Chapter 9
The continuous spring rain brings about the cold late spring cold.
Xu Yi dug out the loose tea sent by Chen Zhang at home, added a small amount of mugwort and wolfberry leaves and stewed it together.
When the weather is cold, drinking some mugwort and wolfberry tea can warm you up and drive away the cold, but don’t drink too much.
Both mugwort and wolfberry leaves are pungent and bitter in taste, but after drinking it, the taste is sweet and there is a hint of sweetness in the throat.
He picks young stems and leaves, stews them with tea, and then filters out the bitter loose tea. These mugwort leaves and wolfberry leaves can be chewed directly.
After drinking the hot tea, Xu Yi stretched comfortably.
Next to him, Xiao Huang watched him cooking and eating, thinking it was something delicious, and kept hanging around his legs, reluctant to leave.
Xu Yi wanted to laugh and poured some into its bowl.
When Xiao Huang saw this, he immediately put his head to drink. As soon as his tongue touched the tea, the whole dog froze and raised his head to look at Xu Yi doubtfully.
Xu Yi blinked: "It tastes good and is good for your health."
Xiao Huang hesitated for a moment, then leaned his head to drink again. This time... he directly doubted Gou Sheng, how could there be such a bad drink?
"Hahahaha——"
Xu Yi couldn't help laughing heartily when he saw how cute it was.
After a night of fermentation, Xu Yi went out with a bamboo basket on his back today, and was stopped and asked about Accountant Chen's visit to him yesterday.
"At Maoshi, I saw Mrs. Chen taking Accountant Chen to Xinglin Pavilion. Is Accountant Chen really sick?" After asking, the person blocking the way complained, "It's true that Accountant Chen is really sick." If you are sick, you should go see a doctor. How can I trouble you?"
Xinglin Pavilion was one of the medical clinics on South Street, and Xu Yi remembered that the doctors there were average.
"Just go to the doctor."
Xu Yi did not agree with his complaint. Accountant Chen was not a good person, but Mrs. Chen was a sensible person.
The man continued: "This accountant Chen is usually very conceited and looks down on the people who live in South Street. Doesn't he also live here? Now he is sick, so it's time to treat him."
This man has never been accustomed to accountant Chen. With such a look of contempt, this time I could see him being in chaos after his illness, fearing that he would lose his job as a cashier, which made him feel so happy.
It's a pity that Xu Yi didn't answer his questions. It was boring for him to chat alone.
"Aren't you angry?"
"There's nothing to be angry about." He's just a patient, so he won't get angry with sick people.
Xu Yi only drank tea today and hasn't eaten yet. He doesn't want to waste his time talking bad about others. "Uncle, please continue to be idle. I'm going to get busy."
The man subconsciously replied "Okay" and waited until he came to his senses. He came, but he felt that the words "continue to be idle" seemed to be scolding him.
It must be an illusion, Xu Xiaolang doesn't seem like the kind of person who can curse people around the corner.
Xu Yi quickly walked out of Shijing Lane with a bamboo basket on his back. As the rain just stopped, he walked along the street for half an hour and arrived at Miaoshou Pavilion.
Today at Miaoshou Pavilion, there were quite a few people queuing up to sell Chinese herbal medicines. There was only one boy looking at a teenage boy squatting and sorting the collected medicinal materials.
The apprentice who was staring at him saw someone coming again. He looked up and saw that it was Xu Yi, and his eyes lit up slightly.
"It's you." He was deeply impressed by Xu Yi. There were not many people who dug up so many medicinal materials at once. "What did you dig up today?"
Xu Yi said, "The main ones are Salvia miltiorrhiza. I dug them up." It's more than ten pounds."
Actually, it's more than that. He keeps some of it at home so that he can bask in it when the weather gets warmer.
"You dug up so many salvias?" When he heard that there were so many, the apprentice's voice became louder. Even the little boy who was squatting with his head down and saying nothing raised his head and looked over, staring at Xu Yi with his dark eyes. look.
Xu Yi put his hands on the lid of the bamboo basket and opened it to reveal the Chinese medicinal materials inside. As he took out the medicinal materials inside, his eyes fell on the young boy.
The body is shriveled and thin, with two small buns and hair that looks sparse, which is a sign of malnutrition. Looking at his fingers again, there were frostbite on them that had occurred in the winter. The scabs became bumpy and bumpy, leaving many rough scars.
He looked silently, and in a blink of an eye he saw the apprentice counting the medicinal materials on his side.
"Why don't you count the child first?" Xu Yi asked doubtfully.
The apprentice curled his lips and said angrily: "The medicinal materials he brought are mixed with a lot of mud and weeds. If they are not cleaned up properly, our Miaoshou Pavilion will not accept them."
He said the latter sentence specifically for children to hear. .
The child was silent, as if he didn't hear what the apprentice said.
Xu Yi knelt down and asked him softly: "Do you need my help? I know a lot about medicinal materials. I can organize them quickly."
"Eh? What do you care about him? He's like this. He doesn't speak every time he comes here. Yes, just like a mute." The apprentice snorted and wanted to pull Xu Yi.
Xu Yi moved his arm lightly, not letting the apprentice touch him.
He raised his face and looked at the apprentice with a chuckle and said: "It's okay, please count the medicinal materials I brought first."
