Chapter 798 - 767: Fire God Sect
The two finally reached a consensus on the arrangement for Ji Jiajia, and Xu Chunliang felt he had given Ji Jiajia a proper explanation.
Hua Zhuyue told Xu Chunliang that although Pinghai’s Thunderstorm Action had intimidated He Dong Group and caused them significant losses, it hadn’t truly shaken their foundation. Pan Weidong had gone overseas to lie low, and Pan Tianhua was under investigation. Ultimately, however, Ma Zhong and Lv Yumeng took the blame.
Xu Chunliang wasn’t satisfied with this outcome. However, Pan Tianhua, as the CEO of He Dong Group and someone who could openly challenge Ji Buyao in the Orchid Sect, wasn’t so easily caught off guard.
Hua Zhuyue said, "Pan Tianhua is unscrupulous in his dealings. Having taken such a big fall this time, he surely won’t be content. Although it was Xing Wenhua who initiated the Thunderstorm Action, given his status, Pan Tianhua wouldn’t dare provoke him. My guess is that the majority of his anger has been directed at you."
Xu Chunliang laughed and said, "Secretary Xing is not to be trifled with. Do you think I’m easy to deal with?"
Hua Zhuyue said, "As the saying goes, two fists are no match for four hands. When Pan Tianhua wants to deal with you, he won’t come at you directly."
Xu Chunliang said, "If he dares to seek revenge on me, I’ll target his precious son and see who backs down then."
At this moment, Pu Jian called with some bad news. Huang Wanglin, Master Huang San, had a heart attack today and was rushed to the hospital. He asked if Xu Chunliang wanted to visit.
Xu Chunliang thought this was self-evident. Master Huang San was generous and kind-hearted; he’d been very helpful to him. Of course, he needed to visit, but as it was already late, it wasn’t appropriate to visit patients at night. He agreed with Pu Jian to visit first thing in the morning.
Xu Chunliang highly suspected that Huang Wanglin’s illness was related to the things Mo Han had acquired through him. It could be the result of a heavy psychological burden or an opportunity to extricate himself from trouble. If not, the Jianghu people likely wouldn’t have let him off.
The next morning, Pu Jian and Chen Qianfan arrived at the hotel to pick up Xu Chunliang. Pu Jian said that Huang Wanglin’s illness was stimulated by a shock.
The Huiren Hall he had founded encountered trouble. Although Huang Wanglin had handed over Huiren Hall to his son Huang Gongxian, who had successfully managed it by continuing his father’s business.
But then suddenly, yesterday, there was a shocking scandal: multiple medications produced by Huiren Hall were found to have toxic levels exceeding the norm.
This matter fundamentally involved traditional Chinese medicine factions.
Typically, traditional Chinese medicine is divided into various schools, such as the nourishing yin school, the Fuyang school, and the earth-tonifying school.
The Huang family’s lineage is of the Fuyang school, also commonly referred to as the Fire God Sect.
The core theory of the nourishing yin school is: in the human body, yang is often in excess, and yin is often insufficient. Therefore, in medication, it often emphasizes nourishing yin.
In contrast, the Fuyang school believes: if yang in the body is abundant, one is strong; if yin is abundant, one is weak. Fuyang school advocates boosting yang energy and is skilled at using methods to support yang for treatment.
The Fuyang school primarily uses medications that supplement fire and support yang, with drastic and effective results that often have immediate effects. Hence, it is dubbed the Fire God Sect. The magical nature of the Fire God Sect cannot be separated from its most commonly used medicine, Aconite.
Before Huang Wanglin stepped back from Huiren Hall, he was a renowned Fire God Sect practitioner proficient in the use of Aconite.
After his exit, Zhang Boxu and Huang Gongxian took over, both inheriting Huang Wanglin’s teachings and excelling beyond him. Zhang Boxu is well-versed in using Aconite and is known as the West City Fire God in the Capital City, with appointments hard to come by.
In terms of diagnosing illnesses and prescribing, Huang Gongxian isn’t as good as his senior brother Zhang Boxu, but he studied pharmaceuticals in university. He can diagnose illnesses and has moved from traditional diagnosis and prescription methods to independent developed Chinese patent medicines.
Since taking over Huiren Hall, the business has flourished. Although Huiren Hall doesn’t have its own pharmaceutical factory, it cooperates with many domestic pharmaceutical companies, including Dongzhou’s Enheng Pharmaceutical.
Now, Huiren Hall found multiple medications with excessive toxic levels, and all these medications contained Aconite components.
Aconite is a processed product from the subroots of the perennial Ranunculaceae herb Monkshood. It can be processed into salt Aconite, black attached pieces, white attached pieces, mild attached pieces, and roasted attached pieces. It has a pungent, sweet taste and is hot in nature. It is toxic. It enters the heart, kidney, and spleen meridians. It has the effects of restoring yang to rescue from collapse, aiding yang to supplement fire, dissipating cold, and relieving pain.
Aconite contains large amounts of aconitine and hypaconitine, which are toxic. In cases of poisoning, the heart rate slows, conduction is blocked, ventricular extrasystole or ventricular tachycardia occurs, with severe cases leading to convulsions, coma, and even death.
The Fire God Sect has long known that Aconite is toxic, but skilled Fire God Sect doctors mastered the skill of medication: they can remove the toxic components from Aconite and transform toxins into therapeutic components.
