Chapter 271 - See a Patient in the Dormitory
After a long time, Fang Qiu finally sent all the girls away from the dormitory.
Meeting the eyes of his three roommates, Fang Qiu could not help smiling wryly.
"If it goes on like this, I'm afraid that I will be screwed."
Fang Qiu was very anxious at the moment because his time was almost running out.
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"If this kind of thing happens several times again, how can I attend the examination?"
"I can go to Central Lake!"
A thought came to Fang Qiu's mind. He immediately made a decision.
With a lot of medical-case books borrowed from the library, Fang Qiu quietly went to the periphery of Central Lake alone, where was connected with the forest. Having made sure that there was no one around and few people could find it, he just sat down to read.
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Under the pressure of time, Fang Qiu read almost twice as fast as usual.
He constantly flipped through the pages of the medical-case books one after another until the end.
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Fang Qiu read books until nine o'clock in the evening without even having dinner.
After reading all the medical-case books that were borrowed, Fang Qiu just stood up and went back to the dormitory to get something to eat. Then he planned to recall the details of each medical case while resting with his eyes closed.
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"Dong Dong Dong!"
But just then, a soft knock at the door was heard.
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"Who is it?" Sun Hao, who was reciting, asked directly without even having a look.
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... "Excuse me, is Fang Qiu there?" a boy said, "I have something urgent to talk to him."
"No."
Sun Hao directly refused him.
There were too many people coming to see Fang Qiu from time to time, which made the three of them a little impatient.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
Outside the door came a sound of disappointment.
Hearing this, Fang Qiu suddenly opened his eyes and asked, "Wait. I just finished washing up. What can I do for you?"
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Hearing that, the three of them turned their heads together and looked at Fang Qiu in confusion.
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They saw that Fang Qiu raised his eyebrows as if he was thinking about something.
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... "Fang Qiu, are you there?" outside the door, the boy said, "sorry to bother you. Could you examine me?"
It sounded like he was imploring.
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Fang Qiu stood up and opened the door in confusion.
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Fang Qiu saw that a tall and strong boy was standing in front of the door. He looked listless and crestfallen with a few red spots on his face.
"Come in, please."
Having confirmed that he was really a patient, Fang Qiu didn't refuse him but directly led him inside.
"Since the patient has come to me, I, as a doctor, will certainly do my best."
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... "Thank you," the boy came in and said, "I'm Xiao Gao."
Fang Qiu asked, "Well, what do you want me to help you with?"
...
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... "This," Xiao Gao pointed to the red spots on his face and said, "a doctor of Western Medicine said that it was lupus erythematosus after checking."
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... "Lupus erythematosus?" Fang Qiu frowned and asked, "why don't you go to a large hospital of Chinese Medicine?"
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... "I did," Xiao Gao said with a bitter face, "I have gone to a lot of hospitals, but none of them could cure me. Besides, I have spent a lot of money on this disease. Now I don't have any money at all and I dare not ask my family for money anymore. So I come to you to try my luck."
"I'll try," Fang Qiu said as he nodded with understanding.
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"Thank you."
Xiao Gao nodded with thanks.
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Over there, when the three of them, who were reading books, heard the conversation between Fang Qiu and Xiao Gao, they could not help lighting up their eyes and walked over together.
They had not yet seen how Fang Qiu examined a patient, so they definitely couldn't miss such a rare and good opportunity.
"Want to see it?" asked Fang Qiu as he looked at the three of them.
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The three of them nodded at once.
"Bring me a chair."
As he spoke, Fang Qiu pulled up his own wooden chair and let Xiao Gao sit down.
They all knew that this was not an infectious disease, but after all, Xiao Gao didn't look good. In case his roommates cared about this kind of thing, Fang Qiu could only give his chair to Xiao Gao and he himself just sat on the chair that Sun Hao pulled up.
... ...
... "Four diagnostic methods of Chinese Medicine: look, listen, question, and feel," When he started to examine Xiao Gao, he said, "The first one is observation. Xiao Gao is strong. His voice is loud and his face is red."
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... Just then, Fang Qiu said to Xiao Gao, "Open your mouth and let me see."
Xiao Gao did as he was told.
"You have a yellow and wet coating on the tongue," Fang Qiu said after glancing at it.
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The three of them listened carefully because they knew that Fang Qiu was teaching them.
"What's wrong do you feel with your body, or is there anything uncomfortable with your body?" asked Fang Qiu.
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... "I always feel hot, including my feet. And I often feel thirsty," Xiao Gao said while thinking of it, "recently, I have a surprisingly good appetite. When I sleep, I sweat a lot. In the afternoon, I have no strength and feel tired."
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... "Anything else?" Fang Qiu said, "think again."
"Oh, right."
... Xiao Gao seemed to think of something and immediately added, "There is a pain in my right knee and there is swelling as well as pain in the joints of the big toe of my right foot. There is a place under my right elbow where the skin is itchy and rough."
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... "Feel tired every afternoon?" Fang Qiu was surprised and then asked, "do you usually stay up late? What kind of food do you usually eat?"
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... "Yes," Xiao Gao nodded and said, "in terms of food, I eat fried food a lot."
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... "Hmm," Fang Qiu nodded and said, "give me your hand and I'll feel your pulse."
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A moment later, Fang Qiu stopped.
"Your pulse is rapid and strong."
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... After feeling the pulse, Fang Qiu thought for a moment and said, "Sit straight. Let me give you a checkup."
Xiao Gao did as he was told.
Fang Qiu started.
He directly found the fifth vertebra and pressed down.
"Does it hurt?" asked Fang Qiu.
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"No." Xiao Gao shook her head.
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"Does it hurt?" Fang Qiu pressed on the same point in another direction.
"It also doesn't hurt."
Xiao Gao shook his head again.
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... "OK," Fang Qiu nodded and said, "there is no tender point in the fifth vertebra. As things stand, the doctor of Western Medicine should only get some skin cells that resemble the lupus erythematosus from your red skin."
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... After that, Fang Qiu smiled and added, "Xiao Gao, your disease is not lupus erythematosus."
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... "Ah?" Xiao Gao was surprised and said, "But I have already gone to the hospitals for a checkup and several doctors from different hospitals said it was lupus erythematosus."
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... "I think that they did not examine you accurately," Fang Qiu said, "as per my diagnosis, your disease should be Yangming fever, the so-called Yangming non-coldness. Moreover, you have a muggy lung and phlegm accumulation."
"Because Yangming is overheated, your physical strength declines in the afternoon. Yangming fever always occurs in the afternoon."
"In addition, you don't have a tender point in the fifth vertebra, so I'm sure that you don't have lupus erythematosus."
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Speaking of this, Fang Qiu immediately turned around, picked up the paper and pen on his desk, and began to write a prescription.
"250 grams of gypsum fibrosum, 25 grams of rhizoma anemarrhenae, 15 grams of Chinese honey locust, ten jujubes, 15 grams of scutellaria baicalensis, 15 grams of golden cypress, 10 grams of goldthread, 15 grams of fructus amomi, 15 grams of liquorice, 25 grams of dwarf lilyturf, 15 grams of Chinese yam, 15 grams of poria cocos, and 15 grams of sophora flavescens."
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... After that, Fang Qiu handed the prescription to Xiao Gao and said, "You can get the medicine in school pharmacy. Take 3 doses first."
"OK."
Xiao Gao nodded.
"In addition, you can buy a box of comfrey balm to apply to the itchy areas." Fang Qiu added.
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... "Is it really not lupus erythematosus? Can I be cured by taking this medicine?"
Xiao Gao was still worried.
"After all, my illness has been diagnosed as lupus erythematosus by several hospitals. Why did Fang Qiu say no?"
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... "It's not lupus erythematosus," Fang Qiu shook his head with certainty and said, "the reason why I give you this prescription is that it is a mixture of Baihu Tang and Essence-preserving Pill for Epidemic Febrile Diseases."
"Yangming fever will be removed immediately by a large dose of gypsum fibrosum. Scutellaria baicalensis, golden cypress, and goldthread can remove the dampness and fever in your stomach. Yang needs to be sealed up. Essence-preserving Pill can be used to bring down the dropping Yang heat into the kidney and seal it up."
"The Chinese honey locust in the prescription can be used for this. Sophora flavescens and scutellaria baicalensis can remove dampness and fever in the liver. Dwarf lilyturf and Chinese yam can moisten your lung and eliminate dampness from urine."
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Hearing that, the three of them and Xiao Gao all gawked at Fang Qiu in shock.
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They thought that even if Fang Qiu got the Physician's Qualification Certificate, he could only examine patients, feel the pulse, and write a prescription. But they did not expect that Fang Qiu not only could examine patients but also could state the knowledge clearly, logically, and strictly.
"I see. Thank you, Fang Qiu."
Xiao Gao thanked him.
After hearing Fang Qiu's explanation, he suddenly became confident.
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From the beginning, he just doubted whether Fang Qiu had the ability to examine him, so he would be skeptical about whatever Fang Qiu would say, especially when he heard Fang Qiu said that he did not have lupus erythematosus.
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He definitely preferred to trust hospitals than Fang Qiu.
"What's more, lupus erythematosus is the diagnosis result of several hospitals. Fang Qiu is just a student. Although he does well in study and has excellent abilities, he can't be as awesome as the doctors in the hospital, right?"
...
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However, when Fang Qiu gave his reasons, Xiao Gao was surprised somehow. He also read a lot of medical books for this disease and had an impression on what Fang Qiu had said, so he could be sure that what Fang Qiu said was true.
Just with this, he became confident.
At least, it was uncommon for a person to be able to analyze his symptoms to such an extent. Even the doctors from the hospitals could rarely do this.
"You're welcome."
Fang Qiu smiled.
"Then I will go to get medicine first. If I get better, I will tell you immediately," Xiao Gao said and then ran towards the pharmacy at once.
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No sooner had he left than the three of them gave a thumbs-up to Fang Qiu together.
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... "Awesome, the youngest," Sun Hao smiled and said, "looks like a doctor."
"What do you mean by 'looks like'? The youngest is really something, OK?"
... Zhou Xiaotian also echoed immediately. "You are really excellent at seeing patients!"
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... "I used to see a doctor of Chinese Medicine," Zhu Benzheng said, "according to my observation, the performance of the youngest is not worse than the old doctor of Chinese Medicine!"
"Can you teach us, the youngest?" Sun Hao asked.
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At the sound of this, the other two people also said that they wanted to learn.
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... "Yes," Fang Qiu nodded and said, "the premise is to read 'Binhu Pulse Study' ten times."
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Upon hearing that, the three of them went to look for the book immediately.
The shock that Fang Qiu had given to them was too huge. As the classmates who were in the same dormitory and in the same academic year, they had to study harder since Fang Qiu had been so awesome.
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But here, Fang Qiu went back to bed and continued to watch the copper coins.
So far, there had been five copper coins hanging before his eyes.
Chapter 272 - The Youngest, You Are Famous Again!
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Although he was away from school for one and a half months, after going to Qimen Town, Fang Qiu had never forgotten to practice his mental power. When he lived in the clinic, he also cultivated in the same way every night.
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And that was why the number of copper coins had imperceptibly been increased to five by Fang Qiu.
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Lying in bed and looking at the five copper coins swinging back and forth in front of him, Fang Qiu frowned slightly.
"I can make five copper coins waggle with my mental power and it's not so difficult now."
"Starting from the third and fourth one, the difficulty of adding one copper coin was much less than before. Therefore, the improvement of mental power is much slower."
"If I combine these five coins into one and if I want to cultivate like before, I have to increase five coins rather than one!"
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Thinking about it, Fang Qiu sat straight at once.
He took five copper coins from under his pillow and tied them on the string hanging in front of him.
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After that, when Fang Qiu looked at the string of copper coins which was twice as thick as before, he nodded secretly. Then he lay down again, staring at the copper coins with sparkling eyes.
"To the left. To the left..."
He shouted inwardly and kept urging the mental power again and again.
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As a result, after a long time of effort, the ten copper coins did not move at all.
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In fact, as his mind power gradually strengthened, Fang Qiu could vaguely feel the existence of the copper coins through his mental power. It seemed that as long as he looked at the copper coins, he could clearly feel them. It was a very magical feeling because it was just like he was touching the copper coins with his hands.
The difference was that Fang Qiu could use his hands to crush up the ten copper coins without even exerting too much strength.
