Chapter 179 Chapter 179 Update.
In the second half of the day, two ox carts traveled westward along the moat, getting further and further away from the prosperity of Chang'an City.
After walking more than sixty miles, the sun had set and they passed a secluded village in the distance.
Here, with mulberry trees and wheat fields, the sounds of chickens and dogs barking, it was full of rural charm. I had never known there was such a place west of Chang'an. Old Man Yan said:
"That's Anye Township. My wife and I used to live here, farming and raising silkworms. Unfortunately, we never had any children, no brothers or sisters. Later, a local squire seized our land and demanded rent. Unable to tolerate his oppression, my wife and I packed up and left. We found an uninhabited mountain forest to live in. It's been over ten years now."
Old man Yan pointed to a place, which was his family's former mud house, but now only a few ruins are left.
He also drew a line at the wheat field with his hand, saying that those acres of land used to belong to his family and were very fertile and good fields.
Ji Xu looked and saw that the fields were still full of wheat with ears of wheat in them, but they no longer belonged to him.
He passed by the edge and did not enter the village. He led them for another twenty or thirty miles before arriving at the foot of a mountain.
Two-wheeled ox carts could not enter here, so they unloaded the carts, hid them in a ravine overgrown with weeds, led two oxen, one yellow and one black, and walked up the mountain with the torches and lanterns they brought.
Halfway up the mountain, there was a thatched hut with a faint firelight. An old woman heard the noise and came out to see the large group of people. She became more worried and pulled Old Man Yan over to scold him.
Old Man Yan said:
"I should have returned after selling the firewood, but I heard her family wanted to buy a lot of Atractylodes macrocephala, so I stayed. After all, their ox cart moves fast, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten home until midnight."
Tian said, "Don't worry, old man. We are not bad people. We are just here to buy Atractylodes macrocephala."
"Old woman, bring us our hoe and backpack. I'll take these people to look for Atractylodes macrocephala nearby, and then dig deeper at daybreak."
"Why are you digging so late at night? There's dinner left for you on the stove. You're so hungry now, you deserve a bite."
Old Man Yan explained the reason and did not eat his evening meal.
"We were just on the road. They gave me some naan bread made of fine flour, but I've already eaten it."
After packing up their things, they set off. When the old woman heard that they were willing to give their husbands food, especially fine noodles, she became less cautious and followed behind, giving them a few words of advice.
"Don't go too deep, beware of man-eating wolves."
This Atractylodes macrocephala likes the eastern sun and a semi-shaded environment. Perhaps the direction of this mountain is in line with its habits, which is why wild Atractylodes macrocephala can grow there.
First they found a plant, which was dug out by Old Man Yan. Ji Xu showed it to everyone and said:
"Everyone, take a look at what this Baizhu looks like. We'll spread out and look for it later."
Jindou said, "The leaves look like orange leaves."
Yindou said, "The flower buds look like wild chrysanthemums."
Tian Dou said, "The rhizome looks like ginger."
"right."
"right."
"right."
Candou nodded three times and said yes three times.
He led them to dig up two more plants, and then Old Man Yan, Tian, Ji Xu, and Liu Gu each took one or two people to search for them, marking the trees as they went so as not to lose their way.
Following Old Man Yan's instructions, we reached a rock wall and could not go any deeper. It would be safer to dig there during the day. Ji Xu said:
"If you come across a plant with small leaves, there's no need to dig it up; just leave it in the ground to grow."
The growth cycle of Atractylodes is very long, even two to three years. She thought that if there was a plague near Chang'an and the old couple had to stay away, there would be a place here to collect herbs nearby, so that they would not be dug up all of them.
Moreover, when these small white atractylodes grow up, they will be more valuable if they are dug up and sold. In the future, the old couple will have another source of income besides collecting firewood.
When she first came, she also explained the uses and methods of Atractylodes macrocephala to Old Man Yan in detail. Now that she had given him instructions, they went out to look for it separately.
At daybreak, they gathered under the stone wall again, ate some dry food, took a rest, and then went deeper into the cave to search. They did not return until dusk, only to find that everyone's backpacks contained something.
