Dr. Xu: A Chinese Medicine Novel

Mingxin is finding its footing, and Clara still has a misunderstanding to clear up.

The next day, Mr. Xie brought his wife to the little ground-floor clinic in the Sunshine Residential Community. They registered to see Evan, and he examined Mrs. Xie again.

He also looked over Dr. Raymond Liu’s prescription. There was nothing wrong with it: Tongxie Yaofang combined with Gegen Qinlian Tang.[1] Dr. Liu did know his medicine. Evan left the prescription unchanged.

The Xies had the herbs dispensed at the clinic. After paying for them, Mr. Xie respectfully handed over twenty yuan for the consultation. It was probably the smallest consultation fee he had paid since making his fortune.

But he was very happy.

He and Evan exchanged contact information. This time, Evan didn’t refuse.

Evan had nothing against getting to know people. What he couldn’t accept was treating medical care as a joke. To him, illnesses differed; a patient’s social standing made no difference.

Mingxin Clinic was gradually getting on its feet. Twenty or thirty patients were now coming in for treatment every day.

A reputation took time to build. Results were the only thing that could keep a clinic going, and they were the way forward for Chinese medicine too.

Get results, and people would come to you. They would send their relatives and friends as well.

When Clara had stirred up all that attention on Weibo, she’d worried about whether Evan could handle the patients it brought in. Luckily, he hadn’t let her down.

At this rate, as long as Evan stayed, Mingxin could keep going. Clara was much less worried. If the clinic could sustain itself, she could save it.

Everything depended on Evan now.

Clara couldn’t help sighing to herself. She was supposed to be the boss, yet here she was having to coax her own employee along. What sort of boss was that?

How miserable.

She glanced at Evan, who sat reading with a stony face. She ground her teeth a few times and raised a little fist, pretending she was about to give him a few punches.

Then she drew a big pig’s head in her notebook, with Evan’s name written inside the two nostrils. Looking at her portrait of Evan the Pig, she lowered her head and laughed without a sound.

She shook with the effort of holding it in. That felt good.

“What are you laughing at?”

The voice came suddenly from above her. Clara jumped and looked up.

Evan!

She hurriedly covered the notebook with both hands. “Nothing. Did you want something?” she asked nervously.

He glanced down. “What are you covering up?”

She held her hands firmly over the notebook and shook her head. “Nothing.”

He frowned but didn’t pursue it. “Have you cleared up that mess yet?”

“Which mess?”

Evan glared at her.

“Oh! Oh, right away. I’ve worked out how to handle it. I definitely won’t hurt that girl. It’s just—”

“Fine. Get it sorted out soon,” he interrupted. “And put some effort into the publicity.”

He looked over the acceleration packs the system had given him lately. They had barely shaved a few days off the wait. His next clinical mentorship was still ten years away.

He didn’t want to go on hiding like this. But before he could go back and face the people from his past, he needed the confidence to do so. Training with mentors through the system would give him that confidence.

“Okay,” Clara promised readily.

Evan paused. “Publicity costs money. If things are a little tight right now, you could register an account in my name and find some people online who spend their time attacking Chinese medicine. Have a few arguments with them.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Huh?” Clara didn’t understand.

By now, Evan had worked out some of the system’s habits. Publicity was the main source of rewards, of course: plenty of acceleration packs and special rewards. But there was another little trick. Pick a fight with a Chinese-medicine basher.

The system got ridiculously excited whenever it spotted one. Argue until they had nothing left to say, and the rewards weren’t bad at all. Get them to change their minds and develop a sincere respect for Chinese medicine, and it became even more generous.

The first time Evan had been rewarded with access to the acupuncture practice room, it was because he had convinced Charlie Chen, Max Ma, and the others of his skill. Max had stopped dismissing Chinese medicine, which was why the reward had been so generous.

Evan thought about it. Changing someone’s mind on the spot was difficult, and chances to do it didn’t come along often. Putting someone in their place would be easier. That happened to be Clara’s specialty.

“Make sure you leave them speechless,” he said. “One line that finishes them off.”

“Why?” she asked, puzzled.

“Because I want to enjoy myself. Is that allowed?”

She stared at him for a moment. “Whatever you say, Your Lordship.”

Evan nodded. “This matters a lot to me. Do it properly, and I won’t hold your earlier nonsense against you.”

“Okay!” Clara nodded happily.

“First, hurry up and explain things to that girl. Watch how you say it. Don’t hurt her.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got the perfect way to do it,” Clara assured him.

“Good.”

