Fortunately, the little episode during the competition did not attract much attention.
Nevertheless, two people stationed far away on the second level of the spectator stand knew exactly what had happened.
“It appears that you haven’t misjudged his character. This Hou Lingyu was indeed upright and bighearted given that he was willing to give up the competition to clear your name. He is a real man.”
With a look of admiration in his eyes, Zuo Qiuyu gazed in the direction of the competition square at Hou Lingyu, who had regained his energy and was at the moment focused on treating the little girl.
“The Hous are an interesting family. Did you manage to gather any information regarding them?”
As Lin Mengya inquired, she squinted and conveniently picked up a piece of fruit and popped it into her mouth.
“The Hous has always enjoyed pretty good public opinion. Unfortunately, when the previous head of the family became addicted to gambling, it was when he coveted the medicinal herbs from the Thousand Herbs Shop and tried selling them. Back then, this matter was brought to light by a young disciple. Eventually, the Hou Family found out that the family had gone into debts and he was finally driven out of the Hou Family.”
Zuo Qiuyu simply heard this from other people. He had not experienced this first hand. What he knew was rather vague.
“I see. It’s no wonder that Qian Yuming is so fearful of the Hous. Perhaps Qian Yuming was someone behind that incident.”
Nodding, Zuo Qiuyu actually shared the similar sentiments as Lin Mengya.
What kind of a character was Qian Yuming? He was the greatest vermin in the Pavilion Herbs right now. If the Hou Family did not fall, how would he be able to take over this gold mine?
If not for the fact that the three powers were wallowing in the mire with each other now, the Qian Family could end up the same way as the Hous.
“This would be a great opportunity. I suppose their relationship is not as intimate as people imagined. This is getting interesting. We’ve done well for coming this time.”
Who was Lin Mengya? She was very sharp for someone her age.
Zuo Qiuyu first glanced at her with doubts in his eyes, then he turned to watch the competition. Regardless of what happened, he knew Mengya would not bring harm to him.
For this reason, he would fully support his cousin no matter what she planned to do.
“Oh yes, when you were dealing with the Zhus just now, did you manage to find out any news about Long Tianyu?”
Zuo Qiuyu might not like Long Tianyu very much, but he knew how important Long Tianyu was to Lin Mengya.
She might be keeping very quiet about it, but she knew what she was doing.
She had obviously lost a lot of weight even though it had only been a few days.
He had gathered from Yu An that she had lost her appetite.
For her sake, he had to do all he could to rescue Long Tianyu.
Shaking her head, Lin Mengya appeared disappointed although it was obvious that she was trying to put on a front.
“There was no other news other than that Zhu Jiajing claimed that they had Long Tianyu with them.”
In fact, there was one other question on Lin Mengya’s mind that she did not mention.
She even suspected that there was another person who wanted to seize Long Tianyu.
To her, the Zhus were merely like a cage used to capture the wild beast.
In retrospect, the Zhus had put in a lot of effort in order to capture Long Tianyu.
They had gone the extent of setting up a fake scene to confuse her vision.
It was scary how they had gone into such details.
Although the Zhus had also tried to launch attacks on her in close succession.
Nevertheless, what they did to capture Long Tianyu was something else.
Moreover, while she had seen through the evil scheme of the Zhu Family did, there was no way she could spread this information around.
In fact, Zhu Jiajing had undermined their own plans by telling her that Long Tianyu had been abducted by Zhu Qiyun!
This made Lin Mengya even more worried. If there was another mastermind behind the Zhus, who could it be?
“Look! They seem to have gotten into an argument!”
Zuo Qiuyu’s sudden cry woke Lin Mengya from her deep thoughts and she was brought back to reality.
Her eyes followed the direction his finger was pointing. On the competition square, Hou Lingyu appeared to have gotten into an argument with somebody.
Soon, some men took turns coming up to them to report what happened on the stage.
What happened was that Hou Lingyu had already diagnosed the little girl’s illness and was now about to help a remaining old man diagnose his illness.
Who would have expected him to accidentally see a young man’s prescription?
He realized the prescription was incorrect. Worse, if the patient were to ingest this prescription, not only would it delay the patient’s recovery, his life might very possibly be endangered.
He had tried to warn the young man in a whisper, but to his surprise, the young man had rejected his good intention.
He even mocked at Hou Lingyu for being under-skilled by saying that he did not know the nature of the herbs.
Of course, Hou Lingyu had refused to compromise. Each of them insisted on their own opinions and an argument ensued.
“You are truly one-track minded.”
After hearing this, Lin Mengya shook her head gently and gave her comment, saying, “No, I feel that he is a rare gem. This is how a physician ought to act. The patient’s life is in the hands of the physician. If the physician is not cautious and meticulous, he would ruin the life of the patient!”
…
Cocking her head, Lin Mengya was surprised to find that Cousin Yu and this so-called one-track-minded young man were rather congenial.
A bizarre smile appeared at the corner of Lin Mengya’s mouth as she gazed at Zuo Qiuyu meaningfully.
