Chapter 788: Treating Patients on the Spot

Chapter 788: Chapter 788: Treating Patients on the Spot

"Please have a seat."

Li Xu smiled and pressed his hands down to motion for quiet. "Actually, this isn’t fortune-telling; it’s the medical principles found in the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor*. Don’t think of traditional Chinese medicine as something overly mystical. It’s hidden right here in our daily lives.

"According to the theories of the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor*, ’the heart governs the mind and spirit.’ When a person’s emotions are unsettled and they are in a long-term state of anxiety and suppression, the first thing to suffer is their spirit. With a restless spirit, insomnia naturally follows.

"Furthermore, traditional Chinese medicine believes that the five primary organs are interconnected. The digestive and transportive functions of the spleen and stomach are extremely closely tied to a person’s emotions. We often say, ’overthinking damages the spleen.’ From the perspective of the Five Elements, the heart belongs to fire, and the spleen and stomach belong to earth. Fire creates earth. If your heart fire is depleted by anxiety, leading to a state where ’fire fails to generate earth,’ you will experience a weakened spleen and stomach, indigestion, and a loss of appetite.

"Therefore, you don’t just have an ailment of the heart; it’s also dragging down your spleen and stomach."

Li Xu paced a couple of steps across the podium and continued, "According to the principle that ’treating an illness requires finding its root,’ simply prescribing you medicine to strengthen your spleen and calm your spirit is useless. The root cause lies in your emotions. This is where we apply the ’emotional regulation method’ from the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor*.

"The *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor* says: ’Joy overcomes sorrow.’ Since you are anxious and sorrowful about having no money, you must find a way to make yourself happy. You can participate in more pleasant activities that don’t cost anything—like playing basketball on the sports field, watching a comedy movie, or shooting the breeze with your friends in the dorm. Use the emotion of ’joy’ to suppress the state of ’sorrow.’

"At the same time, regarding your diet, we need to adjust its structure according to the concept of ’nourishing with the five grains.’ Since your living expenses are tight, stop going out to eat junk food. Go to the cafeteria more often for affordable foods that strengthen the spleen, like Mountain Yam porridge or millet and barley porridge.

"As for your daily routine, follow the health-preserving philosophy of the *Inner Jing*: ’Retire late at night and rise early, never tiring of the sun.’ Since you don’t have the money to go out and have fun, go to sleep earlier at night and wake up earlier in the morning to jog on the sports field. Let the circulation of your qi and blood return to a normal, natural rhythm. This way, your spirit will get the rest it needs, your qi and blood will be replenished, and your anxiety will naturally decrease over time..."

At this point, Li Xu paused. His tone grew earnest, yet carried a hint of humor. "Of course, the most important point—which is the true ’root’ of your illness—is that from now on, you need to learn how to manage your finances. Don’t overspend your living allowance in the first half of the month anymore. Live within your means and avoid artificially creating anxiety for yourself. Otherwise, over the long term, with both your heart and spleen depleted, you’ll really end up fulfilling the prophecy in the *Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor* of ’declining at the age of fifty.’

"Additionally..."

Looking at the male student who clearly wished the floor would swallow him whole, Li Xu smiled and delivered one last blow. "Of course, the specific reason about you overspending your allowance was just a guess on my part. Judging by your complexion and demeanor—your face has a sallow, bluish-yellow tint—it’s obvious you don’t have a girlfriend yet, so it doesn’t look like your sorrow stems from relationship troubles. Looking at your hairline and relaxed posture, it also doesn’t seem like you’ve worn yourself out from intense academic pressure or studying for master’s and doctoral exams.

"Moreover, back when I was in college, I always had friends like you around. At the start of the month, they acted like high rollers. By the end of the month, they were eating instant noodles in the dorm every day, sick with anxiety over how they were going to survive. So, consider this a ’diagnosis’ combined with a bit of social experience."

The male student was left speechless.

They always said that in front of a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, a patient had no secrets. Right now, this male student felt like he had just suffered an undeserved calamity. Was it simply because he sat near the front and hadn’t managed to run away in time that Li Xu had turned him into live teaching material? Not only had Li Xu diagnosed his illness, but he had also completely exposed his background as a broke, single guy. This was absolute social death.

"HAHAHAHA..." Bouts of good-natured laughter erupted throughout the lecture hall.

This method of perfectly blending the profound theories of the *Inner Jing* with the very real, broke daily lives of college students made everyone feel an incredible sense of familiarity. It was vivid, engaging, and deeply memorable.

"We are all studying traditional Chinese medicine. Before we go out to treat illnesses and save others, we must first take care of ourselves." Once the laughter gradually died down, Li Xu’s expression turned serious as he threw out a remarkably sharp point. "I’ll teach you all a ’homegrown method’ for evaluating a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. Generally speaking, when you go to an outpatient clinic, if you run into a doctor who looks haggard themselves—or even has a receding hairline and is balding—then that doctor’s skill level is usually not very good. You can go do some research on this yourselves.

"Western medicine experts and top-tier surgeons often experience hair loss due to the constant high pressure of surgeries. That’s quite normal. However, those truly renowned veteran Chinese medicine doctors, regardless of their age—whether they are seventy or eighty—often have thick heads of hair. Some even have jet-black, shiny hair.

"Why is that? Because traditional Chinese medicine states that ’hair is the surplus of blood, and the vitality of the kidneys manifests in the hair.’ If a doctor can’t even maintain and regulate their own qi, blood, and kidney essence, burning themselves out until they go bald, would you dare trust them to properly regulate your body?"

"I..." Sitting in the back row auditing the class, Director Liang had just picked up his teacup to take a sip. Upon hearing this, he nearly spat his water out.

"This kid, Li Xu... he really dares to say anything," Director Liang said with a wry smile, lowering his voice to speak to Dean Ai beside him.

That was way too broad of an attack. This was, after all, a lecture hall in a medical college. Sure enough, out in the hallway or sitting in the back corners of the room, there were several middle-aged associate professors and lecturers sporting "Mediterranean Sea" hairstyles who were eavesdropping. Hearing his words, their faces instantly turned beet red.

They subconsciously touched their own shiny, bald crowns, expressions of extreme resentment and anger surfacing on their faces.

They wondered who the hell they had offended. They were just standing here listening to a lecture, trying to learn some advanced experiences, and now they had to suffer personal attacks? What did their baldness ever do to him? Did being bald mean they had to be nailed to the pillar of shame in the Chinese medicine community and utterly despised?

Yet, despite the stifling grievance in their hearts, when they carefully thought over Li Xu’s words, they found themselves unable to refute them. Because that was exactly how traditional Chinese medicine theory was written. That just made the whole situation even more depressing.

"Alright, getting back to the main topic. Let’s look at another case." Li Xu paid no mind to the "bald seniors" who might have suffered friendly fire. His gaze swept across the middle and back rows of the lecture hall.

Suddenly, his hand pointed out once again. "This senior, the one who’s been coughing this whole time. Please stand up."

Li Xu was pointing at a graduate student sitting on the edge of the fifth row. He wore glasses and looked to be a year or two older than Li Lin.

Earlier, during the gaps in Li Xu’s lecture, this young man had been covering his mouth with his hand, trying his best to suppress his coughs. However, that intermittent, dry hacking had still caught Li Xu’s attention.