After bidding farewell to Madam Chen, Xu Yi headed to Butcher Duan’s meat shop.
When he arrived, quite a few people were already gathered in front of Butcher Duan’s shop. Drawing closer, he learned that these people had all gotten news of the rising pork prices and wanted to buy more pork fat.
Butcher Duan had a strong impression of this young man Xu Yi. Back when he had dragged a wild boar into his shop, the impact had been quite significant.
Seeing him come to buy pork fat, he even saved Xu Yi a choice cut.
“The lard rendered from this piece will be fragrant, but the price is the same,” Butcher Duan told Xu Yi.
Xu Yi couldn’t judge the quality of the cuts, but he could see that this piece of pork fat was neat and proper, with thick fat layers and no fascia. It was premium fatty meat.
He paid the money and said with a smile, “Many thanks, Uncle Duan.”
“Hehe, no need for thanks.” Butcher Duan asked him, “Are you still going up the mountain these days?”
Xu Yi nodded, saying he had been going up the mountain these past few days.
Butcher Duan said, “Is there anything good in those mountains? A wealthy master is hosting a banquet and wants to add two courses of wild game. His household steward came asking me, wild pheasant, wild rabbit, roe deer all acceptable. That fellow who used to come sell me wild goods hasn’t been around lately, so I was thinking you also hunt prey.”
Xu Yi: “…”
Hunting prey was just incidental, he went up the mountain to dig medicinal herbs.
Xu Yi told him, “I rarely hunt anything, but I know a hunter who might have good goods on hand.”
Butcher Duan’s eyes rolled, and he immediately said, “Could young master go ask this hunter? However much he has, I’ll take it all.”
When wealthy households held banquets, some loved eating novel delicacies. Things like wild game, only these households could prepare them well. The kitchen matrons of wealthy households specially learned these culinary skills, and the wild game they made was something you couldn’t eat in the marketplaces.
Butcher Duan had good connections. Having done business in the county town for so long, quite a few wealthy households would contact hunters through him. He didn’t work for free either, he often received extra meals, sometimes ten-odd wen, sometimes over twenty wen. When encountering generous households, there would even be additional reward money.
He was so enthusiastic for this reason.
Today, Xu Yi wasn’t the first person he’d asked.
Xu Yi kept this matter in mind and first carried the pork fat home.
After arriving home, he handed the pork fat over to Ah Xu to handle. Ah Xu took the pork fat, first washed it once with well water, then used a cleaver to cut the several-jin piece into mahjong-tile-sized chunks.
While Ah Xu was rendering the lard on this end, on the other end Ah Jin was practicing calligraphy in her room.
She and her brother still shared one room, using a curtain plus a bamboo screen to divide it. The divided room wasn’t large, it could only fit a small bed. Xu Yi had the carpenter’s shop make them a desk for writing, placing it in the common area of the room.
Now, aside from the clothes chest placed in the corner of their room, two baskets of charcoal were also stacked there.
Their room had charcoal, and Xu Yi’s room also had some, even more, with six baskets.
Not only that, but the kitchen and main hall also had some. Although it looked a bit cluttered, it gave a full sense of security.
Xu Yi stood outside their door and raised his hand to knock.
The door wasn’t closed. Ah Jin set down her brush and ran out to see Xu Yi.
“Master, is there something you need me to do?”
Xu Yi looked at her and said, “Bring me today’s assignments to look at. Bring your brother’s as well.”
“Mm-hmm.” Ah Jin nodded, ran back to neatly stack the papers on the desk, and brought them all to Xu Yi.
Their daily assignments had now changed from two sheets of large characters to five sheets of large characters, five sheets of small characters, and one recited poem.
Over time, Xu Yi discovered that Ah Jin’s talent for studying was better than Ah Xu’s.
Especially in terms of annotation and interpretation, she was no less capable than students taught by proper tutors.
