Volume 1 School Master - Chapter 1 A Hidden School Master

It was September. The story began at the library of the Jiangjing University of Chinese Medicine.

Fang Qiu picked a Chinese medical book named Bonesetting from the bookshelf and went to the study area.

He was a freshman at the school. It was raining so they ended military training early today.

Before he was admitted to the university, Fang Qiu knew little about traditional Chinese Medicine, but this couldn't stop him from being interested in it. Especially since he had a strong desire to cure the sick.

Of course, he had his own purpose in applying to the University of Chinese Medicine.

Fang Qiu pulled out a chair and sat down, placing the book on the desk.

He placed his hands on both sides of the book.

He patted the book slightly with his right hand.

And then, something strange and magical happened!

The book began to turn its pages by itself!

Facing such a strange scene, Fang Qiu was surprisingly calm.

Fortunately, the semester had just started, thus, no one was in the library except Fang Qiu. If somebody else saw the scene, they would have thought that the library was haunted.

Fang Qiu lifted his hand and patted down, the lift-and-pat action continued until the book came to the pages with important information.

He began to read the book with great interest.

After finishing reading a page, Fang Qiu lifted his right hand again and was ready to pat the book.

At that time, a hurried footstep sounded in the distance.

Fang Qiu slowly put his lifting hand down as usual.

The book now refused to turn its pages.

"I have finally found you, Fang Qiu!"

Fang Qiu turned back and saw the comer. It was Liu Feifei, the assistant class teacher of class three, the class he belonged to.

She was a beautiful and enthusiastic senior.

Fang Qiu still remembered the scene that they first met. The first time Liu Feifei introduced herself to the class, all the boys in his class stared at her with their eyes shining.

"Wow, you are so hard-working. Everyone else is so tired because of military training, and you are here reading books!"

Liu Feifei came straight to the opposite side of the desk and had a look at the book. She asked admiringly and curiously, "Classical Chinese? Can you understand it? Our major is going to have orthopedic classes in the second semester, isn't it too early to learn this?"

"I'm just looking around."

Fang Qiu didn't say that he could understand.

But he really could understand.

"Nice job!"

Liu Feifei praised him, and then asked as her big bright eyes twinkled, "I called you several times but you didn't answer, what happened?"

Fang Qiu appeared stunned. He took out his cellphone and found he had five missed calls. He answered with embarrassment, "The cellphone was set on silent, so I didn't hear it."

Liu Feifei nodded. At least Fang Qiu didn't do it on purpose.

It was her first time as a class teacher, so she had high expectations for the newly enrolled boys and girls. She didn't want to see anyone in the class who didn't listen to her.

"I called you because our school temporarily decided to hold a mid-autumn open-air party for the freshman tomorrow night on the playground, and every freshman class was asked to perform. I came here to ask you to perform a program. Everyone in our class is going to perform and no one can escape."

After the explanation, Liu Feifei asked, "What's your specialty?"

"Specialty?"

Fang Qiu thought for a while and answered, "I can play the flute, is that a specialty?"

Liu Feifei’s eyes were lightened up, she asked, "How well do you play the flute? What’s your national level?"

"Just so so. I haven't taken any exams yet."

Considering his level to his old master's, Fang Qiu was as honest as possible.

Liu Feifei was a little disappointed. She had hoped that there would be an amazing performer in her class, so an ordinary flute player was a letdown.

"Can I listen to you play?"

At this point, she decided that if he was just a mediocre player as he said, she would not have to add it to the program list.

Fang Qiu said with some embarrassment, "It should be fine, but my flute is in the dormitory right now."

And he pointed to the book.

It was so obvious that he wanted to read books instead of going back to the dormitory.

"Little Fang!"

The use of this intimate term from Liu Feifei gave Fang Qiu goosebumps.

"Time is limited. I have to report the program to the school by noon. Can you please help me?"

Looking at the beauty's smile, Fang Qiu felt embarrassed.

This was a bit too much for him.

It would not be right for him to refuse the senior.

Yet he would waste 40 minutes going back to the dormitory and returning to the library if he didn't refuse.

He didn't want to waste that much time. Moreover, he was a freshman, thus, he had no library card to bring the books out, which meant he had to read them in the library.

He hesitated for a while and said, "Let me play hand flute for you, ok? In this way, you can tell my level."

"Hand flute? What's that?"

Liu Feifei was confused, her interest was raised.

Fang Qiu explained patiently, "Hand flute requires your two hands to work as the resonator, it's easy."

Hearing that the procedure was easy, Liu Feifei was not so interested.

Seeing the earnest expression on Fang Qiu’s face, it’s so hard for her to say “No”. Hence, she accepted this compromise.

"Go ahead then! I am all ears!"

No need to go back to dorm! Fang Qiu was happy. He put his cellphone down.

Under the gaze of the beautiful senior, his hands were directly folded into the shape of a curve, leaving the palms empty, and a small hole was revealed in between the thumbs.

He put his mouth upon his thumbs.

He took a deep breath and blew.

A haunting melody rang through the library.

"Whaa???"

Liu Feifei's eyes widened in an instant. She was shocked and couldn't help but say, "is this Blue and White Porcelain by Jay Chou?"

Fang Qiu nodded.

Liu Feifei stared at Fang Qiu dumbfounded.

She had thought that hand flute and whistle were the same thing. She had never expected that the hand flute could be so enchanting. This melody seemed to be straight from heaven.

It was awesome!

