145 An Unexpected Invitation

After Wang Yao had returned to Nanshan hill, he documented Secretary Yang's mother's diagnosis in his notebook. He also wrote down a basic treatment plan after thinking for a while.

Wang Yao had been thinking of how to treat Secretary Yang's mother and what herbs he should use the whole afternoon. He didn't rest until 4 pm.

He walked around Nanshan hill when it was close to dusk.

The trees he planted several weeks ago were growing very well. The leaves on the trees were fresh and green, which made the whole hill more alive.

Several birds twittered and flew close. 

A loud sound from the sky scared the birds away. It was from Da Xia. Since Da Xia settled on Nanshan hill, Wang Yao hadn't seen any small birds nearby.

After practicing Tai Chi for a while on the top of the hill, Wang Yao came down and found San Xian was wandering in the herbal field smelling something. The smart dog had been avoiding the herbs since Wang Yao created the herbal field.

"San Xian, have you found any pests?" asked Wang Yao.

San Xian looked at Wang Yao and shook his head.

"Good," said Wang Yao.

Maybe it was because of them? thought Wang Yao as he looked at the miasma grass on the ground. The leaves of miasma grass were dark green and hard, looking like tiny swords.

"San Xian, what does this herb smell like?" Wang Yao pointed the miasma grass to San Xian.

San Xian gave him a weird look.

"Hey, what do you mean by that look?" said Wang Yao with a smile.

He squatted down and smelled the miasma grass himself. The smell was actually nice; it had a faint aroma.

"I think it smells nice. Don't you think so?" said Wang Yao.

Are you stupid? San Xian looked at Wang Yao in disdain.

When Wang Yao arrived at home late afternoon, he found cigarettes and bottles of wine on the table.

"Who's been here?" asked Wang Yao.

"Your Uncle Fenglong. He just came to thank you," said Zhang Xiuying.

"Hey, why did he bring those? We are family. He didn't need to do that," said Wang Yao.

"I didn't want to accept them, but he insisted and left them on the table. He said he really appreciated you helping his son and preventing him from suffering too much in the hospital," said Zhang Xiuying.

"Is the kid still in the hospital?" asked Wang Yao.

"No. He has been discharged. Fenglong also brought him here. The kid looks fine. He's a lovely boy," said Zhang Xiuying.

"That's good," said Wang Yao.

Zhang Xiuying had set up the table, but Wang Fenghua hadn't arrived at home yet.

"Where is Dad?" asked Wang Yao.

"He just went out for a walk. He should be home soon," said Zhang Xiuying.

While they were chatting, Wang Fenghua came home.

"Dinner's ready," said Zhang Xiuying.

Wang Fenghua told his family that the warehouse belonged to the village production team. It had been rented out and would be used as a processing factory.

"Do you know what they are going to process there?" asked Wang Yao. He knew already that the warehouse had been rented out, but he didn't know to whom and for what. Even Wang Mingbao didn't know, which surprised Wang Yao. After all, Wang Mingbao's father was the head of the local government in the village. Maybe the only explanation was that Wang Mingbao's father was too busy to find out what was going on in the warehouse previously belonging to the village production team.

"I heard it is some sort of machinery processing factory. Someone came to clean up the warehouse today," said Wang Fenghua.

"Why are they doing machinery processing in an isolated village?" said Wang Yao.

The next morning, several trucks drove into the village, followed by forklifts and cranes. Equipment was loaded down from the truck and moved into the production team warehouse.

"What are these?"

"I'm not sure; maybe they are going to open a small factory."

"Will they hire people?"

The villagers started to gather around the production team warehouse and gossiped.

...

Wang Yao received an unexpected phone call when he was on Nanshan hill. It was Pan Jun, a doctor from the emergency department of the town hospital. The reason why he called Wang Yao was that he wanted Wang Yao to see a special patient in a clinic. He promised that Wang Yao would get paid for the visit.

A doctor from the town hospital is asking me to see a patient?

Wang Yao thought for a moment and accepted the request. They arranged a meeting the next morning.

The production team warehouse was still filled with busy people hired by an unknown company. More and more equipment had been moved into the warehouse. The workers were busy connecting power points and laying pipelines. They didn't stop working until midnight.

The next morning around 9 am, Wang Yao arrived at the clinic where he planned to meet Pan Jun. The clinic was located among a group of apartments with a very common name: Ren He Clinic.

Pan Jun was already there and was surprised to see Wang Yao's vehicle.

What an expensive car, he thought.

"Hello!" greeted Pan Jun.

"Hello, Dr. Pan," said Wang Yao with a smile.

"Please come in," said Pan Jun. He lead Wang Yao into the clinic.

The clinic had two stories. Most of the clinical rooms were located on the second floor, while the first floor was for patients to get medication. There were quite a few patients in the clinic when Wang Yao was visiting. Most of the practitioners in the clinic were experienced doctors, who were hired after retiring from the hospital.