But with mental power, Fang Qiu felt that the ten copper coins were like a big bell, an unshakable huge ancient bell which was like a mountain and his mental power was the bell hammer.
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But compared with the ancient bell, the bell hammer was really small because it couldn't move the bell at all.
"Only when I insist can I make a breakthrough!"
Fang Qiu did not give up. Instead, he kept urging his mental power again and again.
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He believed that the exercises of mental power were the same as physical exercises.
"Take running for example, as long as I keep running and still insist when I'm exhausted, I will eventually make a breakthrough one day. If I don't insist, how can I make a breakthrough?"
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He practiced again and again, over and over again!
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Having been practicing for a good hour, Fang Qiu just felt that his mental power increased a lot. Although he still could not make the ten copper coins sway freely, he had already made them sway successfully.
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When the ten copper coins waggled before his eyes, Fang Qiu felt that in his head, a sinew seemed to be tight suddenly, which made him very tired.
"Whew..."
Lying on the bed, Fang Qiu breathed deeply.
"Sure enough, I still have to add enough weight to make a breakthrough anyhow. I will follow this from today on!"
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After taking a few deep breaths, he fell asleep.
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At noon the next day, after lunch, Fang Qiu was reading books in the dormitory and was about to take a lunch break.
"Knock! Knock! Knock!" ...
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All of a sudden, a sharp knock was heard.
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"Who is it?" Sun Hao, who was reciting books, asked immediately in anger as if this knock interrupted his reciting.
"It's me, Xiao Gao," Xiao Gao replied outside the door.
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"Xiao Gao?"
The three of them were all dumbfounded and turned their heads to look at Fang Qiu together.
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... "The youngest," Zhou Xiaotian came over on tiptoe, patted Fang Qiu on the shoulder, and said, "why don't you hide in the bathroom first? Sounds like he comes here to make trouble."
"Could it be that you wrote a wrong prescription last night?" Zhu Benzheng also moved closer and asked in a low voice.
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"Shall I open the door or not?"
Sun Hao frowned and looked worried.
"Let me do it."
Fang Qiu shook his head with a smile. Then he stood up, went to the door, and opened it directly.
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Behind him, the three of them looked at each other and then came over together. Each of them assumed a brave posture as if they had been ready to fight.
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But as the door was opened, Xiao Gao looked pleasantly surprised in front of them.
"What do you mean?"
... Before Fang Qiu spoke, Sun Hao took the lead to say, "Why did you shout so loudly and so hurriedly? Are you kidding us?"
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... "Ah?" Xiao Gao was stunned for a moment and then said, "sorry, I was so excited."
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"What were you excited about?" Zhou Xiaotian said as he curled his lips.
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... "I was excited because the medicine that Fang Qiu prescribed to me was especially effective!" Xiao Gao touched his face and said, "I took the medicine last night and this morning. Then I found that the red spots on my face had really subsided a lot. It was really effective."
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Hearing that, the three of them were immediately dumbstruck.
Initially, they thought that Xiao Gao came here to make trouble, but it turned out to be this result.
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As they took a closer look, they found that Xiao Gao did have fewer red spots on his face than last night.
He looked like on the mend obviously.
"As long as it works."
Fang Qiu smiled and nodded.
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... "In fact, I came here to thank you," Xiao Gao looked at Fang Qiu seriously and said, "I really did not expect that you have been so awesome. Although I'm at the same university and in the same grade as you, I'm not as good as one-tenth of you. I even did not know what disease I had and I had spent so much money in vain."
"Originally, I intended to drop out because it was too difficult to learn Chinese Medicine and I couldn't see progress within a short time. But now, I have changed my idea. I decide to study Chinese Medicine hard and learn from you. I have to become an excellent doctor of Chinese Medicine!"
The words were impassioned and exciting.
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"Chinese Medicine is extensive and profound. What I have learned is just superficial knowledge. Let's study hard together and make progress together," replied Fang Qiu.
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"Hmm."
Xiao Gao nodded deeply.
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Here, the three of them were dumbfounded.
After Xiao Gao left, they surrounded Fang Qiu in an instant.
"The youngest, take me home and take care of me!"
"Yes. Yes, we are friends."
"As the old saying goes, keep good men company and you shall be of the number. We sleep in the same room. Although we are not as excellent as you, you should help us make some progress at least."
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The three of them kept talking. Anyway, there was only one center of the topic, which was guidance and teaching from Fang Qiu!
"Recite books first," said Fang Qiu.
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In the afternoon, Xiao Gao returned to the dormitory after class and was about to take some medicine. When he looked in the mirror, he found that the red spots on his face had completely disappeared.
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This made him pleasantly surprised and excited.
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"The illness that troubled me for so long has finally been cured. The most important thing is that it's not the so-called lupus erythematosus at all!"
Thinking of those doctors in the hospitals who misdiagnosed him, Xiao Gao felt extremely angry.
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"If you can't make a correct diagnosis, why do you run the hospital?"
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Thinking of this, Xiao Gao immediately turned on the computer, logged in the campus BBS, and wrote a post.
"Doctors of Western Medicine misdiagnosed my illness while a doctor of Chinese Medicine cured me. Thank Fang Qiu!"
He wanted to make a name for Fang Qiu and vindicate for doctors of Chinese Medicine, so he alerted and excited the students of UJCM with his experience!
...
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In the post, he spelled out every detail, including how the hospitals diagnosed his illness as lupus erythematosus and how he failed to be cured. But after seeing Fang Qiu finally, he was examined and given a prescription by Fang Qiu.
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At the end of the post, he also wrote down his real name and class number without concealing anything. Besides, he repeatedly thanked Fang Qiu and even praised Fang Qiu as a miracle of UJCM. He also called on everyone to learn from Fang Qiu.
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When posted, it immediately attracted a lot of attention.
Seeing the post, people were even more shocked.
"Really? Is he so awesome?"
"Nowadays, hospitals are really irresponsible."
"Yes, they even misdiagnosed illness. Fortunately, Fang Qiu made a correct diagnosis. Otherwise, if they treated him for lupus erythematosus, no one would know what he would suffer."
"Is Fang Qiu so awesome?"
"Fang Qiu could even overturn the diagnosis of hospitals. Has he been that awesome?"
"Since the post starter has posted his name and class, this thing is definitely true. Last time when I heard that Fang Qiu saw patients, I thought that it was hype. I did not expect it to be true."
"He deserves to be Fang Qiu and deserves to be the No.1 in our University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine!"
"Sure enough, Fang Qiu is really something!"
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For a time, countless people made comments.
In their eyes, Fang Qiu's ability was so excellent that it shouldn't be owned by a freshman.
He could even overturn the hospital diagnosis and proved himself right.
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Who dared to question such strength?
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"Wow!"
... In the evening, at Dormitory 501, Sun Hao finally could relax after reciting for a whole day. He planned to see if there was something new on BBS. But as soon as he logged in, he saw countless discussions about Fang Qiu. So he couldn't help turning to look at Fang Qiu and said in surprise, "The youngest, you're famous on BBS again."
"Hmm?" Fang Qiu was dumbfounded.
... Then he sighed and said as he shook his head, "I have been used to it."
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Upon hearing that, Sun Hao, Zhou Xiaotian, and Zhu Benzheng looked at each other and despised Fang Qiu together.
"You are playing cool too obviously!"
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Fang Qiu just chuckled at it and continued reading.
The next morning would be the time for his examination of the craftsman doctor, so he had to seize the last moment to strengthen himself.
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Also, he was going to attend the Comparing-notes Assembly in the manor in the suburbs the next night.
He had to attend it!
In order to help the old master, he had to keep fighting to improve himself completely.
"About the examination tomorrow..."
Fang Qiu thought while reading.
Xu Miaolin told him before that the examination of the craftsman doctor was to directly treat all 25 patients who had common diseases.
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Of course, the premise was that each participant must have a guarantor, otherwise, it would be too bad for the 25 patients if the participant couldn't cure them. Therefore, if the participant wanted to take part in the examination, he must have an awesome doctor of Chinese Medicine as his referrer and he must have abilities. ...
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Without any doubt, Fang Qiu's referrer was Xu Miaolin this time. So he had to exert all his strength.
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And according to Xu Miaolin, Fang Qiu would go to attend the examination alone.
About participating in the examination, Xu Miaolin had almost got everything done. As for the rest, it could only be left to Fang Qiu.
Chapter 273 - So Young
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The next morning, Fang Qiu left school after breakfast and headed for the City Chinese Medicine Association.
Today was the day he took the examination of the craftsman doctor.
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Fang Qiu went out early, so there was no traffic jam on the road. He soon came to the door of the City Chinese Medicine Association.
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That was a courtyard with a broad silver door as its entrance.
The door was hung with a white board with black letters on it, which said "Jiangjing City Chinese Medicine Association".
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Although it was early, the door was already open.
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Stepping forward, Fang Qiu found a wide, garden-like space with a circular flower table in the middle and trees, flowers and plants on each side. The air was so fresh inside.
"The Chinese Medicine Association is really different from other associations."
Enjoying the beautiful view of the courtyard, Fang Qiu murmured to himself.
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From his point of view, only people of the Chinese Medicine Association could beautify the environment to this extent. After all, traditional Chinese Medicine stressed health preservation. Beautifying the environment was not only a job but also a responsibility for traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, which made them different from any other doctors.
There were walls on the right of the garden and a large three-story building on the left.
The building was not luxurious, but a little shabby. It might have a history of more than ten years.
It was where the examination was held.
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Walking through the garden, Fang Qiu came to the corridor of the first floor of the building.
A young man who was about 20 years old was sitting on a bench in the corridor, waiting.
... A thought came into Fang Qiu's mind.
He immediately went up to the man and asked, "Excuse me, is this the place where the examination of the craftsman doctor is held?"
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"Hmm?" The young man looked at Fang Qiu with surprise. "Are you going to attend the examination?"
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"Yes." Fang Qiu nodded.
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The young man was even more surprised hearing that.
He thought that he was the only one who was so young and attended the examination. Unexpectedly, there was a man younger than him.
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It took people years to learn traditional Chinese Medicine, not days or months.
The young man thought that it was really impressive for him to come to the exam at his age.
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But Fang Qiu looked only 17 or 18 years old.
How could he attend the exam at such a young age? Was it a joke?
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Though the young man was amazed, he asked, "You look so young. Do you know that you have to get the Physician's Qualification Certificate before you attend this exam?"
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Fang Qiu nodded his understanding. "I know."
"So, do you get it?" asked the young man.
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"Yes, I did." Fang Qiu smiled and nodded again.
"When did you get it?" asked the young man again.
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"Just half a month ago," said Fang Qiu.
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"What?"The young man was startled, looking at Fang Qiu in shock. "You are so bold for coming to the exam. You just get the certificate not long ago."
Fang Qiu kept smiling and said nothing.
"This is the testing place for the exam. I heard that the exam would start at nine o'clock. We got here early, so we have to sit here and wait," said the young man.
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"All right." Fang Qiu nodded and sat down.
They stopped talking and kept waiting for the exam.
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Meanwhile, in a conference room on the third floor, the early morning sun shone on a few potted plants on the windowsill.
It was a middle-sized conference room.
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Unlike a normal conference room, there was no formal meeting table or high-tech equipment in this room. Only a tea table and a few stools made of straws could be seen.
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At this moment, several old men were sitting on the stools, drinking tea.
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"Crack." There was a push on the door.
A middle-aged man walked into the conference room.
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"Here you are." An old man looked at the middle-aged man who had just entered the room and asked with a smile, "Did you get fifty patients as volunteers?"
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"Yes." The middle-aged man nodded and said, "It was an effort."
The old men nodded toward each other.
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"It's strange today." The middle-aged man was walking toward the tea table while saying, "Normally, nearly not a single one will attend our examination. Today, there are two men. And they're both quite young. Although someone had informed in advance and we have time to prepare, it still took me a lot of effort."
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"Two young men?" The old man asked, "How young?"
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"One, in his early twenties." The middle-aged man replied. "The other one is only 17."
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Hearing that, the elders present were all a little surprised.
They had seen someone who attended the exam in his 20s. What surprised them the most was the other one was only 17-year-old.
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What did a 17-year-old kid know about medicine? How could he attend this exam?
Was he born in a family which practiced traditional Chinese medicine? So he was exposed to it from an early age?