“If you eventually become the Chief Elder, it would be a good idea to make him your assistant. Unfortunately, all the elders in the Pavilion of Elders were mostly of a one-track mind. Where would I find someone who is more diplomatic to assist the two of you?”
“I find Liu Xuan a good choice.”
Zuo Qiuyu said on instinct. He did not even have to think through it.
“Alright, Liu Xuan it is.”
Liu Xuan, the Virgo guy who had a compulsive disorder for cleanliness, was indeed more diplomatic than the two of them.
If the three were to come together, Cousin Chen would suffer miserably.
The argument was still going on but apparently Hou Lingyu was having the upper hand now.
Not only did he manage to diagnose the patient’s illness, but he had also given the prescription backed up with good reasons. He had even brought his point across in an easily understood way so that any layman would understand him.
Strangely, however, the five elders had become very quiet and refused to speak up.
Elder Chang Tianhua, who had maintained a neutral position had even started curling up the corners of his mouth into a smile.
It was Qian Yuming who appeared to be gnashing his teeth, while the others remained silent.
It was indeed strange that they were not coming forward to uphold justice even when the candidates were already in a heated argument.
Finally, when Hou Lingyu rendered the other man speechless with his overpowering argument, the other man who had twisted the truth just a moment ago suddenly gave Hou Lingyu a courteous bow.
The anger on his face had completely vanished. On the contrary, he was looking Hou Lingyu with a smile of approval on his face.
Hou Lingyu, with the sense of justice written all over his face, about to jump out to fight with all he had, was at this moment frozen.
What, what was going on here?
“Clap, clap, clap…”
Chang Tianhua was the first to start clapping, followed by the other three elders who imitated Chang Tianhua. Qian Yuming was the only exception.
Hou Lingyu was filled with question marks. He stood frozen to the spot and was at the loss of how to react.
“Congratulations to Mr. Hou. You are the first person to past the third round to become the winner here!”
In the blink of an eye, the man who was just arguing with him had turned around and started to congratulate him.
Hou Lingyu was even more confused. It was after he pondered over the words of the man that he came to a realization.
This was in fact the third round of the test.
Instead of feeling overjoyed, Hou Lingyu was a little embarrassed.
He simply scratched his head and wondered what the matter with all these people was?
At this moment, Nan Rui, who was lying on his chair had set his eyes on the young Hou with an approving look.
“I’ve not made a wrong judgment on you, the descendent of the Hou Family. The heart of a physician should be such that when he sees someone treating a patient haphazardly, he would know that it’s inhumane not to stop the person. Secondly, if a physician is unable to tell that a prescription is wrong for similar symptoms, he is lacking in his skills. He should not be a physician lest he should bring more harm.”
Although Nan Rui’s words were not directed at a particular person, some of the rest contestants had hung their heads in shame.
Every minute and every second were precious during the competition.
They were afraid that the others would complete the task before they did, so they were focusing on winning the competition.
They had not taken into consideration that even though they were participating in a competition, they were in fact also treating patients.
Despite seeing Hou Lingyu arguing with the other man, they too knew that the prescription was not right. However, they chose to remain silent.
They had failed, but rightfully so and they had no complaints.
“I refuse to accept the ruling! He was being nosy. Moreover, you didn’t mention that the third item of the competition was to pick out someone else’s mistake. You can’t take this outcome into account!”
A clamor sounded in protest. In an instant, it stirred up a similar sentiment in a few others.
It had been a difficult journey making it to the competition for all of them. They were only a step away from achieving their dream of entering the Pavilion of Herbs.
There was no way they would accept the ruling willingly!
“Yes, that’s right! We are dissatisfied! Let’s start over!”
A small group of people had begun to voice out their dissatisfaction.
To their surprise, before long, a number of valiant guards charged towards them.
Looking at those candidates being thrown off the stage one by one, the other remaining candidates became more fearful.
The four remaining contestants looked as if they were resigned to the final judgment. However, the man who pretended to be one of the participants suddenly bowed at them and said, “Your future is still bright as long as you know to repent of your mistakes. Congratulations because the four of you have passed this round of tests.”
In that instant, the situation had a turnaround and the seemingly unfortunate event had turned into something good.
The remaining four contestants exchanged looks and eventually they were overjoyed.
Hou Lingyu too was shocked because of the twists of events.
He stared blankly at the five elders and later turned his gaze towards his companions.
Suddenly, he felt that his brain which had been filled with the knowledge of all kinds of herbs over the past twenty years seemed to be totally confused at this moment.
“So this was what’s happening. Whoever thought of this evil idea?”
Lin Mengya rubbed her glabella. The twists in events had taken her by surprise.
“Actually, the rules of this medical skills competition had been drawn out right after the Pavilion of Herbs was established. Even if I become the Chief Elder, I won’t be entitled to make any amendments. I wasn’t aware of this mystery in the past. I take my hats off the intention of the elder who set the rules.”
Zuo Qiuyu shared Lin Mengya’s sentiments. It was no wonder that the talents who were eventually chosen during the medical skills competition became very successful in the Pavilion of Herbs.
Getting to the bottom of it, it was because the competition not only tested the participants on their medical skills but more importantly, their character.
