85 – ZZ Live

From the counter, Li Yun placed his hand over Pao Lie's wrist. It was more theatrical than practical as he didn't need to examine the pulse to see into the CV system. Inside Li Yun's inner thoughts, he followed the air as it entered Pao's Lie nasal cavity, moving through the different sinuses. There was slight inflammation from dust allergy, causing excess mucus in the maxillary sinus. He had sensed it before when he had first met Pao Lie.

"Mr. Pao, have you been suffering from sinusitis for a long time?" asked Li Yun.

"Yeah, ever since I was in high school," Pao Lie replied. "I went to doctors, TCM practitioners, Taoist masters, quacks, but none of them work."

"You sure have tried a lot," Li Yun sarcastically remarked; being grouped together with quacks wasn't encouraging.

"I've been suffering for 20 years and I feel like it's getting worse. Do you have anything that works, doc?"

"You have been using antihistamines and decongestants during those times?"

"Yeah."

"Then they are losing its effectiveness over the years. Your sinuses aren't getting worse. Your body is simply building immunity against the medicine, but that isn't the main problem. Considering you're in the restaurant business, you probably eat a lot of food. Your personal eating habits aren't better. You have a bit of a sweet tooth and eat when you're stressed. There's no medicine to cure an unhealthy lifestyle."

"Come on doc, they all say the same thing."

"Because it's true. I might have a prescription, but it's only a temporary relief. Do you want it?"

"What do you mean by temporary?"

"As soon as you sense the onset of symptoms, take a spoonful of the medicine," Li Yun instructed. "Your sinus should go away. However, as soon as you eat something with artificial sugar, the medicine will stop working."

"Really?"

"Come back in the afternoon, I should have the medicine ready."

"Okay, I'll look at my restaurant first, and then I'll come back," Pao Lie left the clinic.

Li Yun pulled out a cabinet and unsealed a glass jar to retrieve a handful of dried mint leaves onto a wooden tray. He took out several herbs and started to grind them with a mortar. Afterward, he turned on the portable stove with two burners and set them to different temperatures. Different compounds broke down at different temperatures. If it was too high, the chemical would completely break apart and become useless. Extracting different compounds with different temperatures was important. 

So important that it was the key to the famed Nobel Laureate Tu discovering a cure for malaria. After researching ancient doctor Ge Hong's book, she was able to extract the active ingredient in sweet wormwood, artemisinin. For some formulas, it didn't matter, but for the one Li Yun was planning to make, it was a bit tricky.

"Do you need help?" Rouxi's hands were getting itchy doing nothing. She was only planning to assist as the receptionist during the weekend, but there was barely anyone heading inside. The pedestrians occasionally stopped to look inside, but many people didn't need herbs or to see a clinician.

Li Yun had her ground the herbs as he extracted the liquid from the pot. After an hour, they completed a liquid and poured it into a glass bottle. Li Yun labeled the bottle with the name of the person it was made for, the ingredients, the recommended dosage, the date and the expiration date.

A sudden thought entered Li Yun's head.

Mission: Exorcise 100 spirits. 33/100.

AP +1

"Three people?" Li Yun thought.

Rouxi noticed his downcast mood. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he returned his focus back to writing the label.

The rest of the evening, Li Yun continued to study the different herbs as Rouxi did her college report. After an hour, Rouxi finished her report early and took a peek at Li Yun as he drew the cellular structure of the dried ginger with a brush. His mood seemed to improve.

"Can I film you?" Rouxi asked.

"Why?" Li Yun looked up to ask.

"It's quite therapeutic, watching a hot guy work," she replied in a teasing tone as she grabbed his phone.

Li Yun shrugged and agreed. Rouxi held the screen to his face for facial recognition and installed the ZZ Live app. Her eyes roamed around the shop to find a good angle and picked a view that spanned the rows of medicinal cabinets and into the open courtyard. In the background, the weeping branches of a willow tree swayed peacefully in the wind. Feeling the calming effect, she set the phone on a stand and began the livestream.

The camera filmed Li Yun as he painted the illustration of the ginger with notes describing the different effects it had on the flow of the blood around the systems, what hormones were released into the bloodstream, and how the blood flowed into the different organs. If it wasn't for his modern clothing, he really looked like an ancient doctor or botanist writing a medical book.

Li Yun's analysis was limited to the cellular structure. If he used Qivi to zoom closer to the molecular structure, his energy would completely drain out and he would fall asleep. It was the same as when he zoomed deeper into the meridians and dantian of another person. Although he could look at his own dantian, it was not useful for him to analyze. He realized that his dantian was quite different from anyone else. While he continued documenting, Rouxi walked outside and greeted tourists as they passed by, welcoming them inside.

"We have all the ingredients properly analyzed and stored in glass containers," she stated as she opened one of the medicine cabinets to show a couple. 

The couple looked inside the cabinet. It seems very professional to have the medicinal stored inside glass jars.

"Most of these are just common ingredients that aren't just useful as medicinal remedies, but in a lot of soup recipes and even desserts," Rouxi continued to explain. "Only the ones with slightly elevated levels of toxins are stored in the higher cabinets."

She pointed to the top area. The ceiling was 12' high, and the cabinets covered the entire wall. She wasn't a botanist or herbalist, but she knew her spices.

"Ah, I see, some of these smell really good," said the young lady, smelling a sample of dried lavender. 

The couple ordered some medicinal products as a gift to their parents, so Rouxi put them into individual bags and put them in a paper container. 

"Thank you for your order," Rouxi boxed and gave them the box.

"Oh wow, this is cute packaging," the customer happily took their order and left.

Sensing it was getting late, Rouxi stopped the video. There were dozens of people who came into the broadcast room to watch, and four of them stayed the entire time. Although she had been livestreaming for a while, it was weird how some people spent their time. She guessed the type of people who watched Li Yun's broadcast were all retired seniors. After turning off the phone, she set it next to Li Yun and went into the back room.

Li Yun continued to draw and watch the shop, occasionally greeting the tourists who stopped in to check the herbs. No one was interested in health consultation, but Li Yun made sure to greet them and pass them a business card. Around closing time, Pao Lie returned and picked up his medicine. He thought it was very professional that everything was labeled on the bottle.

"Oh wow, you have pretty neat handwriting for a doctor!" Pao Lie commented. "Where do you work?"

"At Qinbei Hospital," Li Yun replied.

"Oh, that's not too far away. Well, thanks for the medicine." 

"Come back next week, I need to see if there's any change in your body."

"Uh, sure," Pao Lie took his free medicine and left.