After breakfast, the family gathered in Lu Zhenhua’s room on the second floor.
The medicinal smell inside was even stronger.
Leaning against the headboard, Lu Zhenhua looked worse than he had the day before. He coughed from time to time, a dull rattling sound coming from his chest.
“Grandpa.”
Ruan Wen pulled over a stool and sat beside the bed.
“Ah, little Ruan is here.”
Lu Zhenhua smiled at her.
Ruan Wen gently placed her fingers on his wrist and closed her eyes in concentration.
Nearby, Qin Lan stood with her arms crossed, her face full of distrust.
Lu Jingheng stood a short distance away, his gaze resting on Ruan Wen’s calm profile as he watched thoughtfully.
After a long moment, Ruan Wen withdrew her hand. She carefully examined the old man’s complexion and tongue before asking,
“Grandpa, do you often feel tightness in your chest and shortness of breath? Are your hands and feet cold, especially at night? Does your coughing become worse after dark, and do you constantly feel phlegm stuck in your throat that you can never quite cough up?”
A flash of surprise appeared in Lu Zhenhua’s cloudy eyes.
“Yes! Exactly! That’s exactly it! Child… how did you know?”
Ruan Wen did not answer immediately.
Instead, she continued,
“Many years ago, while serving on the battlefield, were you seriously injured in an extremely cold region? And for a long period, did you survive on almost no food, sometimes relying on snow and ice to stave off hunger?”
The room fell silent in shock.
Lu Zhenhua suddenly sat upright and grabbed Ruan Wen’s hand.
“Child… how do you know about the three days and three nights I spent lying in the snow at Changhu? I’ve never told my family the details!”
“Nonsense!”
Qin Lan could no longer hold back.
“Father clearly suffers from chronic myocarditis leading to heart failure. What does lying in the snow have to do with anything? The ECGs and scans are perfectly clear. What could a young girl like you possibly understand?”
“Mom.”
Lu Jingheng spoke in a deep voice, cutting her off.
“Let Ruan Wen finish.”
Qin Lan flushed with anger but remained silent.
Ruan Wen rose to her feet and addressed everyone.
“Grandpa’s illness does not originate in his heart. Heart failure and breathing difficulties are merely the symptoms. The real root lies in the deep cold that penetrated his body on the battlefield years ago. That cold damaged his spleen and stomach and weakened the body’s yang energy.”
“When yang energy becomes depleted, the body can no longer properly generate qi and blood. Moisture accumulates internally and transforms into phlegm. When it affects the lungs, it causes coughing. When it affects the heart, it causes breathlessness.”
“Western medicine sees the problems in the heart and lungs, but it does not address the underlying cause. In some ways, the treatments may even place additional strain on the digestive system. That is why the condition has continued to worsen.”
After she finished speaking, the room fell completely silent.
Neither Lu Yongjie nor Lu Jingheng understood medicine, but her explanation was clear and logical.
More importantly, she had accurately described events from decades ago that no one should have known.
“Then… can it be treated?”
Lu Yongjie asked eagerly.
“Serious chronic illnesses cannot be cured overnight.”
Ruan Wen sounded confident.
“Food therapy is often better than medicine alone. Combined with acupuncture, the results will be much more effective. I’ll prescribe a medicinal diet to warm the spleen, strengthen yang energy, and dispel cold and dampness. Together with acupuncture treatments to open the meridians, I can guarantee a noticeable improvement in Grandpa’s coughing and breathing within three days.”
“No! I refuse!”
Qin Lan objected immediately.
“Acupuncture? How can that possibly treat this? What if something goes wrong? Father’s body cannot withstand any risk!”
“We’ll do exactly as little Ruan suggests.”
The previously silent Lu Zhenhua suddenly slapped the bed frame with surprising force.
His voice rang with authority.
“I’ve already lived on borrowed time. I’m not afraid of a little risk. I trust the descendants of the Ruan family.”
With the old patriarch’s decision made, Qin Lan’s lips trembled with frustration, but she could not argue further.
Lu Jingheng looked deeply at Ruan Wen.
Once again, she had shattered his expectations.
Walking to the table, he handed her paper and a pen.
Ruan Wen accepted them and, under the family’s complicated gazes, began writing her first prescription.
The formula included:
Astragalus, Angelica Root, Dried Ginger, Atractylodes, Poria…
All common herbs known for warming yang energy, strengthening the spleen, and eliminating dampness.
