Seeking Truth with a Sword

The Academic Palace covered an expansive area. Just touring the relatively closer quarters open to the new students of the third year of Zaiqian took Prince Yue, Li Hui, and the others the entire afternoon.

By evening, the new students reconvened. They entered the grand and solemn great hall of the supervision building for the enrollment ceremony. Actually, it wasn't much. It merely involved the Mountain Master and the Sacrificial Officer lecturing on the history and achievements of the Academic Palace, and the Supervisor reading out the Saint's edict. The edict encouraged the students to focus on their studies and to make future contributions to Yu Country, the Academic Palace, and the common people, and so on.

The position of Supervisor also existed in the Imperial College, located in Wuben Square outside the Anshang Gate of the Imperial City. However, the Supervisor in the Imperial College was an official of the sixth rank who oversaw school regulations and adjudicated school matters. In the Academic Palace, however, it was just a liaison position with the court of Yu Country. It was said the Supervisor only came two or three times a month, possessing no real power, no authority to manage, and certainly no right to interfere.

That's quite peculiar, Li Ang thought. He had initially believed the Academic Palace was an extremely important part of Yu Country's court. Now, it seems, the relationship between the Academic Palace and Yu Country's court isn't so much subordination but rather... equal cooperation. The Academic Palace even seems to have a slightly greater influence on certain specific court affairs than the Royal Family. It was just that the Academic Palace rarely took the initiative to wield that influence.

After the enrollment ceremony was the evening banquet. Just as Li Hui had said earlier in the day, the Academic Palace had hired renowned chefs from various regions, offering every type of cuisine imaginable, all with rather delicious flavors.

We should thank the Academic Palace again for its improved iron pots, oil pressing, and seasoning production techniques, Li Ang mused. Without iron pots and vegetable oil, the culinary art of stir-frying wouldn't have a foundation—not even a fried egg could be enjoyed.

After the wine had made three rounds and the dishes had conveyed five flavors, the students who had applied for accommodation went to their dormitories, while those living in Chang'an boarded their carriages or mounted their horses and returned to Chang'an.

「———」

"I'm back."

"Welcome home."

Familiar dialogue echoed in the Golden City Square residence. Li Ang, having stabled the Red Horse, groomed its coat, and fed it, yawned as he entered the house.

"Young Master, are you tired?" Chai Cuiqiao took the medicine chest from Li Ang's hands, placed it on the table, and poured him a cup of hot tea.

Li Ang sipped the tea. "Not really."

"How's the Academic Palace? Is it fun?" Chai Cuiqiao massaged Li Ang's shoulders, asking curiously, "I heard there are many rare treasures there, and walking around, one can see precious exotic beasts gifted by various nations."

"It's not the Royal Garden or a zoo, so there aren't that many rare and exotic animals. The back mountain might have some, but that place seemed quite dangerous, with some Alien species carrying Demon lineage." Li Ang casually shared some of his day's experiences at the Academic Palace with Chai Cuiqiao. "By the way, what are all these new pieces of jewelry on the table?"

"They were gifts from the neighboring ladies in Golden City Square," Chai Cuiqiao said carefully. "Today, Mrs. Qian, Mrs. Zhao, and Mrs. Lin from the nearby houses came to visit. They invited me to join their ladies' tea party in Golden City Square. I didn't go, so they left these as welcoming presents."

"A tea party?" Li Ang immediately understood. Most families living in Golden City Square have some wealth. Those ladies invited Chai Cuiqiao to their tea party hoping to establish a connection with me, the Academic Palace Top Scholar.

Officials from the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Rites had been making continuous visits over the past few days. Consequently, even an idiot would know that Li Ang, living here, had a promising future. Furthermore, Chai Cuiqiao was reportedly his personal maid. The fact that they lived in such a large house with just the two of them, without hiring any servants or maids, was quite a curiosity. Actually, it was because I don't like having outsiders at home, and also because of Mo Si.

No matter how one looked at it, Chai Cuiqiao held a high position in Li Ang's heart, making the ladies' group's overtures understandable.

"Just keep them. We can send back an equivalent gift someday," Li Ang said, glancing at Chai Cuiqiao's obedient expression. After a moment's thought, he added, "It's not good to always stay at home, either. You can occasionally join them for tea, participate in the ladies' society activities, and buy some clothes, rouge, and such. Those rich ladies and young misses travel by carriage, guarded by guards."

"Eh?" Chai Cuiqiao's eyes widened in surprise. Since arriving in Chang'an, they had experienced so much trouble that she hadn't yet had the chance to visit the ladies' society in the Chang'an Market.

Li Ang said, "Don't get too excited too soon, though. While there probably isn't anyone dangerously foolish among those ladies and young misses, I don't like it when they gamble, bet on horses, or engage in superstitious pilgrimages to temples and Daoist temples..."

"I know, I know." Chai Cuiqiao nodded quickly. As the person who had accompanied Li Ang the longest, she knew he scoffed at any form of devout superstition, even regarding Haotian. Li Ang didn't really believe in much of it. In their house during the New Year, hastily offering a single stick of incense to heaven and earth was enough. This was unlike the common households of Yu Country, which had many excessive rituals.

"Mhm." Li Ang nodded and, while sipping tea, casually said, "By the way, your friend Li Leqing is a Yu Country Princess."

"What?!" Chai Cuiqiao, who was massaging Li Ang's shoulders, was shocked and inadvertently pressed so hard that Li Ang grimaced and yelped in pain.

"Young Master, does that hurt?" Chai Cuiqiao promptly rubbed Li Ang's shoulders, saying apologetically, "I wasn't paying attention to my strength... Oh right, Li Leqing, is she really a princess?"

