In ancient times, she gave birth to seven daughters and was divorced by her husband's family.

"A girls' academy?"

Song Jiuzhou's laughter stopped abruptly. He looked at Bai Yiyue as if she were a madwoman. "You...you want to set up a girls' academy?"

"Exactly."

Bai Yiyue met his gaze without flinching, “Sir, your learning is as vast as the heavens and the earth. If it is merely hidden within this small room, how is it any different from rotten wood?”

"The Master's dragon-bone waterwheel benefits all people; the Master's mathematics can determine national policies."

"Why can't such profound knowledge be taught to women?"

Are women inherently dull-witted and incapable of being taught?

Her voice suddenly rose a few decibels: "I am not very talented, but I know that in ancient times there was Leizu who raised silkworms, and in the founding of our dynasty, there were also female generals who galloped on the battlefield."

Why is it that today, women are confined to their boudoirs, serving their husbands and raising their children?

Why should men be allowed to learn practical skills for governing the world, while women cannot?

"Sir, are you willing to accept this?"

Are you willing to let your extraordinary talent be buried, forgotten, and ultimately turned into a handful of dust, unknown to anyone?

Every word Bai Yiyue uttered was like a heavy hammer blow, striking Song Jiuzhou's heart hard!

Yes, is he willing to accept this?

Of course he is not willing to give in!

He possessed the skill to slay dragons, yet had nowhere to use it.

He once wanted to offer his knowledge to the imperial court, but was denounced as a heretic.

He wanted to take on a few disciples, but found that all the talented people in the world regarded the imperial examination as the right path, and no one was willing to devote themselves to studying his useless knowledge.

His pride and ambition had long been worn down by more than a decade of neglect, leaving only a shell of solitude.

Today, a young woman revealed his deepest resentment and longing in a single sentence.

A long silence fell over the study.

After a long silence, Song Jiuzhou finally spoke in a hoarse voice: "Why... did you look for me?"

“You are the daughters of the Marquis of Anguo’s family. If you wish to invite a teacher, renowned scholars and literati will flock to you.”

"Because those great scholars and famous figures cannot teach the students we want."

Bai Yiyue answered decisively, "They only teach students how to write beautiful articles and how to please the monarch."

What we want in a teacher is someone who can teach students how to understand the world and how to change it.

"In the entire Qingzhou, I only know of you, sir."

The phrase "I only know you, sir," carried a heavy weight and completely shattered Song Jiuzhou's last defenses.

Looking at the young girl before him, who possessed extraordinary insight and courage, a long-lost light gradually reappeared in his cloudy eyes.

Perhaps... perhaps this really is an opportunity.

An opportunity for him to continue learning throughout his life.

Where is your academy located?

he asks.

“East of Bailudong Academy is an abandoned tea plantation.”

"How long can your money last?"

"The initial amount could last for a year."

A year later, the academy will be self-sufficient.

"You... really want to teach these things to women?"

"It's true."

Song Jiuzhou closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath, as if releasing the pent-up emotions of more than a decade.

When he opened his eyes again, they were clear.

"it is good!"

He said in a deep voice, "I'm selling these hundred-plus pounds of my own flesh to you ignorant young girls!"

But I have one condition.”

"Sir, please speak."

Bai Yiyue was overjoyed.

"All the equipment and workshops in the academy related to the study of things, construction, and mathematics must be under my full responsibility!"

"I want the best materials and the most capable craftsmen. You are not allowed to interfere with what I want to make, much less obstruct it!"

"On behalf of the entire academy, I respectfully acknowledge your request, sir!"

Bai Yiyue bowed deeply again, this time out of genuine respect for a future grandmaster. "It's a deal!"

Stepping out of Song Jiuzhou's residence, Bai Yiyue looked up at the bright sky over Qingzhou. She felt that although the road ahead was still full of thorns, a ray of hope had already pierced through the thick clouds.

She found the soul of the Seven Fairies Girls' Academy.

And this is just the beginning.

Next, there's a reclusive old farmer skilled in agriculture and sericulture, a down-on-his-luck lawyer well-versed in law, and even a female doctor ostracized by mainstream medical institutions but an expert in surgery...

After seeing Bai Yiyue off, Song Lian sat in his study, which was filled with blueprints, for a long time.

He walked to the window, looked at the courtyard gate that had remained closed for decades, and then looked back at the room full of his hard work.

Finally, he walked to the door and pulled open the dusty bolt.

