Du Heng chuckled softly. "No matter what, didn’t you solve the case? So, your ability isn’t the problem; you just lack experience. When you handle more cases and gain experience, your work will definitely become smoother."

He looked at Wu Shengnan leaning on him and said, "You’ve always been confident. It’s impossible for such a small matter to affect you this much. Tell your husband what’s on your mind; you’ll feel much better if you talk about it."

Wu Shengnan sighed. "I visited Leader Zhang today. I wanted to tell him the case was solved, but his condition is even worse than before."

Hearing Wu Shengnan mention Leader Zhang, Du Heng froze for a moment, then asked incredulously, "I remember you said last time that your Leader Zhang had some kind of viral infection causing deafness, didn’t you? How come it’s been a week and he’s still not better?"

"No," Wu Shengnan said listlessly. "Not only has his hearing not recovered, but after treatment, Leader Zhang has become very slow and confused."

"Slow and confused?" Du Heng was taken aback again. "Was there damage to his cranial nerves?"

"I can’t say for sure, but his reactions have become incredibly slow. When you gesture to him, he’ll stare at you, but either he won’t respond at all, or it will take a long time, and then his response is completely nonsensical. Leader Tao said if things don’t improve, they’ll have to send him to the Capital."

Wu Shengnan suddenly stopped. She pulled away from Du Heng, sat upright, and looked at him, saying excitedly, "Husband, you’re so skilled. Can you examine Leader Zhang for us? I’m sure you can cure him."

Wu Shengnan gazed intently at Du Heng.

To her, Du Heng was a perfect man, especially when it came to healing the sick and saving lives. Her admiration for him was so immense that calling him her idol wouldn’t be an exaggeration. In her mind, there was no illness Du Heng couldn’t handle, no person he couldn’t cure. She believed that if Du Heng intervened, their Leader Zhang would definitely recover.

Du Heng was slightly tempted, but after a moment’s hesitation, he asked, "Which hospital is Leader Zhang in?"

"The Otolaryngology Department of the second affiliated hospital of JZU."

Du Heng inhaled sharply, his hesitation deepening.

"What’s wrong, husband?" Seeing Du Heng’s hesitation, Wu Shengnan immediately asked anxiously.

Du Heng said slowly, "If it were Provincial First Hospital, I could go take a look without any issue. But this is the second affiliated hospital of JZU. For me to just show up and treat a patient there... that would be rather inappropriate. Moreover, and this is crucial, I have no personal connection to your Leader Zhang. It wouldn’t be right for me to just turn up to treat him."

Wu Shengnan grew anxious too. She couldn’t ignore Du Heng’s concerns, but after a moment’s thought, an idea struck her. "Husband, how about this: you and I go to see Leader Zhang together first. After you’ve seen him, if you think you can treat him, I’ll have Leader Tao step in and make the arrangements. If you can’t help, then we’ll just say we were visiting a friend. We can go quietly and leave quietly. What do you think?"

Du Heng considered it for a moment and agreed.

Seeing Du Heng agree, Wu Shengnan’s heart unconsciously settled. She grabbed Du Heng’s arm again, leaning tightly against him. "I know you can do it, husband."

Du Heng chuckled softly and stroked Wu Shengnan’s head. "Let’s wait until after I’ve seen him to discuss it further."

After a slight pause, Du Heng continued, "I want to discuss something with you."

Wu Shengnan agreed without even hearing what it was. "You decide. I’ll agree to anything."

Du Heng smiled and shook his head. "I still need to discuss it with you. It’s very important, and your opinion is crucial."

"Then tell me."

Du Heng then recounted his entire discussion with Liao Quansheng from earlier that day, not leaving out a single detail. "I don’t know how much money I’ll receive in the future, but based on the distribution from the first half of the year, I don’t think it will be any less than this recent amount. So, I’m thinking of investing half of it into this fund."

After finishing, he looked at Wu Shengnan seriously. "It’s a significant amount of money, so I had to discuss it with you. Besides, this money will be our joint marital property, so your opinion is very important."

To his surprise, Wu Shengnan agreed immediately without a second thought and expressed her wholehearted support for Du Heng’s idea.

