busy
Jiang Nian returned to the Jiang residence earlier than Fuling and Guizhi had expected. Seeing their young lady suddenly appear at the gate, carrying a wooden box and walking towards them, Guizhi, who was tending to the courtyard, immediately went to greet her.
The box in her hand was instantly taken over by Guizhi who arrived first, and Fuling who came later smiled lightly and called her "Miss", even though she was going to tell Jiangmu about her return.
Although Xiao Yingzhu told her yesterday that they would set off at Chou hour today, but seeing that Jiang Nian was obsessed with running the medicine shop in Pingzhou last night, she asked the maid to tell Ah He to move the carriage that would pick them up today earlier.
"Did the young lady get hurt while going to Cang County? Guizhi noticed that the young lady has lost a lot of weight."
Guizhi looked at Jiang Nian's arms and face from front to back, and finally found a piece of skin that was scratched by rubble when he escaped from Zuihualou. His eyes widened instantly, and he gently touched the wound with his fingertips next to the skin that had not yet healed completely.
"Miss, what scratched you here?"
"It looks like he's seriously injured."
Seeing that Jiang Nian was a little confused, Guizhi carefully placed her hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her forward.
"Go to the bronze mirror and take a look. Miss, have you not noticed?"
What on earth did the young lady experience in Cang County?
Jiang Nian avoided the question just now and did not answer it. Guizhi was worried, but it was not easy to say it directly. She had to put it in her heart and just looked at the wound under her neck worriedly.
During the time when Jiang Nian was not in Pingzhou, Guizhi also took on the responsibility of running the drugstore - mainly because the spies sent by the shopkeeper Xu were hard to guard against. They came this morning, and they might send another person pretending to be a customer in the afternoon or evening.
But with the experience of being visited by spies several times before, Xu Bo and Fu Ling were well prepared. If they saw someone with shifty eyes and sneaky looks, they would ask the storekeeper to go and ask, "What do you want to buy?"
If it is a customer, then you just need to take him to the product he wants to buy.
But if they were spies, they would hesitate and then find an excuse to leave Liangdu Pharmacy.
Over time, sometimes when she went to deliver meals to Fuling who was watching the store, or when she delivered snacks to Xu Bo and the others, Guizhi would sit beside them and learned something from them.
Listening to Guizhi's vivid description of how she had recently been away, "how to find out the spies from the guests", "how to catch the spies who were about to escape from the guests", and "how to torture the spies to find out who sent them after catching them", the answer always pointed to only one thing -
Xu's Pharmacy.
Jiang Nian listened with a smile as Guizhi grumbled in her ear about the thieves at the Xu's pharmacy, always trying to get their hands on the recipes they couldn't afford, even though they were collaborating with the Duke. She then listed all the methods for catching spies in the Liangdu pharmacy, then blinked at her with sparkling eyes.
"How's it going, miss? I've made a lot of progress, haven't I?"
"Do you want to praise Guizhi, who is so motivated?"
After not seeing each other for nearly a month, Guizhi actually used adverbs to describe herself. Jiang Nian found this kind of little girl's competitive and cute mentality somewhat amusing, and responded to her with a smile:
"That's progress. They've learned to help Fuling."
"From what you said, I can tell you've done a good job ensuring the safety of your pharmacy."
Guizhi was a little dissatisfied with Jiang Nian's joking praise.
"Is that really the case? But I've done a lot for the pharmacy recently. Can't you praise me more?"
“…”
It's only been two or three weeks since we last met, how could Guizhi have changed so much? Although she used to be a little coquettish.
They chatted and laughed all the way into the corridor. When Jiang Nian was about to reach the door, Guizhi quickly walked up and pushed open the door.
The familiar sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance came towards him with the wind brought by the opening and closing of the door. Jiang Nian walked behind the osmanthus branches and looked inside when he stepped over the threshold.
—and it was exactly the same as when she had started.
It was as if they had deliberately preserved traces of the life she had lived when she left. Apart from the somewhat messy table being tidy now, even the clothes hanging on the clothes rack remained unchanged.
But when Jiang Nian approached, he lifted up the narrow sleeve of one of the jackets, revealing the plain white lining, and could smell the fresh scent of laundry.
Guizhi, who was sorting clothes in a wooden box, turned around and looked at Jiang Nian. Seeing Jiang Nian looking at the skirts on the clothesline in a daze, Guizhi explained:
"Because Fuling said that it would still be around this time of year when the young lady returns, I thought that she might wear these clothes when she returns, so I washed them first."
Jiang Nian listened to Guizhi talking while looking up at the lanai skirt next to her, and then her gaze moved to the folded skirt behind her.
Just as Guizhi said, all the clothes here were indeed cleaned.
Putting down the clothes in her hands, Jiang Nian no longer prepared to rest. Seeing Guizhi still standing by waiting for her instructions, she immediately thought that Meng Jian might already be in Pingzhou, so she said:
"Do you have the recent income and expenditure of the pharmacy? Also, do you have the number and time records of the spies' previous visits?"
After receiving the order, Guizhi nodded immediately and turned around to walk out.
The room became empty instantly because of Guizhi's departure. Jiang Nian sighed, glanced at the made bed, walked to the table and sat down.
She had been running around for the past half month and was physically exhausted. She was a little surprised that Xiao Yingzhu chose to stay overnight at the sect yesterday.
