Chapter 3: Repaying Kindness

  For these mostly elderly people who come here to get treatment with the hope of temporarily controlling their illness without spending money, Han Ankang also follows his grandfather's teachings. A doctor's kindness is priceless, after all, acupuncture and massage only require some physical effort and don't cost much money. We are all fellow villagers, who dares to say that there won't be difficulties someday, the good deeds we do today will eventually bring us rewards in the future.

  This is the medical way passed down by Old Man Han to Han Ankang!

  Looking at Wu San-shan, who always seemed very embarrassed every time he came over, Han An-kang said warmly: "Uncle, I've told you many times, if you're not feeling well, just come over. Every time you say that, it's actually me who ends up feeling embarrassed. It's just a couple of injections and some massage, it won't take much time. Have you been working in the fields again these past few days?

  I remember telling you, this is your old problem, you can't stay in the water for a long time, how could you forget? Come on, lie down on the couch, I'll give you an injection now. However, from now on, you really need to reduce your workload, otherwise, when you're older, it will be hard for you to walk even if you want to!

  It was clear what kind of temper the old man in front of him had, and after Han Ankang carefully comforted him for a while, he quickly got up from his chair. He rolled up Wu Sanshan's pant legs, revealing the painful ankle joints that occurred every time he fell ill. Just as Han Ankang was about to take out the silver needle left by his grandfather to perform the usual acupuncture treatment, some treatment methods floated in his mind, causing his hand, which was preparing to insert the needle, to suddenly stop.

  Looking at the various acupuncture methods and traditional Chinese medicine decoctions that appeared in his mind, which could cure this stubborn rheumatoid arthritis, Han Ankang also felt that after he finished treating these villagers, he really wanted to carefully review the sudden appearance of this traditional Chinese medical knowledge in his mind. What was going on? Always being startled like this would eventually scare him into developing a mental illness.

  With a wry smile, Han Ankang quickly and skillfully inserted the six silver needles into Wu Sanshan's knee joints. After inserting the needles, Han Ankang began to massage Wu Sanshan's soles, slowly easing his pain. As Wu Sanshan felt the soreness in his joints gradually disappear with the massage, his tense expression also relaxed.

  Until Han Ankang saw the sweat beads on his ankle joint, he knew that Wu Sanshan's illness was temporarily controlled today. If Wu Sanshan can follow the doctor's orders and not work in the fields, I believe that this treatment will last at least ten days to half a month. If he doesn't listen to the doctor's orders, after getting better he'll go back to working in the water fields, and it won't be two days before he comes back again.

  It's clear that this old man is not someone who can stay idle, and Han Ankang put away the silver needle as usual to instruct him. As for Wu Sanshan's character of agreeing with his mouth but getting restless and starting work again after turning around, Han Ankang couldn't say much about it. After all, although the old man in front of him was over 60 years old, his speed when working on the ground was not necessarily something that ordinary young people could keep up with.

  Such labor force, even his son would not let go. Anyway, in the eyes of Wu San Shan's son, if he gets sick, he can just run to the Han family once and see immediate results without spending any money, just like finding a dedicated doctor. Over time, Wu San Shan's son also stopped blocking his father from strongly demanding him to work in the fields.

  This situation is not unique to Wu Sanshan's family in Hui Long Village, there are other families with elderly people who have chronic illnesses that also exist. So sometimes Han Ankang would think, if he were to leave for a period of time and didn't have this full-time doctor, these old folks might behave themselves a bit more!

  After sending away Wu San Shan with a embarrassed face, Han Ankang continued to see the next patient. Except for some patients who need medication and pay some cost fees, most people who come to Han's clinic every day don't have to spend a penny. If it weren't for Han Ankang being able to feed his whole family by himself now, running this clinic would be impossible even if he just wanted to eat.

  For the last child with a cold, he prescribed a Chinese medicine and asked the parents to go back and decoct it for the child to take. Today's clinic came to an end. Looking at the clock in the room, it was already past 12 noon, and Han Ankang went into the kitchen, stir-fried two small dishes sent by the villagers, and simply solved the problem of lunch.

  Although many villagers nearby come here to see a doctor without spending money, the rural people are all kind-hearted. Every time they recover from an illness, the villagers will bring some special products from their own homes and give them to Han Ankang. As a result, now that the Han family is left with only one person, Han Ankang, they don't have to worry about food anymore.

  After lunch, seeing no patients coming to the door, Han Ankang washed the medicinal herbs he picked yesterday on the mountain, dried those that needed to be dried, and for those that needed to be sliced and then dried again, he took out his grandfather's knife and skillfully cut them into small pieces. Then he continued to put these medicinal herbs on the drying board in the courtyard, so that next time someone came to fetch medicine, they wouldn't delay treatment because of a lack of certain herbs.