"Squeak-"

For the first time, the afternoon sun shone without obstruction throughout the courtyard, illuminating the cold gears and levers.

Song Lian squinted and exhaled a long breath.

From this day forward, his life will no longer be a solitary pursuit confined to this small courtyard.

After bidding farewell to Song Lian, Bai Yiyue took out the second name card that she had prepared in advance from her sleeve and headed straight for Huichun Lane in the west of Qingzhou City.

Her next target was a female doctor named Liu San Niang.

Unlike Song Lian's eccentricities, Liu San Niang was almost a taboo figure in Qingzhou City.

Born into a family of doctors, she was exceptionally intelligent, possessed a photographic memory, and had a comprehension of medical principles that even surpassed that of her father and brothers.

However, she was not fascinated by gentle herbal remedies, but by surgical techniques, which were regarded as butchering practices by all orthodox medical clinics.

She once dissected pigs and sheep in private and drew precise diagrams of their internal organs.

She once used a red-hot iron bar to stop the bleeding and heal the wounds of a beggar whose legs were ulcerated.

She even dared to use sewing needles and thread to stitch up the wounds of a child whose abdomen had been bitten open by a wild dog.

The child survived, but Liu San Niang was expelled from her home and boycotted by the entire Qingzhou Medical Guild, who denounced her as a "wicked woman," "unchaste," and "against the natural order."

She could only open a tiny, neglected clinic in Huichun Lane, the poorest area in the west of the city, barely making a living by treating injuries to the poor.

Bai Yiyue knew all too well how invaluable such a skilled surgeon was to a women's academy that prioritized practicality.

She not only teaches the true skills of saving lives, but her very existence is a resounding slap in the face to the outdated notion that women cannot practice medicine.

If Liu San Niang were invited over, Bai Lu could have a chat with her, since Bai Lu also knows medicine.

Huichun Lane, despite its name, is actually dilapidated.

The alleyways were narrow and muddy, and the air was filled with a complex mix of herbal scents.

Bai Yiyue lifted her skirt, carefully avoiding the sewage on the ground, and under the curious but numb gazes of the crowd, found the small house at the end of the alley with the dilapidated sign of Liu's Medical Clinic.

She knocked on the door.

The woman who opened the door was around thirty years old.

She wore a faded coarse cloth dress, her long hair was simply tied back with a wooden hairpin, and her face was delicate.

What is most striking is her hands, with distinct knuckles, extremely short nails, and spotless cleanliness, making them stand out from their surroundings.

She was Liu San Niang.

"see a doctor?"

Liu San Niang's voice was hoarse and cold. Her gaze swept over Bai Yiyue's smooth dress and extraordinary temperament, with a hint of aloofness. "Miss, you are of noble birth. You must have come to the wrong place."

"The Baohetang and Jishetang in the east of the city are the places you should go."

"I didn't come here for a medical consultation."

Bai Yiyue smiled slightly and handed over the name card in her hand, "Junior Bai Yiyue has come here because of your reputation and would like to invite Lady Liu San Niangzi for a cup of tea."

Liu San Niang glanced at the gold-embossed words of the Marquis of Anguo's residence on the name card and froze.

She hesitated for a moment, then pushed the name card back, saying, "I have no connection with your family, please go back, Miss."

My place is too simple; I cannot entertain distinguished guests.

"Lady Bai is the person we physicians respect the most... If you have any problems, you can come to me."

After saying that, she was about to close the door.

"Third Lady!"

Bai Yiyue quickly reached out to hold the door shut, her tone sincere, "This junior did not disturb you without reason."

"I have a question: If a person is stabbed through the abdomen with a sharp blade, their intestines severed and blood flowing, is there any way to survive except to wait for death?"

This is a question that no ordinary young lady from a wealthy family would ask.

She raised her eyes and re-examined Bai Yiyue, a hint of inquiry finally appearing in her usually cold eyes.

"Why do you ask that?"

"Because I have seen too many wounded soldiers like this in the North."

They were still breathing, yet they could only watch helplessly as their last drop of blood was shed.

Bai Yiyue's tone turned somber. "I asked the best military doctors in the army, and they all said that even a god couldn't save him if he were to be cut open."

But I heard that you, Third Sister... saved one life.

Liu San Niang's eyes instantly became incredibly complicated.

The child she saved was the pride of her medical skills, but also the root cause of her being scorned by the entire Qingzhou.

