It turned out that it was the second probability which happened. The next day, when they opened the registration, dozens of people flocked to the medical center at once, very eager to register. Men, women, elders, youngsters, and even teenagers... so many people gathered up and surged it made the officials - who did not expect to see plenty of participants were coming to register - got overwhelmed when managing them.
"If you only need passion for medical, we definitely have it! We yearn for helping to eliminate the epidemic!" That was what the registrants shouted.
"Okay then... One by one!" The gatekeeper was busy listing the applicants. "Sir, you're number one, come in."
The selectors consisted of Zhu Su, Li Heng, and Guo Songmi. Hu Nayin was excluded because she was only good at shamanic healing yet did not understand medical ethics. Since they were not concerned with competence in medical skills, the selection process turned to be more subjective, and therefore, more difficult.
"Do you really like medicine?" Li Heng asked a well built and muscular man in early forties. The candidate answered in a loud, thunderous voice. "Absolutely! You all can count on me! I am a very hard-working person and accustomed to hard work!"
Zhu Su stared at him for a few moments. "Do you often go to the mountains or work in the kitchen?"
The man was startled. "Never..."
"You often take a look at the ingredients your wife cooks?"
"Does it matter?! That's a woman's job, not a gentleman's job!" The man answered with a snort.
Zhu Su nid-nodded. "Alright, thank you. You may retire."
Wu Qi called the next candidate. Meanwhile, Zhu Su immediately crossed that man's name from the list.
"Your Highness... you cross his name off from the list right away?" Li Heng seemed surprised when he saw Zhu Su made a decision within a short time.
"Yes. It seems that person is just boasting. Enthusiastic at the beginning, but later in the middle of the process he might give up. Although our activity is a social service, but still, it can't be underestimated. He never goes to the mountain, that means he never sees the medicinal plants, and he never enters the kitchen to see foodstuffs. He quickly underestimates a job just because he thinks it's the woman's job. We know it clearly, as a medical practitioner we mustn't underestimate cooking since medicine and food comes from the same source." Zhu Su explained.
"But in my opinion, the man has great enthusiasm. Isn't that the kind of spirit we need right now?" Li Heng asked.
Zhu Su looked stunned as he found Li Heng gave such the comment. "So, do you think that kind of person deserves to be recruited into our team?"
"I mean, perhaps you shouldn't be hasty to cross him off from our list right away. Who knows, the other candidates are worse than him. At the very least, we can make him a backup for reconsideration."
Zhu Su turned silent. Actually, he was quite disfavored with people who liked to boast and talk a lot. He somewhat assumed, that kind of man tended to show off his abilities. He remembered his father's advice in the past, "Be careful of the subordinates who are arrogant, like to boast, and like to show off when they succeed. These kind of people, sooner or later will lead you to destruction!..."
Zhu Su sighed. He chose not to respond to Li Heng's advice. But on the other hand, he still did not erase the scribbles from the man's name. He now chose to focus on the next candidate - a young man who seemed to be at the same age as him. Zhu Su found the eyes of this young man looked unusual. So narrow it could be said that they were almost closed.
"I really like medicine. To be honest, what drives me to like medicine is because of my situation..."
Zhu Su gasped. He understood instantly why the shape of this young man's eyes could be so unusual.
"You are unable to see?" Li Heng asked blatantly.
The young man nodded. "When I was a child, I got infected by a deadly disease. I almost died, but fortunately, I'm still alive. But as the result, I lost my eyesight."
"Can you recognize medicinal herbs without seeing them?" Li Heng asked again.
The young man thought for a moment.
"Maybe... I can. I might be able to smell them."
Li Heng frowned. "Then how can you help us?"
As the answer, the young man could only look down in embarrassment.
"You say, you like medicine because of your condition?" Zhu Su asked.
"It's true. I can understand how suffering we are when getting ill, when we are confined to our disability. It's not merely a torturing pain, maybe we can still detain the pain itself... after all, the desperation and helplessness because of becoming a useless man, that's the true form of illness torture. I don't want others to feel what I feel. I want to try my best, to help others in order not to experience what I'm experiencing."
As the young man went out, Li Heng soon crossed out his name, on the contrary, Zhu Su immediately entered the man's name into his list.
"Your Highness... you really want to recruit that youth into our team?!" Li Heng asked in surprise.
"And you, why do you soon cross his name out of the list?"
"He is blind, Your Highness. And he has no medical background. Let alone giving us help, he might even put us into trouble. Your Highness, please think twice before accepting him!"
"From my standpoint, this young man is indeed very serious with his words. Moreover, he needn't explain at length but I believe that he really understands the sick people, and is motivated to help people to get well. Because he experiences it himself. Like Wang Tao * who, due to illness, then decided to become a physician, and he was eventually famous of writing Waitai Miyao (Arcane medical essentials from the Imperial Library)."
"Wang Tao was born to aristocratic family, although he was weak, many famous physicians were eager to become his teacher to teach him and provide him the best education. Your Highness, you should also consider the factor of efficiency. Maybe you empathize with him, but we're not opening a Medicine Class. We even still have to help and teach the young man when it should be him who helps us. I'm just worried that we must do our job much longer by recruiting people like him."
Once again Zhu Su sighed. Although he still chose not to remove the name of the young man from his list. Li Heng was right anyway, he was more or less feeling sympathy for the young man. At the same time, felt respectful to him. The young man was blind, he should feel sorry for himself and became dependable on others, it was sure there were many people who wanted to help due to pitying for him. Nevertheless, he was tough, his disability did not make him weak, he even wanted to fight his disability and help others. Whereas the physicians in the big city were unwilling to go to the remote area. In fact, according to him, the physicians in the big city could not be compared with that young sightless man just now.
...
* Wang Tao (670 - 755 AD) = a famous physician from Tang Dynasty who compiled Waitai Miyao, a gigantic medical book.