"Yes, she's the daughter of the Emperor and Empress Xue, Princess Guanghua. She was specially recruited by the Mountain Master to attend the Academic Palace this year. I ran into her again today there." Li Ang said nonchalantly, "No wonder you saw her outside the exam venue before. She must have been observing her future classmates."

"I see..." Chai Cuiqiao blinked, neither angered that her friend had concealed her identity nor overjoyed that her new friend was an imperial princess. She tilted her head and thought for a moment, then whispered, "So, are the rumors circulating in the neighborhood true? The ones saying Princess Guanghua has been frail and frequently ill since childhood, and that the Imperial Physicians said she would hardly live past twenty? When she talks to me, she sometimes suddenly hunches over and turns pale. She looks quite unwell. Young Master, could you perhaps give her a thorough examination one day?"

"I'm not the almighty Doraemon who can do anything, you know." Li Ang shook his head helplessly and then began to speak words Chai Cuiqiao couldn't understand, "Even surgery can only truly solve a very small fraction of illnesses. Besides, the conditions for performing comprehensive surgery don't even exist yet. If you insist, I'll find an excuse to give her a physical examination someday. That is, if she's willing."

While the two were chatting idly, someone knocked on the courtyard gate of their Golden City Square residence. A woman's voice came from outside, "Is Mr. Li at home?"

This was the voice of Li Leqing's maid. Li Ang opened the door and saw Li Leqing herself; she had come specifically to apologize to Chai Cuiqiao.

The two young girls held hands in the courtyard, whispering to each other. Li Ang stood aside, observing Li Leqing's outwardly healthy appearance and contemplating, Should I invent the stethoscope? Otherwise, some internal, gynecological, and pediatric illnesses are indeed difficult to diagnose.

「————」

A stethoscope isn't actually difficult to make. The medical stethoscope in his memories from the Otherworld was invented in the early nineteenth century by the French doctor René Laennec using a hollow wooden tube. An improved stethoscope would use steel, ivory tubes, and rubber tubes, materials which were obtainable even now. During his visit to the Academic Palace that day, Li Ang had seen, through glass, rubber-producing trees resembling actual rubber trees in the Academic Palace's greenhouse.

With a stethoscope, it would be possible to hear the sounds inside veins, arteries, the heart, lungs, and intestines, as well as the heartbeat of a fetus, aiding in the diagnosis of illnesses.

If Li Leqing's palpitations are due to anemia, that would be relatively easy to manage. But if they're the result of a congenital heart defect... Any type of noncyanotic heart disease is quite difficult to manage under current conditions. Once again, I'm in a situation where, to solve one problem, I have to meet a dozen or more prerequisites. Using pig's liver to treat Duke Yan is one thing; cutting open a princess's chest with a scalpel is quite another. Sterility, hemostasis, and disinfection are material prerequisites. Breaking through the long-standing prejudices of Yu Country against dissection and against exploring the true nature of human bodily functions is a mental prerequisite.

Li Ang silently noted this matter. Chai Cuiqiao had few friends, and he couldn't bear the thought of her being sad. Moreover, Li Leqing seemed quite amiable and not as arrogant as other princesses.

The matter of surgery needs to be planned step by step. For the time being, Li Ang immersed himself in his studies at the Academic Palace.

The academic schedule for new students at the Academic Palace was extremely busy, starting with Dr. Wang Wenlun's national history class. It was not only the history of Yu Country but also the history of the Former Sui, Former Jin, and other nations around the world. Although browsing through history books was indeed interesting, the sheer volume of historical records could easily overwhelm one.

Neglecting study was not an option. 'Using history as a mirror' was a maxim of the Yu Country Emperor and also one of the teaching tenets of the Academic Palace. The Academic Palace not only imparted knowledge and the way of Cultivation but also taught methods to observe and understand the rules of the world. Students needed to read historical materials and frequently submit essays. These might discuss the immediate, underlying, or indirect causes of the Former Sui's fall, or explore why West Jing was defeated by Nanzhou in the Battle of Zhao River two hundred years ago.

Next was Agricultural Science. In the curriculum for new students distributed by the Academic Palace, Agricultural Science was a foundational course spanning the first three years. Academic Palace Disciples had to claim a large plot of farmland, grow grains and vegetables from scratch, and personally water, fertilize, and remove pests from them. At year's end, grades were given based on the state of the crops' growth, and those who didn't meet the standards had to repeat the course. If a student could achieve something notable in Agricultural Science, like cultivating a rare flower or a new edible fruit, they could significantly shorten their time spent on the course and even skip classes in the following two years.

In plain terms, it was farming.

Li Ang was confident about this course. He wasn't like some noble youths who couldn't distinguish beans from wheat or identify grains, as he had often helped his mother manage the vegetable garden and flowers at their home in Yizhou. Besides, his brain's data bank held quite comprehensive knowledge of plant cultivation. Just in terms of homemade pesticides available under current conditions, Li Ang knew dozens of kinds.

Stinky Wormwood Liquid: Boil one jin of stinky mugwort stems and leaves with three sheng of water for fifty minutes. Strain and spray on crops. This can eliminate about seventy-four percent of cotton aphids and suppress the germination rate of rust.

Willow Leaf Agent: Soak willow tree leaves. This can eliminate seventy percent of caterpillars.

Wormwood Liquid: Soak wormwood, then add ten jin of water. Spraying this can kill red spiders.

There were also Cypress Juice, Ricin, and more. From eliminating various pests to fertilizing and enriching the soil, he had everything covered.

And then, there was Dr. Chao Wenyuan's mathematics class. There wasn't much to say about this course. If Dr. Chao Wenyuan hadn't spoken up for him at the Imperial City's Vermilion Bird Gate, Li Ang didn't want to disappoint him. Otherwise, I'd really like to use one or a few mathematics papers to completely skip this course, he mused.