“How is your grandma, Shen Jiang?”
“She’s still unconscious. Officer Zhang, did you call for something today?”
Shen Jiang’s expression was icy cold. Her voice, usually gentle like a refreshing mountain stream, now carried a chilling sharpness from her emotions.
Shen Jiang knew the police must have caught the middle-aged man who caused the trouble.
Indeed.
“We found the suspect who injured your grandma. He’d been hiding in the mountains all these days, but finally ventured out yesterday and was caught on surveillance cameras.” Officer Zhang thought this news would bring her some comfort, which was why he notified her immediately.
“Normally, your grandma’s medical expenses should be covered by the perpetrator, but given his agitated state, you’ll probably need to pursue legal channels…” Officer Zhang sounded concerned. These troubles were too cruel for a young woman like Shen Jiang, yet she had no choice but to face them.
After all, besides the elderly lady who got hurt, Shen Jiang was the only family member left.
Shen Jiang tentatively asked, “Is that man named Shan Guosheng?”
Alone now, the round deer-like eyes that usually looked calm now swirled with unusual madness.
Officer Zhang sounded surprised. “How did you know his name?”
Shen Jiang felt her heart bleeding internally. Her last hope was shattered—everything from her dreams was manifesting in reality.
Instead of answering Officer Zhang’s question, Shen Jiang asked, “Officer Zhang, did he say why he came to cause trouble at Mingxintang?”
“Well, the suspect claimed his father came to Mingxintang for treatment last month. After taking the prescription from Doctor Shen for a few days, his condition worsened and developed into kidney failure. He consulted other doctors who all said Doctor Shen’s prescription was inappropriate. That’s why he came seeking answers, never expecting things would escalate this badly. We’ll verify all these details step by step. Don’t worry—regardless of the circumstances, he’ll face legal consequences for assault.”
Indeed, even if everything Shan Guosheng said was true, he should have reported it to the police and health authorities for investigation. Taking matters into his own hands and severely injuring an elderly woman, landing her in the ICU, constituted serious criminal offense.
Officer Zhang sighed inwardly—being a doctor was truly a high-risk profession.
That elderly lady was long past retirement age yet still practicing medicine. With her granddaughter studying at Capital University, he felt there must be some misunderstanding here.
Officer Zhang’s rambling voice sounded somewhat distorted over the phone. Shen Jiang went straight to the point: “He said the patient got sick from taking our clinic’s medicine?”
Officer Zhang: “Yes.”
He grew concerned. “If they had chosen to report it instead of seeking private revenge, things wouldn’t have turned out like this. Please don’t do anything rash. We’ll investigate the truth thoroughly and ensure justice is served.”
Shen Jiang’s furrowed brows could have crushed a mosquito. She had never encountered someone so shameless! His father never took any medicine from their Mingxintang!
In her dreams, it took Shen Jiang much longer to learn the troublemaker was named Shan Guosheng, and that his father—the patient—was named Shan Gui.
Shen Jiang had always suspected deep down that the medical dispute was fabricated, likely orchestrated by jealous competitors envious of Mingxintang’s thriving business. She never expected the patient to be real, which was why she had been waiting for the police investigation results.
Her conviction wasn’t born of blind bias. Having grown up alongside her grandmother, she learned from her very first lesson in traditional Chinese medicine: caution. Moreover, after operating Mingxintang for over fifty years, Grandma had never made a medical error. The walls covered in commendatory plaques and the reputation among long-term patients were the best testament to her medical skills. Shen Jiang simply couldn’t believe that her consistently prudent grandmother would harm a patient—how could someone of her caliber commit such a fatal mistake?
Yet this wait caused her to miss the best opportunity to clear Grandma’s name.
Debunking rumors requires timeliness—it must be done quickly, never allowing falsehoods to spread.
Today marked the eleventh day since Grandma’s incident, long past the optimal window for public clarification. The situation in her dream was even worse—Shen Jiang only learned a month later that the suspect was named Shan Guosheng, eventually locating patient Shan Gui’s records in their medical archives. After numerous twists and turns, she finally uncovered the true cause of the patient’s kidney failure.
By then, everything had settled. The public attention had faded, and despite Shen Jiang’s desperate online appeals, they generated no traction.
No one was willing to believe her.
No one cared about convoluted explanations from a disgraced clinic.
People only remembered one thing: a tragic family torn apart by an incompetent doctor.
When Su Xingran replaced Mingxintang’s sign with Qingde Hall, Shen Jiang felt a pang of heartache but was powerless to stop it. The Mingxintang name had been tainted beyond repair—continuing with it would drive away any potential patients.
Now, fury blazed in Shen Jiang’s eyes.
“Officer Zhang, I have some materials that might assist your investigation. Let me photograph and send them to you.”
After hanging up, Shen Jiang entered the vandalized consultation room. Amid the scattered debris, she retrieved the classical medical record book.
This was Grandma’s decades-long habit: recording every day’s patient consultations in the medical log. Since learning to use computers, Shen Jiang had regularly digitized these records for backup.
The dream provided scant details about the medical dispute, glossing over it almost entirely. But she vaguely recalled the investigation’s final conclusion: the patient never actually consumed any medicine prescribed by their clinic.
The police closed the case based on this evidence, convicting Shan Guosheng.
Yet the matter was far from over. Online condemnation continued raging—netizens refused to accept the police and court’s verdict. Shan Guosheng’s family insisted that although they hadn’t filled the prescription at Mingxintang, the patient had indeed taken medicine based on Shen Anlian’s prescription.