The apprentice said nothing, but in his heart he was a little disdainful, and he was such a nosy person. He thought that he was willing to take care of me because of his ancient ways. If he didn't look at how much he weighed, he wouldn't be a seller of medicinal materials.
He was waiting to see Xu Yi's joke, but saw Xu Yi quickly reaching out to take the medicinal materials in the child's hands, and using extremely fast hand speed to pick out the weeds in the middle. When I looked at the child again, he was stunned and didn't react at all.
The apprentice was stunned: "..." This can still happen.
He thought that Xu Yi would say a few words and get the child's response before taking action.
"Okay."
In a few glances, Xu Yi returned all the medicinal materials to the young boy's hands.
The apprentice looked at him in surprise: "How can you be so fast?"
He has been an apprentice for two years and picks various medicinal materials every day. He is still cautious every time, for fear of damaging the medicinal materials by the wrong hand.
He didn't know that Xu Yi had been in contact with medicinal materials for more than twenty years. He had seen, touched, and smelled hundreds of times more medicines than he had.
Xu Yi said: "Have you counted mine?"
The apprentice said "Ah" and came back to his senses: "Already counted, this salvia is 23 fen per pound, Chuanqiong is 21 fen, and these other items The price is thirteen cents. These ones are cheaper, six cents.”
After saying that, he turned his head and looked at the boy keeping accounts next to him.
The boy held an abacus in one hand and moved the counter with his fingertips. He quickly calculated the total price. The total price was four hundred and twenty-eight cents, which was one penny more than last time.
The apprentice and the servant had seen this scene last time, and they were still slightly surprised this time. The child who was squatting and looking up was different. He was almost stunned on the spot, in a daze.
Four coins and twenty-eight coins, Xu Yi put the money in the cloth bag, stuffed it into his sleeve pocket, and pressed it heavily on his wrist.
While digging for medicinal materials in the mountains, he thought about where the money would go.
If you want to be a traveling healer, you must first have a portable medicine box.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the doctor industry had developed to a large scale. Medicine boxes alone included portable medicine boxes, diagonal medicine boxes, etc. The workmanship of both is very fine. Most of the former have three layers and six compartments, using a tenon structure, and the outside is painted with wood wax paint, which is strong and convenient.
And the price was not cheap. Xu Yi saw a carpenter's shop in the market, went in and asked the carpenter inside how much it would cost to order a medicine box.
The carpenter casually reported the number, and Xu Yi's money earned today was reduced by two-thirds.
This is still the cheapest one. If you want the expensive gold lacquered one with a base, four corners inlaid with brass, and a gold lacquered round bracelet handle, the price will be at least a dozen dollars.
A piece of money is ten yuan, a piece of money is a hundred yuan, and if it is more than ten yuan, with Xu Yi's current earning ability, he can earn it in two months without eating or drinking.
After entering several carpentry shops in succession, the prices they asked about were mostly the same. Finally, Xu Yi turned his attention to the market on South Street. There are not many carpenters here, and the store he entered is not big. The room of more than ten square meters is filled with various types of wood.
There was an old master sitting inside, working hard. When he saw someone coming, he put down his work.
After Xu Yi saluted, he asked what the price was for custom-made medicine boxes and what the regulations were.
The carpenter replied: "The cheap ones are two cents and fifty cents, and the expensive ones are available at any price. If it comes with carvings and lacquer flowers, the price will be ten to twenty cents."
"Brother, it's whatever deposit you want . If it's the same, we'll pay 20% first, and then pay the final payment after it's finished."
The price offered by the old master is more than ten cents cheaper than the ones I asked about before. A penny is money, so he immediately chose this carpentry shop.
What Xu Yi wants is the basic model, without painting, without edging, and with wooden handles, which costs two cents and fifty coins.
He counted out fifty coins from his money bag and handed it to the carpenter, and asked, "Master, when will it be ready?"
The carpenter said, "I'll get the goods in five days."
Xu Yi said, "Okay. Excuse me, master."
When I walked out of the carpenter's shop, it started to rain again.
Xu Yi came out when the rain stopped. He looked at the raindrops floating in the sky like needle threads and felt a little silent for a while.
If I had known better, I would have brought an umbrella.
Then, he thought about Xiao Huang at home. He didn't take him with him when he went out today. He was a dog at home and refused to wait in the house. He should be waiting in the rain in the yard for him to come back.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi no longer hesitated, holding his sleeves and running into the rain.
The stalls on both sides of the street have been closed, and the shops on the left and right are also deserted. The arrival of rain has made South Street deserted.
Suddenly...
"Xu Xiaolang?!"
A shout suddenly came from beside him. Xu Yi was startled, stopped and looked sideways, and saw a family of three hiding from the rain.
"It's really Xu Xiaolang. Did you know that we have been waiting for you at Yilu Mountain for the past two days, but we just didn't see you." The child's father took two steps forward excitedly, looked at him and said, "I didn't expect to be here. I met Xu Xiaolang. It’s a rainy day. Why are you running in the rain?”
Before Xu Yi could say anything, the woman took the child and shouted softly from under the eaves: “Don’t talk there. Come here to take shelter from the rain.” It’s cold, so don’t catch a cold.”