Chapter 74: Inquiry (birthday extra for book friend "Jing")
You have to pay an entrance fee to enter the city. Now even if you go in alone, you have to pay a penny. Of course, children like Datou don’t have to pay.
But Zhou Dalang still felt a pang of pain.
He took out the money, because he had just arrived in the city and had spent several cents. He was very worried, so he didn't go anywhere and pulled the cart directly to the drugstore.
There is only one pharmacy in the county town, and that is Jishidiang.
When the clerk saw Zhou Dalang coming, he said, "You are here to sell medicine, right? Please wait a moment, our boss will be here soon."
Zhou Dalang came twice. Once he brought fresh Ligustrum lucidum to ask the price, and another time he brought dried Ligustrum lucidum to ask whether it was prepared correctly, so the waiter remembered him.
The shopkeeper came out quickly. Zhou Erlang was afraid that too many people would annoy the pharmacy, so he asked Wulang to wait outside with the children. Only Manbao followed Zhou Erlang in curiously to watch the fun.
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang looked at Yaomei, said nothing, and brought her closer to them so that she wouldn't get lost.
These Ligustrum lucidum fruits are all rinsed with hot water before being dried in the sun and are now packed in muslin bags.
Zhou Dalang opened the bag and showed it to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper took the fruit in his palm and examined its color. He ate another one and nodded slightly, saying, "It's not bad after drying it in the sun. It will be even better next time if we let it grow a little longer in the water."
He flipped through the ones below and found that they were of similar quality, so he nodded and said, "Okay, weigh them, we'll take them all."
The waiter immediately brought a scale and said, "Twelve and a half pounds in total."
The shopkeeper said, "Your fruit is of average quality, so I'll give you fifty coins per pound, for a total of six hundred and twenty-five coins. If you have more privet fruits in the future, send them to me. As long as they are of good quality, we will buy them."
Manbao asked curiously, "Boss, can the herbal medicine shop sell so many Ligustrum lucidum fruits?"
The shopkeeper looked down and found a little girl at the feet of the two brothers. Hearing her address, he twitched his lips and said, "Our Jishiditang medicine shops are all over the world. Of course, we can afford this amount of children, and even a hundred or a thousand times more. Little girl, you should call me uncle."
Zhou Dalang wiped the sweat from his forehead and apologized repeatedly, saying, "My little sister is young and naive, please forgive me, shopkeeper."
The shopkeeper then glanced at Manbao again and said with a smile, "So she's your sister. No wonder."
He looks about the same age as Zhou Dalang, no wonder the girl calls him "big brother" instead of "uncle".
The shopkeeper laughed and shook his head, but didn't mind.
Manbao was still very excited and didn't mind changing the topic: "Uncle Shopkeeper, if my family grows a lot of Ligustrum lucidum in the future, can your family also buy it at this price?"
The shopkeeper had just told his clerk to pay them and was about to leave when he turned around and asked, "Why, do you want to grow some medicinal herbs?"
Manbao said, "I want to plant it."
The shopkeeper said, "This is not easy. These herbs are prone to pests and may be susceptible to drought or flooding. What kind of herbs do you plan to grow?"
Manbao first asked him, "What kind of medicinal herbs do you think are suitable for growing in our area?"
The shopkeeper looked down at the little guy, paused, and then smiled and said, "I think we have a lot of medicinal herbs suitable for growing here. The key is whether you can grow them?"
"You can learn if you don't know."
Seeing her acting like a little adult, the shopkeeper couldn't help but laugh and said, "As long as you can grow them, you'll be able to sell the herbs. People get sick, and when they get sick, they need to take medicine."
Manbao understood and turned around and dragged her second brother to help her carry their Centella asiatica in.
When the shopkeeper saw them dragging in two large sacks, he stopped in curiosity.
"Uncle Shopkeeper, this is our dried Centella Asiatica. Would you like some for your pharmacy?"
The shopkeeper bent down and touched it, and found that it was quite dry. He nodded and said, "Yes, this thing is a good thing to cool down in the summer. Twenty cents a pound. Let's weigh it."
Even though this thing has two large sacks, it is actually not heavy at all. The two sacks together weigh only 35 kilograms.
Wu Lang and the others who were lying at the door with great excitement were stunned. They had pulled out so many, why was it so light?
They were all a little disappointed, but when they saw the waiter take out seven strings of money and give them to them, they were stunned again.
It seems like this money is easy to make.
Zhou Dalang was also a little surprised to see that several children earned more than them.
The shopkeeper said, "Don't send me any Centella Asiatica next time. It's everywhere. We don't need to send it in. This is enough for our shop to use this summer."
Manbao rolled his eyes and said, "It's definitely not enough. Summer is so long, and your family has to make medicinal soup every day. You need at least a handful a day. A handful is one jin. Thirty-five jins is only enough for thirty-five days."
Seeing how clearly she could calculate at such a young age, the shopkeeper couldn't help but burst out laughing. He patted her little head and said, "In our small county, we don't even need a pound of Centella asiatica in a day. You want to make everyone suffer? This little bit is enough. I won't accept any more if you send me."
Manbao felt very sorry. She didn't expect that Centella asiatica was a one-time deal. She sighed like a little adult.
The shopkeeper thought the kid was very interesting, mainly because he knew all the herbalists in the area. Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were obviously farmers, not herbalists.
He was very curious about how they knew about Ligustrum lucidum.
Many flowers and plants in the countryside can be used as medicine, and even many elderly people know how to use these flowers and plants. For example, Centella asiatica is used by many people in the countryside to stop bleeding after falls or cuts.
But they don’t know that Centella asiatica has other benefits, and they would never think that Centella asiatica is also a medicinal ingredient in the pharmacy, let alone selling it in the pharmacy after drying.
If Centella asiatica can be used as medicine simply by drying it in the sun, many other herbs require special processing before they can be preserved for use as medicine. This is knowledge only understood by doctors and herbalists.
Most people in the world only like to do what they are good at, and always avoid things they are not good at.
This is risk avoidance, which is human instinct.
If a person suddenly enters an unfamiliar field, he must have something to rely on. If the other party is an honest person, the reliance will be even greater.
The shopkeeper wondered if they had any medical books.
He had also asked Zhou Dalang about this, but Zhou Dalang just smiled foolishly, and it was unclear whether he was really foolish or pretending. While the waiter was paying them, the shopkeeper simply took Manbao's hand and sat aside, asking her, "Who did your family learn how to prepare Ligustrum lucidum?"
Manbao: "Hey, wasn't it the shopkeeper uncle who taught you?"
The shopkeeper thought about it, as if he had mentioned it. He paused and asked, "Then who recognized that Ligustrum lucidum was a medicinal herb?"
Manbao immediately said proudly: "Me!"
(End of this chapter)
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