Chapter Forty-Four: Dietary Therapy

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  Song Weiqing saw the dishes on the table and smiled awkwardly: "Little Chen, I'm so sorry today. I was going to invite you home to try my cooking skills, but instead, you're troubling yourself to cook for us. This is really..."

  "Do you know why I didn't find a hotel after work? It's just polite talk, no sincerity," Chen Zhiyuan thought to himself, but his mouth said: "You're so busy, and I'm free anyway, so I'll just do it with my hands. Try my craftsmanship?"

  Song Weiqing smiled and ran to the bathroom to wash his hands. Song Muqing was already sitting at the table, holding chopsticks and thinking about which dish to start with. Before long, Song Weiqing brought out a bottle of wine and put it on the table, calling out: "Come sit down, Little Chen, let's have a drink today!"

  Chen Zhiyuan didn't bother with formalities either, and sat down directly. Song Muqing opened the wine and poured a cup for Chen Zhiyuan first, then for himself. He looked at the five dishes on the table, sniffed, and praised: "Little Chen's culinary skills are really not to be covered up, even top chefs can't surpass this! Come, everyone eat!" After speaking, he reached out with his chopsticks and picked up a dish.

  Song Muqing also quickly picked up a piece of fish with chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

  Chen Zhiyuan took a bite of the green vegetables and stopped moving, waiting for Song Weiqing to reveal the mystery. Although he had given him an account book by Zhao Jianguo last time, Chen Zhiyuan didn't know how much benefit it would bring to Song Weiqing. After all, he wasn't a government official, and the twists and turns in this matter were beyond his understanding. Moreover, Song Weiqing had helped him borrow 6 million yuan from the bank, which was a huge sum of money for Chen Zhiyuan, an ordinary citizen. This alone made Chen Zhiyuan feel that Song Weiqing had already repaid him with a great favor. Furthermore, Song Weiqing had promised to let him go to the hospital on Sunday to perform surgery on Geng Jianmin, which meant that Chen Zhiyuan owed Song Weiqing another favor. Today, Song Weiqing invited him to dinner at his home, and Chen Zhiyuan believed that there must be something behind this. As a low-ranking citizen, he was nervous about receiving such treatment, and if Song Weiqing didn't make things clear, he wouldn't be able to eat in peace.

  Song Weiqing seemed to have not noticed Chen Zhiyuan's slightly uneasy expression, and ate very deliciously. Pointing at a small bowl of porridge, he said: "Little Chen, how did you make this porridge? After drinking it, I feel an indescribable comfort in my stomach. Tell me about it, next time I'll try making some too!"

  At this time, Song Muqing didn't reveal his intentions, and Chen Zhiyuan had no way of asking, so he could only patiently follow along with the conversation: "This is highland barley mutton porridge, I made it according to dietary therapy methods. However, your household doesn't have the medicinal ingredients I need, and I wasn't prepared, so I simply made do with what was available. This porridge has a very good effect on treating digestive issues caused by spleen and stomach weakness. Of course, if some medicinal ingredients were added, the effect would be even more pronounced."

  "Food therapy? Is it just medicinal diet?" Song Weiqing took another sip of that porridge.

  "Medicinal diet is what people call it nowadays, but in ancient times, they called it food therapy. Let me tell you this, medicine has three parts poison, I'm sure you've heard that before. However, food therapy is about using certain techniques to remove the toxicity from medicinal materials, making them usable as food ingredients, so it's called food therapy, not medicinal diet!" Chen Zhiyuan explained.

  "Our great Chinese civilization has a history of 5,000 years, our ancestors left us many good things, unfortunately we unworthy descendants have lost too much." Song Weiqing sighed.

  Song Muqing used a spoon to scoop himself a bowl of porridge, took a small sip and said: "Dad, this porridge really feels warm in the stomach when I drink it down, it's so comfortable. Chen Zhiyuan, do you think we can add some medicinal herbs to this porridge? What should we add?"

  Chen Zhiyuan thought for a moment and said: "Add squid bone, processed Polygonatum, Astragalus, chicken internal gold, processed white Atractylodes, pig Polygala, smoked plum, and rhubarb. However, these medicinal materials need special processing, otherwise the effect will not be obvious after taking them!"

  Song Weiqing was surprised to hear the two words "炮制" and exclaimed: "Little Chen, you also know how to process medicinal materials? The roasted lamb we had at your place that day, did you add some medicinal materials to it? The flavor is so good, I don't even know what words to use to describe it. I usually have insomnia, but after eating the roasted lamb and medicinal wine at your place that day, I didn't have insomnia that night. Is this the effect of the roasted lamb and medicinal wine?" In fact, the roasted lamb and medicinal wine had more effects than that, Song Weiqing also had frequent urination and urgency due to benign prostatic hyperplasia, but it was not convenient for him to mention it in front of his daughter.

  "Understand some, actually Song Uncle, that day's roasted lamb and medicinal wine didn't have all the necessary medicinal materials added. If all the medicinal materials were complete, the effect would be even better. For example, for men, it has the effect of tonifying the spleen and kidney, which means having a cold body, poor appetite, loose stools, waist pain, and frequent urination. For women, it can treat irregular menstruation, blood deficiency, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, menstrual headache, breast distension, **underdeveloped breasts, fetal unrest, habitual abortion, postpartum abdominal pain, dizziness due to blood deficiency, pale complexion, etc." Chen Zhiyuan carefully memorized every word.

  When Song Muqing heard the two words "dysmenorrhea", her face turned red. The day she ate roasted lamb was during her period, and she usually had dysmenorrhea, but that day after eating roasted lamb and drinking some medicinal wine, this condition did not occur, and her sleep at night was also very good, however, he didn't dare to mention this matter.

  Song Weiqing listened to Chen Zhiyuan Linlin's description of the symptoms, although he had personally experienced the efficacy of food therapy, but still had some doubts in his heart: "Is it really as magical as you said?"

  "Wait until our restaurant opens, please go and have a few meals there, and you'll naturally know if it's effective or not!" Even if Song Muqing hadn't invited him to dinner at home today, when the restaurant opens, Chen Zhiyuan would definitely invite Song Weiqing over. The municipal party secretary personally visiting is not only a living advertisement but also a shield. When the time comes and the restaurant business is booming, whoever tries to play tricks will have to think twice.

  "Alright, then I'll go try it out later. If it doesn't have as many benefits as you say, I won't pay!" Song Weiqing joked.

  "You go ahead, when the time comes we will have many other dishes in our restaurant, not just roasted lamb. You can try them all then!" Chen Zhiyuan was delighted to hear Song Weiqing agree, he was worried that it would be difficult to invite Song Weiqing later on.

  "Alright, I'll definitely go then. You've told me so much about food therapy, which involves a lot of pharmacology and medical principles, but these are all traditional Chinese medicine things. Little Chen, how did you end up studying Western medicine in graduate school?" Song Weiqing said with a smile.

  "Uncle Song, how did you know I got accepted into the Western Medicine graduate program?" Chen Zhiyuan was shocked in his heart.

  "I don't just know that you got accepted into graduate school, I also know that you're going to perform surgery on Geng Jianmin?"