She remained silent for a long time before finally opening the door and stepping aside to say, "Come in."

The clinic was very simply furnished, with only a consultation table, a few chairs, and a row of medicine cabinets that smelled strongly of herbs.

On the wall, however, hung several chilling drawings—not of plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, or chrysanthemums, but meticulously drawn charcoal diagrams of the human skeleton, muscle distribution, and even a diagram of the location of the internal organs: heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys.

These diagrams are a hundred times more accurate than the diagrams of vital human limbs in the Ministry of War's "Complete Essentials of Military Classics".

Standing before the painting of internal organs, Bai Yiyue exclaimed sincerely, "Third Sister's painting skills are truly divine."

Each and every stroke embodies the utmost reverence for life.

She didn't use the word "bloody" or "horrifying," but instead used the word "awe-inspiring."

Liu San Niang's body trembled slightly.

For many years, everyone who saw these pictures showed fear and disgust. Only this girl understood the true intention behind her drawing them.

"sit down."

Her voice was softer than before.

Bai Yiyue sat down as instructed and got straight to the point: "Third Sister, I've come today to invite you to come out of seclusion and serve as the head instructor of medicine at a new academy."

Liu San Niang's hand, which was pouring tea, stopped in mid-air. She looked up and stared at Bai Yiyue as if she were looking at a monster: "You invited me?"

Go teach?

Do you know who I am?

I am a vile woman reviled by everyone in Qingzhou City, a monster even my own father denounced as an unfilial daughter.

"You invited me to be a teacher, do you want your academy to be drowned in spit on its very first day of operation?"

"All I know is that you are a doctor who can bring the dead back to life."

Bai Yiyue's gaze was firm as she met her self-deprecating words and said, word by word, "The spittle of others cannot drown the thirst for knowledge, nor can it drown the merit of saving lives!"

"My academy will teach women the real skills to make a living and to save themselves and others in times of crisis!"

"And your medical skills are precisely the skills that women all over the world need most and should learn!"

"Why?"

Liu San Niang pressed on, her voice trembling slightly, "Why teach these things to women?"

"Wouldn't it be better to let them stay quietly in the inner quarters?"

"If you learn these things, you'll only end up like me, seen as an outcast, and abandoned by the whole world!"

Because the world is changing!

Bai Yiyue stood up, her voice firm and resolute, "Because we can't always rely on men to protect us!"

"When war breaks out, when famine strikes, when our husbands, brothers, and fathers fall in pools of blood, what can we do but weep and pray?"

"Third Sister, tell me, what can we do?"

She took a step forward and looked directly into Liu San Niang's eyes, where a raging fire burned in those bright eyes.

"All we can do is pick up the needle and thread you taught us and stitch up their wounds!"

"Pick up the knife and scissors you taught me and remove the rotten flesh from them!"

Pick up the herbs you taught me and prolong their lives!

"We need to be more than just vulnerable people waiting for rescue; we need to be partners who fight alongside them!"

"This is why I want to teach women medicine!"

Liu San Niang was completely shocked by these words.

She stared blankly at Bai Yiyue, as if she were seeing another version of herself—a younger, braver, and more powerful version of herself.

The wall that had been frozen in her heart for many years was violently cracked open at this moment by this burning ideal.

"You...your academy only accepts women?"

She asked in a hoarse voice.

"Only women are accepted."

"You...you really dare to use me?"

"I not only dare to use you,"

Bai Yiyue smiled slightly, her smile filled with unparalleled trust. "I will also allocate the largest portion of the academy's budget to you for the construction of a separate operating room and anatomy room."

"We'll build all the equipment you need; we'll find the research specimens you need."

"In our academy, your medical skills will no longer be seen as strange tricks, but as benevolent and skillful medicine that will be admired by everyone!"

"Compassionate heart and skillful hands..."

Liu San Niang murmured these four words repeatedly, her eyes suddenly reddening.

She practiced medicine for ten years and saved countless lives, yet no one ever used these four words to describe her.

Today, a girl I've never met before understood it.

She lowered her head, letting a hot tear fall onto the rough back of her hand.

After a long while, she raised her head and wiped away her tears.

"it is good."

She uttered only one word, yet it carried immense weight: "I promise you."

Bai Yiyue bowed deeply, this time to pay tribute to the integrity and benevolence of a doctor.

Her third target was an old farmer named Shi, whose surname was Shi and given name was Man, who lived in Woniu Village outside Qingzhou City.