Ding.
[Detected that the host spoke frankly to the patient, clearly stating the patient’s hidden ailment and greatly assisting them. Mission complete.]
[Congratulations to the host for receiving the reward: Upright Vitality Ten-Thousand Remedy Decoction.]
Seeing that the reward was another prescription this time, Qin Jiang nodded with satisfaction.
But as he looked at the name of this prescription, curiosity stirred within him.
What was the meaning of “Upright Vitality Ten-Thousand Remedy Decoction”? Why were these prescription names so peculiar?
Just as Qin Jiang was finding this strange, a family of four, supporting each other, walked in from outside.
Before Qin Jiang could say anything, these four people found spots to sit down on their own. There were smiles on their faces, but the look in their eyes as they gazed around was a bit off—it seemed as though they were lost in a trance.
“Which one of you needs to see the doctor?” Qin Jiang asked.
A middle-aged man stepped forward, sat down in front of the examination table, and spoke somewhat weakly:
“Doctor, take a look at me first. I’m dizzy and my stomach hurts.”
Dizzy and stomach ache again?
Qin Jiang raised an eyebrow.
“Stick out your tongue so I can see it.”
The middle-aged man stuck out his tongue. Qin Jiang noticed that his eyes seemed uncontrollably drawn to close every so often.
Even when they were open, they darted around restlessly.
This indicated that the man’s focus was already impaired.
It was a relatively dangerous sign.
“Alright, close your mouth, and now look at my finger.”
Qin Jiang held up his index finger and asked, “How many fingers is this?”
The middle-aged man stared at Qin Jiang’s index finger for a good while, his mouth practically watering, and said with slurred speech: “It’s one.”
Qin Jiang frowned.
“Reach out your hand. Let me take your pulse.”
The man nodded and placed his hand on the pulse pillow.
Netizens in the live stream saw the man’s reaction and couldn’t help but comment sarcastically.
“What’s up with this guy? Is he high on something?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Our country cracks down on drugs. If he really was high, would he dare to see a doctor? Does he have a death wish?”
“Someone actually did that before. I guess the world is full of wonders.”
“Look at this guy, he can barely speak properly. Looks like he’s been poisoned.”
Got to hand it to the netizens; they had some insight.
Just by looking at the man’s state, they had already made a rough guess.
But after taking his pulse, Qin Jiang was even more shocked.
This man’s pulse was way too chaotic!
Judging from the pulse, it did seem like poisoning.
But what kind of poison, Qin Jiang couldn’t tell right away. He had to ask, “What’s your name?”
“Feng… Feng An.”
“Mr. Feng, I’ll first do a blood test for you, then give you some acupuncture to help you stay clear-headed. Come with me.”
Qin Jiang led Feng An into the dispensary for a blood test. While waiting for the results to come out, Qin Jiang took out some acupuncture needles and placed a few in Feng An.
After the needles were inserted, Feng An’s drooling noticeably improved, and his consciousness seemed to become much clearer as well.
Qin Jiang continued asking:
“Mr. Feng, my preliminary assessment is that you’ve likely been poisoned. Do you remember eating anything unusual recently? Something uncommon, or maybe some takeout?”
Feng An shook his head.
“No, our family cooks all our meals ourselves. We never order takeout, and we only make simple home-style dishes.”
“Then did you accidentally eat anything else? Like a silica gel packet from a snack bag, or expired food?”
Feng An shook his head again.
“We don’t really have snacks at home either. At most, we have some peanuts and melon seeds.”
Seeing how sure Feng An was in his answers, even Qin Jiang couldn’t help but marvel at how healthy their diet was.
Not ordering takeout was rare enough, and they didn’t even eat snacks.
But this put Qin Jiang in a difficult spot.
“That shouldn’t be the case. Your condition really points to poisoning, but the toxicity is low.”
“Do you have any external injuries? Were you bitten by a snake or an insect?”
Feng An still shook his head.
“No. We live in an apartment complex. How could there be snakes?”
It wasn’t from eating something wrong, nor was it from being bitten by a poisonous creature. How did he get poisoned then?
Could it be from inhaling something?
Just as Qin Jiang was puzzled, he suddenly noticed the other three people sitting off to the side.
They were just like Feng An: vacant stares, smiling faces, occasionally gesturing in the air as if they were talking to someone.
It clicked for Qin Jiang.
He asked, “Did you all eat some mushrooms?”
As soon as Qin Jiang said this, Feng An became agitated.
“Doctor, what are you saying? We’re proper Yunnan folks. What we ate wasn’t ‘mushrooms’; it was ‘fungus’.”
“Fungus, you know? Wild fungus. It’s different from mushrooms.”
Qin Jiang: …
Seeing Feng An so eagerly correcting him on the distinction between mushrooms and ‘fungus’, Qin Jiang was even more convinced his inference was correct.
“Alright, alright, I get it. What you ate was ‘fungus’.”
“But when I asked you earlier if you’d eaten anything, why didn’t you mention it?”
Feng An looked completely innocent.
“Didn’t you ask if I’d eaten anything uncommon?”
“Fungus is common in our home. It’s a home-style dish. We have it for every meal, always fresh.”
“I figured there was no point mentioning something as ordinary as our usual home cooking.”
Qin Jiang felt a headache coming on.
He felt like communicating with Feng An was extremely difficult.
Qin Jiang patiently continued, “Mr. Feng, the dizziness and stomach pain you’re feeling—this probably started not too long ago, right?”
Feng An nodded. “About an hour ago.”
“So, that was right after you ate, correct?”
Qin Jiang added, “The fungus you all ate, the four of you all had some, didn’t you?”
Feng An looked at Qin Jiang with some displeasure.
“Doctor, what exactly are you trying to say? Just say it directly.”
Qin Jiang said seriously:
“What I mean is that the four of you ate the same dish and started showing the same symptoms at the same time.”
“That only points to one thing: food poisoning.”
“The most likely scenario is that the fungus you ate was poisonous.”
As soon as Qin Jiang finished speaking, Feng An became agitated again.
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”
“Our family has been eating fungus for so many years. I’d know if it was poisonous!”
“Even if there was poisoning, it’s definitely not because the fungus was poisonous!”
Alright, alright, so you’re going to be stubborn about it, insisting even when you’re dead wrong, huh!
Qin Jiang said to Feng An, “Since you insist the fungus isn’t poisonous, then I’ll have to first pump your stomach and induce vomiting, then do a toxin analysis test.”
“Come on, let’s go for the stomach pump.”
Feng An looked reluctant.
But to prove to Qin Jiang that the fungus wasn’t the issue, Feng An resolutely stood up and headed toward the ward.
Netizens in the live stream watching this scene expressed their confusion.
“Is there anyone here who’s eaten fungus? Can someone explain? Is it really that good?”
“I’ve had it. It is really delicious, but it’s also easy to get poisoned.”
“I’ve had it too. All I can say is that seafood isn’t as fresh as wild fungus, but that’s only if you know how to tell which ones are non-toxic.”