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"There's more." The middle-aged man shook his head again and added with a smile, "this 17-year-old got his Physician's Qualification Certificate only half a month ago."
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"Nonsense!" The old man immediately frowned and yelled. "How can he attend this exam? He's just been a qualified doctor for just half a month."
"Yeah, that's a bit arrogant," said another elder.
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"That's insane." All the men present were shocked.
"Who recommended this boy to take the exam?" asked a round-faced, gray-browed old man who was brewing tea in the center.
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"Well... I don't know." The middle-aged man shook his head and went on. "The president called me personally anyway."
"Why did he do that? That's reckless." The round-faced old man said.
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"No, it's not like that." The middle-aged man hurriedly said, "The president didn't do anything wrong this time. When he called me, he said this 17-year-old little guy was not just some ordinary kid."
"Just tell us what you know. Don't try to fool us." The round-faced old man glared at the middle-aged man.
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Hearing that, the middle-aged man smiled. "This 17-year-old kid, named Fang Qiu, is the freshman who won the Feeling Pulse Challenge about two months ago!"
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"Oh?" The round-faced old man froze.
The other elders, too, were in a state of surprise.
"It's him?"
"I see. Well, if he is the one who takes the exam today, he might have a chance to pass."
"I thought we had another genius in Jiangjing."
"It looks like today's exam is going to be interesting."
When the truth came out, the anger on the faces of the elders dissipated and a wide smile took its place.
"Is the other one who is taking the examination the apprentice of Lu Chen, the famous doctor?" asked the round-faced old man.
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"Yes." The middle-aged man nodded his head. "His name is Yu Ziyuan."
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"Hmm." The round-faced old man nodded smilingly.
"Lu Chen is a great doctor. I bet his apprentice is not ordinary either."
"I feel like today's test is going to turn into a competition."
"Ha-ha, let's see who is better, the apprentice of Lu Chen or the 17-year-old kid."
"They both got potentials. That's rare in an exam."
"For us, they are competing, for them, they are just taking an exam. And they won't interfere with each other. But in this case, we can see the strength and potential of these two boys."
The old men couldn't help but discuss fiercely.
...
In the part where the discussion was the most heated up, the old man with the round face and gray eyebrows suddenly looked at the time. "It's 8:30, only a half-hour before the test. Since they're here and everything is ready, let's just start the exam. No need to waste time."
The rest of the elders nodded.
They couldn't wait to see the performance of Fang Qiu and Yu Ziyuan.
"Well, I'll go and inform them now."
The middle-aged man immediately nodded and got out of the conference room.
...
He was trotting all the way down from the third floor.
When he came to the first floor, he saw Fang Qiu and Yu Ziyuan, so he asked, "Do you come here to take the exam of craftsman doctor?"
They both nodded at once.
...
"Well, you don't need to wait. You can start the exam now." The middle-aged man nodded and pointed to two large rooms on the first floor. "Each one of you should choose a room to get in, and the staff will bring your patients here."
...
...
"Here's a kindly reminder. When you have finished writing the prescription, the patient will not leave. You need to choose and boil the medicine on the spot. After drinking the medicine, the patient will leave with the prescription."
...
The middle-aged man paused and went on, "Hurry up and choose your room. Prepare for the examination."
...
Hearing that, Fang Qiu and Yu Ziyuan looked at each other and then walked in a different direction.
...
These two rooms were very large, for there were only two rooms on the first floor. Divided by the central corridor, one was on the left and one was on the right.
Fang Qiu chose the room on the right.
...
Entering the room, Fang Qiu found that everything in the room was really well prepared.
In addition to the exam table and medicine cabinet, there was a row of intelligent medicine boiling pots and five buckets of natural mineral water beside the wall and window.
After taking a casual look around the room and remembering the location of things he was sure to use later, he sat down at the exam table and waited for the exam to begin.
...
...
At the same time, when two of them entered the room, those elders also walked into a brand-new meeting room.
Unlike the previous conference room, everything in this conference room was extremely modern.
There was a big screen in the center of the room.
Through the monitors, all the things of the two exam rooms were clearly projected onto the big screen. Those old men started to discuss with each other.
"He is indeed Lu Chen's apprentice. This boy named Yu Ziyuan is very strict in his work. When he entered the room, he checked all the equipment he needed. Is he afraid that the equipment we prepared was not clean?"
"Ha-ha, I like this kid. He just looked around the room, and then sat down. He looked like he knew all the equipment we prepared must have been sterilized."
"Both of them look good."
"Which one is going to do better? Any guess?"
"I think Yu Ziyuan is better."
"I think so. He got an outstanding teacher and the time he practiced Chinese medicine for was obviously longer than the other boy."
"Yes, if Fang Qiu is not lying, he might have studied Chinese medicine for a short time. Although he had won the Feeling Pulse Challenge, it is still a bit difficult for him to attend the exam of craftsman doctor."
Chapter 274 - Only Learned for Six Months
After waiting for about three minutes, the door opened.
Fang Qiu finally got his first patient.
"There are 25 patients. I need to diagnose and get the right medicine and boil the medicine for each patient."
"It takes an hour to boil the medicine for each person. Although there are 25 pots available, the interval between the two pots is so long. It will take seven or eight hours even if I treat the patient and boil the medicine at the same time."
"And I also need time for lunch."
"Then I have to go back to school to change my clothes before going to the practice meeting at 7:00 p. m. There's not enough time."
Fang Qiu was thinking to himself.
The first patient had come to the diagnostic desk.
"There is no time. I have to feel the pulses with both hands to buy myself some time," Fang Qiu thought.
With this in mind, he started to diagnose.
He started to ask the patient some questions while feeling the pulses with both hands.
People in the conference room were witnessing what he was doing.
A group of elders who were drinking tea were startled and spat out the tea immediately.
"What is he doing?" an old man asked, pointing at Fang Qiu.
"Does he know how to diagnose?" asked another old man.
"Don't you think this kid is feeling the pulses with both hands?" asked the round-faced old man.
Hearing that, the rest was in a state of shock.
Ordinary people were not able to learn this method. Only a few of the famous doctors could do that.
At first, no one would believe that Fang Qiu knew this method.
But taking a closer look, they found that Fang Qiu was really feeling the patient's pulses with both hands!
"This kid is not ordinary."
"How did he know this method?"
"Maybe he's just trying. No matter how awesome he is, it is impossible for him to learn to feel the pulses with both hands in such a short time."
"Did he only study Chinese medicine for half a year?"
While the elders were in shock, Fang Qiu was diagnosing as fast as he could.
This was a female patient in her 50s.
After asking her some questions, Fang Qiu learned that she had suffered from chronic superficial gastritis for five years. About a year ago, she also had dysentery for five months. Since then, she would feel the abdominal pain while moving her bowels.
"Are there any other symptoms besides abdominal pain?" Fang Qiu felt the pulses and asked.
"I always feel out of strength and my heart races fast sometimes. I also suffer from poor sleep at night," replied the patient.
"Any recent diarrhea or constipation?" he asked.
"No," the patient shook her head.
"I see." Fang Qiu nodded.
After observation, he found that she got a pale tongue and weak pulses. Judging from the patient's symptoms, Fang Qiu believed that this woman could use a kind of medicine that could warm meridians.
Fang Qiu started to write a prescription.
"Evodia Rutaecarpa 10g, cinnamon 10g, pinellia ternata 10g, liriope 10g, cortex moutan 10g, codonopsis pilosula 20g, colla corii asini 10g, angelica sinensis 10g, white peony root 15g, glycyrrhiza 6g, ginger 3 pieces."
After he finished writing the prescription, Fang Qiu went to the medicine cabinet to get the medicine.
There was an electronic scale on the medicine cabinet.
Fang Qiu was fast when he was picking the medicine. He barely made any deviation when he put the medicine on the electronic scale.
Actually, Fang Qiu was confident that he didn't need an electronic scale.
But he was having an examination, and it would cause the dissatisfaction of the judges and patients if he didn't use the scale, so he still weighed the medicine and took it down immediately.
When he was done, he immediately put all the medicine into the pot and added some mineral water to soak the medicine.
Fang Qiu didn't specifically learn how to boil the medicine before. When he was in Puji Clinic in Qimen Town, he needed to help boil the medicine every day, so he had learned something about it. Feng Xuexin also had told him something about boiling. Fang Qiu also had done it when he saw patients by himself before. Therefore, it was not difficult for him to do this.
"All right, please wait outside. When the medicine is ready, I'll call you," Fang Qiu said to the patient as he came back to the desk.
The patient left while she heard that.
Then the second patient entered the room.
Fang Qiu looked at the door. This time, it was a plump woman with yellowish complexion.
"Good morning, ma'am. Please have a seat."
When the patient sat down, Fang Qiu smiled and nodded. "What seems to be the trouble?" he asked.
"I feel dizzy."
The woman opened her mouth and said, "I always get dizzy, especially after work."
"Apart from dizziness, are there any other symptoms, such as nausea, tinnitus or insomnia?" he asked.
"No." The woman shook her head. "Just dizziness."
"Well, please open your mouth and let me have a look." As he watched the patient's tongue, he began to feel her pulses with both hands.
When he finished, he immediately wrote out the prescription.
"Astragalus membranaceus 60g, cinnamon 10g, red peony root 30g, Ligusticum wallichii 15g, the root of kudzu vine 80g, and date 20g."
From treating the patient to picking the medicine, Fang Qiu was quite smooth.
In the conference room, several elders couldn't help but nod while looking at his performance.
"I don't know if he's a good doctor or not, but from what I've seen so far, this guy is at least very experienced."
"Yeah, he looks good."
"It's really impressive if he could get to that level after only six months of study."
Then they turned to look at another room.
"He's not bad, either."
"Yeah, maybe it's because he had been learning medicine since he was a kid. He was quite careful. He didn't rush or slow down."
"Yeah, nice and steady."
"Traditional Chinese medicine is all about stability."
Several elders nodded in agreement.
After seeing the second patient quickly, Fang Qiu immediately got up to take the medicine and then soaked it.
Soon the second patient left. The third came in.
Fang Qiu continued to diagnose.
After diagnosis, he still did the whole process smoothly.
After he soaked the third patient's medicine in the water, Fang Qiu immediately went to the first pot and added some water to it. He didn't boil it until the water had covered all the medicine. And he kept it on medium heat.
After he finished, he returned to the desk.
He didn't get the medicine in the second and third pot and just left them soaked in the water.
The fourth patient came in.
The staff member also came in and took away three prescriptions that Fang Qiu wrote out.
Fang Qiu knew it was a routine check.
After all, this was a one-on-one test. And they took the real patients as the test, so the Chinese Medicine Association needed to take it seriously.
It didn't matter whether people who took the exam could cure or save patients. They must take the prescriptions out for inspection.
Firstly, they needed to avoid wrong diagnoses and prescriptions.
Secondly, they were afraid that it may cause damage to the patient's physical and mental health if they used too many drugs.
Fang Qiu continued to see his patients.
After the staff member got the prescriptions, they immediately sent them to the conference room.
The elders didn't directly check the prescriptions until they were familiar with the three patients' conditions.
When they looked at the prescriptions carefully, they couldn't help but exclaim.
"Impressive."
"He's amazing!"
"With such strength, no wonder that he could win the Feeling Pulse Challenge at such a young age."
"He is quite fast and accurate while writing his prescriptions. Nothing more or less. He is really talented. I think he's very experienced."
"Now I'm curious. If it only took him six months, how did this kid get to this point? Even a genius can't do that."
As the discussion carried on, these old men grew more and more surprised and curious.
"He can reach this level by learning for six months. Even if he really is a genius, he couldn't have taught himself how to do it without a teacher. Who could he be to teach such a great student?"
"I'm afraid the boy's master must be someone who is really powerful."
"Who will be his master?"
"In my opinion, even with the help of a master, an ordinary student can't reach this level."
"That's right."
"Yes, with feeling the pulses on both hands and the perfect prescriptions, this boy's strength is far beyond our expectation."
While the elders were impressed by Fang Qiu's capacity, he had seen his sixth patient.
After picking the medicine of the sixth patient and soaking it in a pot, Fang Qiu immediately went to the second pot, filled it with water, covered the medicine in the pot, and boiled it on fire.
Then he immediately moved to the first pot of medicine.
