Soon, Mr. Yokodori Kairashi brought two young men into the villa, and Lin Shijie hurried to greet them.
After a few polite exchanges, Lin Shijie introduced Long Xiao to Yokodori Kairashi. The two young men placed the gift boxes in their hands on the coffee table and stood aside.
Lin Shijie chatted with Yokodori Kairashi for a while, and Yokodori Kairashi explained his purpose. He wanted to hire Lin Shijie as a technical consultant for his company.
Lin Shijie found it strange, as Yokodori Kairashi's company primarily dealt in medical equipment and pharmaceutical raw materials, and he himself knew nothing about medicine.
"Mr. Kairashi, I don't understand medicine, so I can't be a technical consultant," Lin Shijie politely refused.
Yokodori Kairashi looked at Lin Shijie curiously and said, "The medicinal plaster produced by your Lin Group is a special supply for the military. If you don't understand medical technology, how could you produce such good medicine?"
Lin Shijie smiled and said, "I don't understand medicine, but I have a good son-in-law who is a very capable doctor."
Yokodori Kairashi looked at Long Xiao with surprise in his eyes and said, "So Mr. Long is a doctor. I am honored."
After discussing some medical topics with Long Xiao, Yokodori Kairashi wanted to hire Long Xiao as their pharmaceutical consultant.
Long Xiao shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kairashi, I'm too busy and really don't have time."
"It won't take up too much of your time, just a day or two each month for guidance," Yokodori Kairashi said politely.
Long Xiao shook his head again and said, "I have a group company to manage, and I also have Xinglin Caotang to manage. I simply don't have enough time."
Long Xiao elaborated on his difficulties, and Yokodori Kairashi sighed, having to abandon the idea of hiring Long Xiao as a technical consultant.
Yokodori Kairashi stayed at Mangshan No. 1 for over an hour before leaving. As they parted, they exchanged contact information, and Yokodori Kairashi told Long Xiao that if Long Xiao's company needed medicinal materials, they could cooperate.
Long Xiao had never concerned himself with the raw materials for the Xuan Xiao Company's pharmaceutical factory. The medicinal materials needed for Xinglin Caotang were provided by the Jiang brothers and Su Guoqiang, which was sufficient.
Although Long Xiao stood in opposition to the Japanese people, he did not object to commercial cooperation. In business, mixing national sentiment with commercial activities makes it difficult to run a company well.
After seeing Yokodori Kairashi off, Long Xiao returned to his room to organize materials, preparing to search for the three missing vital energies after completing the medical association's examination.
Soon, the examination day arrived. In the morning, Long Xiao, carrying a pen and accompanied by Xiao Ming, arrived at the entrance of the medical association's exhibition hall.
This place used to be where the medical achievements of Donghai were exhibited. Now, tables and chairs had been set up, and numbers were posted on the tables.
Long Xiao was number eight, seated in the middle of the front row. After verifying his admission ticket, Long Xiao proceeded to his seat.
As soon as he sat down, Long Xiao turned his head and saw a familiar face, who had also just taken her seat.
"Long Xiao, you're a doctor too?" Hui Juan asked, looking at Long Xiao in surprise.
Hui Juan's surname was Zheng, and she was Long Xiao's middle school classmate. Zheng Hui Juan came from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and they had been close when they were in school.
Long Xiao smiled and said, "You could say that."
"What do you mean 'you could say that'? It's either yes or no," Zheng Hui Juan said unhappily.
Long Xiao told Zheng Hui Juan that he had opened a clinic to make a living and had also obtained a medical license.
"Long Xiao, traditional Chinese medicine needs inheritance. Without inheritance, a 'two-knife' TCM doctor can kill people," Zheng Hui Juan reminded Long Xiao.
Long Xiao nodded and said, "I know that. I rarely treat patients myself; I've hired two doctors to make house calls."
After a brief chat, the exam began.
When the papers were handed out, Long Xiao glanced at them. Most of the exam questions were from classic medical texts like the "Huangdi Neijing" and "Shanghan Zabing Lun."
The medical skills in "Long Zang" far surpassed the circulating version of "Huangdi Neijing." The currently published "Huangdi Neijing" is not only missing a lot, but it also contains numerous errors, and its useful knowledge is less than half of the true "Huangdi Neijing."
To prepare for the exam, Long Xiao answered the questions according to the current version of the "Huangdi Neijing" but corrected the erroneous parts.
Long Xiao finished first. He saw that everyone else was still answering the questions, so he had to sit there quietly and wait.
After more than a dozen people had submitted their papers, he stood up and handed in his own exam.
Since the grading was done on-site, someone immediately began to review Long Xiao's paper as soon as he submitted it.
"Who is this person? How dare they arbitrarily change the standard answers," the elder who was grading Long Xiao's paper murmured.
Li Yizhen walked over, picked up Long Xiao's paper, and looked at it. "The 'Huangdi Neijing' has many errors and is not the standard. If the changes are reasonable, then they are correct."
"Look here, how could it be changed like this?"
Li Yizhen looked at the point the elder was indicating, smiled, and said, "Dr. Huang, the 'Huangdi Neijing' unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tombs has been compiled and published. I suggest you buy a copy."
"'Huangdi Neijing' is something I have read thoroughly. Why should I read the one unearthed from Mawangdui?" Dr. Huang asked, confused.
"The version of 'Huangdi Neijing' from the Han tombs is an earlier edition and has fewer errors."
If there were any doubts about an answer, the grading teachers would have to discuss it together.
The other grading teachers looked at Long Xiao's answer to that particular question. One of them exclaimed, "A talent! Truly a talent! To be able to spot the errors in the 'Huangdi Neijing'."
Although Long Xiao's paper showed exceptional performance, he only received eighty points because he missed a very simple fifteen-point question.
The exam ended, and the list of candidates for the afternoon session was announced, eliciting sighs of relief and bursts of excitement. Long Xiao turned to leave with a poker face. Zheng Hui Juan stopped him and said, "Long Xiao, let's have dinner together."
Long Xiao shook his head and said, "I have something else to do. Another day, perhaps."
Watching Long Xiao's retreating back as he walked out of the hall, Zheng Hui Juan felt that this Long Xiao was completely different from the Long Xiao she knew before. The current Long Xiao possessed an aura that ordinary people lacked; she couldn't quite describe it, but she could feel it.
At two in the afternoon, the exam began. Each candidate was given several sheets of white paper. On a display platform, one hundred kinds of medicinal materials were laid out, each with a serial number.
Each candidate had one hundred minutes, and they could only spend one minute at each medicinal material.
The candidates took turns according to their numbers. Soon, it was Long Xiao's turn. He stood up and walked quickly onto the display platform. As he walked, he wrote down the names and serial numbers of the medicinal materials on the white paper.
In less than half an hour, Long Xiao had written down the names of all one hundred medicinal materials. He returned to his seat and began to write about their properties, indications, and contraindications.
Other candidates wrote more slowly, needing to smell some of the medicinal materials, and some even secretly licked them with their tongues.
This time, Long Xiao finished writing and submitted his paper. According to the rules, writing the main ingredients, properties, indications, and contraindications of fifty medicinal materials would be considered passing.
Since Long Xiao did not write down the main ingredients, he wrote down the properties, indications, and contraindications for all the medicinal materials.
Dr. Huang once again received Long Xiao's test paper. Seeing that Long Xiao had written about all the medicinal materials and was the first to submit his paper, he casually threw it on the ground, saying, "This is an exam, not child's play."
Li Yizhen, seeing Dr. Huang throw Long Xiao's paper, was about to step forward when an elder entered the hall from outside, followed by over a dozen other elders of similar age.