Dr. Xu: A Chinese Medicine Novel

A house call turns contentious when the patient challenges her doctor.

Everyone was taken aback.

Dr. Liu’s surprise quickly turned to anger. He frowned. “Mr. Xie, what is this supposed to mean?”

Mr. Xie looked displeased too, but more than anything, he looked disappointed.

Leo was just as baffled. “Wait, what… what’s going on?”

Iris and her husband were equally confused.

Mrs. Xie got to her feet and rounded on her husband. “I told you I wasn’t seeing another doctor of Chinese medicine. I told you, but you wouldn’t listen! I never believed in Chinese medicine in the first place, but you insisted. Look at the people you’ve found! They keep prescribing the same useless medicines!”

Mr. Xie looked even more embarrassed.

Dr. Liu’s frown deepened. “What do you mean? You’ve already seen other doctors of Chinese medicine?”

Mr. Xie said nothing.

“What’s going on here?” Dr. Liu demanded. “You deliberately withheld your treatment records? That’s hardly fair to us, is it? All it does is delay treatment!”

Mr. Xie kept his brow furrowed and said little. This bad idea had been his wife’s.

She, however, wasn’t going to put up with that. “So what if I did? Are you prescribing for my condition, or for the last doctor’s diagnosis? Are you planning to try one thing after another on me?”

“Now, watch how you speak to me!” Dr. Liu snapped. “How can I make a better assessment without seeing the previous treatment records?”

“Oh, spare me. If you could get the diagnosis right, you’d have done it already. Why do you need to see the wrong medicines the other doctors gave me? Can you only work by elimination? You doctors of Chinese medicine are all frauds. You can’t treat anything. Those medicines did nothing for me. They made me feel worse!”

Dr. Liu angrily argued back.

Nobody had expected this.

Leo’s expression turned grim. He had arranged the introduction, hoping to win favor with both sides.[1] Well, now he’d managed to offend them both.

He could have cried. What a mess. Why would a patient deliberately conceal her previous treatment? Even if she wanted to test the doctor, this wasn’t the way to do it.

Iris and her husband exchanged a look and shook their heads slightly. Mrs. Xie’s temper really was something. You could certainly tell she’d been brought up in a wealthy family.

Ethan was dumbfounded too. “Holy shit. This is ridiculous!”

Dr. Liu kept arguing. He couldn’t back down and admit defeat. If word got out, what would happen to his reputation?

Mrs. Xie was no pushover either. The argument grew more heated.

Dr. Liu accused her of knowing nothing about medicine and keeping information from her doctor. How was he supposed to treat her if she concealed things?

She wouldn’t budge: he was a quack.

What a scene!

Evan watched and sighed. He moved closer to Ethan, who was standing anxiously to one side, unable to help, and spoke into his ear. “Go and tell your teacher: the patient’s left pulse is wiry and slippery, rapid and forceful. The right is soggy and slippery, and rapid when pressed as well.[2] Her tongue body is red. The coating is white, greasy, and dry.”[3]

“Huh?” Ethan turned, startled.

“Go!” Evan snapped, his hands behind his back.

Ethan jumped. That tone, that manner—he was just like the senior Chinese medicine specialists at their hospital. Ethan had been scolded like this before.

“Oh. Right.” He didn’t dare think twice. He hurried over to his teacher.

Leaning close to Dr. Liu’s ear, he repeated what Evan had told him.

“What?” Dr. Liu turned in astonishment.

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His stare stopped Ethan short.

“I… Wait. Shit, what did I just do?” Only now did Ethan realize what nonsense he’d blurted out.

Shit. Why had he gone and repeated Evan’s words?

Shit. Evan’s medical skills these days weren’t even as good as his own, and he was a terrible student.

Shit. Now he’d done it. He was going to get yelled at again!

Ethan sucked in a breath, his face draining of color.

After his first brief surprise, Dr. Liu went still too, his mind racing.

“Well?” Mrs. Xie asked coldly. “Nothing left to say?”

Dr. Liu was a specialist from the city, after all. He worked it all out at once. He kept his face stern as he spoke. “Of course I have something to say. Withholding your treatment records certainly affects later treatment, because different medicines have different effects. For example, let me ask you this: is your urine scanty and reddish?”

“Hm?” Mrs. Xie frowned. She looked him up and down, then nodded.

Dr. Liu quietly breathed a little easier. “And you prefer cold food?”

Her expression turned peculiar.

“You don’t sleep particularly well, and you dream a lot?” he asked.

Her expression grew stranger still.

