As soon as Xiao Youbao turned two years old, he became a regular customer at Jishengtang Pharmacy.

Every morning, as soon as the clinic opened, the little guy would tug at his grandfather's clothes and say, "Grandpa, look at the medicine!"

Su Huaishan took her little hand and came to the pharmacy, opened the drawer of Angelica, and took out a piece of medicinal material, "Youbao, look, this is called Angelica."

"Gui Gui!" Little Youbao chanted in a baby voice, stretched out his little finger and touched it carefully, then immediately retracted his hand and laughed, "It's so soft!"

At this moment, Shi Heng walked in and saw his daughter standing on tiptoe, trying hard to reach the jar of wolfberries on the counter. He quickly stepped forward to support her and asked, "Is our Youbao learning to identify herbs from grandpa again?"

"Dad, look! Red fruits!" Little Youbao excitedly pointed at the bright red wolfberries in the glass jar.

Su Huaishan's face was full of pride. "This child has a great memory. I just taught her to recognize wolfberries yesterday, and she remembered them today."

Shi Heng squatted down and looked at his daughter lying on the counter, counting the wolfberries in the jar with her little finger, "One, two, three..."

I was surprised and amused.

While other people’s two-year-old children are still recognizing cats and dogs, his daughter already knows more than a dozen kinds of medicinal herbs.

When writing fairy tales at night, Shi Heng's mind was filled with the appearance of various medicinal herbs:

Bright red wolfberries, patterned astragalus slices, curled honeysuckle flowers...

He suddenly had an idea and wrote on the manuscript paper: "Hong Guoguo's Journey"

"Niannian, do you think this will work?"

Shi Heng handed the draft of two paragraphs to Su Niannian.

"I wrote about a little rabbit named 'Guigui' who took Hong Guoguo to visit a sick deer. On the way, they met 'Yellow Grandpa' (Huangqi) which emits fragrance, and 'Yinyin' (Jin Yinhua) which blooms small trumpet flowers."

Su Niannian smiled as she read the draft. "This is both fun and will help the child remember the names of the herbs. Youbao will definitely like it."

Sure enough, the next night when I was telling Youbao a story, as soon as she heard the word "red fruit", she clapped her hands and shouted, "Goji berries! Grandpa's!"

When she talked about the roots of "Grandpa Huang" that could help little rabbits cross the river, she suddenly stood up, ran to the glass cabinet in the living room, pointed to a jar of astragalus slices inside and said, "This! Grandpa Huang!"

Shi Heng was surprised and delighted. He picked her up and kissed her, "Youbao is amazing. He even recognized her!"

Since then, Shi Heng's fairy tale collection has been filled with many stories with the scent of medicine.

He wrote "The Mint Windmill", saying that when mint leaves are blown by the wind, they turn into small rotating windmills that can blow away the summer heat.

He wrote "Little Lanterns Made of Tangerine Peel", saying that tangerine peels can turn into small lanterns after being dried, and when hung on trees they can light the way for small animals.

Every time he finished writing a new story, he would tell it to Xiao Youbao first.

The little girl became the strictest "reviewer". If the name of a medicinal herb was not explained clearly, she would frown and say, "No! Grandpa didn't say that!"

One afternoon, Su Huaishan was sorting medicinal materials in the pharmacy when he suddenly discovered that Xiao Youbao was missing.

He hurried to the counter, only to see his granddaughter standing outside the pharmacy, handing a piece of licorice to an old lady who was getting medicine. "Grandma, it's sweet!"

The old lady was amused. "This little kid knows that licorice is sweet?"

Su Huaishan walked over and explained with a smile, "She follows me every day, and she remembers it after hearing it many times."

He touched Youbao's head and said, "Licorice can balance all flavors, just like Youbao can make everyone happy."

Little Youbao seemed to understand, then picked up another puff of puffed tangerine peel and handed it to his grandfather, "Soak! Make it bigger!"

