“You’ve just caught a cold. Why are you yelling for help?”
Fang Qiu rolled his eyes at Zhou Xiaotian speechlessly.
“Alas.”
Zhou Xiaotian stared at Fang Qiu with a sad face. He desperately said, “Catching a cold is really not a big deal, but the oldest and the third oldest are so crappy. They insisted on treating me when they didn’t know how to at all. They’d totally seen me as their guinea pig. Then I’ve gotten worse, and I couldn’t even attend the classes, and could only ask for a leave and went back to the dorm to rest. Now I don’t even have the strength to walk. I really feel like dying.”
“That’s better.”
Fang Qiu pursed his lips and said, “If you really die, I’ll have a much quieter living condition.”
“No way, the youngest.”
Zhou Xiaotian looked at Fang Qiu with a look that said he had lost all hope in life, saying, “I’ve always seen you as my best buddy and I can sacrifice my life for you. Now, I’ve merely caught a cold, and you’re going to abandon me so heartlessly and so ruthlessly?”
“Get off me now!”
Zhou Xiaotian was feebly lying on the ground and grabbing Fang Qiu’s thigh. Like a germophobe, Fang Qiu wanted to keep Zhou Xiaotian away from himself as far as possible.
It was supposed to be a great show.
If it were in the usual days, Zhou Xiaotian would have definitely put on a full show, acting to the very end.
However, today was different.
“Well, never mind.”
Gently sighing, Zhou Xiaotian loosened his grip and feebly stood up. He covered his chest and coughed loudly until his nose turned red. Then, he walked to his desk to sit behind it while saying, “To be honest, you’re finally fack. Since the oldest and the third oldest haven’t come back yet, treat me quickly. Otherwise, they will definitely mishandle me to death.”
“What good timing.”
Hearing Zhou Xiaotian’s words, Fang Qiu felt slightly stunned and then he tittered and smiled, “I’ve just learned a new treatment. Since you beg me sincerely, I’ll manage to treat you.”
“Don’t.”
Hearing that it was a new method, Zhou Xiaotian immediately opened his mouth reluctantly. “Use the herb soup or acupuncture. What’s the point of a new method? What if you worsen my condition like those two idiots?”
Fang Qiu said, “Rest assured. I’m not like the oldest and the third oldest. This new method will definitely work.”
“Well… then alright.”
Zhou Xiaotian hesitated and then nodded and said, “You’re the spokesperson of our University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine. I’ll give you my life to be your guinea pig. If your new method doesn’t work out, just wait and see.”
“Go sit for a while. I’ll prepare myself by getting the necessary materials and tools.”
After saying that, Fang Qiu immediately rushed out of the dorm.
A few minutes later, Fang Qiu returned to the dorm; several moxa sticks and pieces of ginger slices appeared in his hand.
Zhou Xiaotian asked, “Huh, what are these?”
Fang Qiu said, “These are moxa sticks made from mugwort.”
“Moxa sticks?”
Zhou Xiaotian was stunned and said in doubt, “Don’t you burn them to disinfect things? How do you cure a disease with them?”
“Indeed, mugwort can disinfect things, but it can do more than that. Its most important use is to be applied in acupuncture to cure diseases.”
While explaining, Fang Qiu walked over to Zhou Xiaotian.
“Moxibustion is also part of acupuncture. When you learn it, you’ll know.”
While saying that, Fang Qiu asked Zhou Xiaotian to take off his top.
“I see that you’re feeling feeble in your limbs, and you don’t seem to have a serious fever. You cough and your nasal discharge is clean, and you don’t perspire over your body. These are typical symptoms of a common cold.”
Saying that, Fang Qiu thought about it and added, “To cure a comma cold, one should get rid of the cold and discharge the dirty air in the patient’s lungs.
“When cured with moxibustion, the main apertures are Fengchi, Dazhui, Hegu.
“The accompanying apertures are Fengmen, Waiguan if the patient catches a cold. If the patient has a nasal obstruction, it will be Yingxiang aperture. If he coughs, they will be Chize and Lieque apertures.”
