The fragrance of medicine is alluring, the farm elder sister is cool and cool

"Qingcheng, are you going to work?" Ruan Sanlang stopped what he was doing.

Ruan Erlang glanced at Wen Qingcheng and said, "I heard from my third brother that you are going to the county town to buy medicinal herbs. It must be tiring to ride back and forth on horseback every day."

"Yes, if others can do it, I can do it too." Wen Qingcheng was very confident. She had never been a pampered person.

"Take care of yourself and don't get hurt. If you can't hold on, don't do it." After saying that, Ruan Sanlang suddenly remembered something, moved closer to Wen Qingcheng, and whispered, "By the way, I saw Granny Fang coming out of the Wen family's old house yesterday. She was cursing as she came out. Do you think Granny Fang's visit to your house yesterday was related to the people in your old house?"

Wen Qingcheng smiled and said, "I have long suspected that they are behind this. They are a family that will not do anything without profit. It must be profitable. We have already separated, but they are still thinking of targeting us."

……

When they arrived at Wangji, a servant brought Wen Qingcheng and another big girl to Wangji Medicinal Herbs Store.

Following the servant into the courtyard of the herbal medicine store, there were three long rows of houses. The servant led them to the second row of houses, opened the door and walked in.

As soon as she entered the door, Wen Qingcheng felt a strong smell of dust coming towards her, which made her cough uncontrollably. Wen Qingcheng quickly covered her mouth and nose with her sleeves.

After entering the room, Wen Qingcheng found that it looked like a large factory building with many small rooms on both sides. The whole space was filled with dust, making people feel suffocated.

The servant led the two to the innermost room. After opening the door, a strong smell of medicinal herbs hit their noses. Wen Qingcheng put down her hands that were covering her mouth and nose for politeness.

There was only a simple table and a worn-out chair in the room, and the floor and shelves were filled with various medicinal samples. These medicinal materials looked messy and had obviously not been sorted for a long time.

Sitting in the room was a man in his thirties with a fair face. His hair was obviously smeared with osmanthus oil and was combed meticulously. His small eyes looked very shrewd.

"Manager Pang, these are the two new recruits this year. Please make arrangements for them," said the servant.

Manager Pang stood up and looked down at Wen Qingcheng, frowning, "Wang Ji recruits the same people every year. I specifically asked for men."

"It just so happens that there are no suitable men this year."

Manager Pang glanced at Wen Qingcheng's frail figure with disdain. The servant didn't want to say any more nonsense, so he left after bringing the person here.

Manager Pang took the two of them around the entire herbal medicine store and introduced them to their new colleagues, most of whom were older women and men, but there were also a few young pharmacists.

"You two, go and stretch these pots of centipedes and hang them out in the yard." Manager Pang said, pointing at the centipedes in several clay pots.

Wen Qingcheng and the dark and strong girl almost popped their eyes out. The centipedes in the clay basin were tangled together and kept wriggling inside. Wen Qingcheng was almost suffering from claustrophobia when seeing them.

The dark and strong girl was about to vomit and asked, "Manager, how can we survive this?"

Manager Pang glanced at the two of them impatiently, "I really don't know how you got in. Haven't you worked in a herbal medicine store before? Centipedes should be caught while they are fresh. There are some shaved bamboo strips over there. Insert the bamboo strips between the head and tail to straighten it."

As he spoke, Manager Pang picked up a piece of bamboo and demonstrated. "Do you understand?"

The two of them nodded in unison. Manager Pang was a little surprised, thinking that the two would back down when faced with difficulties. He didn't want to recruit these two people, especially the one named Wen Qingcheng, who looked very squeamish.

"You guys go ahead and dry these five pots today and put them outside to dry in the shade." After giving the instructions, Manager Pang went back into the house.

The dark-skinned girl subconsciously exchanged a glance with Wen Qingcheng, and the two found a bench to sit down. The dark-skinned girl looked at the pots of twisted and crawling centipedes and said to herself, "How can I start this?"

Although Wen Qingcheng was not afraid of these reptiles, she felt uncomfortable catching them. Her consciousness came to the space. Fortunately, she had a lot of white gloves. She took out two pairs and handed them to the dark girl.

"Put this on." Wen Qingcheng handed her the gloves.

The dark-skinned girl's eyes lit up and she took it gratefully, "You are so thoughtful."

The two men put on gloves, picked up a centipede, and began to string it up with sharpened bamboo sticks, and placed the stretched centipede on a large tray next to them.

Soon, the two of them got more and more comfortable with the job, and they sat down and chatted while working. "My name is Qi Zhen, from Wangjia Village. My family calls me Hei Niu, and you can call me Hei Niu, too. Hey? What's your name?"

"Are you from Wangjia Village? I live next door to you. I'm from Yueya Village. My name is Wen Qingcheng. Heiniu is your nickname, right? I'd better call you Zhenzhen."

"Okay, then I'll call you Qingcheng. Are you applying for the junior pharmacist exam this year?"

From what she said, I can be sure that she also wants to sign up, "Yes, I plan to sign up at the end of the month."

When Qi Zhen heard that Wen Qingcheng had also signed up, he seemed to have found an organization and said excitedly, "Me too, so I came to work at Wang's. His family can sign up for me, which is less of a hassle. I was originally thinking about being able to enter the pharmacy and learn something from Master Huang, but it's too difficult to get in."

“Did you teach yourself pharmacy?”

"Not really. My grandfather was a pharmacist and often prepared his own herbs at home, but he never passed the exam to become a junior pharmacist. What's your situation?"

"I taught myself from books passed down from my family."

Qi Zhen's eyes widened in surprise, "It's amazing that someone who studied on his own could make it to the second Wangji exam. I think you can definitely pass the exam to become a junior pharmacist. Then, you can go to the pharmacy."

"If you pass the junior pharmacist exam, will you stay at Wang's?"

Qi Zhen rolled his eyes and said, "Well...if I have a chance, I want to go to Kyoto. Kyoto is where I can really learn something, and I also want to be as far away from home as possible."

"With the junior pharmacist qualification, it will be easier to find a good job in Kyoto," Wen Qingcheng heard her say that she wanted to be as far away from home as possible, thinking that she wanted to escape from her original family. However, since it was only the first day they met, Wen Qingcheng did not ask much.

Qi Zhen continued, "We in the Great Qi encourage common people to take the exam to become junior pharmacists. If they want to open their own pharmacy, the Qihuang Patriarch Association in the county will also allocate 100 taels of silver."

Wen Qingcheng's eyes lit up, she was planning to open her own medicine shop after passing the exam. If she could get a grant of 100 taels of silver, she could renovate the factory behind her house better.

"Is it easy to get these 100 taels? It can't be that only someone with connections can get it."

"As long as you can pass the exam and have a pharmacy, you can go and get the money with the documents required to open a pharmacy. But the money is not free."

Wen Qingcheng had an understanding expression: "I knew it wasn't that simple."

"This 100 taels is a loan to you. There is no interest for five years. You have to pay back a certain amount every year after the first year."

"That's good too. At least people from ordinary families can open their own medicine shops."