Chapter 167 If there is dirt, don’t get your hands dirty
The medicine in the jar was almost ready to be opened. Amidst the curling white smoke, Mrs. Lin and someone else knocked on the Xu family's door.
"Xia Xia?"
"Xia Xia, are you home?"
Sang Zhixia wiped her hands and stood up: "I'm here, what do you want to talk to me about, sister-in-law?"
Mrs. Lin walked in with her people, smiling, and explained, "Didn't I ask someone to find you some good Sichuan Fritillaria yesterday? This is my brother from my mother's family, he knows where to find it!"
Sang Zhixia's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he quickly took a small stool and asked the person to sit down.
The man sat down, sniffed, and asked curiously, "Did you put aconite in this medicine?"
The special smell mixed in the medicine was faint but very obvious.
Sang Zhixia paused, nodded, and said, "It's in the doctor's prescription. Why?"
"Don't be careless with Aconitum. When you dispense it, make sure you check whether it's raw or cooked."
Before Sang Zhixia could reply, the man said seriously, "Cooked black fungus is good, but raw black fungus is highly poisonous. You can't be careless with this thing. Eating the wrong thing can kill you."
Mrs. Lin didn't understand this, and fearing that Sang Zhixia would think her brother's words were unlucky, she quickly tugged at his arm and said angrily, "What are you talking about?"
"This medicine was prescribed by a doctor and dispensed from the clinic. How could there be such a mistake? Could the doctor not tell the difference between raw and cooked black fungus?"
The person who was slapped was good-natured. He chuckled, touched the back of his head, and said, "I just wanted to give you a casual reminder. I didn't mean anything else."
Sang Zhixia's heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason, but her expression remained unchanged as she smiled and said, "It's better to talk more than you can say. It's better to be cautious with things like medicine."
"I'll pour you some water first, then sit down and talk slowly."
Mrs. Lin is a kind-hearted person, and her brothers from her mother's side are also very reliable.
When Second Aunt Xu and the others heard the voices, they came out to take a look and confirmed that the Fritillaria he brought was of excellent quality. They bought a lot of it on the spot, which made Sister Lin and her brother very happy when they left the Xu family's gate.
Mrs. Lin comforted everyone in the Xu family with a few words before leaving with her brothers.
After the medicine was boiled, it was poured out and placed on the side to dry. The old lady who had been staying in the main room without saying a word came out with a small piece of cloth and said coldly, "Pour the residue in."
Sang Zhixia was a little surprised: "Why are you pouring out the medicine residue?"
The old lady gave her an impatient look, and Xu Wenxiu quickly tried to smooth things over: "Xia Xia, you're young and don't know. This is the rule of the older generation."
"If there is a sick person at home, the dregs of the boiled medicine should be wrapped up and thrown away far away. This is also a good omen to drive away the disease and let the family recover sooner."
Xu Wenxiu was afraid that Sang Zhixia didn't understand and would make the old lady angry, so she pulled Sang Zhixia over and poured the blackened medicine residue in the medicine jar into the cloth and wrapped it carefully.
The old lady snatched it away and muttered something about not knowing the rules as she left.
Sang Zhixia frowned quietly and said nothing. She just squatted down and looked through the empty medicine jar. An inexplicable uneasiness rose in her heart.
She knew that Aconitum had to be processed using special techniques before it could be used as medicine, otherwise it would be highly toxic.
When she was boiling the medicine, she took a special look at it. The aconite in the medicine bag had a special smoky color, and it looked like there was no problem.
But she only remembered the color and could not tell the specific difference between processed aconite and raw aconite.
Xu Wenxiu was afraid that she would be upset by the old lady's scolding, so she whispered a few words to comfort her. Sang Zhixia curled her lips and smiled, looking at the medicine bowl in her hand, and suddenly said, "Grandma, I'll go and help Grandpa take his medicine."
Xu Wenxiu handed her the bowl of medicine without any suspicion.
Sang Zhixia came in with the bowl and nodded Xu Mingyang's head: "Mingyang, do me a favor."
Xu Mingyang was lying on the bedside, trying to talk to the old man. He looked up and asked blankly, "Sister-in-law, what can I do for you?"
"Go out and help me guard it. No one is allowed to come in unless I call you, okay?"
