CHAPTER 337: 313 DEFICIENCY OF VITAL ENERGY

After resting until two in the afternoon, Du Heng was awakened by an overly enthusiastic Wu Shengnan to begin their afternoon examinations. This led Du Heng to feel more like hired labor rather than someone who was there to treat illnesses.

But who could he blame when he had agreed to do this himself? He had no choice but to grit his teeth and get on with it.

Luckily, members of the Criminal Police Team had regular health check-ups, so there weren’t many strange and unusual diseases. Most conditions were chronic illnesses resulting from their profession.

Moreover, some people had no diseases at all. Due to overwork and inadequate rest, they might have minor symptoms like neurasthenia or gastrointestinal disorders, but these were not serious problems.

However, there was one interesting disease record during the treatment.

It involved a man wearing a cotton-padded jacket.

It was July now, with daily temperatures fluctuating between 36 and 38 degrees. Some thick-skinned men were merely wearing a vest and shorts, while women wore bras with a thin layer of gauze on top.

To put it bluntly, even shorts felt excessive in this heat.

However, the man sitting in front of Du Heng wore long clothes and even a jacket on top—a fleece-lined cotton one, no less.

"Doctor Du, could you please take a look at me?" the man said in a soft voice, beads of sweat visible on his forehead as he sat down.

"What seems to be the problem?" Du Heng asked, beginning to examine the man’s face and other outward features.

Pale complexion, weak voice, sweating, and he was even wearing gloves.

"For some unknown reason, I started to feel extremely cold last year. Even in this weather, I get the chills if I stand in the wind, linger in a cool place, or if the air conditioner blows on me for a bit."

"Do you sweat a lot?"

"Quite a bit. My back always feels slightly damp, regardless of whether it’s hot or cold."

Sweat not only on his forehead but also on his back. Du Heng pursed his lips. "Haven’t you gotten yourself checked?"

"I never miss a check-up held by my workplace, but they’ve never found anything wrong. Later, I went to the hospital myself and underwent all sorts of checks, including various blood and urine tests. But in the end, the doctor told me there was nothing wrong with me."

"Didn’t you seek help from traditional Chinese medicine?"

"Sigh, I did. I went to the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The doctor there said I have yang deficiency and prescribed a lot of medicine, but there was no noticeable effect, so I stopped taking it."

Yang deficiency... Given his aversion to cold, it did seem plausible.

The textit{Golden Mirror of Medicine} states: "Heaven has five qi, which humans inhale through the nose and are stored in the five viscera, their essence radiating to the face. Liver green, heart red, spleen yellow, lung white, kidney black. The colors of the five viscera are primary; seasonal colors are secondary."

Inspection, Auscultation, Inquiry, and Palpation are the four methods. A doctor could often make a preliminary judgment just by observing the patient’s complexion, without needing the other three.

The patient had a pale complexion, which indicated coldness. He also exhibited spontaneous perspiration, which made Du Heng hesitate slightly.

Then he conducted other checks.

The patient’s tongue was dim and dull, with a thin, white coating, and his pulse was deep and slow.

Du Heng touched his chin.

Looking at the man’s pale face, Du Heng thought of another possibility: a deficiency of vital energy.

A deficiency of vital energy must have a cause, Du Heng mused, then asked, "Have you had surgery before, or suffered an injury?"

The man nodded. "Four years ago, I was injured during a mission, damaging a portion of my liver, so I had surgery. But that surgery was four years ago, and I only started feeling cold last year. Could that be related?"

Du Heng looked at the man with admiration. Although the man hadn’t elaborated on how he was injured, the fact that he had undergone surgery on his liver, an internal organ, spoke volumes about how dangerous his mission must have been.

"It is related. After liver surgery, given the high-intensity work you do, you definitely didn’t get enough rest and overexerted your body. It’s only natural that your body is protesting."

"Then, is there a way to treat this?"

"You didn’t rest well after the surgery and overworked yourself, resulting in a deficiency of vital energy. Consequently, your body sweats spontaneously, causing your yang qi to leak out with the sweat. Without yang qi, your flesh and blood aren’t warmed, which is why you feel cold. Defensive qi, which is yang in nature, warms the flesh and blood and fills the skin. Abnormal circulation of defensive qi can lead to a failure in warming the body, causing symptoms of cold intolerance. Therefore, your aversion to cold has two causes: obstruction of defensive qi and deficiency of defensive qi. We just need to harmonize construction and defense, and your problem will be solved quickly."

The liver’s regenerative ability is quite impressive. Generally, after surgery, as long as one recuperates well for some time, avoids high-intensity and heavy physical work, and maintains good nutrition, they can function pretty much like a normal person within a year or two.

Moreover, postoperative complications of liver surgery mainly manifest as pain, loss of appetite, and lack of strength, among other things. Intolerance to cold very rarely, if ever, manifests as a complication.

Considering two years had passed and hospital check-ups found no issues, this was quite normal.

With his situation explained and the cause identified, the man happily left after being seen by Du Heng.

Tao Litai and Wang Zhi, who had been observing the entire time, were heartily pleased by the outcome.

By the time Du Heng finished his afternoon session, Tao Litai and Wang Zhi insisted on taking him out for dinner, their enthusiasm immense.

If it were based on rank, there would be quite a gap between Du Heng and these two. Forget them treating Du Heng to a meal; even if Du Heng invited them, it wasn’t certain they would accept.

But now, from a professional standpoint, Du Heng truly could be their guest of honor.

However, being the guest of honor wasn’t easy.

Du Heng had initially planned to stop coming after wrapping up for the day and take the weekend off. Once his own affairs were settled, he would reassess. If they still wanted him to see patients, he would come; if not, he would let it be.

But now, after the meal, Du Heng found his Saturdays and Sundays committed as well.

At this, Du Heng really wanted to tell Wu Shengnan’s colleagues that as public employees, working normally on Saturdays and Sundays without taking time off set a very bad example.

In contrast, at his Health Clinic, never mind the full staff working on weekends, no one was willing to stay an extra minute after hours even on weekdays. Everyone there was always counting the seconds until they could clock out.

Of course, Du Heng himself was one of them.

Moreover, for the past three months, he had the worst record for late arrivals and early departures.

However, since he was the Dean, no one dared to say a word.

After two hectic days, Du Heng finally completed this task.

Although a few more departments remained, none were part of the front-line team, so Du Heng truly didn’t plan to continue.

「On Monday, when he returned to the Health Clinic, Du Heng actually felt happy.」

But as he leaned back in his office chair, he felt he had become much lazier and had lost his previous zeal.

This wouldn’t do; he needed to find some way to get his energy back.