Chapter 28: A Scientific Diagnostic System: Qi Ailments Are Not Incurable

Three hours later.

The high-speed railway train came to a halt, and the doors slid open.

Lin Xuan, holding Xiao Sizi's hand, merged into the crowd of disembarking passengers.

The two walked out of the station square, hailed a taxi, and headed straight for the Provincial Children's Hospital.

The towering glass building reflected a cold light under the sun.

Entering the outpatient hall, the lighting was bright and clear.

Xiao Sizi looked around.

In the Great Tang's Imperial Medical Bureau, medicines were simmered year-round; the bitter scent of dregs had seeped into the brick crevices, lingering indelibly. Here, not a trace of herbal smell could be detected.

White walls, incandescent lights, and medical staff in white coats moved briskly.

Lin Xuan led her to a row of self-service registration machines.

The screen lit up; he took out his identity card and pressed it against the sensing area.

The machine emitted a faint operational hum and spat out a white registration slip.

"No need to hand over a token and wait in line?" Xiao Sizi asked, looking at that slip.

"It was booked online in advance; the machine verifies identity and issues the slip."

Lin Xuan took the slip and checked the floor number.

"Let's go, to the Special Outpatient Service on the third floor."

The two took the escalator upstairs.

Inside the consultation room.

The elderly expert, with a head full of silver hair, pushed up the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose.

His gaze fell upon Xiao Sizi's slightly pale face.

The old expert picked up the stethoscope from his desk.

He hooked the two metal tubes into his ear canals, extended the circular probe at the front, and pressed it against Xiao Sizi's back.

"Little one, be good."

"Breathe in deeply, then breathe out."

Xiao Sizi glanced at Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan nodded slightly.

She obediently complied, expanding her chest cavity.

The old expert's brows furrowed slightly.

The metal probe had collected faint abnormal sounds coming from deep within the lungs and transmitted them directly to the eardrums.

"There are wheezing sounds; spasms of the airway smooth muscle."

"Go get a painless pulmonary function blow test."

"Then draw a tube of blood to check for allergens."

The old expert removed the stethoscope.

The printer beside the desk whirred to life, spitting out two examination slips.

Lin Xuan took the slips, thanked the doctor, and left the room.

Outside the Sky Screen.

In the courtyard of the Great Tang's Imperial Medical Bureau.

Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking.

Pulse diagnosis relies entirely on the tactile sensation of the fingertips and the physician's decades of experience, something profound and mysterious.

Yet that physician from the later age utilized an instrument to channel the faint abnormal sounds of the internal organs directly into the ears.

This bypassed the errors of subjective experience and struck straight at the source of the disease.

Sun Simiao leaned over his desk, dipped his brush in ink.

With just a few strokes, he sketched the outline of the stethoscope on the paper.

"If this object could be crafted by artisans, physicians across the realm could save years of arduous effort in diagnosing illnesses."

Sun Simiao murmured to himself, his voice brimming with fervor.

In the blood drawing room.

The nurse took a rubber tourniquet and tied it tightly around Xiao Sizi's wrist.

The bluish venous vessels bulged.

Xiao Sizi pressed her lips together, her body shrinking back slightly.

Lin Xuan raised his hand, covering her eyes with his warm palm.

"Don't look; it will be over in a moment."

The needle pierced the skin.

Dark red blood flowed along the soft tube into the vacuum collection tube.

The needle was withdrawn, and pressure was applied with a cotton swab.

Xiao Sizi opened her eyes and exhaled a stifled breath.

"What is drawing blood for?" she asked, pressing the cotton swab on her arm and turning her head.

"To find the root of the illness," Lin Xuan said, leading her to sit on a waiting chair. "Your blood is placed inside a machine for analysis."

"Wherever something has gone wrong inside the body, the machine will translate it into data and print it on paper."

Half an hour later.

Lin Xuan scanned a code at the self-service printer.

Two test reports covered in English letters and numbers slid out.

The two returned to the consultation room.

The old expert glanced at the values on the test reports.

"Eosinophils are elevated, and IgE Antibody levels are above standard," the old expert pointed to two lines of data on the sheet, "Typical allergic asthma."