Seeing Xu Mingyang's big eyes filled with doubt, Sang Zhixia pretended to be mysterious and whispered, "I have something to tell my grandfather in private. Please keep watch for me."
Children of this age love to participate in such mysterious activities, and they jumped up and said yes without thinking.
When Xu Mingyang went out, he also closed the door tightly.
The old man was leaning against the head of the bed with the quilt on, feeling a little amused. He mistakenly thought that Sang Zhixia was going to give him some private money behind others' backs. Just when he was about to tease her, he saw Sang Zhixia quickly put the medicine bowl on the table and turned around to rummage through the medicine bags in the cabinet.
Sang Zhixia squatted on the ground and opened the medicine bag. She took out the sliced aconite inside, broke it into pieces and looked at it carefully under the light, her lips tightly pursed.
The old man's gaze, which had been vacant for many days, turned cold and he narrowed his eyes in an ambiguous manner and said, "Girl, what's wrong?"
Sang Zhixia didn't shy away from the inquiry in the old man's eyes. Holding up the broken pieces of Aconitum, she leaned over and asked quietly, "Grandfather, can you tell the difference between raw Aconitum and cooked Aconitum?"
The old man, a well-read man, naturally knew the difference between the two. He smiled and said, "I can barely tell the difference."
Sang Zhixia asked again, "So, in your opinion, is the black crow in my hand raw or cooked?"
Unlike her mediocre ability to identify, the old man was still able to distinguish them even when he was sick.
He took it, looked at it, put it close to his nose and sniffed it and said, "This is a cooked black bird. What's wrong?"
"Roasted?"
Sang Zhixia seemed a little surprised. She fiddled with the remaining crumbs in her palm with her fingertips. After struggling for a moment, she gently discussed with the old man, "Grandfather, you've been taking medicine for nearly a month and your illness hasn't improved. It seems that this prescription is ineffective. How about we try stopping the medicine for two days? What do you think?"
The scene that he had glimpsed before was like a barbed hook, which would pop out from time to time to hook a drop of flesh and blood from Sang Zhixia's heart.
She was indeed suspicious.
It’s just hard to say now.
Sang Zhixia was vaguely worried. If the old man asked why, how could he make one up on the spot? Unexpectedly, the old man just laughed and said, "Then remember to come back three times a day to bring me medicine. I'm afraid your mother-in-law and aunts will not agree that I will pour it quietly."
Sang Zhixia's eyes widened in delight: "Grandfather, do you agree?"
"What's wrong with that?"
The old man put the little piece of Aconitum powder in his hand back into hers, and with some difficulty he reached out to rub her head, his eyes full of love: "I raise you as my granddaughter, so of course I will listen to you."
"Remember not to let anyone see you pouring the medicine. If you are found out, I won't help you get away with it."
Sang Zhixia breathed a sigh of relief and said yes repeatedly, muttering to herself that the old lady would take out the medicine residue every day after boiling it and throw it away somewhere unknown.
There was nothing wrong with the stored medicine, so she wanted to see if there was anything wrong with the aconite in the residue.
The old man's eyes flashed coldly when he heard this, and he said softly, "Has Yu'er gone to get a doctor for me?"
Sang Zhixia nodded somewhat helplessly. "Yes, Xu Minghui said there's a doctor who seems very capable. Let's go and ask him together. Maybe he'll be here in two days."
"In two days..."
The old man asked with a half smile, "Did you go to the Northwest Camp to invite them?"
Sangzhi Xiakong swallowed nervously, racking his brains to think about where he had let the cat out of the bag.
Seeing her anxious expression, the old man laughed and said, "We've already invited almost everyone we can. Where else could they possibly invite two brothers to come here in person except the Northwest Camp?"
Xu Yu was the grandson he raised, so he was not surprised that Xu Yu would do anything that seemed unorthodox to ordinary people.
It was just a Northwest Camp, he believed that his grandson could still get in and come out safely.
only……
The old man took the aconite slices that were stained with sweat from Sang Zhixia's hand and said calmly, "It just so happens that a great doctor is coming soon. I'm tired of taking this prescription. Before Yu'er comes back, remember to quietly pour out the medicine for me. Go to the fields and rest at home for the next few days."
"Your grandfather isn't really dead yet. If there's any dirt, don't get your hands dirty."
"Remember, you can't tell anyone else about this except me, okay?"
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