Traditional Chinese Medicine: One sentence about plum blossoms scared all the scumbags on the intern

Chapter 8 Paronychia + Athlete's Foot? So Authentic!

"Once I'm fully recovered, I'll go to the school clinic to present you with a banner."

Lin Mo looked at the message and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

He replied, "No need for the banner. Just bring two bottles of sugar-free Coke, ice-cold, when you come."

The male student replied instantly: "Received!"

Lin Mo put down his phone, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh.

Since he had nothing better to do, he picked up his phone and started scrolling through online comments about himself.

The video with the pun on TikTok has already surpassed 50 million views.

The comments section is full of all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

Someone photoshopped his face onto the cover of the "Huangdi Neijing" (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic).

The caption reads, "The most ruthless technique in contemporary Chinese medicine."

Lin Mo scrolled through the screen, a smile involuntarily creeping onto his lips.

He was about to open the Bilibili parody section to see how his video had been edited.

The door to the school clinic was suddenly pushed open.

It wasn't pushed open wide, but rather pried open little by little.

Lin Mo looked up and saw a person hunched over, leaning against the door frame, limping as they moved inside.

It was a male student, wearing slippers, with his left foot on the ground.

He lightly touched the ground with the toes of his right foot, and with each step forward, his facial features would wrinkle.

He was still hissing and gasping for air.

Lin Mo immediately slammed his phone down on the table and rushed over to meet him.

He grabbed his arm and led him toward the examination bed.

"What happened? Did you twist your ankle?"

"It's not a sprained ankle..."

The male student sat down with a grimacing expression, his right leg stretched straight.

It seems like even bending over slightly would cause unbearable pain.

"My toes started itching a few days ago. At first, I didn't pay much attention to it, but it got more and more painful. Today, it hurts as soon as I put my foot down, and I don't even dare to walk properly."

"Itchy toes?"

Lin Mo squatted down and looked at the sneaker on his right foot.

"Why didn't you come sooner?"

"I thought it was just paronychia."

The male student looked distressed.

"I've had ingrown toenails before, and I always just go to a pedicure shop to get them fixed."

"I went to get it fixed this time, but it still hurts afterward. It didn't get better; in fact, it swelled up. I thought maybe the pedicurist didn't do it properly, so I used nail clippers to dig it out myself, and then..."

His voice grew softer and softer as he spoke.

Lin Mo's eyebrows furrowed, his expression showing helplessness.

"What was the result?"

"When I woke up this morning, my toes were bright red, and it hurt terribly to touch them. It felt like being pricked with needles when I stepped on the ground."

The male student pointed to his right foot.

"School doctor, could you take a look? Has my paronychia gotten worse?"

"You're really something, using nail clippers to dig it out yourself."

Lin Mo shook his head, stood up, and pulled a pair of disposable gloves from the drawer.

While putting on the mask, he gestured with his chin toward the examination bed.

"Take off your shoes."

The male student bent down to untie his shoelaces, moving very carefully, and gasping for breath with each movement.

It was quite a struggle to get my sneakers off.

He then slowly took off his socks.

The whole process was like defusing a time bomb.

The moment the socks were taken off.

Lin Mo glanced down, then paused noticeably.

He gasped.

The male student's right big toe.

To be precise, it was the entire big toe—swollen and red like a small carrot.

It is especially severe around the nails.

Her skin was bright red.

White peeling has already begun at the edges.

The color of the nail itself is also wrong; it's not the normal light pink.

Instead, it is a dark yellowish-brown.

The nail surface was covered with irregular white debris.

It looks like something has gnawed on it from the inside.

The skin between my toes was also red and wet.

There was an odd, damp feeling.

The comments section has already started to react.

"Oh my god, this toe looks so painful."

"This isn't paronychia, is it? Paronychia doesn't look like this."

"Now I want to take off my shoes and see my feet too."

"I knew something was wrong when the school doctor gasped in shock."

"High-energy warning ahead"

Lin Mo extended two fingers and gently pressed the base of the male student's toenails. The male student immediately let out a "whoop" and almost jumped off the examination table.

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts—"

"Does it hurt here?" Lin Mo moved to a different spot and gently poked the side of the fingernail again.

"It hurts! My whole toe hurts!"

Lin Mo withdrew his finger and examined the red and moist skin between his toes more closely.

I smelled a faint, unpleasant odor.

He straightened up, took off one glove, pulled his mask up, and spoke with certainty.

"This is not paronychia."

The male student was stunned for a moment.

"What is that?"

Lin Mo looked at him with a complex expression and said, word by word.

"This is a fungal infection."

The male student blinked: "A fungal infection?"

"Yes, and it's a severe fungal infection, medically known as onychomycosis complicated by tinea pedis, or in layman's terms—"

Lin Mo pointed to his feet.

"You have both onychomycosis and athlete's foot."

"The white flakes and yellowish-brown discoloration on your toenails are typical signs of fungal erosion of the nail plate, and the red, peeling, wet, and rotten areas between your toes are an acute flare-up of athlete's foot."

"You've developed a secondary bacterial infection at this stage, which is why it's so swollen and you're in so much pain that you can't put your foot down."

The male student stared with his mouth agape for a long time, looking down at his swollen, red toe.

She looked up at Lin Mo again, her expression filled with disbelief.

"Onychomycosis? Athlete's foot? School doctor, I'm usually very careful about hygiene, I wash my feet every day, how could I get this?"

The live chat exploded with comments.

"Toenail fungus plus athlete's foot, this is just too tragic!"

So please stop picking your toes, everyone.

"Using nail clippers to clean your toenails is like opening the door for fungi."

"Fungal infection plus secondary bacterial infection, this is a double whammy."

"It sounds painful."

"My toes are a little itchy and I'm panicking."

Lin Mo did not answer directly, but instead asked a question in return.

"You've had these symptoms for at least four days, haven't you?"

The male student thought for a moment and nodded.

"It started itching about four days ago. I thought it was from mosquito bites and didn't pay attention to it."

"What did you do four days ago?"

Lin Mo stared into his eyes.

"Think carefully, is there anything different from usual? For example, did you go to a public bathroom? Wear someone else's slippers? Or go to a swimming pool or gym?"

The male student frowned, glanced at the ceiling, and muttered to himself.

"Four days ago...four days ago..."

His eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had thought of something, but then his expression became somewhat strange.

"Four days ago I was sleeping in my dorm room, and when I woke up my feet started to itch."

"I didn't go swimming or to the gym that day; I just stayed in my dorm all day."

"You sleep in your dorm room?" Lin Mo's brows furrowed again. "Do you wear socks to bed?"

"I wasn't wearing any clothes; I slept barefoot."