With the current manpower available, there was no way to exhaust all the medicinal herbs. Besides, there were plenty of mountains in that area. Even if Yilu Mountain was picked over by others, Xu Yi could always go to different mountains. He knew many herbs, so he wasn’t worried about finding nothing to dig up.
Xu Yi didn’t hide anything and said they came from the mountains and wilderness near Yilu Mountain. However, he still gave a reminder: “When digging, you must leave the roots and seeds. That way there will be a continuous supply. If you dig everything clean, there won’t be any herbs left to harvest next time.”
“I’ve been to Yilu Mountain a few times. How come I never saw so many medicinal herbs?”
Xu Yi said, “I studied for a few years and learned some medical texts, so I understand a bit.”
“So you’re an educated person… Then why did you stop studying and go dig herbs instead?”
“Exactly, how much money can you make digging herbs? Studying is still better.”
Xu Yi smiled but didn’t answer.
Before leaving, he asked the apprentice at Miracle Hands Hall: “I have some heshouwu on hand. I’m thinking of processing it into ripened heshouwu before bringing it over. I wanted to ask what the price would be.”
“You know how to process medicine?” The apprentice was astonished. He had been at Miracle Hands Hall for so long, yet the doctors wouldn’t let him process medicine.
Xu Yi: “I know a bit.”
“Oh.” The apprentice gathered up the fresh medicinal herbs scattered around his feet while saying, “It’s twenty percent less than the purchase price. Ripened heshouwu sells for thirty-six wen per pound.”
Thirty-six wen…
That was quite a bit lower than he’d expected. With three steamings and three sun-dryings, one pound of raw heshouwu could ultimately be processed into six taels of ripened heshouwu. At this rate, all the heshouwu he’d dug up, once processed, would amount to just over two pounds.
–
The newly earned silver couldn’t stay in his hands at all. Turning around, Xu Yi took the silver straight into the grain shop.
Saying they were about to run out of food wasn’t an exaggeration. The rice barrel at home was nearly empty, with only enough left for two more meals. By tomorrow, there would be nothing to eat.
He entered carrying a large basket, and the shop assistant immediately came over to ask what he was buying.
“I need one dou of rice, another dou of black rice, one sheng of small flat yellow-kernel black beans, and one sheng of yellow wine.” Xu Yi said to the shop assistant.
After hearing what Xu Yi wanted, the shop assistant efficiently began preparing everything. One dou of rice was about twelve pounds, unhulled, and cost eighty wen.
These days the weather was favorable and the harvests good, so grain prices didn’t fluctuate much. Since Xu Yi still needed to buy other things and couldn’t carry too much grain home anyway, and it wasn’t yet winter when people stockpiled grain, he naturally wouldn’t buy too much.
The small flat yellow-kernel black beans were an ancient variety of black soybeans, used for processing heshouwu. One sheng, calculated by modern weight standards, was just over one pound and two taels. Besides processing heshouwu, the leftover black beans could be roasted over low heat and mixed with lard to make a tasty side dish.
In ancient times, ordinary people ate black rice more often. In modern terms, this black rice would be classified as coarse grain, and eating more black rice was good for one’s health.
He wasn’t much of a cook, but he understood medicinal cuisine and dietary therapy. In his view, eating more coarse grains was ideal.
Once he picked up the Five Animal Exercises and Thunderclap Tai Chi again and built up his strength and learned a few martial moves, he could venture deeper into the forest to look for other valuable medicinal herbs.
As for buying yellow wine…
After hearing the apprentice at Miracle Hands Hall say that ripened heshouwu was purchased at thirty-six wen per pound, he decided not to sell the heshouwu he had on hand.
There were two methods for processing heshouwu. One was three steamings and three sun-dryings, and the other used yellow wine and black beans. First, you boiled the black beans in water until they turned to mush, filtered out the bean residue, and continued boiling the remaining bean water until it became slightly viscous black liquid, then mixed in the yellow wine.
Next, you put the sliced heshouwu into it, sealed it in a clay jar, and steamed it over water until all the liquid was absorbed, then you could remove it and dry it in the sun.
This method was a one-step process, but the failure rate was also high.
Xu Yi wasn’t worried though. He’d done this before. Although the equipment he used back then was more advanced, he still remembered the ratios of black beans and yellow wine to use. He’d know how it turned out after trying.
After buying grain, there was still today’s meal to get.
According to books, during the Northern Song Dynasty, even ordinary market households liked to buy food from outside and rarely cooked at home.
He had thought this was an exaggeration, but it turned out to be true.
In just this short time, he’d already seen no fewer than six or seven hired runners carrying exquisite food boxes with three tiers, filled with food their employers wanted to buy, running along the street, their lingering fragrance wafting past his nose.
Xu Yi didn’t need to go to the mountains to gather herbs today, so he had plenty of time to explore the marketplace. The street with the most businesses was West Street. West Street had many wealthy residents, but even more shops. Along both sides of the street were storefronts large and small, of every kind.
The small stalls along both sides of the street were all clean and neat, wafting waves of tempting aromas.
