Chapter 2830 - 2892: Theater

Li Yifei kept at it for a while, and Wu Shuwei never actually called out, but in the end she still couldn’t resist Li Yifei. She turned around, leaned in close, and called him "big brother" a few times. Her voice was so sickeningly sweet that Li Yifei got excited on the spot. Looking at that tender, dewy little mouth, he couldn’t help himself and kissed her.

A fierce battle began...

The next day was the day of the Traditional Chinese Medicine competition that had been hyped online for days. Li Yifei was up against three people. The three were sixty?five?year?old He Ming, fifty?six?year?old Wang Dafu, and Yan Qiu. These three had been put forward by the other side. Li Yifei knew they all belonged to some so?called Huaxia Traditional Chinese Medicine Promotion and Glorification Association. In the past few days, many netizen friends had also tipped him off about a few things. To sum it up: this so?called Promotion and Glorification Association, the name sounds long, but if you pull out the roster you’d see... this so?called Promotion and Glorification Association is basically an illegal organization. They’ve never submitted proper materials to the state, yet they’ve raked in huge donations off this name. Plus, they know how to use the internet to hype themselves up, leveraging a certain search platform and astonishingly paying tens of millions every year so that platform will run ads and expand their fame...

How much evil has been done in the process, ordinary people might not even imagine, but Li Yifei found out that the hospitals and clinics these people own make more than five to six hundred million in profit every year, and last year they even reached eight hundred million.

That’s just the profit figure, which was beyond even Li Yifei’s expectations. No wonder they’re willing to jump out this time and go head?to?head with him. Clearly they’re after something bigger. If they really beat him, you can imagine these people would immediately pour massive money into advertising, using the opportunity to promote their Traditional Chinese Medicine theories and Traditional Chinese Medicine Academics, cementing their status in the industry.

Sure enough, none of them are idiots. Li Yifei gave a faint smile. Although he was shocked inside, he still didn’t think they could win—because he was here.

In the morning, Wu Shuwei and Li Yifei got themselves ready. After breakfast, the two walked to the school gate, where a car was already waiting. The car had been sent specially by the Li family. The girls didn’t come to cheer him on, but they’d surely be watching the live broadcast online. Oh, and the streaming platform was run by a tech company invested in by the Li family. Li Yifei had Wu Shuwei hold the phone and handle the livestream.

An hour later, the two appeared at the competition venue. It was a famous theater in Haicheng, temporarily converted into a competition site, and there were TV stations there to broadcast live.

Li Yifei also saw the people from that Huaxia Traditional Chinese Medicine Promotion and Glorification Association. The group opposite stared fiercely, all shooting him dirty looks.

"Ignorant brat!" He Ming, as the president, was scheduled to go on third. Yan Qiu would lead, and Wang Dafu was in the middle. Observation, listening and smelling, inquiry, palpation—the competition today was on three of these four. Aside from inquiry, the other three were the actual events.

Observe, meaning examining the complexion; listen and smell, meaning hearing sounds and smells; ask, meaning asking about symptoms; palpate, meaning feeling the pulse. Together they’re called the four diagnostics. Inquiry is too low?level—how could a truly great physician need to ask questions? So the other three were the topics of today’s contest.

There were three groups of volunteers, each group with twelve people: four children under twelve, four adults under fifty, and four people over fifty, totaling twelve, half male and half female. Among these people, how many were sick, what they had, or whether they were healthy—even the organizers didn’t know. They were chosen completely at random. Of course, they had to show up at the venue. They signed up online or by phone, then came to the site on competition day, and were drawn on the spot. At least on the surface it looked very fair, and because it had been handed over to a third?party institution, Li Yifei was relatively willing to trust it. As for the other side, they had no objection either. With official participation, it was unlikely there’d be favoritism.

Li Yifei was a discharged soldier, a businessman, and someone who had quickly become an opinion leader on Twitter. And now he was going to compete with others in Traditional Chinese Medicine Techniques. Was there anything this guy couldn’t do? Many netizens, when they saw this information, couldn’t help exclaiming that Li Yifei was practically the embodiment of the word "miracle." Was there anything he didn’t know how to do?

So this showdown in Traditional Chinese Medicine Techniques at Haicheng’s famous theater was instantly promoted all over the internet. Li Yifei then posted a message, writing: "Friends, in this competition I’m not trying to prove that Traditional Chinese Medicine Techniques are unreliable, because I use Traditional Chinese Medicine Techniques myself. I just want to expose some frauds. The reason Traditional Chinese Medicine Techniques are criticized is precisely because of these con artists. Besides, since we’re talking about medical treatment, the consequences of scamming people are even worse: how many patients have had their illness delayed, how many have thus been unable to get proper treatment? Just thinking about this is enough to make one furious. So today’s competition, win or lose, I just want to sound a warning for everyone. I hope that when you seek medical care in the future, you’ll try to go to regular hospitals and professional doctors, instead of falling into these frauds’ hands. After all, just listening briefly to their so?called treatment methods, you can tell how utterly unreliable they are."

