Chapter 25 Willing to Be a Lighthouse!
“What?”
Not only Qiao Mu but all the class was stunned, including those boys who thought Fang Qiu was just trying to seek the limelight. They were all shocked by Fang Qiu’s reply.
One might preview one or two chapters on a whim, whereas, it must be more than an impulse to read the whole book.
It must be down with a strong will, with a clear aim!
None of them had carefully previewed a whole book since day one, nor had they seen anyone ever achieve that.
The three from Fang Qiu’s dormitory also turned to look at Fang Qiu sitting between them with utterly astonished expressions.
Being his roommates, they had been eating together and playing together. Although they knew Fang Qiu was thirsty for knowledge, they never thought he could be as thirsty as that.
“You previewed the whole book!”
“Who do you think you are!”
But girls were gazing at Fang Qiu even more admiringly.
Qiao Mu almost choked to death on Fang Qiu’s reply. “He really does not play with normal rules!”
Now, how could he proceed with his routine?
He deliberately pondered over it to compose himself. He still did not want to give up and decided to take a detour.
“It’s not really a big deal even though he previewed the whole book.”
“Although he previewed, if he can’t remember anything or know nothing about the book, it will be the same as not doing the preview at all.”
If it went like that, he could go back to his routine.
“Great!”
Qiao Mu abruptly raised his voice. He looked at Fang Qiu with appreciation and said, “It truly surprised me that a student could be so self-motivated. I wonder how much you learned from your preview. Now, I’ll quiz you a bit to see how effective your preview went. Is that OK with you?”
“Quiz me?”
To show the teacher some respect, Fang Qiu stood up, nodded and replied, “Yes.”
Hearing that, Qiao Mu was somewhat disappointed. “How I wish you could say no. That would mean you’re not sure of your preview effect and we would not continue the quiz.”
“I think all of you are well aware of what the five internal organs are. Now, I ask you, since the Chinese Medicine divides everything into Yin and Yang, including the five internal organs, what belongs to Yin out of the five internal organs?”
Qiao Mu was so familiar with the “Basic Theory of Chinese Medicine” that he could simply ask a relative question at the drop of the hat. Now, he posed a question of medium difficulty.
At that question, all the students were dazed other than Fang Qiu.
They actually did not know the five internal organs were divided into Yin and Yang. For all the time they have assumed that the five internal organs were just the five internal organs, which had nothing to do with Yin and Yang.
Let alone which ones belonged to Yin.
But Fang Qiu was staring at Qiao Mu beamingly.
That question was too easy for him. Then, he responded, “The heart is an element of fire, governing body warmth and blood flow, so it is a Yang organ out of the Yang category.”
“The lung is an element of gold, governing purifying and descending, so it is a Yin organ out of the Yang category. The liver is an element of wood, governing ascending and dredging, so it is a Yang organ out of the Yin category; the kidney is an element of water, governing blocking and storing, so it is a Yin organ out of the Yin category; the spleen is an element of earth, located in middle-jiao, so it is a Yin organ out of the Yin category.”
“Gee!”
The whole class was astonished.
“He not only accounted which ones belonged to Yin but also which ones belonged to Yang. He was only asked with one question, but he also answered which five elements the five internal organs correspond to in respective!”
“He even answered what the five internal organs govern!”
“Bravo!”
Now, the class began to believe Fang Qiu did preview the whole book. Nevertheless, they themselves had no idea about the connection between the five internal organs and the five elements, not to mention their Yin and Yang properties.
“Not bad!”
Qiao Mu nodded. “Seems that the kid didn’t lie about it.”
“He did preview the lessons.”
However, he had no intention to let Fang Qiu off the hook. He was determined to go through his routine!
“Correct. Now, the second question.”
He decided to ask him a tricky one.
“Amendment of Categorized Canons – Mecial Changes mention how shall we deal with the most dynamic and how shall we handle the most Yin?”
“Subdue the most dynamic with the static, and overpower the most Yin with the Yang!”
Replied Fang Qiu.
At that, Qiao Mu thought, “Impressive.”
“You can even answer such a trick question.”
“Then, I will take it up a notch and ask you a series of questions. I don’t believe you can still give me the answers!”
