Chapter 119 That Night

  Land Rover sped through the night rain and soon entered the Jinxiu family home. Song Jian got out of the car and returned home.

  Inside the house, Xu Si and Xia Lin, two sisters, were sitting on the sofa watching TV, which was broadcasting today's Suzhou news.

  "Ah, Uncle, you're back just in time. Come quickly, come over here," Xia Lin waved enthusiastically at Song Jian.

  Song Jian walked over to the sofa, at which point the news was playing Zhou Tong's interview with himself.

  "I'm still quite photogenic," Song Jian said with a smile as he sat down beside Xu Si.

  Xu Si turned his head and glanced at Song Jian, "Really didn't notice you had this quality."

  "What trait?"

  "Narcissism!" Xǔ Sī and Xià Lín exclaimed in unison.

  Song Jian hummed a sound and ignored the teasing of the two sisters.

  Xia Lin sat on Xu Si's left, holding Xu Si's hand and said: "How did Zhou Tong become a reporter? Sister, I'm telling you that the uncle who is outside keeping a mistress is her. I've seen them many times, the uncle was flirting with this woman in our school."

  Song Jian picked up an apple from the table in front of him, handed it to Xia Lin through Xu Si, and stuffed it into her mouth. "Shut up, no one thinks you're mute."

  Xia Lin smiled complacently and then pointed at Song Jian, saying: "Sister, Song Jian is taking advantage of you."

  At this time, Song Jian and Xu Si's posture was indeed somewhat ambiguous, looking as if Song Jian was embracing Xu Si.

  Xu Si's face turned red as he said in a low voice: "Shut up and watch the news. Song Jian, you sit properly too."

  News about the plague flashed by, and Xu Si picked up a fruit knife, peeling an apple as he said, "The ratings for this news are too low, hardly anyone will notice."

  Song Jiandao said, "That's okay, wait until midnight. If the rain really stops as Ling Su said, I'll have someone upload this video to all major portal websites. By then, many more people will see it."

  Xu Si nodded and said, "I'll go cook, hoping everything will be as your friend predicted. If not, our company will have to rely on debt to get by."

  Song Jian nodded and said "uh-huh".

  After dinner, at a little past nine o'clock, Xia Lin still had class tomorrow, so she washed up and went to bed.

  Song Jian had run for a day, taken a bath, changed into comfortable pajamas, and sat on the sofa watching a health program about traditional Chinese medicine.

  "Dong...... Dong......"

  Behind him, footsteps sounded, Song Jian turned his head and saw it was Xu Si.

  Xu Si was wearing a white cotton nightgown, her wet hair hanging down her back, and she was walking downstairs in slippers. The neckline of the nightgown was slightly open, revealing a patch of pale skin.

  "How come you're still not asleep?" Song Jian asked, feeling a bit dry in his throat. Although he had lived with Xu Si for so long, it was rare to see Xu Si wearing pajamas.

  "Hmm, I'll stay with you and wait for the result," Xu Si came down and sat on the other end of the sofa.

  "Alright," Song Jian tossed the remote control beside him to Xu Si, "You watch your favorite channel, I'll obey you."

  Xu Si caught it and smiled slightly, her slightly damp hair parted to reveal a smooth white neck.

  "Let's see, I'm quite curious about traditional Chinese medicine now," said Xu Si, leaning on the sofa. "In my impression, traditional Chinese medicine is always slow to take effect, and once you start taking the medicine, you have to take it for a whole month. Can traditional Chinese medicine really cure an epidemic? The infectiousness of an epidemic is too strong, won't it be too late by the time you're cured, and the entire city will have been infected?"

  Song Jian felt it was his duty to inform his fiancée about some basic knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine. He said, "The speed at which traditional Chinese medicine treats illnesses cannot be generalized. Generally speaking, acute diseases can be treated quickly with traditional Chinese medicine, while chronic diseases take a long time to treat. For example, ordinary colds and fevers can be treated very quickly with traditional Chinese medicine. Usually, after taking one dose of the medicine, the patient will start to sweat slightly and recover soon. However, treating diseases like chronic gastritis requires slow and careful treatment with traditional Chinese medicine. Generally, it takes at least three months to completely cure such diseases."

  He thought for a moment and said, "But treating infectious diseases, nowadays mostly Western medical methods are used. Last time during SARS, didn't everyone go to Western hospitals?"

  Song Jian's impression of SARS from last time wasn't very deep, as he was still serving as a royal physician in the palace at that time. All he knew came from some online information. After thinking for a moment, Song Jian said: "Traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine are two completely different medical systems. To put it this way, traditional Chinese medicine treats people, sick people, while Western medicine treats illnesses, people's illnesses."

  Xu Si laughed and said, "You're talking about riddles, want a drink of water?"

  "Let's drink," Song Jian pointed to the red wine in the cabinet, "I want to drink today."

  "Good."

  Xu Si stood up, took two high-footed cups, and retrieved a bottle of dry red wine from the glass cabinet. "Do you want to add soda water?"

  "No," said Song Jian.

  Xu Si took two fresh oranges from the refrigerator, walked to the sofa and sat down beside Song Jian, smiling: "I think it's great to drink with Sprite, but now everyone from experts to kids are despising this way of drinking."

