Chapter 1694: Treasure Your Own Broom
Manbao ran back to Chongwenguan. Xiao Yuanzheng and his men were checking the list. Seeing Zhou Man so leisurely, he couldn't help but ask her with a stern face, "Doctor Zhou, have you finished the list you're responsible for?"
"It's done." Manbao took out the list she had written and showed it to them.
Everyone: ...It's so fast, it's obviously the same workload.
Manbao put the list on the table, dragged a chair and sat next to the busy Xiao Yuanzheng, and smiled at him with his face propped up.
Xiao Yuanzheng felt a chill in his heart. He was writing, but he still turned half his back to avoid her gaze.
Manbao asked attentively, "Xiao Yuanzheng, do you want me to help you write it?"
Xiao Yuanzheng originally wanted to push the work on hand to her, but seeing her like this, he immediately shook his head, indicating that he could do it himself and didn't need her help.
Manbao was disappointed for a moment.
She looked up and saw that everyone was looking at her intentionally or unintentionally. She felt that this was not the place to talk, so she said to Xiao Yuanzheng, "Xiao Yuanzheng, how about we go out and talk?"
Xiao Yuanzheng said with a serious and impartial expression, "If you have anything to say, just say it here. We have nothing to hide from others."
"That being said, things haven't been finalized yet, and I don't want too many people to hear." Man Bao lowered his voice and whispered, "I just came back from the Queen's visit."
Xiao Yuanzheng wanted to continue to maintain his integrity, but he really wanted to know what Zhou Man was instigating the queen to do.
After hesitating for a while, he sighed, put down his pen, stood up and went out with her.
Therefore, having a subordinate who is about the same age as your younger daughter and older granddaughter is not a good thing at all, especially when this subordinate is very much liked by his immediate superior and can discuss many things with his immediate superior without going through him, which is even more annoying.
He followed Manbao outside, sighed, and asked, "Tell me, what's the matter?"
Manbao then told Xiao Yuanzheng everything the Empress had discussed with her. She said, "Didn't the Ministry of Revenue reject the prescription we submitted the other day?"
Xiao Yuanzheng: "They think it's a waste to give students such expensive medicine for teaching. Even when I told them that these medicines can be used repeatedly for teaching, they refused to buy them."
Manbao: "So our Imperial Medical Bureau must have its own small treasury, so that we can buy the notes that the Ministry of Revenue does not approve ourselves."
Xiao Yuanzheng's eyebrows moved, "You mean getting money from those adults' homes?"
Manbao nodded. "If they want a private doctor, then we can train them and pay them."
Xiao Yuanzheng frowned and said, "If this happens, won't the skills be spread out?"
"Oh, it's already this late, and you're still thinking of keeping your skills secret?" Man Bao said, "Don't forget, there are foreign doctors in the Imperial Medical Bureau. After they finish their training, they will return to their own countries and tribes. Are you afraid that those people sent by the aristocratic families will learn your medical skills?"
Xiao Yuanzheng thought about it and agreed. It was obviously impossible to stop him. The most he could do was to keep his own unique skills and not teach others.
Manbao was still babble-bab-bab, "...I think the gentleman is right, you guys just care too much about the ability to guard the house. For me, I don't care."
Xiao Yuanzheng raised his eyelids to look at her and hummed inaudibly.
Manbao didn't notice and continued, "It's like the ancient people making fire. The first person knew the benefits of fire. If he kept it secret and didn't tell anyone, what good would it do him? He could only wait for the fire from heaven to come and save the fire. But he told others, and many people knew about it. One day, when the fire from heaven went out, someone came up with the idea of rubbing two sticks together to make fire..."
Xiao Yuanzheng had no idea what Zhou Man was saying. He could only stare blankly at her as she chattered away, "If the person who figured out the fire-making method by rubbing two sticks together had kept it a secret, then he might have only known about it for the rest of his life. Once he died, no one would know about it. Who knows how many years it would take for someone else to figure it out."
"But he told others, and this method could be passed down. Then, the next person might discover flint at any time. It is thanks to these ancestors, one after another, that we now have flint and tinder that can be used to strike fire at any time." Manbao finally finished the foreshadowing and gave the result. "So the same is true for medical skills. We can teach them everything we know and train outstanding disciples. In the future, they won't have to focus solely on studying the medical skills left by the predecessors. They can also think about studying the heights we haven't reached. One accumulates on another, and generation is superimposed on generation. In the end, we will develop medical skills that are even more powerful than our current ones."
This is what she thought about after a brief study of the history of medical development with Teacher Mo recently. She was once puzzled as to why the medical skills of Teacher Mo's era were so advanced?
In the past, she had only studied the development history and evolution of ancient Chinese medicine. This was her first time to come into contact with the development history of all medicine. She realized that these people were still too narrow-minded.
The narrow-minded Xiao Yuanzheng didn't understand what Manbao said and asked in confusion, "What is heavenly fire? What is fire by drilling wood?"
Manbao: "... Haven't you read history books? Legend has it that ancient humans first learned to use fire because of heavenly fire."
Xiao Yuanzheng: "...I'm not a historian. Why would a doctor like me need to study such ancient history? And which history book is this written in? How come I've never heard of it?"
Manbao scratched her head. Could it be that she had mixed up the history books published by the encyclopedia and the history books of this world?
She absolutely denies it!
Manbao said: "I don't remember, but it is true anyway. No, that's not the question. Shouldn't you think about whether what I said makes sense?"
Xiao Yuanzheng waved his hand directly, "Alright, we are talking about collecting money, which has nothing to do with this matter. You said you want to give ten places to those noble families and powerful people?"
Well, Manbao could only cooperate and change the subject, thinking about the most important thing at the moment. She nodded and said, "Yes, all the money earned will be put into the Imperial Medical Bureau."
Xiao Yuanzheng asked, "How do you collect this money?"
Manbao and he stared at each other. Manbao had no experience, and Xiao Yuanzheng certainly had no experience either.
The two glared at each other for a while, and then Manbao opened his mouth and said, "One hundred taels per person per year!"
Xiao Yuanzheng: "...Are you dreaming? Who would be willing to spend so much money to train a servant?"
Manbao: "Then how much do you want?"
Xiao Yuanzheng stroked his beard and said, "Half, fifty taels?"
That’s quite a lot, enough to buy a lot of medicinal herbs.
Manbao frowned and asked, "How many years will I study?"
If it lasts for eight years, four hundred taels would be enough for a family of five to live a wealthy life, which seems not a small amount.
Xiao Yuanzheng was also thinking, "They want a female doctor, probably to specialize in women's diseases. You will probably be the one teaching them then, so how many years do you want to teach?"
(End of this chapter)
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