Chapter 5

Li Ang's hesitation did not last long. He cleared his throat and turned to Guan Lishu, asking, "Auntie, do you have any cloth? Not silk, just ordinary hemp or cotton cloth. And some scissors."

"Sure, sure."

Guan Lishu nodded, turned, and walked into the inner room. A moment later, she returned with a piece of hemp cloth and a pair of scissors.

Li Ang asked Guan Lishu to place the cloth and scissors on the stone table in the courtyard. He then picked up the scissors and cut a triangular piece of cloth.

Under the curious gazes of the family of three, Li Ang took one end of the cloth, wrapped it around the back of the child's neck, and let it hang down to the chest. The other end he pulled down under the child's arm, using the vertical line of the triangular cloth to wrap the recently realigned arm. Finally, he tied the two ends of the triangular cloth together.

The triangular sling was thus completed.

Li Ang took a half-step back, observed the effect, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "This triangular sling needs to be worn for a week. During this time, the child's arm should not be pulled. Normal bathing and sleeping are fine, but remember to wear the sling when moving around."

He then gave Pu Liuxuan and Guan Lishu a long list of medical instructions, including a reminder to drink boiled water and avoid raw water.

After he had said enough, Guan Lishu carried the drowsy child back into the house, leaving the master and apprentice in the courtyard.

"Slurp."

Thirsty and parched, Li Ang took a sip of the now cold tea. He had to admit that the thin tea from Qujiang was indeed quite good, rich and smooth. No wonder it was so expensive, two small jars probably cost four or five hundred coins.

It seemed he needed to find a way to repay Aunt Song's favor...

"Risheng."

Pu Liuxuan's voice interrupted Li Ang's thoughts.

"Yes, Master."

Li Ang put down his teacup and sat up straight.

Pu Liuxuan asked casually, "Where did you learn your bone-setting skills?"

Here it comes.

Li Ang's heart skipped a beat. In this era, doctors' bone-setting techniques were quite limited, and he couldn't claim it was a family tradition.

He cleared his throat and recited the prepared answer, "I learned it on my own."

"On your own?"

"Yes."

Li Ang said calmly, "During my mourning period, I once ate chicken soup and picked the meat off the bones until only the bones remained. I originally intended to throw them away, but I noticed that many chicken bones had grooves and protrusions at both ends, connecting to form a whole.

The bones that were independent were connected by tendons, cartilage, and muscles.

By finding the pattern, I could reassemble a pile of scattered chicken bones to form the outline of a chicken.

So I wondered if I could use this method to reconstruct the skeletal structure of other animals.

I bought dishes made from fish, frogs, turtles, and snakes from the restaurant, and after dissection and analysis, I discovered some interesting things.

For example, the tongue bone of a frog is cartilage and not connected to other bones; the carapace and plastron of a turtle have inner and outer layers; the skull of a non-venomous snake is generally oval, while that of a venomous snake is generally triangular..."

Li Ang paused and continued slowly, "After analyzing the bones of animals multiple times, I believed that perhaps the experience with animal bones could be applied to humans.

Since each bone has its shape and pattern, when treating bone injuries, as long as the bones are realigned to their original position, the pain can be treated.

The technique I used to treat Juer's arm was inspired by my own elbow bones.

Additionally, I found that by lightly tapping the area below the kneecap of a raised leg, a person would involuntarily kick.

Although I don't know the reason behind it, it must be related to the bones."

Li Ang crossed his legs and demonstrated the knee-jerk reflex to Pu Liuxuan. The knee-jerk reflex is related to nerve reflexes, but to deceive, one doesn't need to be too concerned with the details.

Pu Liuxuan subconsciously wanted to cross his legs too but quickly realized he needed to maintain his dignity as a teacher. He coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment and nodded steadily, "Good, good..."

He nodded, paused, and then his face tightened, looking at Li Ang seriously, "Risheng, have you ever thought about... studying at the Imperial Academy?"

Imperial Academy?!

Li Ang's eyelids twitched. This term had a special magic for any citizen of the Yu Kingdom.

Imperial Academies were found everywhere, such as the Lize Academy in Luoyang, the Songzhou Academy in Longxi, and the Bailu Academy at the southern foot of Mount Lu. However, only one could be referred to without any prefix.

The Chang'an Imperial Academy.

The history of the Imperial Academy can be traced back to the Sui Dynasty. When Emperor Wen of Sui conquered the Chen Dynasty in the south, he ended nearly three centuries of division and chaos in Central China. He suppressed the barbarians, established the Three Departments and Six Ministries, introduced the imperial examination system, weakened the aristocracy, and built a large-scale academy in the west of Chang'an to attract talents from all over the world.

The Imperial Academy not only taught Confucian classics and poetry but also emphasized the principle of "investigating things to gain knowledge."

By investigating things, one gains knowledge, and with knowledge, one can understand the principles of the world.

Guided by this principle, the Imperial Academy focused on researching the laws of nature, benefiting the people, studying astronomy, geography, biology, mathematics, and improving iron forging, textile, dyeing, oil pressing, sugar making, bridge building, and papermaking techniques...

Thanks to the existence of the Imperial Academy, the Sui Dynasty lasted for a hundred years, with a population of two hundred million before the assassination of the last emperor and the rise of eighteen rebel kings and sixty-four rebel factions.

After the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the Yu Kingdom, which inherited most of the Sui's legacy, did not abandon the Imperial Academy but expanded it, making it a crucial pillar of the Yu Kingdom's rule.

The unblocked rivers in Yizhou City, the heavy cargo ships on the river, the sugar blocks eaten by commoners, the coal used in households, the booklets in the hands of scholars (scrolls were used in the early Sui and Yu Dynasties), the exquisite and lightweight coins, and the hard-to-counterfeit flying money...

Everything the people of the Yu Kingdom ate, used, and wore was intricately connected to the Imperial Academy.

That academy was a sanctuary of knowledge and reason, a source of invention and creation.

"I... have thought about it."

Li Ang said, "But it seems very strict... According to the newspapers, the Imperial Academy only admits a few hundred students each year.

If a student from the Yu Kingdom wants to enter the Imperial Academy, they must compete with all the same-age students from the six hundred prefectures and states in the ten circuits. Only the top ten from each prefecture and state qualify for the provincial exams.

Even if they qualify, they still have to go to Chang'an and compete with the nobles and aristocrats who have received the best education since childhood for the one-in-ten admission spots.

Moreover, once a student turns eighteen, they automatically lose the eligibility to enter the Imperial Academy."

The population of the Yu Kingdom had already exceeded sixty million households and four hundred million people, while the Imperial Academy only admitted a few hundred eligible young men and women each year.

The level of competition... was even more intense than the college entrance exams in Li Ang's other world, where millions of students vied for a limited number of spots.