Chapter 18
Chapter 18 – Buying Medicinal Herb Seeds (药种采购)
No matter who Jing Yunzhao’s Shifu was, their medical skills were definitely not low. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to come up with such a prescription. From a brilliant teacher comes a brilliant student. Even if she was a beginner, she had already exceeded certain people.
Doctor Gan was interested, so he agreed to help her. Why would he refuse?
The medicinal material marketplace of Hua Ning County was not very big, but there was a large abundance of goods. They had many kinds of seeds and seedlings. After riding the bus for half an hour, the pair of elderly and youth arrived at a slightly remote marketplace. A refreshing smell was coming from inside.
The county’s marketplace was located under a bridge and faced the river. In addition to medicinal herbs, they also sold a variety birds and flowers, making the place quite popular.
The old doctor was indeed familiar with the place and people. He walked around with Jing Yunzhao and showed her the place. They never stayed in the same place for long until they reached their destination.
“This store’s owner has been dealing with medicine for many generations and can make medicine himself. But this business isn’t easy to do anymore. Unless you specifically asked for him to make the medicine, he won’t do it. He also cultivates his own plants on the side… This store might look a bit messy, but I promise the things inside are more thorough and extensive than the other places,” laughed Gan Songbai.
Jing Yunzhao observed the exterior of the store. Compared to the other stores, this one looked a bit older. However, the display outside was very neat. The most important thing was that the owner clearly understood the characteristics of plants; Herbs with smells that conflicted with each other were put separately. He was more concerned about the properties of the medicine than the aesthetics of the store.
With just that reason, Jing Yunzhao understood that Doctor Gan’s judgment was not wrong.
“Uncle Gan, what are you here to buy this time?” The owner showed himself at that opportune moment and welcomed them with a smile.
Jing Yunzhao was surprised. Looking at the results of his understanding towards medicinal herbs, she thought that the owner would have been an old man. But no one would’ve thought that he would be a young man in looking no older than Thirty.
“Today, I brought a little friend. The decision to buy or not is all up to her,” Gan Songbai explained.
The owner became curious after hearing that and looked at the girl accompanying him. His eyes shined.
He saw a girl with white skin, long black hair, and a clear forehead. She gave off a very clean and neat feeling. Most importantly, despite looking a bit too skinny, she was good-looking and tall, making her seem like she had quite the temperament.
Jing Yunzhao wasn’t affected by his stare and told the owner, “I would like to have a few common seeds like She Chuang Zi, Ku Can, Da Huang, Nan Xing; ones that prevent air from accumulating in the body. My Shifu likes to plant these things but doesn’t need a lot. If you can show me the seeds, I can pick them myself.”
(T/N: Wind (or changed to air) (风) is one of the “Six Excesses” or the “Six Pernicious Influences” of Traditional Chinese medicine. I really don’t know how to explain it so I Wikipedia-ed it.)
She couldn’t say that she was planting the seeds herself. After all, even though the Qiaos lived in a house in town, they didn’t even own half a mu of land.
(T/N: Mu (亩) is a unit of area. One mu is equal to 0.0667 hectares.)
When Qiao Weimin was younger, he partnered with someone and invested in a small factory. He was usually idle and still received a decent sum of money every year, but nothing too substantial.
It was better to have a Shifu attracting everyone’s attention than to have herself in the centre of the limelight.
If someone were to know of her otherworldly space, she was afraid that she might not be able to see the sunlight of the next day. The Old Ancestor had his reasons behind his warnings.
The owner’s surname was Liu (陆). He quickly guided Jing Yunzhao into the store after listening to her request.
Within the store was several rows of hemp sachets containing seeds of different sizes. Every sachet was labelled with the name of the seeds inside.
At present, it was luckily springtime and the seeds displayed were mostly seeds meant to be sowed during spring. So, Jing Yunzhao didn’t have to worry too much during her purchase.
Her earnest expression when she was picking the seeds, made her look completely like one who was medically knowledged. Old Doctor Gan heart was commending her as his appreciation increased. Unfortunately, it was a pity that this little girl already had a Shifu. He couldn’t help feeling envious.