Upon hearing that it was Li Runyu who referred them, Gao-Yuan wasted no time and stepped forward, saying, “Quickly, bring the child inside.”

The child’s father hesitated, his disbelief evident as he asked, "You... are you Doctor Gao-Yuan?”

Gao-Yuan nodded.

The parents exchanged puzzled glances.

Li Shengli, accustomed to such reactions, added matter-of-factly, “Doctor Gao is a graduate of a prestigious university in Beiping.”

“Oh!” The couple immediately stood in awe.

Gao-Yuan asked, “What’s the situation? What illness?”

Carrying the child inside, the father explained, “Acute granulocytic leukaemia.”

Hearing the diagnosis, Gao-Yuan’s brows knitted tightly. One look at the child’s pallor confirmed his concerns; his heart sank.

The other doctors in the clinic gathered around to examine the child.

Zhao Huanzhang, seeing the child’s critical condition, instinctively turned to Gao-Yuan. Zhao had long learnt not to act rashly when Gao-Yuan was present.

“How did this happen, and how long has it been?” Gao-Yuan asked.

The father recounted the ordeal. “It started over a month ago. He suddenly developed a high fever and uncontrollable chills, with the fever spiking to 40°C. He also had severe nosebleeds that wouldn’t stop for two days.”

“We took him to the local joint clinic, then to the county hospital, both of which referred us to the provincial hospital. By the time we arrived there, he was barely alive. The doctors there stabilised him after a blood transfusion, but he was left severely anaemic.”

“Was blood transfused?”

“Yes, they transfused 1,400 millilitres of blood, but his haemoglobin level is still only 4 g/dL. The doctors then started chemotherapy—two cycles—but his condition deteriorated to what you see now.”

“The provincial hospital suggested we discharge him due to his critical state, so we brought him home. We first sought help from Doctor Li Runyu, who directed us to you.”

Gao-Yuan nodded, piecing together the child’s medical history.

Li Shengli whispered, “Doctor Gao, another one discharged from the provincial hospital as critically ill.”

Gao-Yuan shot him a look. “I’m not a miracle worker. Stop making it sound like every patient the provincial hospital gives up on is guaranteed salvation here.”

With no time for idle chatter, Gao-Yuan began his examination.

The child’s complexion was waxy and yellowish; his lips and fingertips were pale as paper. He was too weak to sit upright, with scant appetite, consuming barely one or two taels of food per day. His palms and soles burnt with low-grade fever, and he perspired profusely. His eyes lacked focus, and his chest subtly quivered with each heartbeat—a sign of severe depletion of vital energy.

Examining the tongue, it was red and glossy, akin to a peeled pork kidney, devoid of coating and dry. His pulse was thin, wiry, and rapid, exceeding seven beats per breath.

After completing the assessment, Gao-Yuan swallowed hard and glanced back at Zhao Huanzhang.

Zhao awkwardly chuckled, instinctively leaning back.

“How is our child?” the father asked anxiously. “Is there any chance left?”

Gao-Yuan hesitated. Acute leukaemia was already a difficult condition to treat, and this case was far advanced, with the child teetering on the brink of death after just a month.

He looked at the parents and spoke frankly, “Your child is in a state of extreme exhaustion, with both energy and fluids depleted. It’s…” He paused, then said solemnly, “It’s critical.”

The father’s hope flickered and faded, his voice trembling. “Does that mean... there’s no way?”

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Li Shengli chimed in again, “But Doctor Gao, this is another case from the provincial hospital!”

“Shut it,” snapped Gao-Yuan.

Wan Jinliang added, “But Doctor Gao, the child still has a pulse—he’s still breathing!”

“You shut it too,” Gao-Yuan retorted, silencing them both.

The parents, though heartbroken, clung to their composure.

Covering his face with his hands, the father rubbed vigorously. After a long moment, he sighed deeply, then removed his hands, his expression now calm. “Doctor Gao, please, just prescribe something to make his last days less painful.”

The mother nodded tearfully, pleading silently.

At that moment, Shen Congyun approached and whispered, “Be careful. Li Runyu probably sent this case your way to watch you fail and ruin your reputation.”

“I already know,” Gao-Yuan replied calmly.

Shen nodded, reassured.

Everyone watched, wondering if Gao-Yuan would accept the case.

Without hesitation, he told the parents, “I can’t guarantee that I can save him, but I will do my best.”

The parents bowed deeply, gratitude filling their eyes.

Shen Congyun pulled him aside, shocked. “I thought you were prepared for Li Runyu’s scheme!”

“I am,” Gao-Yuan replied. “But I’m a doctor first.”

She froze in surprise.