He poured the juice of the pot into a bowl to about 150 to 200 ml. After pouring, he added some warm water and cook it for a second time.
Then he returned to the desk, sat down again, and continued to see his patient.
In the meantime.
"Pitter-patter..." There was the sound of footsteps outside the conference room.
One of the staff walked into the conference room with three prescriptions.
"Whose prescriptions are these?" an old man asked as soon as he entered the room.
"They're from Fang Qiu," the staff member replied.
"So soon?" Although they had been watching Fang Qiu's performance through the monitor, they didn't expect that he could be so fast.
Besides, Yu Ziyuan, the disciple of the famous doctor Lu Chen, hadn't finished his first round of prescriptions.
But Fang Qiu had already written out six prescriptions.
There was no doubt that Fang Qiu had already beaten Yu Ziyuan in terms of speed.
However, this was an examination that contained 25 patients in it. He just saw six patients. Although Fang Qiu was fast and made perfect prescriptions in the first round, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't make a mistake later.
As for the elders, if you did it quickly, you might make a mistake. But if you did it slowly, you could play it safe.
No matter how talented and fast Fang Qiu was, he would end his exam if he made any mistake, which meant he would fail.
Different from Fang Qiu, Yu Ziyuan was quite steady.
Therefore, even if he was slower than Fang Qiu, those elders didn't think that he was worse than him, because they believed he wouldn't make a mistake.
Just as the old men were receiving their prescriptions, there was another sound of footsteps.
There came the first round of Yu Ziyuan's prescriptions.
Chapter 275 - What Was This Boy Doing?
"Finally."
When they saw the first round of Yu Ziyuan's prescriptions, the elders couldn't help but smile in the conference room.
"Fang Qiu is twice as fast as Yu Ziyuan."
"He is indeed fast and has good talents, but unfortunately... he's too reckless."
"Yeah."
"With this kind of strength, he shouldn't be so reckless."
"A doctor shouldn't be so impetuous!"
"It is a pity that such a talented young man should have such a bad character."
"I was about to praise his master for teaching such a great student before. But now I think his master is the one to blame. How could he teach such a gifted and promising kid to be so impetuous?"
"Well... If things keep going on like this, I'm afraid it won't be that easy for Fang Qiu to pass the exam."
"Yeah, the longer he keeps doing this, the more likely he is to make a mistake."
Although the other three prescriptions of Fang Qiu didn't have any problem, those elders were not surprised at all. They just kept shaking their heads in disappointment.
In their eyes, the reason why Fang Qiu was so fast must be that he was so eager to perform and too impetuous.
In the exam room on the first floor, while the elders were still exclaiming, Fang Qiu had already seen his thirteenth patient.
He had treated more than half of the patients.
At the same time, Fang Qiu didn't forget to boil the medicine.
The first pot had been boiled twice.
It was about time, so Fang Qiu called the first patient in, poured the medicine juice and asked her to drink it. Then he gave the prescription and the rest of the medicine to her and told her to decoct the medicine when she got home.
Even if he had to constantly ask his patients to drink the decoction, he didn't slow down to see his patients.
The old men in the conference room received three more prescriptions from Fang Qiu.
Although they didn't have faith in Fang Qiu, they were still responsible for their work as members of the Chinese Medicine Association. After knowing the patients' conditions, they checked Fang Qiu's prescriptions carefully.
As it turned out, there was still nothing wrong with the prescriptions given by Fang Qiu.
This was the twelfth prescription.
In other words, Fang Qiu had seen 12 patients. And there were no problems with the previous nine prescriptions he gave.
That was to say, Fang Qiu could maintain his accuracy while operating at a high speed.
That surprised all the elders.
"There's something wrong with this kid," one of the elders said.
"This is impossible," the other old man frowned and was lost in thought.
"We all know that seeing patients is stressful work which requires so much energy. Normally, after seeing over ten patients, a doctor would be very tired or even have a headache. And he would have to take a rest or slow down. But this kid, how come he didn't seem tired at all?"
The round-faced old man stared at Fang Qiu on the big screen and said, "That's weird. He won't go any wrong?"
"He will if he keeps doing this."
"Now he might be holding back. Maybe he is so exhausted by now."
"I think so."
The elders were surprised. They had seen patients all their lives. They had a deep understanding of being a doctor, and they knew when they would get tired. So they didn't have faith in Fang Qiu in the first place because he was too fast.
But they didn't expect that Fang Qiu could keep doing it at that speed.
Fang Qiu finished decocting the medicine in the second pot. He called the second patient in and asked her to drink it.
Then he poured the medicine and juice from the pot into a bag and gave it to the patient to take away together with the prescription.
At this moment, Fang Qiu had already seen his thirteenth patient.
As for the people from the Chinese Medicine Association, he was going too fast.
Even so, Fang Qiu still felt that it was too slow.
It had been three hours now even though he tried to do it as fast as he could.
On the other side, Yu Ziyuan, the disciple of the famous doctor Lu Chen, had just seen six patients.
Compared with Fang Qiu, Yu Ziyuan spent much more time in seeing the patients and picking the medicine.
Of course, Fang Qiu didn't know that.
Anyway, they were not competitors. What Fang Qiu needed now was to pass the exam while he was in such a hurry.
"Next."
Sitting back at the desk, Fang Qiu immediately shouted when there was no one entering the room.
"Crack!"
The door was open.
However, it was not the patient who came in, but a staff member came in with a packed lunch.
"All right, time's up."
"It's lunchtime. You should have something to eat first, but you're not allowed to leave the room because you are in the examination, so you can only eat here," said the staff member as he walked to Fang Qiu.
"Okay." Fang Qiu simply took over the lunch box.
"And there's one more thing."
"After lunch, you can take a break and the exam will resume after 1:30 p.m," the staff member added.
"Hmm?" Fang Qiu froze and then hurriedly asked, "Can I keep seeing my patients after lunch?"
"No." The staff member shook his head.
Fang Qiu smiled wryly.
He didn't have much time, and now time was more precious.
He was helpless, but he could only eat with his head down.
After lunch, Fang Qiu didn't have a rest, but carefully looked at his medicine that was boiling.
Even though he couldn't see any patient, he could still decoct his medicine.
Fang Qiu intended to boil up all the medicine without taking a rest.
While he was decocting the medicine, Fang Qiu was lost in thought.
"Can I make it if I still see the patients at this speed?"
"It will take me four hours if I want to treat the rest of the patients and decoct the medicine at the same speed."
"It's still a bit of a rush!"
When he thought about it, Fang Qiu frowned.
"I must find a way to save some time."
"I can't shorten the time of treating patients. If the time is too tight, I can't make sure that I can make the right diagnoses."
"Now I can only see if I can save some time from other processes."
"Pick the medicine."
Fang Qiu turned to look at the medicine cabinet.
At his speed, he could have saved himself a lot of time in this process, but he couldn't do that, because there were cameras. If they recorded it and people from the Chinese Medicine Association saw it, he would get himself into trouble.
"Maybe I don't have to weigh the medicine."
With this in mind, Fang Qiu's eyes brightened.
That was right.
Now the only way to save time was to weigh the medicine in a short time.
After finishing boiling 13 pots of medicine, Fang Qiu went straight to the medicine cabinet.
He slowly opened all the drawers on the medicine cabinet and wrote down the position of each herb and medicine.
In this way, he didn't need to waste time looking for the drugs.
After doing this, Fang Qiu took a step forward and stopped in front of the drawer of baked licorice. He put a gram of baked licorice to the electronic scale, then put it in his hand, carefully weighing it with his hand.
Then he used the electronic scale to weigh ten grams again and put it back in his hand. He kept doing this several times in a row.
Fang Qiu smiled and nodded with satisfaction.
He then made up his mind. No electronic scales. No more posturing.
Weighing it directly with his hand would give him more time, which would allow him to relax a little bit when he was pressed for time.
After weighing the medicine with his hand, Fang Qiu took a thick stack of papyrus from the cabinet and divided it into ten pieces, and then began to take some medicine from the cabinet.
Meanwhile, those elders who were about to have a rest after lunch were still sitting in the conference room, looking at the two men on the big screen.
Yu Ziyuan, followed the instructions of the staff member, walked around the room for a while after eating to digest, then fell asleep on the diagnostic desk. Apparently, he was tired after seeing so many patients.
On the other side, Fang Qiu was still full of energy.
The elders wanted to wait for Fang Qiu to fall asleep before they left.
It turned out that Fang Qiu had no intention of going to sleep at all.
They had seen all the things Fang Qiu did in the room.
"This kid is quite careful."
Seeing Fang Qiu standing beside the pots and carefully cooking the medicine, those elders were satisfied and nodded.
This was what a traditional Chinese medicine doctor should look like.
He should be serious and responsible.
"Why did he open all the drawers on the medicine cabinet?"
When Fang Qiu opened all the drawers on the medicine cabinet, a group of old men was shocked.
The mystery remained.
They also found that Fang Qiu actually took a pile of papyrus and placed it on the counter, so they got more curious and confused.
In the room, Fang Qiu stood at the cabinet and put the papyrus on it.
He quickly took a dozen commonly used medicinal materials out and placed each one on a pile of papyrus.
After a while, dozens of different herbs were piled up on the cabinet.
In the conference room.
"What the hell is this kid doing?"
An old man raised his eyebrows. He could not understand what Fang Qiu was doing.
Same as the other elders.
"He might think it will take him a lot of time to see a patient, so he wants to save some time while picking the medicine," said the old man with a round face.
The other elders shook their heads.
"What's so great about being fast?"
"It's good to be prepared and to know how to be prepared. After all, when practicing medicine, the difference between being prepared and not prepared is always enormous. Being fast is not necessarily bad. In some critical moments, you have to be quick. Of course, in a situation like this, only trying to be quick is a bit too much," one of the elders said.
"We don't know if he is going for speed yet, but we'll see until the exam starts this afternoon."
Time flew.
In the blink of an eye, it was 1:30 in the afternoon.
One of the staff woke Yu Ziyuan up while Fang Qiu also seated himself in front of the diagnostic desk.
The examination went on.
Chapter 276 - How Dare He! Tell Him to Stop!
"The examination shall continue," a staff member said when the time was up.
Then, he led the patient into the room.
This was the fourteenth patient.
Fang Qiu immediately started performing the four diagnostic methods on the patient the moment the patient sat down just as before, then started to fill the prescription.
In the meeting room on the third floor, several elderly men stared intently at the screen.
Through the screen, they could see that Fang Qiu was already seeing patients while Yu Ziyuan was still washing his face and hands and making the patient wait for him to get ready in the room.
The elderly men couldn't help but nod and smile when they saw this scene.
"This is how a disciple of a famous doctor should behave."
"The emergence of every famous doctor is closely related to the tiniest details."
"Yes, I guess 'being responsible' ranks very high on Yu Ziyuan's list of priorities."
"He didn't immediately start seeing the patient after his afternoon nap but instead chose to relax and use water to make sure that he was of a sound mind. He only saw the patient when he was at his calmest and most alert state. It shows how seriously he takes himself, the patient, and Chinese Medicine."
It was obvious that these elderly men were very impressed by Yu Ziyuan's performance.
They felt that this was how the successor of Chinese medicine should behave.
As for Fang Qiu, when their attention shifted to him, they saw that Fang Qiu had already finished his diagnosis and immediately went to the medicine cabinet after he had written his prescription.
"This kid is clearly trying to save time!" an elderly man said with a scowl.
He was obviously displeased with Fang Qiu's method.
He felt that Fang Qiu was not meticulous enough!
The other elderly men felt the same way.
They continued to watch the screen, and suddenly, their eyes widened and their faces turned red with rage when they saw what Fang Qiu did next.
"He, he... how dare he!"
An elderly man with a round face sputtered angrily as he pointed at Fang Qiu. He was so angry that he wasn't even able to speak.
They took a closer look and saw that Fang Qiu was already pulling out the ingredients from the counter of the medicine cabinet after he wrote his prescription, but he did not even weigh each ingredient. He had laid out these supplies on more than ten pieces of coarse paper ahead of time earlier, and he was now grabbing at them with his bare hands.
He would only head to the medicinal drawers to dig out more ingredients when there weren't the items he was looking for displayed on the counter.
Similarly, he did not weigh them at all!
He placed everything he had gathered on a piece of coarse paper, then walked toward a clay pot used for brewing medicine and prepared to brew his medicine.
