The spring rain fell continuously, bringing with it a cold late spring chill.
At home, Xu Yi rummaged through the loose tea leaves that Accountant Chen had previously sent over and added a small amount of mugwort and goji leaves to simmer together. In cold weather, drinking some mugwort goji tea could warm the body and dispel the cold, though one shouldn’t drink too much.
Both mugwort and goji leaves had a spicy taste with bitterness, but after drinking, a sweet aftertaste lingered on the tip of the tongue and throat. He had picked only the tender stems and leaves, and after simmering them with tea and filtering out the bitter loose tea, these mugwort and goji leaves could be eaten directly by chewing.
As the hot tea went down, Xu Yi stretched contentedly.
Beside him, Little Huang had been watching him cook, thinking it was something delicious. The dog circled around his legs, unwilling to leave, and the sight made Xu Yi want to laugh. He poured a little into its bowl.
Little Huang immediately stuck its head forward to drink, but the moment its tongue touched the tea, the entire dog froze. It raised its head dubiously to look at Xu Yi.
Xu Yi blinked. “It’s good to drink, good for your body.”
Little Huang hesitated before sticking its head forward again to drink. This time, it began to doubt its entire canine existence. How could anything taste this awful?
“Ha ha ha ha!”
Seeing it looking so adorably confused, Xu Yi couldn’t help but laugh heartily.
After a night of fermentation, when Xu Yi went out today carrying his bamboo basket, he was immediately stopped and questioned about Accountant Chen’s visit yesterday.
“Earlier, I saw Madam Chen taking Accountant Chen to Apricot Grove Hall. Is Accountant Chen really sick?” The person who’d stopped him then complained, “That Accountant Chen really is something. If he’s truly ill, he should go find a physician instead of coming to trouble you.”
Apricot Grove Hall was one of the medical clinics on South Street, and Xu Yi remembered that the sitting physician there had mediocre skills.
“It’s good that he went to see a doctor.”
Xu Yi didn’t echo the complaint. Accountant Chen wasn’t great, but Madam Chen was a reasonable person, and that was what mattered.
The man continued, “That Accountant Chen usually has his eyes in the sky and his hands idle, constantly looking down on people who live on South Street. But doesn’t he also live here? Now that he’s sick, it serves him right.” This person had always disliked Accountant Chen’s contemptuous attitude, and seeing him in chaos after falling ill, terrified of losing his position as accountant, brought him immense satisfaction.
Unfortunately, Xu Yi wouldn’t take the bait, and with just him talking alone, it was boring.
“Aren’t you angry?”
“There’s nothing to be angry about.” He was just a sick person, and Xu Yi wouldn’t stoop to quarreling with someone who was ill.
Besides, Xu Yi had only drunk tea today and hadn’t eaten yet. He didn’t intend to waste time here badmouthing others. “Uncle, please continue being idle, I have affairs to tend to.”
The man unconsciously replied “okay,” but when he came to his senses, he felt that those words “continue being idle” seemed like an insult. It was probably just his imagination, though. Young Master Xu didn’t seem like the type to insult people indirectly.
Carrying his bamboo basket, Xu Yi quickly walked out of Stone Well Lane. Taking advantage of the brief pause in the rain, he walked along the street for some minutes before arriving at Miracle Hands Hall.
Today there were far fewer people lined up to sell medicinal herbs. Only one youth who looked about ten years old was crouching down sorting through the herbs he’d dug up, while the apprentice watching him saw someone else arriving. Looking up to see it was Xu Yi, his eyes lit up slightly.
“It’s you.” He had a deep impression of Xu Yi since there really weren’t many people who could dig up that many herbs at once. “What did you find today?”
Xu Yi said, “Mainly danshen. I dug up over ten catties.”
Actually, it was more than that, but he’d left some at home to dry when the weather warmed and the sun came out.
“You actually dug up that much danshen?” Hearing there was so much, the apprentice’s voice grew louder, and even the young boy who’d been crouching with his head down without speaking raised his head to look over, his dark eyes staring at Xu Yi.
Xu Yi placed both hands on the bamboo basket lid and lifted it to reveal the medicinal herbs inside. As he took out the herbs, the corner of his eye fell on the young boy.
His body was emaciated, his frame small, with his hair tied up in two small buns and sparse-looking that indicated malnutrition. Looking at his fingertips, they bore chilblains from winter that had scabbed over, leaving bumpy, uneven scars.
Xu Yi looked in silence before turning to see the apprentice counting his medicinal herbs.
“Why not count that child’s first?” Xu Yi asked in confusion.
The apprentice curled his lip and said irritably, “The herbs he brought are all mixed with mud and weeds. If he doesn’t clean them properly, our Miracle Hands Hall won’t accept them.” That last sentence was deliberately said for the child to hear.
The child just remained silent, as if he hadn’t heard what the apprentice said at all.
Xu Yi crouched down and asked softly, “Do you need help? I understand medicinal herbs quite well and can organize them very quickly.”
“Eh? Why do you care about him? He’s always like this, never saying a word when he comes, just like a mute.” The apprentice snorted and reached out to pull Xu Yi away.