Jiang Nian caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, and his thoughts were interrupted, and he was stunned for a moment.
...and would indeed choose to stay there overnight.
The self in the mirror has been neglecting to take care of himself in recent days. He has been sorting out the piles of insect repellent prescriptions and trying to match them one by one to see which one would be the best. As a result, the dark circles under his eyes can no longer be covered even by powder.
“…”
Thinking about how she had been immersed in the anti-parasitic prescription all the way from Cang County to Pingzhou and hadn't paid much attention to her own image, and the dark circles under her eyes were not completely covered, Jiang Nian felt a little hopeless.
In the sunlight outside the window, the dark circles under his eyes in the bronze mirror became more and more obvious. Jiang Nian raised his hand to cover his eyes for a moment, then put it down expressionlessly.
Whatever. With such a tight schedule, it’s good enough that she can squeeze out time to dress up. It doesn’t matter if these dark circles are not covered up.
There were hurried footsteps outside the corridor. Jiang Nian immediately became serious and put the bronze mirror back to its original place. She caught a glimpse of the books Tao Yu had given her before. She was stunned for a moment, then reached out and stood them up. She lined them up with the other materials and placed them against the wall.
Just as I put the books in place, there was a gentle knock on the door, and Fuling's voice came in from outside.
"Miss, I'm here."
"Come in."
Jiang Nian answered, then turned to watch as Fuling gently pushed the door open. Seeing her young lady sitting at the table, she was stunned for a moment and asked worriedly, "Young lady, you've been running around all night. Don't you need to rest? There's nothing going on at the pharmacy right now."
"I had a good rest at the sect last night. I'm full of energy now and can't sleep. This is a good opportunity to check on the recent business situation of the medicine store."
Thinking that Jiang Nian was thinking about the recent sales of goods, Fuling nodded hesitantly. Just as she was about to answer something, she glanced at the dark circles under her young lady's eyes, and hesitated again.
Is it really okay for Miss to work so hard? She doesn't look like she's had enough rest.
Jiang Nian was completely unaware that his current, seemingly not-so-good condition was being criticized by his own servants. He turned his head away and tapped the table in thought.
"By the way, Guizhi has already gone to organize the information, so you don't have to go."
"Did mother say anything just now?"
Being interrupted by Jiang Nian, Fuling immediately replied, "Madam said to remember to rest and not to overwork yourself."
"Then, I want to ask if you were hurt in Cang County? Did you encounter any bad things? If you have any questions in your mind, you can talk to her."
Jiang Nian opened his mouth, but found that he couldn't say anything to reassure Jiang's mother, so he smiled and said, "Okay, then I'll find time to talk to her. I haven't seen my mother for a long time, and I miss her already, but-"
She was afraid that if she went to see Jiang's mother now, she would be exposed. In addition, she had already felt that Jiang's mother and father had doubted her identity. Now was not a good time to confess. Jiang Nian smiled helplessly and sighed:
"I need to find out more about the current situation at the pharmacy as soon as possible so that I can develop a new deworming formula in the shortest possible time."
"Isn't there a competition for herbal medicine expelling insecticides in a few days? We must participate this time, and since we are going to participate, we must be fully prepared."
Fuling was stunned by her seemingly reasonable words. She always felt that something was amiss. However, the young lady never lied to them. She thought she must be overthinking it. She nodded and said, "Okay, then... If the young lady has any instructions, please call me. Fuling will be at the mansion today."
Jiang Nian nodded, and watched Fuling turn around and walk out, leaving the room quiet again.
—
The loose pages taken out of the wooden box were taken out by Guizhi when she was sorting clothes just now, and are now placed on the table.
Jiang Nian closed his eyes and took a deep breath for a moment. He lined up the prescriptions written on the ferry, picked out a few that could be directly developed and placed them on the left. The remaining prescriptions all had one or two or three items missing.
The prescriptions that require minerals have to wait for Qin Lan to process them. The remaining prescriptions that do not require minerals are due to missing medicinal materials.
Jiang Nian browsed through the prescriptions for a moment, then raised his hand and called Qing over. "Xiao Yingzhu has returned to the mansion. If you're free, please go get the notebook from him for me. Just say 'Jiang Nian needs the notebook.'"
Qing was just about to report about Sun Dun when he heard that Jiang Nian had something more important to entrust to him, so he nodded and said, "Yes."
"besides--"
Jiang Nian paused for a moment on the prescription, then said, "By the way, ask him when it would be convenient for the sect to send the herbs so I can make preparations."
"yes."
Qing was standing beside her, and Qing was still standing there waiting for her instructions. Jiang Nian never liked to keep people around, so she could only think of these two things at the moment and had nothing else to say, so she let him do it first.
"Well, that's all for now. Please be careful on the road."
Qing nodded and quickly walked out of the room.
There was no one else standing around, and Jiang Nian suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. He picked up the pen from the table and was about to dip it in ink to write an annotation on the prescription when he saw that the inkstone on the table was empty. Because he came back in a hurry, he didn't let anyone know in advance, so it was still clean.
“…”
Although I had a good rest for two or three days after leaving Zuihualou, I was still exhausted from the long journey and my nerves were unconsciously tense, and I never had a chance to relax completely.
Jiang Nian suddenly sighed and raised his hand to rub his slightly sore forehead.
Forget it, let’s wait for Guizhi to come back first.
After doing tasks continuously without stopping for so long, I still feel a little flustered.
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