NIP Chapter 141 The prescription for top students is for struggling students
Chapter 141 The prescription for top students is for struggling students
Renxin Pharmacy's "Scholar's Happy Water" became an instant hit. Although the name sounds like a substandard product, its effects are surprisingly good.
The girl who drank the bitter melon smoothie during the math competition not only had her headache gone and her sleep quality improved significantly, but she also performed exceptionally well in the competition and won first prize.
Her mother was so excited that she sent three voice messages in the parents' group, each over 60 seconds long, praising "Renxin Pharmacy" and "Xueba Happy Water" as miracle cures.
Now, trouble is brewing.
Long lines formed outside the pharmacy starting Monday.
But this time, the people queuing up weren't elderly people coming to see a doctor, nor were they internet celebrities coming to take photos; instead, they were a group of middle-aged men and women in suits, looking anxious.
What they were holding were not medical records, but their children's report cards, certificates of merit, and some even brought their children's IQ test reports.
"Dr. Wang, give my child a glass of that 'scholar's water' too! He can't get above 90 in math for his midterms next week!" A woman with big, wavy hair pushed her way to the front and slammed a report card on the counter.
"My child always fails English. Is he lacking some trace element? Do you have any 'smart drugs' here?" a man wearing a gold chain shouted.
"My son spends all his time playing video games. He's even reached the highest rank in Honor of Kings, but his grades are the worst in his class! Can you prescribe some medicine to make him feel nauseous and want to vomit whenever he sees a phone?"
"My daughter keeps failing her piano exams. Is it because her fingers aren't flexible enough? Is there any medicine that can make her fingers longer?"
The entire pharmacy instantly transformed from a place for treating and saving lives into a giant "tiger parenting" wishing well.
Liu Yixin was at his wit's end looking at this group of parents who were even more boisterous than the aunties at the market. He was so engrossed in fiddling with the abacus beads in his hands that they were practically sparking.
He tried to maintain order, but nobody paid any attention to him.
"Boss, what are we going to do? They've almost bought up all our bitter melons!" Liu Yixin wiped the sweat from his brow. "And Old Cai said that the 'Calm No. 1' bitter melons can only be harvested once a month, and our inventory is almost gone!"
Wang Minyu's head was throbbing from the noise. He put down the nearly worn-out book "Postpartum Care of Sows" and sat up from the recliner. He looked at the group of parents at the door, their eyes red, looking like they were about to snatch a limited-edition handbag, their brows furrowed so deeply they could trap flies.
"Guanshan!" he roared.
Guan Shan, who was secretly eating Pierre's freshly made "cilantro macarons" in the kitchen, his mouth full, mumbled, "Boss, what's up?"
"Hang up a sign at the entrance!" Wang Minyu rubbed his temples, his voice as cold as ice shards in the dead of winter. "It should read: This shop doesn't cure 'brain-dead' people, it only cures 'mentally disabled' people. Also, starting today, 'Student's Happy Water' will no longer be sold to the public, but will be exclusively for internal use. Anyone who dares to cause trouble again will be reported to the police and dealt with as disturbing public order."
"Huh? Boss, this is money delivered to our door!" Liu Yixin exclaimed anxiously, counting on his fingers, "One cup sells for 180 yuan, and if you sell 50 cups a day, that's 9,000 yuan! In a month..."
"I'd be disgusted to even touch this kind of money." Wang Minyu's eyes turned cold. He stood up, his gaze sweeping over the parents. His voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a nail. "They don't want their children to be smarter; they want to turn them into machines to satisfy their vanity, into something they can brag about on social media. This disease originates in the parents; treating the children won't help. If I actually gave their children that stuff, that would be harming them."
Li Siyuan and Zhao Na exchanged a glance, both seeing admiration in each other's eyes.
Guan Shan acted quickly; in less than five minutes, a wooden sign over a meter tall was erected in front of the pharmacy. Several large characters were written on it with a brush:
This shop doesn't cure "brain damage," it specializes in curing "mental damage."
**The "Student's Happy Water" will cease sales immediately.**
Want your child to be smarter? Get your own brain fixed first.
As soon as the sign was put up, the parents at the door immediately went wild.
"What kind of attitude is that? Why wouldn't you make money?"
"Exactly, we're doing this for the child's own good! How can this doctor be so unethical?"
"I want to file a complaint! I'm going to the health bureau to file a complaint against him!"
"Let's go, let's go! We're not coming to this rip-off shop! The Kangning Pharmacy next door also has brain-boosting supplements, let's buy them there!"
Most of the parents left cursing, but one woman insisted on staying.
Her name is Li Jing. She is in her early forties, wearing a well-tailored business suit and ten-centimeter high heels. She exudes a strong aura of an elite woman.
But upon closer inspection, one can see fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and dark circles under her eyes that she cannot hide, giving her an air of forced exhaustion.
She is a senior executive at a foreign company and a typical "tiger mom".
Her son, Lin Hao, is a top student at Changxiang No. 1 Middle School, consistently ranking first in his grade and being the "other people's child" in the eyes of countless parents.
But recently, this "perfect" child has run into trouble.
"Dr. Wang," Li Jing said, walking to the counter. Her tone was forceful, but her eyes betrayed a barely concealed panic. "My son's situation is different from other children. It's not that he doesn't like to study; he... he loves to study too much."
Wang Minyu raised his eyelids, glanced at her, and said nothing, but simply gestured for her to sit down.
Li Siyuan and Zhao Na exchanged a glance and immediately brought over the famous "Truth Chair"—an ordinary-looking wooden chair, but those who sit on it always find themselves speaking their minds.
Li Jing hesitated for a moment, but still sat down.