Xu Yi took their assignments back to his room and carefully flipped through them sheet by sheet. When he saw something unsatisfactory, he would take his brush and mark it out, having them rewrite it once more the next day and turn it in for his inspection.
If Xing Yuesen were here now, he would find that Xu Yi was even stricter than the tutors at private schools.
But Xu Yi didn’t know this at the moment. He finished checking Ah Xu’s assignments, then went to look at Ah Jin’s.
Ah Jin’s handwriting was elegant and delicate, small, just like her petite frame, yet it also revealed a toughness. After reading them, Xu Yi smiled and called Ah Jin over alone.
“How far have you memorized the Thousand Character Classic?” he asked.
Ah Jin stood and answered, “In response to master, I’ve read up to the line ‘The kun bird flies alone, soaring through the crimson heavens.'”
Xu Yi nodded with satisfaction and had her recite all the preceding text.
Ah Jin wasn’t puzzled, Xu Yi often had them recite passages from the Thousand Character Classic.
Thinking as she went, she slowly recited, “Heaven is dark and earth is yellow, the universe vast and barren. Sun and moon wax and wane, stars and constellations are arrayed…”
As she recited, Ah Jin occasionally couldn’t remember parts and would pause to think. Xu Yi didn’t urge her aloud, only noting down the parts she didn’t remember deeply.
After she finished reciting everything she’d learned before, Xu Yi took out a sheet of paper, wrote down those hard-to-remember sentences, and handed it to Ah Jin. “Write the sentences you can’t remember several more times. Don’t be reluctant to use paper. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can come ask me.”
“Master, I understand them, I just can’t remember them.” Ah Jin pressed her lips together.
Xu Yi paused, looking at her, and said, “Originally I only wanted you to learn to read. Now I feel that just recognizing characters isn’t enough. Ah Jin, can you trust me?”
Hearing these words, Ah Jin was somewhat stunned and said without quite understanding, “Master, I don’t understand.”
Xu Yi didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, “I want to hire a female tutor for you.”
Ah Jin immediately froze.
“Master, am I… am I too stupid, so master doesn’t want to continue teaching me to read?”
“No.”
Xu Yi smiled and told her not to panic. “It’s because you have great talent. I’m afraid I won’t be a good tutor and will delay your future prospects.”
Initially, Xu Yi couldn’t bear to see such a good child sold to a broker and sold into a brothel. He felt that if he could help, he should help.
These two children could both do work and weren’t freeloaders at home. They were pleasant to look at and knew gratitude.
After getting to know them, Xu Yi still couldn’t ignore that he came from modern times. No matter how much he integrated into the Song Dynasty, some things still couldn’t be washed away.
He couldn’t treat Ah Xu and Ah Jin as true servants and maids, it was more like cultivating future successors?
Well, successors was an exaggeration. It would be more accurate to say apprentices.
“Do you want to study medicine?” Xu Yi asked her seriously.
Ah Jin nodded without hesitation. “I do! I want to be like master and also be able to treat people’s illnesses. That way, can I stay by master’s side forever?”
She had suddenly thought of this after learning to recognize quite a few characters.
Whether it was Madam Chen or Madam He, they had both said that girls like her would eventually marry someone else and become their wife.
Once she became a wife, she wouldn’t be able to serve by master’s side anymore, she understood this principle.
Thinking that in a few more years she would have to leave her brother and leave master, Ah Jin instinctively resisted the future prospect of becoming someone else’s wife.
“Master, will you do as Madam He said and, once I grow up, promise me to another household?” Ah Jin’s eyes widened round as she asked fearfully.
Xu Yi was slightly surprised, amazed that Ah Jin understood these things at such a young age. Indeed, children in ancient times maturing early wasn’t just talk.
He shook his head. “I won’t. In my household, marriage is free. Ah Jin, if you don’t want to marry in the future, I won’t force you.”
Besides, teenagers were still children in his eyes, he’d never even thought about this matter. Moreover, Ah Jin wasn’t even nine years old yet.
