Having treated similar cases before, and seeing that the elderly man’s condition wasn’t as serious as Ms. Zhou described, Du Heng quickly formulated a plan.

However, Du Heng’s thoughtful pause while considering the prescription made Ms. Zhou a little more anxious.

As his partner, Ms. Zhou was well acquainted with Du Heng’s capabilities. She knew of his success with several critically ill patients and Cancer cases, and had her own firsthand experience. While she wouldn’t go so far as to call Du Heng a Divine Doctor, she certainly considered him among the top physicians she knew.

Take her own health issues, for example. She had visited numerous renowned hospitals and consulted many top experts, all to no avail.

But when she met Du Heng, he diagnosed her problems through simple conversation and observation. Within a month of taking his prescribed medicine, even as she was approaching menopause, she found hope of becoming a mother. For this reason alone, Du Heng stood far above those highly acclaimed "experts" in her estimation.

Seeing Du Heng’s silence, she asked with a worried expression, "President Du, can my father’s illness be cured?"

The old man himself, however, appeared calm. Though his hand trembled violently, like a massage device, his words were serene. "Don’t worry about me. Seeing you two living well and having a Child of your own brings me great satisfaction."

As Du Heng mentally worked through combinations for the prescription, he couldn’t help but smile faintly upon hearing their exchange. "Lawyer Zhou, the Elderly man’s condition isn’t too serious. I’ll write you a prescription. After the New Year, his hand tremors and lightheadedness should mostly disappear."

Upon hearing this, Ms. Zhou was overjoyed and immediately rose to find a pen and paper. The old man, however, remained as composed as when he had first entered. It was difficult to discern from his expression whether he had truly, as he claimed, made peace with life and death.

Once he had the pen and paper, Du Heng began to write swiftly. However, the names of the medicines he listed puzzled Ms. Zhou, who was watching beside him.

She trusted Du Heng’s expertise and knew she didn’t understand traditional Chinese medicine or Chinese herbal medicine, but the names—which clearly didn’t sound like typical medicine ingredients—still raised questions in her mind. For example, Du Heng wrote ’magnet’. In a normal person’s understanding, how could this possibly be a medicinal herb that cures diseases?

Watching Du Heng finish, Ms. Zhou reached for the prescription. After looking it over again, she couldn’t help but ask, "President Du, this ’magnet’ you’ve written—is it the common magnetite we’re familiar with?"

Du Heng chuckled. "Yes, you could say that."

Ms. Zhou hesitated. "President Du, I’m not questioning you; I’m just purely curious. Can such a large piece of it really be boiled and used as Chinese herbal medicine?"

"You’ve misunderstood. The ’magnet’ used in traditional Chinese medicine isn’t just any piece of magnetite thrown into the pot; it must be processed. The processing method is quite complex, so I won’t go into detail, but I can explain its functions."

"The ’magnet’ affects the liver, Heart, and kidney meridians. It has the effects of relieving uneasiness of mind, liver calming, and subduing Yang. Uncle’s current insomnia, dizziness, and tinnitus are all conditions it can treat effectively."

Ms. Zhou murmured an "Oh." She felt as though Du Heng had explained everything and yet nothing at all. However, she now understood one crucial point: this ’magnet’ was indeed a legitimate medicine ingredient and could genuinely treat illnesses.

But then she pointed to another name on the prescription and asked curiously, "President Du, what is this ’Egg Yolk’? Is it just regular egg yolk?"

"Yes, it’s egg yolk. It nourishes qi and kidney Yin. Furthermore, modern research has found that the lecithin, triglycerides, cholesterol, and lutein in egg yolk significantly benefit the nervous system."

"The lecithin, when digested, releases choline, which can improve memory."

Du Heng smiled faintly. "However, one shouldn’t consume too much of it, as it can cause indigestion. People with coronary heart disease, hypertension, or arteriosclerosis should use it cautiously."

Ms. Zhou carefully put away the prescription. "If it’s just egg yolk, then write ’egg yolk’. Why do you have to write ’Egg Yolk,’ making it so mysterious?"

Du Heng simply smiled. It wasn’t his choice to write it that way; it was a convention passed down through generations. When ’Egg Yolk’ is written, both doctors and pharmacists know what it is and how to use it. If ’egg yolk’ were written, they might have to clarify whether it should be cooked or raw, adding unnecessary complications.

「Just as they were hoping to chat a little longer, Du Heng received repeated calls from Li Jianwei and Xu Pinglin. They urged him to hurry to the Provincial First Hospital, saying there was an emergency.」

With no other choice, Du Heng had to take his leave after providing instructions on the precautions for preparing and taking the decoction of medicine.

「It was almost the New Year, but the situation at the Provincial First Hospital hadn’t eased; instead, more and more people were coming to see the doctors.」

It turned out many people had actually been ill for some time. However, they had been too busy with work, and since their illnesses weren’t severe, they had put off seeing a doctor. Now that they were on holiday and had more free time, they remembered to seek treatment.

Beside Li Jianwei’s desk in his office stood two large tins of cooking oil and two gift boxes.

The moment Du Heng stepped inside, he instinctively covered his nose. He knew instantly that the two gift boxes must contain hairtail fish.

The smell was overwhelmingly fishy!

"Mr. Li, are these New Year gifts for our Department? Very nice! Two large tins of oil and two boxes of hairtail fish." Du Heng waved his hand in front of his nose, then leaned in for a closer look. "Wow, looks like six fish per box. Two boxes, excellent!"

Li Jianwei, apparently accustomed to the odor, sat calmly in his fishy-smelling office. "Xiao Du, you’ve been back for half a month. When are you planning to return to work?"

