Dispensing medicine

The rooster had just crowed once when Xu Ruoyan sprang out of bed. After thinking for a moment, she pulled Pei Jue up as well.

"Madam...?"

Xu Ruoyan reached out and vigorously rubbed Pei Jue's dazed face, saying fiercely, "Don't sleep, the sun's already high in the sky."

Pei Jue looked out the window in confusion, then turned back in confusion.

He couldn't feel any light at all.

Xu Ruoyan turned his head back: "Wake up quickly, we have a lot to do today, I'm going to wash up first."

Just before leaving, she didn't forget to stick her head out and call out, "Hurry up!"

When Xu Ruoyan returned after washing up, Pei Jue was already dressed.

"Not bad, you have good hands-on skills."

After such a casual compliment, both of them fell silent.

Xu Ruoyan wondered if she had spoiled him too much.

Pei Jue thought to himself that his wife was finally spoiling him for once.

She quickly turned around and hurried away from this place of trouble.

"Um, Qingdai has already cooked the porridge, let's go eat."

As soon as Pei Jue finished the last mouthful of porridge, Xu Ruoyan immediately pulled him up and walked out.

Pei Jue remained silent, only holding her hand tightly.

"Madam, what should we do now?"

Xu Ruo spoke quickly: "Go put up a signboard for my pharmacy. We need to pick out a piece of wood first, and then we need to make a rubbing and carve it. All of this takes too much time, so we need to hurry."

It's understandable that she was anxious. Putting aside their grand scheme to seize power, she had always dreamed of owning her own traditional Chinese medicine shop since she was a child. Now that her dream was within reach, she simply couldn't wait any longer.

She happened to inquire at the pharmacy yesterday, and a colleague generously recommended a reliable carpenter's shop to her. It also happened to be not far from her home, and she could get there in no time.

They arrived far too early; the carpenter had barely yawned and removed the lock when they were already standing behind him.

"Oh my, you scared me!" The carpenter's still-sleepy eyes snapped open, and he glared at them menacingly. "You're looking for me?"

Xu Ruoyan nodded hurriedly, put on a smile and said, "I've heard that you are the best carpenter in the surrounding area. I just recently opened a new pharmacy, so I was thinking of asking you to make a signboard for us."

Upon hearing that the person was a guest, the carpenter's unfriendly demeanor vanished, replaced by a friendly smile.

"Alright, then you two bosses come with me and pick out a piece of timber first."

The boss led them to the backyard and gestured, "Here, you two can choose a piece of wood that you like."

Xu Ruoyan immediately let go of Pei Jue's hand and ran forward, tapping and touching this piece and that piece, finally pointing to a light brown pine board and shouting to the shopkeeper, "This is it!"

"Alright!" The boss beamed, picked up the piece of wood, and carried it to the workshop area next door. After he was ready, he asked Xu Ruoyan, "Boss, can you give me your calligraphy?"

Xu Ruoyan nudged Pei Jue, who was standing behind her, and Pei Jue immediately pulled out the calligraphy piece that Xu Ruoyan had chosen the night before from his sleeve.

The carpenter took it and looked at it, then casually remarked, "Young lady, your calligraphy is truly excellent. It must have cost you a lot of money to have someone write it."

Hearing this, Xu Ruoyan secretly chuckled and then nudged Pei Jue behind her hard with her elbow.

Pei Jue then laughed along, and secretly hooked his hand around Xu Ruoyan's.

Xu Ruoyan was so engrossed in her own amusement that she completely failed to notice what Pei Jue was up to.

"Alright, you can go home and wait. It will take me quite a while to polish, rub, carve, and paint. You can come back to pick it up this afternoon."

“Okay, thank you for your hard work, boss,” Xu Ruoyan waved to him, “Just paint it gold for me.”

After leaving the carpenter's shop, Xu Ruoyan stood at the door, pondering what to do next.

She nudged Pei Jue:

"Hey, are those two carriages that took us to the capital still there?"

“Well, I figured we’d need it for future trips, so I had Zhuying buy it,” Pei Jue said. “I converted the small courtyard behind our house into a stable and a carriage house, and put it there.”

Xu Ruoyan's eyes lit up immediately: "That's perfect! The medicinal herbs I ordered yesterday should have arrived by now. You should be free today, right? Why don't you help me organize the herbs?"

Pei Jue silently swallowed his plan to visit and agreed without hesitation.

When they got back, they found the medicinal herbs piled up together. Xu Ruoyan dragged Pei Jue along as they laboriously carried dozens of bags of herbs onto the cart, and then released the horses from the stable.

"There's a problem." She pulled hard on the reins, almost causing the horse to fall over.

Who will drive the horses?

“Good question,” Pei Jue pondered for a moment. “I remember that both Mai Dong and Sanqi can ride horses. Why don’t we have them do it?”

So they called all five of their servants, and the group set off.

The pharmacy was still quite far from home, and Xu Ruoyan was a little worried about her future commute time.

When the carriage finally came to a swaying stop, Xu Ruoyan jumped off, put her hands on her hips facing her empty shop, and shouted, "Let's go!"

Honeysuckle was startled by her impassioned roar and silently passed by her, carrying two large bags of medicinal herbs.

Xu Ruoyan stepped across the threshold, stood to the side, and began to give her opinions.