No matter what, they should wait until after eighteen. At that age, the body’s organs had developed and matured. Only at this age or later, when engaging in sexual activity, would it not easily damage one’s foundation.
As Xu Yi thought about it, he went in a professional direction.
He quickly reined himself in and said to Ah Jin, “Don’t worry about future matters. If you want to study medicine, then when I teach Ah Xu to recognize medicines and understand medicinal principles in the future, you can listen along from the side. You can ask me anything you don’t understand.”
After learning that Xu Yi wasn’t rejecting her for being stupid, Ah Jin felt relieved and nodded emphatically, saying she would study hard.
Then she suggested in a small voice, “Master, please don’t hire a tutor, okay?”
Xu Yi asked, “You don’t want a tutor?”
Ah Jin hummed an affirmative. “Master is so capable, why hire a tutor? It costs a lot of money.”
Xu Yi: “…” All right, she was trying to save him money again.
“But if I hire a tutor, I can also relax a bit and won’t have to supervise your reading and writing homework every day.”
Now it was Ah Jin’s turn not to know what to say.
Xu Yi looked at her adorably confused expression and couldn’t help but laugh heartily. But he didn’t tease her further and let her go back to her tasks first.
As for hiring a tutor, he still needed to consider it further.
…
Later in the day, after pulling his scattered passengers, Old Liu leisurely stopped the ox cart outside the Xu household.
He came to ask Xu Yi whether he needed the cart.
Seeing Old Liu arrive with the cart, Xu Yi happened to need to go to Baili Village to find Zhang Tiegou. He stuffed a piece of rice cake into Old Liu’s hand. “Thank you for making the trip, Old Liu.”
Old Liu pinched the cake fragrant with rice and swallowed his saliva. “Doctor Xu, you’re still so polite.”
Xu Yi said this was bought for breakfast,and he’d bought a bit too much and hadn’t finished it, not specially purchased.
Hearing this answer, Old Liu didn’t feel offended. In fact, he felt more at ease. While eating the rice cake, he pulled Xu Yi toward Baili Village.
When they arrived outside Zhang Tiegou’s door, the wooden door was locked. It seemed Zhang Tiegou had gone into the mountains to hunt and hadn’t returned yet.
Old Liu asked, “Doctor Xu, shall we wait here?”
“Mm.” Xu Yi responded. Since he’d rarely come this way, he’d brought a machete this time and could go up the mountain.
Hearing he was going into the mountains, Old Liu said he would wait outside Zhang Tiegou’s door and wouldn’t go along.
These old bones of his didn’t dare follow.
Not long after Xu Yi entered the forest, he saw a snake coiled on a tree branch, an emerald green snake lying in wait, ready to hunt for food.
Xu Yi didn’t disturb it and circled around it to go forward.
At this time, quite a few snakes were emerging from their dens, searching for food, eating their fill before winter. Right now Xu Yi didn’t have Ah Xu and Ah Jin by his side, so he wouldn’t deliberately catch venomous snakes.
Although snake gallbladder could be used medicinally, if not processed properly it was toxic. In the medicines Xu Yi had encountered before, he rarely dealt with fresh snake gallbladder and didn’t have much experience processing it.
Moreover, snake slough had the same effects of dispelling wind, calming fright, detoxifying, and clearing nebulae. Even though in Chinese medicine there was the theory of sovereign, minister, assistant, and courier in using medicines, with each medicine having different properties, and medicines with similar properties not necessarily being interchangeable, they could still produce effects, just with reduced efficacy.
Not only snake slough, but dragon’s gall grass could also substitute for snake gallbladder.
This season, most dragon’s gall grass had already turned green again. The probability of finding it was extremely low, better to search more for snake slough.
Snake slough could be collected from late spring and early summer through early winter. Last time they entered the mountains, their focus was on archery practice. This time, Xu Yi came specifically to search, so naturally he quickly found fresh snake sloughs hanging from tree branches and grass clusters.
