The middle-aged woman in front of him shook her head in confusion, while the unease on the middle-aged man's face deepened. He simply watched as Dr. Smith bent down, holding back the words he wanted to say. Dr. Smith listened for a while, then lifted the young man's eyelids on the bed. His expression grew a bit strange, but mostly he smiled. He slowly stood up, turned around, and said, "Congratulations, Mr. Brooks, Ms. Carter, your son is much better now. He seems to have passed the critical stage and is no longer in any life-threatening danger."

Of course, these words were told to him by Dr. Sullivan. As long as Ethan Brooks could wake up, it meant he had passed the danger and was no longer at risk of dying.

Eric Foster was stunned, glanced around, and saw nothing but white everywhere. The surprise in his eyes deepened, and he suddenly shouted, "Demon Blade Matthew Bennett, to think you are the national advisor of Jin, yet you act so timidly—aren't you afraid of being ridiculed by the world? Since Eric Foster has fallen into your hands, even if I die, I would not consider it unjust. I never expected to be so completely mistaken."

At this, not only the middle-aged man but also the middle-aged woman sensed something was wrong. Dr. Smith suddenly turned around, reaching out to feel the young man's forehead on the bed, wanting to check if the young man was delirious from a fever caused by his illness.

Eric Foster sneered coldly, "A physician's four methods: observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking. Your hands are weak, your movements unsteady, and your technique doesn't even qualify as the basics for a doctor. Even pretending to be a doctor, you're this lousy. I really can't understand why Matthew Bennett asked you to put on this act!"

Dr. Smith looked a bit embarrassed. He was a Western doctor, skilled at performing minor surgeries, removing appendixes or cecums, but still far inferior to Dr. Andrew Sullivan. As for the traditional Chinese medicine methods of observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking, he had little knowledge.

What the young man said was actually correct. But even though it was correct, he was too ignorant of social niceties and gave the attending physician no face at all. Embarrassed, he also felt a bit of shame and anger, thinking to himself, "So what if I don't know Chinese medicine? You're still the one lying in bed, and I'm still the one treating you."

It wasn't really Dr. Smith's fault for not knowing much about Chinese medicine. In fact, that's just how things are nowadays. With a market economy, Western medicine is much more popular than Chinese medicine. There are very few people studying Chinese medicine, and some even clamor to abolish this branch of medicine, which they see as unscientific, not realizing that their ancestors survived for generations thanks to Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine is broad and profound, and its usefulness was most evident during the Qing Dynasty. You should know that during the Qing era, which lasted about 250-260 years, there was a plague every two years. Yet China still maintained the world's largest population, and in the early Qing, the world's highest GDP. This wasn't because the Chinese had a particularly high reproductive rate, but because Chinese medicine played a crucial role in curbing the spread of plagues.

At that time, Europe was ravaged by plagues with no cure. When the Black Death struck, a third of Europe's population died. During the Italian Renaissance, Boccaccio's famous collection of novellas, "The Decameron," depicted such misery.

The introduction to "The Decameron" describes the severe epidemic in Florence. He wrote about how patients would suddenly collapse and die in the streets, or quietly pass away at home, their bodies left to rot and stink before neighbors realized what had happened next door. Travelers saw abandoned fields, empty wine cellars, stray cows wandering the streets, and the local residents nowhere to be found.

The plague also swept into Asia, but seemed to have spared China. Here, Chinese medicine played a huge role in suppressing the epidemic.

But after the Qing Dynasty, China was wracked by turmoil, and less than one percent of Chinese medicine was passed down. Western medicine became far more popular. Nowadays, everything is about money, and few are willing to do business that doesn't pay. As a result, fewer and fewer people study Chinese medicine. Surgeons like Dr. Smith only know the four words "observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking" from ancient medical arts, and nothing else. Patients are the same, favoring Western medicine over Chinese medicine, thinking that taking those herbs is far less satisfying than having surgery—which, of course, is also much more expensive.

After surgery, whether your life is saved or not is uncertain, but if your wallet isn't emptied, that's already considered lucky.

"Child, what's wrong with you? Please don't scare your mom." Helen Carter's eyes were brimming with tears as she reached out to touch Eric Foster's forehead. Strangely, Eric Foster didn't make a sound, just watched every move of this woman in front of him.

From his perspective, this person was an ordinary civilian, with no martial arts skills.

Not only did this woman not know martial arts, but everyone in the room had unsteady steps—none of them were martial artists. His suspicions deepened, but then he saw Helen Carter reach out to feel his forehead again and say to Dr. Smith, "Dr. Smith, my son doesn't seem to have a fever."

Dr. Smith felt a bit awkward, thinking to himself that times had changed—patients now seemed to know much more than doctors. Even this Ms. Brooks was taking on the responsibilities of a nurse. Just as he was about to save some face, he suddenly saw the young man on the bed staring in horror, his gaze fixed straight behind him!