Once Liu was seated on the stool, she quickly waved for him to sit down.
"I heard from the itinerant doctor in our area that this childhood epilepsy is not difficult to treat. You need to find two or three ounces of soil from the hearth that is more than three years old, simmer it over a low flame, filter it to clarify it, and drink it several times. It will gradually get better!"
Judging that the young people didn't know what stove core soil was, without waiting for them to ask, Liu continued to answer, "This stove core soil is the mud in the center of the bottom of the pot when we build the stove. Stove core soil that is more than three years old must be the kind that has solidified into clumps to be good to use."
After removing the scorched surface soil, what remains is the hearth soil. But what's the secret behind it? Even I, an old woman, don't know. I only know that after years of baking, the hearth soil's dryness is greatly reduced, making it extremely nourishing.
The child is frightened, isn't he? Maybe this will help drive away the fright!
Anyway, this is the first child I've seen cured by this remedy. You can try it too; it only uses a little bit of hearth clay, so it's not a big deal!
He Xing and his wife exchanged a glance, both seeing joy in each other's eyes. This hearth soil was definitely the easiest medicinal material to obtain, requiring no effort whatsoever. At most, it would take some time and manpower, and for a family like theirs, the least valuable thing was their strength!
As for Qin San Niang's concern that eating dirt might be bad, they weren't worried at all. Everyone had experienced hunger before, extreme hunger. They often ate not only hearth soil but also clay.
Besides, according to Liu, the soil from the hearth is a medicinal herb, so how could it cause poisoning?! It's practically the safest option, isn't it?
In short, He Xing and her husband happily took the bear home, presumably to work on the hearth soil.
However, it's not a good time to make a fuss during the Lunar New Year. Old Man Chen said he would collect the soil as soon as the third day of the Lunar New Year. He couldn't wait any longer; Da Xiong was his lifeblood! If it could really cure his great-grandson's illness and allow Old Man Chen to close his eyes immediately, he would do it without hesitation!
Seeing her eldest daughter's hesitant and timid appearance, Liu couldn't help but snort.
She scolded, "Don't you believe me, you silly girl. I really saw that itinerant doctor prescribe a formula with soil from the hearth, and I even helped him boil it! After the child drank the soup made from this soil, his illness gradually improved, and given time, he should be almost fully recovered!"
If it were before, I wouldn't have believed it either, but that itinerant doctor said that the soil from the hearth is actually a mild and nourishing Chinese medicinal herb!
After hearing this, Qin San Niang also felt that it was very possible!
Chinese medicinal herbs are derived from nature, and compared to the ashes from a widow's bedside, this hearth soil is really nothing!
When I first heard about the medicinal material "widow's bed ash," I even consulted the Compendium of Materia Medica, where Li Shizhen indeed recorded the efficacy of this miraculous herb.
Ash collected from the bedside of widows over three years old is highly effective for infections and slow-healing wounds. Later, medical researchers discovered that this ash was actually the earliest form of penicillin, predating Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin by several centuries!
Now that I'm a widow myself, I wonder if I should start collecting things?
However, most widows are disheartened and choose to live out their lives alone. Penicillin thrives in dark and damp environments near the bedside, and because widows' beds were never wiped clean or moved, this is how this famous medicinal herb came to be.
Qin San Niang asked herself honestly, and she was in a very good mood right now, eating well, and she couldn't possibly leave the bedside unwashed or unmoved, nor could she leave the room dark and damp, so she probably couldn't verify this kind of natural penicillin!
Thinking that there were still quite a few anti-inflammatory drugs in the space, he sighed and decided to let it go, since he wasn't without medicine! Once he understood, he quickly started flattering the man.
“Mother is right. You are indeed a knowledgeable old lady who has seen more than we have walked! If the soil from the hearth works for Big Bear, I wonder how many people your prescription could save! I really admire you, my daughter!” Qin San Niang said with a tilted head and a smile. She was growing to like this mother more and more.
Compared to Ms. Qi in her previous life, Liu was a typical, simple, and honest peasant woman. Although she could not match Ms. Qi's beauty or progressive ideas, the two shared the same motherly heart.
Qin San Niang felt very lucky, having received selfless and boundless love from her mother in both her past lives.
Hearing her say that, Liu couldn't help but chuckle and said, "You're so good at being sarcastic."
From the bottom of her heart, she truly hoped that Da Xiong could get better. As an elderly woman with three grandchildren, she could very much understand Uncle Chen Geng's feelings.
Cheng Shi and his wife arrived after He Xing and her husband. They were going to visit their sister's house, which was where Chief Huang lived.
It's said that the escort agency is about to embark on a mission, this time to an even more distant area, the Lingnan region. That's a desolate place, at least his older sister despises it.
They say that bad people come from poor and remote places, and that place is said to have a lot of forests, including deep forests. If there is any miasma, wouldn't it be deadly in no time?
Hearing that they were going to pay a New Year's visit to Chief Huang, Qin Sanniang didn't feel comfortable going along, since they were all family. So she expressed to Cheng Shi her desire for some seeds, and Cheng Shi naturally said he would pass on the message.
To express her gratitude, Qin San Niang took out the detoxifying and miasma-dispelling powder she had prepared beforehand and handed it to him. She had bought a lot of medicinal herbs in Guocheng when she was afraid of encountering miasma on the road, and made a batch of sachets in her spare time. Unexpectedly, they hadn't used them and they had just been gathering dust in her space! Now that they could be put to use, it was not a waste of time!
She found this detoxifying and miasma-dispelling powder in a medical book in her space called "Zhengzhi Zhunsheng". It can be used as a sachet, and in critical situations, it can be boiled and taken orally for even better results.
Qin San Niang explained the usage of the antidote powder to Cheng Shi and his wife in detail, and asked them to pass it on.
Cheng Shi and his wife were naturally very grateful. They were just bringing some seeds, and they believed that it wouldn't be too much trouble for their brother-in-law. They had received such a good thing from Madam Qin for nothing.
Besides, Qin San Niang is a discerning person. Her brother-in-law spent a small amount of money to find the seeds; would she really let him do as he pleases for nothing? Of course, there would be some benefits. Just look at this time: in addition to this precious medicine, they also gave her two boxes of pastries from Si Ji Pastry Shop, a large piece of cured pork, and two cured chickens!
Wang Guixiang thought that Siji Pastry Shop was an old shop that had been open for more than ten years and was one of the best in their county. Recently, they had added a lot of new pastries that looked good and tasted good. Now, when people in the county visited their relatives, they would go there first.
She had eaten it when she worked here, and it was absolutely delicious! Soft, chewy, and sweet, without the cloying sweetness of ordinary pastries, but it was also extremely expensive!
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