Judging by her face, he felt he had got everything right. He let out a deep breath of relief. Good. He hadn’t made a fool of himself. “You’re often irritable and restless, and you sweat quite a lot too?”

Her face was almost screwed up now.

Seeing that the argument had stopped and Dr. Liu had regained the upper hand, Leo finally relaxed. He laughed and tried to smooth things over. “Mr. Xie, we understand how a patient feels, but it’s best not to set tests like this. We’re all on the same side. You really mustn’t keep things from your doctor. It delays treatment.

“Luckily, Dr. Liu is an excellent physician. He passed the test. Ha ha…

“It was all a misunderstanding, wasn’t it? And Dr. Liu, we have to understand the patient’s feelings too, don’t we? You’ve seen it all. No one could question your ability. Now that we’ve cleared up the misunderstanding, everything’s fine. Ha ha…”

“Mm.” Dr. Liu nodded, his face still stern.

Mrs. Xie’s expression grew stranger still.

“Xinyi, what’s wrong?” her husband asked.

She turned to him with a strange look on her face. “Aren’t these the same questions that young doctor just asked me?”

“What?” Everyone was taken aback.

Ethan’s eyes widened too. “Holy shit,” he murmured in disbelief.

“Which young doctor?” Mr. Xie asked.

“The one… Hm? Where is he?” She couldn’t find him.

Iris’s husband stood, his chin held so high it almost pointed at the ceiling. “The doctor I invited, of course,” he said proudly.

Leo’s face went through several expressions. Him again?

Dr. Liu immediately gave Ethan a questioning look.

Ethan nodded vigorously, like a chick pecking at grain.

“Exactly. Now you see how important the previous doctor’s treatment records are to the next doctor, don’t you?” Leo was still trying to patch things up. “Look—even a young doctor can work out how to treat her once he knows. All the more so for Dr. Liu.”

At that, everyone’s expression turned peculiar.

Mrs. Xie pursed her lips. The young doctor had plainly asked those questions before she’d said anything about the earlier treatment. For once, though, she didn’t lose her temper. She simply looked out through the doorway, curious.

After a moment’s surprise, Mr. Xie smiled too. “Yes, yes, exactly. We were careless. Then please write the prescription, Dr. Liu. You’ve been working so long and taken so much trouble. You should get back early and have a rest.”

Dr. Liu nodded, his face set, and said little.

He knew Mr. Xie was letting him save face, but that was all. At this hour, common courtesy should have meant an invitation to stay for a meal.[4]

Reader Notes

↩︎ Doing someone a favor. Renqing can refer to personal goodwill and the consideration people show one another. A useful introduction can earn appreciation from both parties, strengthening the introducer’s relationship with each. Here Leo has brought the family and the specialist together and hoped both would be grateful to him. His dismay comes from having put those relationships at risk when the consultation turns into an argument. The social benefit he expected helps explain why he is so anxious to smooth things over. Source: Taiwan Ministry of Education — Renqing, definition 3 (in Chinese).↩︎ The pulse description. “Wiry” describes tension like a taut string; “slippery” describes a smooth, flowing sensation. “Soggy” is a soft, fine pulse felt near the surface that becomes less distinct under heavier pressure. “Rapid” concerns speed, while “forceful” concerns the strength felt beneath the fingers. These qualities can be combined. Evan describes the wrists differently, and specifically says the right pulse is also rapid when pressed. His report gives tactile observations at the two wrists, with no measured heart rate or diagnostic conclusion stated here. Source: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entries 892, 900, 904, and 911.↩︎ Color, texture, and moisture. The tongue body is its own tissue; the coating is the layer on its surface. Chinese tongue examination describes their features separately. Thus, a red tongue body can have a white coating. “Greasy” describes the coating’s dense, fine, adherent texture, while “dry” concerns its moisture. Evan describes three qualities of the coating—white color, greasy texture, and dryness—alongside the red tongue body. His account differs from Dr. Liu’s earlier findings; its diagnostic significance remains unstated here. Source: WHO — Chinese medicine terminology, entries 640–645, 673, 677, 682, and 691.↩︎ Saving face. Mianzi can mean reputation as well as personal consideration. Here Mr. Xie accepts blame for the misunderstanding and thanks the doctor, allowing him to leave with his standing outwardly intact. Dr. Liu nevertheless reads the polite words as a dismissal: he thinks real appreciation would have included an invitation to stay for a meal. That expectation belongs to this character in this encounter; the passage uses it to distinguish a courteous ending from a warm reception. Source: Taiwan Ministry of Education — Mianzi, definitions 1–2 (in Chinese).