Resplendent – Chapter 560

Chapter 560: The Final Examination

Lady Lu’s symptoms were much milder than Lady Jun’s had been. After three courses of the Blood-Nourishing Pills, she would be fully recovered. Gu Ye noticed that many women around her suffered from varying degrees of qi and blood deficiency. So she prepared donkey-hide gelatin cakes, simmered with ingredients like donkey-hide gelatin, red dates, goji berries, and black sesame seeds, for everyone to snack on.

Not only that, she also sent some to close acquaintances. These donkey-hide gelatin cakes not only tasted good but also had benefits like nourishing blood and qi, beautifying the complexion, promoting bowel regularity, and boosting immunity. The feedback was excellent! Many said their skin became smoother and more delicate, and their complexion improved significantly after taking them for a while!

Gu Ye then began selling these donkey-hide gelatin cakes as health snacks at her mother’s dowry pastry shop, earning a modest profit. Originally not a pastry shop, the kitchen constantly produced new confections and treats after Gu Ye’s return. Many of these were unfamiliar to the Jun family, let alone tasted. Yet their flavors were remarkably delightful.

After tasting the treats bestowed by the young masters, one of Lady Jun’s stewardesses suggested selling them in their own shop. Aunt Yan urgently trained a batch of ‘pastry apprentices,’ who, after passing assessments, were formally put to work.

This Tasty Delights pastry shop had officially opened just a short while ago. Within a mere ten days of opening, the shop’s pastries were already in such high demand that they sold out before afternoon each day. Business was incredibly booming!

The introduction of the Donkey-Hide Gelatin Cake elevated the shop’s standards, infusing the concept of wellness into the pastries. This appeal won over even more customers, cementing Tasty Delights’ reputation. 

What Gu Ye didn’t know was that Lady Jun had quietly transferred ownership of the shop to her name. It wasn’t until the year-end inventory that she discovered she had a rather substantial sum added to her earnings!

After five days of wild fun during the ten-day break at the estate, Gu Ye began cultivating her mind and body, preparing for the final assessment phase of the Great Pharmacists Convention. This time, she planned to produce penicillin. Given the current circumstances, her advanced instruments were unusable, forcing her to resort to emergency extraction methods.

The preliminary preparations had to begin. The servants at the estate started eyeing their young mistress with peculiar looks. She was collecting moldy food: steamed buns, dumplings, fruits, all covered in a layer of furry mold, yet she treasured them like precious gems. Not content with that, she deliberately placed freshly picked fruits in hot, stuffy corners to hasten their mold growth.

Behind her back, the servants whispered that the newly returned young lady was strange. Could she have suffered some childhood trauma, developing peculiar habits? Later, the matron attending Lady Jun caught them and gave them a stern scolding, explaining that the young lady was preparing to make medicine and warning them not to spread rumors.

Beyond that, Gu Ye also gathered items for making culture medium—rice, taro, corn, cottonseed cake… After testing, the extract from cottonseed cake proved most suitable for the culture medium.

Additionally, she needed filter cotton, sterilized activated charcoal, distilled water, acidic water, alkaline water, and suitable containers. Most were easy to obtain—acidic water could be made with vinegar, but alkaline water proved tricky. Ultimately, she sourced a type of seaweed from Qingfeng Pavilion, boiled it, filtered the liquid, and set it aside.

Once all preparations were complete, the final day of the Grand Pharmacist examination finally arrived. The Grand Pharmacist assessment was not open to the public, conducted under a fully closed, strictly confidential system.

Only nine candidates participated in this examination. Aside from Gu Ye, they were all elderly men with bushy beards. As they entered, the expressions they cast upon Gu Ye were complex. They had watched this young girl grow from nothing, a blank slate, to reach the pinnacle of a Level 9 Pharmacist. Having served as judges in previous examinations, they knew her pharmaceutical skills and techniques had attained remarkable heights.

When they had judged her results in previous examinations, they never imagined there would come a day when she would be sitting the exam alongside them. Thinking about it now, their feelings were complicated. They’d toiled for half their lives to reach their current heights, while she seemed to have divine favor on her side, gliding through every step without a hitch.

While they sat distracted and anxious, their brows furrowed with dread over this final assessment, she arrived as if on a fall outing—laden with snacks and personal items, with pharmaceutical supplies making up less than a fifth of her load. Just look at her mental fortitude! It was downright enviable.

As if reading their thoughts, Gu Ye flashed an innocent, charming smile at the elder pharmacists. “I’m just here to soak up the atmosphere of the Grand Pharmacist exam. Passing would be a stroke of luck, and failing? It’s no real loss to me.”

The gray-haired Level 9 pharmacists felt a wave of sourness wash over them, as if they’d downed a barrel of vinegar. Yeah, right—she was young, with all the time in the world to waste. If not this year, then next. If not next, then ten years from now… Several among them had taken the exam at the Great Pharmacists Convention a decade ago. How many more decades did they have left? How many apothecaries reached their final breath as mere Level 9 pharmacists, never breaking through that threshold…

Gu Ye noticed their strange glances and rubbed her nose. Had she said something wrong?

