Li Xu continued to explain, "Professor Gao, your earlier diagnosis of ’liver fire flaring up’ was completely correct.

But have you ever considered where this liver fire comes from?

When I took his pulse just now, beneath the wiry and rapid signs at the *cun* position, I also felt an extremely subtle, choppy, and weak fluctuation.

This indicates that the root of his illness is ’liver and kidney yin deficiency, where water fails to nourish wood.’

"The liver belongs to wood, and the kidney belongs to water. Water generates wood.

If the kidney’s water is deficient, it cannot nourish the liver’s wood. When the liver wood loses its nourishment, it becomes agitated and overactive, transforming into deficiency fire that flares up into the eyes.

This is the principle behind ’water failing to nourish wood, leading to hyperactive liver yang.’"

"And the fundamental cause of his liver and kidney yin deficiency is—excessive worry and overthinking!

As they say in Chinese medicine, ’Worry damages the spleen, and fear damages the kidneys.’

Prolonged mental stress and anxiety will covertly deplete the body’s spleen and kidney essence.

From observing this patient’s complexion and listening to him speak, it’s clear he is someone who overthinks things and is prone to melancholy.

His eye condition is inextricably linked to these psychological factors."

"Therefore," Li Xu concluded, "to cure his eye disease, simply using medicine to clear liver fire is only treating the symptoms, not the root cause. The key is to first cure his ’sickness of the heart’!"

"The reason I used such alarmist words, telling him sores would grow on the soles of his feet, was to use a greater, more terrifying ’fear’ to replace the ’worry’ in his heart about ’going blind.’

This way, his full attention would be forcibly diverted from his eyes and redirected to the soles of his feet.

Every day, filled with both fear and hope, he will complete the task of rubbing his feet ’360 times.’

In the process, his mind will be focused and free from distractions. Naturally, he won’t have time to let his imagination run wild or fret about his eye condition."

"After a few days, he’ll find that the soles of his feet are perfectly fine.

The biggest stone weighing on his heart will come crashing down.

He will experience a tremendous sense of joy and relief, as if he’s survived a catastrophe.

By then, his ’sickness of the heart’ will be mostly gone.

Once the sickness of the heart is dispelled, the flow of *qi* will be smooth, the liver and kidneys will find peace, and the flaring deficiency fire will naturally subside.

His eye condition will then heal without any medicine."

Zhou Junwei listened to this explanation, completely dumbfounded!

Professor Gao closed his eyes, carefully recalling the sensation he felt when taking the patient’s pulse earlier.

It suddenly dawned on him.

"You’re right," Professor Gao said, analyzing as he recalled. "When I took his pulse, I did indeed feel a subtle fluctuation hidden beneath the wiry, rapid pulse. It’s just that at the time, my full attention was drawn to the patient’s eye condition, and I subconsciously ignored that subtle change. Thinking back now, that was precisely the pulse sign of excessive worry and deficiency in both the heart and spleen. Sigh! I’m really getting old and muddled!"

He looked at Li Xu, his eyes filled with unparalleled admiration.

This young man not only had an exquisitely subtle touch in pulse diagnosis, but he could also see into people’s hearts, skillfully applying Psychological Therapy and elevating his medical skills to a realm that bordered on the ’Dao’.

This was completely beyond the scope of an ordinary doctor!

Meanwhile, Zhou Junwei, who was standing to the side, was completely baffled.

’You can... treat an illness like this?’

’Using a lie to treat a real disease?’

’This... this was completely incomprehensible within his system of medical knowledge!’

He even felt it was somewhat absurd.

"But... will this really work?"

He couldn’t help but voice his skepticism.

"Heh," Professor Gao glanced at him and said meaningfully, "Junwei, this is the biggest difference between Chinese and Western medicine. Western medicine treats illnesses by ’treating the head for a headache and the foot for a foot ache.’ They see the localized ’lesion.’ But Chinese medicine treats the ’whole,’ adjusting a ’system.’ We see ’a person who is sick.’ Sometimes, untangling a person’s ’emotional knots’ is more effective than prescribing a hundred doses of medicine."

He clapped Zhou Junwei on the shoulder. "Just wait and see. We’ll see the results in seven days."

...

「Feng City. Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory.」

In the general manager’s office, Ding Kaifang’s face was overflowing with irrepressible joy.

Just a moment ago, he had received official notification from the Drug Administration—the first batch of "Dragon Bone Calming Pills" they submitted for inspection had passed a strict and comprehensive series of tests. All indicators were up to standard, and it was officially approved for market release!

What made him even happier was the data fed back from the clinical trials that were conducted concurrently.

The report showed that after a week of continuous use of the "Dragon Bone Calming Pill," among the 100 volunteers with varying degrees of insomnia and anxiety, the efficacy rate for significant symptom improvement was an astonishing 80%!

This was an incredibly staggering figure!

It was important to note that the approval process for proprietary Chinese medicines, unlike that for chemical drugs, mostly did not require large-scale Phase III clinical trials before they could be released directly to the market.

But to be on the safe side, and to obtain convincing data to support the product’s promotion, Ding Kaifang had insisted on conducting this small-scale clinical trial.

And now, this dazzling data report was the most powerful trump card in his hand!

"Wang Lei!" Ding Kaifang pressed the button on his intercom.

Soon, Sales Manager Wang Lei strode quickly into the office.

"President Ding, you were looking for me?"

"Get the word out!" Ding Kaifang slapped the report on his desk, speaking with soaring spirits. "’Dragon Bone Calming Pill’ is now officially launching with full-channel distribution and promotion. Our goal is to make it the nation’s number one selling sedative-type drug by the end of this year!"

...

「Kangning Pharmacy.」

The owner, Zhang Zhigang, was humming a little tune as he busily organized the shelves.

Because of his partnership with Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory, his pharmacy could always get shipments of products like Mao Duddu Eye Drops, True Martial Pills, Watermelon Frost, and Dragon Bone Powder, even when they were frequently out of stock elsewhere.

This attracted a large number of loyal customers.

It even boosted the sales of other medicines in the store.

By now, he had developed a blind faith in the ’Made by Ding’s’ brand.

Just then, he saw a commercial van with the "Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory" logo slowly pull up in front of the pharmacy.

Sales Manager Wang Lei stepped out of the van.

"Aiyo! Manager Wang!"

Seeing him, Zhang Zhigang quickly put down what he was doing and hurried over, his face wreathed in smiles. "Why have you come in person? If there was anything you needed, you could have just given me a call. There was no need for you to make the trip yourself."

"Haha, Boss Zhang, business is booming, I see," Wang Lei said with a laugh, offering him a cigarette. "I was just passing through the area and thought I’d stop by to give you some good news."

"Oh? What good news?"

"Our factory has another blockbuster new product—the ’Dragon Bone Calming Pill’—which officially launched today."

Wang Lei clapped Zhang Zhigang on the shoulder and said in a tone that allowed no room for doubt, "I’ve already had the sales rep allocate five cases for you; they’ll be delivered this afternoon. You can go ahead and start clearing out similar products in your store, like that ’Sour Jujube Seed Calming Liquid’ and ’Calming and Brain-Nourishing Tablets.’ Get ready to take them off the shelves. Because with our ’Dragon Bone Calming Pill’ on the market, those other things won’t sell anymore!"

Wang Lei’s voice was filled with confidence.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Hearing this, Zhang Zhigang wasn’t startled but delighted. He nodded repeatedly without a hint of doubt. "I believe it. Anything produced by Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory is guaranteed to be top-quality. I’ll go wire the payment right now."