Chapter 328 - First Debate Concerning TCM

At these words, Fu Sinan tumbled from the bed and prostrated himself, pressing his forehead to the floor. Liu San caught him by the shoulders and hauled him upright.

"None of that. We don't bow and scrape here." He paused. "But if you become my apprentice, you'll have to leave home. Are you willing?"

Fu Sinan declared his willingness on the spot. Liu San remembered a guidance document from Wu De—Guidelines for Handling Relations with Indigenous People—which stipulated that agreements involving personal freedom, such as taking apprentices, should be formalized in writing to prevent future disputes.

After a few more days of rest, once the boy's recovery was complete, Liu San dispatched the liaison officer to summon Fu Sinan's parents for discussion. The prospect delighted the impoverished family. Though they would lose half a laborer, they would also shed one hungry mouth. A fair exchange. Both parties signed a contract: Fu Sinan would serve as Liu San's apprentice in Bairen Village for a term of seven years, during which time life and death lay in heaven's hands.

With the document signed and stamped, Fu Sinan became Liu San's apprentice under the laws of the Great Ming. Liu San could now treat the boy however he saw fit—provided he stopped short of beating him to death.

Having acquired an apprentice, Liu San determined to "purify" the child and eliminate his illiteracy, lest he prove unable to read even basic medical texts. There was no reason to linger further in Daolu Village. After instructing Dong Weiwei on essential matters, he set out for Bairen with his new charge.

Fu Sinan insisted on carrying the medicine basket. Liu San laughed. "I'd better carry it myself."

"When there is work to be done, the disciple undertakes the labor," the boy recited respectfully.

"Oh? I thought you couldn't read. Where did you learn to speak so bookishly?"

"The village schoolteacher used to say it." Fu Sinan's expression was perfectly earnest. "Whenever I passed the private school and the master set students to chores, he always spoke that phrase."

"It seems you love learning." Liu San felt a swell of satisfaction. If the boy had no passion for study, any plan to cultivate him would be hopeless. But this one clearly loved books—and possessed a retentive memory besides.

"Yes, Master."

Liu San led Fu Sinan to Bairen. Everything there bewildered and amazed the child who had never ventured as far as the county seat. Fellow villagers had spoken of a wondrous place called East Gate Market, now the most prosperous corner of the region, brimming with riches and marvels unseen for generations. When they reached it, the boy's eyes darted everywhere, unable to absorb the spectacle fast enough.

"Stop gawking, silly boy." Liu San patted his head. "You'll have plenty of time to look around later."

He steered the child toward a cluster of buildings enclosed by barbed wire on the outskirts of Bairen—the quarantine camp. To accommodate the growing number of locally recruited personnel, the Ministry of Health had established this facility.

The officer in charge was Bai Yu from the Ministry of Education. When this mountain of a man, standing a full 1.8 meters, came swaying toward them, Fu Sinan drew a sharp breath. The legends about Australians being tall and mighty were apparently no exaggeration.

"Call him Teacher Bai!" Liu San instructed.

Fu Sinan made to drop and kowtow again. Bai Yu stopped him with an outstretched hand. "We don't kneel to people here!"

Lifted bodily by this giant, the scrawny Fu Sinan offered no resistance whatsoever. He found himself hoisted upright before he could protest.

"Teacher Bai," he called out obediently.

"This child is now in your hands, Bai Yu."

Bai Yu looked the boy over. "Where is he from? Looks rather weak."

"The Thirteen Villages area. He's been recovering from an illness."

"We've had quite a few from that region lately." Bai Yu flipped through a register. "I don't see this child on any transfer list."

"He's my apprentice. Just enroll him in the literacy class; I'll handle his further education myself."

"You've taken an apprentice too?" Bai Yu let out a laugh. "That fellow Nanhai only takes female disciples—raising lolis from infancy, they say. Why'd you choose a boy? Raising a shota?"

"Spare me your jokes." Liu San waved the innuendo aside. "An apprentice means an extra pair of hands. I'm entrusting this child to you."

"Very well. I'll see he's properly trained." Bai Yu turned to Fu Sinan. "Come along. First, we'll get you clean."

Fu Sinan underwent the full purification regimen. When he emerged, he was shorn bald and clad in the standard blue student uniform. His own reflection seemed to puzzle him greatly.

"There." Liu San surveyed the newly scrubbed boy, who now exuded the sharp scent of saponin extract. "You'll live here for several weeks. Obey your teachers and study diligently. Otherwise, they'll cane your backside until you can't sit down. I'll return for you in due time."

Fu Sinan announced his readiness for beatings—what apprentice wasn't struck by his master, the master's wife, and senior disciples?

Bai Yu pulled out a notebook. "Name? Age?"

"Fu Sinan. Eleven years old."

