At midnight, it's the time of the great meeting of Yin and Yang, and the intermingling of water and fire, known as the "convergence of Yin." At this time, the Yin energy is at its heaviest, while the Yang energy has just been born. During this time, the meridians run to the liver and gallbladder, making it the best time to nourish the liver, achieving twice the result with half the effort, so one should be in deep sleep;

Midnight and noon, one is when Yang energy is newly born, the other is when Yin energy is newly born. Regardless of Yin or Yang, both are weak at birth and need good protection. If they are consumed at birth, then their growth, transformation, harvest, and storage become unachievable.

However, when it comes to the midnight and noon nap, Lu Xuan couldn't help but laugh. He was talking about the driver going to bed late, but wasn't he doing the same?

Moreover, even he, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, couldn't manage to practice the idea of midnight and noon sleep, let alone the ordinary people hustling for a living in this society.

Sure enough, as Lu Xuan thought about these things, the driver's tone sounded helpless: "It's all for the sake of life, the mortgage, the kids still in college, and there's no guarantee they can find a job after graduating, not to mention preparing money for their marriage and house. If you don't work, what else can you do?"

Still the same phrase, driven by necessity.

No one doesn't want a good rest, no one is born to work tirelessly, and no one wants to work through the night — it's mostly out of the helplessness driven by life.

Hearing this, Lu Xuan said no more.

The car was smoothly driving along.

The late night Yong City remained brightly lit, though it was a bit less noisy.

Yet Lu Xuan knew that in some corners of the city, many people were still busy working for a living, while others were enjoying beer and lobster at late-night food stalls.

This is life. It may not be perfect, filled with both bitterness and passion along with joy.

Lu Xuan gazed out the window a bit absent-mindedly until the car slowly came to a stop, and the driver's voice rang in his ears: "Young man, we've arrived."

"Huh?"

"Oh, oh."

Lu Xuan finally came to his senses, seeing the driver turn back with a slight smile. Lu Xuan was moved in his heart and said, "Driver, shall I check your pulse?"

Lu Xuan said half-jokingly.

"Checking pulse?"

"Did you study it, young man?"

Zhou Hangyong asked with a smile, but didn't take it too seriously.

"Kind of, I taught myself a bit, and since I'm bored checking my own pulse every day, I'm thinking of checking yours." Lu Xuan didn't mention that he was a doctor.

Knowledge should not be lightly taught, nor should the path be cheaply sold. A teacher doesn't go out of the way, and a doctor does not knock on doors.

The so-called "a doctor does not knock on doors" means a doctor should not take the initiative to visit a patient, diagnosing them and suggesting treatment. Firstly, it may make people suspect that the doctor harbors ulterior motives; secondly, insincere patients may not cooperate effectively, affecting treatment outcomes; thirdly, many things require fate and cause-and-effect, and when a patient doesn't actively seek medical help, perhaps the time for settling the cause hasn't arrived.

This is just the way it is. If Lu Xuan were to claim to be a doctor, people seeing his young age would likely look down their noses at him, wondering how a young man in his twenties could diagnose any illness.

But as a self-taught enthusiast, the driver would probably just laugh it off without taking it seriously, so whether he checked the pulse or not didn't matter.

"Alright, you go ahead and check." Sure enough, when Lu Xuan said this, Zhou Hangyong immediately smiled and extended his arm.

Lu Xuan placed his fingers on the pulse points of the driver's wrist.

The left pulse was weak and soft, and the right pulse was stringy and hard.

A weak and soft pulse generally indicates liver blood deficiency, with the blood not nourishing the tendons.

And a stringy, hard right pulse...

The term "stringy pulse" was first seen in the "Inner Canon." The "Inner Canon" says: "The spring stomach slightly stringy is normal; more stringy than stomach indicates liver disease; stringy without stomach indicates death"; "The liver's stringy pulse is like the harmony strings of instruments, neither slow nor urgent, and like a man holding a raised bamboo pole, stiff yet pliant...";

As a pulse pattern, the stringy pulse characteristics are straight and long, like pressing on a string.

The pulse is straight and seems long, with strong pressure, even though it is hard yet flexible. When feeling the pulse, it feels firm under the fingers, rising and falling directly, hence described as "straight across the middle", "firm under the fingers", with the degree of stringiness varying with the severity of the condition, light as a string of an instrument, severe as a bowstring, and extremely severe as a knife edge.

