The auditorium and the sports ground were all packed with people.
All the students in the university were talking about the show while waiting for the live broadcast to begin.
“Can Fang Qiu be the champion?”
“Absolutely. Fang Qiu is the symbol of our university. If he wins, the ranking of our school will definitely soar to the sky like a rocket!”
“I believe in Fang Qiu. Anyway, from the day I knew him, he has taken first place in every exam and competition. He has never failed. And since he participated in the program called Young Chinese Medicine Doctor, he has ranked top in each of the 11 episodes. And he even skipped some tests and made it directly to the top 15 in the country because of his great strength. With such strength, he will definitely win the championship!”
“Yes, Fang Qiu must be the champion.”
“Have you seen the voting on the Internet? Fang Qiu has way outvoted the other candidates!”
“And the number of people who have wished Fang Qiu to win online is also a majority.”
“Though Fang Qiu is very awesome, we can’t be blindly confident. Up to now, no one has known the rules of this competition. If they competed for the number of patients, Fang Qiu would absolutely be the winner. But what if the criterion is something else?”
“Well, no matter whether Fang Qiu can win the championship or not, for me, he is the number one!”
At the same time, a variety of jokes began to appear on the Internet.
Because it was the last episode, the attention this show had drawn was off the charts.
Almost everything had been given way to today’s Young Chinese Medicine Final. Even some other entertaining programs could only be announced to be suspended in order not to become cannon fodder.
Under this circumstance, the attention the Young Chinese Medicine Doctor received had reached an unprecedented level.
And the various doubts left by the previous episodes also became the focus of public discussion.
“What are the exact rules?”
“What is it that they’re competing for in this session?”
“Are they going to select the champion of the top 10 contestants? Or will there be several rounds of elimination tonight? For example, narrow it down from 10 to five, then five to three, and finally three to one?”
There were all kinds of discussions.
In a trice, it was eight o’clock in the evening.
Because the program was altered from video broadcast to live broadcast, the program’s broadcast time was rescheduled from the original 8:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. sharp.
It was time.
All the relatives and friends of the contestants waiting in front of the TV all took a deep breath in spite of themselves.
Meanwhile, the audience in the entire country also began to focus on the show.
The final competition finally kicked off!
Tonight, the opening title of the program was somewhat different.
With the theme song that Fang Qiu performed playing as the background music, the usual beginning of the program was replaced by a replay of the classic moments of the previous 10 episodes.
Scene after scene flashed past the screen, each coupled with various kinds of powerful calligraphy. The pictures gave the audience a very tense feeling, faintly making them feel that there would be swords drawn at each other in the final!
After reviewing the previous 10 episodes of the program, the TV screen suddenly turned dark.
“Dreams are still going on.
“The champion is on the way!”
Two lines of white words in beautiful penmanship were drawn on the pitch-black picture.
Then, the characters started to fade.
A figure slowly appeared.
This person was the host of the Young Chinese Medicine Doctor.
“Friends and audience at the scene and in front of the TV, good evening!” said the host in a booming voice.
The audience immediately burst into a round of warm applause.
The camera closely followed the host.
“The 11-episode show has created the top 10 contestants in the country. On this fierce battlefield, who will rush out of the enemy’s territory and be crowned the winner?”
At this point, the host turned around and pointed to the big screen with his right hand.
At the precise moment, 10 golden cards emerged on the big screen.
“Fang Qiu!”
As the host shouted out the name, the first golden card was flipped, revealing a photo of Fang Qiu.
That was followed by the introductions of the other nine contestants.
“Step by step, they made themselves stand out from tens of thousands of Chinese Medicine doctors. Eventually, they made it to the stage of the final!
“Here are the stairs leading to the honor. Here is the stepping stone to the throne.
“Then, who on earth can win the ultimate glory?
“Let’s start right away!”
After that, the host walked to his own podium and again said to the camera, “I know that you are all very interested in the rules of this episode. There are many people talking about it online. I’m also curious about it. Before I stood on this stage, I didn’t know what the rules were either. But now I know.”
“So next, I’ll announce the rules of this final match!”
As soon as he said that, everyone, whether watching the live broadcast on the scene, on TVs, computers, or smartphones, immediately pricked up their ears and listened carefully.
“In fact, all the matches have been conducted,” declared the host.
Hearing this, everyone was thrown into a daze!
“The competition is already over?”
“When did it end?”
The 1,000 people sitting at the audience seats looked at each other in confusion. They were all loyal audiences of the Young Chinese Medicine Doctor. Their tickets to the final were all issued by the program team.
It was also because they paid close attention to the Young Chinese Medicine Doctor that they knew very well about the contents of each episode.
“Didn’t they just select the top 10 in the last episode? Why did it suddenly come to an end?”
“Does it mean that there is no more competition tonight?”
“It can’t be, can it?”
Not only the audience at the scene but also those who were watching the live broadcast at different places were also dumbfounded.
“What’s going on?”
“The show is just beginning. How could it end now?”
“What on earth does he mean?”
