Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 56: Special Recruitment?

Miaoli recalled something.

Li Xu had mentioned to her that eating celery could help treat the symptoms caused by the tick-borne virus.

But she hadn’t paid it any mind.

"I can’t believe... it actually worked."

Miaoli sighed, full of emotion.

"Li Xu’s name is in *Dragon Country Virology*... Amazing!"

This was a medical journal famous even on the international stage.

Its papers were all published in both Chinese and English.

For a graduate from a third-tier city’s medical school to be featured in such a journal was enough to make all his peers’ eyes turn red with envy.

She immediately took out her phone, took a picture of the special issue of *Dragon Country Virology*, and focused on Li Xu’s name.

She sent it to her old classmates’ group chat.

"@all, everyone look! Someone’s been making big moves on the quiet."

Hu Qiming: "What’s going on? Who... Holy crap... *Dragon Country Virology*... Li Xu? Oh my god, what happened?"

Jiang Peng: "...Is this the same unremarkable Li Xu from school?"

Li Baojie: "I’m so jealous. He got into *Dragon Country Virology* just one year after graduation."

Hu Qiming: "It’s a shame, a real shame. If Li Xu were in a public hospital, with this contribution and the recognition from Professor Wang Tao’s team, he’d definitely become an attending physician."

Miaoli: "Yeah, it’s a huge shame. But even so, he should get a national award for this, right?"

Jiang Peng: "Absolutely. When the country rewards Professor Wang Tao’s team, Li Xu will definitely get a share."

Li Baojie: "Maybe some hospitals will even extend an olive branch to him. It’ll all depend on what Li Xu chooses to do then."

Jiang Peng: "I think he should still go to a hospital to gain experience. Running your own clinic, you see fewer patients and progress slowly."

Miaoli: "@Li Xu, where are you? Hurry up and tell us how you got in touch with Professor Wang Tao’s team! And you definitely have to treat us this time."

Hu Qiming: "Stop tagging him, he’s not around."

Miaoli: "Where did he go?"

Hu Qiming: "He went into the mountains to gather herbs. He specifically left me a message saying if he isn’t back in a day or two, I don’t have to come help out this week."

Miaoli: "??? Into the mountains to gather herbs?"

Jiang Peng: "Uh... Even though we studied Traditional Chinese Medicine, everything is about combining it with science now. Besides, what kind of herbs can’t you find on the market? Why bother going into the mountains?"

Hu Qiming: "Of course, wild herbs from the mountains are better. If I had the chance, I’d want to go gather herbs in the mountains too."

...

Just as they were chatting, Attending Physician Guo Yu walked in.

"Miaoli, have you finished your rounds for wards 1 through 9?"

Miaoli quickly put down her phone and handed over the patient charts. "I’m done. Only the patients in bed 12 and bed 17 haven’t shown improvement. The patients in the other wards are all recovering well."

"Mm."

Guo Yu took them and flipped through the pages one by one.

"Chief, take a look at this."

Miaoli handed him the special issue of *Dragon Country Virology*.

"Oh? Why did they put out a special issue?"

Guo Yu muttered to himself as he opened it.

"Celery... combined with the Clearing Qi and Stabilizing Blood Formula, can both suppress the virus and prevent further damage to the internal organs..."

"My god, who would have thought they could work together like that? Professor Wang Tao is a genius."

Guo Yu clucked his tongue in admiration, but he soon noticed something was off. The paper mentioned that the first case to provide empirical evidence was from the Guanghe District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

"Huh? Our hospital only admitted one patient with tick poisoning recently... We didn’t use celery, did we?"

"Chief, we did."

"Hmm?"

"It was at our hospital that they discovered Apigenin combined with Luteolin has a special effect on the tick-borne virus. That’s why Professor Wang Tao’s team published the new paper."

Guo Yu looked puzzled. "How come I didn’t know about this?"

Miaoli explained with a complicated tone, "I didn’t know either. It was my classmate, Li Xu, who discovered it. He even mentioned it to me at the time, but I didn’t pay it any mind."

"Li Xu..."

Guo Yu saw the list of authors and noticed a name: Li Xu.

Moreover, Professor Wang Tao had given special thanks to Li Xu.

"Ah!"

Guo Yu finally understood the whole story.

While they were treating Wang the Third for tick poisoning, Li Xu had looked up some information and concluded that Apigenin could act as an antiviral and anti-inflammatory, boosting the body’s immunity. So, he had the patient eat celery.

Celery is a medicinal herb in Chinese medicine, but more importantly, it’s a food.

Besides, at the time of the treatment, their hospital had only instructed the patient to avoid rich, fishy, and spicy foods, with no other dietary restrictions.

Li Xu’s actions hadn’t broken any rules at all.

"No wonder... On the first day, the tests clearly showed damage to the patient’s internal organs, but less than two days later, the damage stopped, and he started recovering quickly... So that’s what happened..."

The realization dawned on Guo Yu.

He followed up with admiration, "Your classmate is a true genius."

If he had only been the first to notice the latest article in *Dragon Country Virology*, that would just be a sign of diligence.

But to find an even better method after discovering that article... only a genius could do that.

Miaoli nodded and asked at the opportune moment, "Chief, is it possible to get him specially recruited into our Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine?"

During the group chat earlier, Miaoli had strongly agreed with Jiang Peng’s point. Although running a private clinic offered freedom, it didn’t really have much of a future.

Only in a proper hospital could one encounter more patients and grow more quickly.

The various instruments, medicinal supplies, procedures, and even the dedicated laboratories in some major hospitals were things a small clinic could never compare to.

As his classmate, Miaoli felt she should give Li Xu a helping hand.

"Hmm..."

Guo Yu thought for a moment. "I can bring it up with the dean, but I can’t guarantee it will be approved."

The Guanghe District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine was a bona fide public hospital.

There were two main ways it recruited doctors.

One was to pass the unified public health sector recruitment exam organized by the government.

Successful candidates would then be assigned to the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The other was through a special recruitment policy.

This was targeted at top-tier talent, first-class domestic talent, provincial-level leading talent, outstanding young talent, and other key physicians.

Although Li Xu had shown extraordinary ability in the tick poisoning case, he ultimately had no professional titles.

Nor had he been designated as outstanding talent, leading talent, or any kind of "XX Scholar."

It would be very difficult to make an exception for a special recruitment.

Sure enough,

when Guo Yu asked the dean that day,

the dean, after understanding the situation, rejected the idea crisply and cleanly.

"Dr. Li may be very creative and talented, but we are a public hospital, after all. Recruitment has its procedures. We can’t make a special exception."

Guo Yu relayed the news to Miaoli.

Miaoli sighed.

She could only let the matter drop.

...

Far away in the depths of the Qinling Mountains, Li Xu knew nothing of all this.

He made his way down the mountain along a cliffside path.

The gradually setting sun was blocked by a distant mountain ridge.

In the shifting light and shadows, the crooked roofs of Bailingyu Village looked even more dilapidated.

As Li Xu descended the mountain, he suddenly glimpsed a squirming black dot on the slope at the eastern edge of the village.

Looking closer—it was an old man with a hunched back.

The old man was bent like a fully drawn bow, his bony spine nearly parallel to the ground.

A blackened hemp rope was looped around his neck, the other end dragging a wooden rake that gnawed, inch by inch, at the hard, dry earth.