I live in Chengdu, where people like to go to teahouse, meeting friends, doing business or playing Majang. There are thousands of teahouses, big, small or middle size, in almost every street.

Among them, one is very special. From the outside, it’s just very ordinary, small tea house, the one you can find almost everywhere. However, every Saturday, people would come here from near and far. Some even come as early as 6. Am, when they arrive, they might have to wait several hours for their turn.

These people, no matter where they come from, they have one thing in common: They all have sort of serious disease, incurable, terrible one, like, you know, cancer.

So now you probably know what’s going on here. yes, these come to a tea house to see a doctor, or TCM, traditional Chinese medicine doctor. Precisely, Mr. Zhao, is not a certificated doctor, he is what they call, a 道医。

Before I went there, I’ve heard a lot of stories about Mr. Zhao. Like he used to only treat the rich and the powerful people, and his service registration was once 3000 yuan. But now he only does the free clinic, two days a week. that is, he would prescribe a receipt for you without any fee. Of course, because it’s a tea house, so you got to pay 15 yuan for the tea.

A friend’s friend introduced this tea house to me. Two years ago, she was also diagnosed with breast cancer. Chemotherapy hit her pretty bad. She basically threw up everything. And all the other side effects. Someone introduced Mr. Zhao to her. After that, she almost come to this tea house every Saturday.

I would not believe such story when I was healthy. But now I am a patient, so I guess I am desperate, and I am also curious.

After feeling my pulse, Mr. Zhao pointed out exactly where my tumour is. It’s kind of amazing. He knew that I got breast cancer, but how could he know where it is? Even my friend didn’t know it. It’s like he got X-ray eyes. I started to believe that he was a real thing.

Then he prescribed a receipt for me and ask me to come back next Saturday. However, there’s one drug in this receipt, it’s self-made by him and it costs 3000 yuan. I hesitated when I paid the bill. It just didn’t feel right, especially when my friend urged me to pay it, saying it’s important to boost my immune system. I said that I didn’t get enough money and left. What a lame excuse.

Later, I sent this receipt to my mother-in-law, she was a TCM, and she soon replied and said that I should not take it, because this receipt would add extra burden to my body, which right now I am still and really can’t afford to take any more burdens.

To be honest, I still not sure that Mr. zhao is a miracle-working doctor, or just a liar. It’s hard to tell. I really want to believe that he is a real thing, so I see a legend in person, it’s great right?

I guess there are three possibilities, one, Mr.Zhao really saves life without anything in return.  Second, he is making money from the patient’s despair, suffering and helplessness. Third, he is just creating a I-am-not-doing-it-for-money public image to attract more business. The first one seems to be too good to be true, both the second and the third are really cruel and mean, just in different scale