Chapter 24: Physiological Health
The flare up of Yue Wuhuan’s medical condition had been too sudden. There was no way to control the situation.
Song Qingshi had no choice but to use a golden needle to make him lose consciousness before proceeding any further.
He could only look on helplessly as the condition of the patient he’d been working so hard to treat for more than half a year suddenly deteriorated. All his efforts were wiped out in a flash. Song Qingshi felt like he had returned to his lab days when all the mice were completely wiped out. Although he felt terrible and wanted to cry, he couldn’t cry now.
On the road of medical research, failure is the overwhelming majority and success is only incidental luck.
Song Qingshi had a wealth of experience in failure, enough to face any setbacks. The thing to do now was to stand up, pick up the pieces, look for mistakes and start with a new treatment plan.
He carefully checked Yue Wuhuan’s body. He grabbed a thoroughly satisfied Fantasy Gu from his body, determining the culprit of this disaster. But, this made him fall into a new bout of confusion. There were many Gu techniques that could be used in medical treatments and poison production. Song Qingshi and An Long have known each other for hundreds of years and they had a rather deep friendship. The two often exchanged knowledge and resources; therefore, he has was quite knowledgeable about Gu insects and knew the effect and abilities of most Gu’s in the Western Forest.
Not all Gu’s were harmful and the Fantasy Gu was one of the harmless ones. It could induce a very beautiful fantasy wherein any desire could be satisfied. The only drawback was that it was quite addictive. It could be said to be the narcotics of the Gu world. Therefore, the Myriad Gu Sect has set up rules prohibiting disciples from planting this Gu on their own body, lest their willpower not be strong enough and they find themselves immersed in the illusion, forgetting to practice cultivation in reality.
An Long once took a Fantasy Gu to the original body to experiment with. Within the fantasy, the original body got a Medicine King’s Valley with an inexhaustible supply of rare and exotic medicinal ingredients. His treasure house was filled with all kinds of legendary miraculous medicines. All his pill furnaces were magical implements. All the valley servants were clever and quick-witted, allowing him to happily shut himself in and perform his research for ten years. It was a pity that the Fantasy Gu’s illusion would have a flaw left behind by the bewildered person. If that flaw was found, the fantasy could easily be undone. At that time, he had discovered that there was something fishy with the attributes of some of the medicinal ingredients and the products he refined were strange…
Despite this, the world in the fantasy was truly bliss on earth, satisfying all desires, making one feel refreshed and also, making one linger on with no thought of leaving.
After waking up, he gave An Long an account of the happiness he’d seen. He said he still wanted to try it further.
For reasons unknown, the expression on An Long’s face went dark. He was angry for a long time and no matter what he said, An Long refused to give him the Fantasy Gu to play with again…
Song Qingshi recovered from wallowing in regret and once again confirmed that there had been no mutation in the Fantasy Gu. He then looked at the pale-faced Yue Wuhuan lying on the bed. He felt so sad but he couldn’t understand what Yue Wuhuan had encountered in the fantasy that could turn him like this. He lit the Spirit Calming Incense and gave Yue Wuhuan a sedative. He then undid his belt and took off his outer robe. He pierced him with a few golden needles and massaged him with spiritual energy, trying to get his taut body to relax.
With phoenix eyes closed tight and tear-shaped mole like blood, the beauty finally fell sound asleep.
Song Qingshi couldn’t help but touch that bewitching tear-shaped mole with his finger. He always felt that this mole was a bit too seductive.
Yue Wuhuan seemed to feel the touch and trembled in pain.
Song Qingshi quickly retracted his hand and continued to earnestly perform acupuncture treatment and apply a massage.
The scent of the Spirit Calming Incense gradually filled the entire room, easing his breathing. In the darkness, the sound of his breathing grew more tranquil.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Song Qingshi withdrew the golden needles. He finally had time to feel sad and to reflect on the mistakes he had made.
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Seriously pondering it now, there were many small details that could prove this. Such as:
Yue Wuhuan was particularly afraid of disappointing him. He never quarreled with him and compromised to the point that it seemed he had no bottom line.
Yue Wuhuan seldom expressed his own preferences. He was fine with following Song Qingshi’s intentions.
Yue Wuhuan has never refused any request from him, as though he were living for him.
All these were weren’t right.
No normal person could be so humble in front of another person, humble enough to give up his own everything.
The more Song Qingshi thought about it, the unhappier he felt. He found that he didn’t know what food, color or things Yu Wuhuan liked… He cured Yu Wuhuan’s body but he never seriously understood his heart. He hadn’t even dared to touch upon Yue Wuhuan’s past because he was afraid of those unbearable things. He had tried to be like an ostrich, waiting for it to heal by itself.
However, a hidden boil would never heal by itself. It would only get deeper and deeper, until it festered into the bones.
Song Qingshi took a deep breath and determined the direction of future treatment.
The most important thing now was… To give that disaster-bringing Alaskan Malamute a good lesson!
…
Red Lotus Fire flew everywhere and several buildings turned to ashes. The Luminous Dragon hid under the rockery and the valley servants dodged one after another.