Xu Yi couldn’t resist the temptation and bought a portion of bean cake from a sweet food stall. It had red bean filling inside, three pieces per portion about the size of persimmon cakes, selling for five wen.
Then he went to Granny Liu’s Mixed Stew shop and bought a portion of pork offal stew. It was full of ingredients, and seeing that Xu Yi was young, Granny Liu didn’t cheat him and even added an extra spoonful of minced meat.
After thanking her, Xu Yi carried the hot food he’d bought, walked a few steps, and stopped in front of another small stall. On it, he saw northern-style noodles. However, they weren’t made into noodle strands or dough pieces, but rather into dried vegetable flatbreads.
The dried vegetables were roasted over an iron stove, releasing a unique fragrance mixed with the aroma of wheat. They looked slightly golden brown, crispy on the outside and tender inside. Just looking at them made them seem delicious.
The woman selling flatbreads saw him stop and called out with a cheerful smile: “Young master, buy two to try! My dried vegetable flatbreads use fresh quality ingredients and are even wrapped with pork cracklings. Two wen for one, not a loss at all!”
The flatbreads weren’t like bean cakes. One was as big as half a face, looked substantial, could fill you up, and were so much cheaper.
Quite a few people stopped to buy them. Xu Yi ordered four, had her wrap them in oil paper, and carried them home.
Returning with a full load, Little Huang at home had been waiting so long he was getting impatient.
Seeing him return, the puppy made anxious whimpering sounds.
Especially when he smelled the fragrance, he pawed at Xu Yi’s pant leg and wouldn’t let go. Xu Yi knew this little fellow was hungry too.
“Looks like you’re a greedy dog.” He squatted down. Little Huang sniffed toward Granny Liu’s pork offal stew and whimpered. He laughed teasingly, “Your dog nose is so sensitive, you even know where the meat is.”
A two-month-old puppy, fluffy and fuzzy, still had his cute charm and looked quite adorable.
In the past, Xu Yi had wanted to raise an animal, whether a dog or a cat, but his studies were too demanding and he simply had no time to keep one.
Suddenly transmigrating had actually fulfilled this dream. There was a ready-made puppy who couldn’t bear to part with him and depended on him so much.
Xu Yi was like a parent who would spoil a child. He hadn’t even eaten breakfast himself, but first divided out dog food into a bowl. Watching the puppy finish eating and contentedly lie by his feet licking the corners of its mouth, only then did Xu Yi sit on the wooden stool and heartily eat the pork offal stew, paired with the fragrant, still-warm dried vegetable flatbreads.
After eating, he went to the kitchen to boil black bean water.
The black bean water needed time to boil. Xu Yi came out to the courtyard and fiddled with the heshouwu slices he’d set out to dry yesterday.
Before Madam He married, she had been an embroidery maid in a wealthy household. Later, after her contract ended, her employer didn’t renew it, so her father brought her home and married her off to her aunt’s cousin.
After marriage, she did embroidery work at home to earn money and supplement the household, staying home all day. Hearing movement next door now, thinking it must be Xu Yi returning, she pushed open the door to come out and see.
Just stepping out of her courtyard, she saw the young master from the Xu household next door in his yard, still wearing the short jacket that only poor families wore.
Madam He thought she was seeing things. Walking two steps closer, she realized she wasn’t mistaken. Not only that, Young Master Xu was also handling some strange objects?
“Yi-ge’er, where did you go all day yesterday? Why did you come back handling these things?”
“Good day, Madam He. Yesterday I made a trip to Yilu Mountain. This is heshouwu I dug up on the mountain.”
Xu Yi’s posture was upright, like a young pine tree still growing, his face still bearing traces of childishness but now looking more like an adult.
He was even more modest and courteous in treating people, his eyes bright and spirited when looking at others. Still the same facial features, yet he seemed completely transformed.
Madam He’s mind wandered for a moment, feeling she didn’t quite recognize Young Master Xu anymore.
She didn’t space out for long. Hearing the three words “heshouwu,” she immediately knew it was medicinal herbs.
She became even more puzzled. How could he have suddenly run off to the mountains to gather medicine?
Could it be that the matter with his parents had dealt too great a blow to Xu Yi?
She pressed her lips together and asked across the wall: “I heard you’re not studying anymore. Is this true?”
She was on good terms with the Xu family and knew they had placed great hopes on their only son. Even if he couldn’t pass the civil examinations, they wanted him to find a decent job.
In any case, they didn’t want Xu Yi to continue following their path of farming for a lifetime.
Xu Yi said: “Yes, I’m not studying anymore. During the time when Mother and Father were gravely ill, I took leave from my studies to return home. While serving them, I also read quite a few medical texts. These past days I’ve thought things through. Studying is difficult, and finding a way forward is difficult too. Now I want to become a traveling physician. It wouldn’t waste the books I’ve read these past few years.”
He needed to find an appropriate reason so that the neighbors who knew him would understand that his decision to stop studying and switch to learning medicine had a cause.
Then, he’d start with Madam He.
Lay the groundwork step by step, take it slowly.
Work as a traveling physician for a few years, build up his reputation, and save up money along the way. Then, he could open a medical clinic in Yanting County.