Chapter 327: Chapter 129: One More Subject_3
The smiling face that was bathed in sunlight looked bright and friendly.
After a pause, Lu Tong nodded, "I appreciate the kind words."
"Believe me, little sister," Lin Danqing said earnestly, "I’ve been blessed with a gilded tongue, it’s very effective!"
Just then, the long bell outside rang a few times.
"The spring examination is about to start," Lin Danqing turned her head to look back, "We should head over too."
Lu Tong nodded, stood up, and walked with her towards the examination hall.
In front of the examination hall, the chief examiner was calling out names from a list of documents, and everyone found the examination cell they were assigned to according to their names. The one allocated to Lu Tong was in the middle, neither far nor near. She left her medical kit outside the door, took only her writing brush and ink, and entered the cell.
Because of last year’s autumn competition’s cheating scandal, this year’s spring examination had also become much more stringent. The walls inside and outside the exam cells seemed to have been reorganized and renovated, appearing narrower and more constricting, resembling a row of small prison cells at a glance.
The examiners distributed the examination papers, a hefty stack of them—just like Shengjing’s autumn imperial examinations, only with different content. Lu Tong couldn’t help but feel, as the examiner handing out the papers passed by her cell and looked at her with what seemed like pity, that something was amiss.
It was as if they harbored considerable sympathy.
She didn’t mind it and lifted the exam papers in front of her, organizing them one by one.
One, two, three...
The spring examination consisted of nine sections: Major Formula Pulse, Minor Formula Pulse, Cold Damage Science, Gynecology, Ulcer Science, Acupuncture Science, Ophthalmology, Laryngology, and Orthopedics.
That’s what Miao Liangfang had taught her too.
However...
...eight, nine, ten.
Lu Tong’s actions of flipping through the exam papers came to a sudden halt.
Ten sets.
There were ten sets of exam papers before her eyes.
She frowned slightly and picked up the papers to count again.
It was still ten sets.
She hadn’t miscounted; there was one extra section.
Lu Tong stared at the extra set of exam papers in front of her, recalling the peculiar gaze of the chief examiner from earlier, and felt a sinking feeling in her heart.
Why was there suddenly an extra section?
...
Meanwhile, standing under a long shed, the chief examiner who had just distributed the exam papers to Lu Tong sighed, "I’m afraid there won’t be many who qualify in this year’s spring exam."
"That’s to be expected," another examiner came over and looked towards the cells not far away, somewhat wistfully, "The questions set by Master Ji, Ji Xun, are so difficult that even the medical officers from the Hanlin Medical Institute might not be able to answer them, let alone these greenhorns."
This year’s Imperial Medical Bureau’s spring examination questions were personally set by Hanlin Medical Officer Ji Xun. Ji Xun was well-versed in medicinal knowledge and strict in nature. On several previous visits to teach at the Imperial Medical Bureau, students had complained that the medical principles he discussed were too abstruse and difficult to grasp. With Ji Xun setting the questions this time, when the chief examiners saw the exam papers during distribution, they all clicked their tongues in awe—they were not only difficult but also contained many obscure and tricky questions, apart from those normally taught by the Imperial Medical Bureau.
"That’s not all," said the chief examiner, "this year there’s also an extra Verification Department section—it’s madness. The Government Office has its own Judicial Investigators; why get involved in the Medical Officer Institute’s business."
This year’s spring examination included an extra section, increasing from nine to ten, with the addition of the Verification Case Study, which involves the main investigation of cadaver conditions.
Shengjing’s Government Office had its own Judicial Investigators, and theoretically, they had nothing to do with the Imperial Medical Bureau’s Medical Officer Institute. However, as the position of Judicial Investigator was considered lowly, typically arising from families involved in coffin selling, butchering, or funerary services—who were also barred from participating in the civil exams—fewer and fewer people were willing to enter the profession, leading to a scarcity of outstanding Judicial Investigators in the Shengjing Government Office over the years.
At the beginning of the previous year, the imperial court intended to add new positions for Judicial Investigators and elevate their status within the Government Office, thus a new Verification Case Study section was introduced in the Imperial Medical Bureau. But since this section required dealing with dead bodies, the students of the Imperial Medical Bureau, although not from families with high power or status, were still brought up in comfort and were not used to hardships, let alone the grueling study of corpses. Therefore, their grades in the Verification Case Study were almost always poor.
The inclusion of "Verification" in this year’s spring exam was unexpected.
"The students of our Imperial Medical Bureau should fare better, having studied at least a bit of everything. But the commoner medical workers will suffer; they never studied this before, and with such a sudden addition, I fear they won’t be able to answer a single question."
The chief examiner thought of the young female doctor who was sitting in the cell earlier and couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy. They had all heard about the troubles with the Minister of Imperial Treasury, and he himself had come from a common background, steadily working his way up through the Medical Officer Institute over the years. It was disappointing to see that this year, a commoner finally had the chance to participate in the spring exam, only to be disqualified due to sudden changes, making it impossible for them to join the Hanlin Medical Institute.
"Sympathizing with her is pointless," a colleague at his side whispered, "and don’t worry about telling you, the Dong Family has already come to the Medical Officer Institute to give a notice. Even if she passes the exam, she won’t be accepted into the Hanlin Medical Institute."
The chief examiner was taken aback, "Why not?"
"Just think about it—if she really made it into the Hanlin Medical Institute, where would the Dong Family put their face? We should just do what we need to do, and not pry into the thoughts of those above," his colleague patted his shoulder and went on to proctor the exams with a water jug in hand.
The chief examiner stood still for a long while, sighed deeply with a sense of empathy, and then headed towards the examination cells.