This Doctor Is Too Wealthy
Chapter 34 - 034 Rural Disease

Chapter 34: 034 Rural Disease

Wu Zhouzhou was completely dumbfounded and shocked.

She was very panicked now. This Doctor Du was really a doctor, not a fellow swindler. But why did he have to explain everything so clearly? Couldn’t he see that she was still here?

All the kindly old women from before had turned into hateful figures.

Wu Zhouzhou was scared, afraid that these old women would beat her up. Looking at their strong bodies and her own thin arms and legs, a result of dieting, she had never regretted her weight loss more than she did now.

That Doctor Du who was speaking earlier didn’t seem like a local; he probably wouldn’t hurt her.

With that thought, Wu Zhouzhou’s feet started to move, and she quickly ran to the front of the table.

Zhonghu Town Health Clinic

Du Heng, Attending Physician of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine, General Practice

Wu Zhouzhou saw Du Heng’s work ID clearly on his chest.

So, he was a doctor from the Health Clinic; he would definitely protect her.

Du Heng was startled by Wu Zhouzhou suddenly rushing towards him.

Had Du Heng known Wu Zhouzhou’s thoughts—that she believed the villagers would harm her—he might have burst out laughing. Because her thoughts were a classic case of a guilty conscience. Hurting her? They must be bored!

Glancing at the abandoned fraudster, Du Heng said indifferently, "Don’t make trouble. Find a place to stay. We’ll take you back with us tonight."

Wu Zhouzhou was confused for a moment, not knowing what to do.

But at that moment, Li Jun appeared again in his car.

Seeing the familiar car, the familiar license plate, and Li Jun’s familiar figure, Wu Zhouzhou burst into tears with a WAH.

Du Heng was startled by her pitiful cry. "She’s ridiculous," he exclaimed.

Li Jun panicked as well, thinking something bad had happened, and quickly ran over.

He looked at Du Heng and said, "If you have any issues, come at me. Don’t bully a young girl."

Du Heng was speechless. This guy was taking himself too seriously.

He was utterly disgusted with this type of scammer who preyed on the elderly. "Take your people and get lost," he ordered.

Seeing Du Heng’s disgusted expression and the angry Wu Buwei, Li Jun didn’t have the courage to say anything forceful. Glancing at the unharmed Wu Zhouzhou, Li Jun reluctantly took her to the car, stepped on the gas, and disappeared once again.

Du Heng felt helpless too; there was no good way to deal with these kinds of people and situations. All they could do was try to promote awareness and educate people about scams as much as possible.

The Health Clinic actually had such plans. In recent years, they had attended meetings organized by their supervising department, which required them to conduct awareness campaigns in the villages. But for various reasons, it never materialized. Instead, the task of promoting education was delegated to the village doctors in each village. However, judging from the current situation, the village doctors seemed to have just gone through the motions or even forgotten about it.

Du Heng sighed. It seemed that they would have to include this in their future work.

Gathering his thoughts, Du Heng began a new round of exams and prescribing.

As time went on and more cases came across his desk, Du Heng gained a general understanding of the health of the people in Mubangou. Those who had already been examined were mostly 45 years old and older; he hadn’t seen a single person under 40.

From their cases, Du Heng discovered that in addition to common colds and hypertension, there were several frequently occurring diseases.

The first kind was rheumatism. Various types of rheumatic diseases, such as those affecting the skin, causing itching and peeling. Others had already developed into various forms of arthritis, with joints that were red, swollen, hot to the touch, and even deformed. They were all villagers who worked the fields, tending the ground all day long. After returning home, they didn’t pay attention to dispelling dampness or maintaining their health, and over time, lesions developed. Aside from one somewhat complicated case of rheumatoid arthritis, the others didn’t pose much of a challenge for Du Heng. The real discomfort for him stemmed from how long these diseases had dragged on. This caused patients to suffer unnecessary pain and turned originally simple treatments into complex ones. Some had even developed into chronic diseases that couldn’t be resolved quickly.

The second kind was numbness. The ancient texts say that numbness is caused by qi and blood deficiency, with wind-cold-dampness taking advantage of this deficiency. Numbness is due to qi deficiency, and stiffness is from damp phlegm and dead blood, which together cause pain throughout the body. Cases of numb hands and feet were common. Many even experienced the sensation of electric currents shooting through their bodies, while some had numbness directly in their faces or entire heads.

The third kind was pain. There were no obvious lesions, just pain in various parts of the body. Pain in the hands, arms, back, and legs was understandable. But Du Heng had just examined someone with pain in the soles of their feet, which was a real eye-opener for him. Medical texts say, "Pain when not connected." Pain is a reaction of the body to the action of pathogenic factors. Many villagers didn’t pay attention to their pain. They endured it when it happened and took painkillers or analgesic tablets when they couldn’t. The conditions were either left to drag on or merely suppressed with medication, ultimately leading to every one of them developing into severe cases.

The fourth kind was stomach diseases. This was easy to understand. Farmers eat before going out to work, have a lunch of bread and tea in the field, and eat when they return home in the evening. However, many people were too tired from working in the fields at noon or found the conditions too dusty to eat. Consequently, they would be famished by the time they returned home at night. They would then eat a whole basinful of food, slowly losing their natural sense of hunger and satiety. The stomach lost its ability to signal hunger at appropriate times, becoming entirely subject to the owner’s whims. Gradually, various inflammations and ulcers developed, and even gastric cancer occurred. For instance, there was an old man, not yet 60, who had come in earlier. He was gaunt, with a very thin and bony figure, and his spirits were low. Du Heng suspected he had gastric cancer but didn’t prescribe any medication, instead making a small note in his personnel file.

The more Du Heng worked, the more at ease he felt.

Once he entered his groove, he lost all sense of time.

It wasn’t until he looked at the next patient’s personnel file and found his vision blurring that Du Heng realized how late it was.

"Buwei, what time is it?"

Wu Buwei was going crazy, but he was too embarrassed to remind Du Heng because it would make him seem impatient. Now that Du Heng asked, Wu Buwei replied listlessly, "It’s six-thirty, Senior Brother."

"Six-thirty?" That’s right, it was only March, so it got dark quite early.

"How many have I seen?" Du Heng asked, glancing at the few people left in line.

"Throughout the afternoon, in four hours, you’ve seen 52 people in total." Wu Buwei, noticing the look in Du Heng’s eyes and fearing he might want to work overtime to see the rest, quickly added, "Many people saw it was getting dark and went home to cook. There are still about a hundred people who haven’t been seen."

Over a hundred? Du Heng felt a little happy. This number was quite good; the biggest problem would be if no one came to see him.

"Let’s call it a day then. We’ll pack up and go back; it’s not safe on the roads at night."