At the scene, seeing the puzzled expressions on the audience’s faces, the host smiled and quickly explained, “In fact, the 9th and 10th episodes are the finals. Some perceptive spectators should have found out that no rules for these two episodes have been publicized. Today I officially announce that the rule for the 9th, 10th, and today’s final is to determine the winner according to the cure rate!”
“That is to say, we’ll have a winner tonight according to the cure rate of the patients that each candidate has done the consultation for in the 9th and 10th episodes!”
At his words, everyone was stupefied!
There was a restive stir in the audience at the scene.
“If a candidate only treated one patient and cured them, won’t his cure rate be 100%?”
“Although the 10 contestants have each taken a lot of patients and this rule sounds quite fair, isn’t it too difficult to win in this way?”
“My goodness, I remember that Fang Qiu has seen 1,050 patients, right?”
“Yeah… It does seem so!”
For a moment, everyone was struck dumb.
This rule was simply setting up a trap for Fang Qiu!
In the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine.
All the students watching the program burst into an uproar.
“What the f**k! What f**king rule is this!”
“Crap! The rule of this competition results in the fact that the smaller the number of patients one took, the easier it is to win the championship. Fang Qiu has treated 1,050 patients, which is twice or even three times more than the number of patients the others took. How can he compete with them now?”
“It’s all screwed now.”
“How did they come up with such a rule? I’m so speechless.”
In the Jingbei University of Chinese Medicine.
Once she heard the rule, Jiang Mengjie’s brows furrowed in an instant.
On the other side.
“Haha.”
Holy Doctor Chu burst out laughing.
Xu Miaolin and Chu Yunyun did not know what to say at the moment.
In their view, Fang Qiu’s strength in Chinese Medicine was definitely the most outstanding among all. But as the disciple of Holy Doctor Chu, Luo Jie’s strength was not weak, either.
Therefore, as the number of patients Fang Qiu had seen was too high, Luo Jie was likely to win the championship by this baffling rule!
Without realizing it, the two of them began to sweat in the palms of their hands.
Even so, they still believed in Fang Qiu.
In Linxi County.
At Fang Qiu’s home.
“The rule of this program doesn’t seem to be in favor of Little Qiu.”
“Yeah. The other contestants did not see many patients, while Little Qiu has treated so many. I’m afraid that Little Qiu’s chance to win the champion is dim.”
The relatives and friends of Fang Qiu all shook their heads and waved their hands in disappointment.
“What are you talking about?”
Fang Qiu’s mother rolled her eyes at the friends and relatives, and then flung up her arm and said, “I have faith in my son. He will definitely win!”
At the scene of the program.
“Now that the rule has been announced,” the host said to the audience and the camera, “now, everyone should know that the reason why the program team has kept the rule a secret until this moment is to prevent cheating in any form. During the past few weeks, the program team has already counted the cure rate of all the patients that our 10 contestants have seen, as well as the examination report of each patient!”
Everyone was astonished at his remark.
To say the least, Fang Qiu had seen 1,050 patients all by himself. That meant the production team had to find all of the 1,050 patients and gave them a physical examination one by one. What a heavy workload it was!
Thinking of this, everyone laughed.
They felt so sorry for the program team.
“Of course, the result won’t be announced so quickly.”
The host continued, “Before the announcement of the result, we still have a small test, which can also be said to be the final pass of the Young Physician of Huaxia Competition. If some of the 10 contestants can’t pass this test, they will be directly eliminated from the competition and lose the chance to participate in the final competition.”
As soon as he said that, all the audience was stunned.
“What’s that small test?”
“It sounds quite interesting.”
“To be honest, the team is really creative.”
“I knew it. How can the final simply be the announcement of the cure rates? There must be a competition. I’m wondering what this small test is.”
“Now it’s getting interesting. If not careful enough, the one with the highest cure rate will probably be eliminated after this small test.”
“I just love this sort of part filled with tenseness and excitement!”
While everyone started discussing the test with enthusiasm, the atmosphere at the scene also became electric.
“Then, first of all, let’s invite our three judges to come onstage,” the host called.
Just like the first episode, the big screen on the stage immediately split into two halves and flung back, like double doors being pushed open. Li Zhengtang, Yang Juanyong, and Huang Zhengren, the three highly-skilled doctors, stepped onto the stage.
“Clap, clap, clap…”
The crowd burst into a round of warm applause.
When the three doctors arrived at the center of the stage, the host walked up to them.
“Now, please let our three judges give some brief comments on the rule of our final match.”
With that, the host handed the microphone to Li Zhengtang.
“You guys must be curious as to why the final rule is so weird, am I right?”
Li Zhengtang took the microphone and remarked, “This is because the purpose of Chinese Medicine is to treat patients. No matter how much knowledge one learns and how many skills one grasps, it does not matter. Our ultimate goal is to cure patients, so the cure rate is the best criterion to select the winner.
“To put it simply, even if a man doesn’t know anything about Chinese Medicine, as long as he can cure a patient’s illness without harming the patient’s health, then he is a miracle-working doctor.
“Today, we’re very much looking forward to the cure rates of the 10 contestants too.
“Because the crew has completely zipped their mouths, even we, three old guys, don’t know about the results at all.”
As soon as he said that, everyone laughed.