This was the post Li Yifei sent on the way there, and it was immediately reposted by many people. This issue had already been brewing online for several days, so netizens all understood the ins and outs. Many had been deeply affected by the incident with Dan Guimin. It suddenly occurred to them that they seemed to have similar "Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors" around them. Maybe these frauds couldn’t trick them personally, but they could trick their parents. And that’s not even counting so?called health?care products. No matter how wildly they’re hyped, if you dig into the specific ingredients, they’re hardly worth mentioning, and some outright have no effect at all.

If food is unsafe, people get angry. If medicine is unsafe, that’s anger on top of anger, because it concerns life and death. Li Yifei’s actions received support from many netizens. Some even opened a special poll, and over ninety percent of people chose to support the old soldier, with more than 120,000 votes cast.

Li Yifei sat in the car, with Wu Shuwei at his side. She was going with him to the competition. Their hands were clasped together. Wu Shuwei smiled softly and said, "Do your best later, okay?"

Li Yifei drew his finger across her palm, making her hand itch, and she heard him say, "Relax. Since I decided to do this, it means I’ve got more than enough confidence!"

"On this, I’ve got just as much confidence in you. You’re the best." Wu Shuwei was like a fangirl, believing in Li Yifei unconditionally.

"Hahaha." Li Yifei couldn’t help laughing aloud.

Just as they reached the outside of the theater, they saw a crowd had already gathered: both young people and elderly. When many young people saw Li Yifei get out of the car, they were fanatically excited, shouting the old soldier’s name. The older folks, though, mostly had doubtful looks on their faces, some even gazing at him with clear displeasure.

Li Yifei could understand this. These people simply thought he was wrong, that he actually dared to question Traditional Chinese Medicine folk remedies. To them, that was outrageous.

Li Yifei only waved to these people and didn’t say much. Holding Wu Shuwei’s hand, the two of them walked into the theater. The theater and the third?party agency for this event had already sent staff to maintain order. Just as the two stepped into the passageway, they saw two old men smoking ahead: one was puffing on a long?stemmed pipe, with a full beard, most of it white, a foot long, making him look like some kind of immortal, quite imposing. Li Yifei immediately recognized him: this was that Elder He. The one next to him, smoking a rolled cigarette, was Yan Qiu. He looked like a scholar, with round glasses and a pale, beardless face, the picture of a refined young gentleman—only now he was old, the pale face was still there, but the "young gentleman" part was long gone.

The two of them were smoking right there in the corridor, completely ignoring the no?smoking sign not far away. Behind Li Yifei was a camera, supposedly livestreaming, which Li Yifei had already accepted. So when he walked up to bearded Elder He and Yan Qiu, the camera immediately focused on the three.

It was like sparks flew in an instant. Li Yifei’s expression stayed calm, while Elder He narrowed his eyes slightly—though at his age, even when he opened them they looked almost the same as when narrowed. Staring at the young Li Yifei, Elder He chuckled and said, "A hero comes from youth. I knew Li Yifei was young, but I didn’t expect him to be this young!"

Traditional Chinese Medicine Techniques have always valued "the older, the better." It sounds like the older you are, the more skilled your medicine, and the phrase was originally meant to say that medical skill accumulates with age, since you need lots of clinical experience, and prescriptions vary from patient to patient—adjustment is the key.

But that’s not entirely true. Being older doesn’t necessarily mean better medical skills, and being younger doesn’t necessarily mean your skills fall short. Li Yifei’s medical ability didn’t come from his medical training, but from his cultivation. On that point he knew himself well, and he had plenty of confidence. So naturally he wouldn’t feel the least bit annoyed because of the other side’s condescension.

At Elder He’s opening comment about his youth, Li Yifei only smiled faintly and said nothing. Instead, he pointed to the no?smoking sign not far away.

Elder He and Yan Qiu froze for a moment, then followed his finger to look back and saw the sign. Both of them could read, and when they saw that sign, they were stunned. The four big characters "No Smoking" were written right there. Had they really not seen it?

The camera faithfully captured this scene, which made Elder He and Yan Qiu instantly feel a surge of embarrassment. Elder He threw his half?smoked long pipe tobacco to the ground and crushed it under his foot. Yan Qiu snorted coldly and said, "Ignorant brat, playing dirty tricks."

Li Yifei laughed. He tilted his head, glanced at the camera, and then said, "Yan Qiu, right? You can read, yeah? Got any basic manners? The trash can is less than ten meters from you. First you smoke in a no?smoking area, then you just toss your cigarette butt on the floor, and now you call me an ignorant brat. If the people in your organization all have this level of manners, then I don’t think there’s any point in even holding this competition. I’m honestly afraid it’ll lower my own status."

"You!" Yan Qiu was so furious he was choked up, his face flushing red in an instant. He’d just opened his mouth to say something when Elder He grabbed his arm.