Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 79: Laboratory Test

[Today’s Intel: Per Article 20 of the *Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Warm Pathogenic Diseases*, symptoms of profuse sweating are primarily treated with Cinnamon and Aconite Decoction to harmonize the body’s vital energies, warm the yang, and fortify its surface...]

Today’s intel wasn’t about a specific patient. It mainly introduced a medical condition and the corresponding dosage of medicine.

Li Xu committed it to memory.

However, he had something else to do this morning—he had made plans with Gu Xiaoya yesterday.

He closed the clinic for the day.

’Closing the clinic so often will affect business...’

Li Xu knew this, but some things just had to be done.

’I wonder how Song Sisi is doing?’

After breakfast,

Li Xu gave Song Sisi a call.

"How’s your grandmother?"

"Much better. She’s not in pain anymore, she has more energy, and her resting heart rate dropped from over 140 to 58."

"That’s good. When is your thesis defense?"

"The day after tomorrow. My grandmother will be discharged by then, so it won’t interfere..."

Song Sisi started crying as she spoke. "They haven’t come at all these past two days... Grandma told me not to resent them. I want her to live with me, but she won’t. She insists on going home..."

Li Xu fell silent.

He understood the complex emotions at play.

Her grandmother had always lived in the countryside and wasn’t used to a rental apartment in the city.

More importantly, while her grandmother could stay with Song Sisi for a few days,

if Song Sisi were to take care of her long-term,

Song Sisi’s father, uncles, and aunts would inevitably be criticized by everyone else.

They had their pride, after all,

and would never allow it.

Her grandmother understood the situation and wouldn’t put her children in an awkward position, which was why she wanted to go home. The old woman’s quiet endurance preserved her children’s dignity, but beneath that dignity lay a generation’s silent debt.

...

Li Xu took a car to the People’s Hospital and found the ophthalmology clinic.

"Doctor Li?"

A familiar voice called out from behind him. Li Xu turned to see Gu Xiaoya striding toward him in a white lab coat.

Her hair was a little longer than the last time they’d met. A few errant strands dangled by her ears, swaying gently with her steps.

The cuffs of her light gray trousers peeked out from under her lab coat, giving her a sharp, professional look.

"Dr. Gu." Li Xu held up a small bottle. "I brought the eye drops."

Gu Xiaoya took it and held the bottle up to the light. "The color is unusual. It’s a pale gold and very transparent, not cloudy like most traditional Chinese medicine eye drops."

"That might be because I used very few medicinal ingredients," Li Xu explained. "I removed most of the impurities, retaining only the active compounds."

Gu Xiaoya unscrewed the cap and sniffed it carefully. "It has a... grassy scent. It’s very fresh, not at all pungent."

"That’s the scent of foxtail grass," Li Xu explained. "I added it in, and it’s the primary ingredient."

Gu Xiaoya raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Foxtail grass?"

Although she practiced Western medicine,

as an ophthalmologist, she still knew of some traditional Chinese herbs that were beneficial for the eyes.

After all, the components of some Western medicines are extracted from traditional Chinese herbs.

"As far as I know, while foxtail grass can improve eyesight, it contains very few active compounds, so its effects are generally considered mediocre."

"My foxtail grass is different," Li Xu said without elaborating.

Gu Xiaoya adopted a professional demeanor and gestured to Li Xu. "Come on, let’s go to the lab and run a component analysis."

She turned and led the way, the hem of her lab coat swinging gently as she walked.

The ophthalmology lab was on the third floor of the inpatient building. It was spacious and bright, with various precision instruments arranged in neat rows.

Gu Xiaoya swiped a keycard to open the door and skillfully powered on several devices.

"First, a simple test," she said, pulling on a pair of medical gloves. She placed a drop of the solution onto a test strip.

"The pH... is 7.2. Perfect." Her voice was tinged with surprise. "It’s almost identical to natural tears, so it won’t cause any irritation."

Li Xu’s clinic didn’t have this kind of equipment, so of course he wouldn’t have known.

However, he had strictly followed the system’s formula and production process.

He was confident that the final product would be flawless—it was practically a product of the system itself.

Gu Xiaoya took another drop of the solution and placed it in a sophisticated analyzer. "Let’s look at the concentration of the main components... Foxtail grass polysaccharide, Pearl calcium, Shi Jueming amino acids..."

She stared at the fluctuating data on the screen, her eyes growing wider and wider. "This... This is incredible..."

"What is it?" Li Xu leaned in to look at the screen.

"The concentration of active compounds is five times higher than commercially available eye drops!" Gu Xiaoya turned to him, her eyes filled with disbelief. "And the impurity level is practically zero! How did you manage that?"

"Heh heh..." Li Xu just chuckled.

Of course, he couldn’t tell her the truth.

He would use the same excuse he’d given Gao Guanghui—that he had stumbled upon an ancient medicinal formula.

Gu Xiaoya took a deep breath, then did something that surprised Li Xu—she tilted her head back and squeezed a drop of the solution into her right eye.

"Aren’t you going to run a safety test first?"

Li Xu hadn’t expected Gu Xiaoya to be so bold.

The eyes are extremely delicate organs.

For her to apply it directly to her own eye without a full safety test showed both boldness and trust.

And indeed, Gu Xiaoya said, "I’m sure you must have tried it on yourself already. Besides..."

"...the best test is personal experience."

Gu Xiaoya blinked, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Her expression quickly shifted from slight apprehension to surprise, and finally to pure astonishment.

"Oh my God..." she murmured, unconsciously dabbing the corner of her eye. "This... The effect is incredible..."

Li Xu had personally tested its effects the day before yesterday,

so he completely understood how Gu Xiaoya felt.

Gu Xiaoya’s eyes sparkled with excitement. "This effect... There’s an instant cooling sensation, followed by... a warmth, like parched earth meeting rain... The moisture on the cornea feels sustained and stable..."

She described the sensations with professional precision, her voice trembling with excitement. "Doctor Li, do you realize what you’ve invented? I’ve tried most of the eye drops on the market, and none of them work as well as this. And... it doesn’t just relieve fatigue; it actually seems to have a therapeutic effect on dry eye syndrome."

She strode over to her desk and snatched up the phone. "I’m going to organize clinical trials immediately!"

Before dialing, she suddenly stopped and turned to Li Xu. "Do you have a complete component report and a record of the manufacturing process? We’ll need those to file for a patent!"

Li Xu pulled a folder out of his bag. "I have the manufacturing process recorded, but I don’t have a component report or any safety test data."

Gu Xiaoya quickly flipped through the file. "Hmm, the manufacturing process is very innovative... Oh... You can do it like this... This process could be patented on its own. As for the component report and safety test data, don’t worry. I’ll issue them for you, stamped by the People’s Hospital’s ophthalmology lab."

"Thank you so much."

Li Xu was truly grateful.

If it weren’t for the help of an ophthalmology expert like Gu Xiaoya,

preparing the complete set of documents for a patent application would have been incredibly difficult for Li Xu.

"Don’t mention it. You helped me yesterday, too."

Gu Xiaoya said with a smile,

She seemed to be in a much better mood than she was yesterday.