“Uh… what’s that smell?” One of the pharmacists from Yan, standing just ahead of her, asked. The peculiar odor wafting through the air made him frown involuntarily, covering his nose.

Gu Ye wore an apologetic expression as she had Lin Nuo display the bag of moldy steamed buns, fruits, and other items before the pharmacist. She apologized, “My apologies. These are the ‘medicinal ingredients’ I brought. They do carry a peculiar, putrid smell. Please forgive me!”

“Nonsense! Moldy, rotten food is poisonous. Are you making medicine or poison?” the Yan Kingdom pharmacist couldn’t help but rebuke.

Gu Ye gave him a mysterious smile, leaning in to whisper, “Making medicine, of course. A cure for consumption and venereal disease!”

“What? Moldy food has such effects?” The pharmacist looked skeptical. He’d only heard of moldy food causing stomachaches or even death, never curing incurable diseases!

Gu Ye nodded firmly. “Of course! Don’t doubt it. Moldy food is toxic, but the penicillin it contains can kill certain pathogens. We pharmacists harness the principles of mutual generation and mutual restraint in medicinal herbs to create cures, don’t we?”

“But… transforming penicillin into a life-saving medicine must be far from simple…” the pharmacist muttered to himself.

Gu Ye regarded him with a complex expression. The Yan Kingdom pharmacist hastily clarified, “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m not trying to pry into your secret formula…”

“I know! Being selected as a judge for this convention proves both your character and your medicines are beyond reproach. What I mean is, if it were simple, wouldn’t anyone be able to become a Grand Pharmacist? The ultimate test for a Grand Pharmacist naturally grows more difficult and challenging. Wouldn’t you agree?” Gu Ye was eager to begin, a primal urge to challenge surging through her veins.

The pharmacist stared at her intently, his heart stirred deeply. He too had once been like this young girl, burning with passion and vowing to create new medicines that would ease patients’ suffering and bring relief to the people. But when had that youthful fervor been crushed by the weight of harsh reality? The pursuit of the Grand Pharmacist title had long overshadowed his original purpose for studying pharmacy. Perhaps this was the very root of his failure!

In this moment, the passion and purity radiating from the young girl reignited the fire within him, helping him rediscover his original purpose. Staying true to one’s beginnings is the key to perseverance. He felt a barrier within his heart crumble, leaving him with an unprecedented sense of lightness in both body and mind. The young girl had taught him life’s most crucial lesson: only by letting go can one journey further.

The pharmacist of Yan Kingdom bowed deeply to Gu Ye. Ancient wisdom speaks of ‘a teacher of a single word’. Had not the young girl’s words and positive attitude guided the very course of his life?

Gu Ye, however, jumped aside in fright, stammering, “Senior, what are you doing? You’re trying to shorten my lifespan! Um… just a reminder, it’s your turn to enter now!”

She never imagined her words would become the catalyst for a grand pharmacist’s growth, directly leading to the emergence of yet another grand pharmacist in the profession…

Soon, it was her turn to enter. After this Great Pharmacists Convention gathering, it was safe to say no one present failed to recognize the young girl who had treated the examination grounds like a picnic spot.

The staff at the entrance smiled warmly at her and said gently, “Young Miss, what tasty treats did you bring this time?”

This time, Gu Ye had brought both Lin Nuo, Hua Hao and Yue Yuan along. Behind her, the three of them were laden with bags in their hands, arms, and on their backs. She took a bag of cookies and handed it to one of the staff members, smiling as she said, “Nothing special, just the usual stuff. This batch was just created by our family cook. Why don’t you guys give them a try?”

“Wonderful! You actually dared to openly bribe us, and I caught you red-handed, didn’t I?” Chairman Rao strolled over, pulled a cookie from the paper bag, popped it into his mouth, and nodded approvingly. “Perfectly crispy and flaky, with a rich, creamy flavor. Not bad, not bad at all!”

“Uncle Chairman, don’t put me on a pedestal. My head’s too small to handle it!” Gu Ye rolled her eyes. “Bribes usually come with specific goals and benefits. May I ask, do you think these gentlemen could assist me with pharmaceutical research, or perhaps lend a hand with my pharmacist certification?”

Chairman Rao glanced at the staff members. The highest-ranked among them was merely a Level 7 Pharmacist. He chuckled awkwardly. “You’re a sharp little thing, aren’t you? Not one to take a loss. So, how confident are you about this assessment?”

“Uncle Chairman, that’s a rather uninformed question. If I say I’m confident, it might sound arrogant, like I’m not taking the exam seriously. But saying I’m not confident would be dishonest. So, may I choose not to answer?” Gu Ye flashed a sly grin, like a little fox that had just stolen a chicken.