With the guidance left by Du Heng and his own diligent learning, Doctor Ma had managed to effectively carry out the work of the Chinese Medicine Department.

Moreover, as he treated more patients, Doctor Ma felt his improvement becoming more pronounced. This built his confidence, and he found himself treating patients with increasing proficiency and ease.

Yet today, looking at the old man across from him, Doctor Ma's heart was in turmoil, even panicked.

At this moment, the old man's face was rather dark, and he was experiencing shortness of breath, yet he calmly placed his right hand on the pulse-taking pillow.

Doctor Ma felt sweat on his forehead, and his heart pounded wildly. However, he knew this was not the time to show fear. If he did, the reputation of the Chinese Medicine Department, built with so much effort, could be ruined by his own hands.

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Doctor Ma put on a composed smile. "Could you give me your left hand again, please?"

The old man looked at Doctor Ma, puzzled. "Didn't you already check my left hand?"

Maintaining his composure, Doctor Ma replied with a reassuring smile, "The pulse I felt in your left hand earlier seems a bit different from your right. Let me perform a more careful syndrome differentiation. As you know, in our Chinese Medicine Department, we don't rely on X-rays or blood tests. Our diagnosis is based solely on the pulse. If I'm not meticulous, you wouldn't feel at ease, would you, Sir?"

The old man chuckled. "You have a point."

He started to withdraw his right hand to offer his left, but Doctor Ma quickly stopped him. "No need to move your right hand. I'll check both at the same time."

The old man glanced at Doctor Ma. He had never encountered a doctor who took the pulse with both hands simultaneously and found it rather curious, so he complied.

Once the old man had both hands positioned, Doctor Ma took another deep breath, steadied himself, and began to re-examine the pulses.

But as his fingers touched the old man's wrists, his throat tightened involuntarily.

He hadn't made a mistake earlier, nor was it an illusion.

The old man's right hand—its inch, gate, and cubit pulse positions—had no detectable pulse.

Even when he pressed his fingers almost into the old man's flesh, there was still no pulse, not even the slightest throb.

However, the pulse in the old man's left hand was normal, a very clear, submerged, and slow pulse; it was the same pattern he had felt earlier.

But in traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis, a diagnosis is never based on the pulse of just one hand; both hands are used together as a reference.

Who doesn't have a pulse?

Only the dead, of course.

Even someone at death's door, with only a final breath remaining, would still have a pulse.

But was this old man before him dead?

Certainly not.

Although his complexion was a bit dark and his breathing uneven, he stood with an upright posture. Forget being dead, he didn't even seem gravely ill.

Doctor Ma slowly withdrew his hands and asked softly, "Sir, have you seen any other traditional Chinese medicine doctor before?"

"I went to a hospital once. There's also a traditional Chinese medicine clinic downstairs from my place. I've mostly gone there, but it hasn't really helped."

"Oh, what did that doctor say?"

"Just that I had a qi deficiency."

"Did he mention anything about your pulse pattern?"

The old man shook his head. "Never. Even if he had, I wouldn't have understood, so I never asked."

Hearing this, Doctor Ma felt he had a clearer picture. So, that previous doctor was completely clueless and had just been fooling this old man.

A submerged and slow pulse in the left hand, regardless of the right hand's condition, already indicated an excess syndrome. Therefore, a diagnosis of mere qi deficiency, a deficiency syndrome, was definitely a deception.

Moreover, it was highly probable that the doctor at that clinic hadn't detected the absence of a pulse in the right hand either. Then, not daring to diagnose an excess syndrome and prescribe accordingly, he had likely used some qi-tonifying and qi-consolidating medicine, aiming not for efficacy but to avoid error, just to earn some money in the meantime.

And he himself had often resorted to such practices before Du Heng arrived.

After all, when seeing a patient, one could hardly say, "Sorry, I can't figure out your illness. Please seek someone else more capable."

Saying that would mean, first, an immediate financial loss. Second, although honest, one's reputation for incompetence would spread.

So, no fool would do such a thing, unless they had reached Du Heng's level of expertise and no longer cared about one or two negative opinions.

Doctor Ma's mind raced, considering many things, but he still couldn't solve the old man's problem.

He didn't dare make a diagnosis based on the pulse of only one hand.

What should he do?

Doctor Ma sighed. If this were in the past, he would undoubtedly have made the same choice as the clinic doctor: prescribe some medicine for qi deficiency to muddle through.

But now, having been influenced by Du Heng's standards, he found himself unable to do such a thing. Moreover, he couldn't afford to.

What if the old man's right-hand pulse indicated a serious illness that he, due to his limited skill, had failed to detect, thereby delaying the old man's treatment? That would be a grave mistake.

The incident yesterday, where Du Heng had lost his temper in the Pediatrics Department, was now known not only to the nurses but to all the doctors in the hospital.

Gao Qin was fined 1,000 yuan, and Deputy Director Lv was also fined 1,000 yuan. Dr. He was fined 500 yuan. Furthermore, both Deputy Director Lv and Dr. He had their monthly bonuses canceled, their eligibility for end-of-year appraisals revoked, and their places for the second stage study program at the Provincial Women and Children's Hospital rescinded.

Such severe punishments had left everyone deeply shaken, and they had all begun to perform their duties with utmost diligence and care.