As soon as she sat down, her powerful aura deflated instantly, like a punctured balloon.
Her shoulders slumped, and her voice began to tremble.
"He pushed himself too hard." Li Jing gripped the bag strap tightly, her knuckles turning white. "He only slept five hours a day, and aside from eating and using the bathroom, he spent all his time doing practice problems. His room was covered with formulas and vocabulary words, even on the walls and ceiling. He said that way he could see them while sleeping, which would help him remember them better. I... sometimes I'd get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and see his light still on. When I went over, he'd be asleep on the table, a pen still in his hand, and his test papers were covered in drool..."
As she spoke, her eyes reddened.
"Recently, he has started experiencing hallucinations."
"Hallucination?" Wang Minyu raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Yes." Li Jing's voice choked with emotion. "Last week, he suddenly screamed and rushed out of his room in the middle of the night, saying that the words in his books had turned into monsters with gaping, bloodthirsty mouths that were going to devour him. His father and I rushed in and found that he had torn all his books to shreds, with scraps of paper scattered all over the floor. He was curled up in a corner, trembling all over, muttering repeatedly, 'I don't want to study anymore, I don't want to study anymore'..."
At this point, Li Jing could no longer hold back her tears, which fell down her cheeks.
"We took him to see a psychologist, who diagnosed him with severe anxiety disorder and prescribed a lot of antidepressants. But after taking them, he became lethargic, unresponsive, and unwilling to speak. Dr. Wang, I... I'm about to break down. I don't know what to do."
The shop fell silent.
Zhao Na looked at Li Jing, her eyes also reddening. She remembered her own senior year of high school, when she too had been pushed to the point of feeling suffocated.
Wang Minyu didn't speak, but turned to Li Siyuan and said, "Siyuan, you take a look at the diagnosis."
The boss is testing him.
Li Siyuan took a deep breath, walked up to Li Jing, and, imitating Wang Minyu, first carefully observed her complexion, and then asked a few questions about Lin Hao—sleep, diet, bowel movements, and mood changes.
After a moment's thought, he said, "This is a classic case of 'excessive thinking, deficiency of both heart and spleen, and loss of spirit.' The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic says, 'The heart stores the spirit, and the spleen stores the intention.' Excessive mental exertion depletes the heart's blood and spleen's qi. Insufficient heart blood leads to malnourishment of the spirit, resulting in insomnia, vivid dreams, palpitations, and hallucinations. A weak spleen qi leads to impaired digestion and absorption, resulting in a lack of source for the production of qi and blood, hence poor appetite, lethargy, and emaciation. As for hallucinations, this is a sign of 'spirit floating away,' indicating that his brain is already in a self-protective 'shutdown' state. If this continues, forget about taking the college entrance exam; he'll be ruined."
His words were well-reasoned and cited numerous sources, which even made Wang Minyu nod in approval.
This kid has been putting in a lot of effort lately.
"What should we do?" Li Jing asked anxiously, as if grasping at a straw. "Should he take Chinese medicine? How long should he take it? Will it affect his studies?"
Li Siyuan thought for a moment and said, "The treatment should focus on 'tonifying the heart and spleen, nourishing qi and blood, and calming the mind.' We can use a modified version of the 'Gui Pi Tang' formula, which uses ginseng, astragalus, and atractylodes to tonify the spleen and replenish qi; angelica and longan to nourish blood and calm the mind; and poria, polygala, and jujube seed to soothe the mind and stabilize the will… It will probably take one to two months. During this time, you should pay attention to rest and reduce the intensity of your studies…"
"Wrong," Wang Minyu suddenly interrupted him.
Li Siyuan was stunned: "Master, where did I go wrong?"
"The prescription is correct, but the approach is wrong." Wang Minyu stood up, walked to Li Jing, looked down at her, his eyes sharp as knives. "His illness can only be relieved by medicine, not cured. Because the root of the problem is not in him, but in you."
"On me?" Li Jing bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She stood up abruptly, her voice rising eight octaves. "I quit my million-dollar-a-year job to be a full-time tutor for him! I get up at five every morning to make him nutritious breakfasts, making different kinds, afraid he won't get enough nutrition! I stay up with him until midnight, reading beside him while he does his homework, afraid he'll feel lonely! I gave up my career, friends, and hobbies for him, and you're telling me the root of the problem is me?"
She was very emotional, and tears streamed down her face again, but this time it wasn't sadness, but resentment and anger.
"Yes." Wang Minyu's tone left no room for argument. He said, word by word, "What you're giving him isn't love, it's pressure. You're using him as a source of bragging rights, as a continuation of your unfulfilled dreams, as a tool to boost your social media presence. He's not living for himself; he's living for you. This string has been stretched too tight, and now it's about to snap."
Li Jing was speechless after hearing Wang Minyu's words, her face turning pale and then red.
"You...you're talking nonsense!" Her voice trembled slightly. "I'm his mother, how could I possibly harm him? Everything I've done is for his own good!"
"For his own good?" Wang Minyu sneered. "Then let me ask you, does he even like studying?"
"This..." Li Jing was speechless.
Does he have friends?
"He...he's too busy with his studies, how could he have time to make friends..."
"Does he have any hobbies? Besides studying, what else does he do?"
"He..." Li Jing was completely speechless.
"Look, you don't even know what he likes or dislikes." Wang Minyu's voice was calm, but every word was like a hammer blow to Li Jing's heart. "All you know is his grades, his ranking, and whether he can get into Tsinghua or Peking University. You treat him like a learning machine, a machine to win you honors. Now, this machine is overheating and about to burn out, and only then do you think about 'fixing' it. But instead of thinking about how to let him rest, you're thinking about how to keep him running."