“What are you going to do with these? Even if the herbs you mix are good, they can’t compare to the medicine from the pharmacy.” Yin Shulan was somewhat puzzled by Xia Yu’s persistence in mixing medicine.
“I’ve already told you, I want you to master a real skill, and we’ll start with mixing medicine.” Xia Yu opened the medicine bag.
Luckily, there was a traditional Chinese medicine shop in the small town, and it was a complete one with all the necessary herbs. Otherwise, Xia Yu would have had to find a way to gather the herbs himself.
He also converted all the game points he had accumulated over these days into experience cards, totaling eighteen.
Before the music performance competition, he had used all his experience cards to increase An Siyao’s proficiency with the dizi (Chinese flute). Since the competition thirteen days had passed, and he had accumulated thirteen cards.
The additional five cards came from Xia Yu using Yin Shulan’s body to do translation work and the extra points obtained when he returned the money.
When Yin Shulan’s body earned money, it generated immense happiness, which led to extra points. The same principle applied when he returned the money.
Using these eighteen cards, he could now gain nineteen times the experience.
Under Yin Shulan’s guidance, he began making medicine.
The first thing he tried his hand at was an unknown blood-stopping medicine.
Taking two kinds of herbs, Xia Yu picked off their leaves, put them into a small ceramic bowl, and used a small ceramic pestle to crush them.
It was a boring process.
“Add some roots too,” Yin Shulan said again.
“How much is ‘some’?” Xia Yu asked, holding the herbs.
“Just a little bit.”
“???”
Yin Shulan realized the vagueness of the measure and thought carefully for a moment before saying, “About the length of a fingernail, the thumb’s fingernail.”
“Don’t you have a standard measurement like how many grams?” Xia Yu asked, puzzled.
“That’s for traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. Where would I have learned that? My family originally practiced herbal medicine,” Yin Shulan replied proudly.
Xia Yu felt increasingly uncertain, but since Yin Shulan was the only one who knew anything at the moment, he decided to go along with it and see.
He paused the use of experience cards, deciding not to use them anymore, and resolved to see if eight hours could raise his medicine-making skill to LV1. If not, it would prove that Yin Shulan wasn’t just unreliable but also useless.
After finishing the medicine, Xia Yu put down the bowl and went to the kitchen.
In the kitchen were five rabbits he had bought.
Yin Ling was feeding the rabbits.
Xia Yu randomly grabbed the two fattest ones and brought them to the courtyard.
“Bring me a knife,” Xia Yu asked his little granddaughter again.
Yin Ling brought a pair of scissors, a cleaver, and also carried a bucket.
“Grandma, are you going to kill the rabbits? I can do it, let me help you!” The girl licked her lips, clearly craving.
“These aren’t for eating.” Xia Yu placed the rabbits on the table in the courtyard and tied them with rope.
“Not for eating?” Yin Ling’s mood immediately dropped.
“…Then go ahead and kill one. We’ll have it for lunch today.” Xia Yu couldn’t bear to see the girl disappointed.
At the same time, he marveled at the difference between rural and city children. If You Xue were here, she wouldn’t just hesitate at slaughtering a rabbit herself—she’d probably complain even if someone else prepped it, saying something like, “Bunnies are so cute, how can you eat bunnies?”
Yin Ling immediately went back to the kitchen and brought out one rabbit.
She skillfully tied it up, went to the storage shed to fetch a wooden stick, hit the rabbit unconscious with two strikes, and then began to skin it with the scissors.
Xia Yu felt a bit cold.
After calming his emotions, he picked up the cleaver and was about to make an incision on each of the rabbits he had tied to the table.
Making medicine wasn’t just about creating it; clinical trials were also part of the process.
Otherwise, how would one know if the medicine was a failure or a success?
The rabbit probably recognized the knife. As Xia Yu approached it with the blade, it began to struggle violently.
Xia Yu tried to hold it down but couldn’t manage it.