Su Huaishan's eyes lit up, and he immediately found a glass, put a piece of sterculia lychnophora in it, and poured hot water on it.

Little Youbao stood nearby, staring wide-eyed as the pistachio slowly expanded, clapping his hands in surprise, "It's blooming! It looks like a little sponge!"

That night, Shi Heng’s new story “The Little Fatty Who Grows Big” was born.

The sterculia lychnophora in the story is a shy little fat boy. When it comes into contact with hot water, he can perform magic and unfold into a soft flower. He can also sing for the little squirrel who has a sore throat.

When Youbao was listening to the story, he was holding a piece of unsoaked puffed sterculia in his hand. When he heard the word "magic trick", he threw the puffed sterculia into his small water cup. He didn't care that his face was splashed with water droplets, but just kept shouting: "Magic trick! Magic trick!"

When Su Niannian came to the study, she happened to catch Shi Heng telling Youbao about the newly written "Dandelions and Xanthium sibiricum".

She leaned against the doorframe, listening for a moment, and couldn't help laughing. "Your collection of fairy tales is almost becoming an introductory textbook for Traditional Chinese Medicine. The publishing house heard you added these elements and said they'd invite a professor from the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to review them."

"What are you reviewing?" Little Youbao poked his head out from Shi Heng's arms. "Youbao knows everything!"

She slid down from the sofa, ran to the medicine box specially prepared for her, and took out items one by one.

"This is a dandelion, it will fly away if you blow on it. This is a cocklebur, it will stick to the little hedgehog..."

Chen Fang walked in with some fruit and said in surprise, "How can a two-year-old recognize so many things?"

Su Niannian smiled and said, "I spend every day in the pharmacy, and I've learned a lot from it. A few days ago, when I passed by a pharmacy, she pointed to the counter and said they had isatis root."

Shi Heng looked at his daughter's serious expression and suddenly felt that these fairy tales with the scent of medicine might not just be written for Youbao.

Most children nowadays do not know these plants. It would be interesting to let them know through stories that there is so much wisdom and warmth hidden in these inconspicuous plants.

That night, Shi Heng updated his "Night Watchman" Weibo account and posted a video of Youbao identifying medicinal herbs in a pharmacy, but his face was not shown.

The caption reads: "My little apprentice taught me that plants and trees have spirits, and that stories can also carry a medicinal aroma. 'The Night Watchman's Fairy Tales: Plants and Trees' is on its way."

The comment section quickly became lively:

[Wow! What a magical enlightenment! He can already recognize medicinal herbs at the age of two.]

[Looking for the full version of "Hong Guoguo's Journey"! I want to tell my kids about it.]

As a student at the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I'm really looking forward to Teacher Night Watchman's popular science fairy tales!

Su Huaishan, wearing reading glasses, looked through the comments on his phone and smiled from ear to ear, "Our Youbao even helped promote grandpa's Jishengtang."

Little Youbao was lying on the table, drawing medicinal herbs on paper with a pencil.

The wolfberries she drew were a bunch of small red circles, and the astragalus were a few crooked little sticks. Next to them was a little man holding a medicine hoe, and she said it was "Grandpa."

"Grandpa, draw!" She held up the drawing paper for Su Huaishan to see.

Su Huaishan took the painting and smoothed it carefully, "Okay, Grandpa, put it on the wall of the pharmacy so that the uncles and aunts who come to get medicine can see the medicinal herbs our Youbao painted."

Shi Heng looked at this scene and suddenly remembered that he had added a sentence at the end of "Hong Guoguo's Journey":

The best medicine is grandpa's patience, dad's stories, and baby's laughter.

Now it seems that this is indeed the case.

The aroma of medicine in Jishengtang hides the laughter of his daughter, the kindness of his father-in-law, and the fairy tales he wrote with the scent of plants and trees.

These warm fragments put together make up the most touching days.

He picked up his pen and wrote on the draft of his new story:

The cocklebur stuck to the little hedgehog's back, not because it was naughty, but because it wanted to follow it to see its friends far away...