  Song Jian took out the bottle cap and poured a cup for himself and Xu Si each. "As long as you think it's good, who cares what experts say."

  "That's right, experts are just bricklayers, professors are just loudmouths," Xǔ Sī said, using a fruit knife to cut two slices of fresh orange and putting one slice in each wine glass.

  The two people burst out laughing at the same time. Although it was just a very cold joke, at this moment, the atmosphere between the two people became much more relaxed.

  "Tell me, what does traditional Chinese medicine treat? The person or the disease?" asked Xu Si, swirling the red wine in his hand.

  Song Jian raised his wine glass, took two sips, and said: "Traditional Chinese medicine treats people, it treats the sick. Let me put it this way, suppose we both have a cold at the same time, but you have clear nasal discharge and are shivering with cold, while I have yellow nasal discharge and a slight sweat on my body. At this point, traditional Chinese medicine would use completely different, even opposite, treatments for us. This is because traditional Chinese medicine treats people, it treats our sick bodies. But Western medicine is different. In the eyes of Western medicine, we both have a cold, we are both infected with pathogenic bacteria and viruses, so they will use antibiotics or antiviral medications on us, using the same medication for both of us. This is because Western medicine targets the pathogens, the bacteria and viruses, it targets our body's inflammatory response to fever, so they use antipyretic analgesics, antiviral medications, and antibiotics, all the same for every cold patient."

  Xu Siqian took two sips of red wine, and her eyes lit up. "Song Jian, now that you mention it, I really understand. But since we have the same viral infection, why do our symptoms differ?"

  Song Jian poured himself another glass of red wine and said, "You've hit the nail on the head. Yes, since it's the same virus, why do two people infected at the same time have different symptoms? It's because everyone's physical condition is different. This is like... hmm, during this pandemic, some people can eat and drink as they please without getting infected, while others wear masks and wash their hands all day but still get infected. This is because each person's constitution is different, with varying abilities to resist and tolerate the virus! So, traditional Chinese medicine treats illness by considering both a person's physical constitution and the pathogenic factors together, whereas Western medicine generally only targets the pathogen, trying to kill it off through various means. This treatment method is what's called 'antagonistic therapy'."

  Xu Si nodded silently, pondering Song Jian's words.

  Song Jian downed the red wine in one gulp, feeling warmth spread through his chest. He glanced at his watch and saw it was past 10 o'clock. There was still an hour to go before the rain outside should stop, according to Ling Su's prediction.

  "You're really understanding," Xu Si raised her head, big eyes looking at Song Jian, curved up, smiling heavily, both cheeks slightly flushed with wine.

  Song Jian felt his throat very dry, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and his heart beat faster.

  "Xu Si... are you tired?" Song Jian asked in a low voice.

  "Hmm? Hmm?" Xu Si felt a chill run down his spine under Song Jian's gaze.

  "If you're tired, then... just lean on my shoulder, I'm... I'm not tired." Song Jian said.

  Xu Si tilted her head, her slightly damp hair falling down to cover half of her delicate face.

  With a snort, Xu Si couldn't help but laugh out loud, and suddenly discovered that the normally steady Song Jian could be so shy.

  Xu Si smiled, and Song Jian's face also turned red, but his heart felt much more at ease. He looked at Xu Si with a sulky expression, "If you're going to agree, just agree; if not, then don't. Why are you laughing at me?"

  Xu Si leaned in close to Song Jian's side, her body slightly tilted, leaning against Song Jian's arm.

  The bodies of both people were a bit stiff, but slowly, slowly, a kind of inexplicable joy rose in the hearts of both people.

  ……

  "Chirp, at this moment, twenty-three o'clock sharp," the alarm clock on the cabinet suddenly rang out, interrupting the man and woman entwined on the sofa.

  "Ah, it's eleven o'clock," Xu Si hastily sat up straight and pushed Song Jian's large hand away from her body.

  Song Jian swallowed his saliva, stood up and walked to the window.

  "The rain has really stopped, and a thin layer of fog has risen," Song Jian said.

  Xu Sisong let out a sigh of relief, thinking back to the scene where the two people sat side by side on the sofa earlier. Her face turned red as she put down the red wine and said: "It's good that it stopped, I...I'll go sleep first."

  After finishing speaking, Xu Si hurriedly went upstairs and returned to her own room.

  Song Jian picked up the phone on the table and first dialed a call to Gao Yuan, "Let your little brothers take action."

  Then Song Jian called Hao Jian again.

  At this time, Hao Jian was watching Matsubara Koto's new work in his dormitory. When he heard the phone ringing, Hao Jian immediately knew that the task had arrived. He picked up the phone and said, "Boss, is it time to start?"

  "Right, you edit out that news video clip and make sure everyone can see it by tomorrow morning," said Song Jian.

  "Don't worry! I guarantee that I'll complete the task!" Hao Jian said confidently: "Otherwise, it would be a waste of the high-performance computer you specially configured for me, boss!"

  Song Jian nodded, hung up the phone, and looked at the vast darkness. He suddenly realized that he did all this not only for the money but also because of a sense of pride, love, and devotion to traditional Chinese medicine, and a refusal to admit defeat...