"Okay, just pile them all up there for now, we'll sort them later."

"No more room? Let's put them in the backyard for now, and we'll tidy them up later."

Xu Ruoyan spun around the house like a top, so busy that she was dizzy. She finally finished sorting all the medicinal herbs and stood aside with her hands on her hips to breathe a sigh of relief, but then she suddenly realized that something seemed to be missing.

"Hey! Where's Pei Jue?!"

The children all stopped what they were doing and looked at her blankly.

Xu Ruoyan stamped her feet anxiously: "Where is your master? He's nowhere to be found!"

The children suddenly realized what was happening and began running around the house, trying to find Pei Jue.

Xu Ruoyan: ……

Okay, let's go out and look for it.

Fortunately, she had only gone a few steps outside when she saw Pei Jue slowly walking towards her with a white cane.

She rushed over to help him up, her voice tinged with reproach: "Why didn't you say goodbye before you ran off? There are so many people on the street, what if we bumped into you?"

Pei Jue paused for a moment, then asked, "Is Madam worried about me?"

Xu Ruoyan pinched his face hard with exasperation: "I'm worried about my life! If you get lost or injured, do you think Zhuying will let me off the hook?"

After taking him back, Xu Ruoyan turned him around by the shoulders, then cupped his face and looked at him from left to right.

Pei Jue was so frightened that he stopped breathing.

He asked cautiously, "What are you doing, Madam?"

"Let's see if you're hurt!" Xu Ruoyan rolled her eyes impatiently.

Pei Jue turned his head and secretly curled the corner of his mouth.

Then Xu Ruoyan caught him.

"You're still laughing?" Xu Ruoyan grabbed his ear, her teeth grinding. "Until your eyes are better, you need to have at least one person with you wherever you go, do you hear me!"

Pei Jue winced in pain and quickly covered his ears.

Then he naturally covered Xu Ruoyan's hand.

Xu Ruoyan irritably shook off his hand and strode towards the front room.

"Oh, Madam!"

Xu Ruoyan turned around: "What are you doing?"

"I just went to get you a steelyard." He pulled out a steelyard as if by magic and held it up to Xu Ruoyan. "I had the best steelyard maker in town make this for me, thinking you would definitely need it."

Xu Ruoyan pursed her lips guiltily, took it and examined it carefully; the workmanship was indeed very exquisite.

She smiled sheepishly, stepped forward, hugged his arm, and rubbed against him affectionately: "Hehe, then thank you, my husband. You are truly my good husband."

"Ahem, I'm glad you like it, Madam." Pei Jue coughed, covering his mouth, and didn't dare to move.

"Come quick, come quick, it's time to distribute the medicine."

Xu Ruoyan carefully placed the scale on the counter, and then called over Mai Dong and the others who were having a great time.

"I'll write the names on each small cabinet, and you just need to find the corresponding medicinal herbs and fill the cabinets, understand?"

The children all nodded obediently.

"You two," Xu Ruoyan beckoned Banxia and Rendong closer, "you need to memorize the names of all the medicinal herbs and be able to match them up. I'll give you two days. If you can't remember them, you're out of here. Can you do that?"

"Yes!" Both of them shouted with a unique, energetic youthful spirit.

Xu Ruoyan nodded in satisfaction and urged Pei Jue to grind the gold ink he had brought from home again, while she rolled up her sleeves and picked up the brush to write on the medicine cabinet.

“Angelica root…yes, the brownish one.”

Banxia grabbed a handful from the bag and stuffed it all into the cupboard.

“Seahorse…yes, yes, you got the right one, great job.” She praised Qingdai with a smile.

When she got to the cabinet on the top shelf, she thought for a moment, then dragged a stool over and stepped onto it.

"Madam, please be careful." Pei Jue held the inkstone in one hand and wrapped the other around her leg.

“It’s alright,” Xu Ruoyan wrote the word “ginseng” on the cabinet stroke by stroke, then bent down and took the medicine from Sanqi’s hand. “You should be careful, the cabinet on top contains very precious medicinal herbs. If you need to take any, you must ask me. Do not move them without permission, understand?”

Banxia and Rendong exchanged a glance and nodded together.

Once the top few cabinets were filled, Xu Ruoyan grabbed Pei Jue's arm and jumped off the chair.

"Are you done with your work?" Pei Jue asked.

Xu Ruoyan patted the dregs of medicine on her hands and said, "Not yet. I need to give you some more medicine to combine with acupuncture treatment so that your eyes can heal faster."

She pulled out a stack of brown paper from the side and spread them out on the table one by one: "I'll give you a week's supply first, try it out."

As she spoke, she patted Pei Jue on the shoulder earnestly: "These are all our family's things, so we don't feel bad using them. Just eat as much as you want."

"Hmm... Banxia, ​​you hold the scale."

Banxia picked up the scale and obediently went to Xu Ruoyan's side.

Xu Ruoyan reached out and patted her head: "Good girl. Go weigh them, forsythia ten qian, chrysanthemum twenty qian..."

The sun hung high in the sky, and the warm sunlight enveloped the entire room, making Pei Jue's expression relax.

He stood aside, quietly listening to Xu Ruoyan and the other little ones busy themselves, and suddenly felt a pang of emotion.

He hadn't felt such pure and gentle warmth for many years.