Chapter 3 – Gu Shiqing Returned

Lin Banxia said: “I know. I’m not playing around. I’m very serious. Mom, don’t forget, my grandfather was a master of traditional Chinese medicine. I studied under him since I was a child, so of course I know medicine.”

In the original story, Lin Banxia was also born into a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners.

However, the original Lin Banxia had no interest in Chinese medicine from a young age and strongly rejected it, believing that Western medicine was far superior.

Xu Minzhi was aware that Lin Banxia’s grandfather possessed exceptional medical skills. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Gu Shiqing trying to invite Lin Banxia’s grandfather to treat one of his injured comrades, Lin Banxia would never have set her sights on him. She had deliberately used underhanded tactics to force Gu Shiqing to marry her.

However, in the nearly two years since Lin Banxia had married into their family, she had never once demonstrated any medical skill. Naturally, Xu Minzhi remained skeptical of her claims.

Lin Banxia could see that Xu Minzhi still did not believe her, but Gu Honglang’s condition could not afford any more delays.

For someone with cerebral infarction, emotional agitation was highly detrimental. Over the past two years, Gu Honglang had only been taking Western medicine, with no proper regimen of treatment.

Now, after being angered into such a state, the illness had worsened drastically. She needed to perform acupuncture immediately to help disperse the blood stasis.

“Mom, you haven’t taken your anti-hypertension medicine yet, have you? This is Chinese medicine made using my herbal prescription. Its blood pressure-lowering effects are better than Western medicine. Take one pill each time.”

Lin Banxia took out an anti-hypertension pill from her pocket, which she had retrieved from her storage space, and handed it to Xu Minzhi.

Earlier, due to the urgency of the situation, Xu Minzhi indeed hadn’t had time to take her medicine. Right now, she was still suffering from a headache, heart palpitations, and tightness in her chest.

Xu Minzhi looked at the pill, steeled herself, and took it right in front of Lin Banxia.

Her reasoning was simple—if the pill worked, then what Lin Banxia said must be true. But if it didn’t, then under no circumstance would she allow Lin Banxia to treat Gu Honglang!

Strangely enough, after taking the pill, the dizziness, palpitations, and tightness in her chest improved significantly almost immediately.

Though the symptoms hadn’t fully disappeared, in the past when she took her own prepared anti-hypertension medicine, it would take several hours to take effect.

Clearly, the medicine Lin Banxia gave her was more effective than what she had been taking before!

“Well? Can I treat Dad now?”

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Lin Banxia had never doubted the efficacy of her medicine. Among the Lin Family’s younger generation, she had the greatest natural talent.

At the age of three, she was already following her grandfather around identifying medicinal herbs and memorizing herbal prescriptions.

When she was six, one of her classmates had a terrible bout of diarrhea. She said she would ask her grandfather to prepare some medicine, but in truth, she wrote the prescription and prepared the herbs herself. After the classmate took the medicine, they were cured. However, she had used too much of one particular ingredient, which caused the classmate to become constipated for two days.

When her grandfather found out, he told her she must never casually prescribe medicine for others. From then on, he took her with him to observe consultations.

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“Yes, yes, of course.” Xu Minzhi quickly agreed.

Xu Minzhi found it all too strange. It was said that after three days of not seeing someone, they may have changed significantly. But it had only been a single day, and her daughter-in-law seemed like a completely different person—no longer reckless, but rather prudent and capable of making medicine and treating illness.

If anyone in the compound dared to speak ill of her daughter-in-law again, she would be the first to tear their mouth apart!

There was a needle kit in her storage space, but Lin Banxia couldn’t exactly take it out in front of Xu Minzhi out of thin air.

She had already given Xu Minzhi enough ‘surprises’ today. It was better to be more discreet.

“Alright, I’ll go to the room to get the needle kit.”

With that, Lin Banxia returned to her room, retrieved the needle kit from her storage space, then came back out and began performing acupuncture on Gu Honglang.