An Long was crying out from being burned. He fled in a panic. He had originally been happily discussing investment matters with Song Qingshi, deliberately making things difficult, wanting to take the opportunity to get more benefits from the bargain. Unexpectedly, Song Qingshi did a complete U-turn and turned hostile. He didn’t want the investment anymore, he didn’t care about the research and he was almost beaten to death. With great difficulty, he managed to find out the reason. He was dumbstruck and desperately begged for mercy.
“I didn’t know that he’s actually made of crystal! That he can’t even handle a Fantasy Gu!”
“Didn’t I remind you?!”
“I was just joking!”
“Article 12! You’re not allowed to play a joke on him! Did you forget?!”
“Aren’t we partners?! I’ll send a message and have the spirit stones delivered to you!”
“This partnership is broken! I don’t want your spirit stones!”
“…”
An Long was burned miserable. He made many promises to forfeit sovereignty and humiliate the country. Song Qingshi finally vented his anger and barely managed to control it to finally let him off. He ordered him to hand over all the details regarding the Fantasy Gu so that they could get to the bottom of what actually happened.
“With my ancestors as witness, the Fantasy Gu only provokes desires and wishes. It isn’t made to create nightmares. Otherwise, how could I have dared to let you use it?” An Long sat on the steps, feeling very wronged. He used the Gu’s and wound medicines to treat his burns while he explained. “I have been playing with Gu’s for so many years and I have never seen a case where a Fantasy Gu caused someone to collapse. Your senior apprentice is the very first ever since the creation of heaven and earth. I also want to know why. He obviously looks like a regular healthy person but he’s actually that sick. Chichi…”
Song Qingshi also sat down on the step. When he heard that he wanted to change the topic once again, he immediately interrupted, “Explain properly!”
An Long curled his lips and continued, “If you want to know what he encountered in the fantasy, there’s an easy way to do it. There should be some fragments of the fantasy left within the Fantasy Gu. Not a lot. It should be the ones with the strongest emotions. You can place the Fantasy Gu directly into your own body and check.” This was the hidden use of Fantasy Gu. His original plan had been to put the Fantasy Gu taken from Yue Wuhuan’s body into Song Qingshi’s. That way, this guy who cared for nothing but curing diseases could see with his own eyes just what kind of trash his senior disciple was. And by the way, he might even learn something about romantic affairs.
Now he didn’t dare do this. He was afraid that if he wasn’t punished by Song Qingshi to kneel on the washboard, then he was going to be placed on the Medicine King’s Valley’s blacklist.
An Long was desperately trying to escape the blacklist…
Song Qingshi was very perturbed by this proposal. After thinking and thinking, he shook his head. “There are many of Yue Wuhuan’s secrets in the fantasy and I would need his permission to check it. When he wakes up, I’ll ask…”
An Long was baffled. “You’re doing it for his own good. Just look at it. Why are you overthinking this?”
Song Qingshi asked, confident that he was in the right, “Could I look into your secrets if I’m doing it for your own good?”
An Long’s body stiffened. His face went dark and didn’t say a word.
Their discussion had reached a deadlock and neither of them spoke.
Song Qingshi sent his mental probe again and again to check the vital signs of Yue Wuhuan, who was resting in the room. He was getting a bit of a headache from thinking so much about the treatment plan. When he reached the end of his rope, he suddenly wondered whether he lacked the empathy for these things. How can someone who has never even flown an airplane in either of his two lifetimes understand the disgust of being held down by a man and having those disgusting things done to oneself? If he couldn’t understand, then how could he find the source of the disease?
The Divine Farmer tasted all kinds of herbs and suffered all kinds of poisons to establish pharmacology.
Should he follow suit?
“It’s probably very painful, right?” Song Qingshi quietly rubbed his backside, muttering to himself. All his knowledge regarding this kind of thing came from physiology and hygiene class. But the textbooks only talked about matters between men and women. All he knew about how this was done between men was through self-study. This course was not in Scholar-Tyrant Song’s curriculum. But he thinks, the laceration wounds must hurt.
An Long saw his movements and his ears pricked up. “What’s very painful?”
Although the Western Forest’s Gu King specialized in killing people, he was also a master with regards to medical treatments, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to enter the Medicine King’s Valley.
Song Qingshi felt that he could still have an academic discussion with him. “Do you understand about sexual intercourse between men?”
An Long used all his strength to tamp down on the corners of his mouth that were threatening to turn up. He said solemnly, “I know a thing or two.”
Song Qingshi looked suspiciously at the Alaskan Malamute.
An Long looked entirely upright and outstanding, brimming with righteousness, like a man successfully reformed in prison, ready to get up on stage and lecture on the Eight Honors and Eight Shames as a model for virtue, ready to dedicate his heart to socialism.
He seemed like he had truly reflected on his actions.
Translator’s note: I feel so bad for Wuhuan but this chapter also makes me want to laugh.
This isn’t a quick fix. Qingshi also isn’t asking the right questions! There’s some socialized homophobia to how he phrases it. The act is bad because it isn’t consensual, not because the act is bad by itself. This is essential to understand to move forward properly here.
Thanks for your hard work translating!
