Chapter 531: Chapter 188 Mediocre_3
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The last ray of the sunset sank, and the moon rose.
The Medical Officer Institute was engulfed in silence.
When Cui Min returned to the Medical Officer Institute, the night had already grown deep.
The small grove rustled with green branches, with no one around, his confidants were not there in the Medical Officer Institute, as he had gone to the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion for a consultation today and was supposed to go straight back to the mansion after.
But Cui Min didn’t want to go back.
The scent of the medicinal herbs in the Medical Officer Institute seemed to calm him somewhat.
He entered his study and closed the door.
The bookshelf in the room and the desk were piled high with medical books, which he had been collecting from various sources ever since he became the Envoy. His subordinates also knew of his fondness for this and often spent a considerable amount of money to acquire them for him. Others said it was because he came from humble origins, with all kinds of medical books in the Liang Dynasty being owned by the Imperial Medical Bureau, and as such, commoner medical workers like Cui Min, who had never studied in the Imperial Medical Bureau, had to make up for all the medical classics and pharmacology he hadn’t learned before after entering the Hanlin Medical Institute.
But that wasn’t the case for him.
He was just trying to prove himself.
Cui Min sat down at his desk.
Halfway through compiling the new medical books, he was never satisfied with how he revised the prescriptions. In fact, in the fifth year after the "Cui’s Pharmacology" was published, he had already begun to feel anxious.
It was difficult for commoner medical workers to gain a foothold in the Medical Officer Institute, with new imperial medical officers joining the Imperial Medical Bureau every year. Many of these young students had powerful backgrounds, which in itself wasn’t terrifying. What was more terrifying was that those with prominent family backgrounds were not all mediocre; among them, there were many with outstanding medical skills and exceptional talents.
Such as Lin Danqing, such as... Ji Xun.
Thinking of Ji Xun, Cui Min’s eyes darkened.
This young prodigy medical officer had shown remarkable talents as soon as he entered the Medical Officer Institute and was straightforward, regardless of the situation, bluntly expressing any different opinions in medicine, pointing out mistakes in his prescriptions several times, putting Cui Min in an awkward position.
Unfortunately, Ji Xun came from a decent family, and even if he wanted to punish and deal with him, no opportunity presented itself.
Unable to deal with Ji Xun, he could only watch as the other party thrived ever more in the palace, feeling increasingly anxious in his heart. He had no choice but to decide to compile another medical book.
If one volume was a fluke, two volumes, at least, would secure his position as an Envoy, for the time being.
That’s what Cui Min thought, but the more anxious he became, the less the prescriptions came together. He was like an old scholar whose talent had run dry, with the ink under his pen exuding a rotten smell. Therefore, he collected obscure medical texts from all over, broadened his knowledge, replenished his dwindling intelligence, and tried to prove that he was not mediocre.
It was written in the book: "My appearance may be dim, not superior to others, my talent may be mediocre, not superior to others; study diligently day by day, never slacken, eventually achieve success, and even not realize the dimness and mediocrity."
How could everyone in this world be a genius? As long as he worked hard, he wouldn’t be distinguishable from those geniuses.
That’s what he thought, but over the years, Cui Min sadly realized a fact.
Geniuses and mediocrities were different from the start.
Ji Xun thrived ever more in the palace, and he could only watch helplessly, feeling his position as an Envoy becoming increasingly unstable. Ji Xun, with his better background and the same medical skills, a young man of a prominent family, was more suitable to be the Medical Officer Institute Envoy than a commoner medical worker who was getting older.
Just when Cui Min was gradually resigning himself to this fact, something happened to the Grand Preceptor Qi’s son, Qi Yutai.
Qi Yutai was startled by something and began talking nonsense. Grand Preceptor Qi requested Cui Min to examine him at the mansion. Cui Min knew this was his opportunity. He treated him attentively for several days, and indeed Qi Yutai recovered.
Qi Qing was very grateful to him.
This gratitude was shown when someone in the palace suggested that Ji Xun could now take on the role of Vice Director of the Medical Officer Institute, but Grand Preceptor Qi spoke out to stop it.
Cui Min understood. This was the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion’s way of repaying him.
In the following years, no one coveted his position as an Envoy.
Cui Min understood that this was thanks to the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion. Yet, when he had nightmares in the middle of the night, he still felt uneasy occasionally.
Like a hollow-hearted man who was forced into a high position, knowing there was nowhere to support himself within, always fearing and trembling.