Pan Jun lead Wang Yao into an empty meeting room.

"Please take a seat," said Pan Jun while making a cup of tea for Wang Yao. "Here is your cup of tea."

"Thank you." Wang Yao took the cup.

"Just one moment; the patient will arrive soon," said Pan Jun.

"That's fine,"

"The owner of the clinic is my friend. I come here to help whenever I'm available," said Pan Jun.

In fact, the reason why he asked Wang Yao for help was because he overheard the name "Traditional Chinese Pharmacist" the other day. After doing some research, Pan Jun understood what a Traditional Chinese Pharmacist was. He also witnessed Wang Yao's ability to treat patients the other day, and so, he started to become curious about Wang Yao. Recently, Pan Jun came across an elderly patient in the clinic who suffered from a weird disease. The patient had been treated in the hospital, but could not be cured, so he wanted to try the doctors in the clinic. The retired doctors also couldn't cure the patient, so Pan Jun thought about Wang Yao.

He hoped that Wang Yao could cure the patient. But even if Wang Yao couldn't, he had nothing to lose.

"Dr. Pan, your patient is here," said a young nurse who knocked at the door ten minutes later.

"Good! Dr. Wang, please follow me." Pan Jun stood up.

Pan Jun led Wang Yao to an independent office, which was equipped with a desk, a chair, a computer and a stethoscope. 

"Could you please see the patient here?" suggested Pan Jun.

"Sure, let me try," said Wang Yao with a smile.

"Okay, I'll ask them to come in," said Pan Jun.

A moment later, Pan Jun came back with an elderly woman in her 70's. This elderly woman was slightly kyphotic. Her hair was completely white, and she didn't look well. With her, was a middle-aged woman wearing fashionable clothes.

"Hello, Dr. Pan. Is he the doctor you mentioned the other day?" said the middle-aged woman. She didn't expect Doctor Pan Jun to recommend such a young man. She gave Pan Jun an angry glance.

"What can such a young doctor do?!" murmured the middle-aged woman.

"Although Dr. Wang is young, he is a fantastic doctor. Why not give him an opportunity to see your mother?" said Pan Jun. Still, he had no idea himself whether Wang Yao could cure the middle-aged woman's mother. 

"Shall we try? Mother?" asked the middle-aged woman gently.

"Okay." The elderly woman sat down with a smile.

"Can I check your pulse first?" asked Wang Yao, which surprised the elderly woman and her daughter.

"Check my pulse? You are...?" said the middle-aged woman with a look of distrust on her face.

After all, Wang Yao was very young while only old and experienced Chinese Medicine Practitioners were considered good. It was common for a practitioner in their 70's to continue to treat patients, but practitioners in their 20's were rare.

"Yes, I am," said Wang Yao with a smile.

"Okay." The elderly woman reached out her shriveled arm.

Wang Yao put his fingers on her wrist.

"Do you often have headaches and poor sleep quality?" asked Wang Yao gently.

"Yes," said the elderly woman.

"Do you often feel uncomfortable in your stomach and tend to vomit after eating?" asked Wang Yao.

"Yes, and it has become worse in the last few days," said the elderly woman.

"I see. Your illness is not too serious. Let me prescribe you an herbal formula," said Wang Yao with a smile.

"Really?" said the elderly woman with a smile.

"Mom, I don't think we need the herbal formula. Let's go," said the middle-aged woman, who was apparently not happy at all. She thought Pan Jun had wasted her time and made a fool of her. She dragged her mother out of the clinical room.

Pan Jun was embarrassed. He didn't expect such response from his clients. He was disappointed but couldn't do anything about it.

"Dr. Pan, could you please ask that lady to come here? I forgot to tell her something," said Wang Yao, who ignored Pan Jun's embarrassed look.

"Okay," Pan Jun chased after the middle-aged woman and her mother and asked them to stop.

"Ms. Guo, please wait. I've got something to tell you," said Pan Jun.

"What is it?" asked the middle-aged woman.

"Well, shall we discuss it in private?" asked Pan Jun.

"Okay. Mom, could you please wait for me here?" The middle-aged woman walked away with Pan Jun.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Dr. Wang wanted to have a word with you in private," said Pan Jun.

"Him? Forget it! Checking people's pulse at such a young age? I think he was deliberately mystifying," said the middle-aged woman contemptuously.

"Dr. Pan, how can you ask such a person to see my mom? Are you fooled by him?" The middle-aged woman continued to speak.

"Haha, I'm sorry for wasting you and your mother's time," said Pan Jun with an awkward smile.

"Never mind. We don't live far from here, and we need to go out for a walk anyway. We have to go," said the middle-aged woman.

"Okay, bye." Pan Jun walked them out of the clinic and then went back to the clinical room where Wang Yao was.