Not really. He just thinks about problem in the way he knows – medicine. He have low EQ and it’s difficult for him to understand heart of other person. The frase that he said it’s easier way to understand another person pain – put on this person’s shoes and go through his experience to draw appropriate conclusion
Yes, thats what I’m trying to say – he simply don’t know how human mind works mentally, only how it works physically
When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. You are right there- as Qingshi is a doctor, his first thought is stopping the bleeding. He is entirely baffled by what to do with the patient once their bleeding has stopped and the scabs healed up. This is actually a plot device I can admire- its realistic and the reason there are specialists and you go to a different doctor for mental health than a broken arm.
The way I see it, Qingshi is conflicted because he’s a doctor, not a psychologist, and one with terrible EQ at that. He has only ever know how to tackle problems from a scientific point of view, he hasn’t really developed his emotional intelligence, and he’s aware of that. So, his conclusion is that to better feel empathy he might need to experience it by himself, otherwise he only has a shallow understanding of the trauma.
But here’s the thing, he doesn’t even understand normal, consensual intercourse, so he has no way to know how truly horrible it is to have consent taken away from him. That’s how his thought process went. So, he concluded he first needs to understand consensual intercourse to get an idea of how non-consent is (he always works step by step).
Now, about him thinking it’s painful, he has no idea how it works, so he doesn’t know about stretching or lubricating, of course he thinks there’s going to be some ripping and that’s of course painful.
I really don’t see anything even slightly homophobic about Qingshi, all the contrary actually.
I think here “help down by a man” literally means being pinned to the ground and not being gentle held
This discussion is great but the next chapter might just make it moot…
And um, if wording is what’s of concern, the word used was 压 which means to press, push down, or keep under. Generally, it means r a p e or that it isn’t consensual, especially in this context. It’s just that a lot of authors don’t use the word r a p e because…Chinese censorship.
Isn’t it already established that SQS is socially inept? It might be obvious to us that most of the effect caused by rape is psychological, it might not necessarily be obvious to SQS. I doubt he has read any books on humanities, philosophy, feminism, etc.
That’s not the way I understood that sentence. It’s more from the point of view that if he had never even had sex in the first place, how could he ever understand what it feels like to be raped.
Ahh someone help me, i accidentally enlarged the font and now i cant change it back? The reduce font size button seems to be broken 😭
It would be long road to healing
thanks for the chapter~
Want to give An Long a punch or two myself…. That last part tho lolol
Thanks for the chapter! 🙂
It’s hard to hate the alaskan malamute… But I would love to give him a punch or two, that or Song Qingshi should burn him a little more.
That aside, I hope Yue Wuhuan gets better… Things are looking up though, Song Qingshi said he wanted to “understand Wuhuan’s heart”! This is the official embarkment onto the journey of love! \ ( ´▽` ) /
Good news is, Song Qingshi will think more about Wuhuan and get to know him!
Poor Wuhuan, I hope he wakes up okay, and not in heart wrenching despair Ahhhhh.
Thank you for the chapter!! This series is really addicting (in a good way)💖💖💖💖An Long may have shot himself in the foot (also still terribly upset with him. He had bad intentions with that Gu ಠ_ಠ)
I want to beat up An Long so hard D: Maybe his petty move will turn out as helpful in the future – but – that isn’t excuse for what he did and his intentions behind it, getting lost of YWH and planting his own ass beside SQS.
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
*isn’t an excuse
Well, I think that’s his punishment…
I still like him though, he has been in love with Qingshi (original) for hundreds of years, but no matter what, his little darling doesn’t care the slightest bit about romance (or even lust), never reacting or showing interest no matter he did. The original was definitely asexual and aromantic.
And suddenly, there’s this person right beside his little darling, a person who has a really bad reputation, so of course he’s worried his socially awkward baby could get hurt or deceived. Or taken by someone else. Truly a case of the little cabbage you have been carefully raising for a long time, suddenly getting dig by a pig one day.
Thanks for the chapter ~🌸
thanks for the update ~
I think there is still a long way to go for everyone…
Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️
Uhvshvsbsh ;w; i still love An Long but I hope he’d actually repent..😢😩
Thank you for the update!💞
This Alaskan Malamute 😂
So I’m basically the only one who can’t stand that An Long guy? Xd
Nah, me too
Let’s be friends 🤝
The cinnamon roll gets angry and violent when his disciple is hurt 😤
Thanks for the chapter 💕
Thanks for the chapter! Hope you have a nice day! ♥️
to me Wuhuan’s issues just dont lay within rpe… as a kid he betrayed by his own guardian,groomed,disgraced and trampled down but he didnt lost his hope he asked for help again until he rped again by his last hope.and even he was gratefull for his familys death…he brainwashed to think he was dirty,worthless even though he was aware of his own talent and the chance of finding a place within immortals
Me too. My heart breaks for Wuhuan, who went through such terrible things that his fantasy and desire is such a pure one. But An Long really makes me want to laugh. He really is like a big and particularly mischievous dog
A long is like how i feel about Jiang cheng from mdzs. sometimes they do dumb shit but i can’t hate them
Omg you’re right
i want to give xio brother a hug and tell this gege to run!