"That rascal!"
An elderly man was so angry that he jumped to his feet in the meeting room.
"What does he even think he is doing?"
"This must only be a childish game to him!"
"If he takes a little more than what he's supposed to, his medicine could become a form of poison that could be fatal. How could he even think of doing this?"
"He is truly a bastard!"
"Quick, get out there and stop him!"
The elderly man was incredibly angry, and his finger trembled as he pointed at Fang Qiu on the screen.
The other elderly men looked equally upset.
The staff standing outside didn't dare to hesitate when they heard the elderly man's angry roar and immediately rushed toward Fang Qiu's room.
In the examination room, Fang Qiu had just bent down to start brewing the medicine in the clay pot when the door suddenly burst open.
"Boom!"
A staff member rushed into the room.
"Stop right there!"
The staff member rushed right up to Fang Qiu and snatched the medicine from Fang Qiu's hands.
"Hmm?"
Fang Qiu looked at the staff member in confusion and asked, "What is the matter with you?"
At the same time.
"What's the matter?"
"How could you even ask such a question?"
Voices rang out from the other side.
Several staff members rushed into the room.
"Hey kid, let me tell you, this isn't the time to show off your clever tricks."
The leader of those who had rushed in was the middle-aged man who had been giving a report to the elderly men this morning. He immediately pointed at Fang Qiu's head angrily and said, "Chinese Medicine has a heavy emphasis on being meticulous. You have to be responsible for your patients. This is a real-life situation where you have to attend to your patient, not a made-up practical examination. The patient is right in front of you, so how could you not even weigh the ingredients when you're making your prescription?"
"Surely you must be aware that the weight of each ingredient is crucial?"
"You're taking this too lightly!"
The middle-aged man pointed at the camera after he admonished Fang Qiu and said, "Do you really think that your antics have escaped our notice? The closed-circuit camera has captured everything on camera so we can see your every action. You're so negligent even when it comes to selecting the ingredients for your medicine, so how could you even think of taking the examination for the craftsman doctor? Are you even qualified to take this examination?"
"You're eliminated!" he said harshly.
Then, he yelled, "Get out of here!"
Fang Qiu stared at this middle-aged man in stunned silence. He finally understood why the staff members had prevented him from brewing his medicine and had even taken away the ingredients that he had collected.
Now that he thought about it, what he did would indeed raise the ire of these examiners.
However, he wouldn't have done this if he wasn't absolutely sure of himself.
It mustn't be forgotten that he possessed the ability of Absolute Touch!
"I see," he said with a nod. "Then again, how would you know whether or not my ingredients were weighed accurately? Why are you so sure that I did not weigh the ingredients?"
The staff members were even more enraged by his words.
"Your every action was recorded by the closed-circuit camera, and we clearly saw that you didn't weigh the ingredients," the middle-aged man said angrily.
"Why must I use the electronic scale to weigh my ingredients?" Fang Qiu asked.
"How else could you weigh the ingredients if you didn't use the electronic scale?" the middle-aged man retorted.
"I used my hand!" Fang Qiu said calmly.
'You... What a load of rubbish!" the middle-aged man said angrily. "How could you use your hand to weigh the ingredients? Are you going to tell me that you can use your foot to weigh the ingredients too?"
"My foot? I must admit that I haven't got this ability," Fang Qiu said with a smirk. "However, I can indeed use my hand to weigh the ingredients. You can't tell me that it is rubbish just because you haven't got this ability yourself. On the other hand, as a staff member of the Association of Chinese Medicine, how could you dismiss my qualification to take this examination and throw blind accusations at me without even making sure that you have gotten the fact right? Is this how the leader of the Association of Chinese Medicine should behave?"
The moment he spoke, the middle-aged man's breath caught in his throat.
He hadn't expected Fang Qiu to snap back at him in front of so many people. Moreover, there was nothing wrong with Fang Qiu's statement, so the only way he could salvage his dignity was to confirm that Fang Qiu had made an error!
The only way to prove that he had been right was to show that Fang Qiu had made an error.
"Very well!" the middle-aged man said as he glared at Fang Qiu. "Do you dare to hand over your prescription?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Fang Qiu said calmly and handed his prescription over.
The middle-aged man took the prescription from Fang Qiu and said after he glanced at it, "Hmph, your prescription looks rather robust."
Then, he added, "Nonetheless, this doesn't diminish the fact that you collected the ingredients carelessly!"
"I did not collect the ingredients carelessly," Fang Qiu said as he pursed his lips.
This middle-aged man was getting on his nerves.
These people were wasting his time.
The staff members glared angrily at him when they saw that he still had the nerve to retort.
"We have all witnessed what you've done earlier, so why are you still trying to argue your way out of it?"
"Your ingredients are with me, so do you really think that we'll let you off if you refuse to admit your mistake?"
"You're truly a stubborn fool!"
The staff members continued to denounce his actions.
"What did you witness earlier?" Fang Qiu said as he rolled his eyes.
"Didn't you see me use my hands to collect the ingredients? What's wrong with that? I'd still be able to collect the ingredients accurately even if I had only used my hands to do so."
"Moreover, I still have other matters to attend to after I've seen my patients, so please stop harassing me!"
The staff members were livid when they heard what he had said.
They were shocked by his brazenness and how he was still denying his action even when the fact had been laid out. He had even dared to snap back at them.
His actions were completely out of hand.
"Very well!" the middle-aged man pointed angrily at Fang Qiu and said, "If you're so insistent that you're right, let me show everyone whether you have accurately collected your ingredients! This is your prescription, and these are the ingredients that you've collected earlier!"
Then, he stalked up to the counter and took the electronic scale.
"Collect the ingredients," the middle-aged man yelled as he looked at Fang Qiu.
Then, he called out the name of the ingredient in accordance with the prescription in his hand.
Each time he called out the name of the ingredient, the staff member would take out the ingredient from the ingredients that Fang Qiu had gathered earlier.
The first ingredient was Chinese licorice.
It was placed on the electronic scale.
10 grams!
It was exactly 10 grams.
Then, he looked at the prescription and was shocked to see that it said, "Chinese licorice, 10 grams!"
The middle-aged man who held the prescription was completely stunned.
"Are you sure you had taken all the Chinese licorice there was from Fang Qiu's ingredients?" the middle-aged man asked as he looked at the staff member who had given him the ingredient.
"Yes," the staff member said.
"Are you sure that there's none left?" the middle-aged man asked again.
"There isn't any left," the staff member replied.
The middle-aged man's expression changed.
He had been prepared to deliver a severe warning to Fang Qiu, so he was shocked to find out that the ingredient had indeed matched the amount stated on the prescription.
How, how could this be possible?
The others were equally baffled when they saw the prescription.
How could it be exactly the same?
"Impossible!"
"How is it even possible to use your hand to weigh the ingredients?"
"He must have gotten lucky. It must have been luck!"
Several staff members thought to themselves.
"Next," the middle-aged man couldn't believe it either and immediately called out the name of the next ingredient.
The staff member in charge of handing him the ingredient quickly took out the ingredient from the ingredients Fang Qiu had gathered earlier.
It was placed on the scale.
Then, he looked at the prescription.
And, it was still an exact match!
All of the staff members were in complete shock. They looked at each other in dismay and were unable to utter a single word.
"He must have gotten lucky. I'm sure that's it," the middle-aged man thought to himself.
He quickly called out the name of the third ingredient.
The next moment, he saw that the third ingredient was also an exact match.
He called out the name of the fourth ingredient.
Similarly, it was incredibly precise.
He ran through the entire prescription and realized that every ingredient was an exact match to the weight listed on the prescription, and there wasn't a single deviation. Although Fang Qiu had used his hand to collect the ingredients, the weight of his ingredients was as accurate as when they were weighed by the scale!
The results were out.
Everyone was completely stunned, especially the middle-aged man who was their leader.
"How, how could this be possible?"
He looked at Fang Qiu incredulously and asked, "How did you manage to pull it off?"
"I just managed to do so," Fang Qiu said.
"But, how? How exactly did you do it?" the middle-aged man asked.
"Wouldn't it be obvious after you have spent such a long time collecting ingredients?" Fang Qiu said with a resigned tone and pursed his lips.
The staff members pretended to nod calmly at his words.
"Uh, you... please continue with what you were doing," the middle-aged man said. Then, he scratched his head as he led his men out of the room.
They were all pretending to be calm but these staff members felt incredibly embarrassed since they had come to berate him harshly earlier.
However, instead of berating Fang Qiu, they had been the ones who were berated by Fang Qiu, and when they tried to prove his mistake, they had ended up getting humiliated.
That had been incredibly embarrassing!
The only way to salvage their dignity was to pretend to be calm.
Chapter 277 - There Was a Last-Minute Change to the Rules!
They walked out of the room.
Several staff members looked at each other, and they saw each other's embarrassment and shock reflected on their faces and in their eyes.
"Was that kid some kind of freak?" one staff member asked.
"Have you ever come across such an incredibly talented junior?" the middle-aged man asked.
Everyone else shook their heads.
"That was simply amazing."
"Yes, this is the first time I've seen someone who could use their hands to gather the ingredients for their prescription."
"I've never heard of anyone within the field of Chinese Medicine who used their own hands to gather ingredients, let alone anyone from the juniors."
"His hand is as accurate as the electronic scale."
"I've truly witnessed a miracle today."
The staff members chattered amongst themselves as they headed to the meeting room on the third floor.
The elderly men in the meeting room looked very calm and composed.
They didn't seem as shocked as the staff members but they were merely pretending to be calm.
In fact, they had been even more astonished than the staff members when they saw how accurately Fang Qiu had gathered the ingredients, especially when Fang Qiu had claimed that he had gained this ability through experience.
They felt both shocked and disgruntled.
They were shocked to find out that Fang Qiu possessed such an incredible ability.
At the same time, they were disgruntled because they had spent a lifetime practicing Chinese Medicine, but they had failed to do what Fang Qiu could. Fang Qiu's comment seemed to be made offhandedly, but it was a blow to their pride.
"We must admit the inevitable; that the young would replace the old. We've gotten on in age," an elderly man said with a wry smile.
"Alas, indeed. We're old now," another elderly man agreed with a nod. "These young men will be the future pillars of Chinese Medicine."
"This kid is truly extraordinary!" an elderly man with a round face said. "The kid's performance from the very beginning has surpassed our expectations. First, he used both hands to read the patient's pulses and quickly made a diagnosis, issued a prescription, and brewed the medicine; and now, he has shown that he could use his hands to collect ingredients. I wonder what other talents he has. How clever could he be?"
The other elderly men's curiosity was piqued by his words.
"Fang Qiu and Yu Ziyuan seem to be complete opposites of each other. One is as sharp and accurate as a sharp sword while the other is as calm and steady as an impregnable shield," an elderly man commented.
"A sword and a shield?" another elderly man muttered softly.
His eyes suddenly lit up as he said, "Since this is the case, should we tweak the rules?"
"How?" the others asked.
"As craftsman doctors, we belong to an unofficial organization, so we will be able to change the rules as long as we all agree unanimously to do so."
The round-faced elderly man paused and chuckled before he added, "Shall we pit the 'sword' and 'shield' against each other?"
The moment he spoke, the others' eyes lit up.
"Good idea."
"These two kids are both talented in their own right. It wouldn't be a bad idea to pit them against each other."
Everyone else nodded in agreement.
Ultimately, everyone looked at each other and chuckled before they agreed to change the rules.
Then, the arrangements were quickly cascaded down.
In the afternoon at 3:40, a staff member suddenly entered his room after Fang Qiu had finished seeing his 24th patient and was about to call in the next patient.
"The higher-ups have decided to change the rules. Please follow me," the staff member said.
Fang Qiu frowned the moment he spoke.
What kind of new plan were they cooking up?
He was about to see the final patient, and after he finished seeing the patient and brewing the medicine for his last patient, he could leave this place. Why was there a sudden change in the rules?
He was very confused, but he did not pose any further questions but instead left with the staff member.
In the other room, Yu Ziyuan had just finished seeing his tenth patient.
He would probably have to stay behind tonight at the rate he was going.
However, he did not grow impatient, and he continued plowing ahead steadily.
He finished with his tenth patient and was about to call in his eleventh patient when a staff member walked in and said, "There's been a last-minute change to the rules of the examination. Please come with me."
