Chapter 35 Planting Herbs

Xu Zihao got up early in the morning and went to the restaurant to buy some breakfast. When he came back, he fed his mother first, and then quickly ate the remaining food himself.

"Mom, I'm going to work. If you need anything, just ask Aunt Wang next door to help you." Xu Zihao cleared the dishes on the table and said to his bedridden mother.

Mother Xu lay on the bed, looking at her son, and said weakly, "Okay, I know, I'm a little sleepy and need to sleep for a while." After she finished speaking, she felt that she could no longer hold on, so she slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Xu Zihao tucked the corner of the quilt for his mother, then left for the fields with a sad face.

Xu Zihao and his mother have been in this base for two months. They were on the run when they met people from the base who were searching for supplies and were rescued by them. Since they had nowhere to go, the people from the base invited them.

After arriving here, the mother and son seemed to have been reborn. They relied on farming for the base and saw their lives getting better and better. However, misfortune often finds those who suffer. One day, the mother suddenly fainted while working in the fields. Xu Zihao was at a loss at the time. Fortunately, there was a person who was a doctor before the end of the world who gave his mother first aid.

After that, his mother would suddenly faint every few days. He hurried to find the doctor again, but the doctor said that there was no equipment to check and it was impossible to determine the cause.

Seeing his mother's body becoming weaker and weaker, Xu Zihao fell into extreme panic and helplessness. He asked many people for help and finally found Manager Fang of the base for help. Manager Fang asked an old Chinese doctor in the base to take his mother's pulse. The old man said it was a heart problem. If it was in the past, it would not be a serious illness, but now without medicine, the disease cannot be controlled and cured. The only way is to avoid fatigue in daily life and try to rest as much as possible.

In this way, Xu's mother has been resting in bed at home. In the past few days, his mother's condition has become worse again. He asked all the Chinese and Western doctors in the base, but they had no instruments to check the condition and no medication. No one could do anything. The doctors hinted that he was afraid his mother would not be able to hold on for much longer. Hearing such a conclusion, Xu Zihao was desperate.

After a busy day in the fields, Xu Zihao saw that it was getting late, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand, put the hoe back, and walked home.

On the way, he passed by the wishing tree at the base, walked over, bought a wishing card, wrote his wish on it, and threw it onto the tree.

Xu Zihao knew that the wishing tree at the base was very effective. As long as he threw a wishing card onto the tree, his wish would come true. He had no way to seek medical treatment, so he came here to throw the card in the hope that his mother's illness would be cured.

But he saw that many people threw the wishing sign very easily and the sign was hung up, but he had been throwing the wishing sign for more than ten days in a row and still could not hang it up.

After throwing the sign, he thought it was the same as before and was waiting for it to fall, but he heard someone talking to him next to him.

"Hey, buddy, congratulations! You wrote down a wish and it came true on the first throw."

Got it? Xu Zihao quickly raised his head and looked in the direction where the sign had been thrown. There was only one sign hanging on the branch in that place, and the sign was firmly fixed on the branch and swaying slowly in the wind.

"I won! I hung up the sign! My mother can be saved!" Xu Zihao couldn't help crying with joy. He hugged the person who had just spoken to him, and then ran home quickly.

…

After the clinic was built, Su Qing posted a recruitment information for doctors and nurses. The next day when he arrived at the base, Fang Qing told him that someone had asked her to apply for a position in the clinic.

"You opened this clinic at the right time. Recently, there have been people falling ill in the base, and many people have come to me for help. However, when medicines are scarce, even though we have several doctors in the base, we can only watch helplessly as the patients are treated." Fang Qing took Su Qing to the clinic.

"There are two Western doctors, two Chinese doctors, and two nurses. I have already arranged everything. They are now operating in the clinic."

Su Qing was a little surprised. She came early today. It was only 7 o'clock in the morning. She didn't expect that several doctors would start their work immediately after applying for the position. "Opening the clinic so early?"

"Alas, several doctors used to be anxiously watching those patients. Now that we have a clinic, they came to me shortly after you posted the job posting yesterday. After signing the contract, they immediately went to the clinic to see patients. They didn't leave until midnight, and they started seeing patients again at dawn today."

The two arrived at the door of the clinic and saw a long queue of people standing outside. Everyone had suffered a lot in the past year of the apocalypse, and everyone had some problems to varying degrees. When they heard that a new clinic had opened in the base and that the fees were very cheap, they all came to see a doctor.

Su Qing and the other person walked into the clinic with difficulty, but saw that the Western medicine side was crowded with people, while there were very few people on the Chinese medicine side.

"Go ask Doctor Qian and Doctor Zhang if there's anything else they need. I'll go see Mr. Chen." Su Qing said to Fang Qing and then walked towards the Chinese medicine clinic.

In the Chinese medicine clinic, Mr. Chen was taking someone's pulse, and Su Qing stood by and watched quietly.

"Your problem isn't serious. If you take medicine and acupuncture, you'll be cured in two courses. Unfortunately, I don't have any herbs here, so acupuncture alone won't be enough to cure it." Elder Chen withdrew his hand with a worried look on his face. He then wrote on the paper for a while and handed the list to the patient. "Take this list to the Western doctor and ask them to see if they have the right Western medicine for you."

"Okay, thank you, Doctor Chen."

Su Qing saw that the person had left and no one else had come in, so he walked forward and said, "Mr. Chen, is there anything else you need in this clinic?"