She had never anticipated that there would be such an outstanding boy in her class.

The beautiful melody took her away.

She seemed to feel herself wandering in an ancient scene south of the Yangtze River, holding a pink painted oil-paper umbrella, standing on a stone bridge, looking back into the past, seeing the birth of beautiful blue and white porcelain, and witnessing a beautiful love story.

The azure sky is waiting for a drizzle, and I am waiting for you.

The cooking smoke rises up from the other side of the river, from thousands of miles away.

Is she merely a bystander or the heroine of a sad love story?

Sort of sad, sort of nostalgic.

All linger in her mind.

So beautiful!

And so sad...

The tune hung around.

The melody continued to take her to other places.

Now she was wandering in the misty rain. Now she was lost in the tune without a end.

……

When the song was finished, Fang Qiu put down his hands and looked at the beautiful senior who was still immersed in the melody. He did not want to disturb her. So he returned to his book.

A minute later.

The beautiful senior came to herself, grabbed his hands and said with her eyes shining, "That's terrific! Fang Qiu, you are amazing! That's great!"

"I have heard Blue and White Porcelain dozens of times, but it's the first time that I felt it so moving that I was totally immersed in it! Who could have imagined that you could play the sounds of heaven with only a pair of simple hands!"

"You're exaggerating, senior."

Fang Qiu drew back his hand and said abashedly. He really didn't feel confident in his own abilities.

"You deserve it!"

Liu Feifei directly denied Fang Qiu's self-belittle, and then looked at him with a blaming look. "You think you’re ordinary? You almost cheated me out of a good performance! Now, as your class teacher, I now inform you that your performance is qualified. You don't need any flute, just play that tune with your hands!"

She smiled excitedly, "Now we have had two performances. They'll be amazing."

"Two performances?"

Fang Qiu asked puzzledly, "The other one is…?"

"Chen Cong's Wushu performance! This guy is as modest as you. He will perform Wushu. Although not as good as yours, his performance is still good."

Liu Feifei stood up, raised her fist to Fang Qiu and cheered him up, "We all count on you two tomorrow evening! Come on!"

After that, she took out the library card from her pocket and threw it to Fang Qiu.

"A reward from me! Return it to me when you got you own."

With that, Liu Feifei left hastily.

Wushu?

Fang Qiu looked at his hands and smiled.

He could do Wushu as well.

But his specialty was Kung Fu.

Fang Qiu could not help sighing at the thought of Kung Fu.

He didn't know what was going on with his old master.

Fang Qiu began to learn Kung Fu from 3 years old and now he was 17, which meant he had been practicing Kung Fu for 14 years.

All those things were done without the knowledge of anyone, not even his own parents.

He met his old master at the age of 3, and the old master taught him secretly for 12 years.

At Sophomore year of high school, Fang Qiu improved his Kung Fu to another level. This helped him discover that the old master was suffering from a hidden illness. And at that time, he realized that in order to teach him, the old master had been suppressing his illness with his powerful powers, without treating it properly.

When he found he couldn't hide his illness any longer, he simply disappeared without a trace, his last words were:

"I have nothing to teach you anymore. Just practice hard! I'm leaving to treat my illness, we'll meet someday in the future."

He clearly knew that the illness wouldn't be cured easily, because if so, the old master would have cured it earlier.

He felt a sense of guilt and pain whenever he thought about this man who taught him for 12 years, but he have no chance to do anything in return for him or help at all.

That’s the reason he applied for the Jiangjing University of Chinese Medicine.

He hoped that he could do well at medicine and cure the illness of his old master.

He also hoped he could cure more people, not only him.

He clearly knew that the faster he finished studying, the better chances to help his old master.

His only hope was that the old master could survive.

The most embarrassing thing for him was that he didn't know what illness his old master was suffering from. Although he was aware of the hidden disease, he didn't know the detailed condition.

Therefore, he couldn't study in any specific way.

He had no choice but to learn all the therapies of traditional Chinese medicine as quickly as he could and try not to waste a single minute.

The reason why he read orthopedic books first was that he was a Kung Fu practitioner. He knew a lot about the bones and muscles and had learned some knowledge to treat falling injuries with his old master.

Consequently, he could learn far quicker from this kind of ancient book.

He hoped that he could fan out from a point to become a good doctor quickly.

"Hope everything will be all right with my old master."

Fang Qiu sighed, his heart sunk. He put away the library card and got back his thoughts to focus on reading.

As Fang Qiu's palm kept rising and falling, pages of books were read.

Soon, the book was finished.

He stood up and went to the bookshelf to pick up another ancient book on orthopedics.

He prepared to learn from one subject to another till the day he gained all the knowledge from ancient books. If modern medicine could cure the illness, his old master would not have suppressed it for such a long time. That’s why Fang Qiu chose to resort to ancient books.

Soon, another book was finished.

Fang Qiu was a fast reader. He did not read a book but skimmed through it.

Fang Qiu finished four or five ancient books of orthopedics that morning.

The time on his cellphone was eleven o'clock. Fang Qiu stretched himself, mobilized his internal Qi to rotate through the body, and his sense of fatigue disappeared instantly.

With the unfinished book in hand, he chose several other ancient books of orthopedics. He decided to read them in the dormitory.

He came to the lending department and handed the books and the library card to the librarian, a middle-aged man with a poker face.

The librarian glanced at the card, then the ancient books. A trace of surprise crossed his eyes, he looked up at Fang Qiu.

"Freshman? You can understand these books?"