Elixir Supplier

No one wanted to break the peace.

“It’s so quiet!” A man was looking through the window at the moon while he was lying on the bed. “What a beautiful night. I really want to sing.”

He opened his mouth but didn’t make any sound.

“What am I thinking? Given my current condition, of course, I can’t sing,” the man murmured. “When is this going to end?”

The sun rose, as usual, the next morning. It was the hottest time of the year.

“It’s so hot today!” The villagers were complaining. Most of them wouldn’t go out on such a hot day. They either stayed at home or sat under the big tree outside the village.

…

Meanwhile, in a small village in southern Yunnan, many people came to see the King Pharmacist.

The roads were muddy. Most of the houses in the village were made of bamboo. The village looked shabby and old.

What was unbelievable was that cars were parked everywhere outside the village. All kinds of vehicles came to the village, including those luxurious and expensive ones.

“Is this the right place?” A car stopped outside the village.

“It’s so hard to find this place. There are so many cars around here,” a middle-aged man inside the car said.

He got out of the car and walked into the village. He stopped an elderly villager to ask about the King Pharmacist. The elderly villager told him that the King Pharmacist had a lot of rules. All the cars parked outside the village carried patients wanting to see the King Pharmacist. Some of them had waited for a month.

They needed to get a number to be put on a waiting list. The King Pharmacist wouldn’t see anyone when he was not in a good mood. He also didn’t want to see anyone he didn’t like.

“These rules are so strange,” the middle-aged man said. “What a difficult person!”

“He is,” the villager said.

The King Pharmacist rarely made a house visit unless the patient offered him rare and precious herbs or poison, excluding Western medicine.

He knew if his boss came here, she would piss him off. She was too proud to follow anyone’s rules. He presumed that King Pharmacist probably wouldn’t visit Beijing to treat her son.

Should I invite him to Beijing? the middle-aged man thought.

It would almost be a mission impossible. He was told that the King Pharmacist gained his fame decades ago. He had seen almost all kinds of herbs. The middle-aged man couldn’t think of any herbs that could impress the King Pharmacist.

Nothing’s going to work! He scratched his head. How can I report back to Ms. Li? Wait! I heard he has several students. Maybe I can approach them first.

He immediately took action as he started to ask about the King Pharmacist’s students. The King Pharmacist had two students, but they had only learned about 30% of their teacher’s knowledge. Even with 30% of his knowledge, they were good doctors and had good reputations. Both of them had a long waiting list. Apparently, they didn’t have as many rules as their teacher. Their patients were first in first served. They were also happy to do home visits under certain circumstances.

That’s good! the middle-aged man thought.

He went to see one of the King Pharmacist’s students. He waited the whole morning.

“How can I help you?” The King Pharmacist’s student was a man in his 40s. He was slightly overweight.

“I’m fine. I came here on behalf of someone,” the middle-aged man said.

“On behalf of someone?” the doctor asked with surprise.

“Yes. I have his medical notes. Could you please take a look?” The middle-aged man showed the doctor Hou Shida’s medical notes.

“Hmm!” The doctor frowned after reading the notes. “Where is the patient?”

“In Beijing. I came from Beijing,” the middle-aged man replied.

“Beijing?” the doctor asked with surprise.

Beijing was located in the northern part of China while southern Yunnan was pretty much the southernmost place of China. Beijing also had the best medical recourse in China, including medical staff and equipment. The doctor never had any patients from Beijing, but he knew a lot of people went to the hospital in Beijing.

“Sorry, I don’t think I can help him by reading the notes,” the doctor said.

“Would you be able to do a home visit?” the middle-aged man asked.

“I do a home visit once a month. I’ve done one this month, sorry,” the doctor said.

“How about next month?” the middle-aged man asked.

“I’m fully booked next month,” the doctor said.

“Oh!” The middle-aged man realized this doctor also had rules. They were just less weird. “Can’t you make an exception?”

The doctor shook his head with a smile.

The middle-aged man wasn’t sure what to do. He thought, It will be even more difficult to find the King Pharmacist’s other student. I heard the other student travels around all the time. No one knows when and where he’s going to show up.