"That name won't do." Bai Yu frowned gravely. "With names like that, how is anyone supposed to tell you all apart?"

"Call him Fu Wuben," Liu San suggested.

And so Fu Sinan was renamed Fu Wuben. He received a sturdy cloth satchel stuffed full, with two broad straps stitched on for wearing, and a small bamboo plaque on a cord to hang around his neck—his name and serial number carved into it. Thus the Lingao native formerly known as Fu Sinan was formally absorbed into the Transmigration system as Fu Wuben.

Paperwork complete, Liu San proceeded to Bairen General Hospital to report on his rural expedition.

He presented the tetanus treatment records to Shi Niaoren with palpable excitement. "This is tremendous! We won't need to worry about what happens when the antitoxin runs out!"

Shi Niaoren did not share his enthusiasm. He leafed through the documentation with a sour expression, then rendered his verdict:

"Insufficient clinical evidence."

Liu San's pharmacy training told him this objection was technically valid. Since tetanus antitoxin became available in China, cases treated solely with TCM could practically be counted on one's fingers.

"But Yuzhen Powder is a proven prescription for tetanus."

"First," Shi Niaoren replied without ceremony, "we cannot actually confirm this was tetanus. You have no bacterial culture, no pathology report, no temperature chart. You cannot definitively diagnose the disease. This violates the fundamental rigor of modern medicine.

"Second, many 'proven prescriptions' have been demonstrated by modern medicine and pharmacology to be completely ineffective, or outright harmful. Rabies has several so-called proven treatments as well—and yet once rabies symptoms manifest, neither TCM nor modern medicine can do anything. Without serum, it's a death sentence."

"Then what do we do when the serum is gone?" Liu San's voice rose. If his beloved TCM pharmacopoeia was to be dismissed as worthless, what hope remained? "No matter how carefully we ration it, the serum will eventually expire!"

"Large-scale clinical trials must be conducted. But running such trials now carries significant risk."

"Risk" meant that even setting transmigrators aside, the indigenous laborers and soldiers they had painstakingly recruited and trained represented substantial investment. Losing such personnel to failed experiments would be a major loss.

"Can we use animal testing?"

"Here's the problem." Shi Niaoren's voice turned pained. "Everyone thought of everything when they packed the ship—except white mice. Not a single pair."

"What about rabbits? Doesn't the farm have rabbits?" Liu San's zoological knowledge was limited, but he knew rabbits reproduced nearly as prolifically as mice.

"According to Nanhai, the rabbits have stopped breeding—it's too hot here. We only have a handful left, and there's already a queue of people eager to eat them for the meat. You think anyone will let us use them for experiments?"

"If animal testing is impossible, then we proceed directly to human trials!" A voice sounded from the doorway. Both men looked up. There stood Jiang Qiuyan, the Transmigration Group's sole psychiatrist, returned from the circumnavigation expedition.

"You're back?!" Shi Niaoren was visibly surprised. "The expedition returned?"

"Arrived this morning. I've already bathed, changed, and eaten. The rest are still unloading at the pier." He grinned. "One of the perks of being a physician." His expression grew more earnest. "Why not run clinical trials directly? Minister Shi, if you're unwilling to experiment on our own laborers—take the medicine to the countryside. Test it on the general population."

The implication was clear: use commoners outside the system as test subjects. This was, in fact, Shi Niaoren's own preference—but years in America had taught him to express such things indirectly.

"Hmm." Shi Niaoren remained noncommittal. "Liu San, refine this treatment protocol and formalize it."

That amounted to approval. Liu San's indignation ebbed. He asked Jiang Qiuyan about the expedition's results.

"Excellent results!" Jiang Qiuyan upended a cattail bag onto the table, spilling out several coconuts. "Drink up. We collected thousands—plenty for everyone!"

"Wonderful." Shi Niaoren immediately ordered the entire staff summoned and fetched ice from the freezer. Soon, a cluster of doctors was happily gulping down chilled coconut water.

"Delicious! So refreshing!" He Ma had just finished teaching a clinical class for the intern nurses and was drenched in sweat. A cup of cold sweetness sent him practically soaring. Ai Beibei refused her share but carefully wrapped a coconut to take home to her child.

"Sister-in-law, drink freely—this batch is extra-allocation." Jiang Qiuyan smiled.

"There's an official allocation too?" Shi Niaoren asked.

"One coconut per person, regardless of age or gender or position," Jiang Qiuyan explained. "Heavy laborers and officers receive additional rations. Indigenous employees get some as well, though not one apiece. And after you've drunk the water, the shells must be turned in to the cafeteria."

"Are they making curry? I heard Wu Nanhai transferred those Indians from the labor reform team to his farm—he doesn't seem to mind the smell."