deltrittennovels Chapter 72 Sadness is a Kind of Indigestion
Chapter 72 Sadness is a Kind of Indigestion
"Don't come any closer! I'll jump!"
A girl in a floral dress sat astride the bridge railing, tears streaming down her face, clutching a cell phone tightly in her hand.
"He's troubled by love again." Su Qing pushed up her glasses, her tone indifferent. "Young people these days have such poor mental resilience. If they jump into this stinking ditch, they'll either drown or get infected by bacteria."
Wang Minyu stopped and looked at the girl.
The system panel lit up again.
[Target: Lin Xiaoya, 22 years old.]
Symptoms: Acute stress-induced affective disorder (heartbreak syndrome), severe hypoglycemia, empty stomach.
[Current state: Want to die, but want to eat even more.]
"Let's go." Wang Minyu changed direction. "We have work to do."
Beneath the scenic bridge lies an artificial river in Changxiang City. The water is shallow, but the silt is thick and emits a smell of rotting aquatic plants.
Lin Xiaoya sat outside the railing, the wind ruffling her hair.
She was dumped by her boyfriend of three years, who said it was because of "incompatibility." Then she saw him posting photos of himself with his new girlfriend on social media.
The despair of being abandoned overwhelmed her like a tidal wave.
"Girl, don't do anything rash! It's not worth it for a jerk like that!" A kind-hearted older woman next to her earnestly advised.
"The police are on their way, calm down!" The security guard, sweating profusely, tried to maintain order.
Lin Xiaoya wouldn't listen to anything.
She felt like her life was a joke, as if a piece of her heart had been hollowed out, and the pain was so intense that she couldn't breathe.
Just then, a man in a white coat squeezed through the crowd, carrying a stainless steel tea mug.
"Excuse me, excuse me. I'm a doctor."
The onlookers automatically made way for them.
Lin Xiaoya looked at the man through teary eyes, thinking he was another negotiation expert who had come to persuade her.
"Don't come any closer!" she cried hoarsely. "No one can persuade me now! My heart is dead!"
Wang Minyu stood two meters away from her, not moving closer, but leaning against the railing and looking down at the river.
"This water's pretty dirty," Wang Minyu said, his voice not loud, but unusually clear in the noisy environment. "We just pulled a dead pig out a couple of days ago, and it's been soaking in here for three days. If you jump in and swallow a mouthful of this water, the taste... tsk tsk, you'll probably never forget it for the rest of your life."
Lin Xiaoya paused, her sobs subsiding. This script isn't right...
"And another thing," Wang Minyu continued, "that dress you're wearing today must be pretty expensive, right? Real silk? You can't wash off the mud. If you died and someone pulled you out of the water, covered in black mud and swollen like a steamed bun, your ex-boyfriend probably wouldn't be sad at all; he'd be glad he broke up with you early."
"You...you shut up!" Lin Xiaoya trembled with anger. "Are you a devil? I'm already like this and you're still trying to hurt me!"
"I'm stating the facts." Wang Minyu turned to look at her. "What you call 'heartbreak,' from a medical perspective, is actually a dopamine withdrawal reaction, coupled with hypoglycemia caused by not eating for a long time. You didn't eat breakfast, did you? You didn't eat lunch either?"
Lin Xiaoya subconsciously covered her stomach.
Indeed, she hasn't had a drop of water since last night.
"Gurgle—"
A loud rumbling sound of intestines was particularly jarring in the quiet standoff.
Lin Xiaoya's face instantly turned bright red, and her determination to die suddenly wavered by half.
So embarrassing.
"Hungry?" Wang Minyu pulled a flyer from his pocket. "Turn left 500 meters ahead, there's a seafood buffet called 'Golden Leopard.' King crab, Australian lobster, and Häagen-Dazs—all you can eat. I'm going there anyway, want to come with me? It's on me."
"I won't eat! I want to die!" Lin Xiaoya said angrily.
"If we're not afraid of death, why would we be afraid of overeating?" Wang Minyu winked at Guan Shan.
Guan Shan understood immediately and pressed down on them like a mountain.
Before Lin Xiaoya could react, a large hand grabbed the back of her collar and lifted her back from outside the railing like a chick.
"Let me go! Help! Kidnapping!" Lin Xiaoya struggled desperately.
"Take him away." Wang Minyu waved his hand. "This illness needs treatment, and the prescription is—eat until you vomit."
Ten minutes later, at the Golden Leopard Buffet Restaurant.
Lin Xiaoya sat in a corner booth, with plates piled up in front of her.
She wanted to run, but with Su Qing sitting on her left, expressionless as she played with a scalpel, and Guan Shan sitting on her right, swallowing raw oysters, she didn't dare to move at all.
