Between the front yard and the back yard of the pharmacy, there is a fairly large courtyard. As soon as you enter through the back door of the shop, you can see many bamboo racks in the courtyard, with various kinds of medicinal herbs drying on them. You Qing can recognize most of them, but there are some that you can't.
Youqing followed the medicine boy to a hall.
"Please have a seat, young master. I will go and fetch your master right away."
Although the apprentice medicine boy could recognize medicine, he had only been learning for a short time and still needed his master to be discerning.
Not long after, the young apprentice brought over an old man with half-white hair and beard.
Youqing stood up and gave the old man a junior's bow.
Seeing this, the old man's impression of Youqing improved considerably. Those who came to the pharmacy to buy medicinal herbs were either ordinary people or servants of high-ranking officials who looked down on others. Apart from long-term cooperative drug dealers, the people who came to sell medicinal herbs were some people living near the mountains. Few people were so courteous.
"You're too kind, young master."
After they sat down, Youqing took out the medicinal herbs she had brought.
"This is a ginseng root, picked not long ago, please take a look."
The ginseng was placed in a wooden box and prepared and preserved according to the methods taught by the system.
When the old man saw the wooden box, he felt that this person was at least half an expert, even if he wasn't one, and his expectations rose.
Upon opening it, the old man was pleasantly surprised to find a ginseng root that was over a hundred years old. After examining it closely, he exclaimed with even greater delight, "It's a ginseng root that's five hundred years old!!"
A 100-year-old ginseng is already a rare find, but a 500-year-old ginseng is a life-saving treasure. Such a large ginseng, perfectly processed and preserved, is priceless!
The old man immediately beamed with joy.
"Good stuff. Our pharmacy will take this ginseng for five thousand taels of silver."
Five thousand taels of silver!!
Youqing remained outwardly calm, but inwardly she couldn't help but be surprised. Was it really that expensive?
Five thousand taels of silver isn't a lot in the palace. There's only one Imperial Household Department in the palace. If you want more things, you need to bribe them. If you want to see an imperial physician, you need to bribe them. You also need to bribe the kitchen staff from time to time. And you need to bribe the servants who come to deliver things to Kangxi...
Silver is not easily confiscated, but it's different outside the palace. For ordinary people, ten taels of silver might not even be enough to cover the expenses of a whole family for a year.
Five thousand taels is no different from fifty million in modern terms.
Because Youqing was distracted, the old man thought she felt the amount was too small, so he said again, "Six thousand taels."
Six thousand taels!
This old man is raising the price for himself.
It's no wonder the old man was impatient. A 500-year-old ginseng, preserved so well—for someone in need of a life-saving condition, he would be willing to pay any price for it.
However, this is a pharmacy, and the old man's eagerness and impatience are mostly due to his deep love for the "materials".
“材” refers to medicinal materials.
It would definitely fetch a higher price at an auction house, but Youqing thought it was too much trouble, and given her status, it was better to keep a low profile.
In the end, the ginseng remained in the pharmacy for six thousand taels of silver.
The ginseng has been sold, but there are other medicinal herbs left.
All of these were prepared and packed by Youqing and brought over. Some were picked by her on Meili Snow Mountain, while most were grown in the system.
While not as precious as 500-year-old ginseng, these were still good medicinal materials, and the prices were quite good. In addition, there were several rare and precious medicinal materials among them. All things considered, the remaining items sold for nearly two hundred taels of silver.
Out of consideration for the ginseng, the old man rounded it up and gave Youqing a total of six thousand two hundred taels of silver.
Youqing still had about three hundred taels of silver left from the palace. After selling the medicinal herbs, her family, which was not well-off before, became rich instantly.
After leaving the pharmacy, Youqing left quickly, then made several turns before arriving at the inn where she was staying, where she removed her makeup.
She made a simple disguise when selling the medicine.
At noon, she ate something at the farm, and then she prepared to go buy land.
Sanbo County is not small; she didn't have the financial strength to buy up all the arable land in the entire county.
With money to pave the way, things were relatively easy. Youqing set her sights on a 500-acre plot of land not too far from Black Wind Mountain.
The place is quite remote, uninhabited, and has very little arable land, only about 100 mu (approximately 6.7 hectares), and even that 100 mu is mostly infertile land.
The remaining 400 acres are all uncultivated hard land. It would take some effort to grow crops, and it would be impossible to grow flowers.
It was almost December, not the season for planting.
Wasteland doesn't cost much money. The 100 mu of arable land only cost five taels of silver per mu due to soil quality issues, and the remaining 400 mu of uncultivated wasteland cost only four hundred taels of silver.
Five hundred acres of land, a total of nine hundred taels in hand.
She still has about 5,600 taels left.
She didn't let the money sit idle. She went directly to the village chiefs of several nearby villages and mobilized some of the idle labor force to start tilling the land.
She bought a batch of less strenuous tools from the farm. Of course, they weren't too far removed from the tools available at the time; they were just more labor-saving.
The tools weren't exactly high-tech products, but they weren't expensive either. She also bought a fertilizer formula to improve the soil environment for growing flowers.
With the formula in hand, she went around buying a large number of raw materials needed for the formula, and then the vigorous soil improvement project began.
She wanted to transform this land into a unique flower farm, and preliminary work was essential.
Having arranged everything, she didn't sit idle. She had spent so many gold coins, and although she still had quite a few left, she was anxious. So she started working on the farm. With the high-tech farm tools, it wasn't tiring at all.
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