Chapter 1419: Chapter 1397: Accepting Disciples II (November Monthly Ticket Bonus 4)
The medical skills of the Zheng family are naturally very good. Shopkeeper Zheng is also very willing to refine his son, and Young Manager Zheng is not stupid. But strangely, although his medical skills are not bad, they still lack some finesse.
Not only Imperial Doctor Zheng and Shopkeeper Zheng, but also the likes of Doctor Ding all feel that Young Manager Zheng is not yet ready to prescribe independently.
He is aiming to become a famous doctor, at least aspiring for a position at the Imperial Hospital. His reputation cannot afford any blemishes.
So they would rather not let him prescribe than risk him treating a patient incorrectly.
Shopkeeper Zheng believes it’s because his temperament is not steady enough. That’s why he’s been pressing him to manage the counter and dispense medicine, hoping to stabilize his temperament before letting him diagnose patients.
But after meeting Zhou Man, he began to doubt his judgment.
Speaking of steadiness, the young Zhou Man, who only reaches up to their chest and whose emotions are written all over her face, seems not quite suitable for sitting in a clinic and diagnosing patients, judging from his criteria. Yet, she does her job brilliantly.
This made Shopkeeper Zheng deeply feel that he doesn’t really know how to teach an apprentice. This led him to think of placing his son by Manbao’s side.
It’s mutually beneficial, after all. The most important thing is that Zhou Man’s medical skills are also excellent, especially in treating infertility. She is now recognized as the number one in the world.
Even if it seems like fewer people come for this specialty, once the reputation spreads, there will still be many visitors.
Shopkeeper Zheng, thinking of the promising future, looked down at Manbao again and couldn’t help but smile warmly, his face wrinkling in laughter. With a slightly enticing voice, he said, "I’ve prepared the apprenticeship gifts for this lad, no, for these two lads."
Manbao, who was hesitating, brightened up her eyes and immediately nodded, "Alright, better to do it today than to wait for a chosen date."
Young Manager Zheng: ... Clearly, this was decided on the spur of the moment. Where can I prepare apprenticeship gifts?
Shao also felt anxious since Shopkeeper Zheng didn’t mention the apprenticeship ceremony would be today. He was still wearing old clothes, not to mention the apprenticeship gifts.
"What’s happening today?" Doctor Ding and a few others strode in from outside, catching only Manbao’s last remark. Seeing her, they smiled broadly and each handed her a red envelope from their pockets, saying, "Come, even though it’s already the twentieth of the first lunar month, it’s still good to offer a late New Year’s greeting."
Instinctively, Manbao performed a respectful bow to each doctor, "Happy New Year, Doctor Ding, Happy New Year, Doctor Tao..."
"Good, good, good." The elderly doctors were in high spirits, stroking their beards as they nodded and handed over the red envelopes they had prepared.
Only then did Shopkeeper Zheng remember he hadn’t given out the red envelope he prepared.
He too coughed lightly, took out a red envelope from his pocket, and handed it to Manbao with a smile, "I also prepared a red envelope for Doctor Zhou Junior."
Seeing Zhou Liru standing next to him, he reached into his son’s pocket for a red envelope and handed it to her, smiling, "This one’s for you too."
Zhou Liru immediately bowed to Shopkeeper Zheng to wish him a Happy New Year.
Young Manager Zheng widened his eyes as Shopkeeper Zheng lowered his voice, "What’s with that expression? You won’t need this red envelope anyway. Do you plan to give your master a red envelope instead?"
Young Manager Zheng was speechless and said nothing.
Only then did Doctor Ding and the others notice Zhou Liru and asked, "Who is this...?"
Manbao quickly introduced her, "This is my niece, Zhou Liru. She will be following me to learn medical skills, and I hope everyone will take good care of her."
She then urged Zhou Liru to greet the doctors and introduced her to Doctor Ding and others.
The doctors fumbled around but had no more red envelopes, so they pulled out some copper coins from their money bags to give her as New Year’s money.
After the doctors had handed out their gifts, Shopkeeper Zheng took the opportunity to mention letting them be witnesses to the apprenticeship ceremony, lifting his chin slightly with pride and a touch of humility, expressing his joy that Manbao would be taking on disciples today.
Of course, that’s not the most important part. The most important part is that his son is one of them, and he would be the Senior Brother.
Doctor Ding and the others were taken aback, glancing at Manbao and then at Young Manager Zheng, instinctively feeling that Manbao might have been set up by Shopkeeper Zheng.
But after a long pause, what they ended up asking was, "What about the pharmacy?"
"What’s the worry? I’ll just choose a nephew from the family to manage it."
In the Zheng family, except for a few who are hedonistic without any heart for learning medical skills or the especially foolish who can’t grasp it, everyone else starts memorizing medicinal herbs as soon as they can talk and recognizing them from a very young age...
While others start with ’Thousand Character Classic’ as their primer, their family starts with ’Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica’.
So finding someone in the Zheng family to manage the pharmacy is not difficult at all; there are plenty to choose from, even with eyes closed.
Of course, as the most important pharmacy in the capital, one can’t randomly pick just anyone as Young Manager. Shopkeeper Zheng was speaking casually, but thorough consideration would follow later.
However, the pressing matter at hand was the apprenticeship ceremony.
Shopkeeper Zheng turned around and went to look for the apprenticeship gifts.
It’s difficult to find appropriate gifts for an apprenticeship ceremony, but since this is a pharmacy and the mentor is a doctor, aiming to learn medicine, it’s actually quite simple.
Shopkeeper Zheng found a premium wild ginseng in the pharmacy to serve as the apprenticeship gift, and also prepared a gift box of cubilose for Zheng Shao. That settled the matter.
He handed the two boxes to his son behind him, saying, "Put them all on my account."
Young Manager Zheng took the boxes, asking with a bitter face, "Dad, are we really going through with this?"
"Weren’t you smiling and happy outside just a moment ago?"
"That was to give you face. I’m much older than Doctor Zhou Junior."
"As doctors, we don’t look at age, only skills. By age, Zhou Man should still be an apprentice. Could she enter the palace for consultations?" Shopkeeper Zheng patted him and said, "Haven’t you always wanted to sit in a clinic and prescribe? This is your chance. Watch how Doctor Zhou Junior does it, learn from her."
Young Manager Zheng had no choice but to agree.
He carried the gift boxes out and coincidentally met Ms. Doctor Liu.
Ms. Doctor Liu didn’t expect herself to drop from being the sole disciple to becoming the second. But after glancing at Zheng Shao beside her, she said nothing.
Shao didn’t think much about it. He grinned foolishly. Although he could previously learn medical skills from Doctor Zhou Junior, it felt different now.
Without formal recognition, he was just an apprentice whom Doctor Zhou Junior could leave behind anytime. But now, with the master-disciple status, things were different.
He was very happy.
Manbao secretly boasted to Sanya, "Did you see? So many people want to be my disciple."
Sanya nodded and whispered, "I saw it. I want to be as skilled as Auntie someday."
Manbao whispered, "If you work hard, you’re younger than them and not dumb, you can definitely do it."
Sanya was instantly filled with confidence.
Taking advantage of the moment with no patients yet, Manbao immediately sat down on a chair as Doctor Ding and the others joined the fun to witness the event.
Young Manager Zheng raised the teacup, knelt down, humbly offering the tea, and said, "Please, Master, have some tea."