Ji Feng used to be an expert at finding mushrooms after the rain in his hometown. Now he has poured out most of the Atractylodes macrocephala from his backpack, which is no less than what the adults dug.
In addition to the Atractylodes macrocephala, Ji Xu also brought out a plant of Chinese wolfberry with golden fuzz and leaves curled up like a tail. She showed the old man the plant and said,
"This is called dog spine grass, which can cure back pain, but it only matures in autumn and winter. If you see it while collecting firewood in the future, you can dig it up and sell it to the medicine shop."
Because I heard from Jindou that he was cheated by a clerk in a drug store and told him where to go.
"Don't go to that pharmacy yesterday. Go to the Wuchen Pharmacy in the West Market. The owner and his staff there are all kind and compassionate to the poor and weak. They will definitely give you a fair price."
Her family lived in Anling County, far from Xishi. Her family was targeted. When she was sick and needed medicine, the maids often went there to get the medicine, no matter how far they went.
When Mr. Yan heard that it could cure back pain, he asked:
"So, my wife's back pain can be cured by eating this dog spine?"
Ji Xu did not dare to jump to conclusions. There are many reasons for lumbago. She did not know how to diagnose a pulse, but she had read medical books and had frequent contacts with doctors in the past, so she knew some medicines and their properties. So she said:
"Don't take anything you want. You have to see a doctor and take the medicine according to the prescription."
He also told him which doctor was good and would not cheat people. The Atractylodes macrocephala weighed a total of thirty pounds, and the old couple received twenty-four taels of silver.
Now that she has money, she can see a doctor and ask for medicine. Old Man Yan heard that she was so thoughtful for her and her husband, so he gave her eight taels of money back.
"You guys dug this out with all your hard work, day and night. You're such a kindhearted girl, so I won't sell it to you at the original price. Take this eight ounces back, girl."
"This is what we agreed on. If the old man hadn't trusted us and brought us here, we wouldn't have been able to buy these cheap Atractylodes macrocephala. Without the markup from the drug dealers, this is already much cheaper than at the pharmacy. If I let you suffer any more, I'd feel guilty."
Tian smiled and wanted to take it, but after hearing her daughter's words, she took her hand back, looked at the money eagerly, and said distressedly:
“Yes… yes.”
Old Man Yan was so grateful that he even took out the fine noodles that he was reluctant to eat.
Because wheat cannot be grown in the mountains, they eat taro and mulberry trees grown in front of their door all year round. This little bit of fine noodles was left over from the Chinese New Year, and now they are making soup noodles to treat them.
Because it was late, there was nothing to do in the mountains. There was a curfew near the Five Tombs of Chang'an. If they went back now, they would be treated as thieves who had escaped and were arrested. So they ate soup noodles and stayed here for the night, and would leave tomorrow morning.
Liu Gu and Old Man Yan stayed in the west room; the rest were girls, and they squeezed into the east room with Old Lady Lin.
Unable to sleep on the kang, Feng, Zhu and Sidou used mats as pillows on the ground. Old Lady Lin also found an old quilt without a core for them to cover their stomachs.
Tian asked her how old she was and where she was from. The two girls were chatting so much that no one knew who fell asleep first.
Xiaozhu looked at the big moon outside the window and said it felt like she was back home.
In the middle of the night, old lady Lin's back pain came back and she tossed and turned in pain. Ji Xu rubbed her back and she felt much better.
They set out for home the next morning. Old Mr. and Mrs. Yan wanted to go to the city to see a doctor, so Ji Xu invited them to take the carriage and took them into the city. On the way, he told them about the plague outside the pass and asked them to be careful. After seeing the doctor and getting the medicine, they should go back as soon as possible.
The mother, daughter and Sidou returned home and processed the Atractylodes macrocephala according to Ji Xu's instructions. They dried them on the three-layer bamboo winnowing basket in front of the door. The sun was good during the dog days of summer and the herbs would not get moldy. After they were dried, they were collected and kept for use in warding off epidemics.