He asked no more questions and went back to his book. He trusted Clara’s ability to handle this sort of thing.

Only when he had gone back did she relax. She carefully closed the notebook and hid her portrait of Evan the Pig.

Near closing time, another familiar face came in.

Leo Cao.

“What are you doing here?” Ben was the most surprised—and the most alarmed.

“I’m not here to see you. I’m here to see him.” Leo pointed at Evan.

Ben drew in a sharp breath. Shit. That was exactly what he’d been afraid of.

Evan looked up at his nephew in the teaching lineage. “What do you want to see me about?”

Leo smiled. “Are you free tonight? Let’s have dinner. My treat. Just the two of us.”

Ben blinked.

Evan considered it. “All right.”

“Then let’s go. My car’s outside.”

“Okay.” Evan put his book away, gathered his things, and followed Leo out.

Before leaving, he reminded Clara, “Don’t forget what I asked you to do.”

“Leave it to me,” she said confidently.

After they had gone, Ben still looked baffled. “What’s going on? Since when do those two go out together?”

“You’re surprised?” Clara asked.

“No, the real question is, why didn’t they invite me?” He couldn’t work it out.

Clara rolled her eyes. “Enough. Stop thinking about it. Come over here and let me take a picture.”

“Another picture?”

She took out her phone. “Yes. For publicity.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Clara came out from behind the counter. “Come on, strike a pose. Lift your left hand a little. Too high. Lower it. Yes, like you’re holding hands with someone. Now look to your left, as if someone’s standing beside you. That’s it.”

“Done? Let me see.” Ben came over.

She put her phone away. “It’s fine. Go home already. Why does a grown man have to fuss so much?”

Dismissed yet again, Ben went off miserably.

Only after everyone had left did Clara relax. As furtive as a thief, she took out her phone, opened a photo-editing app, and set to work with meticulous care.

She cut Ben out of the picture she’d just taken, then cut Evan out of another photo and put the two together. She made it look as though they were holding hands, with Ben gazing lovingly at Evan.

When she was done, she posted the image to her feed on the dating app, setting it so that only Little Octopus could see it. She added a caption:

After all the mountains and rivers I’ve seen, I look back—and in the end, it’s you.

Tap. Posted.

Clara tossed the phone down and patted her chest. Surely she’d got it right this time. Hadn’t he told her not to hurt the girl? Any explanation would hurt her, even the truth. But this way wouldn’t.

Of course she called other women “darling” when she talked to them. If the girl had got the wrong idea, how was that her fault?

See? The perfect explanation!

I’ve found true love now. You can’t blame me for falling for someone else. I never liked you that way in the first place!

A smile appeared at the corner of Clara’s mouth. Perfect!

Little Octopus’s hand shook as she held her phone.

Her Majesty noticed the strange look on her face. “What’s wrong?”

Little Octopus’s face crumpled, and she burst into tears. Her heart was broken.

“What’s wrong?” her mother repeated in alarm.

“Didn’t he say he hated him?” Little Octopus sobbed. “Why would he get together with the person he hates most? Why does it have to be like a romance drama? But that’s not how romance dramas go!”

Her Majesty was completely baffled. “Have you been watching too many of those romances where the overbearing CEO falls in love with you?”[2]

Reader Notes

↩︎ Two herbal formulas. These are named prescriptions containing several medicinal ingredients. Tongxie Yaofang, the “Important Formula for Painful Diarrhea,” belongs to the harmonizing group and is traditionally associated with painful diarrhea involving Liver–Spleen disharmony. Gegen Qinlian Tang, short for Ge Gen Huang Qin Huang Lian Tang, belongs to the heat-clearing group; its traditional uses include diarrhea attributed to heat. The prescription here combines the two formulas. “Liver,” “Spleen,” and “heat” retain the traditional theoretical meanings used in the preceding discussion of Mrs. Xie’s illness. Sources: Hong Kong Baptist University — Tong Xie Yao Fang, F00032; Hong Kong Baptist University — Ge Gen Huang Qin Huang Lian Tang, F00049.↩︎ Romance dramas and the boss fantasy. Ouxiangju, often called “idol dramas,” are popular dramas associated with young audiences and idealized romantic leads. The badao zongcai, or “overbearing CEO,” is a familiar male type: a commanding boss imagined as a devoted partner. Little Octopus tries to read the apparent relationship as a dramatic reversal from hatred to love. Her mother answers by teasing her about the romances she watches. Source: Tsinghua University — Wu Jue, Overbearing Boss and Perfect Mate, 2019 thesis abstract (in Chinese and English).