"Hey, Xiao Su, you're here. I have everything else here, except these herbs. How can I, a Chinese medicine practitioner, treat illnesses and save lives without herbs? It's dangerous everywhere outside, and we can't go out to collect herbs."

"I'm thinking of a way to deal with the medicinal herbs. I have a lot of seeds here, and I don't know if there are any herbs. If there are, we can open a medicinal garden and grow herbs. Would you like to take a look?"

After hearing this, Mr. Chen's face lit up with joy. "Really? That's great."

"There's just one more thing. I don't know how to care for herbs, so asking you to watch over them every day wouldn't be appropriate..."

Before Su Qing could finish her words, she was interrupted by Old Chen, "Oh! That's nothing! I have a granddaughter who has inherited my true skills. These things are no problem for her. Just leave the herbal medicine matter to her, Hanhan! Hanhan!" After saying this, Old Chen stood up and walked to the door and shouted outside.

After a while, a girl about eighteen or nineteen years old walked in. "I'm here! Grandpa, what do you want me for?"

"Come here quickly. Xiao Su wants to plant herbs in the base. I recommended you to her to be in charge of the herbs."

Elder Chen pulled Chen Shihan over and led her to Su Qing. "Xiao Su, this is my granddaughter. Her name is Chen Shihan. She knows a lot about identifying medicinal herbs and their habits."

"Hello, I'm Su Qing. I plan to open up a piece of land to grow medicinal herbs. If you think you are capable of doing it, I will offer you a monthly salary of 500 new coupons to take care of the medicinal fields." Su Qing stretched out his hand to Chen Shihan with a smile.

Chen Shihan looked at Su Qing, her eyes shining. With excitement on her face, she stretched out her hands, shook Su Qing's hands vigorously, and said, "Hello, Sister Su, hello. I admire you very much. I heard that this base was built entirely by your own efforts."

"You're only a few years older than me, and you're amazing! We young people are such big fans of you! We can all thank you for being able to live a normal life again."

Hehe...hehe...she felt like her hand was going to break...

Su Qing and Old Chen chatted for a while, and then made an appointment with Chen Shihan to pick seeds at Fang Qing's house tomorrow, and then got up and left.

After going out, she went to the Western Medicine area. There were too many people there. Su Qing saw Fang Qing, waved, and they walked out of the clinic.

"Doctor Qian and the others said that the main problem is the lack of staff. Everything else is fine. The medical equipment here is also very complete. The display cabinets have most of the commonly used medicines and medical supplies. There is nothing too needed for the time being." Fang Qing said to Su Qing as they walked.

When the virus breaks out, the first to suffer are the medical staff in the hospital. No matter where the hospital is, it is a gathering place for zombies, and it is very difficult to find professional medical staff.

"I'll post a recruitment information first. People with relevant majors will be given priority. Then I'll let the doctors interview themselves." Su Qing nodded and immediately opened the page to send out the recruitment information.

After telling Fang Qing that Chen Shihan would go to her house tomorrow, Su Qing left the base.

After returning home, Su Qing opened the topographic map and planned out an area for growing herbs.

"Congratulations to the host for activating the medicine garden function. The herbs planted here will grow faster and their medicinal properties will be doubled. I will also reward you with one thousand gold coins!"

After finishing the medicinal fields, Su Qing built a new house in the base. It was also a courtyard with three entrances, but the two main rooms in the front and back were two two-story buildings. Su Qing planned to use it as the office building of the base for daily meetings and decision-making.

Whenever they wanted to talk about something, they either had to go to the multi-purpose room or Fang Qing's house, which was really inconvenient. Now that the base was getting more and more on track and there were more people in charge, it would be better to have a dedicated office location.

…

The next day, Su Qing arrived at the base early again, and Chen Shihan was also waiting at Fang Qing's house early.

Su Qing took out all the seeds in his backpack and asked Chen Shihan to choose. After a whole morning of picking and choosing, he found seeds of dozens of herbs. The number surprised Su Qing.

"Sister, you might not know this, but these common plants all have some medicinal value. Every plant and tree in nature has its uses. They're gifts to life." Chen Shihan explained, "Like this, lavender seeds. Many parks and botanical gardens plant them as ornamental flowers. When properly processed, they can dispel cold, nourish the stomach and brain, dry dampness and relieve pain. They also have a calming and soothing effect, relieving tension and calming the mind."

Su Qing was stunned when she heard this. She really didn't expect that the flowers, plants and trees that can be seen everywhere have so many medicinal values.

He gave Chen Shihan full authority over the planting, and told her that if she needed anything, she could contact Fang Qing.

Chen Shihan took the seeds and went straight to the medicinal field without stopping.

"We can ask the people in our base who often go out to pay more attention to medicinal herbs, and bring back some plants they come across," Fang Qing said.

"Well, I will issue another mission to collect medicinal herbs. If other bases have them, I will buy all of them. Western medicine cannot be reproduced at present, and the medicines I have found are also limited. The more I use, the less I have. I am afraid I will have to rely on traditional Chinese medicine for a period of time in the future."

Su Qing thought that relying solely on herself to search for medicines was not a solution. Moreover, Western medicines were precious, and everything that could be taken away from pharmacies and hospitals in various regions had been taken away. In this environment, it would be safer to vigorously develop traditional Chinese medicine. It was always better to have medicine than to endure it head-on.