Those who know it are not as good as those who love it, and those who love it are not as good as those who enjoy it.
This is something many teachers might tell their students, but how to become someone who enjoys it is rarely taught by any teacher.
Who would genuinely like to study those middle school subjects, right?
If you're not interested, your learning efficiency naturally decreases.
When Lu Jiu was in middle school, he didn't like studying academic subjects, but he loved traditional Chinese medicine.
Whenever he had the time, he would read ancient medical books and memorize them.
His memory was trained during that time.
However, because there were so many medical books, many sayings of different famous doctors were often contradictory.
As Lu Jiu read, he found himself getting tangled in many theories.
Just for a simple cough, different doctors had their own interpretations. When he read them, Lu Jiu felt this made sense, and that made sense too, but he had no personal insight.
Later, when Lu Mountain learned about it, he ordered Lu Jiu not to read other medical books anymore.
Without a systematic framework in oneself, one should only study the "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor," "Shennong's Materia Medica," "Great Success in Acupuncture," and "Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Warm Pathogenic Diseases."
The "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor" is the foundation of Chinese medicine differentiation, "Shennong's Materia Medica" is the root of Chinese herbal medicine, "Great Success in Acupuncture" is an encyclopedia of acupuncture, and the "Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Warm Pathogenic Diseases" is a classic of prescriptions.
After studying these four books, one develops a systematic understanding of Chinese medicine, and based on this foundation, when reading other medical books, one won't be misled by the sayings of famous doctors. One can even discern which assertions are correct and which are not.
After all, many famous doctors write books and establish theories, but they're not necessarily the truth, and as times progress, some opinions will inevitably become outdated.
Nonetheless, these four classics have been proven through the test of time to contain almost no errors or omissions. All subsequent theories of later medical practitioners are derived from these books.
Fortunately, Lu Jiu had a solid foundation from an early age. When he was in college, although "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor" was a compulsory course, not much of it was covered, and no teacher would teach it word by word. As a result, many students hadn't even read through "Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor" fully after five years of college, let alone memorized it.
Perhaps it was after studying medicine that Lu Jiu developed a systematic study method. When he applied this method to learning and exams, it was truly a dimensional strike.
If back then Lu Jiu hadn't spent half his time studying medicine, just based on his study methods and his terrifying memory, being the first in the city would have been no problem.
"Bring all your first and second year books tomorrow. I'll make time to mark the important points for you. Let's master all the basics, don't bother with the difficult problems, and for math, just aim for a hundred. Don't do those brain-burning exercises as they are thankless. As for essays, I'll get you a template, a universal type that fits any topic. You might not score high, but at least you won't score low. For English, it's just vocabulary. Use a categorization method to remember it casually; you'll find it hard to forget."
"You just need to relax, study honestly, summarize all the knowledge points you need to master, then break them down into daily study and memorization goals. Don't overdo it, be reasonable, just complete each day's tasks daily. Don't worry about remembering well or not, move on to new tasks the next day, and keep cycling through this way. Don't worry about scores or grades, just do your duties, stay calm, and even if you perform poorly on a test after just two days of studying, don't be disheartened, there's no need for that, understand?"
To be honest, these things have nothing to do with Lu Jiu at all.
Since when does a traditional Chinese medicine doctor care about a patient's grades?
But Gong Huo's root problem is these—declining grades leading to pressure of further education, which in turn adds to his psychological burden. Everything else followed from this, and in essence, it all stemmed from emotions.
If the emotional aspect isn't resolved, even if Lu Jiu improves Gong Huo's physical condition, he would relapse later on.
Lu Jiu knew the root cause and also knew how to resolve it, so, haha, he's just that kind of person who always loves to meddle in others' business.
"Mm!!" Gong Huo nodded heavily, his eyes full of determination.
Lu Jiu's confidence thoroughly infected him.
"Go home now, it's already noon, I should go home to eat as well," Lu Jiu said with a smile.
