Zhuang Tang was extremely arrogant, as if his words could truly get Li Se blacklisted. Anyone who didn't know him might think he was some big shot.
"Zhuang Tang, who do you think you are, trying to blacklist me?" Li Se scoffed.
Zhuang Tang's beard twitched with anger. He pointed at Li Se and shouted, "Fine, fine, fine! I know the Vice President of your Qingyun City Traditional Chinese Medicine Association. I'll make sure you can't establish yourself in the TCM field in Qingyun City!"
"Enough!" Elder Fu was somewhat displeased with Zhuang Tang. "I'll leave this to Physician Li!"
Zhuang Tang didn't say any more and snorted, "Alright, I won't intervene. I want to see how he plans to treat the patient, and then how you'll come begging me!"
He didn't believe that Li Se, being so young, could know anything about TCM. Even if he had studied it, he couldn't possibly treat the patient before them. Although he hadn't taken the pulse, he could tell it was very serious. Even he found it difficult, let alone a young man.
Zhuang Tang was certain that Elder Fu and the others would be begging him later!
"Physician Li, what exactly is my wife's condition?" Elder Fu asked worriedly.
"How would he know?" Zhuang Tang sneered. At Li Se's age, it was absolutely impossible for him to know the condition just by taking a pulse.
Li Se frowned. He had no good impression of people like Zhuang Tang. He said, "Genuine Yin and Yang are both depleted, the vital Yuan and Qi are insufficient to move the water, this is liver cirrhosis with ascites!"
Zhuang Tang was a bit surprised. The young man had actually made a diagnosis. Indeed, on the surface, the patient had such symptoms. However, he would only know for sure after taking the pulse. But at least what Li Se said was very close.
"Is this illness serious?" Elder Fu couldn't help but ask.
"Yes!" Li Se nodded and was about to prepare for acupuncture.
Zhuang Tang sneered, "Think before you act. Acupuncture is a very rigorous discipline. A slight mistake can lead to grave consequences. Young man, how old are you, and you want to give acupuncture to a patient? Do you really think you're a divine physician?"
"Shut up!" Elder Fu snapped.
Zhuang Tang was startled by the reprimand, especially by Elder Fu's murderous glare. He immediately stopped talking but was seething inside. "You'll be begging me later!"
Wan Yuanping looked apologetically at Zhuang Tang. He didn't believe Li Se could cure the patient and still wanted to maintain a good relationship with Zhuang Tang. If he truly offended Zhuang Tang, it would be a real problem.
After half an hour of acupuncture, Li Se withdrew the needles and wrote a prescription, handing it to Elder Fu. "Boil the herbs on this list for four hours, one dose a day."
"Alright, thank you, Physician Li!" Elder Fu clearly noticed that his wife's condition had improved significantly. He took the prescription and thanked Li Se repeatedly.
Li Se thought of something and added, "On the first day of taking the medicine, madam will experience vomiting and diarrhea. This is the body's reaction to expelling water evil and eliminating illness, which is a normal phenomenon. So, you must continue taking the medicine. I will come back for a follow-up visit in three days!"
"Alright, I understand!" Elder Fu nodded.
"Why does it look like there's no improvement?" Zhuang Tang began to mock again.
"Zhuang Tang, don't you know the Vice President of the TCM Association? Go ahead, blacklist me." Li Se taunted.
"Alright, you wait!" Zhuang Tang was somewhat enraged. Seeing that Elder Fu and the others weren't asking him for help, he turned and left.
"Dr. Zhuang..." Wan Yuanping quickly chased after him.
"Elder Fu, I'll take my leave then," Li Se said.
"Thank you for your trouble, Physician Li," Elder Fu said with great respect towards Li Se.
Li Se nodded and soon left Elder Fu's home.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Tang had indeed gone to the TCM Association. He was very temperamental and started shouting, causing everyone in the association to gather.
"Let your Vice President come out!" Zhuang Tang commanded.
"Who are you?" a younger TCM practitioner asked.
"Zhuang Tang!"
The young doctor's expression changed slightly. He hurriedly said respectfully, "Oh, it's Dr. Zhuang. The Vice President and the others are not in the association right now..."
"That's why I asked you to call him over!" Zhuang Tang said impatiently.
Zhuang Tang's commanding tone annoyed the young doctor, but he calmly replied, "Elder Huang is at the Jishe TCM Clinic right now. You can go find him there."
"Why didn't you say so earlier? You're wasting my time. Do you know how much my time is worth?" Zhuang Tang said angrily. Without saying anything further to the young doctor, he immediately left the TCM hall.
Soon, Zhuang Tang arrived at the Jishe TCM Clinic.
"Old Zhuang, why are you here?" Elder Huang was surprised to see Zhuang Tang at the clinic. However, he didn't have a very good impression of him, only because they had worked together in a TCM hospital years ago.
"I want to blacklist a young man!" Zhuang Tang said resentfully.
"Who has angered you?" Elder Huang raised his eyebrows. He was used to such things. Zhuang Tang had a terrible temper and didn't hold many people in high regard. What's more, he was quite dissatisfied with Zhuang Tang's adherence to the rule of not treating ordinary people despite having medical skills. That's why they hadn't kept in touch over the years; they had different paths and couldn't work together.
"A brat, his surname is Li, and everyone calls him Physician Li. At such a young age, he dares to swindle people everywhere. As a TCM practitioner, I am very disappointed and must blacklist this young man!" Zhuang Tang said coldly.
"Surname Li, and Physician Li?" Elder Huang was startled. Could it be Li Se?
"You are the Vice President of the TCM Association. Is it difficult to blacklist a young man?" Zhuang Tang frowned.
"This, I'm afraid I can't do," Elder Huang shook his head.
"Why?" As Zhuang Tang asked why, he saw a very familiar figure. He immediately pointed at Li Se and roared, "It's this kid! He dares to swindle people everywhere and disgraces our TCM. Blacklist him and make sure he can never establish himself in the TCM world again!"
Elder Huang's face darkened. As he had suspected, it was indeed Li Se.
Zhuang Tang then shouted loudly, "Whose disciple is this? Come out! How could you accept such a disciple? Taking in such trash is simply tarnishing TCM!"
Many older TCM practitioners' faces fell. Zhuang Tang's words were a bit too much.
Without waiting for Elder Huang and the others to speak, Zhuang Tang aggressively approached Li Se and said haughtily, "Kid, didn't expect me to be here, did you? Heh heh, remember what I said earlier? I'm going to blacklist you. From now on, it will be very difficult for you to learn TCM. At least in Qingyun City, you won't have a place to stand. Of course, if you kowtow and apologize now, I might consider letting you be my gatekeeper!"
Li Se also didn't expect to run into Zhuang Tang here, and to be so arrogant, he couldn't help but retort, "Are you an idiot?"
"Good, good, good! Your attitude is so arrogant, you don't know how to respect your elders. Someone like you is not fit to study TCM!" Zhuang Tang shouted coldly.
He was already angry, and the consequences would be severe!