Chapter 344 Caused a Sensation
Two hundred thousand!
When the number of applicants was posted, anyone who saw it was startled.
The Weibo turned out to be in chaos.
“d.a.m.n! What does it mean by two hundred thousand people?”
“Really? There are two hundred thousand people who study Chinese medicine?”
“I’m so impressed. I never expected that Chinese medicine would have such a profound impact. Two hundred thousand people had signed up for the compet.i.tion. There are maybe over a million people who practice Chinese medicine if we add those who didn’t sign up for it.”
“That’s a great number of people. The talent shows on TV only have ten thousand applicants at most. Central Television is really awesome. It just got two hundred thousand people in the compet.i.tion.”
“Yes, if all two hundred thousand of the applicants are talented, there will be a real revival of traditional Chinese medicine.”
There was no doubt that the release of this data increased the popularity of the Young Physician of Huaxia Compet.i.tion.
The heat of the whole event on Weibo had reached a record high again.
Under the circ.u.mstances, the official Weibo account of the compet.i.tion seized this great opportunity to post another blog, which made it reach a climax.
It wrote, “The entry to the compet.i.tion is closed. The initial selection will be held two weeks later. The top 10 compet.i.tors of every province can enter for the compet.i.tion program in the capital.”
When this blog came out, it caused a sensation not only on Weibo but almost on every university of traditional Chinese medicine across the country.
There were 34 provinces in the country. On average, each province at least had 6,000 compet.i.tors, which meant only 10 compet.i.tors could win among them.
What the h.e.l.l was this?
The first time they heard the news, the students of all the universities were dumbfounded.
Internet users were even more amazed.
“That was fr*aking cruel?” They were thinking.
It meant to eliminate 5,990 people among 6,000 people, which was an elimination rate of near 100%.
Fang Qiu did not pay much attention to the rules of the Young Physician of Huaxia Compet.i.tion, nor did he take part in the discussion online. Instead, he diligently went to the hospital every day, constantly saw patients, and carried out acupuncture to them. Moreover, he had been collecting the data of various kinds of general acupuncture and Qigong acupuncture.
For the next few days, Fang Qiu had been busy day and night.
But even so, he didn’t forget to instruct the students to practice Qigong every morning at 5:00.
It kept going on until the seventh day.
On Sat.u.r.day night, a message suddenly appeared on Weibo.
“Fang Qiu is teaching people Qigong. He actually believes and propagates superst.i.tion! Pictures don’t lie!”
These days, there was a heated discussion about the Young Physician of Huaxia Compet.i.tion. And Fang Qiu was the only compet.i.tor who got invited to the compet.i.tion. Therefore, as soon as the news came out, it got tremendous attention and caused a sensation.
There was an unprecedented outbreak of public opinion online.
“Isn’t Fang Qiu a traditional Chinese medicine doctor? Why does he learn Qigong?”
“Oh, come on. Hasn’t Qigong been proven to be a fake long ago?”
“Why did Fang Qiu do this? Feudal superst.i.tion will kill a person. I hope this is not true.”
“How could he propagate the feudal superst.i.tion publicly? Is Fang Qiu insane? He’s such an evil person.”
“Fang Qiu was not that kind of person. Is he under a spell?”
“Qigong is a kind of fake and superst.i.tious dross. Fang Qiu is a college student. He couldn’t have been so stupid.”
People were not just discussing it.
There were a large number of people who even rushed to Fang Qiu’s Weibo and directly insulted him.
“You’re a son of a bit*h who even propagates superst.i.tion.”
“Qigong? Maybe you should just show us how to fly. Do you just get too much time to spare? So you’re bored and out of your fu*king mind?”
“The government has banned the so-called Qigong since the 1990s. You are openly propagating feudal superst.i.tion. Give it up before you make a big mistake. You have to return to the right path.”
“Ha-ha, I’ve told you, he’s a moron. You don’t believe me, do you?”
“The authority must look into it. How could a university of Chinese medicine let its students teach and propagate superst.i.tion in public? This is simply beyond the law.”
“Yeah! This school must be inspected.”
“Why didn’t the school stop him? Fang Qiu made a mistake, but didn’t the school leaders see it? Shouldn’t this kind of propaganda of feudal superst.i.tion be stopped in time when it is discovered? What are the school leaders of the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine doing?”
“Ha-ha, this is the Chinese medicine that you guys admire. Don’t you just say Chinese medicine is so awesome?”
“Humph, Chinese medicine and Qigong are fake, not scientific at all. A Chinese medicine doctor actually learns Qigong. What a joke!”
“Do you hear about some magic doctors online? Rumor has it that they have magical powers, but eventually got exposed. And then they bragged that they were Qigong masters who could take things from the air and scattered beans into troops. It’s all bulls.h.i.+t!”
“You’re right. Fang Qiu is just like them.”
“We’re in the 21st century now. And there’s still someone who propagates feudal superst.i.tion. Unexpectedly, some people even fall for it. What a crazy world we live in!”