"What kind of change?" Yu Ziyuan asked as he looked at the staff member in surprise.
"I'm not sure either. You'll find out," the staff member said and strode out of the room.
Yu Ziyuan quickly followed after him without further hesitation.
Soon, the staff members led them both to a meeting room on the third floor.
As soon as he entered the room, Fang Qiu saw several elderly men sitting around a rectangular table. The screen on the wall showed the situation in both examination rooms.
Fang Qiu looked at these elderly men in confusion.
He was just about to voice his confusion when someone else walked in.
He turned and suddenly saw another staff member and Yu Ziyuan enter the room.
"Alright," the round-faced elderly man said with a smile. "There are very few examinations held to select craftsman doctors. Normally, only one person would come forward to do the examination in a week or even a month. However, we have two applicants today."
"We were already aware that we had two candidates, but no matter how hard we tried, we weren't able to gather 50 patients today and only managed to find 49 patients. Thus, we have decided to tweak the rules at the last moment."
The elderly men seemed very composed, and no one seemed to be uncomfortable.
Fang Qiu immediately understood what was going on after the round-faced elderly man spoke.
However, Yu Ziyuan only became more confused.
How could the rules change without any warning? And what did he mean by the very last moment?
What was going on?
Yu Ziyuan was still feeling very baffled when the round-faced elderly man said as he looked at Fang Qiu, "We had assumed that the both of you would have finished seeing 24 patients at the same time, but to our surprise, this candidate saw patients at a rate much faster than we expected. He has already seen his 24th patient, so there is only one left, the 25th patient."
Yu Ziyuan froze in surprise and turned to look at Fang Qiu in astonishment.
This kid looked younger than him and seemed to be only 17 or 18 years of age, so how could he have already seen his 24th patient?
How could he be so quick?
It was only 3:40 PM!
He had meticulously and painstakingly seen and diagnosed his patients from 8:30 in the morning, but he had only seen his tenth patient at this point. How could Fang Qiu have seen so many patients?
Could he be deliberately accelerating his speed of seeing patients because his skills were subpar?
"This candidate's speed has surpassed our expectations, so we have decided to let both of you see the final patient," the round-faced elderly man said. "This time, we will require both of you to write down your observations from your four methods of diagnosis since you will both be seeing the patient at the same time. This is no longer just about writing down your prescription, do you understand?"
Fang Qiu and Yu Ziyuan both nodded and expressed that they had no further questions.
"Very well. Who would like to go first?" the round-faced elderly man asked.
"I'll go first," Fang Qiu said and pursed his lips.
He was rushing for time.
More importantly, he felt as though the examination was conducted in a very disorganized manner.
How was inviting 49 patients related to both of them undergoing the examination at the same time?
Why couldn't they select one of the 25 patients that Fan Qiu had seen after he had finished seeing them all for Yu Ziyuan to diagnose as well?
He already thought that it was odd how the examiners were only requesting them to write a prescription without observing its effects on the patients, and now, they had even summoned them to the meeting room?
More importantly, even after they announced the change in rules, the examiners were still requesting them to see the sole patient one by one. Hence, how was this any different from them seeing the patient in their own separate examination rooms? In any case, one patient couldn't possibly eat two types of medicine.
Fang Qiu had already figured out what was going on.
He guessed that these elderly men must have suddenly decided to change the rules in order to test them both.
However, he didn't have any time to waste arguing with them, for he still had to attend the gathering at the manor.
"Go ahead," the round-faced elderly man said with a nod.
Then, the middle-aged man walked up to them and led them to a room on the second floor.
The windows of this room were covered with black cloth.
"Go in," the middle-aged man said to Fang Qiu after he opened the door.
Then, he told Yu Ziyuan, "There are benches over there. You may sit there while waiting for your turn."
The middle-aged man then went to call for the patient.
Soon, the middle-aged man led the patient into the room.
At the moment, Fang Qiu was already seated at the desk and was ready to see the patient.
Fang Qiu immediately started observing his patient the moment the patient entered the room.
He saw a woman who seemed to be in her forties; she was a medium-sized woman, and her complexion seemed ruddier than usual.
The patient took her seat.
Fang Qiu asked, "May I know if you're experiencing any discomfort?"
"The right side of my waist hurts," the woman said as she pinched her right waist. "It has been hurting for almost two years. Moreover, I have a poor digestive system and have chronic constipation. I feel numbness in my fingers occasionally, and sometimes my legs cramp, but it doesn't happen as often."
"Do you have a regular period cycle?" he asked.
"No," the middle-aged woman said as she shook her head.
"Are you taking any forms of medication at the moment?" he asked.
"I'm taking contraceptive pills because it can regulate my period," she said.
"Do you sleep well?" Fang Qiu asked as he wrote his observations down.
"Not, not well," the woman replied. "I'm able to fall asleep, but I'm easily awakened, and once I wake up, I find it hard to fall back asleep."
"How long have you been constipating for? Do you pass out gas?" Fang Qiu asked.
"No, I haven't. Not for a while," she answered.
"What's the color of your urine?" he asked.
"Dark yellow," she answered.
"Does your stomach give you any discomfort?" he asked.
"I burp very often, and sometimes, I do get acid reflux," she answered.
"How is your appetite?" he asked.
"It's pretty good. It is much better, and I find myself eating more than before as well," she said.
"You mentioned that you feel numbness in your fingers. Could you elaborate a little more?" he asked.
"I would feel a sudden numbness in my fingers and legs, and my legs will go cold," she answered.
"Do you feel thirsty often?" he asked.
"No. In fact, I often forget to drink water."
Fang Qiu continued to take notes as he made queries.
Soon, he had already noted down all the information he gathered during the interrogation part of the four diagnostic methods.
"Please open your mouth," he said.
He concluded the interrogation portion and continued with the observation part of the four diagnostic methods.
Soon, he noticed that the patient's tongue had a yellow tinge and was thicker than usual.
He concluded his observation and took the patient's pulse.
One minute later.
Her pulse was slow and weak.
He recorded his observations.
Fang Qiu continued to speak as he took down notes.
His diagnosis: there is a deficiency of the patient's bladder meridian and there is extra heat in her stomach meridian. Thus, her urine is dark yellow in color and she can't pass gas. Her appetite is stronger than usual because of the heat in her stomach meridian. However, the patient does not feel thirsty which shows that she has an interior cold syndrome. She is losing sleep because of the lack of new blood.
This patient had an internal stasis of heat and cold.
His recommendation for treatment: acupuncture of the Yingu and Weizhong points on her left foot and the lumbar-leg point. It would be a treatment by targeting symmetrical acupunctural points.
He finished writing his diagnosis and conclusion.
He thought for a moment before he started to write his prescription.
Chapter 278 - Fang Qiu, from the Battle of the Pulse of Pregnancy?!
Next, he wrote his prescription.
His prescription: 9.375 grams each of inula flower and hematite. (This is to treat the heat that is causing her acid reflex. At the same time, it is recommended that the patient avoid eating sweet food and drinking coffee.)
6.25 grams each of magnoliae cortex and trifoliate orange, 9.375 grams of rhubarb, 6.25 grams of mirabilite that should be divided into three bags. There isn't a need to brew this medicinal tonic but instead, this should be mixed with hot water and taken when it was warm. (This is to treat her Yangming fu-viscera excess.)
9.375 grams each of Chinese skullcap and Chinese goldthread, 15.625 grams of white peony root, 9.375 grams of donkey-hide gelatin to be divided into three bags. (This is to treat her heart blood insufficiency that is causing her insomnia.)
150 grams of gypsum, 15.625 grams of anemarrhena, 9.375 grams of radix aconiti lateralis preparata. (This is to treat her internal stasis of heat and cold.)
9.375 grams of psoralea corylifolia and tree peony bark each. (This is to nourish her waist and her kidney. At the same time, it will improve blood circulation and remove blood stasis because the length of her ailment indicates that there will be blood stasis.)
Usage: each dosage should be brewed with nine bowls of water and further divided into three bowls of consumption. One bowl should be taken before both breakfast and dinner and one egg yolk should be added into the warm bowl of medicinal tonic before consumption. There are ingredients with both extreme heat and cold properties, so the patient must take her medication with heat properties while it is cold.
He meticulously wrote his prescription and even included his annotations.
Fang Qiu then rose to his feet and started collecting the ingredients.
He collected five bags of medicinal ingredients.
Then, he placed the medicinal ingredients and his prescription on the desk.
The middle-aged man stepped forward, collected the medicine and prescription from the desk as well as the notes that Fang Qiu had taken while performing the four diagnostic methods. Then, he led Fang Qiu out of the room.
"Click!"
The door opened.
Yu Ziyuan immediately looked over.
He frowned when he saw the middle-aged man leading Fang Qiu out of the room.
He was shocked to see how quickly Fang Qiu had finished.
He had finished his diagnosis in a matter of six minutes.
"Is this kid treating this examination like a game?" Yu Ziyuan thought as he looked at Fang Qiu. "He's so young, but he finished so quickly. I'm sure he must have rushed to take this examination before he had honed his skills. It has only been two weeks since he obtained his Physician's Qualification Certificate, so how could he even think of attempting the craftsman doctor's examination? Isn't he just asking to be humiliated?"
"I'm sure he must have fudged his diagnosis because his skills were not up to par."
Yu Ziyuan couldn't help but underestimate Fang Qiu's skills.
"You may enter," the middle-aged man pointed at Yu Ziyuan and said. Then, he called another staff member over, and this staff member led Yu Ziyuan into the room to meet his patient.
In the meantime, the middle-aged man rushed up to the third floor with Fang Qiu's medicine and written prescription and handed these items over to the elderly men.
After Fang Qiu finished seeing his final patient, he immediately rushed back to the room on the first floor and dismissed the person who had been brewing the medicinal tonic.
On the second floor, Yu Ziyuan spent 15 minutes meticulously determining the patient's ailments and left the room after he wrote his prescription.
He had taken nine more minutes as compared to Fang Qiu, but he was very sure of his abilities.
He felt that he was definitely better than Fang Qiu because he had been very thorough when diagnosing the patient.
He had taken note of every minute detail of the patient's symptoms and tailored his prescription to treat every symptom. Moreover, the medicinal ingredients he had prescribed did not conflict.
He felt that his diagnosis had been perfect!
Yu Ziyuan left the room after he issued his prescription and collected the ingredients for the medicine.
The staff member brought his notes taken during the four diagnostic methods, his medicine, and his prescription up to the third floor and handed them over to the elderly men.
In the meeting room, Fang Qiu's and Yu Ziyuan's prescriptions and notes had been handed to the elderly men.
The first elderly man looked through them.
He didn't make any comment after he read through these documents and immediately handed them over to the next person.
Soon, they had all finished looking through the documents.
If someone else had been present and taken a closer look at their faces, he would have noticed that everyone's shock was reflected in their eyes.
"There's no mistake in their train of thought, and they had selected almost the same forms of medicine, but..."
The elderly man who had been the last in the group to look through the documents suddenly sighed.
"Alas."
The other elderly men sighed in unison as well.
"Fang Qiu... is incredible!" the round-faced elderly man said with a wry smile as he shook his head.
"Yes, this kid is amazing."
"The rumors about him are accurate. He is indeed a genius!"
"It has been way too long since such a talent had emerged in the field of Chinese Medicine. It's about time for someone to show up."
"I have a feeling that the future of Chinese Medicine lies on this kid's shoulders!"
The elderly men couldn't stop nodding approvingly as they spoke.
They had already acknowledged Fang Qiu's talent.
Fang Qiu was in no way inferior to Yu Ziyuan, whether it be in the aspect of recording the symptoms, the prescription, dosage, and even the annotations found in the prescription. In fact, Fang Qiu was even more skillful, thorough, and accurate as compared to Yu Ziyuan.
What was even more shocking was that Fang Qiu's speed was 1.5 times faster than Yu Ziyuan's.
Fang Qiu's talent had far surpassed their expectations; he had managed to be so meticulous even though he had finished his diagnosis so quickly.
They were completely astonished!
"It is time to conclude the examination," an elderly man said as he looked at the others. "Should we reveal the result to them or should we keep this within ourselves?"
"Uh..."
