Chapter 805: Self-Preservation

Chapter 805: Chapter 805: Self-Preservation

Sitting beside Li Xu, Lin Guorui’s palms were sweating profusely. He admired Li Xu’s courage but worried that these words would offend Ju Jiahong beyond repair.

However, a strange light gleamed in the eyes of Qu Wenxuan, Gu Yingyin, and several other highly skilled young doctors present. Li Xu’s words had hit the very pain point they had experienced in their medical careers over the years—due to the complexity of the modern medical environment, traditional Chinese medicine was gradually being marginalized and reduced to merely treating chronic diseases.

Ju Jiahong fell silent for a moment. Rubbing the lid of his celadon teacup with his fingertips, he suddenly let out a soft chuckle. "Dean Li’s ’battlefield theory’ is quite novel.

"However, theory is just theory. On the battlefield, one must show their true capabilities.

"You say that traditional Chinese medicine has lost the high ground in treating acute and severe cases, but that is because modern Western first-aid methods are indeed systematic and efficient.

"Under such circumstances, does Dean Li really believe that we can gain a foothold in those blood-stained emergency rooms relying solely on three fingers to check a pulse and a bowl of herbal soup?"

This was the most realistic problem. It was also the steady path most highly esteemed by an academic genius like Ju Jiahong—that there is a specialization in every field.

"Whether or not we can gain a foothold doesn’t depend on what we ’believe,’ but on actual combat." Li Xu looked straight at Ju Jiahong, his tone calm yet resounding. "Last week, our Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine received a patient suffering from severe bleeding due to liver cirrhosis. His hemoglobin dropped below forty, his blood pressure was almost unmeasurable, and he was in profound hemorrhagic shock. At the time, Western medical hemostasis methods were ineffective because the patient’s blood coagulation function was too poor. I led my team to use a large dose of Aconite combined with Da Huang, dried ginger, and Red Ginseng. By warming the Yang to prevent collapse and unblocking the bowels to stop the bleeding, we stabilized the patient’s vital signs within half an hour, buying precious time for subsequent interventional therapy."

Li Xu paused before adding, "In that prescription, I used sixty grams of Aconite and boiled it over a rapid fire. If I had considered treating the illness with a mild prescription at that moment, the patient would already be in the morgue."

As soon as these words came out, the conference room fell dead silent.

Liu Haodong and Liu Haixue exchanged a glance. They knew Li Xu wasn’t lying because the patient had passed through the affiliated hospital before being transferred, and the experts in their department had evaluated the patient’s chances of survival as extremely slim.

Vice President Dong Yongnian, who had been maintaining the stance of a bystander all along, couldn’t help but put down his pen. His gaze toward Li Xu turned extremely solemn. As a leader of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Association, he understood the true weight of such a case better than anyone. This wasn’t a debate at all. This was taking a record of outstanding achievements and directly slapping the faces of the conservatives.

Ju Jiahong’s expression became rather complicated. He finally realized that the Li Xu before him was not a bookworm who could only memorize classics backward, but a true combatant who had fought his way through practical experience.

At the same time, Li Xu made Ju Jiahong very uncomfortable. He couldn’t quite remember how long it had been since someone had spoken to him like this. He had undoubtedly achieved fame at a young age, having been exposed to traditional Chinese medicine since childhood, receiving an excellent education, and possessing immense talent. To become the leading figure of the younger generation, his talent was unquestionable. During his university years, he had demonstrated exceptional abilities, and in the few years since entering the hospital, even some senior physicians couldn’t compare to him.

Among his peers, Ju Jiahong was in a league of his own. In the past, whenever he casually offered a few words of guidance to someone, they would be deeply grateful. Yes, in Ju Jiahong’s view, his previous words were indeed meant to guide everyone.

"Li Xu really isn’t an ordinary person. I like him," someone whispered.

While Ju Jiahong stole the spotlight and everyone dared not say much on the surface, secretly, many naturally hoped for someone to butt heads with him. Although Ju Jiahong and Li Xu were both top-tier geniuses of the younger generation, at this moment, the people sitting in the conference room developed an extremely subtle and entirely different feeling. This feeling didn’t merely stem from the level of their medical skills, but from an aura that radiated from their very bones.

Setting aside the unreasonable factor of Li Xu possessing an intelligence system, just looking at their growth trajectories revealed a massive chasm.

Li Xu had truly clawed his way up from the grassroots mud. He spent his childhood surrounded by the smell of medicine in the countryside. After graduation, he ran a small clinic, facing farmers who agonized over saving a few dozen dollars and neighbors who knocked on his door for help in the middle of the night. His medical skills were forged in every inch of dirt and every real consultation facing the hardships of life. Therefore, Li Xu’s performance was extremely grounded. Although his words were sharp, they carried a certain wildness—a reckless determination to cure illnesses and save lives at all costs.

Ju Jiahong, on the other hand, was like the heir of an ancient, noble family born with a silver spoon in his mouth. From the moment he was old enough to understand, he was exposed to the most authentic classics, guided by renowned experts within the province and even across the country. His medical journey had been far too smooth—so smooth that he had barely ever breathed the grassroots air, which was thick with the smoke of everyday life and a raw sense of urgency. Thus, no matter how humble and polite Ju Jiahong appeared at this moment, the lofty nobility and scholarly elegance between his brows still gave many doctors of his age an invisible sense of oppression. This aloofness made his understanding of traditional Chinese medicine more akin to a refined art rather than a blood-stained sword of battle.

Sitting not far away, Liu Haohui looked at their family’s Saint Heir, Ju Jiahong, and his heart skipped a beat. As one of the people who had worked with Ju Jiahong the longest, he was actually most aware of this genius’s blind spot. Ju Jiahong was too steady—steady to the point of being somewhat conservative. Liu Haohui had previously harbored a faint worry: when a sun like Ju Jiahong, who had never seen the shadows, finally collided with a true dragon like Li Xu, who had fought his way out of the abyss, would Ju Jiahong’s conviction shatter from the clash of ideologies?

The silence in the conference room lasted for several seconds.

After all, Ju Jiahong had seen his fair share of grand occasions. He quickly adjusted his mindset and spoke slowly: "Dr. Li Xu’s insights just now were indeed enlightening. Acute and severe conditions are, of course, an indispensable part of traditional Chinese medicine’s clinical practice. However, we must also realize that times are changing, and the social responsibilities borne by traditional Chinese medicine are adjusting accordingly."

He paused, his tone becoming even more peaceful, yet it carried a logical weight that made it difficult to refute. "In ancient times, because modern medicine didn’t exist, traditional Chinese medicine had to bear the medical burden of the entire society. Whether it was surgery, emergency rescue, or chronic diseases, Chinese medicine had no choice but to charge at the forefront.

"But now, with the rapid development of modern medicine, the division of medical labor across society is very clear.

"In the fields of first aid and emergency rescue, the standardized procedures and physical intervention methods of Western medicine are indeed highly efficient.

"I believe there is no need for practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine at this stage to fight Western medicine over territory that is no longer our ’strong suit.’ Focusing on the areas we excel at—such as body conditioning, physical rehabilitation, and the long-term efficacy of treating complex and difficult diseases—this is the true path of self-preservation for traditional Chinese medicine."