Qin Lan immediately snatched up the prescription.
As a head nurse, she knew only a little about herbal medicine. To her, the ingredients looked ordinary, and some even seemed excessively warming.
“That’s it? Father is already weak. Western doctors prescribe medicine with extreme caution. What if these strong warming herbs cause problems?”
Ignoring her, Ruan Wen turned to Lu Yongjie.
“Uncle, when Western medicine says a patient is too weak for tonics, it refers to simply adding nourishment. But Grandpa’s illness is rooted in cold and dampness.”
“The body’s yang energy is like an oil lamp that is about to go out. If you do not first clear away the dampness and cold oil clogging the wick, adding more oil accomplishes nothing.”
“This prescription may seem aggressive, but it is actually clearing the obstacles preventing recovery. Once the pathway is opened, future nourishment will be far more effective.”
Lu Yongjie nodded repeatedly.
Though he knew little about medicine, her explanation made sense.
Qin Lan wanted to argue further, but Lu Jingheng suddenly reached over and took the prescription from her hand.
“I’ll get the medicine.”
Watching her son leave without hesitation, Qin Lan’s chest rose and fell with frustration. In the end, she could only swallow her objections.
Taking the prescription, Lu Jingheng went directly to the most respected traditional pharmacy near the military district.
The elderly pharmacist adjusted his reading glasses and examined the formula over and over again.
“Remarkable.”
He clicked his tongue in admiration.
“This prescription is exceptionally well crafted. It appears bold, yet every herb is perfectly balanced. The proportions are precise, warming yang energy, strengthening the foundation, dispelling dampness, and driving out cold.”
He looked up at Lu Jingheng and smiled.
“Young man, the physician who prescribed this for your elder is truly extraordinary.”
As Lu Jingheng carried the packaged herbs home, he felt a strange emotion stirring inside him.
That woman always seemed capable of overturning every assumption he had about her.
The medicine was quickly prepared.
Soon, a rich herbal fragrance filled the house.
Lu Yongjie personally carried the bowl to his father and carefully helped him drink it.
The moment the medicine entered his mouth, the deep furrow between Lu Zhenhua’s brows visibly eased.
Afterward, Ruan Wen opened the cloth pouch she carried with her and spread it across the table.
Inside lay a row of silver needles of varying lengths, gleaming coldly in the sunlight.
The sight immediately made Qin Lan’s heart leap into her throat.
“Ruan Wen, think carefully. Acupuncture isn’t the same as taking medicine. If you insert a needle into the wrong point—”
“Mom.”
Lu Jingheng interrupted again, his voice tinged with displeasure.
“Let Ruan Wen treat him.”
Ruan Wen picked up a silver needle and sterilized it over an alcohol flame.
Holding the needle with practiced fingers, she moved with the confidence of someone who had performed the procedure thousands of times.
“Qihai… Guanyuan… Zusanli…”
Her movements flowed like water.
There was not the slightest hesitation.
Her pale, slender hands were steady and precise.
She looked less like a physician treating illness and more like an artist creating a masterpiece.
Qin Lan held her breath, watching without blinking.
As one needle after another entered the acupuncture points, Lu Zhenhua’s previously labored breathing gradually steadied.
The pained expression on his face slowly relaxed.
When the final needle entered the Shanzhong point, Ruan Wen gently twisted it.
A faint current seemed to travel through the silver needle.
Lu Zhenhua’s closed eyelids suddenly trembled.
Then he released a long, comfortable breath.
It felt as though decades of heaviness and congestion had finally left his chest.
“Comfortable…”
Slowly opening his eyes, a rare clarity appeared in them.
“It’s been… many years since I’ve felt this comfortable.”
Moments later, his eyelids drooped.
With a peaceful expression on his face, he fell into a deep sleep.
The room became so quiet that a pin dropping would have been audible.
Qin Lan covered her mouth, disbelief written all over her face.
Lu Yongjie’s eyes reddened with emotion. He wanted to step forward but was afraid of disturbing the old man.
As for Lu Jingheng, his gaze remained fixed on Ruan Wen.
She was carefully observing her grandfather’s sleeping face.
Bathed in the glow of the setting sun, her profile appeared exceptionally gentle.
For the first time, the cool distance that usually filled her eyes was replaced by a warmth and compassion that seemed almost sacred.
Just how many secrets was this woman still hiding?
For the first time in his life, he found himself deeply curious about another person’s past.