Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 35: Research the Ingredients?
Miaoli: "@Hu Qiming, you’re not kidding, are you?"
Jiang Peng: "Sounds pretty fantastical."
Li Baojie: "..."
Hu Qiming: "I’m really not lying. It’s the absolute truth."
Another moment of silence followed.
Deep down, they all believed him. They just couldn’t accept it right away.
Li Baojie: "Suddenly, I feel a little down."
Jiang Peng: "Same here."
Miaoli: "The guy who was always so average in school suddenly became amazing. It’s hard to accept... Haha, @Li Xu, you don’t have a girlfriend yet, do you? Want to consider me?"
Li Xu: "..." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
Everyone was shooting the breeze in the group chat.
They were classmates, after all, not colleagues. There was no competition or conflict of interest between them.
Everyone quickly got used to Li Xu’s "rise" and started clamoring for him to treat them to a meal.
Li Xu: "No problem. Is everyone free tonight? I’ll treat you all to dinner at the Feng City Hotel."
Miaoli: "It’s my turn to be on duty today, so I can’t make it."
Jiang Peng: "I have to write a report, so I can’t go either."
A lot of people weren’t free.
They had to drop the idea.
’I guess we’ll have to do it some other time.’
Li Xu put down his phone.
Hu Qiming scooted closer. "I’m free tonight."
Li Xu smiled and said, "It’s your first day here. I should have treated you to a meal anyway."
There weren’t many patients.
The clinic closed before 6:00 p.m.
Li Xu took Song Sisi, Hu Qiming, and the nurse from the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine to the Songjiang Noodle House for a lavish meal.
When it was time to pay, Li Xu picked up the tab.
"We’ll come back tomorrow morning,"
Hu Qiming, who had a bit to drink, said tipsily.
"Alright."
Li Xu called a taxi and sent them on their way.
...
「The next morning.」
Li Xu got out of bed, and the first thing he did was check the new intelligence from the system.
[Today’s Intelligence: In a 280-square-meter area at the northeastern foot of Tang Mountain, the soil temperature is 5°C higher than normal due to a subterranean hot spring offshoot. It is still possible to plant a crop of rice that will mature before winter. This rice is rich in minerals and is attractive to those with anorexia.]
This was a continuation of the previous intelligence report.
His area was north of the Qinling and Huai River line. Places with abundant water could grow rice, but only one crop a year.
A little over 100 kilometers farther south, rice could be harvested twice a year.
But that patch of land on Tang Mountain, thanks to the geothermal vein, could make up for the climatic difference of those 100-plus kilometers.
Li Xu thought about the Tang Mountain situation as he washed up.
The patch of land wasn’t too big, but not too small either.
An area of 280 square meters, about half a *mu*.
If he planted a high-quality rice variety, he could harvest at least five hundred *jin*.
By planting two crops a year, he could get an annual harvest of one thousand *jin* of rice.
That would be enough to treat a lot of anorexia patients.
The more Li Xu thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
Anorexia, after all, wasn’t a terminal illness, but it was very difficult to treat and had a mortality rate as high as 10%.
This was especially true for childhood anorexia. If a child developed the condition, it could destroy a happy family.
"But..."
Li Xu frowned.
Although Tang Mountain was in a remote location, it wasn’t far from the city.
If he planted rice there, would it grow properly if he wasn’t there to watch over it all the time?
Besides, the last time he went to Tang Mountain, there were signs of construction. Were they planning to build a factory or something?
’I’ll go check it out tomorrow.’
Li Xu reasoned that even if there were development plans, construction wouldn’t start overnight.
’First, I’ll scatter the rice seeds and aim for one harvest, then figure out the rest.’
Li Xu also remembered something else.
A little over a month ago, he had run into Wang the Third, who sold Daqing Leaf, at the medicinal herb market.
The Daqing Leaf that Wang the Third grew had been infested with pests, which, paradoxically, caused the leaves to produce antiviral compounds.
It was especially effective against influenza viruses.