"Goodbye, Dr. Lu!" Gong Huo bowed to Lu Jiu and then left the clinic.
Lu Jiu felt very satisfied with this sense of being respected by the patient.
Eh?
Wait a moment!
Did that kid forget to pay the consultation fee?
Never mind, he can pay it next time he comes.
Meow~~
Hmm?
Lu Jiu turned to look at the bare-skinned cat lying on the hot water bottle under the window.
Awake?
Lu Jiu moved closer, squatted down, and reached out with one hand to stroke its neck.
Hmm, its breathing has become much more stable.
"Meow~~"
Feeling Lu Jiu's touch, the little cat softly meowed.
Lu Jiu smiled, "Hungry?"
The little cat half-opened its eyes to respond to Lu Jiu, "Meow~~"
Lu Jiu then looked up at Lu Mountain, "Grandpa, I'll take it home to eat first, and later I'll bring you some food."
Lu Mountain said, "Yes, go ahead."
Lu Mountain's eating habits are different from those of Lu Jiu and others. He only eats twice a day, once at ten in the morning and again at four in the afternoon.
This used to be the two-meal system in the rural areas. However, previously because they had to do farm work, the two meals were not very filling. But now, with no need for much physical work, two meals a day are actually sufficient nutrition-wise.
Being a little hungry from time to time is actually good for the body.
Because being hungry can stimulate the gastric qi, occasionally stimulating the gastric qi is beneficial for the body, whereas if you always eat to fullness without stimulating the gastric qi, the gastric qi will gradually disappear.
There's a saying in Chinese medicine that with gastric qi, there's life; without gastric qi, there's death.
If a person's life reaches its end, they will definitely eat less and less, and then in the final days, they won't want to eat at all.
This is a manifestation of the exhaustion of gastric qi!
So, even if it's not for weight loss purposes, you shouldn't eat to fullness at every meal lightly.
Lu Jiu picked up the kitten and walked out of the clinic. Looking at its bald appearance, Lu Jiu suddenly felt that he should give this little thing a name.
How about calling it Xiao Tu?
Hmm.
That works!
"Xiao Tu, there's no cat food at my house, so you can only eat what I eat, got it?" Lu Jiu said.
"Meow~~" Xiao Tu responded weakly.
"Let's go!" Lu Jiu quickened his steps.
Not long after, Lu Jiu returned to his community. Before entering his house, he already smelled a rich aroma.
Click~
"Mom, I'm back," Lu Jiu said.
"Wash your hands and eat," came the voice of Lu Jiu's mother from the kitchen.
"Mom, we have a guest," Lu Jiu said as he changed his shoes and then brought Xiao Tu to the kitchen door.
"A guest?" Liu Mei turned around to see something that looked like a cat in Lu Jiu's arms. "What's that?"
"A cat that Grandpa picked up from the market," Lu Jiu replied.
"How did it end up like this?" Liu Mei asked.
"Ringworm, shaved all its fur," Lu Jiu explained.
"Ringworm? Isn't that contagious? Why are you holding it directly?" Liu Mei frowned.
"It's fine, it's been treated, Grandpa took care of it," Lu Jiu said with a grin.
"Still, it needs to be disinfected, quickly!" Liu Mei insisted.
"Alright then." Lu Jiu reluctantly put Xiao Tu in the corner before running to the bathroom to grab the alcohol spray.
Even though there were two Chinese medicine doctors in the house, Liu Mei and her family didn't consult Lu Mountain and Lu Jiu for every problem, like physical exams and such. Compared to Lu Mountain's three-finger pulse-taking, they trusted scientific instruments more, so concepts like disinfection and sterilization had long been ingrained in them.
Even if Lu Jiu told them that physical exams could only detect organic diseases, and that all symptoms before that can't be seen by medical devices, let alone solved, and they just cause unnecessary worry and are very expensive.
Even with providing this information, it still didn't help.
They still went when they had to!
This also affirms the saying that a doctor never knocks on the door, even for their loved ones.