Ji Xu also looked at the food at home. Because he had little money last month and bought little, and there were many people in the family, there was not much left now.
He asked Wu Fu and Liu Gu to drive the ox cart to the grain store to buy 50 hu of rice and 50 hu of wheat respectively. Unlike their hometown, wheat in Guanzhong is cheaper than rice.
"The grain shop owner gave us a small discount for this hundred hu of grain, so the total is ten taels of silver."
Wu Fu Liu Gu bought the grain and said that they were very strong and carried the grain into the west room bag by bag and piled them on racks made of thick wooden nails. They had to use ladders to reach the higher parts.
There are four people in the family, including mother and daughter, four of the four beans, and two of the five blessings and six grains, a total of ten people, including four adults and six minors. These grains, when eaten with vegetables, are enough to last for half a year.
The vegetable patch that was previously destroyed by Shopkeeper Hu was later replanted and taken good care of. Eggplants, cucumbers, leeks, rapeseeds, green garlic, green onions...
I bought six more chicks for the chicken whose neck was twisted, making a total of eight. A few days ago, I entertained Youlu and killed an old one for dinner. There were seven left, which I kept for laying eggs.
The bran from pounding rice daily, mixed with old vegetable leaves and rice soup, can feed these chickens. The caterpillars caught in the vegetable fields and the earthworms under the walls can also provide them with additional meals.
The two oxen and one horse bought fodder from the West Market and stored it in the woodshed, which was enough for them to eat for half a year. They also put in a lot of effort when going out to buy things and pulling the carts.
Ji Xu also planned to stock up on some firewood, which would not go bad if stored. In case there was a plague in Wuling during this period, it would also reduce the number of times his family went out.
As for the tax payment in September, we will figure out a solution depending on the situation.
It is said that Yang Liu got a cabin of silk cloth at an abandoned wharf and transported it to his home on Mapo Street. He frequently went out to visit cloth shops and showed the silk cloth to different families. Gradually, he sold all the good silk cloth.
Those that were stained with grease and had a fishy smell that was hard to remove were not wanted by anyone, so he still piled them up in his home warehouse.
It doesn't matter. Selling those things will make a lot of money. He walked in and called Wang'er:
"Wang'er, Wang'er, look what good things Aung brought back for you."
It was the ball that the young men played with. When his lover Miao Niang heard it, she stepped on the threshold and said:
"Your good son has gone to look for his mother again. He's well fed and well dressed here every day, and all he remembers is Aunt Qiu from Mulberry Alley."
After Ping'an Restaurant closed, Qiu Gu found a job as a handyman in a restaurant in Kaohsiung City. Although it was not as respectable as the job of welcoming and seeing off guests at Ping'an Restaurant and the monthly salary was low, at least food and accommodation were provided, so she continued to work there.
At this moment, she was washing dishes by the well, and there was a little boy standing beside her. It was her daughter Wang'er.
Qiu Gu washed the bowls, then the plates, then the cups, going in and out, fetching and splashing water, without looking at him, and said:
"What are you doing here? You've been with your grandfather. I have no right to control you now, so you don't need to come looking for me anymore."
Wang Er was still weeping with his sleeves when he left, holding a pile of wooden scrolls filled with words he had written recently. When he returned to his home on Mapo Street, Yang Liu scolded him and pointed at Miao Niang and said:
"Are you looking for that jealous woman in Gao City again? This is your mother."
He snatched the stick from his hand and threw it into the stove to burn.
"Why bother writing? In the end, you'll just be a sour scholar."
Since following him, Wang'er no longer needs to go to primary school.
"Your last name is Yang, and you're my son. You should learn business from me! Why are you still studying?"
Wang'er ran into the room and closed the door. Yang Liu scolded him for a while and then went to Gao City to drink and have fun.
Everyone knew that he had made a lot of money selling silk and cloth recently, and the waiters in all the restaurants called him Master Yang Liu.
"Mr. Yang Liu, please come in."
Yang Liu is now wealthy and has entered the best restaurant in the world, Manxiang Tower.
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