“Talent?”
The dean Qi Kaiwen evidently did not believe it. He knew today Qiao Mu taught the first class. With just one class, the chances of discovering a talent were rather dim.
“It’s true!”
Seeing the dean did not believe in his words, Qiao Mu became anxious. He hastened to describe what had just happened in his class.
After hearing him out, Qi Kaiwen’s brows were furrowed tightly, but his eyes were filled with surprise. However, he still couldn’t believe it. “How can a student master almost all the knowledge of the whole book simply by doing the preview?”
“Such an understanding and memory are sort of intimidating!”
“Perhaps that student named Fang Qiu has learned Chinese Medicine before, hasn’t he?”
Asked Qi Kaiwen, proposing the most probable explanation.
“No!”
Qiao Mu hurriedly shook his head and responded, “I’ve asked him about it. He said he hadn’t learned any before.”
“Well…”
Qi Kaiwen found the news extremely unbelievable.
“Normally, such a case can’t exist.”
But Qiao Mu did not hesitate. He said agitatedly, “Dean, regardless of his previous experience in Chinese Medicine study, what matters most is that he is a freshman, a freshman!”
“A freshman?”
Seeing Qiao Mu keep emphasizing the word “freshman” in front of him, Qi Kaiwen was a bit confused. But then, something occurred to him and his eyes glittered. He said excitedly, “Are you talking about the Chinese Medicine Knowledge Competition of Freshmen?”
“Exactly!”
Qiao Mu instantly replied, “The Chinese Medicine Knowledge Competition of Freshmen held among nine Universities of Chinese Medicine in central China will start again in a month. This time, it will be held by us again. If we’re graded the last one like we were last year, that will be really embarrassing. But perhaps this time, Fang Qiu will be able to help us win, won’t he?”
At those words, Qi Kaiwen felt something clicked in his head. He immediately got to his feet, began to pace back and forth in office, which demonstrated how uncalm he was.
“Does Fang Qiu really have such a capability?”
He came into a halt and asked abruptly.
“I witnessed it in person!” Qiao Mu answered immediately.
After hearing that, Qi Kaiwen continued to pace. A minute later, he stopped pacing once more, heaved a sigh and said, “We can’t risk our chances. We shall still hold the normal tryout. Next week, the Chinese Medicine Knowledge Competition Tryout for freshmen in our university will begin. If Fang Qiu does have such a capability, he will definitely come in first!”
“If he doesn’t have, he will be eliminated in the tryout. But you must promise me you won’t disclose anything about the tryout to Fang Qiu, understand?”
“Yes, understand!”
Qiao Mu promised right away.
When Qiao Mu left, Qi Kaiwen took his seat again.
His expression was a bit blank, but also mingled with a bit expectation and concern.
As the dean of the School of Chinese Medicine, it was all up to his school to win the Chinese Medicine Knowlege Competition. After all, his school was the School of Chinese Medicine.
If his school obtained good grades, everything would be fine.
If they lost, it would be quite humiliating. As the dean, he would not have any reason to keep his chin up on campus.
Hence, this time, he must guarantee their victory, no matter what.
But what made him perplexed was whether it was possible that a freshman could grasp all the knowledge of an entire book solely through the preview.
At this point, Qi Kaiwen suddenly thought of a figure. He instantly got up again and darted out of the door.
Fang Qiu’s second class in college was Ancient Chinese for Medicine.
For students learning Chinese Medicine, grasping ancient Chinese was a must, because most Chinese Medicine books were written in ancient Chinese. Being a Chinese Medicine major, if the student could not read ancient Chinese, he would be cooking his own goose.
The professor who taught Ancient Chinese for Medicine was an old man wearing a pair of thick glasses. He looked like an old scholar with a profound knowledge of traditional Chinese culture.
Fang Qiu look forward to this Ancient Chinese for Medicine class very much.
Although it was a piece of cake for him to read ancient Chinese, it did not mean that others were able to do so, too.
Now that he had already chosen the path of studying Chinese Medicine, he would stick to it. He would not only save the life of his old master but more people tormented by illnesses.
