Lin Guorui gave a thumbs-up, saying excitedly, "Doctor Li! That technique of yours is simply miraculous! Truly miraculous!"

Only Xue Shuheng stood frozen in place, as if struck by lightning.

He just couldn’t understand.

’How does Li Xu know acupuncture?!’

"Impossible... This is impossible... Acupuncture... How can this be..."

Xue Shuheng’s plan had backfired spectacularly. He’d wanted to ruin Li Xu’s reputation, but instead, he had only made him more famous.

Xue Shuheng couldn’t take it.

Without another word, he turned and fled the resuscitation room.

Hu Qiming was the most ecstatic of all.

It was as if he were the one who had cured the patient.

He excitedly grabbed his phone and started a live report in the class group chat:

Hu Qiming: [It’s out! It’s out! The bone is out! Li Xu used acupuncture to get the bone out! He’s incredible! Oh my god! I’m losing my mind!]

The group chat once again fell deathly silent.

After a long pause, a message finally appeared.

Miaoli: [...Li Xu... he... he knows acupuncture too???!!!]

Li Baojie: [Is there anything he *can’t* do?]

Jiang Peng: [(Wry smile emoji) Compared to him, we’re all useless.]

...

In the hospital room.

Li Xu was surrounded by praise.

He was happy too, and not just because he had saved a patient.

More importantly, this firsthand experience gave Li Xu a profound appreciation for the unparalleled, miraculous efficacy of acupuncture in treating acute conditions.

He had proven himself, and he had also proven that this ancient art still held an irreplaceable place in modern medicine.

Looking at the overjoyed crowd, Li Xu kept a clear head. "Let’s not celebrate too soon," he reminded them. "That pork bone had sharp edges. The patient’s esophageal mucosa was likely severely scratched when it was lodged and then expelled. I recommend we immediately perform an X-ray fluoroscopy of her esophagus to check for any perforation or severe lacerations. After that, we should proceed with anti-infection and mucosal repair treatments."

"Yes, yes, yes! Doctor Li is right!"

Dr. Han from the emergency department snapped out of his daze, immediately writing out orders to arrange the follow-up tests and treatments.

Li Xu glanced at the wall clock. It was getting late, so he prepared to take his leave.

"Doctor Li, please wait!"

Lin Guorui hurried to catch up, extending a warm invitation. "You’ve truly opened my eyes today, and I’ve learned so much. Please, you must grant me the honor of treating you to a meal. I get off work in ten minutes. If you could wait, I still have a few questions about ’Rushing Pig Qi’ that I’d like to ask your guidance on."

He admired Li Xu from the bottom of his heart, and had even begun to see him as a teacher.

"Dr. Lin, you’re too kind. Please, don’t call me ’teacher.’ I couldn’t possibly accept that title."

Li Xu smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "My skill level isn’t any higher than yours," he said humbly. "I just happened to have read the right books."

Li Xu was telling the truth, but to Lin Guorui, it sounded like the profound humility of a true master. His admiration only deepened.

...

Meanwhile, in the dean’s office at the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine,

Dean Song was frowning as he looked over a document on his desk.

It was a critical case report from the medical affairs department. It detailed the patient in bed 302 of the internal medicine ward—a 22-year-old whose condition was critical. According to Xue Shuheng’s diagnosis, she was beyond saving.

"Sigh..." Dean Song let out a long breath.

This was the kind of thing he dreaded most.

The patient was so young. If a girl in the prime of her life died in their hospital, it could not only lead to a medical malpractice suit but would also severely damage the hospital’s reputation and its performance metrics.

He called for his assistant, Xiao Wang.

"Xiao Wang, go to the internal medicine ward and check on the young patient in bed 302. Find out exactly what her situation is."

Dean Song commanded with a grave expression, "Tell the attending physician that they must make every effort to save her! If that’s not enough, immediately contact specialists from the provincial capital or doctors from other hospitals to organize a joint consultation! We absolutely cannot give up on a single patient!"

After listening, his assistant, Xiao Wang, had a strange look on his face.

He smiled and said, "Dean, I was just about to report to you on this matter. You can rest assured. That patient has already been cured. I just came from her room; her condition is very stable. I expect she’ll be well enough to be discharged in a few days."

"What?!"

Dean Song was dumbfounded. He picked up the critical case report from his desk and looked at his assistant, his face a mask of confusion. "What do you mean? Cured? Doesn’t this report from Medical Affairs state in black and white that she’s ’terminally ill and beyond all medical help’? It even has the signature of our internal medicine specialist, Professor Xue!"

So, his assistant, Xiao Wang, proceeded to give Dean Song a vivid, detailed account of what had happened in the internal medicine ward that afternoon.

"...So, the patient had ’Rushing Pig Qi disease,’ and Doctor Li Xu saved her with a single prescription of traditional Chinese medicine."

"Li Xu?!" Dean Song froze.

’Why does that name sound so familiar?’

Then he remembered. Wasn’t this the same young man he had wanted to invite for a discussion that very morning—the one Xue Shuheng had dismissed as "unskilled and overly ambitious"?

"What... What in the world is going on?" Dean Song felt like his brain couldn’t keep up. "Didn’t Professor Xue say this student of his was incompetent?"

Seeing his confusion, Assistant Wang quickly took the blame. "Dean, it was my oversight. The information I gathered earlier was incomplete. I made some more inquiries and found out that this Doctor Li Xu and Professor Xue seem to have some bad blood between them. I’m not sure of the specifics, but their relationship is poor, so of course, Professor Xue wouldn’t have anything good to say about him."

"But," Xiao Wang said excitedly, "this Doctor Li Xu is the real deal. Just a little while ago, in the emergency department, right in front of everyone, he saved a little girl who was in critical condition with a pork bone stuck in her throat—using just a few needles. The news is already all over the emergency and internal medicine departments." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

After hearing his assistant’s story, Dean Song was utterly stunned.

He sat in his chair, speechless for a long moment.

A Rushing Pig Qi case that an expert had declared hopeless, cured with a single dose of traditional medicine, bringing the patient back from the brink of death.

A bone lodged in the throat, a tricky case even for surgery, resolved with just a few needles.

Either one of these incidents was enough to be called a medical miracle.

And the one who had performed both these miracles was the very same person.

A young genius he had nearly overlooked!

"A talent! This is an absolute once-in-a-century genius!"

Dean Song slapped his thigh, his face alight with excitement. "A doctor this good—how can we let him remain an outsider? We must, we absolutely must recruit him!"