"What?!"

Lin Guorui and Hu Qiming were completely baffled when they heard this.

But Xue Shuheng couldn’t even be bothered to give them a second glance. He spoke directly to the head nurse beside him, "Notify the hospital’s medical affairs department. Tell them the patient is in critical condition and our hospital can do no more. Then, inform the family to prepare for the worst. Either have them contact a major hospital in the provincial capital to try their luck, or just discharge her and let her go home to prepare for her funeral."

With that, he clasped his hands behind his back and left the ward without a backward glance, as if he were just disposing of a piece of irrelevant trash.

The entire ward fell into a dead silence.

Lin Guorui and Hu Qiming stood rooted to the spot, lost in silence.

Professor Xue’s words were tantamount to a death sentence for the 22-year-old girl.

Back in the office, Lin Guorui slumped into his chair, dejected. He didn’t know how to deliver this cruel "verdict" to the family waiting anxiously outside.

For a doctor, there was nothing more painful than helplessly watching a life slip away before your very eyes.

"Teacher Lin..." Hu Qiming said, looking at Lin Guorui’s distraught expression. He gritted his teeth and suggested again, "We can’t just give up! Just because Professor Xue can’t do it doesn’t mean no one can! We can ask Li Xu to take a look!"

"Li Xu?"

An idea sparked in Lin Guorui’s mind.

He knew of Li Xu.

Six months ago, Professor Gao Guanghui from the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine had come to the city to give a lecture and held a public clinical teaching session at their hospital.

At the time, he, Hu Qiming, and that young man named Li Xu had all been there as observers.

He still remembered how Li Xu had proposed a brilliant and ingenious treatment plan for a complex case, leaving an extremely deep impression on everyone.

Moreover, Hu Qiming and Li Xu were university classmates, and Hu Qiming had praised Li Xu’s superb medical skills and miraculous methods to him on more than one occasion.

At this point, it was a desperate situation requiring a desperate remedy.

If they tried, there might still be a glimmer of hope.

If they didn’t, they could only watch as the girl marched toward death.

"Alright! Let’s give it a try!" Lin Guorui made up his mind.

But then he hesitated. "But... should we tell Director Xue first?"

"Teacher Lin, don’t say anything yet!" Hu Qiming quickly stopped him. "From what I know, Li Xu and Professor Xue don’t have a good relationship. If you go tell him first, given his personality, he’ll definitely refuse. He might even try to obstruct us. We should act first and report later. Let’s have Li Xu see the patient first! As long as we can cure her, nothing else matters! Besides, this is your patient, Teacher Lin. You don’t need Professor Xue’s signature."

"Alright!" Lin Guorui agreed.

Hu Qiming immediately took out his phone and dialed Li Xu’s number.

Li Xu was in his clinic, practicing acupuncture on a model.

After receiving Hu Qiming’s call and listening to his description of the patient’s condition, Li Xu had a moment of realization.

The intelligence that had refreshed at midnight was the treatment plan for this very strange disease!

"Okay, I’m on my way," Li Xu said without the slightest hesitation.

Half an hour later, Li Xu arrived at the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In Lin Guorui’s office, he reviewed the patient’s medical records.

Patient: Chen Xiuli. Frequent episodes of qi rushing up from the lower abdomen to the chest and throat, occurring several times a day.

Before an episode, she feels a coldness and a throbbing sensation in her lower abdomen.

During an episode, she becomes dizzy and collapses, regaining consciousness after about half an hour.

Accompanied by symptoms such as: coldness in the chest and abdomen, distending pain in the chest and hypochondriac region, a sensation of blockage in the throat, frequent vomiting of white, foamy, cold phlegm, nausea and retching, palpitations and insomnia, trembling hands, poor appetite and loose stools, and a dry mouth with no desire to drink.

The patient is emaciated. Her tongue is pale with a thin, white coating. Her pulse is deep and wiry.

After reading the medical file, Li Xu followed Lin Guorui to the ward to personally take the girl’s pulse.

He placed his fingers on the girl’s cold wrist, closed his eyes, and focused his concentration. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

A moment later, he opened his eyes, a clear understanding already formed in his mind.

