Chapter 260: Chapter 215 Miracle
In the dead of night, in a glass greenhouse on the back mountain of the Academic Palace.
Li Ang placed a large bucket of penicillin suspension into the refrigerator. "Now, we just need to wait."
On the table before him lay over a hundred ceramic Petri dishes. They contained agar, Staphylococcus extracted from syphilis patients, and a small piece of paper soaked in penicillin solution.
If all went well, the paper soaked in the penicillin solution would kill the surrounding Staphylococcus, forming a clear circle in the Petri dish.
"Sigh..."
Qiu Feng, also wearing a white lab coat, exhaled deeply, rubbing her tired eyes.
"Care for some tea?"
With a gesture, Li Ang used Telekinesis to make a thermos in the corner of the greenhouse levitate and pour two cups of hot tea.
"Thank you."
Qiu Feng accepted the teacup. The two of them leaned against the table side by side, each taking a small sip and gazing at the Petri dishes in silence.
All their prolonged efforts were now entrusted to those ceramic vessels.
CHIRP CHIRP—
The insects in the forest on the back mountain continued their energetic calls, punctuated by the occasional hoot of a night owl.
"By the way, Risheng."
Qiu Feng was the first to break the silence. The time they had spent toiling together had made their relationship considerably more amicable.
"This penicillin, how is it different from allicin?"
"Hmm..."
Li Ang pondered for a moment. Allicin’s antibacterial mechanism worked because the oxygen atoms in its molecules bind with the thiol groups in cysteine, a compound essential for bacterial growth and reproduction. This binding inhibits their ability to grow and multiply.
Penicillin, on the other hand, contains penicillanic acid. It destroys bacterial cell walls and acts as a bactericide during their reproductive phase. It’s particularly effective against Gram-positive bacteria.
"One could say that allicin isn’t easy to store or transport, whereas powdered penicillin can be stored for much longer," Li Ang explained. "Currently, most of the allicin produced by the State Mansions is used for the common people within their own jurisdictions. It can’t be transported in large quantities to other regions as a major commodity.
There are still many relatively remote areas with inconvenient transportation where allicin loses its medicinal efficacy by the time it arrives.
Patients needing the medication must travel personally to the State Mansion cities.
Penicillin, however, is more convenient to store and transport."
"Is that so?"
Qiu Feng’s eyes lit up. The benefits of allicin were obvious. In Chang’an City alone, the childhood illness mortality rate this year had fallen by more than seventy percent, and the maternal mortality rate had dropped by seventy-five percent. For patients with conditions like Blood Sores, the death rate decreased by over eighty percent.
If penicillin could become widespread across Yu Country, the average lifespan of Yu Country’s citizens could increase by at least ten years, if not more!
This was the very essence of practicing medicine to save the world.
Qiu Feng took another sip of tea, her heart filled with an excitement difficult to suppress. She glanced subconsciously at the young man beside her who had created this miracle, only to notice that Li Ang’s face held little trace of a smile.
Drug resistance...
When penicillin was first introduced in the Otherworld, a mere few dozen units could save lives. Diseases like pneumonia, puerperal fever, and septicemia were no longer death sentences, and the average global lifespan soared.
For the first time in tens of thousands of years, humanity had successfully defied the reign of microorganisms, conquering the invisible enemy with wisdom, effort, and unity.
But bacteria were also evolving and adapting.
Generation after generation of bacteria adapted. Some produced β-lactamases, which hydrolyzed and inactivated penicillins. In others, the penicillin-binding protein—the target of penicillin’s action—changed. Still others developed decreased permeability to penicillins.
The effective dose of penicillin slowly increased from a few dozen units to several hundred thousand, even millions of units.
Even Vancomycin, hailed as "humanity’s last line of defense," was becoming perilously ineffective against ever-evolving bacteria.
In the modern Otherworld, the annual number of deaths directly caused by antibiotic resistance was 1.27 million.
Furthermore, 4.97 million deaths were related to it.
By comparison, the annual death tolls due to AIDS and malaria were 680,000 and 620,000, respectively.
The danger of antibiotic resistance could not be overstated. The Otherworld had thousands of research teams and millions of professional doctors. And here, there was only Li Ang.
These penicillins, one might say, he had produced by forcing the pace—advancing progress by countless years and crossing innumerable thresholds.
If he died early, or if external factors prevented him from establishing a modern medical system and cultivating medical talent, while the common people made widespread use of penicillin and super-resistant bacteria emerged...
The outcome would be utterly uncontrollable.
Am I truly saving lives, or taking them?
Li Ang let out a long sigh, the weight on his shoulders feeling heavier than ever before.
The tide of the times was rushing in much faster than he had anticipated, and time seemed utterly insufficient for all he had to do.
He turned his head, saw the worried expression on Qiu Feng’s face, and offered a slight smile. "It’s nothing. I was just thinking about the patients."
"By the way," he changed the subject, "your family hasn’t come to see you much lately, have they?"
Qiu Feng curled her lip. "They’re researching microscopes, and it’s constant arguments at home."
Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "Arguments?"
"About medical matters," Qiu Feng explained. "Many members of the Philosophy Society have gotten their hands on microscopes and are observing everything around them.
One scholar was the first to use clothing dye to stain the tiny, moving, round little ’bugs’ to observe them better.
And, following your lead, Risheng, they named those little ’bugs’ using a new term, which translates to ’cells.’ The name was chosen based on two ideas: ’fineness,’ for their tiny size, and ’sac-like covering,’ because they seemed to have a membrane similar to that around a fetus.
After that, many scholars discovered that cells are diverse, with varying characteristics.
Some cells don’t die in water but die in hot water, pure wine, or when exposed to allicin...
They’ve compiled a long list, speculating that these special cells might, to some extent, be the cause of human diseases.
Boiling water, washing hands with pure wine, ingesting allicin—such actions could kill these pathogenic cells, thus preventing illness."
Qiu Feng took a sip of tea and continued, "If this discovery is true, then the Medical Skills and Medical Books we currently use will be completely overturned.
That’s what my family is arguing about.
Whether to support or oppose it.
Whether to explore new directions or adhere to existing medical principles."
"I see..."
Li Ang scratched his head. Although he also came from a traditional medical family, he was more familiar with the medical knowledge from his Otherworld memories. "What do you think?"
"Me?"
Qiu Feng tilted her head, pondering for a moment before slowly saying, "I think, regardless of the path, as long as it can cure patients effectively, that’s what matters.
As for more distant concerns—debates over orthodoxy, philosophy, or school affiliations—
they should all make way in the face of the actual suffering of the ill."
"So, effectiveness over hype, then?"
Li Ang smiled. If everyone in the world could think like Qiu Feng, establishing the Otherworld’s medical system in the future would involve far fewer troubles.
Leaning against the table, they held their teacups and chatted casually, discussing the delicacies of Chang’an City and where they might travel during the upcoming winter holiday.
Li Ang was no longer some Founding County Marquis, and Qiu Feng was no longer the daughter of an Imperial Physician.
They were merely two doctors, waiting for their medicine to be ready, preparing to help the sick.
DING, DING, DING—
The exquisite clock on the nearby table, a gift from Su Feng, chimed clearly, interrupting their conversation.
Time was up.
Silently, Li Ang put down his teacup and walked over to the table.
He and Qiu Feng exchanged a glance. Together, they each picked up a Petri dish and slowly lifted the ceramic cover.