Chapter 30: Li Siyu's Illness

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Chapter 30: Li Siyu’s Illness, Cured

"Li Siyu, um, please sit."

The doctor was an elderly man with graying hair, wearing thin, silver-rimmed glasses. He was the same physician who had attended to Li Siyu during her very first check-up at the hospital.

He took the medical report, glanced at it casually, and asked, "How has the coughing been lately? Any lingering symptoms of chest tightness or shortness of breath?"

Li Siyu pondered for a moment. "I had a coughing fit yesterday, and I’ve felt some chest tightness recently, but I haven't felt it at all today."

The doctor nodded and continued flipping through the report. Suddenly, he paused, staring at the results. "Huh?"

Li Siyu’s heart jumped into her throat, and the tension in her eyes intensified. The doctor adjusted his glasses, his brows furrowing slightly as his expression seemed to freeze. The atmosphere in the office became strange and heavy.

After a long while, he finally looked up, his face filled with confusion as he stared at Li Siyu, muttering in shock, "Incredible, truly incredible..."

"?" Li Siyu looked blankly at him.

The doctor then said in astonishment, "The results of this check-up... are excellent. Your condition has improved significantly."

Li Siyu’s pupils constricted. For a moment, she felt no joy, only a sense of numbness. That’s right, sheer numbness. The illness that had plagued her for years had not only stopped worsening but had actually shown significant improvement? This... it felt like a dream.

"Is that true, Doctor?" Li Siyu asked, unable to believe it.

The doctor nodded heavily, his expression still strange and filled with disbelief. "The report confirms there is indeed a great improvement. It is completely unexpected, even to me."

He then looked up, asking with excitement, "But this is truly strange. I have seen so many patients, and I have never encountered one who suddenly improved like this. What have you been doing lately?"

Li Siyu thought for a moment. "Just the usual. Nothing else."

"That is truly..." The doctor sounded a bit disappointed. He muttered something and hesitated for a moment, leaving the rest of his sentence unspoken.

He handed the report to Li Siyu and advised, "I won't prescribe any medication this time. Go back and observe your condition. If you experience any more coughing or chest tightness, come back to the hospital for a check-up immediately." The doctor paused, reflecting, and added, "Come back in a month for another examination, and we'll see how things stand then."

Li Siyu nodded blankly, took the report, thanked the doctor, and walked out of the office. Clutching the paper, she forgot to lift the hem of her *ruqun* dress, wandering in a daze toward the hospital corridor, which was as noisy as a wet market.

Her illness... it had really improved. This was something she never could have imagined. After all, the last time she was here, the doctor had said her condition showed signs of worsening... Could it be that heaven saw her life was too bitter and decided to grant her a reprieve? Li Siyu gave a bitter smile and cast this "childish" thought aside.

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In the hospital office, the doctor finally had a moment to rest. He took off his glasses, rubbed his tired eyes, and his mind raced. He pulled up Li Siyu’s check-up results on his computer, frowning as he reviewed them again, carefully and meticulously.

"This young girl... what on earth did she do? To be able to achieve such improvement..." the doctor murmured, his expression filled with shock.

In truth, the illness Li Siyu suffered from was a combination of multiple conditions, such as cirrhosis and various lung lesions. Individually, any one of these might show improvement after active treatment. But Li Siyu’s case was far too specific; these ailments had tortured her since childhood. By now, even if one wanted to treat them, it was arguably too late; the best one could hope for was using medication to control the symptoms and keep them from worsening.

All current treatments were merely palliative. If the condition was well-managed, it wouldn't get worse; if poorly managed, it would only deteriorate. There was no possibility of improvement. Yet, Li Siyu’s report showed significant progress... It was simply inconceivable.

After much deliberation, he took out his phone, found a contact labeled "Professor Lu," and dialed. Soon, the call was connected. The doctor took a deep breath and said respectfully, "Hello, Professor, I have a special case here that I would like you to see..."

Meanwhile, along the street, Zhang Hao sat on a stone, shielding his eyes from the harsh, scorching sun, watching the flow of pedestrians and vehicles. He had left the gastrodia and fleeceflower root on his stall, uncovered and exposed to the sunlight.