He took a cloth bag and loaded these snake sloughs into it. Once it was full, he would return.
Before long, Xu Yi returned to the foot of the mountain. Seeing that he’d gone up the mountain to collect snake sloughs, Old Liu’s eyes were full of disbelief.
“This thing can treat illness?” He clicked his tongue curiously.
There were plenty of snake sloughs in the mountains around their village. Children would use them as toys, tying the sloughs into long ropes, grabbing one end and running on country roads. When the wind blew, they would float up like kites.
Xu Yi: “…”
The Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica recorded the medicinal properties and uses of snake slough. Later, in the Wu Pu’s Materia Medica written by Hua Tuo’s disciple Wu Pu, new supplements were made regarding the medicinal uses and effects of snake slough. By the time of Emperor Huizong of Song, there was also the Comprehensive Recording of Holy Remedies, which recorded many methods of use, dosages, and medicinal formulas for snake slough.
Just before the Song Dynasty, quite a few ancient medical texts recorded the medicinal value of snake slough. However, among the common people at the bottom of society, their range of knowledge about these medicines was still too narrow.
Old Liu was among the better informed of rural common folk, yet he still didn’t know snake slough had medicinal value.
After hearing Xu Yi’s explanation, he asked expectantly, “If this snake skin can be used as medicine, do medical halls also buy it? Can it be sold for money?”
Xu Yi said medical halls did buy it, but collecting snake slough had risks; don’t go into the mountains to collect it, as it was easy to encounter snakes.
Old Liu waved his hand, saying he knew. “There are quite a few snake dens in the gullies by the river in our village. Often there are many snake skins. I’ve seen plenty of children pick them up to play with and nothing happens.”
Seeing his interest, Xu Yi asked, “Does Old Liu want to collect them?”
“I’ll pass, at my age, I can’t compete.” Old Liu shook his head and said, “I want to have my grandson collect them. Usually at home he just tends vegetables. He has time to go collect some.”
Xu Yi raised an eyebrow slightly. “When collecting snake slough, it’s still more proper to bring snake-repelling medicine.”
Hearing that he would need to buy snake-repelling medicine to wear before collecting snake skins, Old Liu hesitated for a few seconds, still reluctant to give up this business opportunity.
“Doctor Xu, do you sell snake-repelling medicine?” he asked.
Xu Yi: “I do. Does Old Liu want some?”
“I’ll take one. I’ll see if I can collect some to sell. The days are getting colder and colder, there’s no other way to make a living.” Old Liu sighed.
The common people at the bottom had too few means of making a living. Besides the fields to cultivate, vegetables to grow, cloth to weave, and such, there weren’t many money-earning activities left in their remaining time. If you had some skills it was better, at least you could make life more comfortable. But if your family had no money and no skills, then it was hard.
Surviving winter, surviving winter, animals needed to survive winter, and people needed to survive winter too.
After each winter passed, how many elderly and children could survive?
Old Liu’s household was already considered to have decent circumstances. His family had an ox that could pull a cart, bringing in considerable income. Yet they still lived hand-to-mouth. These past days, after renting the ox cart to Xu Yi, things had improved quite a bit.
They didn’t chat much longer before Zhang Tiegou returned carrying his prey.
Seeing Xu Yi and Old Liu, he was first surprised, then very pleased as he strode toward them.
“Brother Xu, how come you’ve come looking for me?” He asked with a hearty laugh.
Xu Yi asked him, “Do you know Butcher Duan in the county town?”
“Butcher Duan? I know him. Sometimes when I hunt live animals, I bring them to sell to him,” Zhang Tiegou said.
Xu Yi told him that Butcher Duan recently wanted to buy a batch of wild game, wild rabbits, pheasants, roe deer all acceptable, and asked if he was interested.
