“Claire, you are truly remarkable.”

It was impossible not to be impressed by her.

Claire shook her head. “I’ve just been studying it a bit longer than most.”

Dean Arthur Cole knew better. He too had been forced by his family to study traditional medicine at age three, memorizing ancient formulas and identifying medicinal herbs.

But he had been too young back then, too obsessed with playing to focus.

By the time he was older and actually wanted to learn, the window had passed.

Out of necessity, he pivoted to Western medicine and studied abroad.

On his deathbed, his father had wept bitterly: The legacy of our ancestors is going to die with your generation.

At that moment, Dean Cole had felt a crushing wave of regret, finally realizing his mistake.

He felt partly responsible for the fading legacy of traditional medicine.

After becoming the Dean of the medical school, he made it his mission to ensure traditional medicine continued to evolve.

But these days, very few students chose the field, and even fewer truly mastered it. Finding raw, natural talent was nearly impossible.

And finding someone willing to bury themselves in the grueling study it required was even harder.

Most pursued it not out of passion, but simply as a means to make a living.

Claire’s sudden appearance had been the greatest surprise of his career.

Dean Cole even thought that if Claire ever wanted to switch majors and focus purely

on traditional medicine, he would support her entirely.

The university had never lacked prodigies in clinical medicine, but a genius in traditional medicine vas agonizingly rare.

Especially in the art of acupuncture!

“You are exceptional,” Dean Cole murmured, overwhelmed with emotion and at a loss for words.

Hudson’s counselor took the opportunity to express his own heartfelt gratitude to Claire.

He added that Hudson’s mother had commissioned a Commemorative Silk Scroll for her and asked him to pass it along.

Claire accepted the silk scroll, only to immediately hand it off to her own counselor.

“Sir, could you take this back for me? It’s really not convenient to keep it in my dorm.”

They were still in the middle of training camp, and Claire hadn’t exactly broadcasted the fact that she was the one who had saved Hudson.

If she brought that scroll back, her classmates would hound her for every gory detail.

They were all medical students; they would undoubtedly be morbidly fascinated by Hudson’s penetrating trauma.

The counselor had never met a student so nonchalant about such an honor Watching the casual way she handled the sero he couldn’t help but ask, “This isn’t your first time receiving one of these, is it?”

Claire smiled politely. “I’ve gotten a few before, yes.”

A few?

Was she being literal or just horribly modest?

Dean Cole was equally intrigued, but he chose not to pry.

She was a student in his department now; there would be plenty of opportunities to see what she could do.

Just as Professor Yates had advised, they needed to give the student room to grow.

Her generation prized their freedom and detested being micromanaged.

Her counselor carried away the Commemorative Silk Scroll but left her with a massive care package of snacks.

Other counselors had brought treats for their students, too.

But Claire was the only one who had scored an entire oversized bag.

When she got back to the dorm, she immediately divided the loot among her roommates.

She made sure to save a hefty portion for Lex, Skye, and Zara.

The three of them already knew Claire had been pulled aside by Van.

When they found out she was the one who had saved the guy who busted his junk, they were

shocked but also somehow

completely unsurprised.

It felt like whenever something insane happened, if Claire was involved, it somehow made perfect sense.

“I really want to study your brain and figure out how it’s wired. How are you so much smarter than the rest of us?”

“Aren’t people with big heads supposed to be the geniuses?”

Zara inspected Claire from every angle, thoroughly convinced her own head was much larger.

Claire rolled her eyes and batted

Zara’s hands away. “I’ve been

studying medicine since was a little kid

bviously I have an edge over

people who just started in college.”

“Right, which reminds me you still haven’t fessed up. How did Chief Instructor

Hawk know you were a medical prodigy?”

Skye zeroed in on the glaring loophole.

The moment she asked, Zara and Lex leaned in, practically vibrating with curiosity.