  Only some unknown Chinese medicinal materials picked up along the way when going down the mountain in the morning, Han Ankang temporarily didn't know whether these prescriptions were really effective. So, he could only make them according to the pharmacological knowledge that appeared in his mind, and put these medicinal materials aside separately.

  As for the few ginseng roots that almost cost him his life yesterday, Han Ankang specially placed them in a safe and sunny place to air dry after cleaning. For the time being, Han Ankang, who hasn't thought of exchanging this expensive and hard-to-buy top-grade ginseng for money, naturally wants to air-dry and store it for later use.

  After finishing all this, Han Ankang, who had a rare leisure time, took out the wild chrysanthemum tea he usually picked and made in the mountains. Holding the teapot and holding a medical book collected by his grandfather, he lay in the yard, idly spending the afternoon. This kind of lazy but free life was also one of the reasons why Han Ankang was willing to return to the village as a village doctor.

  Perhaps influenced by his grandfather's carefree and leisurely life, 23-year-old Han Ankang often exhibits a personality similar to that of an elderly person when interacting with others. He enjoys the harmonious atmosphere in rural villages where neighbors get along well, and he also delights in seeing the relaxed smiles on the faces of patients leaving his clinic.

  Even when he was in college, except for going out with a few close friends from his dormitory to have fun occasionally, Han Ankang's greatest interest was reading books in the school library. So much so that after four years of university, even his juniors knew that there was a senior in the fourth year who was a bookworm, and nothing else could arouse his interest except reading.

  When the dormitory's bosom friends all found their objects of affection in school, Han Ankang was still that carefree self, without any thoughts of pursuing girls to enjoy a romance. When his fellow dormitory brothers thought he was sexually indifferent, he calmly stated that he believed in fate, and if there was fate, he didn't need to pursue it, and the girl belonging to him would appear. If a forced love had no fate, it would eventually leave him.

  Moreover, when his grandfather passed away in his sophomore year, he decided to give up the opportunity to work in hospitals within the province and returned to the village to inherit his grandfather's village doctor business, treating illnesses for the people who raised him. Clearly understanding that love is often based on material things at this age, Han Ankang knew that with his choice and condition, no girl would be willing to spend a lifetime of poverty with him. Knowing the outcome already, how could Han Ankang possibly go looking for trouble?

  Even when classmates of the same grade, during graduation season, flocked to find a hospital for employment, Han Ankang still lingered in the library as usual. This behavior, which was unaffected by anything except books, naturally earned him the nickname "bookworm". Upon hearing this, Han Ankang could only smile slightly and never argued with others about it.

  Moreover, in the rich medical book collections of the university library, he learned a lot of traditional Chinese medicine theories that his grandfather had not taught him. As a result, after returning to the village, many villagers felt that Han Ankang's medical skills were much higher than those of his grandfather. And all this was due to the knowledge Han Ankang acquired in school and converted into practical application upon his return.

  As for the saying "the blue out of the blue and better than the blue", Han Ankang, who is well-versed in traditional Chinese medicine, never thought he would be an exceptionally good doctor. He felt that most of the time, he was just treating minor ailments by referring to the experiences of his predecessors, so there's nothing much to be proud of or arrogant about.

  These medical books left by his grandfather, Han Ankang has read countless times, but always felt that the "reviewing the old to know the new" in the medical book is very reasonable. Whenever he has time, he will re-read these medical books, referring to the experience accumulated from treating diseases in daily life, and comparing them with the cases in the book to improve his accuracy in diagnosing diseases.

  A good doctor can cure people, a mediocre doctor can harm people. This saying is very suitable for traditional Chinese medicine. These seemingly magical medicinal materials, if not understood the mutual properties of the medicines, are randomly matched and given to patients to take. If it's light, it will delay the illness, if it's heavy, it will kill people.

  Han Ankang has always adhered to the principle of being cautious in his medical practice, and does not prescribe Chinese medicine to patients when he is not sure of their condition. The purpose is that he does not want the medicine he prescribes with good intentions to ultimately become a poisonous drug that kills people.

  Just as he opened the medical book and read through the case studies, a large string of traditional Chinese medicine knowledge suddenly appeared in his mind. The overwhelming feeling made him frown, but at the same time, he was also suppressing the urge to pass out. He waited for this memory flow to finish transmitting. When the stuffy feeling in his brain stopped, Han Ankang reviewed the medical knowledge that had mysteriously appeared in his mind and finally understood why he hadn't suffered any internal or external injuries from falling off such a high cliff yesterday.

  It turned out that his previous guess was correct, and the blood-colored jade Buddha that could prove his identity was indeed no ordinary object. Even for Han Ankang, who was a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine himself, the blood-colored jade Buddha was beyond priceless!