’Could this method be replicated?’
’If it could, I’d be able to continuously cultivate that type of Daqing Leaf.’
’I’ll make a trip over there when I have time.’
Li Xu seemed to recall Wang the Third mentioning that he lived in the direction of Tang Mountain.
After breakfast, the clinic opened.
A little after nine, Hu Qiming and the nurse arrived again in a vehicle from the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
There weren’t many patients today.
They were all common ailments.
Li Xu prescribed medications according to their diagnoses.
The day passed quickly.
"Sigh!"
Hu Qiming said reluctantly, "I’ve discovered it’s pretty relaxing in the clinic. I don’t even want to go back to the hospital."
In the hospital, he had people to answer to and was sometimes quite busy. Hu Qiming much preferred staying at Li Xu’s clinic.
Li Xu didn’t indulge him. "Then why don’t we switch?"
"Heh heh."
Hu Qiming just chuckled and said nothing.
Li Xu shook his head. ’The grass is always greener on the other side. When I actually offer to let you switch, you won’t do it, so what’s the point of complaining?’
"Oh, right, Sisi. We’re taking tomorrow off. You can stay home and write your thesis,"
Li Xu instructed.
"Closing again? Okay."
Song Sisi was already used to it.
This made Hu Qiming, who hadn’t left yet, even more envious. "Owning your own clinic, taking a day off whenever you want... That’s the life! After I put in a few years at the hospital and build a reputation, I’ll open my own clinic too."
...
In the kitchen of the Ding Family’s villa, Lin Yue carefully cooked a small bowl of brown rice congee.
The grains tumbled in the water, giving off a faint, earthy smell, completely different from the clean fragrance of normal rice.
Lin Yue wrinkled her nose, feeling uneasy. ’Can this stuff really be eaten?’
She’d had an urgent matter to attend to yesterday and hadn’t gone to Li Xu’s clinic, so she hadn’t witnessed that scene.
So she was very skeptical about the congee’s effectiveness.
Once the congee was cooked, she scooped up a small spoonful, blew on it, and put it in her mouth.
"BLECH—"
The moment it entered her mouth, Lin Yue almost spat it out.
The rice was coarse and hard, like chewing on sand, and it had a bitter taste. It was practically impossible to swallow!
"This... Can Duoduo really eat this stuff?"
She looked at her husband in disbelief.
"Let me try." Ding Kaifang also tasted a mouthful, and his brow instantly furrowed. "This is horrible..."
However, Duoduo, who was sitting at the dining table, was staring eagerly at the bowl of congee. Her little hand even reached out unconsciously as she whispered, "Mommy... I want to eat."
Ding Aiguo and Xue Mei exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other’s eyes.
"This is medicinal rice. Only Duoduo can eat it," Ding Aiguo instructed.
Lin Yue suppressed her doubts and ladled half a bowl of congee for Duoduo.
Astonishingly, Duoduo took the bowl and began to eat with great relish, spoonful after spoonful, showing none of an anorexia patient’s typical resistance to food!
"This is incredible..." Ding Kaifang muttered. "What’s so special about this rice?"
After the meal, Ding Kaifang proposed an idea. "Dad, we should send this rice to a research institute for analysis. If we can identify the key component that makes it attractive to anorexia patients, we might be able to develop it into a miracle drug!"
Ding Aiguo thought for a moment and immediately understood the significant business opportunity.
This was different from treating illnesses with normal traditional Chinese medicine.
In traditional Chinese medicine, a prescription is formulated by combining different herbs based on the patient’s symptoms.
But this brown rice made anorexia patients eat based entirely on its own inherent properties.
If they could unlock its secret...
"We have the National Science Academy’s biology research institute here in Feng City, but I don’t know any experts there..."
Ding Aiguo thought for a moment, then took out his phone and found the number of a friend, Wang Jun.
"He knows an expert at the biology research institute. I’ll ask him for help..."
Before he could finish his sentence, his phone rang.
Coincidentally, it was Wang Jun calling.