When Wu Shengnan made her stance clear, Du Heng breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Although he had been fairly certain she would agree, he’d still felt a little anxious before hearing her definitive answer.

Wu Shengnan, however, did not disappoint him. She truly wasn’t a materialistic woman.

Du Heng felt a sense of relief and patted Wu Shengnan’s head again. "Alright, you must be exhausted from these past few days. Get some rest; I’ll go make dinner. By the way, what do you feel like eating?"

"A big bowl of noodles with fermented rice water."

"Your tastes are certainly peculiar for a ’young lady’."

Du Heng was genuinely impressed by Wu Shengnan’s very humble taste in food.

「The next morning.」

Du Heng went to the hospital early. After finishing a meeting and his other tasks, he left early, met up with Wu Shengnan, and went to visit Leader Zhang in the hospital.

After seeing Leader Zhang, the situation was much as Wu Shengnan had described. However, Du Heng learned a few additional details: Leader Zhang hadn’t had a bowel movement in five days, his urine was dark yellow, and he experienced a sensation of incomplete urination.

After performing a pulse diagnosis, Du Heng found it to be string-like, full, and forceful. He considered what Wu Shengnan had previously mentioned: Leader Zhang had been staying up late for extended periods and had caught a cold before the illness began. Currently, Leader Zhang also had severe pain in his neck and back, had not had a bowel movement for five days, and his urine was as dark as strong tea. From all this, Du Heng concluded it was a combination of external greater yang and lesser yang syndromes, with an internal yang brightness repletion pattern.

To put it simply, Leader Zhang’s prolonged sleep deprivation had excessively worn down his body and weakened his immune system. He then caught a cold, leading to a qi depression block at the surface. Because this wasn’t promptly resolved, the cold pathogen penetrated inwards, transformed into heat, and led to an excess condition.

This caused the exterior and interior, the triple burner, and the lung, stomach, liver, and gallbladder to be assailed by pathogenic heat. Consequently, his upper orifices became blocked, and his lower passages (bowels) became obstructed.

Actually, on the day he first felt unwell, if Leader Zhang had taken some medicine to dispel wind-cold, gotten a good night’s sleep, and conserved his energy, he would likely have been fine the next day.

But by pushing through it like that, a minor ailment developed into a serious one, and a simple issue became complex.

Moreover, if this illness were treated solely as an ear disorder, it likely wouldn’t be cured. Even if it were, there would almost certainly be some lingering aftereffects.

Wu Shengnan looked anxiously at Du Heng beside her. While Du Heng remained silent, she didn’t dare to disturb him. When Du Heng finally turned to look at her, they walked out of the hospital room together.

"Husband, can it be done?" Wu Shengnan asked nervously.

Du Heng nodded gently. "It’s a bit troublesome, but not a major problem. It’s treatable."

Wu Shengnan jumped in excitement. "Thank you, husband! I’ll go tell Leader Tao right now. He can figure out the rest."

"My relationship with the second affiliated hospital of JZU isn’t very good, and I don’t have any particular connection with the Director of their Otolaryngology Department. So, Leader Tao will indeed have to be the one to step forward in this matter."

Hearing Du Heng say his relationship wasn’t good, Wu Shengnan immediately asked with curiosity, "Why isn’t your relationship good? Did you argue with them?"

Seeing Wu Shengnan’s childlike curiosity, Du Heng was rather exasperated but still recounted to her exactly what had happened the week before last.

Wu Shengnan listened with great interest, clearly siding with Du Heng throughout the story. When Du Heng finished, she smiled and said, "Don’t worry. This definitely won’t put you in an awkward position."

"Alright then. You two discuss it. I’ll head back to the hospital first; I still have many things to take care of there."

After saying that, Du Heng quickly returned to the hospital.

It wasn’t that Du Heng was deliberately trying to avoid the situation; he genuinely had urgent matters to attend to. Besides, treatment reports from the two project teams had piled up on his desk again. If he didn’t get through them, he would have to work overtime.

In about another month, once patients began to recover and be discharged one after another, and Wu Buwei’s authority was firmly established, Du Heng would be able to completely hand over this area of responsibility.

Then, he could devote himself wholeheartedly to Li Shuxun’s project and significantly improve the standard and direction of that team.