Another elderly man said, "I think it would be better for us not to reveal the results. After all, we were the ones who designed this round of examination, and the two candidates did not know that they were competing against each other. Furthermore, Fang Qiu has finished seeing all his patients so he would not be affected by the outcome, while Yu Ziyuan would probably be incredibly affected when he finds out that he had lost in a baffling manner and to someone younger than him."
"Exactly," another elderly man agreed and said, "I'm sure that Yu Ziyuan is also prideful since he is the disciple of a famous doctor. If he finds out that he has lost, it might be a huge blow to his confidence."
"I'm not too sure of that," another elderly man said as he shook his head.
"As Chinese physicians, we are constantly pursuing accuracy, and there is an emphasis on being responsible, humble, and having a sense of self-awareness. I think that they have the right to know, regardless of the outcome. Even if there was a mistake, they have the right to know where did they go wrong."
The moment he spoke, the others nodded in agreement.
"I think that they have the right to know as well," the round-faced elderly man said.
"Tell the staff members to bring them back to this room. A Chinese physician should also have mental fortitude. If someone were to be so affected by one competition that he completely loses his confidence, would there still be a future for him?"
Soon, his orders were cascaded down.
The staff members immediately left and led Fang Qiu and Yu Ziyuan into the meeting room.
When they arrived, the round-faced elderly man looked at them, nodded, and said with a smile, "Both of you are talented young men with great potential to succeed. We would have invited you back to this room because we'd like to reveal the results of your earlier diagnosis."
"Based on what we have read, both of you have produced an excellent diagnosis."
"However..."
The round-faced elderly man pointed at Fang Qiu and said, "He is a more outstanding candidate."
Fang Qiu was completely unruffled by the elderly man's statement.
He had already figured out that it was a competition. Moreover, he didn't feel particularly emotional when it was announced that he had won.
On the other hand, Yu Ziyuan's expression had changed immediately.
He looked very unhappy, but he did not make any further comment.
The round-faced elderly man looked at Fang Qiu and smiled warmly as he said, "You did very well, and you were extremely accurate when performing the four diagnostic methods, issuing your prescription, and the dosage. We were even more impressed by how quickly you managed to do it."
Fang Qiu nodded and smiled politely.
"We must admit that you are a very skilled Chinese physician, but I hope that you will refrain from being haughty or impatient. Please do not become too full of yourself or assume that you are very clever because once you think that you are an expert or a master, it would be very hard for you to make any further breakthroughs. This concept applies regardless of which field you are in. I hope that you will continue to show an earnest attitude and continue working hard to set an example for the new generation of Chinese physicians!"
The round-faced elderly man gave Fang Qiu words of advice as he showered him with praise.
"I understand," Fang Qiu said with a nod.
"As for you..." the round-faced elderly man said as he turned to Yu Ziyuan, "You did well earlier, too, and showed that you were much better than an average craftsman doctor. However, your prescription was not as well-rounded despite your years of experience. However, we have also taken note of your earnest and meticulous attitude, as well as the responsibility you have shown to your patients. We also hope that you would continue to work hard to become the future of Chinese Medicine."
Yu Ziyuan did not look happy at all, but instead, there was a small frown on his face as he said, "Dear all."
He looked at the elderly men and clenched his jaw before he said, "Are you trying to say that I'm not as good as he is?"
"Did you base your conclusion on how fast we managed to finish seeing the patient?"
Yu Ziyuan suddenly grew more indignant as he spoke, "How could you decide who is more superior based on speed?"
"No, we did not base it on speed," the round-faced elderly man said. "Please take a look at his prescription."
Then, he handed Fang Qiu's prescription to Yu Ziyuan.
Yu Ziyuan carefully combed through the prescription.
"It looks similar," Yu Ziyuan said after he finished looking through the prescription, "There are even more ingredients found in his prescription, such as the psoralea corylifolia and the tree peony bark, which are completely useless."
The elderly men shook their heads.
The round-faced elderly man sighed and said, "Why don't you try to give this matter some thought?"
Yu Ziyuan frowned.
He couldn't figure it out.
"Why don't you tell him?" the round-faced elderly man said as he looked at Fang Qiu. It seemed as though he wanted to test Fang Qiu's knowledge.
Fang Qiu did not hesitate and immediately answered, "The psoralea corylifolia and tree peony bark have to be included to nourish her waist and her kidney. At the same time, it will improve blood circulation and remove blood stasis because the length of her ailment indicates that there will be blood stasis. Although the patient did not show these symptoms, it is still important to include these two ingredients."
Yu Ziyuan froze in shock at Fang Qiu's words.
"Does it make sense to you now?" the round-faced elderly man asked.
Yu Ziyuan looked at Fang Qiu in astonishment as realization dawned.
He was shocked at how this man who seemed younger than him was faster and more accurate at diagnosing patients. He was even more astonished by Fang Qiu's knowledge of the effects of medicinal ingredients.
It was far too astonishing.
"I'll take my leave now if there are no further issues. I'm still brewing my medicinal tonic downstairs," Fang Qiu said.
The elderly men nodded.
After Fang Qiu left, the only people who remained in the room were Yu Ziyuan, who was still in a state of shock, and the rest of the elderly men.
Yu Ziyuan suddenly sighed after some time.
"Keep your head up and continue working hard," the round-faced elderly man said encouragingly.
"I..." Yu Ziyuan clenched his jaw and finally asked, "I'd like to know his name."
"Fang Qiu!" the round-faced elderly man said.
"Fang Qiu?" Yu Ziyuan froze in surprise before his eyes suddenly widened and he asked hoarsely, "Fang Qiu from the battle of the pulse of pregnancy?"
Chapter 279 - Senior John Doe Was Here!!
"Yes," the round-faced elderly man said with a nod. "It is him."
Yu Ziyuan stiffened, and his expression changed.
He stood there in silence for a long while before he heaved a soft sigh and walked out of the room.
He had thought that he was a very skilled physician. Even if he wasn't taught by a famous Chinese physician Lu Chen, he had undeniably worked as hard and as diligently as any other person. In fact, he was twice as diligent as anyone else.
He was very talented, and thus, he had become the disciple of a famous Chinese physician. He was also willing to put in the effort, which was also why he was such a skilled physician.
However, he had never imagined that he would meet someone who was even more talented and more outstanding than he was.
"I will have to work even harder from now on," he vowed.
Yu Ziyuan returned to his room and continued to see his patients.
On the other hand, Fang Qiu poured out his final medicinal tonic and gave it to his patient to consume.
After he finished his tasks, he looked at the clock and noticed that it was already 4:40 PM.
"I'm just in time," he heaved a secret sigh of relief.
He walked out of the room and was about to leave when he saw the middle-aged man heading down the stairs.
It was clear that the middle-aged man had already known that Fang Qiu had finished his tasks.
"I've finished the examination, right?" Fang Qiu asked.
"Yes," the middle-aged man nodded with a smile.
"May I leave now?" Fang Qiu asked.
"Of course you may," the middle-aged man nodded and said, "the outcome of the examination has not been determined yet. However, we will require all 25 patients you've seen today to continue taking your medicine and will monitor the effects of the prescription that you had given them. Hence, we will only know the results of the examination in a week."
"Very well," Fang Qiu said with a nod. "Many thanks."
The middle-aged man nodded with a smile.
Fang Qiu rushed out of the Association of Chinese Physicians eagerly.
He quickly flagged down a passing taxi and made his way back to school.
It was 5 PM when he arrived back at school, and it was also when the school canteen opened.
Fang Qiu quickly grabbed a bite since there weren't that many people at the canteen. Then, he greeted his three roommates before he changed into his mysterious man costume and sneaked out of school.
This time, he did not hail a taxi because he was extremely familiar with the route.
He ran out of the city and through the unkempt forest as he quickly charged toward Elder Yi's manor.
It was already 6:30 PM.
At Elder Yi's manor located on the outskirts of the city.
A large crowd had already gathered around the strength tester.
"I've noticed that quite a few experts have not visited recently."
"I'm pretty sure that Senior John Doe was the reason why they visited in the first place. Naturally, they stopped coming after paying several visits and failing to see him here."
"Yes, it has been two months since Senior John Doe had visited. No one knows what he's been up to for he suddenly disappeared without a trace, as though he had vanished completely."
"I'm sure he has gone to attend to an important matter."
"He hasn't been seen in a while, but he has left behind a famous legacy."
"It is rumored that He Gaoming had also experienced a breakthrough last week."
"Is that so?"
"Incredible!"
"Does that mean that whoever Senior John Doe had personally guided has experienced a breakthrough?"
"Is he truly that amazing?"
"Is the mysterious Senior John Doe as incredible as the rumors make him out to be?"
"That's not all. I've heard that those who were personally guided by or who had trained in accordance to his methods are almost about to experience a breakthrough."
Everyone present was completely stunned.
Was it really true that those who had received guidance from Senior John Doe weren't the only ones who were about to experience a breakthrough, but those who had trained in accordance with his methods were also experiencing the same?
How was that even possible?
If Senior John Doe was as incredible as the rumors made him out to be, wouldn't he be able to train a martial superior level expert at a drop of a hat?
They shuddered at the mere thought of it.
"I wonder if Senior John Doe would come."
"In any case, I've decided to attend every gathering in the future since I'll be able to use this opportunity to train and also quickly mature thanks to my fellow martial artists. More importantly, if I run into Senior John Doe when he's in a good mood, I might even have the chance to receive personal guidance from him. I'll visit this place for the next five, or even ten years as long as I'm able to receive personal guidance from him. It is a fantastic deal!"
"That's right. An encounter with Senior John Doe is like winning the lottery for those of us who haven't got the family background and don't know how to increase our strength. It wouldn't be a great loss for us even if we don't see him, but if we do, we would reap incredible rewards."
They gathered around the strength tester and had an animated discussion about Senior John Doe.
Once in a while, there were a few people who would step up to the strength tester to test their strength.
Time flew by.
Soon, it was 7 PM.
As everyone's voices grew more animated and the atmosphere became livelier, suddenly, something could be heard ripping through the air.
"Swoosh!"
No one paid any attention to the noise.
The next moment, there was a loud crashing sound.
"Boom!"
Everyone jumped and they turned to see a black figure heading down from the strength tester. This black figure then made his way toward the gates of the manor.
"Who is that?"
"I'm not sure. Dusk is about to fall and yet, he's completely dressed in black. He's such an interesting figure."
"Am I the only person who thinks that he looks familiar?"
"Hmm, he looks like..."
"Could it be...?"
Everyone chattered animatedly as they turned to look at the strength tester.
Then, they saw the number flashing in red on the strength tester. 3000!
3000 KG?
Everyone was completely astonished when they saw this number.
3,000 kilograms. How strong was that person?
He could probably smash a rock with his bare hands, right?
The black figure had already walked past the gates of the manor as everyone else gaped in shock.
"It is John Doe!"
"He's Senior John Doe!"
"Was that really him?"
"He's here! He's really here!"
"Get out of my way. I'll need to test my strength to enter the manor as well."
"I'll go first."
"Wait, let me go first."
All the martial artists present were shocked and created a huge commotion after they realized that the mysterious man was Senior John Doe.
Everyone rushed toward the strength tester as though they were possessed. This was a stark contrast to the earlier scene when everyone had been chattering idly.
They wanted to pass through the test posed by the strength tester and enter the manor to see Senior John Doe for themselves.
Everyone fought intensely for a chance to use the strength tester in order to gain entry to the manor.
Everyone else within the manor could hear the commotion outside.
They all turned to look at the gates of the manor in unison.
They jumped to their feet in shock when they saw who was the latest arrival.
They saw a black figure appear in front of them.
The black figure wore a tracksuit and a mask.
It was him.
The mysterious man, John Doe!
Fang Qiu's appearance caused shock ripples to run through the manor.
The martial artists who gathered around the arena in the garden all turned to look at Fang Qiu.
The employees of the manor immediately called Elder Yi to alert him to Fang Qiu's appearance.
They had waited two months for Fang Qiu to return, and Elder Yi had already lost faith that Fang Qiu would return, so he had instructed his men to call him the moment Fang Qiu returned.
Frankly, Elder Yi had already given up hope that the mysterious man would return.
He was surprised that the mysterious man had truly returned today.
He was back!
Elder Yi was so excited because after the match with the mysterious man the previous time, and after training in accordance with the methods that the mysterious man had imparted him, he had made a quick recovery, and he sensed that he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Elder Yi was astonished.
