After listening to Huang Hong rattle off his symptoms, Qin Jiang said flatly, “This is what happens when you eat river sand for a long time—it damages your gastric mucosa, which has led to gastritis.”
“And I just took your pulse. The inflammation in your body is pretty severe. If you don’t get it treated in time, that gastritis could worsen and potentially turn into stomach cancer.”
Stomach cancer!
Huang Hong’s face went pale.
“Dr. Qin, you’re not trying to scare me on purpose, are you? I’ve heard people say before that gastritis doesn’t lead to stomach cancer.”
Qin Jiang shot him a look.
“Then you heard wrong.”
“Gastritis doesn’t directly transform into stomach cancer, but that doesn’t mean it can’t cause it.”
“When the inflammation in your stomach gets too serious, there’s a high chance it’ll lead to gastric ulcers and stomach bleeding.”
“And if those internal bleeding points don’t get treated over a long period, they can become cancerous.”
Seeing that Qin Jiang’s explanation was backed by solid reasoning, Huang Hong was genuinely frightened this time.
“So, Dr. Qin, what should I do about this condition? Can you treat me?”
Qin Jiang pointed at the QR code on the table and said, “Yeah, I can treat it. Scan the code and pay—three thousand one hundred in total.”
Hearing that price, Huang Hong felt a pang of reluctance.
There was no denying Qin Jiang’s medical skills—everyone who’d seen him said he was great.
But those consultation fees were really steep!
Did treating a case of gastritis really have to cost three thousand one hundred?
After witnessing Qin Jiang’s abilities, Huang Hong—though he hated to part with the money—still honestly pulled out his phone and made the payment.
Ding.
【Detected that the host spoke frankly to the patient, pointed out his hidden condition, and greatly assisted him. Mission complete.】
【Congratulations, host! Reward obtained: Tong Xie Yao Fang (Prescription for Painful Diarrhea).】
“Dr. Qin, I’ve sent the payment. Can you start the treatment now?”
“Wait here. I’ll go prepare your medicine.”
Qin Jiang turned and walked into the pharmacy to fill the prescription.
While he was gone, Huang Hong shot Ma Tian a glare.
“Old Ma, and here we trusted you so much! Who knew you were such a quack?”
“Do you have any idea how I’ve been living all these years? Have you ever tasted that sand? Why don’t you give it a try?”
Now that he’d confirmed he never had cancer in the first place, Huang Hong couldn’t hold back any longer. He wanted to vent all the frustration that had been building up inside him.
All this time, he’d been living in fear. And then, when he started feeling better, he’d consoled himself by thinking he was the chosen one—that fate hadn’t wanted him dead.
But after all that fuss, he’d just been a complete clown!
The other villagers also started pointing fingers at Ma Tian.
If it hadn’t been for his misdiagnosis, none of them would’ve ended up crowding into Qin Jiang’s clinic like this today.
How humiliating.
Their dreams of getting rich had been shattered, and on top of that, they’d been made a laughingstock on a live stream. From now on, people in their village would probably become nothing but meme material for netizens.
Ma Tian’s face turned red, but he stubbornly shot back, “What do you mean ‘misdiagnosis’? Was it really a misdiagnosis?”
“I told you back then—I suspected you might have cancer. Emphasis on suspected, got it?”
“You were the one who didn’t want to spend the money to get checked at a big hospital. How is that my fault?”
Ma Tian couldn’t be bothered to argue with these villagers any further. After all, he was the only doctor in the village. If they had the guts, they could go all the way to the city for treatment from now on—just don’t come crawling back to him.
With that, Ma Tian waved his hand and stormed out of the clinic.
Netizens in the live stream saw all this and immediately started discussing it.
“This village doctor is so arrogant! How can he be so overbearing when he got the diagnosis wrong?”
“Dude, not all doctors are highly skilled. Especially those in small towns—it’s already pretty decent that he’s willing to stay in a rural area and treat folks.”
“Yeah, exactly. Any doctor with real skills would rather stay in a big city.”
“So that’s why hospital positions in big cities are so competitive and hard to get. Meanwhile, there are plenty of vacancies in rural towns—but why doesn’t anyone want them? Simple: low pay and too much hassle. Nobody’s willing to take that.”
When you think about it, Ma Tian was a bit too hasty in giving his diagnosis.
Maybe because they were all from the same village, he didn’t bother being as cautious or leave himself any wiggle room—unlike the doctors at big hospitals.
At a major hospital, unless there’s solid test results to back it up, even if the doctor is 99% sure about your condition, they’ll only say something like, “You might have such-and-such.”
Why do all those big-hospital doctors talk that way?
Because they see so many patients and run into so many unexpected, bizarre cases that they’ve learned to be careful—even to the point where they leave no room for error in their words and actions.
That’s also why, when many people go to the hospital these days, the doctor just asks a couple of questions and then sends you off for X-rays and all sorts of tests.
Because until those test results come back, they really don’t dare to say anything definitive!
There’s liability at stake!
While everyone was chatting about this, Qin Jiang came back out with the herbal medicine.
He handed the package to Huang Hong and instructed, “This is Xiao Jian Zhong Tang (Minor Strengthen the Middle Decoction). Take it home and brew it according to the instructions I wrote down. Pay close attention to the water amount and the heat—don’t let it boil dry.”
Huang Hong took the medicine and stood there beaming.
Qin Jiang picked up his teacup, took a sip, and gave him a puzzled look.
“Why are you still standing here? Go home and brew your medicine.”
Huang Hong looked dumbfounded.
“Dr. Qin, i-is that it? Is the consultation over?”
“I still feel like something’s off with my body. Don’t I need, say, acupuncture or something?”
“Or if that’s not an option, how about cupping? Or even a gua sha scraping?”
Huang Hong felt like he’d wasted over three thousand yuan for nothing.
That was over three thousand bucks!
And all he got was a few packets of herbs—no other treatment services at all?
Qin Jiang was almost amused by Huang Hong’s reaction.
“This is a Chinese medicine clinic, not a massage parlor. Cupping and gua sha? Should I throw in an essential-oil back rub while I’m at it?”
“Get out of here. Don’t block my space.”
Seeing that Qin Jiang was kicking them out, Huang Hong—though reluctant—had no choice but to gather the villagers and leave.
After Huang Hong was gone, Liu Yan commented from the side, “I feel bad for that uncle. He spent all those years thinking he had cancer, living in fear, eating sand all that time. Now that he knows the truth, he must be really upset.”
Qin Jiang glanced at Liu Yan.
“Upset about what? The one thing every cancer patient hopes to hear more than anything is that they were misdiagnosed.”
“Nobody wants to be sick, and nobody wants cancer. Today is actually a good day for him.”
Qin Jiang’s words made Liu Yan pause for a moment.
Yeah—a living dog is better than a dead lion.
As long as you get to live, what does it matter if you had to eat a little sand?
Right then, a couple walked into the clinic with a young boy.
