Chapter 3: Practicing Medicine

  As she thought about it, Zhen Shiniang unknowingly led Wu Ge and Wen Ge into the house.

  "Where did Miss go?" The big sweat of the magpie was about to go out, saw them coming back, and quickly came up to say, "The slave is going to find you."

  "How come you're back so soon?" Seeing the magpie, Zhen Shiniang's eyes lit up, "How much did you sell the donkey hide for? Have you collected all the accounts?"

  The magpie's face was full of joy, "All sold out, Mr. Li said it wasn't enough to sell, and asked if Miss could boil some more?" She took out a piece of broken silver and several strings of copper coins and handed them over, "Miss's donkey hide medicine sold for a total of 20 taels and 6 mace of silver, I also got you three sets of medicinal herbs, received 5 pieces of donkey skin, 10 catties of yellow wine, 10 catties of ice sugar, 5 catties of fragrant oil..." She counted them out one by one with her fingers, "A total of 16 taels and 8 mace were spent, leaving 3 taels and 2 mace, all here..."

  The soup medicine was eaten by Zhen Shiniang, and donkey skin yellow wine etc. were used for stewing donkey hide gelatin.

  Since being sent here, Zhen Shiniang has not received a single piece of silver from the Shen family. Two years ago, she pawned her last dowry and life became difficult, not to mention that she had been taking medicine for many years. Just talking about these five or six people eating meals was a problem. Seeing that the two mu of lotus ponds in the old Shen house were not enough to make a living, Zhen Shiniang thought of her previous profession. Fortunately, because of her own needs, she occasionally also made some donkey-hide gelatin for herself. So, she made a pot of donkey-hide gelatin and took it to the town to try to sell it.

  It's easy to imagine, she is a woman with an unknown name, who would believe that she can make donkey hide gelatin?

  At first, none of the major pharmacies were willing to sell for her. Coincidentally, one day, she was begging Li Qi, the owner of Rui Xiang Pharmacy, to help her sell donkey hide gelatin when Dr. Feng Xi, who was sitting in the pharmacy, misdiagnosed a case of external contraction of typhoid fever as a hot disease and was confronted by the patient.

  At that time, Feng Xi diagnosed the patient with red eyes, dry mouth, and rapid pulse, all typical manifestations of heat syndrome. He didn't think much and prescribed Cheng Qi Tang. Who knew that after taking the medicine, the patient's condition suddenly worsened, and he was carried by his family to find him, the crowd at the door of the pharmacy grew larger, and it seemed that the signboard was about to be smashed. In the end, it was Zhen Shi Niang who figured out the cause of the disease:

  Although the number of pulses is a hot symptom, and the slow pulse is a cold symptom, this is not absolute. Occasionally, there are also times when the pulse disease is reversed. The patient is a typical case of yin flourishing and yang being isolated outside. In simpler terms, his body's yin energy is too strong, squeezing out the weak yang energy to the surface, making him appear red-faced and dry-mouthed, with a big hot appearance, but actually it is a big cold symptom. She immediately used strong heating medicines such as dried ginger and aconitum.

  As expected, the patient broke out in a sweat all over and was much better after a few days.

  Tai Rui Xiang pharmacy lifted the siege, shopkeeper Li Qi was grateful and agreed to let her put donkey hide gelatin in Tai Rui Xiang pharmacy for a trial sale.

  At first, it took several months to sell a pot of donkey hide gel, fortunately Li Qi also believed in her medical skills, occasionally when Feng Xi had something or encountered unsolvable difficulties and miscellaneous diseases, she would go to her for help, earning some silver to maintain her livelihood.

  Who would have thought that after a while, she had also gained some fame. Now, one pot of donkey hide gel wouldn't last half a month before it was all sold out. Just like this pot, she remembered it was only sent to the store five or six days ago. Because they needed to hire short-term workers and pay them in silver, she had asked Xi Que to go to Xiang Rui Medicine Store early that morning to see if Li Qi could give her some silver first.

  Unexpectedly, they're all sold out!

  "Looks like everyone in Wutong Town has recognized my donkey hide gelatin." Xian Shi Niang took the silver and was in a great mood.

  Kick off with this first step, one day she will have her own small pharmacy.

  "It's not just that, I heard from Li Dage that Miss's batch of donkey hide gelatin was snatched away." Ji Kuai chuckled and said, "Li Dage kept saying that if the slave doesn't go, he'll come over himself to see you, wanting to discuss with you whether more donkey hide gelatin can be cooked?"

  Zhen Shiniang sighed, "Who doesn't want to make money with silver? But my body can't take it. I'm already exhausted from producing two batches a month, how can I be greedy?"

  The magpie's expression suddenly turned gloomy.

  She never thought that after this, her family's young lady would be ruined like this.

  “…added up to seventeen or eighteen taels.” Zhen Shi Niang took out a small jar from the fourth layer of the white cabinet, poured out the silver ingots and counted them. Together with the ones that Xi Que had just brought back, she put them all back again. “This year the lotus root harvest is good, we can at least get three to four thousand catties…we can finally have a good year!” She smiled at Xi Que, “After selling the lotus roots, this year everyone will get an additional set of new clothes.”

  Think about it, these people haven't worn new clothes for two or three years either.

  The magpie's heart was sour, from small to large, which young lady in her family had suffered such hardships? Even the personal maid who had been with her since childhood didn't care about these seventeen taels of silver, but now she had to count them one by one!

  "Great, great!" Without noticing the unusual expression on Jixia's face, when she heard that there were new clothes to wear, Qiujie jumped up first, "I want to wear the rose red one that Er Ya wore!"

  Er Ya is the second daughter of the Liang family in the previous alley, and these days she has been wearing a brand new rose-red velvet jacket with a high collar, which was made for her older sister's wedding, and Qiu Ju can't help but drool.

  "Alright, alright..." Zhen Shi Niang smiled faintly, "You can choose for yourself when the time comes."

  "Just say that Miss is the best person in this world!" Qiujie's eyes were a little hot, and she suddenly turned her head, "Right, Jiakuai aunt, what's going on with Luo Guo in town?"

  It was only in the morning that the sound of gongs and drums filled the air outside, and Jian Wujian Wen had already run out to watch the excitement.

  "Ah……" The magpie let out a cry, its eyes falling on the leaky pot, and exclaimed, "Heavens, I was so caught up in talking that it's already noon!" It raised its head to instruct Autumn Chrysanthemum, "You go ahead and soak those few pieces of donkey skin first, I'll get started on preparing lunch."

  "Ah..." Autumn Chrysanthemum forgot about her question just now and responded with a sound, walking out quickly.

  The magpie looked at Zhen Shining again, "I bought half a catty of pork, let's make steamed meat with rice flour for lunch today. Miss, you made it so delicious last time, and Wen Ge and Wu Ge didn't have enough to eat."

  "What's going on?"

  Zhen Shining sat down on the chair and gazed at the magpie with a faint smile.