Li Shizhen's sons were all scholars, and all of them, including himself, had achieved official titles.

This is the obsession planted by his father.

Li Shizhen's family had been practicing medicine for generations, and his father, Li Yanwen, had once been an imperial physician at the Imperial Hospital, a famous doctor at the time. However, Li Yanwen felt that no matter how famous he was, he still had to endure the bullying of an eighth-rank official, so he vowed to have his descendants change their profession.

As a result, Li Shizhen passed the imperial examination at the age of fourteen. However, he loved medicine since he was a child and was not keen on the imperial examination. After failing three times, he gave up Confucianism and studied medicine, devoting himself to the study of medicine.

Li Yanwen placed his hopes on his grandsons. Not only did he train all four of them to be scholars, but before he died, he saw his eldest grandson Jianzhong pass the imperial examination and change the status of the Li family. Even so, he did not forget to tell his grandsons to keep up the good work and pass the imperial examination to bring honor to the family.

But how could it be so easy to pass the imperial examination? After Li Jianzhong passed the imperial examination in the 43rd year of the Jiajing reign, he went to Beijing twice in a row, but both times he returned without success.

Actually, he had been to the Imperial Academy with Master Zhao, but there were too many candidates in the same category. Although Master Zhao was a socialite, he did not recognize Li Jianzhong.

But Li Jianzhong naturally recognized the world-famous Iron Butt Champion. With this relationship, he accepted Zhao Hao's invitation and prepared to serve as the Dean of Academic Affairs at Yufeng Academy after the new year.

As for his three younger brothers, they will go to school and prepare for the next competition.

When meeting the dean of the academy, the four of them had to be polite.

Li Shizhen's whole family now made a living under the sponsor, so naturally his attitude was very proper and he invited him into the house for tea.

"Sorry for disturbing you. I will wish you a happy New Year tomorrow." Zhao Hao smiled and waved his hand, asking the guards to carry the New Year gifts into the yard.

"Dean Wan will be on duty tomorrow."

"Then you can go and wish me a happy new year." Zhao Hao laughed. On the first day of the first lunar month, all the gentry in the county would go to their parents to wish them a happy new year. Li Shizhen was now a well-known figure in the county, so how could he be absent?

"Ah." Li Shizhen said depressedly, "I should have let the dean be on duty today."

~~

After chatting with Mr. Li's family for a while, Zhao Hao said goodbye and went out with Li Mingyue to Lin Runyuan not far away.

The yard here was much quieter. Apart from Lin Run lying quietly in the ward, there were only his wife Sun and two sons.

When Lin Run was the governor of Yingtian, his wife stayed in his hometown of Putian. When they learned of Lin Run's accident and rushed to Kunshan, it was already last month.

Lin Run entered officialdom too early and was about the same age as Mr. Zhao. His wife still looked very young, but she had a melancholy look on her face, and it was obvious that she was getting sadder as the New Year approached.

Lin Run's two sons, Shaoming and Shaoyun, were seventeen or eighteen years old, and fifteen or sixteen years old, both of them were fair-skinned, handsome, and both were scholars.

Zhao Hao would come every now and then, and he was already very familiar with the three of them. He asked the guards to send the prepared New Year's Eve dinner to the kitchen, and they could just heat it up when they were ready to eat.

Sun was naturally very grateful to the young man and thanked him with a forced smile.

"This is what I should do." Zhao Hao smiled and asked, "How is Lin Zhongcheng today?"

"It's still the same. He looks fine, but he just won't wake up." Shao Ming said worriedly.

"Let me take a look." Zhao Hao went into the inner room. Lin Run's burns had healed and the oxygen had been withdrawn. His hair had grown a lot, so there was no need to maintain a sterile environment.

He stood beside the bed, looked at the skinny, motionless Lin Run, and sighed deeply.

Alas, they tried everything, but the patient just wouldn't wake up. The three doctors were at their wits' end.

Zhao Hao pulled up a chair and sat down to talk to Lin Run. He kept telling Sun to keep talking to Lin Zhongcheng and keep stimulating the patient to see if there would be any miracles.

When he came, he would also report to Lin Run on the latest situation in Yingtian Prefecture, and also talk about the development of his company and his real purpose.

As time went by, Zhao Hao regarded Lin Zhongcheng lying there as a tree hole where he could confide his secrets...

"Mr. Hai ended his inspection in Changshu before the New Year. So far, his one-month-long release of complaints has finally come to an end. In one month, he actually handled more than 10,000 cases. Don't you think that's scary?"

"Of course, I'm not saying that you're incapable, Zhong Cheng. It's just that the Sea Warrior's microcosm is too terrifying." There was no one else in the room, and Zhao Hao was extremely relaxed and spoke without restraint:

"What is Sea Warriors? It's an anime I watched when I was a kid, also called the Five Unbeatable Warriors. Look at them, Chuu-chan, they can wake up no matter how badly they're injured... But I don't know, are Saori and Seiya together?"

"Look at me, I'm this old, but still so childish. It seems that I'm still young." Zhao Hao smiled self-deprecatingly, looking at the sporadic snowflakes floating outside the window. On the last afternoon of the second year of Longqing, it snowed in the south of the Yangtze River.

He continued to sit cross-legged and relax:

"Let me talk about something serious. Our Jiangnan Group held an annual meeting and announced some small goals. But I didn't tell the whole truth because I was afraid of scaring them... For example, I said that within five years, we would realize the transportation of grain by sea. In fact, I will do it next year."

"I know this is too hasty. I don't even have many seagoing ships right now, let alone a single escort ship. But there is no other way. When the peach blossom flood comes in March next year, the Yellow River will burst its banks in Pei County. By then, the canal will be blocked and the grain transport will be useless. I must seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and make it a done deal so that nothing can go back to the past. Otherwise, when the Yellow River is repaired and grain transport is restored, sea transport will definitely be out of the question..."

As he was talking, Zhao Hao was suddenly stunned because he saw Lin Run's eyelids twitched.

"I didn't drink alcohol?" Zhao Hao rubbed his eyes vigorously, but saw that Lin Run was still again.

"Uh, am I dazzled..." Master Zhao stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then stared at Lin Run and said nonsense: "If it weren't for me, the Ming Dynasty would only have 76 years left. By then, Zhu Youjian would have hanged himself on Old Wai's neck, and our descendants would have become slaves of a conquered nation."

Lin Run's eyelids twitched again.

There's really something interesting!

Zhao Hao's eyes widened with excitement, and he continued to add: "Those Tartars were cruel and evil. They massacred nine out of ten households in our beautiful Jiangnan area in the ten days of Yangzhou and the three massacres of Jiading. What's more hateful is that they also forced us to shave our heads and change our clothes... They shaved off all our hair and only had a rat-tail whip. It took 268 years, Zhongcheng!"

Lin Run's throat began to tremble, and his hands began to tremble slightly, as if they were about to explode.

"The most abominable thing is that they regard us Han people as slaves and are on high alert everywhere, which makes China fall behind for the first time. For thousands of years, we have been bullying others, and finally we have been humiliated by the great powers and signed 1,175 unequal treaties..."

"Ah!" Lin Zhongcheng finally let out a roar and woke up with his eyes wide open!

ps. I made some adjustments to the outline today to make the story more compact and exciting, and then I followed a hot event. As a result, I only finished two chapters. I feel guilty and owe one chapter first.