Lu Chuwan took Madam Lu’s medicine from the Ren Xin Clinic.
The doctor was a 60-year-old man.
In this era, when modern medicine was mainstream, traditional Chinese medicine was branded as superstitious and feudal as metaphysics.
However, when modern medicine could not nurture them back to health, the older generation turned their hopes toward traditional Chinese medicine.
Truth be told, tackling heart disease with a traditional prescription was not acceptable by the hospital that Madam Lu had visited.
Nevertheless, it was apparent that Dr. Ma was pretty capable since Ren Xin Clinic had been able to withstand the test of time and operate until now.
After ascertaining that the prescription would not clash with the prescription of the hospital, Dr. Ma said, “Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners like us emphasize greatly on fate. If you have faith in me, just take the medicine and I assure you that your grandma will recover after she takes my prescription for at least half a year.”
*
According to the prescription, Madam Lu needed to take one packet of medicine five times a day—three times during the day, and twice at night. The first two days required extra attention, and the medicine could only be taken after it had cooled down.
Xu Wei brought the medicine to Madam Lu in the morning.
By the time Lu Chuwan returned, Bai Yao was complaining. “What if something had happened to your grandma after she took Fu Zhi’s medicine? Then, her legacy...”
Fu Zhi came from the countryside and was a girl. If she were a boy, perhaps Bai Yao would have treated her nicer.
“She doesn’t even have a doctor’s license. I don’t understand where she gets the confidence to simply add herbs into her medicine. Is she trying to kill your grandma?”
“Grandma’s old. She’s just been temporarily bedeviled by Fu Zhi’s trick, so she can’t see the situation clearly,” Lu Chuwan said as she poured the medicine into a porcelain bowl. When she entered Madam Lu’s room, she saw that Madam Lu had popped three pills into her mouth as instructed by Fu Zhi.
She frowned and asked, “Did you feel any discomfort after taking this brandless supplement?”
Madam Lu shook her head in response. She knew her granddaughter did not like Fu Zhi. She did not want to hurt her granddaughter’s feelings, so she definitely would not stand up for Fu Zhi.
Seeing that Madam Lu did not want to continue the conversation, Lu Chuwan did not linger on the topic either. She handed the bowl of medicine to Madam Lu and said, “This is a prescription that I got from a doctor introduced by my friend. This doctor is very experienced in treating heart disease.”
As she was talking, she shook the plastic bag that contained the herbs she had bought.
When Madam Lu took a look inside the plastic bag, her heart somersaulted in her chest. There was Rehmannia, Asiatic Dogwood, Fleeceflower root, and Poria in the bag. She turned to Lu Chuwan and asked, “Aren’t all these Yin herbs?”
According to a saying, prolonged illness made a patient a doctor. Madam Lu could tell with a single glance that the medicine was not right.
However, Lu Chuwan knew nothing about this. “I’ve asked the doctors in the city. All of them said that it’s alright for you to take these Chinese herbs.”
“But Fu Zhi said I can’t take any Yin herbs if I take her supplement.”
Madam Lu cherished her life a lot, so she did not change her mind no matter how much Lu Chuwan tried to persuade her.
*
After they had lunch, Bai Yao invited Fu Zhi and Xu Wei back to the Lu Household to have dinner together, as her daughter had instructed.
Madam Lu felt refreshed after she took Fu Zhi’s medicine. However, while she was taking a nap, she was suddenly overwhelmed by suffocating heat.
She felt as if she was dying. She tasted blood in her throat, and the next thing she knew, she was vomiting blood next to her bed.
Lu Chuwan was the first to hear a loud thump and notice something had happened to Madam Lu.
By the time she rushed to her room, her grandmother was already on the floor.