93 – Symbiosis

Li Yun had spent over two months researching a treatment plan for Little Yan’s Takayasu’s arteritis, but he still had a long way to go before he could find a cure. He had finished testing the individual medicinal’s properties, and was about to start mixing two medicinals together.

Like everything on Earth, everything was relative to each other, with their interactions and relationships. In TCM, there were seven interactions, but easily explained using seven different symbioses, such as neutral, mutualism, commensalism, predation, parasitism, adversity, and antagonism.

The reason for understanding the relationships was simple. In TCM, doctors wanted to mix herbs that support each other's good qualities and suppress their bad qualities. Licorice, for example, was often used, but there were also chemicals that were harmful to the body. If licorice was mixed well with an ingredient that suppressed the negative effects, then it would minimize the damage to the body in the long run. Modern TCM researchers were very much like a chemist, researching individual compositions of herbal plants and fungi.

In between his research, he was still performing surgeries at Qinbei Hospital on the weekdays and seeing patients at the clinic on the weekend. Early Sunday morning, the clinic was already noisy with clatters.

"Look Bizi, you can't possibly talk to the customer like that," Zuiba scolded Bizi for the way she was talking to a customer.

Zuiba and Bizi's relationship was mutualism where each person benefitted. Bizi was much rougher around the edges, often using a hustling style of tactic to sell items. Although Li Yun had told her it wasn't necessary to sell anything, it was her old habit to immediately start hustling the customers.

"Oh, why not, it wasn't like she was planning to buy anything. Might as well convince her to buy my trinket." Although Bizi was working for the clinic, she was also selling from her cart parked in front of the shop.

Zuiba shook her head, speechless by her friend’s audacity.

Inside the courtyard, Li Yun wore a headphone as he prepared a simple supplement for Zumba. Li Yun liked Zuiba and Bizi, but they were too loud. Bizi’s normal speaking voices was loud, honed by her constant shouting to gather customers. Zuiba was much more reasonable in her tactics, but she tended to be overdramatic and emotional.

It was constantly noisy in the shop so he bought another table to set up in the courtyard. It was also a good place to make remedies as he didn't need to worry about ventilation. The mobile setup was mainly for making herbal remedies. They weren’t complex medicine that needed a controlled environment.

He looked through a formula that elder Yi Bao had sent him and began to process a pill. There were different forms of medicine, such as pill, powder, paste, and liquid. Liquid was quick, but often not the best if there were harmful chemicals as it could leak into the bloodstream. Paste or salve was often for external application. Powder was usually the same as liquid, but usually in the form for better storage life. Pill didn't react quickly, but it had a long lasting effect.

After creating the pill, Li Yun took a small bit and applied it to the blood sample he had gotten from Zuiba. He then looked through the microscope. It seemed to be working.

Li Yun completed a dozen pills and placed it in a small bottle. He walked back inside the shop and handed the bottle to Zuiba.

"Ah! Thank you Doctor Li!" Zuiba hugged the little bottle.

"Don't thank me so quickly, you have to take the pill every morning," said Li Yun. “It contained a different mixture of mints and garlic.”

In TCM, if the disease originated from the stomach, take medicine after the meal. If it originated from the heart, take medicine before the meal. If in the limbs or blood vessels, take medicine on an empty stomach in the morning. If in the bones and marrow, take medicine on a full stomach in the evening.

After a morning of dealing with patients, Zuiba called everyone to the backroom for lunch. He ate lunch with them as they talked about the neighbors. It had only been two weeks, but he knew all the neighbors simply by talking to the two women.

"Doctor Li, you have to tell us the truth, how did you get rid of the dirty stuff here?" Bizi asked. She had walked around the street before, but she always felt strange looking at the shop. She was surprised even after working here that rather than feeling sick, she was feeling healthier.

"I have Lei Ting charms hidden everywhere," Li Yun joked around.

The ladies gasped. "Really, do you have more?" Zuiba asked.

Li Yun knew that a lot of the elderly strongly believed in supernaturals, but it was still amusing to see the fervent reaction from the two ladies. He had been too busy to make some, but he still had some leftover materials. After lunch, the two women watched the store as Li Yun continued his experimentation in the courtyard. Li Yun felt strange not having a camera on him as he drew the starfruit.

Rouxi normally arrived on Friday afternoon after class to see him, but she went to Imperial City for the Labor Day holiday to visit her step-parent. She wasn't going to return until next week.

Li Yun knew she was adopted and that she didn't like to stay with them, but that was the extent of his knowledge. He wondered how she was managing in Imperial City.  They had a brief conversation before she left. But thinking back, he regretted not asking her more questions…

"Your step parents adopted you after your aunt and uncle went to prison, but did you know them before?" Li Yun asked before she left.

"I didn’t know them until after my aunt got caught,” Rouxi responded. “She heard horrible stories about child social service, so she told me they would adopt me."

"So who's the old man that you're avoiding?"

"He's my step-parent's father, but he's a control freak, so I avoid him whenever I can."

Li Yun felt bitterness whenever she spoke of the old man. Although it was usually spoken in a nonchalant manner, he was beginning to realize that she truly didn't like the old man.

There were more things he wanted to ask, but he held back, afraid of breaking a relationship they had already established. It was a simple relationship, one that needed no words to expressed. Their relation was based on attraction and novelty, and once it wore off, they would go their separate ways. He enjoyed her company, but he was afraid it wasn't going to last. To him, she was a mystery, someone he couldn't figure out. But after getting to know her, would he grow tired of her? Maybe the less he knew, the longer they could maintain the relationship? Sometimes it was better not to know everything.

“All right, see you in two weeks,” was the last he said to her when she left.

It was only a week, but he missed her already. Despite being hesitant about their relationship, he didn't know when he had started to feel lonely without her presence.