Ever since Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory began collaborating with Li Xu, the company’s development had been like a rocket launch.

From the meteoric rise of Mao Duddu Eye Drops, to Watermelon Frost going viral online, to the successful international launch of Dragon Bone Powder, and behind it all, the massive Dragon Bone Gold Mountain...

Every time Ding Kaifang recalled these successes, one by one, his blood raced and his heart pounded with excitement.

After all, while the Ding Group appeared powerful on the surface...

...its main business was real estate.

And the real estate sector had been struggling in recent years.

Forget the Ding Group—

many of its domestic competitors had collapsed.

Once a company defaulted,

it would crumble in an instant.

So, Ding Kaifang was under immense pressure.

But now, things were looking up.

The pharmaceutical factory was growing so rapidly that it wouldn’t be long before it replaced real estate as the group’s mainstay.

Sometimes, Ding Kaifang would get so excited thinking about it that he couldn’t sleep.

He would often toss and turn until three or four in the morning before finally managing to drift off.

Tonight was one of those nights.

The Dragon Bone Calming Pill was finally in production.

The factory had another flagship product.

He tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

So he got out of bed, followed the instructions, poured out ten pills, and took them with warm water.

The pills had no particular taste.

He lay back down on the bed.

His mind was still buzzing with excitement.

The company’s growth, the launch of the Dragon Bone Calming Pill, market expansion...

The thoughts flashed through his mind in rapid succession.

But soon, he started to feel drowsy.

His mind began to feel at ease.

The excitement faded.

His thoughts, which had been racing like a wild horse across the landscapes of commerce, felt as if they were being gently pressed down by a large, soft hand. They grew slower and more sluggish.

His eyelids, too, grew heavier and heavier, as if attached to lead weights.

An overwhelming sleepiness washed over him.

Unsurprisingly, he sank into a deep sleep.

He didn’t dream once, nor did he wake up during the night.

When his wife woke him the next morning,

Ding Kaifang glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was already eight o’clock!

He had slept for a solid five hours.

"You were sleeping so soundly I didn’t wake you earlier. This won’t make you late for work, will it?"

his wife asked.

Ding Kaifang snapped out of it and said with a smile, "Not at all. In fact, this was a huge help."

He had personally verified the efficacy of the Dragon Bone Calming Pill.

Ding Kaifang’s confidence soared.

After breakfast, he hurried to the company to arrange for clinical trials.

...

「Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.」

Professor Gao Guanghui’s specialist clinic was on the top floor of the outpatient building.

After a day of rest,

Li Xu officially arrived to begin his studies.

After knocking and entering, he saw a young man standing beside Professor Gao.

The young man was handsome and exuded an air of elitism.

"Li Xu, you’re here."

Seeing Li Xu, Professor Gao smiled and made the introductions. "Come, let me introduce you two. Li Xu, this is Zhou Junwei. He’s a top graduate from Yanjing University of Chinese Medicine with a master’s degree in the cutting-edge field of integrated Chinese and Western medicine. He’s also here for advanced studies. From now on, you two will be senior and junior brothers."

He then turned to Zhou Junwei. "Junwei, this is the Li Xu I mentioned to you, the talented young man from Feng City. You two are about the same age, so you should communicate and learn from each other."

"Senior Brother Zhou, it’s a pleasure to meet you." Li Xu proactively offered his hand in a polite greeting.

"Hello."

Zhou Junwei extended his hand and gave Li Xu’s a brief, light shake.

A polite but distant smile played on his lips.

Just moments before, Professor Gao had briefly told him about Li Xu.

When he heard that this "junior brother" he would be studying with was merely an undergraduate from an obscure, ordinary medical school in a third-tier city, and was currently running a small clinic back home, Zhou Junwei subconsciously felt a flicker of contempt.

He had been a golden boy his whole life, advancing from a top high school to one of the country’s most prestigious universities of Chinese medicine, studying under renowned masters, and with a future that was nothing but bright.

In his eyes, he and Li Xu were from two completely different worlds.

If not for his respect for Professor Gao, he couldn’t even be bothered to associate with someone like that.

Although he didn’t let the contempt show on his face, he couldn’t hide the deep-seated arrogance that was part of his very being.

Professor Gao saw the expressions on both their faces.

He simply smiled, offering no further explanation.

He knew you had to see someone in action to judge their worth.

True ability wasn’t something you could just talk about.

Li Xu, of course, sensed the other man’s distance and arrogance, but he paid it no mind.

’I’m here to learn, not to make friends.’

... 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

An appointment with the specialist Gao Guanghui was incredibly hard to get.

Not only was the consultation fee expensive, but the number of available slots was also limited each day.

The patients who managed to get an appointment were mostly those with difficult and complex cases who had been treated for a long time at various other hospitals with no success.

Soon, the first patient was led in by a nurse.

The patient was a man in his forties, slightly overweight, but his face was exceptionally haggard and his eyes were sunken. He had the look of someone who had been tormented by illness for a long time.

He had barely sat down when he said weakly to Professor Gao, "Doctor, this cold of mine just won’t go away. It’s awful..."

He haltingly began to describe his condition.

At the community clinic, he was diagnosed with a Typhoid cold.

He had been sick for five or six days.

But the symptoms of his cold were exceptionally strange and complex.

Sometimes, he would feel waves of heat, his head drenched in sweat. But strangely, from the neck down, his body would be completely dry, without a single drop of sweat.

His hands and feet were also as cold as ice, and his stools were dry, leading to bowel movements only once every few days.

At other times, his symptoms would completely reverse.

His limbs would be uncomfortably cold, but the palms of his hands and soles of his feet would break out in a clammy sweat.

These contradictory symptoms—sometimes heat in the upper body and cold in the lower, other times cold on the outside and heat on the inside—appeared in alternating cycles, causing him immense suffering.

He had seen several other doctors, but they all said his condition was too strange for them to understand. The medications they prescribed had no effect whatsoever.

Professor Gao listened carefully to the patient’s account, then performed a detailed tongue and pulse diagnosis.

The patient’s tongue was pale red with a thin, white coating.

His pulse was deep and tight.

Professor Gao’s fingertips lingered on the patient’s wrist for a long while.

By the time he withdrew his hand, he had already formed a diagnosis.

However, he didn’t rush to announce his diagnosis or write a prescription.

He glanced at Li Xu and Zhou Junwei standing beside him, deciding to test the two young men.

"Alright," he said to the patient. "You just sit here and rest for a moment. I’m going to have these two students of mine give you a diagnosis as well."

Then, he turned to Li Xu and Zhou Junwei. "Both of you, take his pulse, then tell me your diagnostic reasoning and proposed treatment plan."