The girl said, exasperated, "Fine, I’ll tell you! I sleep holding his balls. Are you satisfied now? And you must tell me, what does this have to do with treating the condition? Otherwise, I’ll have to report you for one more thing—being a pervert!"

Du Heng shook his head. "Madam, please don’t use such harsh words. Let’s discuss this calmly. Can you tell me why you... ah... hold that particular part of him?"

"Because I like it! I can’t sleep if I’m not holding them. Are you satisfied now?" The girl, a mix of shame and anger welling up, decided to be brazen.

But Du Heng let out a long sigh, smiled helplessly, and said, "Alright, young man, we’ve found the problem. It’s not my fault, nor the medicine’s, and it’s certainly not an issue with your body. The problem lies with this... peculiar habit of yours as a couple."

"Nonsense!" the girl snapped. She hadn’t expected Du Heng to be so shameless as to try and shift the blame onto her.

In response to the girl’s fury, Du Heng merely smiled gently and asked, rather resignedly, "Madam, do you know the function of a man’s... balls?"

The girl, still looking incensed, glared at Du Heng. "I’m not a doctor. How would I know?"

Du Heng shook his head with a wry smile. "Setting aside other functions, let’s focus on one: they store semen. Now, do you know why they hang down there, outside a man’s body, rather than inside?"

Du Heng’s question made the girl start to realize that she might indeed be the issue. Though she didn’t know why, a sense of it was dawning on her. However, pride and embarrassment made her persist stubbornly. "If you have something to say, just say it. Don’t beat around the bush."

Du Heng, seeing her predicament, got straight to the point. "Semen requires a low-temperature environment for storage. The balls hang outside the body precisely to escape its internal warmth, seeking a cooler place. However, when you hold them in your hand, your hand’s warmth changes this suitable environment, causing them to lose their optimal temperature. And if the temperature gets too high, the fluid inside spoils."

Saying this, Du Heng sighed again, addressing both the girl and the young man, "A damp scrotum is an extremely detrimental thing for any male, regardless of age. You should be grateful that your hands aren’t overly warm, and that your husband has a strong constitution. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here seeking treatment for infertility; you’d be bringing your husband in for erectile dysfunction."

The girl looked at Du Heng, her face taking on an unnatural hue, and stammered, "Is it... is it really as serious as you say?"

"Serious?" Du Heng smirked. "Go to the Andrology Clinic in any other hospital. Ask around. Listen to what they say, and then you’ll know if I’m being alarmist or just trying to scare you. I can even tell you that your husband’s current condition is the mildest form. A step worse, and it’s dysfunction. Worse than that, and there’s no response at all. If it truly gets to that point, you’ll have nowhere to turn to cry. Besides, that area is so delicate. What if you have a nightmare and accidentally squeeze too hard?"

Both the girl’s and the young man’s faces changed. Seeing Du Heng’s expression, combined with Dean Du Heng’s authoritative presence and the fact that they were in a hospital, left the couple with no choice but to believe him.

These few short sentences, this brief exchange, sent the girl’s emotions on a drastic swing, nearly causing her to faint. She lowered the hands she had been holding to her chest and instead took her husband’s hand, her lips trembling for a long moment before she managed to ask, "So... so what should we do now?"

Du Heng was genuinely exasperated. "What else can you do? Obviously, you need to stop that habit. Your husband will continue taking the medicine. But now that we’ve identified the problem, ten doses should suffice this time."

The young man’s back straightened imperceptibly, and his expression became a little more natural. It was clear he had been under immense pressure.

The girl, for her part, was no longer focused on demanding an explanation from Du Heng; instead, she grew extremely embarrassed, her face flushing crimson with shame as she stuttered, "Well... well..."

Du Heng couldn’t very well bring up the previous topic again, so he said, somewhat helplessly, "Enough ’wells.’ Go downstairs and register. I’ll prescribe medicine for your husband."

The girl, as if granted amnesty, left her husband behind. ZIP! She dashed out of the consultation room.

Once the girl had left, the young man let out a long sigh, stood up, and gripped Du Heng’s hand tightly. "Doctor Du, thank you so much. What you said today... it’s made me feel like a huge weight has been lifted."

Du Heng gently patted the young man’s hand, signaling him to calm down and sit while he spoke.

The young man complied, sat down, and slowly said, "We started dating in university and got married right after graduation last year. After the wedding, my wife’s family kept urging us to have a child. My mother-in-law even moved into our house to supervise our efforts. When they found out the problem was mine, they started giving me all sorts of supplements, day in and day out. Honestly, their concern put so much pressure on me, I felt like I could hardly breathe."

Du Heng chuckled softly. "You should really thank your mother-in-law. If she hadn’t been giving you all those supplements, your condition might be much worse now."

The young man nodded emphatically in agreement. In his subsequent words, he readily acknowledged this, admitting that his mother-in-law, his wife, and even his father-in-law were all very concerned about him.