After all the irrelevant people had left, Qin Chaoyu opened her medical case and took out the needles passed down to her by her master.
This set of needles was exclusive to the sect leader of their school and had a long history. It was said that a former leader had painstakingly crafted them based on the sect’s healing methods—a set of golden needles.
When Li Zhongming saw Qin Chaoyu take out golden needles, his heart skipped a beat. Golden needles were rarely used in acupuncture nowadays because they were brittle and difficult to control, posing a high risk of medical accidents. Most traditional Chinese medicine practitioners now used stainless steel needles.
But rarity didn’t mean inferiority. On the contrary, golden needles were excellent. During the golden age of traditional Chinese medicine, many renowned physicians used golden needles, or at least silver ones.
Li Zhongming didn’t understand why golden or silver needles were considered superior. He had once experimented with them, comparing their effects to stainless steel and iron needles, but found no difference. In fact, stainless steel needles, being easier to control, even performed slightly better. In the end, he could only conclude that he hadn’t mastered the secret of using them. Even so, he knew that any TCM practitioner who could wield golden or silver needles must possess extraordinary skill.
The real reason he didn’t understand was that he lacked internal energy (neili). In ancient times, many TCM practitioners cultivated internal energy to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their treatments. Thus, every renowned physician was someone with profound internal energy. Golden and silver needles made it easier to channel this energy into a patient’s body during acupuncture, stimulating acupoints and accelerating healing. However, after thousands of years of cultural disruption, internal energy had faded into myth. So, what difference did it make whether one used golden, silver, or iron needles?
Despite his many doubts, Li Zhongming suppressed them, not wanting to disturb Qin Chaoyu’s treatment.
~
Outside the door, Gu Zhixue paced anxiously up and down the corridor, glancing repeatedly at the door to see if anyone would emerge. He couldn’t sit still for even a moment.
“Zhixue, you’ve been pacing for nearly two hours. Sit down and rest for a while,” Chen Junya said. After waiting with her husband for an hour, she had grown tired and gone downstairs to rest. To her surprise, when she returned, he was still pacing.
Gu Zhixue stopped awkwardly. “I’m just worried. I want to know the results as soon as possible.” His mind was restless, consumed by thoughts of the treatment’s outcome. Without realizing it, he had been pacing the corridor for two hours.
Chen Junya felt a pang of sympathy. This was the first time she had seen her husband so unsettled. In her memory, he was always composed, as if he had everything under control. She knew how hard he had been working for his father’s illness—so much so that he had barely eaten or slept. Now that hope was finally within reach, his anxiety was understandable.
She stepped forward and took his hand, comforting him, “Don’t worry. That young lady seems very confident. I’m usually a good judge of character, and I can tell she’s truly skilled. Why don’t you go downstairs and rest for a bit?”
Gu Zhixue thought for a long moment before nodding slowly. “Alright.”
Deep down, he knew all this, but when it came to his father, it was hard not to be blinded by worry.
Just as he was about to follow Chen Junya downstairs—
*Click!* The door opened.
Gu Zhixue spun around and rushed to the doorway, anxiously asking Li Zhongming, who had stepped out first, “H-how is it?”
Chen Junya also looked at Li Zhongming with hopeful eyes.
Li Zhongming sighed, making Gu Zhixue’s heart leap into his throat. Did this mean bad news?
Seeing Gu Zhixue’s alarm, Li Zhongming laughed heartily and stopped teasing. “Mr. Gu, I’ve never seen you so flustered before! Don’t worry—the treatment was unprecedentedly effective. After the young lady’s first acupuncture session, I examined Mr. Gu’s condition. His illness is showing signs of improvement. It’s truly a miracle! From now on, if anyone says TCM is slow, I’ll have a thing or two to say about it.”
Gu Zhixue barely registered Li Zhongming’s words. His mind was stuck on one phrase: *”The treatment was unprecedentedly effective.”* He let out a long breath of relief.
This was the best news he had heard in a long time.
“Dr. Li,” he asked, “may I… go in and see?”
Li Zhongming nodded. “Of course. But the young lady is exhausted from the treatment and is resting. Your father is still unconscious, so please be quiet when you enter.”
“We will, we will.”
Watching the Gu couple enter the room cautiously, Li Zhongming couldn’t help but marvel. The student had truly surpassed the master!
That young lady was extraordinary!
Recalling the treatment process, Li Zhongming realized how narrow his perspective had been. Having never witnessed truly advanced acupuncture techniques, he had assumed his own skills were decent. But compared to the young lady’s mastery, his abilities were far inferior.
Before he could even react, she had swiftly inserted all 99 golden needles into precise acupoints. From what he observed, each needle was inserted at a different depth—some as deep as 4 to 5 inches. Considering how soft golden needles were, achieving such precision was astonishing. But what shocked him even more was that after insertion, the needles trembled slightly. He had only read about such a technique in ancient medical texts and dismissed it as legend. Yet here it was, right before his eyes.
Ah, how limited his understanding had been!
Inside the room, Gu Zhixue saw that everything was as Li Zhongming had described. Not daring to disturb Qin Chaoyu’s rest, he only glanced at his father from the doorway.
Gu Guohai lay peacefully, as if lost in a pleasant dream. His face, once pallid, now bore a faint flush of color.
This improvement had cost Qin Chaoyu half of her internal energy. Though her spatial ability allowed her to recover quickly, the sudden depletion left her drained, forcing her to rest in the room. She wasn’t asleep—just meditating with her eyes closed—so she noticed the Gu couple’s entrance but chose not to acknowledge them.
Gu Zhixue caught sight of that faint flush and felt a wave of relief. Satisfied, he quietly left the room without going further inside.
The moment he stepped out, his excitement bubbled over. “Junya, Father is saved! I just saw his face—it had a healthy flush! It’s subtle, but compared to before, it’s a world of difference!”
This was why he never doubted that Qin Chaoyu and Li Zhongming might be deceiving him. Though he knew little about medicine, he could still recognize the signs of improved vitality in a person’s complexion.
Chen Junya was equally delighted but reminded him, “Zhixue, we’ve troubled Dr. Li and Dr. Qin for so long, and it’s getting late. Why don’t we invite them to dinner?”
She referred to Qin Chaoyu as “Dr. Qin,” believing she more than deserved the title.
Gu Zhixue smacked his forehead. “Yes, yes! Look at me—I’m so overjoyed I forgot my manners. Of course, we should!”
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