Chapter 53 Was It Really That Simple?

An unexpected reunion makes a house call uncomfortable.

Iris Gao and her husband both looked at Evan.

“A friend of yours?” her husband asked. Evan didn't answer. His expression had turned grim.

The young man inside hurried over, delighted. “Evan! It really is you! I thought I'd mistaken you for someone else.”

Evan looked at him and forced an awkward smile.

“Where have you been lately?” the young man went on. “Nobody can get hold of you. You don't answer your WeChat messages, and you've even changed your number!”

The couple looked from Evan to the young man. Evan was clearly unhappy, so why was the other man so pleased to see him?

“Ethan Yang. Long time no see,” Evan said stiffly.

“It certainly has been!” Ethan patted his shoulder and kept talking. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

“I…” Evan didn't know what to say.

“Ethan! What are you doing?” someone called from inside.

Ethan ducked his head and quickly lowered his voice. “My teacher's calling. I'd better go. We'll catch up in a minute!” He ran back inside.

Evan remained at the doorway without going in.

“What's wrong, Dr. Xu?” Iris's husband asked.

Evan slowly let out a breath. “Has the patient already sent for a doctor?”

“Uh…” The man hesitated. “I don't know. Maybe.”

“Then I'll come another time.” Evan turned to leave.

“Huh?” The couple stared.

The system sounded a warning.

Beep… Warning: medical ethics points may be deducted! When a great physician treats illness, anyone who comes seeking help should be regarded as the physician's closest kin. If the patient inside were the inheritor's own family, would the inheritor still come back another time?^[1]

Evan stopped. It wasn't fear of the warning. He had realized that he was letting his personal feelings delay a patient's care. That wasn't how a doctor should behave.

He sighed, his brow deeply furrowed.

The couple were baffled all over again.

“Are you all right, Dr. Xu?” Iris asked.

Evan let out another breath, still looking grim. “I'm fine. Since the patient has already called in another doctor, let's wait outside. We'll go in after they've left.”

This time, the system gave no warning.

He was about to head outside again when a voice came from the main entrance.

“How could I leave my guests waiting outside? That would be terribly rude! If word got out, everyone would laugh at me.”

They turned to see a smiling middle-aged man at the door.

“Ah, Mr. Xie!” Iris's husband immediately broke into a broad smile.

Mr. Xie nodded to him, but the moment he saw Evan's young face, he frowned.

Evan was about to decline when Ethan came hurrying out again.

Evan's frown deepened.

“I told my teacher you're here,” Ethan said eagerly. “He said you should come in too. Did you come on your own?”

Evan nodded.

“Come on.” Ethan pulled him inside.

There was nothing Evan could do but follow.

They passed through the villa's lavish entrance hall and turned into the living room.

Two men were sitting there, chatting and laughing.

“You!” one of them exclaimed.

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Evan paused too. Another familiar face: Leo Cao from the county hospital. His very own “nephew” in the teaching lineage!

He didn't know the other man.

Ethan came over and made the introductions with enthusiasm. “Evan, this is my teacher, Dr. Raymond Liu, a specialist at Hu City Hospital of Chinese Medicine.”

Dr. Liu waved a hand.

“This is my classmate, Evan Xu,” Ethan told him.

Dr. Liu nodded, paid Evan no further attention, and asked Leo, “You know each other?”

Leo immediately felt awkward. Damn it, the kid had been playing mind games with him only that morning, and now here he was again.

“Yes,” he said with an uncomfortable nod.

Dr. Liu looked at Evan. “You've come on this house call by yourself?”

Evan nodded without answering.

An amused look crossed Dr. Liu's face. He shook his head slightly. Was this family so desperate that they'd even called in a student fresh out of college?

Mr. Xie was frowning too. He wanted to ask Iris's husband what on earth he was playing at.

“Mr. Xie, don't let Dr. Xu's age fool you,” Iris's husband said. “He's an excellent doctor. He cured my wife's strange illness after all those big hospitals couldn't.”

Mr. Xie gave Evan another look. Real ability commanded respect.

Seated on the sofa, Dr. Liu picked up his teacup, intrigued. “Oh? What sort of strange illness?”

Iris's husband gave a little snort. “On the first day of her period, she starts running a fever at dusk for no reason. It lasts until the middle of the night.

“After midnight, it starts going down on its own. The same thing happens every day until her period's over. Isn't that strange?”