He was even more in awe of the mysterious man.
Fang Qiu entered the garden.
The martial artists who had arrived before him quickly retreated and created a path for him to pass.
In the meantime, Elder Yi rushed out from a loft deep within the manor and made his way to the garden.
At the arena.
"Senior John Doe."
"Senior, please give me some guidance."
"Senior John Doe, do you mind giving me some words of wisdom?"
Fang Qiu had just approached at the round table by the side of the arena and was about to take his seat when he found himself completely surrounded by a large crowd of martial artists.
Everyone was fighting for the chance to receive personal guidance from Fang Qiu.
Fang Qiu was at a complete loss.
Fortunately, Elder Yi arrived on the scene.
Elder Yi immediately dispersed the crowd when he saw that Senior John Doe was completely surrounded by eager martial artists.
"Senior, I've waited a long while for you to come back," Elder Yi said with a wry smile after he dispersed the crowd.
"Both me and my fellow martial artists have been eagerly awaiting your arrival for the past two months after what you said previously."
"Did I promise that I'll return?" Fang Qiu asked.
"Uh... you said that you'd return?" Elder Yi said.
"My exact words were, 'it would depend on my mood'," Fang Qiu said with a smile. "I'm in a good mood today."
Elder Yi laughed awkwardly before he said, "Regardless, all that waiting hadn't been in vain now that you've returned. Are you here to observe the matches, or do you want to fight in the ring today?"
"I'd be letting everyone down if I stood by and watched idly," Fang Qiu said as he pursed his lips. "I'll fight everyone who has signed up today!"
At the moment, Fang Qiu was going to exchange blows with martial artists of different levels and strengths.
The old master said that he lacked experience in real battles, so Fang Qiu had decided that since he needed to experience what a true fight was like, he would start from the very bottom to build up his foundation and slowly work his way up.
Everyone was elated by his words.
Elder Yi's eyes lit up joyfully.
"Is it too late to sign up now? I want to sign up!"
"Elder Yi, is it still possible for me to sign up?"
"Me too!"
Everyone gathered around Elder Yi and asked.
"Please calm down," Elder Yi quickly gestured for everyone to remain silent with a wave of his hand. Then, he turned to Fang Qiu and asked, "How many people do you intend to fight today?"
"As many as I can!" Fang Qiu said.
"Oh?" Elder Yi froze in shock.
Then, he said, "Since you're such a willing participant, I'll accept everyone's registrations!"
The crowd cheered and rushed toward the registration counter to sign up.
"I have another question," Elder Yi said with a smile after everyone had rushed to the registration counter, "are you the mysterious man who went viral online?"
Chapter 280 - Next, Please!
"Are you the mysterious man who went viral online?" Elder Yi asked with a smile as he looked at Fang Qiu.
"What do you think?" Fang Qiu answered calmly.
He neither acknowledged nor denied that statement.
Then, he turned away and walked onto the arena.
He sat down cross-legged on the right side of the arena and quietly waited for the gathering to begin.
Elder Yi did not probe further when he saw how coolly Fang Qiu had responded.
He thought for a moment before he went to a corner, dug out his phone, and made a call.
"Lao Yi?" the person on the other end of the line said.
"Lao Zhou, it's me," Elder Yi said and asked, "where are you right now? Have you left Jiangjing?"
"I've just wrapped up my affairs here, so I intend to leave tonight," Lao Zhou replied.
"Great," Elder Yi was thrilled and quickly added, "don't leave tonight and make your way over to my place as soon as possible."
"What's the matter?" Lao Zhou said wryly. "Old friend, you've made me wait in vain for the past two months. Have you not given up hope yet? Are you prepared for me to finish your good wine and tea if you ask me to extend my stay by a few days?"
"I'm only asking you to stay for the night. Do you really think that you'd be able to wipe out my supplies even if you drink nothing but wine and tea the entire night?" Elder Yi said with a laugh.
"Oh?" Lao Zhou quickly caught on and asked, "are you saying that he has returned?"
"Yes!" Elder Yi immediately nodded and said, "the person I was telling you about has returned. He's currently standing on the arena and is accepting challengers. This is a rare opportunity that might never present itself again, so you better hurry."
"Very well," Lao Zhou's voice went up slightly and said, "I'll be right there."
The sky gradually turned dark.
The gathering officially began at 8 PM.
The host went up the stage, and his gaze swept across the crowd before he turned to Fang Qiu and bowed. "Today, Senior John Doe has graced us with his presence to accept everyone's challenge. I'm sure everyone has been eagerly waiting for the gathering to start, right?"
Everyone nodded eagerly.
"It is indeed our honor to have Senior John Doe here today. Thus, I'll stop rambling on now and give the stage back to the challengers," the host said. "May the first challenger step up."
Then, a tall and skinny young man immediately jumped onto the arena.
"Senior, please give me some guidance," he said as he saluted Fang Qiu with both hands clasped. Then, he bowed and immediately took on an attacking stance.
"Martial arts level?" Fang Qiu nodded.
Then, he lowered his strength to martial artist level and said, "Come on."
As soon as he spoke, the young man's feet moved as flexibly as a snake, and his arms moved around nimbly as he rapidly approached Fang Qiu.
His attacking movements were constantly changing.
He rushed up to Fang Qiu, and his figure flashed as he feinted a punch. Then, he raised his left leg and kicked hard at Fang Qiu's waist.
"Smack!"
There was a loud crack.
Just when everyone assumed that the young man's kick was about to hit its target, they saw the mysterious man raise his hand and gently tap it against the young man's calf. He instantly pushed the young man's leg aside and also rapidly pushed his other hand forward.
The young man was rendered completely helpless against him.
He was immediately sent flying.
He was defeated!
Almost instantaneously, the first challenger crashed to the ground and almost fell off the arena.
More importantly, Fang Qiu had defeated him in one move!
The audience was astonished.
The eyes of those who were witnessing the mysterious man for the first time shone brightly because they had seen the legendary mysterious ma and also bore witness to his legendary abilities.
He had defeated his opponent who was as strong as he was in a single move.
How could they remain calm when they had witnessed something that they had previously thought was an impossible feat?
Even those who had seen the mysterious man in action before and those who had seen him on more than one occasion were completely stunned.
Their impression of the mysterious man was that he would not finish his opponent off so quickly, no matter who he was up against. Instead, he would usually exchange several blows with his opponent first and quickly learn all his opponent's attacks and tactics before using them against his opponent.
This seemed to have become the mysterious man's trademark.
Thus, they were both confused and shocked by how decisive Fang Qiu had been today.
On the arena.
"I, I... admit defeat," the young man said miserably as he rose to his feet. He didn't know whether he should continue.
He felt as though he had suffered a tremendous loss.
He had fought so hard for the chance to be the first challenger and even had the great fortune of being present at the gathering when the mysterious man had arrived, but he was defeated even before he could finish his first move. Thus, he felt incredibly embarrassed.
"There's no need for you to leave," Fang Qiu said as he looked around, as though he had sensed the young man's embarrassment. "Next, please."
Everyone froze in surprise. Then, the next challenger stepped onto the arena.
"Feel free to attack me together!" Fang Qiu said.
Soon, the match began.
The challengers exchanged glances and secretly figured out a plan before they moved in unison and charged toward Fang Qiu.
They looked as though they were linked tightly together.
They suddenly moved in unison and immediately changed positions just before they reached Fang Qiu and sandwiched Fang Qiu between them.
The first challenger stopped trying to feint but instead threw a fast punch at Fang Qiu's back. He tried to use the other challenger as a distraction tactic and hoped that he could land a punch while Fang Qiu's attention was diverted.
On the other hand, the second challenger attacked from the front with both his hands and feet.
He sent one punch toward Fang Qiu's hand while his right leg aimed straight for Fang Qiu's nether regions.
Everyone in the audience frowned as they watched this scene.
They didn't frown because of where the second challenger was aiming for with his foot since everyone knew that martial arts were originally meant to kill.
Thus, the true spirit of martial arts was not as perfect as it seemed, and it was even a little bloodthirsty. This move was merely a move that was looked down upon because it was too obvious and extremely hard to pull off.
There were many other moves that were more brutal than this kick.
Everyone frowned because Fang Qiu had lowered his strength to match his opponents' but he was now facing off against two challengers of peer-level strength. Moreover, one of the challengers had even used the nether-region kick, so it would not be easy for Fang Qiu to emerge unscathed.
Was the mysterious man about to be defeated?
Everyone wondered curiously.
Then, Fang Qiu made his move.
He raised his left leg and dodged the nether-region kick. At the same time, when he bent backward to avoid the punch that was aimed at his head, he also dodged the attack that came at him from behind. Then, he assumed the drunken fist stance and sent his fists flying.
It only took one punch.
This punch seemed nonchalant and weak, but the moment it landed against the first challenger, the impact caused the first challenger to move several steps backward. Then, his knees gave way, and he fell.
At the same time, Fang Qiu jumped up and kicked out with his right leg mid-air.
The second challenger turned pale in fright. However, his torso was very close to Fang Qiu because of how he had been attacking earlier, so it was too late for him to change his stance. He could only look on helplessly as Fang Qiu's leg landed on his chest.
"Boom!"
There was a muffled banging sound as powerful strength burst forth from Fang Qiu's leg that immediately sent the second challenger flying.
The audience's eyes widened, and they looked at him incredulously.
What an incredible match!
They were impressed with Fang Qiu's moves but they were even more impressed by his reaction speed. He managed to grasp the essence of both his opponents' attacks just before their attacks hit their target and immediately adjusted his body to dodge the attacks with perfect precision while sending out attacks of his own that his opponents simply could not avoid.
His nimbleness and incredible reaction speed shook everyone to their core.
No one was able to do what Fang Qiu had just pulled off!
Not even Elder Yi!
He defeated two opponents in a single move.
The audience cheered loudly.
"Next!" Fang Qiu said.
The third challenger immediately jumped onto the arena.
This time, the three challengers did not attack immediately, but rather, they huddled together for a discussion and only launched their attack after they had decided on an attacking plan.
All three of them surrounded Fang Qiu and attacked. They chose to each attack Fang Qiu from a different angle, just as the first two challengers had done earlier.
They attempted to use each other as a diversion tactic in order to successfully attack Fang Qiu.
Unfortunately, Fang Qiu didn't plan on giving them the opportunity to attack him.
All three of them attacked him in unison from three different angles but Fang Qiu only faced off against one opponent. After he defeated the first opponent in one move, he immediately attacked the next opponent who was the closest to him in terms of proximity.
After all, these three challengers did not know each other ahead of time. Even if they knew each other, they did not coordinate their attacks and lacked tacit understanding, and thus, Fang Qiu used this against them and destroyed their tactics one at a time.
"Next!" Fang Qiu said after he defeated all three opponents.
The next person took the stage.
This time, there were more than three opponents which had been the ideal number of opponents to encircle Fang Qiu. Since Fang Qiu had defeated three opponents so effortlessly earlier, the four challengers decided not to attack him in unison but instead, they would attack him separately.
This would mean that Fang Qiu would not be able to deduce the pattern behind their attacks, and naturally, he would not be able to defeat them as easily as he had done earlier.
To their surprise, Fang Qiu decided to initiate the attack and quickly defeated all four of them consecutively.
The audience cheered wildly as they watched this scene.
He had started with one challenger, and now he was facing off against four people, and yet, he had managed to defeat them all in a single move.
Moreover, Fang Qiu had even lowered his strength to match his opponents'.
"This isn't enough," Fang Qiu muttered. He frowned as he looked at the four challengers he had defeated.
He had already lowered his strength, but he was still able to defeat them with ease. If he could defeat them all within a single move, how would he be able to use this as a form of training?
He frowned at the thought of that and said, "I want to fight ten challengers at once!"
The moment he spoke, the audience went wild.
"Ten?"
"He's really decisive and cool, as expected of Senior John Doe!"
"Isn't he just so cool now that he's facing off against 10 challengers without even increasing his strength?"
The audience couldn't wait to see what would happen next, and they chattered excitedly amongst themselves.
On the arena.
Fang Qiu looked deep in thought, and his brows were knitted into a frown.
These four opponents did not even pose a challenge to him, and it seemed like a warm-up. He felt as though he hadn't done anything, but a conjecture was niggling at him.
He wanted to test his theory to prove why the old master had asked him to gain experience through fighting!