“As for the type of moxibustion, it’ll be ginger moxibustion.”
After saying that, Fang Qiu started.
Acupuncture therapy was also called moxibustion. It was a natural therapy where mainly moxa sticks and moxa rolls made from mugwort were lit to heat the human body’s apertures to keep it healthy and cure diseases.
Ginger moxibustion was an acupuncture theory from ancient medical books. Recorded in the “Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion” was this: Cut ginger into slices, each about a coin thick. Place them on Sheshang aperture and heat up.
He chose four from the main and accompanying apertures.
Fang Qiu fetched the ginger slices and pricked them with needles in the middle of the slices to make several holes. Then, he placed the slices on the apertures he had selected. Then, he picked a moxa stick to put it on the slices and then lit it up.
This time, Fang Qiu had picked big moxa sticks, which were all the size of a thumb.
Sitting on the chair, Zhou Xiaotian lay his upper body on the desk with his back facing Fang Qiu and his arms stretching out to both sides.
Then, on the Fengchi aperture on Zhou Xiaotian’s neck, Dazhui aperture under his neck, and Lieque aperture on his wrist, Fang Qiu quickly lit up the moxa sticks and started the moxibustion.
Zhou Xiaotian didn’t dare to move a muscle and asked, “The youngest, how long will it take?”
“About 10 minutes.”
Fang Qiu opened his mouth to say, “Treating a cold like yours, I need to burn four zhuangs on every aperture.”
Zhou Xiaotian asked in doubt, “Bumps?”
Fang Qiu explained. “It’s zhuang, a measuring unit in moxibustion. Every burned moxa stick is called a zhuang.”
Zhou Xiaotian understandingly answered and did not speak anymore. “Well, I see.”
Fang Qiu continued to accompany Zhou Xiaotian in the treatment.
Soon, 10 minutes passed.
The moxibustion ended.
Fang Qiu took the ginger slices off Zhou Xiaotian and then patted the latter, who had already fallen asleep.
“Aargh!!!”
Being patted by Fang Qiu, Zhou Xiaotian straightened up with a swoosh, blankly looking around. When seeing Fang Qiu, he finally collected himself. He wiped the saliva around his lips and asked, “Is it finished?”
“Yes.”
Fang Qiu smilingly nodded and said, “How are you feeling now?”
Hearing that, Zhou Xiaotian sniffed out of habit.
“Well, my nose isn’t blocked anymore.”
After sniffling, Zhou Xiaotian felt his eyes light up and said, “I don’t have a runny nose anymore. Just now, I was so feeble that I felt terrible. I was feeling hot all over my body like I was having a fever. Now, I’m alright and I don’t feel dizzy anymore either.”
Saying that, Zhou Xiaotian immediately stood up, sniffled again, and twisted his head around.
“Fine, I’m really fine.”
Voices of pleasantly surprise rang from Zhou Xiaotian’s mouth.
He felt like reborn from head to toe. Zhou Xiaotian only felt the energy all over his body. He looked like nothing but a patient!
“So amazing.”
Shouting in surprise, Zhou Xiaotian looked at Fang Qiu and said, “It’s just been 10 minutes, and I’ve actually recovered. It looks like I’ll use your acupuncture to cure myself if I catch a cold later. This works really fast.”
“You can’t.”
Fang Qiu immediately shook his head and said, “Though moxibustion is a great way to stay healthy, and many people have been using it since it’s easy to operate. But, there are contraindications. If you blindly use it before you understand it, it will seriously damage your body.
“In ‘Treatise on Febrile Diseases’, there are contents about the contraindications of moxibustion.
“First, a floating pulse should be eased by perspiration. Heated by the fire, the heat cannot get out from anywhere. Because of the heat, the disease can, for example, make one feel heavy below the waist, and that is called the mistreatment by warming therapy.
“Second, in the case of the Taiyang disease, if when heated with fire, the patient doesn’t perspire, he must feel restless and might develop delirium if the treatment continues. He’ll have blood in the stool, and that is called a fire pathogen.