For a while, all sorts of queries, scolding, and questioning was exploded on Weibo.
Anyone who took a few glances at it would feel the tense of those comments.
Among them, people who practiced western medicine took the lead. They took this opportunity to scold and question Chinese medicine. They were having a good time posting those hatred comments.
However, people who practiced Chinese medicine chose to remain silent in such fierce public discussions temporarily.
Within a couple of hours, the words, “Fang Qiu, Qigong”, were sent to the top of the Real-time Trends, directly raising the popularity of Fang Qiu on Weibo by three levels.
In the vice princ.i.p.al’s office at the University of Jiangjing Chinese Medicine, Chen Yinsheng immediately received the news on the first day of the incident.
Sitting at his desk and watching countless people on Weibo comment on this matter, Chen Yinsheng frowned tightly. He didn’t look pleased.
“Princ.i.p.al, should we…” One of the staff of the school’s network department asked.
“Alas…” Chen Yinsheng sighed and then shook his head, saying wryly, “Let’s see how it will go first.”
In the Dormitory 501, “Bro, you’re becoming popular again.”
Fang Qiu was caught by Sun Hao as soon as he came back to the dormitory from the hospital. Sun Hao then instantly closed the door and said, “How do you dare to wander around, bro? The news went viral on the Internet.”
“What?” Fang Qiu was stunned and asked, “What’s going on?”
“Bro,” Zhu Benzheng came forward. “Someone posted your Qigong lesson on Weibo, along with a picture. And now everyone is talking about you. Qigong is forbidden by the state, for it’s a feudal superst.i.tion. Now everyone on the Internet is very disappointed with you. Although we can still see people who are trying to whitewash you, there are very few such people compared to the army of haters on the Internet.”
“Yeah.” Zhou Xiaotian also leaned forward and looked out of the window. “Don’t wander around for these days. If you want to go somewhere, tell your brothers. We can help you buy what you want. If you really have no choice, we’ll go with you. You must not be alone. Otherwise, I’m afraid you will end up with a disability.”
As Fang Qiu heard that, his face changed in an instant.
This time, he knew, his roommates weren’t kidding.
He also knew how much trouble this would cause. Although he could prove that Qigong was real, he would only get more abuse and suspicion if he tried to explain at this point.
And most of all, why this happened just right before the Young Physician of Huaxia Compet.i.tion?
Fang Qiu could sense something was off.
“I know, I know. Thanks, guys.” With a smile on his face, Fang Qiu put the book on his desk, then turned and walked out of the dormitory.
The roommates didn’t even have time to stop him.
Fang Qiu took out his cell phone and called He Gaoming when he got out of the dormitory.
“Who is it?” He Gaoming picked up the phone and said in the tone like a haughty private detective.
“Hey, it’s me,” Fang Qiu said.
“What?” Obviously, He Gaoming hadn’t expected to receive his call. He paused and then replied, “It’s been a while that you haven’t called me, kid! And you didn’t even send me some gifts at the Spring Festival. That’s not generous.”
“I got something serious.” Fang Qiu stopped him.
“I mean, how do you…” He Gaoming wanted to complain, but he suddenly realized something was wrong before he finished his sentence. So he asked, “How bad is it?”
Fang Qiu replied, “Really bad. It has gone viral on Weibo. You can read the detailed information yourself. What I want to know is who actually posted the blog.”
“Got it. I’m hanging up.” He Gaoming nodded and directly hung up the phone.
On the first day of the affair, Fang Qiu didn’t pay any attention to it.
The next day, Fang Qiu still ignored it.
As the news spread, the online discussion became more and more heated. And the heat continued to increase. In just two days, it unexpectedly pushed Fang Qiu to a higher position of discussion. It even gradually turned into a national scandal.
On the Internet, everyone was acting like beating an underdog, showing no mercy and fiercely scolding Fang Qiu because they thought they were fighting for justice.
On the third day, at five o’clock in the morning, when he instructed people to practice Qigong, Fang Qiu suddenly found that there were fewer people who had been following him to practice Qigong. No matter where he went, there was always someone in the school bossing him around.
On the fourth day, the same situation happened in other places. In the hospital, when he saw patients, Fang Qiu found that the eyes in which his patients looked at him were somewhat strange.
There were even people who showed a feeling of fear. When they were in the medical treatment, some of them even tactfully suggested that Fang Qiu must focus on Chinese medicine, and not do any other evil things.
Confronting this kind of situation, Fang Qiu could only laugh it out of court and continue his own treatment and research.
Although the incident did not affect his life and work too much, Fang Qiu had also begun to realize the seriousness of the problem. It was not about how much he suffered from many people’s judgment or abuse. He could feel that people’s repulsion to Qigong became even stronger than before.
After work, Fang Qiu was on his way back to school from the hospital.
When he just reached the school gate, Fang Qiu was suddenly stopped by a student.
This student looked quite righteous. The way he looked at Fang Qiu was full of disdain and contempt.