55 – Competition

Li Yun pressed on Bu Tao's icon and waited for him to pick up. He wanted to see if there were any unsolved murder cases. Unfortunately, Bu Tao had been busy chasing down thieves and delinquents. It was good that everything was peaceful, but that didn't help Li Yun.

"How about cold cases?" Li Yun asked.

"Plenty of that, but it's all in paper format," Bu Tao replied. "You're going to solve cases the old fashioned way, by reading paper files!"

Li Yun sighed.

"You Gen Zs are spoiled!" Bu Tao laughed.

Li Yun hung up. It won't be easy to exorcise spirits, so it was better to find other uses for Qivi.

Aside from the cardiovascular system, Qivi gave him a better understanding of acupuncture points. However, without a master or even some experimentation, he didn't want to enter the world of TCM recklessly. Even after reading classical Chinese literature such as Su Wen, Ling Shu, Shen Nong, and other classical texts by ancient doctors, it was very difficult to understand without a master.

"It's not ethical to test it on patients, but how about myself?" Li Yun thought. The only problem with testing himself. Ever since was a kid, he never had any illness like a cold or fever.

Li Yun looked at his arm and thought of something. Even though he was a bit different than most people, he should still experiment on himself first. If he inflicted pain on himself and used acupuncture to control the bleeding, he could analyze the effect of pain on the cardiovascular system and meridians.

Li Yun took out a set of acupuncture needles and scalpel he had ordered and then searched for an empty room. Inside one of the rooms, Li Yun closed the curtain. He sterilized an area between his left wrist and elbow, and then made an inch incision. Blood flowed out and onto the gauze. He wrote the level of pain and flow of blood from 1 to 100 on a notebook. The pain was around a four and the blood flow was around 50, which he labeled as average.

He noted that the circulation of his blood continued, but his body was already sending messages for his blood to clot at the site of the bleeding. He cleaned up the wound and bandaged the area. Afterward, he made similar cuts on his left leg and abdomen and recorded his body's reaction.

With the control areas documented, he took out the acupuncture set and switched the scalpel to his left hand, preparing to cut his right arm. As soon as the incision was made, he inserted a small needle into the acupoint. As soon as pressure hit the point, there was a slight response in the qi channels. The channels flowing to the blood slowed down, but the channels from the blood vessels to the qi channel sped up. The channels that connected to the brain slowed down. Li Yun's pain slowly dissipated. If he wasn't paying attention, it was easily missed.

During the control test, there was a slight lingering pain of around 1-2. However, it disappeared altogether as the acupuncture needle was inserted. The flow of blood was reduced to around a 45.

After two days, a scab formed over the wound. It was slightly more pronounced on the right side where he had used acupuncture. On the third day, the white blood cells were noticeably seen around the wound. By the 7th day, the scab flaked off and his skin looked almost exactly like it was before. The right side looked a lot better, but not by much.

While jotting down his observation, his phone pinged. It was a signal that the competition was about to start.

The first part of the 30th anniversary celebration was usually just a bunch of people talking, so the devious residents, who weren't afraid of their attendings, snuck out. Li Yun had asked An Luchang to message him when the resident's competition was about to begin.

Li Yun quickly cleared away his equipment and rushed to the hospital's courtyard. He shuffled himself through the crowd and sat next to An Luchang. Chief Gao and Chief Lim naturally noticed that he was late.

"Well, at least he was better than Doctor Hao," Chief Gao and Lim thought. Doctor Hao didn't even make an attempt to attend.

The first-year resident diagnostic competition was the first competition event of the day. The rules were simple. There would be three fake patients, and everyone would have up to two questions to ask the patient. At the end, based on the questions and answers, the residents would write down the possible diagnosis, the recommended tests, and treatment.

"The correct diagnosis, recommended tests and treatment get 3 points. Close answers get 1 point. After three rounds, the person with the highest points wins!"

Everyone looked at Nurse Li, the first fake patient. Based on random numbers picked from a hat, residents were called to ask the questions.

Q: What is the chief complaint? R: Stomach pain

Q: When did it start? R: two weeks ago, and persisted even after a week

Q: Can you explain the type of pain? R: bloated pain

Q: Location of pain, upper close to chest, middle, and lower stomach? R: Lower stomach

Q: Type of food eaten? R: Regular meals, cereal, milk, rice, vegetable, fish, soup, tea

Q: Amount of daily exercise? R: 15-20 minutes

Q: Past hospitalizations? R: None

Q: Past traumas? R: None

Q: Past allegories? R: None

Q: Other symptoms? R: diarrhea, headaches, fatigue

<Any medical peeps can guess the answer? Answer is written in author's thoughts.>

The first few questions were typical and standard, and by the end, the questions got more specifics to rule out certain illnesses. After writing down the answers for the three patients, the residents turned them in. The results would be announced near the end but before the main robotic competition.

During the robotic competition, department teams were challenged to remove one seed from a tomato and to stitch it back up within 5 minutes. The best-looking tomato within the shortest timeframe wins. Li Yun didn't really pay attention to the rest of the competition. It was a bit boring.

Li Yun spent the time reviewing the recipes for Lei Ting. Lei Ting, a type of curse-warding charm, could be made by either stones or metals. Thinking about his recent purchases already, Li Yun could foresee problems with money and expenses in the future.

LiYun: What's the quickest way to get money?

OldBu: Rob a bank. I dare you!!!

Bufu: It's the quick way to get rich, not land yourself in jail. Create an app, tech stock, and ItCoin.

Fatty: Travel back in time.

Ju De: Be rich already.

Ersan: ^^^ Too bad not all of us are born rich.

Xuxu: Open a business.

Bufu and Xuxu both made good suggestions, but he wasn't a tech wiz. Starting a business wasn't a bad idea. If he made prescriptions, would he be able to mass-produce them, or was it theoretically impossible due to the nature of TCM prescription?

Fatty: So did you win?

LiYun: Naturally, as the main character, I got second.

Xuxu: How anti-climatic. It's not even first.

LiYun: It's a fake competition, and the patients don't even pretend to look sick. Except for the last one, but he's a wannabe actor.

Bufu: It would be more interesting if one of them was actually sick and you were able to diagnose them.

LiYun: I thought about diagnosing one of them with a severe case of masochism, but that would be too cruel and the ethics board will be up my ass.

JuDe: It's probably because they haven't pissed you off enough times. Did An Luchang win?

LiYun: Yes, he got first.

Fatty: Should we add them to the group chat?

LiYun: No, not with the way you guys gossip. I don't need more people gossiping about me.

Bufu: Why not? You're the main character *adds @AnLuchang @LuiJing*

Luchang: DaYun's Gossip ChatGroup?

LuiJing: OoooOOooooOOOH!

Luchang: can we add @YangKang and @MiXuan?

LiYun: No

Bufu: *adds @YangKang @MiXuan*

**Everyone spamming welcome gifs**

Bufu: So are you heading home early for New Years?

LiYun: I'll be home for two days, and then I'm going to Magic City.

Fatty: No way, I want to visit Magic City too. But I will likely travel to see relatives.

JuDe: We can all stay with Xuxu.

Xuxu: No you will not. I'm returning home for New Years.

JuDe: What!? Damn it! Can Ah Nin and I stay at your place?

Xuxu: No, someone else already asked. You're not allowed to leave Yide. We have to introduce little Nin to mom.

Li Yun decided to use his vacation days to visit his parents prior to the New Year Spring Festival and then head to Magic City.

chocomug