Nonetheless, how many people could one doctor save each day? And how many could he save in his entire life?
Only when all the students majoring in Chinese Medicine became learned doctors could they really contribute to the benefit of mankind!
Precisely because he was well aware of the benefits that ancient Chinese study could produce to help him learn Chinese Medicine, he was eagerly looking forward to this class.
At the beginning of the class, the teacher directly posed a question.
“After the three-month summer holiday, I wonder if any of you can still recite any of the ancient Chinese proses that you learned when preparing for the college entrance examination.”
When he asked that question, the whole class looked Fang Qiu’s way in unison.
After three months’ relaxation and wild playing, they had long since returned the high school knowledge to their high school teachers. But since they witnessed Fang Qiu’s sharp memory in the previous class, they knew if there was someone who could still recite some ancient Chinese proses, the one must be Fang Qiu.
Seeing everyone’s looks, Fang Qiu somehow did not know whether he should laugh or cry.
As the saying went, “A man dreads fame as a pig dreads being fat.” Sometimes, cutting a figure would come with side-effects.
Following everyone’s eyes, the professor also looked at Fang Qiu expectantly, and asked, “This student, you seem to enjoy pretty high esteem among all your classmates. Well, how many proses in ancient Chinese do you still remember?”
Now that everyone was holding this student in high regard, he must be the one who could recite the proses.
The teacher did not ask if he still could recite any of those proses but merely how many he could recite.
With everyone’s eyes fixed upon him, Fang Qiu stood up, gave it a thought. Those proses he learned in high school flashed across his mind like a movie. Then, he answered, “Almost all of them.”
“Wow!”
The whole class went stupefied.
Even the professor himself.
Sun Hao clapped a hand on his forehead and grumbled in his mind. “Would it kill you if you just say you can recite only one or two proses?”
“You’re born to blow our self-confidence!”
Even the oldest Zhu Benzheng, who had always been good at studying Chinese, was taken aback by that answer. Now, he could only recite three or four proses. After Fang Qiu had stolen the limelight in the previous class, he thought it was now his turn to show off a bit and enjoy everyone’s admiring looks.
But it turned out differently.
“All of them!”
Those words simply crashed all his indignation.
“This student is quite confident!”
The professor quickly recovered from that shock and asked, “I’m curious about how many points this student has obtained in the college entrance examination and how many points for Chinese?”
“That’s it!”
Not until this moment did the whole class think of the grades of college entrance examination.
“You’re so freaking brilliant at studying. You can easily master the whole book simply by doing the preview. When it comes to reciting ancient Chinese proses, you can recite ‘almost all of them’. Base on those facts, your grades of college entrance examination have to be amazingly high!”
“Especially for the subject of Chinese!”
“Normally, with such an awesome study ability, he can almost be the number one in the college entrance examination in his city or province.”
“But I didn’t hear of any freshman in the university whose grades of college entrance examination are very high, did I?”
Everyone turned to look at Fang Qiu, anxiously waiting for his response.
Meeting everyone’s eyes, Fang Qiu gave a wry smile—his grades of college entrance examination were not very high actually.
He answered, “132 points for Chinese, and 652 points in total.”
That was just a little better than the average level, not very excellent.
When everybody heard that, though they knew his grades were pretty good, they did not feel they were far away from the normal standard.
Therefore, the eyes that landed on Fang Qiu were filled with doubts.
“When I solely look at the ability Fang Qiu has demonstrated, I’ll say his grades must be over 680, or even over 700, which is possible.”
“But his Chinese grades are pretty good. He only lost 18 points, which means he truly did a good job on Chinese study.”
What they did not know was that Fang Qiu did not do his best in the college entrance examination on purpose.
If his parents ever knew that, they would definitely give him a good beat. But he truly did not do his best. He deliberately attained medium grades which would surely enable him to be accepted by the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine.