Everything matched the diagnosis provided by his intelligence system perfectly.

"Doctor Li, how is it? What do you think of this illness...?" Lin Guorui asked.

To be honest, Li Xu looked far too young.

No matter how much others hyped him up, Lin Guorui remained skeptical.

At this point, it was merely a last-ditch effort.

Li Xu didn’t answer directly. Instead, he countered with a question, "Dr. Lin, where do you believe the root of this patient’s illness lies?"

Lin Guorui pondered for a moment before replying, "I previously considered that it might be liver qi stagnation invading the stomach, so I used Carefree Powder. I also considered spleen and stomach deficiency leading to the internal generation of phlegm-dampness, so I used Four Gentlemen Soup combined with Er Chen Decoction. But... neither had the desired effect."

Li Xu shook his head and, in a tone that brooked no argument, stated a diagnosis that was unfamiliar to both Lin Guorui and Hu Qiming:

"This isn’t liver stagnation, nor is it spleen deficiency. This is a classic case of—Rushing Pig Qi disease!"

"Rushing Pig Qi disease?" Lin Guorui was taken aback. He had only ever seen that name in the ancient text *Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet*; he had almost never encountered it in clinical practice.

"That’s right."

Li Xu pointed to the medical file and began his analysis. "The patient’s illness began after she caught a cold in late autumn and received a cold-natured IV infusion. This is a case of external cold triggering internal deficiency. Before an attack, she feels a coldness in her lower abdomen and palpitations below her navel. During an attack, qi rushes from her lower abdomen up to her chest and throat, after which she grows dizzy and collapses. This perfectly matches the symptoms described in the *Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet*: ’In Rushing Piglet disease, it arises from the lower abdomen, rushes up to the throat, and the attack feels fatal, then it recedes and stops’!"

"The pathogenesis is that the patient has an underlying yang deficiency, leading to the internal retention of water and fluids. This was then compounded by an external contraction of cold pathogen, which agitated the retained cold-fluids. This cold-fluid pathogen, carrying the qi of the Chong Mai, or Thoroughfare Vessel, surges upward, creating the sensation of qi rushing like a small, scurrying pig. That’s the origin of the name ’Rushing Pig’!"

"Her series of symptoms can also be explained by ’upward surging of cold-fluids’."

Li Xu’s reasoning was crystal clear. "The coldness in the lower abdomen, palpitations below the navel, fullness in the chest and hypochondriac region, sensation of blockage in the throat, frequent vomiting of foamy cold phlegm, nausea and retching, dry mouth with no desire to drink, a white, greasy tongue coating, and a deep, wiry pulse... all of this is ironclad proof of upward surging cold-fluids! When the fluid-pathogen assails the heart, it causes palpitations and insomnia. When the phlegm-fluid, carried by the surging qi, rushes upward and obstructs the clear yang qi, it causes dizziness and collapse!"

Lin Guorui listened, and the words struck him with the force of a great bell, a deafening enlightenment.

He felt the tangled mess of thoughts in his mind being instantly and clearly unraveled by Li Xu’s words.

’So that’s the root of the illness!’

"How does Doctor Li believe we should treat it?" Lin Guorui’s tone now carried a hint of respectful inquiry.

"Since it’s a case of yang deficiency with exuberant fluids, and upward surging of cold-fluids, the treatment principle is to unblock the yang and promote urination to drain the fluids, bank up the earth to control the water, and pacify the Chong Mai to downbear the counterflow!" Li Xu said, full of confidence.

He picked up a pen and wrote the names of three formulas on a prescription pad.

"The ’Phlegm-Fluid and Coughing Diseases’ Chapter of the *Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet* states: ’For phlegm-fluid below the heart, fullness in the chest and hypochondrium, and dizziness, Linggui Shugan Decoction is indicated.’ And the ’Rushing Pig Qi Disease’ Chapter states: ’After sweating, if there are palpitations below the navel, it is an impending Rushing Piglet attack, and Poria, Cinnamon Bark, Licorice and Jujube Soup is indicated.’ You see, the conditions treated by these two passages are an almost perfect match for the current case. Therefore, my first idea is to combine these two formulas!"