Village Doctor's Women-Chapter 148 - 143 Ancient Medical Skills

"How is Ping An now?"

As soon as Peng Qing entered the room, he saw Peng Pingan lying silently on the bed, already connected to electronic monitoring equipment. "How did he suddenly get like this? What happened?"

Peng Qing’s expression was grim, and his tone was sharp, even toward Cai Xing. The room was empty aside from Cai Xing and two medical staff.

Hearing Peng Qing’s voice, Cai Xing replied, "He was already unconscious when we found him. However, the initial examination shows his vital signs are relatively normal. It’s more like he’s just asleep."

After seeing the medical staff nod and checking Peng Pingan’s condition for himself, Peng Qing let out a rare sigh of relief. "Phew. Ping An does have this symptom," he admitted. "He falls asleep from time to time."

"I’ve brought Wang Jian with me," Peng Qing said. "With him here, maybe Ping An really has a chance."

Cai Xing was baffled, wondering where Peng Qing’s sudden confidence came from. He then noticed the look in his friend’s eyes. For the first time all day, there was a spark of light in them.

What happened?

It was no wonder Cai Xing was curious. Even he lacked any real confidence in the situation, despite his great respect for Wang Jian’s medical skills. After seeing Peng Pingan’s condition firsthand, Cai Xing felt it was a hopeless case. It wouldn’t matter who came to treat him. The boy’s state was simply beyond medical explanation. Furthermore, Wang Jian was a practitioner of Chinese medicine. When faced with such a terminal illness, the phrase Cai Xing heard most often was "there’s nothing we can do." So, even if Wang Jian admitted he couldn’t help, Cai Xing wouldn’t think any less of him.

Just then, Wang Jian pushed the door open with Cai Qiong following behind him. The moment he stepped inside, his gaze fell upon Peng Pingan on the hospital bed. At first glance, Wang Jian was stunned.

"What is this?"

How could a person’s body be in such utter disarray? If a healthy body felt like a calm bowl of hot tea—steaming yet tranquil—then what Wang Jian sensed from Peng Pingan was like a volcano on the verge of eruption, or a kettle boiling over.

Chaos! Utter chaos!

The qi, which should represent the life energy of the body’s various parts, was like a wild horse that had broken its reins, rampaging throughout the boy’s small frame. With a condition like this, it was no wonder a new part of his body would present a problem each day.

Upon realizing the severity of the situation, Wang Jian also understood why Peng Pingan had been issued a critical condition notice. If he guessed correctly, the problems in Peng Pingan’s body had once appeared sporadically in different locations, but now they were erupting all at once. That was why his body felt like a volcano about to explode, as if ignited by some external trigger.

"Strange, this is too strange."

Wang Jian was so completely captivated by Peng Pingan’s condition that he paid no attention to the others in the room. Without a word of greeting, he walked straight to the bedside. He frowned, assessing the boy while repeatedly muttering in amazement. His behavior didn’t look like that of a doctor examining a patient, but rather a curious spectator.

Peng Qing, standing to the side, frowned slightly. If not for his self-restraint, he might have questioned Wang Jian directly. However, the serious look on Wang Jian’s face made him hold his tongue. He wasn’t the only one; Cai Xing and Cai Qiong exchanged a glance, both seeing the confusion in the other’s eyes.

Fortunately, after he finished muttering, Wang Jian reached out and grasped Peng Pingan’s wrist, beginning what appeared to the others as a ’diagnosis’. This finally settled the nerves of the onlookers.

However, his very next move made their hearts leap into their throats again.

Wang Jian actually began to feel the boy’s bones, his hand moving up the arm from where he had taken the pulse. The scene was somewhat eerie. If it weren’t for Wang Jian’s constant frown and closed eyes—an expression that didn’t resemble a pervert’s in the slightest—Peng Qing might have restrained him on the spot. After all, during his time abroad, he had seen his fair share of child molesters.

Unable to bear it any longer, Peng Qing whispered to Cai Xing, "What is he doing?"

