Chapter 333: The Contest 1

The following day...

Apart from their teacher Xue Feihan, Luo Feiyan, who accepted Gu Chaoyan directly to the Medical Department as well as another female teacher named Huang Xuan was present.

Judging from the scale, the contest was considered as one of the events that received much attention.

Liu Hanxiang, who was standing in the crowd, had her fists tightly clenched. Sweat filled her hand. She was going to spare no efforts to get whatever that was important to her.

The Dean glanced at the students of the Medical Department and said calmly, “The Queen is sick these days, so Qin Yinghan is stuck in the court and unable to make it here. So we are going to be the judges for today’s contest, anyone against that?”

“No!” They all answered simultaneously.

The teachers from the Medical Department of Saint College, apart from the Dean who was no longer working in the court, were all important and key women, doctors and imperial doctors from the court. No one would be against their presence or suspect their judgement.

The Dean nodded calmly, then he continued. “Since we are going to find a candidate to make the medicine, the contest will be much simpler, namely distinguishing the herbs and smelling the herbs.”

“As the name suggests, the step of distinguishing medicine means that you have to tell what the herbs are and what they can do.”

“In the backyard of the Medical Department, there is a large field of medical herbs where all kinds of medical herbs are growing. Now in the box there are ten notes with different medical herbs’ names written on them. Each one of you is going to get one note and then find the correspondent herb. The first one that finds the right herb wins the contest and gets the qualification of making the medicine.” The Dean said calmly.

The words had just been spoken, when everyone rushed out to get a note. They were all trying to get the easiest one first.

Gu Chaoyan was not in a hurry. She was at the end of the queue and got a note for herself together with Li Yuanxiang.

The note was well folded and the content was unseen. So Gu Chaoyan did not think that she needed to rush up for the note. After all, it was dumb luck when the note was folded – if the herb happened to be growing nearby, then it would be her luck to get it so fast.

Gu Chaoyan did not expect to get the qualification. After all, she did not truly have the interest of being the candidate – she could simply make the medicine in her own space.

She would be very willing to spare the first place for the interested and capable, if there was anyone. With this plan in mind, Gu Chaoyan was not in a hurry to finish the job.

The ten medicinal herbs on the note were as follows: rattletop, kuh-seng, the bulb of fritillary, edible tulip, short-tube lycoris, cogongrass, rough gentian, root of Chinese wild ginger, white berry, and Decne.

Instead of walking into the field hastily as the others, she stood at the entrance and made an observation of the whole field, trying to find out if she could spot the general location of the medical herbs, then she could make a plan and follow the routine.

She glanced about and saw at least four and four medical herbs, which were all located very far away from her. However, if the plan was well made, then she could shorten her distance.

Gu Chaoyan was about to leave when she saw Li Yuanxiang observing the field as she did, but it seemed that she had not finished the observation, and was still in the middle of watching attentively.