on ceremony, reaching out directly to grab these three new "guinea pigs."

Seeing his stance, the three of them turned to run.

But how could they possibly be a match for Gao Yuan?

The old man had spent years trekking through deep mountains and old forests, crossing peaks and ridges as if walking on flat ground.

Although he looked old, he was remarkably agile. Just last month, he had been gathering herbs with Li Xu on the sheer cliffs of Yandang Mountain.

Catching these university students, who were clearly not used to physical labor, was a piece of cake.

Gao Yuan shot forward in a single bound, like a hawk pouncing on a rabbit, and subdued the three young pups in just a few moves.

Then he stretched out an arm, grabbing them by their collars and hauling them away as if they were a bunch of chickens.

"What are you running for? This is a sacrifice for medical science! What a glorious thing to do!"

The three dumbfounded interns’ expressions had now shifted from terror to despair.

Gao Yuan hauled them off, their bodies dangling from his grip.

The three young men stretched out their hands helplessly, clawing at the empty air, their eyes screaming, "Help me!"

As he walked, Gao Yuan muttered to himself, "Hmm, interns... They’re part of the hospital now. Since you’re here, you need to have the right attitude. Don’t worry, it won’t kill you. You’ll just feel awful for a couple of days at most."

Since Gao Yuan had been hired as an honorary consultant, he naturally wanted to achieve something.

He planned to light his first fire as a new appointee in the field of pharmacological research.

Most modern pharmacological research is conducted in laboratories, using small white mice and large white rabbits for experiments to test for toxicity and adverse reactions.

Although the data looks good on paper, there’s always a gap between that and the actual human body’s response.

But Gao Yuan was a man of action.

He believed in the spirit of "Shennong tasting a hundred herbs."

In his view, if you wanted to truly understand an herb—especially potent and toxic ones—just reading books and reports was useless. You had to taste it yourself.

To Li Xu and Gao Yuan, this was actually no big deal.

To study the properties of herbs, they had tasted countless poisons themselves. As long as you controlled the dosage and had the antidote ready, it wouldn’t kill you.

But for these students, fresh out of school and used to a sheltered environment, this method was utterly shocking.

This was especially true with a pharmacology fanatic like Gao Yuan, who often came up with strange and bizarre concoctions. People who didn’t know him were naturally afraid. And so, on their very first day, this group of young students was left stunned by this vivid lesson.

Watching the others get dragged away, the remaining students, including Wang Yue, stood frozen in place, trembling.

Wang Yue turned to Guo Weilin with a terrified expression. "Group Leader... who is that guy? Are... are all the doctors at the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine this twisted? Did we just walk into some kind of trap?"

Guo Weilin was also panicking a little. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and tried to act calm. "This must be a hallucination... no, it must be... a test. Yes, a test of our mental fortitude. We should probably go check in first."

Wang Yue’s face was mournful. "Check in? What’s the point? They’re gone! Shouldn’t we call the police?"

"I..."

Guo Weilin was at a loss for words.

Call the police?

And report what?

That a doctor kidnapped students to make them drink medicine?

He could only sigh. "Forget it. Let’s go find someone in administration and ask what’s going on. Professor Xue isn’t here yet, and we can’t just stand around here like idiots."