Chapter 13: Healthy Liver, Bright Eyes

Su Daoan stood up and said to Lu Feng, “You wait here for a while. I’ll have Assistant Chen keep you company, and I’ll go see what’s happening.”

“No need. I’ll go with you. The reputation of Yunshan cannot be slandered,” Lu Feng replied, rising to his feet.

“Very well, then.”

The two of them took the elevator down to a private room on the third floor. As soon as they reached the corridor, they heard a woman’s voice shouting loudly.

Approaching, they saw a plump woman in her forties pointing at a waitress’s nose and berating her.

The woman was dressed head to toe in designer brands, though her lack of fashion sense and her slightly overweight figure made even the finest labels look like cheap imitations. Fortunately, her makeup and the jewelry on her neck and hands lent her a hint of elegance.

At this moment, a rash of red blotches had broken out on her face, making her look as if she were suffering an allergic reaction.

She clearly recognized Su Daoan. As soon as she saw him approach, she rushed over and complained, “Mr. Su, you’re just in time. I’ve been a loyal customer of your wellness center for years. Look at my face! Just look—what have you people done to me?”

“Ms. Fang, please don’t worry. Let’s first figure out what happened. If we are at fault, I promise you’ll have a proper explanation,” Su Daoan soothed her.

“Figure out what? I came here early this morning for a herbal steam treatment. Who else could be responsible besides you?” Ms. Fang yelled.

“Please, Ms. Fang, don’t be upset.” Su Daoan tried to calm her, then beckoned the room manager over to ask, “Which services did Ms. Fang receive today?”

“Only the herbal beauty steam treatment,” replied the manager.

“And which herbal pack was used?” Su Daoan pressed.

The herbal packs used at the wellness center were all prepared at Yun’an Group’s dedicated factory on the outskirts of the city, sealed and elegantly packaged. Only non-toxic, side-effect-free packs were available for general use, while those with potential side effects required a traditional Chinese medicine doctor’s approval before being dispensed. In theory, problems like this shouldn’t occur.

Su Daoan looked over the prescription slip the manager handed him; the packs listed were all commonly used. He turned to Ms. Fang and said, “Ms. Fang, the formula you used is perfectly safe. The issue must lie elsewhere. Please think carefully—did you eat or apply anything unusual recently?”

“No! Absolutely not. I’ve been on a diet—I haven’t eaten breakfast in three months. This morning, I just had a glass of water before coming here. Are you telling me a bottle of mineral water could have done this to my face?” Ms. Fang pointed at her rash.

“How about this,” Su Daoan suggested, “I’ll have someone accompany you to the hospital for a test—at our expense. If it turns out we’re at fault, I’ll take full responsibility.”

“Do you think I care about money? Do I, Fang Huijuan, look like someone who needs your money? I want my face back! Do you see these blotches? I want them gone! I’m telling you, if you don’t give me a satisfactory answer today, I’ll sue you and keep going until your business is ruined!” Fang Huijuan jabbed a finger at Su Daoan as she raged.

“Ms. Fang, please, there’s no need to—”

“No need? With these red blotches on my face, how can I not be upset? If you don’t resolve this to my satisfaction today, I’ll have someone smash up your store! ‘Wellness Center,’ you call it? I’ll smash your sign to pieces!” Fang Huijuan fumed, glaring into her compact mirror, her anger only growing as she looked at her face.

Su Daoan was at his wit’s end.

Fang Huijuan’s influence in Yangcheng was no small matter. If things escalated, it wouldn’t mean the end of the business, but trouble from both sides of the law would be endless.

Lu Feng, who had been listening quietly, now spoke up, “Ms. Fang, is it? Since you’re threatening to ruin Yunshan’s reputation, allow me to give you an explanation.”

Fang Huijuan sized up Lu Feng with disdain. “What, feeling guilty so you’re sending a young man to take the blame? Not a chance!”

“I’m not here to take the blame. I’m here to cure the rash on your face,” Lu Feng replied calmly.

“You?”

“Yes, me,” Lu Feng nodded.

Fang Huijuan looked to Su Daoan. “Mr. Su, can this boy’s word be trusted?”

Su Daoan glanced at Lu Feng, making a quick decision. Though he wasn’t sure how skilled Lu Feng’s medical abilities were, they were certainly superior to his own. He nodded, “Yes, you can trust him.”

Fang Huijuan scrutinized Lu Feng again, baffled as to why a group chairman like Su Daoan would let a young man step forward.

“I’d like to see what you can do,” she said.

Lu Feng examined the rash on Fang Huijuan’s face at close range and had already formed a hypothesis. He then asked, “Just now, you mentioned you’re dieting, right?”

“So what if I am? Are you saying skipping breakfast gives you facial rashes?” Fang Huijuan retorted.

“Skipping breakfast doesn’t cause rashes, but taking medication might. Since you’re dieting, I suppose you’ve been taking weight-loss pills?” Lu Feng smiled slightly.

Fang Huijuan froze. Recently, she had discovered her husband was seeing another woman. Some would have confronted the mistress in public, but she had refrained—for her son’s sake, and because her husband still took responsibility for his family and son. Men will be men, she thought; who doesn’t like youth and beauty? She was still trying to hold her family together.

Thus, she sought ways to improve her appearance and lose weight. With modern technology and enough money, beauty was not out of reach, though it required some effort. She didn’t want cosmetic surgery, so she decided to try losing weight first.

Last week, a friend introduced her to a weight-loss drug that promised thirty pounds of weight loss in a month, so she bought it and started taking it.

“I did take some, so what? And I didn’t take any today!” Fang Huijuan was honest enough to admit it.

“So you took it last night, and have been taking it for several days now, correct?” Lu Feng asked.

“I’ve been taking it for about a week. Yes, I took it last night,” Fang Huijuan nodded.

Lu Feng nodded, then explained the cause of her rash. “That explains it. The meridians in the face are connected to the internal organs. Any problem in the body will show up on the face. The weight-loss pills you’re taking are probably Western medicine, aren’t they? You’ve surely heard that all medicines have side effects. The human liver is the detoxifying organ; all toxins are processed there before being broken down and excreted. But if too many toxins accumulate, the liver becomes overburdened, and the effects show on your face. In traditional Chinese medicine, we diagnose by looking, listening, questioning, and feeling the pulse. Just by looking, I can tell your rash is caused by a problem with your liver.”

Fang Huijuan, though not medically trained, was worldly enough to be convinced by Lu Feng’s explanation. Her tone softened, “I’ll take the weight-loss pills to the hospital for testing, but that alone can’t prove they’re the cause. You can’t just deny responsibility with a word.”

Lu Feng thought for a moment, then asked, “Have you ever heard the saying, ‘Healthy liver, bright eyes’?”

“Yes, Chinese medicine doctors say that all the time,” Fang Huijuan replied.

Lu Feng nodded. “Precisely. Have your eyes been feeling dry, bloodshot, or unusually fatigued lately?”

Fang Huijuan frowned and nodded. “Yes, I’ve had those symptoms.”

In fact, she’d been using eye drops for the past two days; the bottle was in her handbag at that very moment.

“There you have it. If your liver is healthy, your eyes are bright; if there’s a problem with your liver, it shows in your eyes. At first, you just felt dryness and slight discomfort. But as you continued taking the weight-loss pills, the problem progressed, manifesting as these red blotches on the skin around your eyes,” Lu Feng explained.