Seeing the expression on Teacher Carter's face in the hospital bed, everyone in the room realized that William Clark had hit the mark. A trace of shock appeared on all their faces.

Chris Brooks's face instantly turned the color of pig liver—he hadn't expected that William Clark could guess it right like this!

Teacher Carter had always had a weak stomach and spleen since childhood, unable to eat anything raw, hard, or cold, whether in winter or summer. So he had always paid attention to taking care of his digestive system and never ate cold or raw food. It had been years since he last had any gastrointestinal issues. Yesterday, the weather was stuffy and hot, and at the airport, he drank a bottle of slightly chilled mineral water because he was thirsty. Since he hadn't had any stomach problems for years, he didn't think much of it. Not even Teacher White, Teacher Mason, or the others knew about this.

“What does this have to do with my current illness?” Teacher Carter asked. When William Clark was taking his pulse, he hadn't thought much of William Clark. It wasn't that Teacher Carter was unfamiliar with traditional Chinese medicine—on the contrary, he had a friend who was a TCM doctor—but those doctors were all elderly with white hair. So when he saw William Clark taking his pulse, he instinctively doubted his ability. However, Teacher Carter was a very kind person and didn't want to discourage the young man, so he let him proceed. But at this moment, he truly believed that William Clark could cure his illness.

“This illness of yours is called gastrointestinal damp-cold with diarrhea syndrome, caused by cold evil invading the meridians. If my diagnosis is correct, your constitution is already inclined toward yin and cold, so your digestive system is weak. The sudden feeling of dryness and heat in your stomach was due to an internal fire rising for some reason. After drinking the cold water, and since you haven't eaten anything cold for years, your body has no tolerance for it, which triggered a clash of cold and heat in your meridians.”

Teacher Carter nodded after hearing this. Thinking back, it was indeed after drinking the cold water to relieve the dryness and heat that the abdominal cramps began.

Although Director Howard didn't know much about traditional Chinese medicine, what William Clark said made some sense, so he asked, “Does that mean the Western medicine diagnosis is wrong?”

“I don't know much about Western medicine, but I believe Director Howard's diagnosis can't be wrong! However, Western medicine only treats the symptoms!” William Clark said with his signature harmless smile.

“The patient's illness is caused by the invasion of both cold and heat into the gastrointestinal meridians. If you only treat the inflammation, even if you cure it, the yin-cold energy will still remain in the meridians, and the gastrointestinal inflammation will recur!”

“It’s like the patient’s intestines: on the surface, it’s a disorder of the gut flora. But have you ever thought about this—if you compare the intestines to a piece of land and the flora to crops, if you bury a block of ice underground, no matter how many crops you plant in that soil, they won’t survive. That’s also why the diarrhea won’t stop.”

Western medicine treats gastroenteritis by reducing inflammation, and gut flora imbalance by adjusting the flora, but doesn’t consider the underlying cause of the inflammation and imbalance. That’s why it’s said that Western medicine only treats the symptoms.

Traditional Chinese medicine, on the other hand, treats the “soil” itself, removing the block of ice underground, and then adjusts the symptoms. This is what is meant by treating the root cause in TCM.

Everyone was stunned. Director Howard, a nationally renowned expert, was actually discussing the case with William Clark, leaving everyone dumbfounded. Especially Chris Brooks—he had invited Director Howard as an expert specifically to deal with Emily Foster and William Clark, but unexpectedly, the two of them were now discussing the illness together. Chris Brooks really wanted to go up and scold William Clark, but since Director Howard had just called him out, and since Director Howard was someone even his sister’s husband didn’t want to offend, he could only stew in frustration.

Director Howard didn’t care about what the others thought. He turned to William Clark and said, “You’re saying the patient’s cold energy has congealed in the meridians, causing the large intestine to be cold, which is why the diarrhea won’t stop.”

“Exactly,” William Clark nodded.

Director Howard pondered for a moment and said, “According to your explanation, the illness is caused by cold invading the body. Then how do you explain the persistent high fever?”

“Didn’t the patient say he drank the cold water because he felt dry and hot? The patient has a cold constitution. If someone with a cold constitution feels dry and hot, it means the internal fire is already very strong. But because of the cold constitution, cold and heat cannot coexist. So after drinking the cold water, the two colds combined, causing the cold energy to surge, which drove the fire to the surface, resulting in the persistent high fever.”

After listening to William Clark's explanation, Director Howard thought for a while, then nodded and said, “Hmm, what you said makes a lot of sense.”

Chapter Twelve: Hua Tuo’s Nine Needles

William Clark opened his medical kit, took out an acupuncture needle pouch, drew out golden needles, and skillfully wiped and disinfected them. He placed the needles one by one onto a medical tray.

“Take off his shirt,” William Clark said to the staff.

As soon as William Clark finished speaking, Director Howard stepped forward to help Old Carter remove his shirt. William Clark took the medical tray, picked up a golden needle, flipped his hand lightly, and with a gentle flick, inserted it. William Clark inserted nine golden needles into the nine major acupuncture points of the stomach and abdomen in succession. The whole process had a special beauty to it, as if a hand was dancing on the patient’s belly.

After inserting the needles, William Clark flicked each of the nine golden needles in turn with his index finger. By the time he finished flicking them all, the first needle had just stopped vibrating, and William Clark started flicking them again in order.

Old Carter lay on the bed, watching William Clark's fingers dance lightly on his belly like elves. When William Clark had inserted all nine golden needles, Old Carter, who had been tormented by illness and looked a mess on the bed, suddenly felt a warm current rise at his navel, circulating around his stomach and abdomen, again and again...