Chapter 87: Drinking Harms the Body

The wine glass Adrian had raised to his lips paused; his right hand, resting lightly against his ribs, moved up and down until it found the spot Kraft had mentioned.

"How did you know?"

The stomach ailment had been tormenting him for quite some time; not only had his appetite dwindled, but his love for wine had also suffered.

As for his sallow complexion, he hadn't even noticed it; after all, his lifestyle habits were hardly exemplary to begin with. He only cared about his appearance when he had to go out, and he never thought his face looked particularly good.

"Not only that, I also know you often feel a burning heat, have red spider-like moles on your skin, distended veins bulging around your navel, and palms that remain red and do not fade." Kraft rattled off a string of symptoms, then took a breath to continue his analysis.

"You frequently experience upper abdominal pain after meals, a burning sensation, and your stool is black."

Adrian's neck twitched slightly; he clutched his hands over his stomach, feeling as though his white robe had lost its power to shield him, laid completely bare under those penetrating eyes.

William looked at him in confusion, seeking confirmation; the priest's expression of shock unequivocally proved Kraft right.

He struggled to roll up his white robe sleeves to reveal his upper arm; around the red spots were fine red lines extending like spider legs, their ends hidden deep within the skin, like red spiders burrowing into the flesh.

If others were merely surprised, then Father Adrian's expression bordered on terror. With a trembling voice, he asked, "Is this all because of my drinking?"

"Yes, it is caused by excessive drinking." Kraft hadn't expected the priest to be so perceptive; he had thought he would have to laboriously explain the principle. Relying solely on current medical knowledge, he couldn't clearly articulate the physiological and biochemical mechanisms behind liver palms and spider angiomas.

Hearing his suspicion confirmed, the priest's reaction seemed a bit too extreme; he slumped dejectedly into his chair, his face filled with sorrow. "I knew this day would come. Tell me, who are you?"

"Let me introduce myself: Kraft Wood, the new lecturer at the Medical School of Wendeng Port Academy. It's a pleasure to meet you." Kraft was also puzzled; they were only at the stage of revealing his credentials, he hadn't even mentioned the severe consequences yet, so why did the patient look like he was about to burst into tears?

Letting go of the chair back that had borne too much weight, the priest supported himself as he sat up, patted his chest, and, still shaken, lifted a wine glass from the table to take a sip to calm his nerves.

"Hey, don't drink that! Didn't you hear?" William hurriedly tried to stop his hand, but couldn't overpower the priest; another cup of strong liquor went down.

The priest stroked the white robe over his chest and abdomen, let out a sigh, filled his glass again, and said, "You scared me to death. I thought it was... Ah."

"What was it?"

"Don't say it, don't say it." The priest waved his hand, indicating he didn't want to discuss it further. Although his image was unreliable, he had once received proper, complete theological education; drinking didn't stop him from remembering the stories in the Holy Scriptures.

When someone who seemed to see through everything stood before you, claiming that your evil acts of violating the dogma caused all these physical abnormalities, the scene was far too familiar. Such developments had been savored many times in the stories of the Holy Scriptures.

If nothing unexpected happened, the next line would be something like "Your time has come." Adrian had thought he had gone too far, so that before he could face judgment after death, a servant of the Heavenly Father had descended to find him.

"From the Medical School, huh? Good, very good." That was excellent; as long as it wasn't someone coming from heaven or the underworld, it was a good thing.

With medicinal alcohol pouring into his stomach, Kraft felt a phantom pain just looking at it; he likely also suffered from issues like gastrointestinal ulcers. "Father, I must remind you, your physical condition is not optimistic."

"Do you feel your belly swelling too quickly? Simple weight gain wouldn't cause such distension, would it? That is water accumulating inside." Seeing that Adrian still hadn't taken it seriously, Kraft emphasized, "I don't know if you have symptoms of shortness of breath or palpitations, but it certainly affects your movement."

The issue of the belly struck a chord with the priest, especially the mention of water inside; walking around with a protruding belly was inconvenient in daily life. Moreover, when patting his belly, he could vaguely feel fluid accumulation, but since he couldn't see it, he hadn't dared to be sure.

"If you don't mind, I can help you examine and confirm it; there will be no trauma and no pain."

"That would be even better. Let's try." William cared quite a bit about the priest and was also curious how one could see the water in the belly. The near-X-ray revelation left a deep impression, quickly establishing trust.

The two helped the priest lie down on the bed. A brief glance gave Kraft the chance to observe the priest's eyes; even the whites had turned a faint yellow, like porcelain that hadn't been cleaned in a long time and was covered in dust.

【Scleral Icterus】

Jaundice caused by abnormal liver function; bilirubin rises in the blood, staining the skin and the whites of the eyes. Skin color might be hard to judge due to individual differences, so the whites of the eyes became the better object for observation.

Kraft asked the priest to bend his legs and pull his white robe up to his chest, exposing his high, protruding belly; even William and Kup, these two laymen, could see something was wrong.

Around the navel, bluish-purple veins, coiled and dilated like sea snake heads, crawled across the abdominal wall, twisting and undulating with each breath. The skin gave a sense of fragility, as if it might burst at any moment, spraying out the constrained fluid.

"Heh, it's probably the punishment of the gods; it came a bit late." The priest gave a bitter smile. With so many physical ailments and his spirit declining day by day, he knew the situation was not optimistic even without a doctor pointing it out.

He pressed his left middle finger against the abdominal wall and tapped the second phalanx of his left middle finger with his right middle finger; the upper part of the abdomen emitted a hollow sound like a drum. "Remember this tone."

Moving the tapping position to one side, Kraft percussed from high to low in steps; the rhythmic drum sound suddenly changed at a certain height, abruptly entering another environment, the sound becoming dull and low.

It was like falling into water; liquid filled the ear canal, and a muffled, indistinct dull sound replaced the light drum sound, the fluid behind the skin vibrating.

"Turn over." Kraft asked the priest to roll onto his side on the recliner, keeping the side just percussed on top. His finger always pressed on the point where the tone last changed, waiting for the priest to get into position before tapping again.

The dull sound changed to a drum sound, marking that the fluid in the abdominal cavity had flowed downward with the change in posture.

"Did you hear that? A big bag of water is right in your belly; it flows. It couldn't be more obvious."

The existence of the fluid was demonstrated in the direct way of sound; from Father Adrian's panicked expression, Kraft believed he could understand what was happening in his belly.

"It should have flowed through your liver along the blood vessels." His fingertip traced those crowded, distended abdominal veins; know that this was only a small part visible on the surface; in the fundus of the stomach, the esophagus, the rectum, and the spleen, there was also invisible blood flow stagnating and swelling.

The veins in the fundus of the stomach and esophagus were already high-risk areas for massive hemorrhage; combined with gastrointestinal ulcers caused by heavy drinking of strong liquor, which made matters worse, Adrian might not even wait for liver failure; one day he would suffer unstoppable gastrointestinal bleeding and die vomiting blood.

"Strong liquor has caused lesions in your liver; blood struggles to pass through. The increased pressure squeezes the water in the blood vessels into the abdominal cavity where it shouldn't be, just like people who can't squeeze into the church on Consecration Day returning to the port district."