Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 558: Chapter 558: Interrogation

"American Ginseng should be spindle-shaped, cylindrical, or long and conical. The surface should be a pale yellow or yellowish-white, with deep, transverse rings and vertical wrinkles. A cross-section will show a clear ’chrysanthemum heart’ pattern. The smell is unique, and the taste is slightly fragrant and bitter with a sweet aftertaste."

"But this..."

Li Xu pointed to the slice in his hand. "Even though it’s been sliced, you can still see that the skin is coarse, with thick, obvious vertical wrinkles. The texture is light and spongy, and the cross-section lacks the dense chrysanthemum pattern, instead having a loose structure. More importantly, it has the distinct smell of beans. This is cheap, sun-dried ginseng—or even ’dreg-ginseng’ that’s already had its active ingredients extracted—being passed off as the real thing."

The color drained from Liu Kan’s face. His calves were cramping, and his heart trembled.

If the issues with the Knotweed and patchouli could be excused as an "oversight," then faking a valuable herb like American Ginseng was an extremely malicious case of commercial fraud.

Li Xu and Hu Qiming exchanged a look, seeing the gravity and anger in each other’s eyes.

No wonder Hu Qiming’s prescription wasn’t working. In fact, it was making things worse.

Using nothing but these counterfeit and inferior herbs, it would be a miracle if anyone got better.

Li Xu’s brow furrowed, his gaze sweeping like lightning across the towering rows of medicine cabinets in the pharmacy.

’How many of the hundreds, even thousands, of herbs in here are just rotten wood and fake roots?’

This place was a giant powder keg.

Liu Kan frantically wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He didn’t even notice it trickling down his cheeks and onto his neck.

A bitter hatred welled up inside him.

He had fought so hard to climb to this position.

After the herb scandal triggered by Professor Gao Guanghui’s lecture last year, the previous director had been dismissed and investigated, giving him the chance to move up. He thought he could just relax and skim a little off the top, but who knew...

’That son of a bitch Dong Haitao, I swear I’m not through with you.’

Liu Kan cursed the supplier in his mind.

That bastard had beaten his chest, guaranteeing that everything was authentic. He had even slipped him a bank card with a hefty sum on it.

Now, it was clear he’d just been thrown into a pit of fire.

Li Xu glanced at the fake American Ginseng in his hand, then at Liu Kan’s terrified face. His tone was sterner than ever before.

"Director Liu, the ancients said, ’Chenpi in March, wormwood in April; harvest them in May, and they’re just firewood.’ If you don’t even have the right place of origin, the right cultivation period, or the right harvest time, herbs become less valuable than rotten wood."

"Treating illness is like going to war. Doctors are the soldiers, and Chinese medicine is our guns and bullets. But now? The bullets are duds and the guns backfire. They’re nothing more than fire pokers."

"Are you planning to send us doctors to the front lines to go bayonet to bayonet with the Grim Reaper, armed with nothing but fire pokers?"

"Huh?"

The more Li Xu spoke, the angrier he became. He fiercely slammed the fake American Ginseng onto the table.

SLAM.

The loud noise made a few of the young nurses in the pharmacy cry out in fright.

Li Xu was usually good-tempered, gentle, and refined. He rarely lost his temper.

His thunderous rage today was enough to show the gravity of the situation.

That shout made Liu Kan tremble all over. He nearly fainted.

He knew that if this matter wasn’t resolved peacefully today, he wouldn’t just lose his director position—his life would be over.

"Doctor Li... I... I was deceived by the supplier too! I really didn’t know..."

Liu Kan pleaded, his voice cracking.

Li Xu ignored his excuses.

The problems in the pharmacy cast a heavy shadow over his heart.

Chinese medicine was too important.

It was the soul of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the cornerstone of its efficacy.

If even that cornerstone was rotten, then even the most brilliant medical skills would be useless.

It was like a peerless swordsman holding a rotten wooden sword—facing a powerful enemy, he could only wait for death.

Li Xu unleashed his fury in the pharmacy, demanding on the spot that all medicinal herbs be sealed and a thorough investigation be launched to determine just how many counterfeit and substandard drugs were in stock.

Although Liu Kan was the director, in front of Li Xu, he was like a schoolboy who had done something wrong, not daring to even breathe too loudly.

After all, Li Xu was now a Divine Physician famous throughout the country, the gold-standard of the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Even Dean Song had to treat him with the utmost respect.

If he truly decided to make a scene, the entire hospital would be shaken to its core.

And sure enough, the commotion quickly brought Dean Song over.

Dean Song rushed over and saw the mess on the floor, Li Xu’s ashen face, and the pile of fake herbs that had been sorted out. He instantly understood what had happened.

He was also extremely shocked, and even a little frightened by the implications.

If word of this got out, the century-old reputation of the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine would be completely destroyed.

"Investigate. We must investigate this thoroughly," Dean Song declared, his expression grim. "Organize our best people from the entire hospital. Have them enter the pharmacy immediately to verify everything. No matter who is involved, we will get to the bottom of this and show no mercy."

Li Xu was supposed to see patients today.

But when he returned to his consultation room and saw the patients lined up outside, he hesitated.

With the pharmacy in such a disastrous state, he didn’t dare write any prescriptions.

Writing them would just be harming people.

This only strengthened his resolve for wanting to open his own clinic.

Only by personally controlling the quality of the herbs could he be accountable to his patients and his own conscience.

Helpless, he could only explain to the patients that the pharmacy was undergoing an emergency inventory check and was temporarily unable to dispense medicine.

He would write the prescriptions first and have the patients come back in two days to pick up the medicine, or go to a trustworthy pharmacy outside to have it filled.

What rotten luck.

Fortunately, the child with the cold today only had a minor illness. A two-day delay wouldn’t cause any major problems.

But what if?

What if a critically ill patient suffering from heart failure, a stroke, or major hemorrhaging had come in today?

The City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine was famous for daring to treat critical and complex cases.

In a life-or-death moment like that, if a life-saving ginseng decoction turned out to be radish soup, the patient would truly be lost.

That would be murder.

This was what made Li Xu the most furious, and the most terrified.

The pharmacy descended into chaos.

Because it involved professional authentication, ordinary medical staff couldn’t tell the real from the fake.

So, directors and senior experts from various departments, like Lin Guorui, were all called into action. Wearing reading glasses and holding magnifying glasses, they went through drawer after drawer, searching and identifying.

They were busy until evening.

After seeing his last few patients, Li Xu went to the pharmacy, his face grim.

Hu Qiming followed behind him.

There are no real secrets in a hospital. News that something big had happened in the pharmacy had already spread, and many doctors and nurses who were off-duty hadn’t left, gathering at the entrance to watch the spectacle and gossip.

Li Xu pushed open the door and walked inside.

The scene before him was appalling.

The once-neat medicine cabinets had been completely ransacked. The floor was piled high with the "problematic herbs" that had been sorted out—a good dozen large bags.

The Danshen was dyed, the Red Flower was mixed with fine sand, the Honeysuckle had already been processed for extracts...

Appalling.

Utterly appalling.

Director Lin Guorui rubbed his throbbing temples, leaning wearily against a medicine cabinet. Beside him on the floor, the shocking piles of inferior herbs stood like silent monuments of shame.

Liu Kan stood to the side, his face ashen. His usual slick sophistication had completely vanished.

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