The pathological characteristics of a stringy pulse are also mentioned in the "Inner Canon": "The spring pulse belongs to the liver, the east is wood, the beginning of all things, so its energy comes soft, light, and void, straight and long, hence called stringy."

If seen as "full and slippery, like following a long pole" or "tight and tense, like a newly strung bowstring," these are respectively the phenomena of diseased liver pulse and dying liver pulse.

The "Inner Canon" was the first to propose that the stringy pulse is indicative of liver and gallbladder diseases, and to judge the severity of liver disease based on the hardness of the stringy pulse.

The formation mechanism of the stringy pulse mainly stems from the liver's failure to disperse, resulting in stagnated Qi mechanisms, tense pulse channels, and hard, inflexible channels, forming the stringy pulse.

The liver governs the tendons, and the flexibility and stringiness of the pulse channels are related to the liver. Hence the stringy pulse pertains to the liver, governing liver and gallbladder diseases, also called "liver pulse."

The appearance of a stringy and hard pulse indicates a pathological change in the liver meridian, Yin deficiency, Yang hyperactivity, and internal liver wind.

Moreover, this pulse pattern often suggests the person has elevated blood pressure.

Which is hypertension.

In most cases, the pulse of hypertension presents as stringy, tight, flooding, and string-like, straight up and down.

Why does such a pulse pattern form?

This necessitates mentioning modern medical theories explaining hypertension. Hypertension can generally be caused by arterial sclerosis, increased peripheral vascular resistance, excessive blood volume, abnormal blood flow properties (often increased blood viscosity), increased cardiac output, among other factors.

To put it simply, one can easily understand the mechanism of the stringy pulse. When pressing on an infusion tube, the feeling when full of liquid and half full is entirely different, and it's easy to discern the difference between the two.

This feeling corresponds to pulses of tightness, flooding, or slipperiness depending on the internal blood volume, while the string-experience requires a hardened, aged tube, where pressing on it gives the feeling of a stringy pulse. In reality, it is the loss of elasticity of the blood vessel walls leading to the pulse turning stiff like a stick.

Hypertension, liver meridian pathological change, internal liver wind...

Forewarning of stroke.

In other words, a precursor to a stroke.

Lu Xuan thought of the one situation he could envision.

Every aspect of Zhou Hangyong's pulse was telling Lu Xuan that if Zhou Hangyong continued to stay up late and neglect his health, a stroke was only a matter of time.

Not today, maybe tomorrow, anyhow, it wouldn't be far off.

Moreover, the extremely hard pulse on Zhou Hangyong's right hand meant his situation was already very serious.

Thinking of this, Lu Xuan suddenly looked up at Zhou Hangyong, smiling as he said, "Driver, you're in pretty good health, but do you have high blood pressure?"

"Oh?"

"You can see that too?"

Zhou Hangyong was surprised.

Lu Xuan wore a naturally expected expression and said, "Really? I was just guessing, but if you trust me, driver, it'd be best to get checked out at the hospital; it never hurts."

Zhou Hangyong chuckled, noncommittally, "Sure, I'll go take a look when I have time."

Hearing this, Lu Xuan knew the other would definitely not get checked, but he didn't push further.

Telling them is useless; without an issue arising, they won't listen.

The ancients said doctors don't knock on doors; it isn't without reason.

Because it's human nature.

Without Zhou Hangyong's belief, Lu Xuan paid the fare and got out of the car, "Driver, take care on the road."

Saying that, Lu Xuan turned and headed towards the apartment.

Meanwhile, Zhou Hangyong stayed parked nearby for a while without rushing to leave.

As an online ride driver, he could pick up passengers anywhere. At leisure, Zhou Hangyong shared his recent experience in the driver's chat group.

As expected, the little story brought lots of laughter within the group.

Zhou Hangyong glanced at the group chat, laughed, and didn't regard what Lu Xuan had said, thinking, "What can a young guy know?"

He was just pondering that when he saw a booking notification pop up on his phone, ready to grab it, he suddenly felt his vision go black. When trying to speak, his mouth felt numb and couldn't make a sound, and his limbs started to feel a bit numb as well.

Zhou Hangyong forced his eyes open, looking towards the direction Lu Xuan went, not thinking too much and quickly dialing the emergency number 120.

Shortly after, the City Ninth Hospital.

An ambulance receiving an emergency call quickly set out for the destination.

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