Fresh, newly dug-up gastrodia and fleeceflower cannot be used as medicine immediately; they require drying, slicing, and a series of other processes. Therefore, Zhang Hao wasn't worried about the sun. Besides, these items were usually sold by weight when they were farmed or young, but the ones he had found were at least two or three years old. They were inherently much more valuable than farmed or younger specimens, and their medicinal efficacy was clear.

Before coming here, Zhang Hao had checked the market prices. One-year-old wild gastrodia sold for 700-900 yuan per jin. Two-year-old specimens tripled that price, and three-year-old ones were worth about six times as much. One-year-old wild fleeceflower sold for 500-700 yuan per jin, with prices doubling for two-year-olds and quintupling for three-year-olds.

Ultimately, Zhang Hao set his price at 3,000 yuan per jin for the gastrodia and 4,000 yuan for the fleeceflower. With eight stalks of gastrodia weighing 4.6 jin and the fleeceflower weighing 2.5 jin, selling them all would earn him 23,800 yuan. For Zhang Hao, this was a significant sum—a decent harvest for his first trip into the mountains.

The ability to find such high-quality ingredients was primarily thanks to the *Travelogue of Mountain Foraging*. Without this ancient manual, it would not have been easy for an ordinary person to venture into the mountains and find such valuable herbs; it would have been a matter of pure luck, and in a bad year, one might search for years without success.

However, over an hour had passed, and not a single person had come to ask for a price.

"Young man, if you ask me, you’d be better off taking these to a pharmacy. Selling them on the street like this—people who know their stuff won't come, and those who don't are afraid to, fearing they'll be scammed," the man selling pork next to him chimed in.

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Zhang Hao waved his hand dismissively. "It’s fine. If someone buys them, that’s great. If not, I’m not losing anything."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a shrill siren wailed through the air. The stall owners along the street, along with Zhang Hao, all turned in unison to look. Two police cars with flashing red and blue lights sped past, kicking up a cloud of dust.

After the police cars disappeared, the market, which had been relatively quiet, became even more chaotic. "Why are the police in such a rush? What happened?" Zhang Hao stretched his neck to look in the direction they had gone, muttering to himself.

The pork vendor shook his head, looking curious. "No idea." He then called out, "Young man, watch my stall for a moment; I’m going to go find out." With that, he walked off without looking back.

Zhang Hao’s mouth twitched as he looked at the stall full of pork and then at the vendor walking away briskly. Good grief, was he really leaving his stall unattended just to get the scoop on some gossip? All that pork had to be worth at least a thousand yuan... Zhang Hao didn't overthink it and simply stayed put, watching the vendor's stall for him.

Before long, the man returned, sweating, his rugged face etched with shock and his eyes darting around in panic. "What happened, brother?" Zhang Hao asked.

The man gasped, lowering his voice. "Apparently, someone died in an apartment building on the next street over!"

"Damn..." Zhang Hao’s pupils dilated involuntarily.

The man continued, recounting the details with vivid animation. "They say the victim was a woman. It was a gruesome scene—blood everywhere in that apartment, tsk, tsk, tsk..."

"No wonder those police cars were in such a hurry," Zhang Hao muttered.

Before he could process the news, a kind, elderly voice cut into the conversation. "Young man, how much for this gastrodia and fleeceflower?"

Zhang Hao jolted and turned abruptly to see an elderly man with a face lined like a canyon, looking kind and gentle. He wore a traditional Tang-style jacket and leaned on a rosewood cane. Though he looked old, his eyes were remarkably bright.

Looking at the old man, Zhang Hao was stunned. He had been here for over an hour, and finally, someone was asking for a price! He had already resigned himself to not selling anything today, so he hadn't expected this stroke of luck.

"The three-year-old wild fleeceflower is 4,000 yuan per jin, and the two-year-old wild gastrodia is 3,000 yuan per jin," Zhang Hao replied with a smile.

Upon hearing the price, the pork vendor jumped and immediately took a few steps back. Good grief, this kid really knew how to ask for a price—those few scraps of herbs were actually worth that much? His entire stall of pork wasn't worth as much as a single piece of that medicine... Goodness, they really knew how to make money.