Yet "when he was nearly fifty, he was still full of energy and hadn't taken any medicine for 20 years" wrote his contemporary Hung Yi-nan. And so nobody believed the fortune teller's words. When Yen had reached the age of 42, he invited his friend Pan Ping-chu to go to Japan with him, where Yen stayed in a hospital to avoid meeting his predicted fate.
但因為他「年雖五旬，而精神健壯，二十餘寒暑不進一藥」，（時人洪以南語），所以大家都不相信相士所言；只有他自己在四十二歲那年，邀朋友潘炳燭到日本，借神田的杏雲堂醫院，以治療其有名無實之症，藉解此厄。