“When the Qi of heart-fire is enough and to spare, what can it overtake? And what can it restrict in reverse? When the Qi of heart-fire is not sufficient, it will cause what to overtake? And what will restrict it in reverse?”
“When the Qi of heart-fire is enough and to spare, it can overtake lung-gold and restrict kidney-water in reverse. When the Qi of heart-fire is not sufficient, it will cause lung-gold to overtake and kidney-water will restrict it in reverse.”
Fang Qiu answered rapidly.
“The therapeutic principle of mother-supplementing and child-draining applies to what kind of illnesses?”
That question Qiao Mu asked was no longer a question on theories but on illness treatment.
Even though the theories were easy to recite and understand, treating illnesses was a different thing.
He did not believe the student in front of him could remember those therapeutic principles simply by doing the preview.
“It applies to the circumstances when the child element got the mother element’s illness, the mother element’s illness spread to the child element, or when just one organ is ill.”
But Fang Qiu’s reply dashed his expectations.
His answers were completely correct!
Sweat started to bead on Qiao Mu’s forehead. During the six years’ teaching, it was the first time that he felt the class was sort of beyond his control.
“What are the meanings of ‘produce me’, ‘restrict me’, ‘I produce’, and ‘I restrict’? Illustrate by examples.”
Asked Qiao Mu anxiously.
“‘Produce me’ means...”
Like a contest between two martial arts experts, Qiao Mu and Fang Qiu asked and answered each question successively, dazzling the eyes of other present students.
Internally, they were in great shock.
As a teacher, Qiao Mu could pose one question after another without thinking, which was quite an evidence to his level of knowledge.
But what was more horrifying was that Fang Qiu actually answered all the questions.
His answers were perfectly correct.
It really felt like two top swordsmen from ancient times just confronted each other. As one attacked, the other launched his counterattack. How thrilling!
As they watched, the questions came up more and more rapidly and became more and more difficult, but the answers flowed out more and more swift as well, though they were as flawlessly accurate as those previous ones.
Admiration rose in the hearts of students who were present, so did a vogue feeling of loss.
“We are all students.”
“But look at Fang Qiu, he has nearly grasped all the knowledge of the whole book. Then, look at me, I’m still at a loss with what Chinese Medicine is.”
“That’s a large gap!”
But the whole thing stimulated an impulse deep down in their hearts to do all they can to catch up.
The more questions Qiao Mu posed, the sweaty his forehead became. But his eyes were increasingly shining.
Because he just discovered a treasure.
A Chinese Medicine talent!
Now, he no longer wanted to stick to his routines.
Nothing was more fascinating than discovering a Chinese Medicine talent.
After posing more than ten questions in a row, no matter how simple or complex, how common or rare the questions were, Fang Qiu always gave him the perfect answers!
Qiao Mu swallowed with difficulty. Then, he fixed his eyes on Fang Qiu and asked.
“Have you ever learned about Chinese Medicine?”
Every student on the scene pricked up their ears and stared at Fang Qiu.
Others students in this class were also quite curious about that.
They all suspected that Fang Qiu already learned the knowledge of Chinese Medicine.
Otherwise, how could he know so much about it?
But Fang Qiu just shook his head with a smile.
He had not learned any of it before.
Seeing that, everyone went stupefied and fell into silence.
“He is able to answer all the questions the teacher poses simply by previewing the lessons.”
“You are really behaving in defiance of nature!”
“When we take exams, you’re definitely going to pass with full marks!”
“Good! Very good!”
Said Qiao Mu excitedly with boomed voice. Then, he looked at Fang Qiu appreciatively and asked, “Student, what’s your distinguished family name?”
“Distinguished, distinguished family name?”
The whole class was astounded.
“Professor, please do things within boundaries. Though he did answer a dozen questions correctly, it doesn’t mean you have to be so humble in front of him. You are his teacher, aren’t you?”
But Qiao Mu did not mind it. His eyes were still glued on Fang Qiu.
“Professor, my family name is Fang, and my full name is Fang Qiu.”
Replied Fang Qiu very politely.
“Fang Qiu, good! Very good! Please take your seat!”
Qiao Mu signaled Fang Qiu to sit down. Then, he took a moment to recover his composure before saying, “It took me by surprise that our class has such an undiscovered talent. He is absolutely the only one I’ve ever seen in my life who can go this far simply by previewing the book.”