Zhang Tiegou was delighted to hear this and said, “What’s so difficult about that? Besides, wild rabbits are easy to catch. Wild rabbits are really fat at this time. Go back and tell Butcher Duan that I’ll make a trip to town in the next couple days and guarantee I’ll bring several live ones.”
Seeing that Xu Yi had rarely come over, he called out to have him stay and eat meat.
Then he saw that in the time Xu Yi had been waiting for him, he’d gone up the mountain and collected a whole bag of snake skins. He couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.
“If you wanted this stuff, you should have said so earlier. I walk in the mountains every day and see this stuff all the time. Nobody wants it at all.”
Xu Yi: “…”
Why did he rarely see snake slough on Yilu Mountain and Golden Goose Mountain?
Zhang Tiegou scratched his head. “Could it be your luck is bad?”
Xu Yi’s eyes glanced at him sideways. Zhang Tiegou immediately laughed and said, “Or maybe you always carry snake-repelling medicine on you, and those snakes avoid you. Why would they show themselves in front of you?”
If that were really the case, then the mountain paths Xu Yi walked would more or less be stained with medicinal powder. Over time, these snakes would move their nests and leave. That actually made sense.
Zhang Tiegou had stumbled upon the truth. The snakes of Yilu Mountain and Golden Goose Mountain had grievances they couldn’t voice. This place was not suitable for long-term residence, so they naturally had to hurry and find a safe place to nest.
…
Two days later, in the early morning, Zhang Tiegou entered the county town with several wild rabbits tied up.
He first went to Butcher Duan’s shop and sold the wild rabbits he’d brought to him. Pocketing the several hundred wen he’d earned, he took the money to the salt shop and bought two bags of coarse salt, then went to the general store to buy daily necessities. After buying everything, he went to the Xu household.
Xu Yi had just finished teaching Ah Xu and Ah Jin today’s lessons and was thinking of drinking a cup of hot tea when Ah Xu came into the room saying Zhang Tiegou had arrived.
“Brother Xu, you’re drinking tea?” Zhang Tiegou strode in and casually sat in the chair opposite Xu Yi, spreading his legs wide. Leaning back, he said comfortably, “This chair of yours is nice, it feels so smooth.”
After speaking, he thought of something and pulled a lightweight cloth bag from his shirt to give to Xu Yi.
When this cloth bag was pulled out it was wrinkled, then it puffed up.
Xu Yi raised an eyebrow and calmly opened it to look inside, discovering it was a bag full of snake slough.
He said with mixed laughter and tears, “You collected these in the mountains?”
“That’s right. Didn’t you want this stuff?” He hummed. Although he didn’t understand, he’d still taken it to heart and knew this stuff was useful to Xu Yi. These past two days in the mountains, he’d paid attention and unexpectedly collected so much.
“Many thanks, Brother Zhang.” Xu Yi poured him a cup of hot tea, then handed the cloth bag to Ah Xu.
“Take the snake slough and soak it in wine.”
Ah Xu took the snake slough and went out. Zhang Tiegou watched him leave and curiously asked Xu Yi, “What do you want this stuff for?”
Xu Yi: “After processing, snake slough can be used medicinally and can treat quite a few illnesses. The sloughs of the beauty rat snake, rat snake, or black-tailed snake are best, but other snake sloughs are equally useful.”
“When I was collecting them, I couldn’t tell what kind of snakes they were from,” Zhang Tiegou said. “They all look about the same to me, not much difference.”
Xu Yi smiled at this.
Indeed, having Zhang Tiegou distinguish them one by one was asking a bit much of him.
The snake sloughs collected had different uses for different ailments. Used raw, they had the effects of dispelling wind and calming fright. Processed into wine-soaked snake slough, they were used for childhood convulsions, skin itching, and other symptoms.
Having Ah Xu take the snake slough to soak in wine was to make wine-processed snake slough.
So Xu Yi brought Zhang Tiegou to find Ah Xu.