"The trigger is dust and cold air irritation."

"The constitution is too weak; the airways have been in a state of high sensitivity for years."

Outside the Sky Screen.

The ministers of Great Tang held their breath.

Sun Simiao stared at the white paper printed with black characters.

He could not understand those strange symbols, but he understood the old physician's decisive judgment of the illness.

No mystical deduction based on Yin and Yang Five Elements.

No vague determination of deficiency, excess, cold, or heat.

Pathology was directly broken down into data visible to the naked eye.

Above standard means the lesion.

"Quantifying the blood vessels of the living down to the finest detail—"

Sun Simiao dropped his brush and sighed to the sky: "The Medical Dao is enlightened; the medicine of later generations has reached the realm of mastery."

"We ancient physicians are all frogs at the bottom of a well!"

In the consultation room.

The old expert tapped the Mouse and wrote a prescription.

"No need for an IV drip; prescribe one Salbutamol Aerosol, paired with a child's Spacer."

"Press and inhale when an attack occurs; pay attention to keeping warm and avoiding dust normally; regulate for a period of time and it will stabilize."

Lin Xuan retrieved the medicine.

A small blue metal can, plus a transparent cylinder with a silicone mask.

The two sat on the waiting chairs in the outpatient hall.

Lin Xuan opened the packaging.

He inserted the blue medicine can into the port at the bottom of the transparent cylinder.

Xiao Sizi examined that strange object.

"Is this medicine prescribed by the Imperial Physician?"

"No need to boil in a clay pot? No need for a medicinal guide?"

"No need; inhale directly."

Lin Xuan picked up the cylinder; the silicone mask at the front covered Xiao Sizi's mouth and nose.

"When I press the can, you inhale forcefully, sucking all the white mist inside into your belly. Then hold your breath for five seconds."

Xiao Sizi nodded.

Lin Xuan exerted force with his thumb and pressed the top of the metal medicine can.

Hiss—!

A faint sound of spraying air.

The pressurized medicine liquid inside the can instantly atomized, spraying into the transparent Spacer.

Xiao Sizi inhaled sharply.

The white medicine mist traveled straight down the trachea, reaching deep into the alveoli.

The medicinal effect was extremely violent and rapid.

The Salbutamol component acted directly on the receptors of the bronchial smooth muscle.

The constricted and spasming airways were forcibly expanded by the medicine within just a few seconds.

Xiao Sizi finished holding her breath and removed the mask.

She opened her mouth and gulped down air in large breaths.

The chest stagnation felt during inhalation in the past, and the hidden pain pressing on the ribcage, were completely gone.

Air flowed unimpeded into the very bottom of the lung lobes.

She looked down at her chest and pressed down hard with both hands twice.

Clear.

An unprecedented sense of smoothness spread through her entire body.

The corners of Xiao Sizi's mouth could not stop rising.

"Lin Xuan, my chest is not stuffy anymore, not stuffy at all!"

After finishing the consultation, the two went straight home without stopping.

After coming out of the city station.

Lin Xuan took Xiao Sizi, hailed a taxi, and headed straight for the largest high-end commercial plaza in the city center.

Leaning against the back seat, Lin Xuan turned his head to look at the little girl: "You behaved well today; when the Zhengtou pierced the vein, you didn't even make a sound."

"You have the backbone of the Great Tang's Princess."

Xiao Sizi's legs hung in the air, swinging gently.

She looked down at the bandage on the bend of her elbow.

"Actually, it didn't hurt at all; it was much lighter than the acupuncture by the Imperial Physician."

She raised her head, her eyes sparkling, "Lin Xuan, are we not going home?"

"We'll go back later. First, I'll take you to buy a toy—something very fresh—as a reward for your bravery."

The two walked into the shopping mall, heading straight for the electronics specialty store on the third floor.

The storefront was spacious, with cold light strips winding around the shelves.

The display tables were filled with various digital devices featuring a metallic texture.

Lin Xuan walked to the central display table and pointed at a black-and-white headset.

"Get me a set of this, the latest top-spec model, plus two Base Stations."

The sales assistant immediately rushed from the warehouse and carried out a huge black cardboard box.