He didn’t immediately leave. He decided to wait until the doctor had seen all the patients for the day. He wanted to have another chat with him. The doctor didn’t close his clinic until 9 p.m. As he was about to go home, he saw the middle-aged man waiting outside his clinic.

“Hello, Dr. Wu,” the middle-aged man said.

“You are still here!” Dr. Wu was surprised to see him.

“Have you had dinner? How about I treat you to dinner?” the middle-aged man asked.

“No, thanks. Just tell me what you want,” Dr. Wu said.

“Look, it was not an easy trip for me to come all the way from Beijing,” the middle-aged man said. He was basically begging the doctor. “Can you please make an exception? I’m happy to pay anything you ask. Actually, I’m happy to pay three times more than the normal fee.”

“Well, it’s not about money,” Dr. Wu said.

“Five times more,” the middle-aged man said without hesitation.

Dr. Wu didn’t immediately reply.

“Ten times more.” The middle-aged man increased the payment again.

“Do you have any idea how much I charge for an initial consultation?” Dr. Wu asked.

“How much?” the middle-aged man asked.

Dr. Wu opened his palm. “$50,000.”

“I’m happy to pay $500,000,” the middle-aged man said.

“Ha-ha.” Dr. Wu laughed. “Fine.”

“Great!” The middle-aged man clapped his hands. “When will you available?”

“The day after tomorrow,” Dr. Wu said.

“Great. I’ll arrange the trip for you,” the middle-aged man happily said. He also paid the deposit.

The middle-aged man thought, Fortunately, the King Pharmacist’s student is easier. At least I can use money to deal with him.

Although the fee sounded ridiculous to most people, it was acceptable to the Hou family. The middle-aged man reported to Ms. Li the next morning about his achievement.

“Fine. Since it’s too hard to get the King Pharmacist, let his student take a look at my son,” she said. “I hope he can help my boy.”

…

Meanwhile, Wang Yao had four patients in the morning. Three of them were from his village. All of them had bad diarrhea.

“Yao, I’ve been having a stomachache and diarrhea,” one of the three patients said.

“You ate something you were not supposed to eat. Your stomach is damaged,” Wang Yao said.

He gave the patient an acupuncture treatment. He inserted needles in the stomach acupoints and prescribed him two formulas.

“Stop eating anything cold, raw, or spicy,” Wang Yao said, “Take the herbal decoction twice a day, in the morning and at night. You’ll be fine after two days.”

“OK, thank you, Yao,” the patient said.

Wang Yao didn’t want to see the next patient, who was a well-known alcoholic in the village. For him, alcohol was more important than anything else. He would skip meals because he drank too much. It wasn’t his first time to come to the clinic because he had drunk too much.

“Yao, can you take a look at me?” the man asked. “I can’t tolerate the stomach pain anymore, and I’ve been having diarrhea no matter what I eat. I didn’t drink. I’m telling you the truth.”

A gust of unpleasant smell came out of his mouth when he was talking.

“I can prescribe you a formula.” Wang Yao tried to be nice to him because he was from the neighborhood. “My advice stays the same. You must not drink alcohol or smoke. Don’t come back here if you can’t commit.”

“OK, I see.” The patient left after paying the fee.

The third patient was a man in his 30s. His face was a sickly yellow, and he was very unsteady.

“Hello, Doctor, I have a stomachache too,” he said.

“Show me your tongue,” Wang Yao said.

The patient stuck out his tongue.

“Hmm, you suffer from severe heat and damp poison,” Wang Yao said.

People were easily affected by heat poison during summer. However, summer was the best time of the year to get rid of the damp inside the body.

“Your body needs regulation,” Wang Yao said.

“Wait, doctor, I just have stomach pain,” the patient said. “Can you prescribe something to stop diarrhea? Why does my body need regulation?”

“Since you know so much about your condition, what do you need me for?” Wang Yao asked.

“I don’t…” The person didn’t know what to say. “Look, Doctor, I didn’t mean that. How should I regulate my body?”

“I need to remove the heat poison from your body and try to remove the damp,” Wang Yao said. “I’ll give you two prescriptions. Take one prescription at a time.”

“How long will the treatment last?” the patient asked.

“Ten days,” Wang Yao replied.

“OK, that’s fine,” the patient said.