Zhu Quanxin looked up, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"Oh? Is that so?" he asked, skeptical. "Using acupuncture to remove a bone stuck in the throat... That kind of skill isn’t something an ordinary acupuncturist can do. Are you sure you saw it clearly? It wasn’t some coincidence or a trick?"

"It’s absolutely true!" Xie Ping said with conviction. "The news is all over the hospital now. Many people saw it with their own eyes. They’re all saying that young doctor is practically a miracle worker."

"Hmm..." Zhu Quanxin mused for a moment, then nodded. "If this is true, then this young doctor indeed possesses a rare skill. He’s someone with real ability."

A flicker of curiosity also rose within him.

As an old TCM doctor who had been immersed in the art of acupuncture for over forty years, he knew the profound depth of this skill. He also knew better than anyone how incredibly difficult it was to reach the near-legendary realm of "retrieving objects with flying needles."

As the master and apprentice were talking, a figure walked in through the doorway.

It was none other than Xue Shuheng, who had just been utterly humiliated in the emergency department.

When he saw Zhu Quanxin, it was as if he’d seen a lifeline. He strode forward, grabbed his arm, and dragged him into a nearby office.

"Director Zhu, I need to ask you something." Xue Shuheng looked absolutely terrible.

He closed the door and asked urgently, "Tell me, can you really get a bone stuck in someone’s throat out with acupuncture? Can you do it?"

He still refused to believe what he had just seen.

He hoped that Zhu Quanxin, an expert in acupuncture, would give him the negative answer he was looking for, proving that Li Xu was just lucky or had used some unknown trick.

Zhu Quanxin looked at his frantic state and had already guessed most of the story.

He sighed and said slowly, "Old Xue, with ordinary acupuncture methods, it’s naturally impossible. However, in the history of our country’s acupuncture studies, there have indeed existed some special, almost miraculous needling techniques capable of treating this type of acute emergency."

"When I was young, I was fortunate enough to have studied for a time under Mr. Cheng, a successor of the Chengjiang Acupuncture School."

A nostalgic look appeared in Zhu Quanxin’s eyes. "Although I was a dull student and couldn’t be considered one of Elder Cheng’s formal disciples, I was still fortunate enough to have heard some of his teachings."

"I remember Elder Cheng once told us. His teacher, the founder of the Chengjiang Acupuncture School, known as the ’Father of the Modern Acupuncture Revival,’ Mr. Cheng Dan’an, had done it before. Legend has it that Elder Cheng, using just three steel needles, once made a critical patient who was choking on a jujube pit and struggling to breathe cough it up on the spot, leaving them completely unharmed."

"What? Elder Cheng did it too?"

Hearing this, the last shred of his denial was shattered.

But he still wouldn’t concede.

"No, impossible. Director Zhu, you’re giving that kid too much credit. How old is he? How could he possibly be compared to a god-like figure like Elder Cheng? It must have been luck."

Seeing Xue Shuheng deluding himself, Zhu Quanxin shook his head helplessly.

He knew that Xue Shuheng’s mind was in turmoil.

There was no point in saying anything more to him.

Having found no support, Xue Shuheng grumbled for a while in the office before leaving resentfully, his face dark.

Xue Shuheng was gone, but his words had greatly piqued Zhu Quanxin’s curiosity.

He knew that in this day and age, Chinese medicine was in decline, and acupuncture was fading.

Truly skilled acupuncturists who had mastered the essence of the ancient methods were now exceedingly rare.

If that young man named Li Xu had really done it not by luck, but by true skill, then his attainments in acupuncture had likely reached a terrifyingly high level.

Zhu Quanxin himself had hit a bottleneck in his own acupuncture practice and hadn’t made any progress in years.

A strong impulse suddenly rose in him—he wanted to exchange ideas with this young man!

’Perhaps I can learn something new from him,’ he thought.

The next morning, Zhu Quanxin had his apprentice, Xie Ping, ask around the hospital.

He quickly found his way to Lin Guorui in the internal medicine department.

It was Lin Guorui who had asked Li Xu for a consultation yesterday.

"Dr. Lin, I’d like to ask you about someone." Zhu Quanxin went to the internal medicine clinic and got straight to the point. "Are you familiar with Doctor Li Xu, the one who used acupuncture to treat the patient with the bone stuck in their throat yesterday?"

"Director Zhu, you heard about that too?"

The moment Li Xu was mentioned, Lin Guorui perked up.

Since there weren’t many patients at the moment, he quickly recounted to Zhu Quanxin, with some embellishment, how Li Xu had diagnosed the "Rushing Pig Qi" illness, how he had combined three formulas into one, and how the medicine had brought about a swift cure.

Finally, he concluded:

"Director Zhu, I can tell you with full confidence, this Doctor Li’s medical skills are superb, and he is very insightful."

Hearing Lin Guorui’s unstinting praise, Zhu Quanxin became even more certain of his idea.

"Dr. Lin, here’s the thing," Zhu Quanxin said sincerely. "I’m extremely interested in this Doctor Li’s Acupuncture Technique. I may be a few decades his senior and have some experience in acupuncture, and I’d like to have an exchange with him. I was wondering if you could help make an introduction?"

"No problem at all!"

Lin Guorui agreed in a heartbeat. "I’d be more than happy to promote an academic exchange between our hospital and Doctor Li!"

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

"Hello, Doctor Li! It’s me, Lin Guorui." As soon as the call connected, Lin Guorui said excitedly, "I have some good news! Director Zhu Quanxin from our hospital’s acupuncture department heard about your achievements and is extremely impressed with your Acupuncture Technique. He’d like to invite you over to exchange insights on acupuncture in person. Do you think you’d have the time?"

To persuade Li Xu, he made sure to add a bit about Zhu Quanxin’s background:

"Doctor Li, let me tell you, this Director Zhu is no ordinary person. In his early years, he studied acupuncture under Elder Cheng. And that Elder Cheng was a direct disciple of the famous founder of the Chengjiang School—Mr. Cheng Dan’an. So, Director Zhu could be considered a disciple of the next generation after Elder Cheng."

’Oh? A disciple of the next generation after Elder Cheng?’

On the other end of the line, Li Xu’s interest was piqued.

For the past few days, he had been engrossed in studying that journal from Elder Cheng.

Although the system’s videos had allowed him to make rapid progress in both theory and technique, he hadn’t been studying for long. There were still many profound details and clinical variations that he didn’t yet understand.

As the saying goes, "Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles."

Working in isolation would never be as enlightening as exchanging ideas with a true expert.

And this Director Zhu, having studied under the Chengjiang School, must have his own unique understanding of Elder Cheng’s acupuncture philosophy and techniques.

If he could exchange ideas with him and they could learn from each other, it would definitely be of great benefit to his own mastery of the essence of Elder Cheng’s acupuncture!

"Alright." With this thought, Li Xu readily agreed. "Dr. Lin, please tell Director Zhu that I would be delighted to have an exchange with him. You two set a time and place, and I’ll be there on time."