Chapter 1892 — A Hard Question

Putting an old man in a basement office might be considered a slight. But giving Bai Lingtou the entire basement floor to work in—that wasn't a slight, that was favoritism.

"This whole floor is yours?" Wei Zhao pointed, a little astonished, at the sign along the corridor that read "Medical Pharmacology Program Offices."

"That's right. How about it? Not bad, eh?" Bai Lingtou chuckled. "Over there is my laboratory, plus a research room and a medicine-refining room!"

"Refining medicine?" Wei Zhao's gaze sharpened almost imperceptibly.

Bai Lingtou had said "refining medicine," not "refining elixirs," but the word "refine" still made Wei Zhao twitch inside.

"Oh, it's just where I decoct and compound the herbs. 'Refining medicine' is only a habit of speech with me." Bai Lingtou assumed Wei Zhao didn't know what the term meant, so he explained.

"I see." Wei Zhao nodded.

Bai Lingtou led Wei Zhao to the innermost office and opened the door, and the two of them stepped inside together.

The office was immaculate: a single bookshelf, a writing desk, and a sofa.

What astonished Wei Zhao was that the shelves were crammed with thread-bound volumes, which looked like old handwritten copies from ancient times—rather like the old man's bookshelf at home.

"These are all books I copied out myself, never published. Most are other people's notes on medical technique; a small portion are conclusions of my own." Seeing Wei Zhao's astonished look, Bai Lingtou smiled slightly and explained.

Wei Zhao nodded deeply. It seemed Bai Lingtou was no ordinary man—and yet, the last time, the meridians in his own body had been either ruined or blocked. Had he never cured that ailment of his own?

But a moment's thought and Wei Zhao understood. Before, when he himself had not yet cultivated the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art, he had faced Yang Huaijun: he could ease the man's suffering and prolong his life so that he seemed as healthy as anyone, but he had no way to repair his meridians and make him an inner-school cultivator again.

Ordinary medicine offered no remedy at all, so what could Bai Lingtou possibly do? However formidable he was, he could hardly repair his own meridians, could he?

"Very impressive. There are plenty of books like these on the old man's shelf at home," Wei Zhao said frankly.

"So you come from a medical family too? No wonder..." Hearing this, Bai Lingtou felt relieved. No wonder Wei Zhao had not readily agreed to become his disciple—the boy was the son of some medical clan. Only, Bai Lingtou had never heard of a medical clan by the name of Lin.

"A clan is putting it too strongly. The old man is all by himself. He picked me up, so it's more of a foster-grandfather sort of arrangement..." Wei Zhao said. "By the way, Elder Bai, might I discuss something with you?"

Bai Lingtou did not seem to object to being called Elder Bai. "What is it?"

"How about handing the class monitor post to Bai Weituo or Wang Xinyan?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Why give it away? Don't you know the class monitor has a rather good position?" Bai Lingtou said. "At the very least, I will award you credit for it—because the student-affairs duties for our program will fall on your shoulders. Bai Weikai is doing his graduate work now and has no time to spare. Student-affairs work earns extra credits, and not a few of them. Enough to let you take a second major."

"Then that's perfect—Brother Xiaokai has stepped down, so let his younger brother Bai Weituo take his place," Wei Zhao said. "To be honest, I don't have much time. I'll likely be asking for leave often, so I truly can't manage this class monitor business."

"Leave? Don't you know the rules of our program?" Bai Lingtou asked, his eyes narrowing.

"I know. Word is that all I have to do is take a pile of herbs you've prepared and identify each one separately, and that will do?" Wei Zhao said.

"So you can do that, can you?" Bai Lingtou fixed his gaze on Wei Zhao, and a strange light kindled in his eyes...

Wei Zhao smiled slightly. "If that is all there is to it, then I should think so."

"Good!" Bai Lingtou actually nodded. "Two choices, one hard and one easy. Pass the easy one, and you needn't sit the final examination—I will pass you outright—and you may take leave in term time as well."

"And the hard one?" Not having heard any condition about being excused the class monitor post, Wei Zhao pressed on.

"The hard one: pass it, and you may appoint someone else as class monitor; you may come and go as you please without asking leave—just give me a word when you are about. And if you pass four times running over four years, I will let you graduate outright!" Bai Lingtou laid out his terms.

"All right. I'll take the hard one," Wei Zhao said with a nod.

"Mm. The hard one is very hard. In all these years, no one has passed it. Think it over carefully," Bai Lingtou said.

"I've thought it over." Wei Zhao nodded.

"Very well, then I'll set a question at random. After you've read it, if you'd rather not answer and want to switch to the easy one, there is still time. But once you answer wrongly, the chance is gone." As he spoke, Bai Lingtou pulled open a drawer and began rummaging through it carelessly...

"No need. Set your question, Elder Bai," Wei Zhao said.

"Heh heh, this one, then!" Bai Lingtou plucked a small box from the drawer and set it before Wei Zhao, a sly grin spreading across his face. "This one. Tell me what is in it!"

"Huh?!" Wei Zhao's eyes went wide, and he stared at the little box on the table in disbelief... because it was unmistakably a box of Dr. Guan's trauma medicine!

"Haha, what's the matter, scared?" Bai Lingtou looked at Wei Zhao smugly, thoroughly pleased with the trap he had sprung. Never mind a prepared medicine like this, compounded from a dozen-odd herbs—even a few blended into a finished product are terribly hard to tell apart. Forget Wei Zhao's tender years; the heads of the great medical clans could not manage it either!

"It's not that..." Wei Zhao smiled wryly.

"Heh heh, still talking tough? But I'll allow you one mistake. How's that—fair enough?" Bai Lingtou said with a faint smile.

"Fair. Absolutely fair..." Wei Zhao meant every word, because this question was, to him, simply too easy!

"In that case, we can begin." Seeing that Wei Zhao still would not back down, Bai Lingtou grew a little nettled and spoke.

"In this trauma medicine's formula there is nux vomica, dragon bone, five mace of southern safflower, Sichuan notopterygium, crab bone, angelica root, fangfeng, baizhi..." Wei Zhao slowly began to recite the formula...

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