Until today, when his long-standing fears became reality.
Qi Yutai had another attack.
This time, the condition was more serious than before, and after several days, there was no sign of improvement, and Cui Min himself was also anxious. Manic illnesses were hard to treat; Qi Yutai had always used Spirit Rhinoceros Fragrance since he was young to maintain his clarity, but once the episodes became frequent, medicine and stones hardly helped.
It was a thorny issue.
Cui Min thought of the words Qi Qing had said in Qi Yutai’s room that evening.
He asked him, "Can Yutai’s illness actually be cured?"
That wasn’t asking him whether he could cure the disease, it was asking him whether he still wanted to live.
Cui Min’s lips were pale.
He was well aware that Qi Qing sought him out instead of Ji Xun to treat Qi Yutai not because he believed his medical skills were superior to Ji Xun’s, but rather because, in Qi Qing’s eyes, he was more easily manipulated than Ji Xun.
Ji Xun, as a scion of a prominent family with powerful backing, would treat Qi Yutai earnestly but would not, like himself, falsify medical records for Qi Yutai.
And he would not help conceal the fact that Qi Yutai had epilepsy.
The very fact that the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion was most desperate to hide.
He was alive only because the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion needed him, If Qi Yutai were truly incapable of ever recovering his wits, he too would not survive.
When the nobility’s patient encountered trouble, the commoner medical worker was buried with them; it has always been so, even for an Envoy.
Cui Min ran his fingers through his hair, his usually serene face now filled with restlessness and a sense of being trapped.
If only there were a new prescription, if only there were a new recipe that could cure such bewildered madness.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t create one himself, the illness was hard to treat, and in recent years, none of the newly inducted Imperial Medical Officers at the Medical Officer Institute had been able to come up with a new treatment, not even Ji Xun had found a solution in this area.
Neither could the newcomers who passed the spring examination...
Spring examination...
Suddenly, Cui Min’s expression shifted.
He "suddenly" stood up, as if struck by inspiration, he took the lantern and exited, striding swiftly through the grove until he was in front of the medical records archive, unlocking the door and entering.
The archive was empty, fine dust along with the old scent of ink lingered around his nose, Cui Min skirted the corridor and quickly walked to a wooden cabinet, unlocking it with a key.
Within the cabinet, stacks of roll books lay neatly arranged.
These were the spring examination papers from past years, belonging to the students’ nine subjects.
Cui Min placed the lantern on the ground and began to search through them hastily.
He searched quickly, rifling through exam papers rapidly, the only sound in the night the rustling of paper until, suddenly, there was silence.
Cui Min pulled a packet from the thick pile, his hands trembling as he brought it under the lamp’s light.
The dim light forced him to squint, he read through the words one by one, and then his expression gradually became excited.
"Found it..."
The man moved his lips silently, a rare joy in his eyes.
The handwriting on the examination paper was sloppy, and the name torn away from the seal was illuminated by the faint light swinging into focus—
Lu Tong.
...
"What’s that noise?"
In the dormitory, Lu Tong looked in the direction of the wooden window.
"Probably a rat." Situated in front of the window and reading, Lin Danqing closed the window and said, "With the heat these past few days, the Medical Officer Institute is teeming with rats. Just the other day while cleaning, a large bunch of peanuts were dragged out from a hole in the hall wall, along with half a bag of rice, and a walnut I had half eaten and then lost."
"Disgusting things," cursed Lin Danqing, "always up to petty thievery."
Lu Tong offered a faint smile.
"Speaking of which, I saw the light still on in the Envoy’s House earlier," Lin Danqing glanced outside, "It’s quite late, and yet he returned to the Imperial Medical Institute. The Envoy is really hardworking."
After the fire at Fengle Building, Cui Min was often absent from the Institute, leaving the Institute’s affairs bustling; even Chang Jin had to be pulled from his bookkeeping duties to resume his position temporarily.
"I hear Qi Yutai’s illness is not yet cured, and I think it must be quite serious. Otherwise, why would the Envoy be here so late? He wasn’t known for staying up this late in the past."
He sighed again. "But with the condition being so grave, I suppose Envoy Cui will be quite busy for a while."
Outside the window, the night was quiet, the breeze mysterious, soundless except for the sparse shadows of the trees, covering the moonlight above.
Lu Tong turned a page of her book, nodding absently.
"Indeed," she said, "he must be very busy."