Fire God Sect masters discovered long ago that as long as Aconite is cooked long enough, there is no fear. Later, they found lab support for this: under high temperatures, the toxic aconitine and hypaconitine hydrolyze into non-toxic aconine.
Therefore, in Fire God Sect prescriptions containing Aconite, it is noted that it should be boiled one to one and a half hours until there is no numb or tingling sensation when tasted.
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners have a love-hate relationship with Aconite: they love its efficacy and hate its toxicity.
Based on Huiren Hall’s prescriptions, Huang Gongxian developed major yang restoration cough granules (mainly treating coughs), Sini Eri Chen masin pills (for measles treatment), Aconite Lizhong granules (mainly for asthma), major chai Aconite granules (for gallstone treatment) ... The medicines he developed basically relied on Aconite as an ingredient.
Using modern pharmaceutical methods to remove Aconite’s toxicity with high temperatures, in theory, the Chinese patent medicines developed by Huang Gongxian would have fewer side effects than decoctions, but it was precisely his patent medicines that had the problem this time.
Although this shocking incident erupted today, the investigation into Huiren Hall had been ongoing for a long time; only now were the results published, revealing that multiple Chinese patent medicines from Huiren Hall had excessive toxicity levels, with relevant institutions providing detailed statistics on suspected complications and fatality cases resulting from the medications.
This issue caused a huge stir once reported. Huiren Hall has a great influence in the Capital City and has always had a very good reputation. Zhang Boxu and Huang Gongxian are frequent guests of several leading families.
On the day of the exposure, the health department and the drug administration jointly issued a suspension notice to Huiren Hall. Huang Gongxian was taken away for investigation and had not been released by the next day.
Huang Wanglin had long since stopped asking about the affairs of Huiren Hall. He originally thought that his son was running it prosperously and everything was on track, but suddenly everything changed. Huang Wanglin was so angry that he had an acute myocardial infarction and was taken to the hospital, where he received two stents that night.
When Xu Chunliang and the other two arrived at the hospital, they heard two young nurses chatting at the door. It wasn’t visiting time yet, and they refused to let them in.
One young nurse said, "See? Traditional Chinese medicine is still not reliable. Even the famous doctor at Huiren Hall had to resort to intervention, relying on a heart stent to solve the problem."
The other nurse said, "I heard they had a big issue."
Pu Jian said angrily, "What are you talking about? What do you mean traditional Chinese medicine is not reliable? Did they make you use stents? Immediately resorting to stents, you must get a lot of commission from placing more of them."
A nurse was displeased, "What are you saying? What commission? Now stents are part of the centralized procurement, seven hundred yuan each, whose commission are you taking? It’s slanderous hearsay against us healthcare workers."
Xu Chunliang laughed, "Who doesn’t understand? Now that stents are part of centralized procurement, you stopped playing with stents and started promoting balloons. Previously, two stents would solve the problem. Now it’s changed to three balloons and one stent. Who doesn’t know these tricks?"
"Hey, what are you here for? They’re doing rounds inside."
Xu Chunliang said, "We’re with the Drug Administration. Do you need us to call your supervisors?" His words immediately shocked the two young nurses.
However, upon seeing that they were carrying things, they figured Xu Chunliang was likely bluffing them.
"Who are you fooling? Look at the time. It’s still an hour before visiting is allowed. It’s hospital policy; no exceptions for anyone."
Pu Jian said, "Look at you two little girls getting all high and mighty. Give you a cucumber, and you’d think it’s a baton. Do you know how to use it?"
"You pervert, believe it or not, I’ll call security."
Pu Jian laughed, "Nowadays, nurses are so knowledgeable. My flirting was so subtle, yet they picked it up. They know too much!"
At this moment, someone else arrived. It was Mo Han, accompanied by a woman in work attire—the deputy dean of the hospital.
Mo Han didn’t greet Xu Chunliang and his group. Seeing the three of them blocked by the young nurses, she already knew what was happening.
Mo Han brushed past Xu Chunliang, with a hint of a smug smile at the corner of her lips.
The two young nurses respectfully greeted Dean Wang. Dean Wang ignored them and accompanied Mo Han into the ward.
Pu Jian and Chen Qianfan exchanged a glance, picked up their things, and attempted to follow, only to be stopped by the nurse again, "You can’t go in."
"Why can’t we go in? Do we have to rank people when visiting patients in your hospital?"
Mo Han said something to Dean Wang, who turned back and said, "They are my friends, let them in."
This single sentence was more effective than the trio chatting for ages.
The three of them stood outside Huang Wanglin’s ward. Xu Chunliang suggested they wait at the door first; he didn’t want to go in with Mo Han.
Chen Qianfan was puzzled, "It’s not like you don’t know each other. Why keep things so separate?"
Pu Jian said, "You don’t understand. Chunliang doesn’t want to associate with certain people."
Xu Chunliang glared at him and said, "If you’re silent, no one will mistake you for a mute." He thought to himself that Pu Jian was currently involved in the same shady dealings with Mo Han, but he just made a bit of extra cash on the side, which wasn’t unreasonable.
Mo Han came out shortly after going in. Seeing the three waiting at the door, she sighed and said, "So there are places you all can’t enter."
Xu Chunliang said, "Mainly because we abide by the law."
Mo Han’s beautiful eyes focused on Xu Chunliang, "It’s the first time I’ve heard Town Mayor Xu claim to be law-abiding."
Xu Chunliang said, "Wasn’t it you who made Master Huang San sick?"