Du Heng pulled a chair up opposite Li Jianwei and sat down, smiling. "After the New Year, perhaps. The Health Clinic is quite busy before the New Year, so I haven’t been able to get away."

Li Jianwei shot Du Heng an exasperated look. "You’re just slacking off, aren’t you?" He then took a file from his drawer and pushed it across the desk to Du Heng. "The project you applied for, ’Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment of Various Complications of Stroke,’ has been approved. Here’s the document; take a look."

Du Heng took the file and began to flip through it.

Leaning back in his chair, Li Jianwei continued, "Now that the project is approved, try to publish more articles after the New Year. Let the young fellows you’re mentoring benefit from your success too. We’ll also aim to get you into the provincial Expert Database by the end of this year, or at the very least, secure a reserve candidate spot for you."

Du Heng skimmed through the thick pile of documents perfunctorily. If you asked him what he’d seen, apart from the project title on the first page, he wouldn’t recall a single other detail.

Closing the file, Du Heng asked, "The provincial Expert Database? Am I even qualified? Don’t the requirements in Our province usually stipulate Director-level positions? Plus, my educational background might not be enough."

"Special cases call for special measures! We have capability, so why should we care about their rigid rules and regulations? Those frameworks are for the mediocre. How could a genius like you be treated the same as them?"

Li Jianwei shook his head disdainfully. Although he himself was, by his own admission, within those ’frameworks,’ he possessed genuine self-awareness.

He hadn’t entered the Expert Database yet, but he had been on the reserve list for a long time.

More importantly, he had smoothly attained the Director title this year and successfully taken charge of the Chinese Medicine Department at the Provincial First Hospital. Entering the provincial Expert Database this year wouldn’t be a difficult feat for him.

And how had he reached this point? Wasn’t it simply by patiently accumulating seniority and qualifications over the years?

Therefore, he was intimately familiar with these ’frameworks’ and had a good sense of the actual caliber of the people within them.

While they were speaking, Li Jianwei saw that Du Heng had finished with the documents. He picked up a form from his desk and handed it to Du Heng. "See here, the last page? Affix your personal seal and sign it."

Du Heng glanced at it. It was an application form for Project Funding. A flicker of joy sparked within him.

But when his eyes landed on the figures on the application form, they nearly popped out of his head. He stared at Li Jianwei in disbelief. "Mr. Li, did you make a mistake writing this? Are you missing a zero?"

"You read it correctly, and I wrote it correctly. That’s the amount."

"5,000 yuan? Can one even initiate a provincial-level project with just 5,000 yuan?"

"Isn’t 5,000 yuan enough? If not, you’ll have to find a way. That’s all that was allocated to us. Neither the Hospital nor the Department held back a single cent."

Du Heng was momentarily baffled.

He had imagined project funds would be in the tens of thousands of yuan, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions. But 5,000 yuan?

What could possibly be accomplished with such a meager sum?

If he followed standard procedure—explaining the situation to patients, obtaining consent for experimental data collection—the associated Check-up Fees, treatment costs, medicine expenses, and so on would likely exceed the budget for even a single Patient, let alone anything more extensive.

Li Jianwei, long accustomed to such matters, took out two Red Envelopes from his drawer and pushed them towards Du Heng.

Du Heng saw two Red Envelopes, one thin and one thick, and looked at Li Jianwei with a puzzled expression.

"Take these. This one is the Project Funding. I’m giving it all to you directly. No need to apply to the Department or the Hospital; you get it all at once. However, you’ll need to keep a clear record of your expenditures and submit it."

Du Heng mentally rolled his eyes. Just 5,000 yuan, and he still had to document how it was spent? He almost didn’t want it anymore.

Li Jianwei sighed. "Don’t be upset. The main issue is that we applied very late last year, right at year-end, so there wasn’t much budget left. Furthermore, Our province doesn’t allocate substantial funding to traditional Chinese medicine special projects, so a smaller amount is unavoidable."

"If we had applied earlier, given the results you’ve already achieved, the special funds from the Health Commission combined with the Hospital’s project funds would easily have amounted to 200,000 or 300,000 yuan."

200,000 to 300,000 yuan versus 5,000 yuan?

The disparity was enormous.

Du Heng grumbled, "Then why didn’t we just apply this year? I’m not in a rush. Why apply at the end of last year?"

"It’s because I saw you already had significant results. If we quickly publish articles after the New Year, we can aim for the provincial Expert Database this year. If you succeed, future projects you apply for will not only have a much higher approval rate, but the funding will also be considerably more substantial than this."

"Moreover, achieving results with only 5,000 yuan this time will reflect well on you. In future projects, the shortfall from this instance will certainly be compensated."

"Also, I’ve already arranged things with the Hospital. Once your articles are published, the Hospital will provide its share of the funding to you as a bonus, with no deductions. That way, you won’t even have to go through the trouble of writing detailed expenditure reports."

Du Heng wasn’t familiar with the intricacies of project fund operations. But since Li Jianwei had put it this way, he could only grudgingly accept. "Still, Mr. Li, after all this, it seems our Department hasn’t contributed anything, has it?"

Li Jianwei laughed heartily, pushing the thicker Red Envelope on the table towards Du Heng again. "Don’t worry, I’m not that stingy. Take a look."

Du Heng glanced at Li Jianwei, puzzled, then picked up the thicker Red Envelope. "10,000 yuan?"

"Correct."

"So, what’s this for?"

"Your year-end bonus."

"But this isn’t Project Funding."

"Everyone else’s year-end bonus is 5,000 yuan."

Du Heng pouted. "Fine. So, you’re placating me with an extra 5,000 yuan this way."