Acupuncture was highly effective for treating cerebral infarctions. After Lin Banxia completed the acupuncture session, Gu Honglang slowly regained consciousness.

When he saw Lin Banxia by his bedside, his expression turned grim. With a cold and hard voice, he said: “Why did you come back? You…!”

Gu Honglang became agitated again, and his body felt somewhat unwell.

Xu Minzhi quickly interrupted him and explained: “Old Gu, we all misunderstood Banxia. Banxia hid the money, gold bars, and your collection of books and documents because she was worried the inspection team might search the house. At a time like this, those things could be deadly. If they were discovered, our family would definitely be labeled as reactionaries. And it was Banxia who treated you just now when you had your attack.”

Gu Honglang was stunned. He looked at Xu Minzhi, then at Lin Banxia, in utter disbelief.

He truly wondered if he had misheard or if Xu Minzhi had misspoken—his illness had been treated by Lin Banxia?

Then again, in the original storyline, Lin Banxia had been completely insensible. She was naturally lazy and willful, and anyone who knew Gu Honglang would always sigh at how the Gu Family could have ended up with such a daughter-in-law.

Under Gu Honglang’s bewildered gaze, Lin Banxia took his pulse once more. Only after that did she remove each of the acupuncture needles from his body and say: “The acupuncture had its effect, but it must be followed by a course of Chinese herbal medicine to properly regulate your system.”

The acupuncture needles had been placed on Gu Honglang’s scalp, so he hadn’t been able to see them during the process. It wasn’t until Lin Banxia began removing them that he realized his head had been turned into something of a pincushion.

He had been exposed to Chinese medicine before, and he naturally knew that acupuncture was an important therapeutic method. Judging by the situation now, Xu Minzhi hadn’t been lying—it really had been Lin Banxia who saved him.

However… when had this daughter-in-law of his ever learned medicine?

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Meanwhile, on the military train heading back to Hu City, Gu Shiqing was restless and uneasy.

Two days ago, he had just completed a mission capturing enemy agents. When he returned to the unit to report, the Division Commander privately informed him that someone had submitted a report against his family, and the authorities were planning a thorough investigation.

The Division Commander immediately approved leave for him and told him to return home at once.

At seven o’clock, as the first light of dawn broke, the train pulled into Hu City train station. Gu Shiqing wasted no time getting off and hurried in the direction of his home.

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At the entrance of the compound, Zhou Shiyu was preparing to visit the Gu Family and watch the drama unfold.

Yesterday, she had deliberately approached Lin Banxia and told her that the Gu Family was about to be sent down.

Lin Banxia’s expression had changed immediately upon hearing the news, and she had rushed home. That night, she had left in a hurry with luggage in hand.

Zhou Shiyu believed Lin Banxia had eloped with Chen Junming. At this moment, the two elders of the Gu Family were probably in a complete panic.

She intended to seize the opportunity to pay them a visit, offer some comforting words, and present herself in the best possible light.

If she left a good impression on the elderly couple, then when Gu Shiqing was ready to remarry, she would naturally be their first choice.

After all, having gone through such a stubborn and unruly daughter-in-law like Lin Banxia, the Gu elders would certainly prefer someone gentle and virtuous.

Thinking of Gu Shiqing, Zhou Shiyu’s face flushed with a rosy hue.

She had fallen in love with him five years ago when her heart first stirred with affection. Later, upon learning that Gu Shiqing had been deployed to the frontier unit, she immediately chose to follow, taking a post as a nurse at the local clinic after graduating from nursing school.

She had once thought that, after spending years together, she would gradually melt Gu Shiqing’s iceberg-like demeanor. Who could have predicted that Lin Banxia would suddenly appear two years ago?

Fortunately, that unexpected obstacle had now been removed.

Thinking of this made Zhou Shiyu feel a wave of relief—she had finally waited for the clouds to part and the moon to shine.

Just then, from the corner of her eye, Zhou Shiyu caught sight of a familiar tall figure.