"Eat." Wang Minyu placed a peeled lobster on her plate. "This is medicine. You must finish it."
"I can't eat..." Lin Xiaoya said with a mournful face.
"Thinking about that jerk, huh?" Wang Minyu pointed at the lobster. "Treat him like this lobster. Crush it, chew it up. Your stomach is empty right now, so your brain has time to think about all that nonsense. Fill your stomach, all the blood will flow to your stomach to digest the food, your brain will be oxygen-deprived, and naturally you won't be sad anymore."
What kind of twisted logic and heresy is this?
But when Lin Xiaoya looked at the bright red lobster, she suddenly felt that it really looked like her ex-boyfriend's annoying face.
She grabbed the lobster and took a big bite.
The sweet and succulent shrimp meat bursts in your mouth. Delicious.
A primal, savage pleasure spread from the taste buds throughout the body.
"Another crab, please!" Wang Minyu handed over another one.
"This is that mistress."
Lin Xiaoya ate while crying.
Tears mixed with wasabi soy sauce tasted strange, but it was very satisfying.
"Waaaah... Damn bastard... It tastes so good..."
"I'm going to eat you out of house and home... Waaaaah..."
The surrounding diners were stunned.
This table of people is so weird.
A burly man who looked like a starving ghost reincarnated, a girl who was crying and stuffing her mouth with food, and a man in a white coat handing out tissues.
Half an hour later.
The plates in front of Lin Xiaoya were piled up like a small mountain.
She was so full she could barely breathe, her eyes were glazed over, and she was burping.
"Do you still want to die?" Wang Minyu asked.
Lin Xiaoya shook her head.
I can't even move, how can I have the strength to die?
Moreover, the excruciating pain seemed to be suppressed by the heavy feeling in my stomach.
"vomit--"
A strong feeling of nausea washed over me.
Lin Xiaoya covered her mouth and rushed to the toilet.
Ten minutes later, she walked out exhausted. Although her face was pale, her eyes were much clearer.
The moment I vomited, it felt as if all the grievances, resentment, and anger that had been building up inside me, along with the undigested seafood, were expelled.
My body is empty, and so is my heart.
"This is called the 'purging method'," Wang Minyu said, handing her a glass of warm water. "Traditional Chinese medicine says that sadness injures the lungs and excessive thinking injures the spleen. I'll use food to block your middle burner, and then release your qi through vomiting. Once you vomit, your breath will flow smoothly."
Lin Xiaoya held her water glass, looked at Wang Minyu, and suddenly thought that this sharp-tongued doctor was kind of handsome.
"Thanks... Um, how much was this meal? I'll transfer the money to you."
"No need." Wang Minyu pointed to Guan Shan, who was frantically devouring the dessert section. "That big guy has already gotten his money's worth. You're just... a freebie."
Lin Xiaoya stopped crying and started laughing.
"However," Wang Minyu changed the subject, pulling out a QR code for payment, "you still need to pay the consultation fee. Psychological counseling and first aid, five hundred for you, isn't that reasonable?"
Lin Xiaoya paused for a moment, then readily scanned the code: "Not unreasonable. By the way, doctor, do you have a girlfriend?"
Wang Minyu put away his phone, turned around and left: "No. But I'm allergic to being love-struck, stay away from me."
Stepping out of the restaurant, the night breeze was slightly cool.
"Boss, did we lose money?" Li Siyuan rubbed his round belly. "That girl threw up a lot, it was such a waste."
"What are you losing?" Wang Minyu looked at the soaring emotion value on the system panel.
[Emotional Value Harvesting: Gratitude +2000, Forgiveness +1500.]
[Unlock new skill: Binge Eating Correction Techniques (Beginner)]
"In this world, anything that can be solved with a meal isn't a problem." Wang Minyu stretched. "Let's go back to the pharmacy. Jiang Yue's matter isn't over yet; I reckon that Dean Liu will be coming to our door tomorrow."
Just as Wang Minyu had predicted, Jiang Yue was sitting in Liu Jianbang's office at that moment, holding a bottle of Vitamin C in her hand, her eyes filled with malice.
"Uncle Liu, this Wang Minyu is too arrogant. If we don't teach him a lesson, where will our hospital's reputation be?"
Liu Jianbang twirled the pen in his hand, the lens reflecting the light: "Don't worry. The provincial 'Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Skills Competition' is in two days. I've already registered him. When the competition comes, I'll ruin his reputation in front of all the experts in the province."
"Praise to kill?" Jiang Yue laughed. "That's a clever move."
"No, it's a real case." Liu Jianbang opened a drawer and took out a document. "The special case for this competition is a 'weirdo' who even experts in Beijing can't cure. I want to see if his 'leek theory' can cure that 'monster'."