Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 608 - 606: No Being a Slacker Allowed

Ever since formally becoming an apprentice, Lin Wanwan’s life has gotten busier. What started as a mere facade to find something to do has now become the focal point of her life.

All of Master Liang’s other direct disciples have already completed their apprenticeships, leaving only Lin Wanwan, who hasn’t devoted all her energy there yet.

Initially, Master Liang intended for Lin Wanwan to develop in the direction of a Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, so even if she didn’t stay in the Ancient City, she could thrive in any hospital with the reputation of being his direct disciple.

However, Lin Wanwan certainly couldn’t be an official doctor. Among those who receive government salaries, the busiest are the medical staff, and she simply doesn’t have the time and energy for that.

To rationalize her laziness and lack of ambition, Lin Wanwan concocts a lie that the barefoot doctor surnamed Sun who taught her medicine had a wish to open a Chinese Medicine Hall, so she wants to inherit his will to do so.

Master Liang was speechless at Lin Wanwan’s grand claims. Opening a Chinese Medicine Hall sounded so easy in her words, but it’s not something that can be set up casually. To get a license and start a practice, she would need at least three years of professional experience.

However, Master Liang was quite satisfied with Lin Wanwan’s foundational level of traditional Chinese medicine. Her theory was solid, she memorized quite a lot of ancient medical books, and her pulse diagnosis skills were decent. Among her peers who came to train, Lin Wanwan definitely stood out.

With Lin Wanwan’s level, she could be directly assigned to obstetrics and gynecology in Chinese medicine, but she’s still missing a practicing doctor’s license.

The licensing exam for practicing physicians consists of two parts: the clinical skills examination and the comprehensive medical written test. There are two sessions a year, with three exams per session.

Lin Wanwan can take the clinical skills exam in mid-June and the comprehensive medical written test in mid-August, both of which offer a specialized exam in traditional Chinese medicine.

After observing, Master Liang believes Lin Wanwan has fully met the requirements for certification, and now the focus is mainly on improving her practical skills, so she’s following him to clinical consultations.

In the field of Chinese medicine, following a mentor in clinic practice is colloquially known as "prescription copying," a shortcut and compulsory course in nurturing talents and academic heritage in Chinese medicine.

In modern times, Lin Wanwan follows Master Liang to copy prescriptions, observing his techniques in observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking—especially the application of Liang’s Pulse Diagnosis Method—to develop diagnostic thinking and learn diagnostic skills.

In ancient times, she also served as an attendant for the old master Sun, following him into the mountains to collect herbs and tasting different plants, accompanying him on house calls. To Master Sun, wealth or poverty made no difference; richer patients would be charged more, while poor patients might even get free medication.

Master Sun often told Lin Wanwan, "Study medicine for three years, and you’ll feel there’s no disease that can’t be cured. Practice medicine for three years, and you’ll realize there is no panacea for all diseases."

Lin Wanwan deeply understood this. While she felt very strong theoretically, it wasn’t until encountering actual patients that she realized their ailments didn’t always align with medical texts, necessitating differential diagnosis for effective treatment.

Unlike the unified standards of Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes a unique approach to each individual, which makes it hard to generalize.

The greatest benefit Lin Wanwan got from Li Shimin insisting she stay in Chang’an was the substantial progress in her medical skills.

Lin Wanwan is the type of person who wouldn’t make an effort unless pushed—a bit of a slacker.

She’s not interested in excelling in everything; being free from worry about her living conditions is quite satisfying for her. She belongs to that group online that talks about retiring as soon as they earn five million and own a house without a mortgage.

After all, with a golden finger, not being a slacker would feel like squandering Heaven’s favor, where the food is fed to you.

If such thoughts were known to someone ambitious, they would certainly curse her to death.

For those with great ambitions, such a golden finger that traverses two realms would surely inspire them to become a regional overlord or a commercial magnate.

In the Great Tang Central Plains, prevailing as an overlord might be difficult, given the abundance of talents. Then why not head to the Western Regions, Goguryeo, Japan, or at the least, Lingnan?

For the Great Tang Central, these places are all considered barbarian territories. Lin Wanwan, if she had the ambition to make an impact, it would absolutely be feasible.

But is Lin Wanwan someone with such vision, aspirations, and ambition?

She is not!

Heavy in her sense of belonging, she never thought about leaving the Yangtze River Delta in her entire life.

Even with all the eternal figures of Chang’an’s charm, they couldn’t tempt her to leave Mao County for a broader perspective.

If it weren’t for Li Shimin’s decree, she wouldn’t have come. Let alone the Western Regions, Goguryeo, Lingnan, which in this era of the Great Tang are considered places where the birds won’t even defecate.

In recent days, Lu Shouyue left again. This time, it seemed like he went to the headquarters of Lu Group in the Ugly Country for a shareholders’ meeting. Lin Wanwan felt tired for Lu Shouyue, always being an airborne traveler.

Of course, while Lu Shouyue is busy, Lin Wanwan herself is not idle. She has officially started following Master Liang in hospital clinics.

Master Liang is a retired re-employed professor, so he doesn’t just run expert consultations in one hospital; he holds concurrent appointments in several Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospitals. Besides this, he also practices at the biggest Chinese Medicine Hall in the Ancient City.

Lin Wanwan spends her daytime following Master Liang around, and fortunately, with the upgrade of the Space-Time Gate, Lin Wanwan has gained much more time to manage affairs across both realms, or else she would never have had any rest. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Nonetheless, with one being Master Sun and the other being Master Liang—one a giant in traditional Chinese medicine and the other a modern Chinese medicine bigwig—they’re both difficult to deal with.

Even though Lin Wanwan is genuinely interested in traditional Chinese medicine now, she’s not so engrossed as to neglect eating and sleeping. Hence, life for a slacker like Lin is certainly intense and arduous.

However, there’s at least one thing for which Lin Wanwan can be thankful: in the Great Tang, her status as a Secondary Fifth Rank Village Lady places her among the high-ranking individuals. The attendants around Master Sun and other Imperial Physicians are not as highly ranked as she is, so they only serve to flatter her.

Meanwhile, in the modern era, besides Lin Wanwan, Master Liang is also leading several masters and doctoral students. Due to Lin Wanwan being a direct disciple, those individuals treat her with considerable politeness—at least ostensibly—with no scheming against one another.

Lin Wanwan finds it most relaxing when Master Liang goes to Ancient Capital University to give lectures. It’s so lively there that Lin Wanwan doesn’t need to be involved.

Despite Master Liang’s age and unremarkable looks, his public classes are certain to attract traditional Chinese medicine students filling the place to the brim, even crowding the aisles, much more popular than Lu Shouyue’s public lectures at Ancient Capital University.

Such is the prestige of a Yangtze Scholar, a national renowned senior traditional Chinese medicine doctor enjoying special allowances from the State Council.

Now, Huaxia has many Chinese medicine experts with official titles, although many are academia-oriented—meaning they might not necessarily treat patients!

But Master Liang is different. Coming from the Liang lineage, he’s genuinely a clinical expert. His age doesn’t quite reach it yet, but in a few more years, Master Liang will certainly earn the title of National Medicine Master.

So whenever Master Liang gives large lectures, that’s when Lin Wanwan can be a slacker. At such times, she can’t help but reminisce about the carefree days before officially following a mentor.