If his grades went too high, too eye-catching, it would be tricky if his family forced him to apply for the first rate universities like the Peking University or the Tsinghua University. But if his grades went too low, he might be rejected by the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine. Hence, he perfectly kept his grades within a medium range.
“Good grades!”
The professor praised Fang Qiu. Then, he said, “Seems that our class’s level on ancient Chinese study is relatively great. I shall have nothing to worry about.”
“Although I don’t feel the need of worry, it doesn’t mean you can live an easy life here. Ancient Chinese for medicine is quite different from ordinary ancient Chinese. The proses in ancient Chinese you’ve learned in high school are all beautiful and catchy ones selected from a sea of ancient books. However, ancient Chinese for medicine is not so catchy, nor is it easy to understand.”
“You need to know, in ancient times, medicine was a demeaning profession. Those who were knowledgable and good at writing all went to take the imperial examinations. Those who studied medicine were relatively not good at writing. Thus, I ask you to brace yourselves and work hard to study Ancient Chinese for Medicine, which will be very helpful to your Chinese Medicine study.”
“OK!”
The class replied collectively.
Seeing that the whole class was eager to learn, the professor was very pleased, so was Fang Qiu.
He was well aware that the power of a single man was limited, but when everybody added fuel, the flames rose high.
At the same time when Fang Qiu was having class, in the library.
Qi Kaiwen, the dean of the School of Chinese Medicine, turned up at the circulation desk of the library. He stood in front of the librarian, staring at the latter with a complex expression.
While the librarian was looking at him peacefully.
They gazed at each other for quite a while before Qi Kaiwen heaved a deep sigh and said, “Junior fellow, why do you have to be like this?”
This junior fellow apprentice of his was the only real Chinese Medicine genius he and his master had encountered in a lifetime. But now, he was reduced to being a librarian cooped up in a library. If his master had ever learned about this, how exasperated would he be?
“Senior, if you’re here to persuade me into being a teacher or working in a hospital as a doctor, please just go.”
Said the librarian, who then lowered his head and continued to read the book in his hand.
“I say you don’t have to be like this. With all the skills you’ve got, won’t it be great if you teach some to our students? If you don’t want that, at least you can help patients repel their pain, am I right? You being here is just a waste of resource, isn’t it?”
The librarian was still impassive.
“Well!”
Qi Kaiwen knew the disposition of his junior fellow apprentice. Once he made up his mind, there was no going back. Thus, he decided not to try to persuade him again. All he could do was wait for him to come around. “It is simply about the death of a patient of his that occurred during his medical practice, isn’t it?”
“But it wasn’t his fault at all. The death was caused by the patient himself, who bought the prescribed drug but failed to listen to the doctor’s instructions and also took some folk prescription of others. So, how can he become so depressed and keep hiding here to evade from the world?”
“Junior fellow, I’m here to ask you about something. Is it possible that someone has a kind of super memory that enables him to remember a whole book in a short spell, just like you do?”
Qi Kaiwen told the librarian the reason for his visit.
At those words, a figure flitted across the mind of the librarian. He answered without raising his head, “Yes, it is.”
Instantly, Qi Kaiwen’s whole body gave a shudder. He asked in a surprised and anxious tone, “Has that ‘someone’ ever appeared on our campus? Have you seen him?”
“Yes, I saw one.”
The librarian’s reply was still quite curt.
“Who is he?”
Qi Kaiwen hurriedly made a few steps forward and asked with excitement.
This time, the librarian looked up, a faint smile curled around the corners of his mouth, and he said, “Take a guess.”
“Take a guess…”
Qi Kaiwen’s excited face suddenly stiffened, blue veins standing out on his forehead.
“Here is this annoying face again.”
“I’ve seen it numerous times since childhood.”
“Every time is ‘take a guess’, ‘take a guess’, take your f*cking guess!”
“Junior fellow, in light of our profound friendship, you don’t need to keep it from me, do you?”
Qi Kaiwen forced himself to curb the impulse to give a punch at that face, put on a smiling face and asked.
“Take a guess.”
The librarian gave him the same reply and winked at him mischievously.