Dr. Liu chuckled as soon as he heard this.

Leo quietly curled his lip.

“What are you laughing at?” Iris's husband asked, taken aback.

Dr. Liu didn't answer. Instead, he turned to his disciple. “Ethan, here's a test for you. What pattern is this?”

Ethan smiled slightly. “Heat entering the blood chamber, with alternating chills and fever. Xiao Chaihu Tang is the indicated formula.”^[2]

“What?” Iris's husband was lost.

Iris looked startled too.

Both of them were stunned. So many major hospitals had failed to cure this strange illness. When Evan finally did, they'd thought they'd found a miracle doctor.

How could this be?

How could just any disciple hear a description of the symptoms and immediately know what the illness was and how to treat it?

Why did it suddenly seem so easy?

They didn't know what to think.

Mr. Xie looked at the bewildered couple, then at Evan, and shook his head slightly. These two really weren't reliable.

Dr. Liu chuckled again. Just as he'd thought. What strange illness could a fresh graduate possibly cure? This was a textbook case of heat entering the blood chamber. Why had they made such a fuss?

Evan felt rather helpless himself. It had never been a particularly difficult illness. He'd told them that day that any reasonably experienced doctor of Chinese medicine could treat it.

Dr. Liu set down his teacup. “Since you're here, you might as well examine her with us. Mr. Xie, please ask your wife to come out.”

“Of course.” Mr. Xie gave the housekeeper beside him the instruction.

Then he smiled at those still standing. “Please, everyone, sit down. Wen, bring our guests some tea.”

Ethan pulled Evan over to sit in a corner. As a disciple merely accompanying his teacher, Ethan didn't rate a seat with the VIPs.

Still excited, he lowered his voice. “So, Evan, where have you been all this time?”

“I…” Evan was still trying to think of an answer.

Ethan eagerly changed the subject himself. “See my teacher? Impressive, isn't he? Let me tell you—he makes this much for a single house call.” He made a hand sign for eight.

Evan said nothing. The man had always been a chatterbox. Apparently that hadn't changed.

“I'm his favorite disciple now, you know,” Ethan went on. “He takes me along on his house calls. I've seen a lot! Do you know my teacher?”

Evan shook his head.

“Then you must know my teacher's teacher. Dr. Robin Wang!”

Evan glanced at him. “Dr. Robin Wang at Xiyuan Hospital in Beijing?”

Ethan nodded. “You've heard of him, right?”

Evan nodded, a little embarrassed. When Wang had first joined the hospital, Evan had supervised him as an intern for a while. That made him something of a teacher to Wang himself.^[3]

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ The physician's closest kin. The system echoes Sun Simiao's “Dayi Jingcheng,” the ethical text Evan quoted on the drive here. Its instruction to regard patients as close family expresses an ideal of compassionate, impartial care. The system applies that ideal to Evan's hesitation at the door. Its scoring mechanism belongs to the novel, separate from the classical essay. Source: Sun Simiao — Beiji Qianjin Yaofang, volume one, “Dayi Jingcheng,” electronic transcription (in Chinese).
2. ↩︎ Heat entering the blood chamber. This traditional pattern, discussed when Iris first visited Evan, connects menstrual timing with episodes of chills and fever. “Blood chamber” is a traditional term associated with the uterus and, in some explanations, the Chong vessel or Liver; it does not mean a chamber of the heart. Xiao Chaihu Tang is the formula Ethan names for this pattern. The exchange concerns Iris's earlier illness, not the patient they have come to examine. The sources describe traditional terminology and formula indications rather than establish this fictional patient's diagnosis. Sources: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entries 532 and 1349; Hong Kong Baptist University — Xiao Chaihu Tang, F00026 (in Chinese).
3. ↩︎ Teachers and generations. Shifu is a teacher or master; shiye here means that teacher's teacher. Medical discipleship concerns the transmission of knowledge and clinical experience, so its kinship-like terms do not imply blood relationships or matching biological ages. Evan's final thought concerns his earlier supervision of Wang as an intern. It does not say that he formally accepted Wang as a disciple. The modern mentorship document supplies background, not rules for an earlier era. Sources: Taiwan Ministry of Education — Shiye, first definition (in Chinese); National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine — Measures on medical mentorship, articles 3 and 6 (in Chinese).