Smiling Under Lanter Chapter 323 - 128 Miao’s Prescriptions3

Chapter 323: Chapter 128 Miao’s Prescriptions_3

Cui Min still resisted, "This is a waste of silver... I’m just a handyman; there’s no way I can pass the exam."

"Minn," Miao Liangfang pleaded with him earnestly, "believe , you are much better than those doctors. If you truly feel sorry for , then give the exam your all. If you pass and join the Hanlin dical Institute, treat

to a drink with your first month’s salary!"

The silver had already been sent, and his na was added to the candidates’ roster for the spring examination. With no choice in the matter, like a duck being pushed onto a perch, Cui Min begrudgingly agreed.

"He worked very hard."

Miao Liangfang looked up at the distant night sky and sighed.

Cui Min’s temperant was entirely different from Miao Liangfang’s. Miao Liangfang was proud and impulsive, always thinking positively. Cui Min was lancholic and cautious, always striving to make things perfect. Fearful of the silver being wasted or perhaps valuing this rare, once-in-a-lifeti opportunity, Cui Min would sleep only two hours a night. He spent the rest of the ti reading dical texts, his dedication so intense it could be likened to the ancient practice of tying oneself to a post to stay awake or poking one’s thighs with an awl to remain alert.

During the day, they helped carry goods for the boats at the docks to make a bit of money, and at night, they lived in an abandoned house, studying on the floor. These days continued until the spring exam of the Imperial dical Bureau that year.

Lu Tong said, "He passed the spring exam."

Miao Liangfang smiled, "Indeed. That year’s spring exam, among the commoner dical workers, only the two of us made it into the dical Officer Institute."

Miao Liangfang still rembered the excitent of the mont when the results were announced. He and Cui Min stood under the list of successful candidates, each searching for their nas. Miao Liangfang’s na was third and easy to spot, while Cui Min’s was further down. When Cui Min’s na appeared on the list, Miao Liangfang felt happier than if he had passed himself.

His best friend stood under the list, as if unable to believe his own eyes.

Miao Liangfang punched him on the shoulder, his excitent spilling over, "I told you, you could do it!"

Cui Min rubbed his eyes and stared at the list for a long while. Finally, he pinched himself hard—so hard that tears welled up in his eyes—before he finally ca back to his senses and murmured, "I... passed."

He had passed that year’s spring exam.

"We... both entered the Hanlin dical Institute," said Miao Liangfang.

One was a barefoot doctor from a remote mountain village, and the other was a naless handyman who had worked in a pharmacy for over a decade; yet both of them had been admitted to the Hanlin dical Institute. For the two of them, it was like overturning fate, and their story soon beca the talk of the town, especially Miao Liangfang, who beca quite prominent at the dical Officer Institute that year.

"Lu, my boy," Miao Liangfang said with a wry smile, "you only see the glamour of the Hanlin dical Institute, but do not realize how different it is for commoners to enter the palace compared to the students from the Imperial dical Bureau. For people like us in the palace, it’s our fate to be bullied."

"The good jobs never co your way; all the dirty and tiring work is dumped on you. At the first sign of trouble, everyone else scatters, putting you in the front line to take the bla. Do you know how many dical officers have died in recent years? Among these deaths, the majority were commoner dical workers. Was it because their dical skills were poor? No, it was because their lives were deed insignificant!"

"In this place, if you’re not careful, there will be plenty who’d sell you out and still expect you to count the silver for them!"

These words sounded like intimidation but also like a bitter statent. Lu Tong said nothing, quietly waiting for Miao Liangfang to continue.

"When I first entered the dical Officer Institute, I had the luck to cure the Empress Dowager’s chronic cough and was summoned by her quite often, which brought

so attention."

"At that ti, I beca arrogant, thinking highly of my dical skills and the favor of a noble patron, offending others frequently. It was always thanks to Cui Min, who discreetly offered

advice and helped

escape from trouble."

"Yet back then, I didn’t see it, and I thought it was all due to my own abilities. Every ti Cui Min cautioned , I brushed it off, and eventually, he stopped speaking up."

Miao Liangfang couldn’t rember when he and Cui Min had started to drift apart.

He was always busy then, one day concocting dicinal als for a lady of the court, the next day treating an old illness for a general. He was the busiest in the Hanlin dical Institute. People said he would surely beco the Chief Officer of the Yiguan Court, and Miao Liangfang thought so too. Those who flattered him, those who were jealous of him, were always by his side, and he failed to notice Cui Min’s absence.

Until one day, after eting with the emperor and returning to the Imperial dical Bureau, he happened upon Cui Min. Cui Min was being bullied by a few dical officers. Miao Liangfang loudly scolded those dical officers, and Cui Min looked at him, respectfully calling him "Vice Director." Only then did Miao Liangfang realize how they had beco such strangers to each other.

The friend with whom he once shared everything and studied together in a straw hut, now felt as distant as a figure from a previous life.