When a rabbit gets desperate, it can fight back fiercely.
Yin Ling, who was skinning another rabbit, stood up: “Let me help you, Grandma.”
“No need.” How could Xia Yu let a little girl help? He slammed the cleaver onto the table and used Intimidation.
At level 2 intimidation, the rabbit dared not move anymore. Xia Yu successfully made an incision on the rabbit.
Because the rabbit had fur, the cut wasn’t clearly visible, so Xia Yu shaved the fur off.
After finishing one rabbit, Xia Yu moved on to the second one, then applied the hemostatic medicine to one of the rabbit’s wounds.
This was a rudimentary clinical trial.
He grabbed some grass to feed both rabbits well and then started making the next batch of medicine.
This one was for promoting bone recovery—in simple terms, treating fractures.
After another hour of fussing, the remaining two rabbits also lay on the table eating grass.
They were just making more pitiful cries.
“Do you have any other medicines? Not ones for treating illnesses, since those are hard to test.” Xia Yu asked Yin Shulan again.
“There’s also medicine for expelling parasites.”
“I’ll go catch some insects first.” Xia Yu walked out of the courtyard, spending one yuan to have some kids playing by the river catch him three beetles.
After mixing the medicine, Xia Yu threw it into the clay jar with the beetles.
He thought he should also go to town to get some glass bottles—clay jars weren’t good for observation.
The rabbits were also running out.
Maybe he could use chickens instead?
No, forget it. Why use chickens when there were cute rabbits available?
After completing another experiment, Xia Yu turned to look at Yin Ling, who had already completely removed the rabbit meat.
“Shall I cook it?” The girl asked Xia Yu for permission.
“Go ahead, add some chili.” Xia Yu told her.
Yin Ling’s cooking ability made Xia Yu very grateful. He only wanted to eat, not to cook himself.
He bent down to observe the two rabbits used in the hemostatic medicine test. The rabbit without the powder had already stopped bleeding, while the one with the powder was bleeding more severely.
“…”
Xia Yu was very sure he had made identical wounds. At Agility level 4, he wouldn’t dare to claim the cuts were exactly the same, but the difference would only be a tiny bit.
Failed at making medicine the very first time? He had followed Yin Shulan’s instructions exactly!
It wasn’t without reason that the government banned rural herbalists.
Xia Yu grabbed a nearby notebook, crossed out the character “止” (stop) in the word “止血药” (hemostatic medicine), and changed it to “流” (flow).
Hemorrhagic medicine development successful!
Putting down the notebook, Xia Yu felt a bit weary.
He gave up asking Yin Shulan and decided to start researching the effects of these herbs himself.
Could this leaf cause blood to coagulate? This leaf only seemed to make the wound heal faster.
Was the problem with the roots added at the end?
Xia Yu felt he might need to start learning from the basics.
Should he start by studying herb identification books?
But with a huge stack of books, when would he finish reading them?
Wait, he suddenly had an idea.
With no rabbits left for testing, Xia Yu went into the kitchen to help his granddaughter cook.
At noon, the two of them ate braised rabbit together.
After finishing his meal, Yin Ling took the meat and rice to feed her mother in the room.
Xia Yu took the opportunity to ask Yin Shulan, “How old is Lingling? Why isn’t she in school?”
He himself didn’t need to go to school, so he hadn’t noticed Yin Ling’s situation before.
“She’s fifteen. She needs to take care of her mother, so I didn’t let her go to school,” Yin Shulan replied. “It’s useless to go to school anyway. Those who go out never come back. Just like that little Hai, he only asks for money from home and we hardly see him once a year!”
Xia Yu could understand Yin Shulan’s feelings but couldn’t agree with her approach.
“She still needs to go to school. When she goes out for school, you can go with her too.”
After Yin Ling finished feeding her mother and came out, Xia Yu was already waiting on his motorcycle.
“Come on, I’ll take you to school.”
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