Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 229: A Chance to Counterattack

Today's intel was rich with content.

Not only did it detail the origin, reserves, and quality of the Dragon Bone, but it also provided an optimized formula for Dragon Horn Powder.

Dragon Horn Powder is a household throat medicine from Japan, highly effective and a bestseller.

Just a few days ago, their company had sent someone over, wanting to buy the formula and patent for Watermelon Frost.

Li Xu had refused.

Over two hundred years ago, the original formula for Dragon Horn Powder consisted of Dragon Bone, Dragon Brain, and Deer Horn Frost.

After numerous improvements, the formula had changed completely.

Its main ingredients are now Knotweed, Polygala Tenuifolia, licorice, and almond.

Dragon Bone, however, is a crucial herb in traditional Chinese medicine, known for its ability to calm shock and soothe the nerves, restrain sweat and preserve essence, stop bleeding and astringe the intestines, and promote tissue regeneration and wound healing.

The Dragon Bone available on the market varies wildly in quality, with huge price discrepancies.

And a deposit of mammalian fossils of this scale and quality... its value was simply immeasurable!

This wasn't just "stumbling upon a hidden gem" anymore; this was discovering a veritable gold mine!

Li Xu was ecstatic.

He recalled what Guo Hengchang had said yesterday: "Some of the last stones we quarried crumbled as soon as they came out. They're completely useless for construction..."

'So that's how it is!'

'The "scrap material" in Guo Hengchang's eyes is actually priceless "Dragon Bone"!'

A plan instantly took shape in his mind.

'The Dragon Horn Powder company from Japan wants to buy my Watermelon Frost, don't they?'

HEH HEH!

'Next, not only will you fail to acquire Watermelon Frost, but your company's core product—Dragon Horn Powder—will face a devastating blow.'

...

「Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers away in Shanyang County」

A thick, complex aroma of Chinese medicine filled Guo Hengchang's home.

Guo Hengchang stood guard in front of a clay pot.

Inside the pot, a dark brown medicinal soup bubbled away. The mellow sweetness of Ginseng, the slight pungency of Aconite, the bean-like fragrance of Astragalus Root... the scents of various herbs mixed together, filling the entire room.

He was incredibly anxious.

After returning from the city, he had rushed straight to the kitchen. He personally washed the pot, poured the water, and opened the medicine packets, handling each step with extreme care, terrified of making the slightest mistake.

He was filled with both hope and dread.

The hope came from Li Xu's confident gaze and insightful analysis, which made him feel he had truly met a "Divine Physician."

This was perhaps his last straw to clutch at to escape this sea of suffering.

The dread, however, stemmed from years of repeated disappointment.

He had seen too many doctors and drunk too much bitter medicine. Every time, he would start full of hope, only to end in disappointment, or even despair.

His body had been ravaged by illness and hormones.

'What if this is just another case of getting my hopes up for nothing?'

If even the seemingly miraculous Doctor Li couldn't cure him, then his life might truly have nothing left but despair.

"Old Guo, is this stuff really going to work? It smells so weird." His wife walked over, carrying a bowl of rice, her face etched with worry as she stared at the dark liquid in the pot.

"Don't you worry about it!" Guo Hengchang said without turning his head. "I've asked around. Doctor Li is a Divine Physician. Many patients with illnesses that couldn't be cured elsewhere were healed by him. If he says it'll work, it'll work!"

Though his tone was firm, his slightly trembling hands betrayed his inner nervousness.

Finally, the medicine was done brewing.

He strained the dregs through a piece of gauze,

leaving a bowl of about 200 milliliters of medicinal liquid.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Then, he tilted his head back and downed the bitter concoction in one go.

The liquid slid down his throat, and a warm current seemed to rise from his stomach, quickly spreading to his limbs.

Strangely, although the medicine was bitter, it had a subtle, sweet aftertaste once it went down, and wasn't as hard to swallow as he had imagined.

After drinking the medicine, he sat on the sofa, quietly sensing for any changes in his body.

Five minutes, ten minutes... half an hour...

It seemed there was no immediate, miraculous effect.

He could still feel the tightness in his chest, and his breathing was still somewhat labored.

A thread of disappointment crept into his heart.

'Could it be... another fruitless attempt?'

He shook his head with a bitter smile and got up, preparing to take a nap.

However, the moment he stood up, he suddenly let out a small "Huh?"

He realized that this simple act of standing up from a sitting position hadn't triggered a violent bout of gasping like it usually did! Although his breathing was still not smooth, the suffocating sensation of his chest being suddenly clenched, of not being able to draw a full breath, seemed to have lessened considerably.

'Is this just my imagination?'

He tried taking a few steps in the living room.

His steps were still heavy, but the gasping that shadowed his every move seemed to have genuinely quieted down.

This one tiny change was enough to make Guo Hengchang's heart start pounding furiously again!

He rushed to the mirror and stared intently at his face.

'The purple tinge on my lips... has it faded a little?'

'And the puffiness under my eyes... does it seem to have gone down a tiny bit?'

It might have been a psychological effect, but he was willing to believe it was real!

That evening, after he drank the second bowl of medicine, an even more obvious change occurred.

Usually, the period after dinner was his most difficult time. The chest tightness and shortness of breath would peak, and he would be wracked by incessant coughing. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

But today, he had managed to watch an entire TV show in peace, coughing only a few times in between.

But it was no longer the gut-wrenching, breathless coughing of the past. Instead, the coughs sounded deeper, and he even managed to bring up a small glob of thick, yellow phlegm.

The moment the phlegm came out, Guo Hengchang felt as if the blockage in his throat and chest had been pierced, providing immense, instant relief!

The biggest surprise came late at night.

For Guo Hengchang, nighttime was hell.

For two whole years, he hadn't known what it felt like to "lie flat" while sleeping.

Every night, he had to prop his upper body up high with three or four pillows, sleeping half-sitting like a statue. Even then, he would frequently jolt awake, gasping for air. Waking up seven or eight times a night was commonplace.

Today, after drinking that miraculous medicinal soup, on a whim, he only placed two pillows behind his back.

After lying down, he waited anxiously for the familiar feeling of suffocation to descend.

However, one minute passed, then five... Although he could still feel some resistance in his breathing, the death-like sense of suffocation never came!

In the endless darkness, Guo Hengchang's eyes flew open, wide with shock.

He could... he could lie down!

He still couldn't lie completely flat, but just reducing the height by one pillow was a tremendous blessing to him!

Carrying this immense surprise and excitement, he drifted off to sleep before he knew it.

He slept exceptionally soundly.

In the middle of the night, he woke up only once, startled by a slight cough.

He glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It was already three in the morning!

He had actually slept for four hours straight!

It was the longest, most peaceful sleep he'd had in years!