“I believe since the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine was founded, no one has ever accomplished that like student Fang.”
“You should all follow his example!”
“The only one he has ever seen in his life?”
That description made every student’s heart gave a throb.
“It’s high praise!”
“The first one since the founding of the university! How impressive!”
No one was thinking that Fang Qiu was just seeking popularity by saying shocking words. Since he had made everyone impressed to that extent, what he did was beyond that—it could be said that he just overlooked others with unrivaled power!
At last, with Fang Qiu being the example, Qiao Mu returned to his original routine—motivating students to study hard.
With Fang Qiu being the unimaginably awesome example and the teacher’s earnest instructions, the entire Class Three of the School of Chinese Medicine suddenly was brimming with enthusiasm for study.
No one was willing to be outshined by other students. Although Fang Qiu had set a high standard for them, they would not be intimidated by it! They would not yield to him!
In the end, the planed two sessions actually combined into one long class. The moment the class was over, Qiao Mu scooped up his books and hurried out of the classroom, as if he had something urgent.
Students of Class Three were packing their books away, preparing to transfer to another classroom for their next class—Ancient Chinese for Medicine.
While organizing the books, Sun Hao complained to Fang Qiu with a wry smile.
“The youngest, could you restrain your talents a tiny bit? You’re so brilliant. In comparison, we’re as useless as stinking dung.”
“Exactly!”
Echoed Zhou Xiaotian, his face showing all his support for that requirement. His eyes that bored into Fang Qiu’s were quite disgruntled.
“Seeing me being so awesome, don’t you have more motivation to study?”
Pulling his books back into this schoolbag, Fang Qiu said in a teasing tone, beaming.
“Sure motivated. But we don’t feel well!”
Said Sun Hao with a bitter face.
“That’s exactly what I’ve been aiming at!”
After putting his schoolbag across one shoulder, Fang Qiu’s expression turned a bit serious and he said in a low and deep voice, “Chinese Medicine practitioners are responsible for saving lives and doing good to society. In your aimless college life and at your start-up stage of Chinese Medicine studying, I hope I could be someone like a lighthouse, leading everyone to head forward. As you’re working hard to catch up or even overtake me, I hope your academic achievements and knowledge on medicine could have a big leap.”
He said those words quite seriously, with not a single trace of playfulness.
Though those words were rather formal, rather high-sounding.
They did express Fang Qiu’s genuine objective.
He was not the kind of guy who liked to steal the spotlight. If he had been studying other professions, he would have kept it low key. However, what he was studying was a profession what needed the students to save lives and help the injured. Everyone had to have a solid knowledge of all the medical skills. Thus, he stepped forward to be their example.
To stimulate everyone under such contrast and motivate them to study Chinese Medicine well.
After all, the power of one Chinese Medicine practitioner was limited. Only when all the others learned Chinese Medicine well and became great doctors, so many who were suffering from diseases and illnesses in the world could have a chance to go on with their lives.
As to whether some people would think him as a guy who liked pushing himself forward and showing off, he did not care a scrap. Anyway, their judgment could not affect him.
After finishing those words, Fang Qiu smiled at the three and took off with his schoolbag.
Staring at Fang Qiu’s back, his three roommates were all speechless.
They just discovered they did not really know the youngest. It turned out that he had already held such a great aspiration and put it into practice.
“Since Fang Qiu arrived in this university, no matter it was windy or rainy, no matter there was the military training or not.”
“He had been reading and studying without stop.”
“How regretful I am!”
The three heaved a deep sigh of frustration before dashing out to catch up with Fang Qiu.
Meanwhile, in the building of the School of Chinese Medicine, the door of the dean’s office was banged open.
The sound gave the dean who was reading files in the room quite a turn.
Instantly, the dean’s face went sullen.
“Professor Qiao, why are you in such a hurry? Don’t you know you should knock the door first?”
Demanded Qi Kaiwen, a bit vexed.
“I’m sorry, Dean!”
The man who just broke in was Qiao Mu, Fang Qiu’s professor teaching Basic Theory of Chinese Medicine. He quickly got a grip of himself, but the excitement on his face still revealed emotions. Then, he exclaimed, “Dean, I found a real talent among the freshmen of our school!”