While Mingxintang escaped legal consequences, the doctor’s reputation was further smeared. Everyone remained convinced this tragedy resulted from Grandma’s medical incompetence. Recalling the online frenzy surrounding the farce in her dream, Shen Jiang’s frown deepened.
She quickly located Shan Gui’s consultation record.
Both the physical log and digital archive contained one crucial piece of evidence—a small, easily overlooked notation following the case entry:
“Patient declined Mingxintang’s prescription fulfillment, requested to take formula for self-preparation.”
Shen Jiang first photographed this medical record and sent all the computer files with timestamps to Officer Zhang.
Only then did she fix her unblinking gaze on the case file and begin studying it.
The dreams had rarely mentioned Grandma, only occasionally bringing up a few words when Su Qing appeared. Shen Jiang didn’t know the full truth of the matter, only that in her dreams she repeatedly emphasized that Grandma’s diagnosis had been completely correct.
Now, she needed to re-examine the specific details of the medical record.
The patient’s obvious symptoms were lower back and knee pain, mental fatigue, and a feeling of chill throughout the body. Combined with a weak floating pulse, many TCM practitioners would instinctively treat it as a cold syndrome.
But Grandma hadn’t. The medical record clearly stated: True Heat False Cold, Yang Excess Repelling Yin.
These were TCM terms indicating that fire was trapped internally, unable to surface, while the external manifestations showed all the characteristics of a cold syndrome.
This condition actually occurs frequently, but most doctors would treat it as a cold syndrome. Unless they were experienced veteran physicians, it was generally difficult to diagnose because the misleading symptoms were too pronounced. Clinically, both cold and heat symptoms can appear simultaneously, but distinguishing whether it’s “fire pathogen trapped internally” or “yin excess yang deficiency” is extremely challenging during pulse diagnosis, requiring a physician of exceptional experience and skill.
If the physician’s medical expertise is insufficient and they misdiagnose without realizing it, the patient becomes the unfortunate one who pays the price.
Grandma had once taught her the key techniques for pulse diagnosis and distinguishing this condition—an area where Grandma excelled.
Moreover, taking the most basic indicators: the patient had a thick, greasy yellow tongue coating with a red tongue body—this indicated an excess heat syndrome. If it were a yin deficiency patient, the tongue coating should appear floating and deficient.
The medical record noted the patient’s complaint of dark yellow urine, which further corresponded to signs of a heat syndrome.
This proved that Grandma’s diagnosis had indeed been correct.
Recalling what Officer Zhang had just said—that Shan Guosheng had consulted many TCM experts before coming to cause trouble, and those experts all claimed there was something wrong with Grandma’s prescription itself.
Was it because of those quacks’ words that Shan Guosheng believed the prescription was faulty, leading him to storm in angrily?
Then why didn’t he honestly tell the police that his father hadn’t gotten the medicine from Mingxintang?
Looking at the medical record, Shen Jiang suddenly remembered something about the patient Shan Gui.
Last month, Grandma had mentioned this incident during dinner. A patient thought Mingxintang’s medicine prices were too high and demanded the prescription, saying his son sold Chinese herbal medicines and he would have his son prepare it instead.
Of course, Grandma refused. The patient was stubborn and simply snatched the already written prescription from Grandma and ran off.
At the time, Shen Jiang had comforted Grandma, saying at least the patient would get genuine medicine prepared at home rather than chasing cheap alternatives elsewhere.
Grandma had smiled wryly then. More than worrying about that patient, she seemed troubled by another matter: high-quality Chinese medicinal herbs were becoming increasingly scarce, and medicine would only get more expensive in the future, possibly even becoming unavailable.
“If it really comes to that, traditional Chinese medicine will truly decline.”
The warm, familiar voice still echoed in her ears, starkly contrasting with the chaotic, filthy scene before her, creating an utterly ironic picture.
Shen Jiang closed her eyes briefly.
She reorganized her thoughts.
The patient had fallen ill after taking medicine prepared from Grandma’s prescription.
But in reality, the patient had taken the prescription written by Grandma, while the medicine had been prepared at his family’s own herbal shop.
A bold and absurd thought emerged in Shen Jiang’s mind: Could the patient’s worsening condition be due to counterfeit traditional Chinese medicine?
Shen Jiang was so startled by her own speculation that she remained dazed for quite some time. Moments later, she tried to force a smile but found the muscles around her mouth unresponsive, as if they refused to obey her commands.
Could reality really be playing such a cruel joke on them?
Between doubting Grandma’s medical skills and suspecting issues with the patient’s medicine, Shen Jiang felt the likelihood of the latter being the problem was almost one hundred percent.
Grandma’s medical records were crystal clear—she could confidently assert that Grandma’s prescription was flawless. But to be thorough, she still called her mentor Mei Lao for verification.
“Well, well! Your skills have improved over the years. Little girl, the prescription you came up with is quite impressive now. That patient will probably send you a commendation banner after just three doses, haha!”
Despite receiving Mei Lao’s affirmation and teasing, Shen Jiang felt no joy. She barely managed to maintain her composure, thanked him earnestly, and hung up.
After eliminating all other possibilities, only one improbable truth remained: the problem lay with the herbs from the patient’s own shop.
Shen Jiang gasped for air, completely unprepared for this shocking revelation.
Ignoring the suffocating frustration in her chest, she now had only one goal in mind.
She must find a way to immediately prove and clarify this matter to the public!