Turning his focus back to the child, Gao-Yuan deliberated carefully. In this era, acute leukaemia was almost always fatal, especially in such an advanced state.

He rechecked the child’s vital pulses at Fuyang, Taixi, and Taichong points. While weak, they were not chaotic. The child, though eating minimally, could still take food—an indication that his stomach’s vital energy wasn’t entirely depleted.

A glimmer of hope lit in Gao-Yuan’s eyes. “Not entirely hopeless—there’s a sliver of a chance.”

He swiftly formulated a treatment plan.

This was the fundamental difference between him and Li Runyu. While Li Runyu had also likely assessed that the situation wasn’t entirely hopeless, he refused to take on cases where the probability of success was too low.

Gao-Yuan, however, understood that at this critical moment, where both qi and yin were utterly depleted, the patient’s vitality was hanging by a thread. The body could no longer withstand aggressive treatments. Any medication aimed at attacking cancer or clearing toxins would spell certain death.

The only viable approach was to reinforce the body's vital energy and urgently stabilise it.

Preserving even a fraction of vital energy meant pushing back against the disease by that same fraction. Maintaining some semblance of stomach energy offered a glimmer of hope.

Faced with leukaemia, he wouldn’t treat the leukaemia itself but instead focus on strengthening the body and supporting its vital energy. This was the essence of traditional Chinese medicine's philosophy of “treating the person, not the disease.”

Once his strategy was clear, Gao-Yuan decisively prepared a prescription. He combined Danggui Buxue Tang and Shengmai Powder, using a heavier dosage of ginseng and astragalus and supplementing with cornelian cherry to stabilise the energy.

After reviewing the prescription thoroughly, Gao-Yuan handed it to the boy’s parents. “Try this prescription first.”

The father hesitated before asking, “Thank you. So, should we...”

“Prepare the medicine here,” Gao-Yuan instructed. “Cook and administer it here. I’ll stay by the child’s side to monitor him.”

The parents were moved to tears, their gratitude spilling over. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

They quickly got to work preparing the medicine.

Everyone in the clinic turned their attention to the child, anxiously observing him as he received the first dose.

“How many days does our child have left?” the father finally asked, his voice trembling.

Gao-Yuan shook his head. “I don’t know. It depends on how effective this first dose is. The better the response, the greater the hope.”

“Hope...” The father repeated the word softly, his tone tinged with pain. Over the past weeks, hope has felt more like a cruel joke, always out of reach.

Gao-Yuan remained by the child’s side, not moving an inch.

Even the trainee health workers, who were supposed to be focused on their studies, frequently glanced over with concern.

Only Li Shengli and Wan Jinliang seemed unaffected, their trust in Gao-Yuan unwavering.

Minutes turned into hours.

Gradually, the child’s profuse sweating subsided, his breathing grew steadier, and even his complexion began to show subtle signs of recovery.

“This...” The father stared in amazement, turning to Gao-Yuan with hope rekindled in his eyes.

Gao-Yuan, too, felt a surge of excitement. The initial prescription had shown results. Placing a reassuring hand on the father’s shoulder, he said firmly, “There’s hope!”

“Hope...” The father repeated the word once more, this time with tears streaming down his face.

----------------------------------------

At the New Life Clinic.

Li Runyu had just finished seeing a patient but seemed distracted. More and more people were comparing Gao-Yuan’s skills to his, and the whispers of Gao-Yuan's superiority were gnawing at him.

Noticing his mood, one of the junior doctors approached him. “Dr. Li, are you still thinking about that leukaemia case?”

Li Runyu nodded.

“It’s been ten days,” the junior doctor said. “Maybe it’s time for you to visit Zhang Village and see Gao-Yuan’s failure for yourself.”

Li Runyu shot him an annoyed look.

Just then, a voice called from the entrance. “Excuse me, is Dr. Li here?”

Both men turned, startled. Standing at the doorway were the leukaemia patient’s parents.

The junior doctor immediately blurted, “They’re not carrying the child. Something must have gone wrong!”

Li Runyu stood up quickly, his heart sinking. The two of them hurried towards the couple.

Before the junior doctor could say anything, the mother turned and waved towards the entrance. “Xiao Duo, stop playing and come inside.”

A small boy trotted in, his face full of life.

Both Li Runyu and the junior doctor froze in their tracks, their eyes wide with disbelief as they stared at the child.

The father stepped forward, holding a modest gift in his hands. “Dr. Li, we came to thank you personally. Thank you for recommending such an incredible doctor to us. He saved our son’s life. This is just a small token of our gratitude.”

Li Runyu’s lips quivered slightly. After a few moments, he managed to force a polite smile.