By now, Ah Xu had already taken the snake slough, and he and Ah Jin were busy together. They sat in front of winnowing baskets with the snake slough Zhang Tiegou had brought spread in the baskets, picking out debris and dirty things from the snake slough.
The cleaned snake slough was placed to the side. Ah Xu brought out a ceramic jar, poured yellow wine into it, then placed the cleaned snake slough inside and pressed it down with chopsticks.
Next, he still needed to press it down with clean stones.
Zhang Tiegou clicked his tongue watching this and asked Xu Yi, “You taught them this?”
“Mm.” Xu Yi said, “Processing snake slough isn’t difficult. Last time I did it once and they remembered.”
Zhang Tiegou: “…” Why did he feel it was very troublesome?
But this wasn’t all. After the snake slough absorbed the yellow wine, it needed to be fried dry over low heat. When the color of the snake slough turned yellow, it could be cooled and then used.
Hearing there was still this step, Zhang Tiegou said that hunting was more suitable for him. Studying medicine and processing drugs, forget it. Just watching made it seem difficult.
He quite admired these two little ones for being able to sit still and do such meticulous work.
He stayed at the Xu household for a while and saw just how different the Xu household was from his own.
Although Ah Xu and Ah Jin were small, their ability to handle affairs was strong. When working, they were orderly and showed no panic at all.
When Xu Yi said he needed something, they knew where it was as soon as they heard. Zhang Tiegou watched and didn’t want to go home.
He’d come at just the right time. After Xu Yi’s trading contract with Jishi Hall was voided, these past days he’d been preparing supplies for autumn and winter. Only today did he have time to start preparing to make digestive pills.
Making digestive pills wasn’t difficult, it was just that the medicinal ingredients needed to be steamed, boiled, pounded, and such. With so many steps, it looked busy and complicated.
Seeing him watch with fascination, Xu Yi pulled him over to help.
Zhang Tiegou had great strength, so Xu Yi assigned him the task of pounding medicine. This work was hard on the arms. Previously, Xu Yi had always done it, but this time he dumped it on Zhang Tiegou so he could prepare other things first.
“Thump thump thump, “
At first, Zhang Tiegou felt this work didn’t require much effort, but later, after pounding dozens of times in succession, he finally couldn’t help but speak up.
“Brother Xu, why is there so much?”
Xu Yi said, “It’s not much. We’re just making over a thousand pills.”
Zhang Tiegou: “…”
How many was over a thousand pills?
He only knew one hundred wen and one thousand wen.
Xu Yi didn’t make him work for nothing. When conscripting labor, one also had to fill their stomachs. At noon, he had the idle hand outside go to the wine shop to buy several plates of meat dishes and also a bottle of fine yellow wine.
After working for half a day, they could finally rest and eat something hot.
Zhang Tiegou sighed deeply that it wasn’t easy. “How is being a doctor more tiring than me hunting in the mountains? I thought doctors just sat in medical halls, only needing to take pulses and diagnose illnesses. Gathering medicine was done by apprentices. It seemed very leisurely.”
Xu Yi smiled. “Doctors in medical halls are more leisurely, but they also process medicines.”
Ordinary medicinal ingredients were processed by apprentices, but important medicines or medicines with toxic properties weren’t suitable to hand over to apprentices.
This required experienced doctors to personally oversee things, otherwise the medicine wouldn’t heal but kill.
“Usually you only know one side. Today’s experience has let you know another side. Isn’t that quite interesting?” Xu Yi smiled and looked at him.
Then he poured him a bowl of wine.
…
Naturally, over a thousand digestive pills couldn’t be made in one day.
Xu Yi was just using words to scare him. That day they only made five hundred pills. The rest would have to continue tomorrow and the day after.
But then.
Occasionally unexpected things would happen.
The next day, while Xu Yi and Ah Xu and Ah Jin were busy in the kitchen, they heard another dispute arise between Madam Chen and Chen Erwang in the Chen household next door.
madam Chen just leave that lout!!!