At the advisor's command, the guards immediately took action and snatched all the garlic extract from Wan Shu's hands in just a few seconds.
"Hahahaha! You stupid woman! I fooled you so easily! From now on, allicin is mine! All the credit is mine!"
The county magistrate, who had been lying on the ground sobbing uncontrollably, suddenly jumped up, put his hands on his hips, and burst into laughter.
Wan Shu pursed her lips, her anger almost trembling.
"Your Excellency, you are despicable! As the magistrate of Sishui County, how could you commit such a robbery! I will never let you get away with this! I'm going to the prefectural capital to tell the Prefect!"
The magistrate scoffed, "I am the magistrate of this county, while you are just an ignorant village woman. How could the prefect possibly believe you?"
Having said that, he waved his hand.
The attendants then jumped onto the carriages and drove them all away, leaving Wan Shu and San Shun alone in the remote and deserted village.
It wasn't until this moment that Sam-soon finally understood.
"No wonder you told me to hide all the tools for extracting allicin, Mother. You saw through the magistrate's scheme long ago!"
Sam-soon was furious.
"He's so despicable! We came to him to save people, but all he could think about was taking all the credit for himself! It's such a waste of a bag of garlic extract!"
"That was made by you, Mother, without sleeping or working for two days straight!"
San Shun felt increasingly heartbroken, but Wan Shu laughed and winked at him.
"Don't worry, what's in that bag isn't actually allicin."
Sam-soon: "What's that??"
Wan Shu: "While you were putting away the tools, I got out of the car and hid the garlic extract."
As he spoke, Wan Shu walked to a corner and took out the original allicin.
Sam-soon finally felt relieved, but at the same time felt puzzled: "If the allicin is here, then what exactly was that bag from earlier?"
Wan Shu's expression became subtle: "Do you remember last night, when your Aunt Wang came to me and said she wanted to breed her cows and asked me to bring her some aphrodisiacs to breed them?"
Sam-soon's expression suddenly became subtle: "This... could it be that the bag contained aphrodisiacs for stimulating cattle?"
Wan Shu nodded heavily.
Sam-soon immediately hissed, "People who have contracted the plague are already weak. If they eat this... wouldn't that be..."
Wan Shu: "Don't worry, the prefect has reached this position, so he shouldn't be a muddle-headed magistrate. He should test the efficacy of the medicine before distributing it to the people."
Sam-soon was relieved: "That's good. So what do we do now?"
Wan Shu shrugged helplessly: "What else can we do? We'll just have to rent a car and go to the prefectural city ourselves."
The two men, one carrying the medicine and the other carrying the tools for making the medicine, walked for a full half day before finally arriving at the next county town, their mouths dry and their bodies exhausted.
This county is called Ping'an County.
Perhaps because of the blessing of their names, the epidemic was not as severe as in Sishui County. There were no corpses in the county town, and basic life was still relatively normal.
Wan Shu took San Shun to a restaurant and had a big meal.
After finishing our meal, we asked the waiter for directions.
"Brother, we're heading to the prefectural city and would like to rent a carriage. Where can we find one?"
Waiter: "There are some on South Street, but instead of renting one, you might as well buy one. Renting a carriage isn't cheap."
When Wan Shu took a look at South Street, he found that the waiter was telling the truth.
Renting a horse-drawn carriage is indeed not cheap.
They're heading to the prefectural city, and who knows how long they'll have to stay? They'll need to rent a place for at least half a month.
Renting a horse-drawn carriage costs one tael of silver per day, so half a month would cost fifteen taels.
Buying a horse-drawn carriage would cost more than fifty taels of silver.
Rather than spending fifteen taels and getting nothing in the end, it's better to just buy a carriage.
In the future, when delivering goods to the county town, we won't have to bother Uncle Erniu anymore. Not only will we save some money, but it will also make our travel much more convenient.
Wan Shu told San Shun her thoughts, and San Shun also felt that it was better to buy than to rent.
So the two of them started choosing horses at the market.
It was called a selection process, but in reality, in such a small county, there were only three horses available for them to choose from.
There was a white horse, a black horse, and a brown horse.
After looking at them one by one, Wan Shu and San Shun neither took a liking to the strongest and most imposing black horse.
After some haggling, I finally bought it for fifty-eight coins.
Then it was time to continue our journey.
The black horse was young and strong, and ran extremely fast. In just one day, it delivered them to the city of Jingzhou.
This was San Shun's, and also Wan Shu's, first time visiting the prefectural city.
Unlike the shabby county town, the prefectural city was magnificent and majestic, with a dense crowd and a lively market, where various vendors' cries echoed through the streets and alleys.
"Candied hawthorn skewers! Twenty coins a skewer!"
"The fragrant meat pie is now only ten coins each!"
"Meat buns! Meat buns! Four coins each, three for ten coins!"
San Shun stared wide-eyed at the prices in the prefectural city.
"Selling such a small meat bun for ten coins! Isn't that robbery?!"
Wan Shu had experience living in a modern big city, so she wasn't as dumbfounded as San Shun, but she was still somewhat surprised.
"As expected of the capital city, prices are much higher."
If prices are this high even in a prefecture-level city, then prices in the capital must be double.
She originally thought that with so much money she had earned and a big house she could barely be considered a small-time rich woman, but now it seems that it is far from enough.
After the pandemic, she will definitely work twice as hard to earn money!
"Mother, we'll just buy two steamed buns to eat today."
Faced with the exorbitant prices in the prefectural city, Sam-soon tries to save money.
Wan Shu disagreed: "To get rich, you must increase your income and reduce your expenditure. If you want to get rich, you must increase your income. If you only cut back on expenditure, you will never get rich. Besides, we should take advantage of the mealtime to find out some news about the prefect."
However, Wan Shu didn't look for any fancy restaurants. She just found a decent-looking restaurant on the roadside and asked the waiter for directions after finishing her meal.
"Young man, where is the prefect's residence? I've heard that the prefect's residence in Jingzhou is very elegant. It's my first time in the prefectural city, and I'd like to take a look from afar."
"The prefectural governor's residence in Jingzhou is indeed the most elegant," the waiter said with a proud air. "But I advise you not to go there recently."
Wan Shu: "Why is that?"
The waiter said, "Recently, the magistrate of Sishui County and the new headmaster of Dongcheng Academy brought something called garlic extract, saying it could cure the plague. Unfortunately, the prefect himself was also infected with the plague, so he planned to test the medicine on himself."
"To prevent anyone from causing trouble at the prefect's residence during the drug trials, the prefect's residence is now under martial law, and no one is allowed to approach or observe."
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