Xu Yi deftly moved his arm aside to avoid the apprentice’s touch, then raised his face and smiled lightly. “It’s no trouble. Please count the herbs I brought first.”
The apprentice gave up with a dismissive sound, though inwardly he felt somewhat contemptuous. Another one of those meddlesome types who thought showing warm-heartedness meant the other person would appreciate it. He couldn’t even see his own worth as just another herb seller. He waited to watch Xu Yi make a fool of himself, but instead saw Xu Yi quickly reach out to take the herbs from the child’s hands and pick out the weeds mixed in between with extremely fast movements. The child just stared, stunned and unable to react at all.
The apprentice was startled. He’d thought Xu Yi would at least say a few words and get a response from the child before acting, but apparently not.
“Done.”
In just moments, Xu Yi had returned all the herbs to the young boy’s hands.
The apprentice looked at him in shock. “How can you be so fast?”
He’d been an apprentice for two years, picking through various medicinal herbs every day, yet was still cautious every time, afraid of accidentally damaging them. He didn’t know that Xu Yi had been in contact with medicinal herbs for over twenty years, and the herbs he’d seen, touched, and smelled were thousands of times more numerous.
Xu Yi asked, “Have you finished counting mine?”
The apprentice gave an “ah” sound and came to his senses. “All counted. This danshen is twenty-three wen per catty, chuanxiong is twenty-one wen, these other few are all thirteen wen, and these few are cheaper at six wen.” He turned to look at the servant keeping accounts beside him.
The servant held an abacus in one hand, his fingertips moving the beads with the other, and quickly calculated the total price of four hundred twenty-eight wen in all, which was more than a qian of silver more than last time.
The apprentice and servant had seen this scene before, and were still slightly shocked. The crouching child looking up was different. He was practically stunned in place, staring blankly.
Xu Yi placed the four qian and twenty-eight wen in his money pouch and tucked it into his sleeve pocket, where it pressed heavily against his wrist. When digging herbs in the mountains, he’d already decided where this money would go.
To be a traveling physician, first he needed a portable medicine box.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the medical profession had already developed to scale, and medicine boxes alone came in various styles like handheld medicine boxes and crossbody medicine boxes. Both were crafted very finely, with the former mostly having three layers and six compartments using mortise and tenon construction, brushed with wood wax on the outside to make them sturdy and convenient.
The price wasn’t cheap either. Xu Yi had seen a carpenter’s shop in the marketplace and gone in to ask the carpenter there about ordering a medicine box. The price would cost two-thirds of the money he’d earned today, and this was still the cheapest model. If he wanted the precious lacquered kind with a base, brass-plated corners, and gold-painted round handles, the price would be at least ten strings of coins.
One string was ten qian, one qian was one hundred wen. For ten-plus strings of coins, at Xu Yi’s current earning capacity and without eating or drinking, he could earn it in two months.
After entering several carpenter shops consecutively and getting similar prices, Xu Yi finally shifted his gaze to the marketplace on South Street. There weren’t many carpenters here, and the shop he entered had a small storefront, just a room of over ten square meters piled with various lumber.
An old master sat inside working, and seeing someone arrive, he set down his work.
After greeting him politely, Xu Yi inquired about the price and terms for ordering a medicine box.
The carpenter replied, “The cheap ones are two qian and fifty wen. Expensive ones can be any price, and if you want carving and painted flowers, the price would be ten-plus to twenty strings of cash. Young master, whichever kind you want, the deposit is the same: twenty percent down first, then the balance after it’s made.”
The price the old master gave was more than ten wen cheaper than the previous shops, and even one wen was still money. He immediately chose this carpenter’s shop.
Xu Yi wanted the basic model without lacquer, inlay, or anything fancy, just a wooden handle, requiring two qian and fifty wen. He counted out fifty wen from his money pouch and handed it to the carpenter.
“Master, when can it be finished?”
The carpenter said, “Come pick it up in five days.”
“Very good, thank you for the trouble, Master.”
Walking out of the carpenter’s shop, Xu Yi found that the spring rain had started again outside. He had come out taking advantage of the rain stopping, but now, seeing the sky filled with rain like needle threads, he fell silent for a moment. If he’d known, he still should have brought an umbrella.
Then he thought of Little Huang at home. He hadn’t brought him when going out today, and being alone at home, he wouldn’t be willing to wait inside the house. Right now, he was probably in the courtyard getting rained on while waiting for him to return.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi hesitated no longer. Covering his sleeve pocket, he rushed into the rain.
The stalls on both sides of the street had closed up, and the shops on either side were equally deserted. The arrival of the rain had plunged South Street into desolation.
Suddenly, a shout came from beside him. “Young Master Xu?!”
Xu Yi jumped in fright, stopping abruptly and turning to look. He saw a family of three taking shelter from the rain nearby.
“It really is Young Master Xu! Do you know we’ve been waiting for you at Yilu Mountain these past two days but haven’t seen you?” The child’s father excitedly took two steps forward. “I didn’t expect to run into Young Master Xu here. On such a rainy day too. Why are you running through the rain?”
Before Xu Yi could speak, the wife holding the child’s hand called softly from under the eaves, “Don’t stand there. Come over quickly to shelter from the rain. It’s cold today, and you mustn’t catch a chill.”