“Third, a patient with Yin and blood deficiency should not be treated with acupuncture. Because this kind of patient has a body of heat. When the heat of moxibustion gets into his body, it will definitely increase his inner heat and cause him dysphoria. When the heat spreads in the body, his body fluid and blood will be lost, and his tendons, vessels, and muscles will all be damaged.
“Fourth, a patient with a floating pulse should not be treated with acupuncture. Since he has the inner heat, it should not be treated in a way you use to treat the heat due to deficiency. When his inner heat increases because of the one from the outside, he will lose the body fluid and the heat will spread in his blood.”
Hearing that, Zhou Xiaotian pursed his lips and said, “Can you speak human language? Just tell me those contraindications in plain words. Do you really have to quote some obscure essays?”
Fang Qiu said in a despised tone, “Go read for yourself.”
After that, he directly turned around and walked to his desk.
It was at that time.
“Crack!”
It was the sound of someone pushing open the door.
“The fourth oldest, have you been feeling better? What about I treat you in some other ways?”
The moment the dorm door was pushed opened, Sun Hao’s evil smile appeared.
Looking into the dorm, Sun Hao was stunned.
Beside him, Zhu Benzheng was also stunned.
Changing his face, Sun Hao asked in surprise, “The youngest, you’ve come back?”
Fang Qiu nodded. “Yes.”
Walking into the dorm, Zhu Benzheng sniffled and said, “Well, there’s a funny smell in our dorm.”
“It’s mugwort.”
Fang Qiu opened his mouth to explain. “I’ve just performed moxibustion on Xiaotian, burned some moxa sticks. So there’s a smell.”
“Moxibustion?”
Sun Hao and Zhu Benzheng were stunned and both turned their heads to look at Zhou Xiaotian.
Sun Hao asked, “How are you feeling?”
Sun Hao said, spreading his arms. “I’ve recovered. Can’t you see that?”
Zhu Benzheng felt surprised and he walked up to Zhou Xiaotian to check for himself. “Really?”
Zhou Xiaotian said, “The youngest has done it himself. So can I not recover?”
Then, after the two’s checking, it turned out that Zhou Xiaotian had really recovered from the cold.
Well, 15 minutes ago, Zhou Xiaotian was having such a serious cold that he couldn’t even continue the classes and had asked for leave to return to the dorm to rest.
How did he recover in a blink of an eye?
Zhu Benzheng and Sun Hao were all shocked.
Zhu Benzheng asked, “The youngest, you’ve learned moxibustion?”
Fang Qiu nodded and said, “Yes, I’ve just learnt it.”
Hearing that, the three people looked at each other and respectively smiled wryly.
“The youngest, I really don’t want to say this, but I have to. You’re a fucking monster. You’ve just come back, and you came back with another new skill.”
Sun Hao looked sad and said that. Then, he said, “Hurry up, teach us how to perform moxibustion.”
“No problem.”
Fang Qiu immediately answered and said, “Moxibustion is much easier than acupuncture and it’s also relatively easier to learn.”
After saying that, Fang Qiu immediately started to teach.
Because it had been simple, it didn’t take long for the three people to learn it. As for the detailed things, they could only learn them in books.
At night, Fang Qiu continued to practice his mental power.
He practiced until it was midnight when his three roommates had all fallen asleep, but Fang Qiu didn’t.
Previously, he had been feeling that he was about to break through on his metal power, but he always failed to find that breakthrough point.
Tonight, the feeling that he was about to break through hit him again.
This time, the feeling that he was about to break through was tenser than ever.
“Swish swish…”
Before his eyes, the brick hung in midair was swaying back and forth under the control of Fang Qiu’s mental power.
The brick could not challenge Fang Qiu in the least anymore.
“I feel like even if I add the weight, I won’t progress much. It’s like I’ve walked into a dead-end hutong.”
“Then how can I break through?”
Staring at the brick swaying back and forth, Fang Qiu pondered.