"This..." This put Cai Xing in an awkward position. He had no idea what Wang Jian was doing either. In all his years, he had never seen such a diagnostic method. It wasn’t as if the boy had a broken bone.

Cai Xing shook his head. "I can’t tell either. It might be some newly researched technique. Xiao Jian’s treatment methods... are certainly unique." Cai Xing forced out an explanation, recalling the marvelous acupuncture skills he had witnessed Wang Jian use before. He had no idea his words would serve as the perfect reminder for Peng Qing.

Peng Qing recalled the miraculous skill Wang Jian had displayed while saving someone earlier—a feat far beyond what other Chinese medicine practitioners were capable of. He nodded, and his perspective shifted as he watched Wang Jian’s movements again.

I’ve never seen a technique like this in my entire life. And you know what? It actually feels quite profound.

Peng Qing kept reassuring himself, his gaze locked on Wang Jian’s hands. He wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, but he thought he saw Wang Jian’s hands distorting slightly, like the visual distortion caused by high heat. For such a phenomenon to appear on a person’s hands was completely unscientific.

As Wang Jian continued, Peng Pingan, who had been completely unconscious, began to react. Peng Qing nearly cried out but managed to stifle the sound at the last second.

"Don’t worry, this is a normal reaction," Wang Jian finally spoke, addressing the father who had been anxiously watching his every move. "Mr. Peng, I think I have a general idea of what’s happening."

"What?" Peng Qing’s expression changed. He had been watching Wang Jian’s actions intently, hoping he would find something. But for Wang Jian to reach a conclusion just by touching him was completely unexpected, especially since he hadn’t run any tests. No blood draws, no urine samples, no MRIs or CT scans. He hadn’t even glanced at basic data like the ECG or blood work.

"You haven’t done any tests yet, have you?" Cai Qiong interjected before Peng Qing could speak. She said it to remind Wang Jian to be careful and not speak rashly.

"That’s right," Cai Xing chimed in, and Peng Qing’s gaze fell on Wang Jian as well.

"The examination is complete," Wang Jian stated. Before they could ask anything else, he withdrew his hands, a strange, indescribable look in his eyes.

"My apologies, Mr. Peng. When I saw your son’s condition, I became anxious and began the examination right away."

"As you know, I studied Chinese medicine in college," Wang Jian said to the group. "But my real medical skills were taught to me by my master. The medical skills he taught, while sharing roots with Chinese medicine, are not actually called Chinese medicine. It is called Ancient Medical Skills, a discipline that exists outside the modern definitions of Chinese and Western Medicine."

"The focus of Ancient Medical Skills is not on the ’four diagnostic methods’ of Chinese medicine—observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking. Instead, it’s about mobilizing the body’s own power to resist illness."

"This inherent power, we call ’qi’."

"The reason your son is in his current state is because of a problem deep within his body."

"Let’s assume a normal human body is a stable universe. In a healthy person, it’s like our own cosmos—an occasional exploding star is inconsequential as long as all planets and stars follow their orbits. But... if those orbits become chaotic and planets and stars start flying around erratically, that’s when serious problems arise."

"Right now, the qi in the patient’s body has lost its way. It’s roaming wildly inside him, causing organ A to fail today, organ B tomorrow, and organ C the day after. The reason he’s in critical condition now is that all these problems have erupted at once, like a volcano on the very edge of eruption."

Wang Jian’s long explanation finally started to make sense to Peng Qing, Cai Xing, and Cai Qiong.

The two medical staff members, however, just looked baffled. They exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes, giving Wang Jian a look one might reserve for a common fraudster.

Rich people are so superstitious. To think they’d believe something like that.

If I knew it was this easy to make money, I’d have become a charlatan too.

The two were professional enough not to voice their thoughts, but in their minds, they had already labeled Wang Jian a charlatan.

"So what now?" Peng Qing grabbed Wang Jian’s arm, asking frantically, "Is there still hope?"

Wang Jian paused.

Peng Qing pressed on, his voice filled with desperation, "As long as you can save him, I’ll do anything! Just tell me!"