To get rich quickly, you need to be simple and rough

Duke Wei has been very happy these days because his troublesome back carbuncle has finally healed. The goose egg-sized lump has disappeared, and pink flesh has grown out of the wound. The old man can finally lie down and sleep.

Xu Huizhen took the old man's pulse and announced that he had fully recovered.

Xu Da was as happy as a child. Who would want to die if he could live? The first thing Xu Da did was to ask the chef to prepare delicious food. The old man had been eating vegetables and mushrooms for a long time, and he felt that if he continued like this, he would soon become a rabbit.

The old man asked Xu Huizhen to have dinner with him, but Xu Huizhen hurriedly said goodbye.

The old man was delighted: "A few days ago, my hometown sent me a lot of stinky mandarin fish. Oh, they smell so good. You can serve some to Miss Xu later. Come back and try them. They are so delicious that you can even swallow them with your tongue. I know you are busy, so I won't let you stay here in vain. Come to my house often when you have time."

This time, Xu Huizhen brought home two carts of things.

The steward of the Duke of Wei's mansion gave her four thousand taels of silver as a thank-you gift, and the old man prepared two carts of local specialties from Huaixi, including bacon, cured pork ribs, and dried bamboo shoots. This showed that Xu Huizhen wasn't treated as an outsider. The old man, now old, craved the flavors of his hometown. Xu Huizhen, having interacted with these people so much over the years, understood this well. Mrs. Ding, looking at the half-cart of stinky mandarin fish, worried about how long it would take to eat them all.

At dinner, the Li family courtyard was filled with the aroma of dry-roasted stinky mandarin fish, and other Huizhou side dishes. The whole family was so happy that their mouths were watering.

The servants ate dry-fried stinky mandarin fish, which was salty and spicy and went really well with rice. There was not a single drop of rice left in the big pot of rice cooked in the kitchen, and the rice crusts were all soaked in water and eaten.

Xu Da began to live a life of extravagant eating at home. The old man did not go to court unless he had something to do. He loved roast chicken and roast goose and could eat half a chicken in one meal. What the Duke did was interesting. In life, eating and drinking are the two things. For a rich and powerful old man to only be able to eat plain soup is a kind of torture!

The Ming officials were both truly poor and truly rich. Back when Zhu Yuanzhang was conquering the world with a group of old buddies, these old men had plenty of goodies! Whenever they broke into a city, these guys would rush into the homes of the wealthy officials and rob them. On the day the capital fell, this group of people made a killing!

No one in the Huaixi noble group was short of money. A sixth-rank official in the Imperial Medical Bureau, like Xu Huizhen, could only receive 120 dan of rice every year. This little money was not enough for anything. However, the imperial physicians were all skilled people, and none of them relied on salary to live.

Xu Huizhen now easily earned tens of thousands of taels every year. Not only did she receive treatment from high-ranking officials, but also from wealthy merchants. They were all extremely polite and generous with their money. No one would be willing to consult such an expensive doctor for minor ailments. Xu Huizhen was usually consulted for difficult and complicated ailments. The medical fees were pouring into the family.

Mrs. Ding was now filled with pride every day. Her daughter-in-law was filial, her grandson was well-behaved, and the family had no financial worries. Mrs. Ding lived the life of a noblewoman, enjoying great prestige at ancestral worship and sister-in-law gatherings. She now pampered Xu Huizhen at home. If Xu Huizhen mentioned something delicious, Mrs. Ding would have it delivered right to her the next day. As for mother-in-law imposing rules on her daughter-in-law, that was out of the question. Mrs. Ding was not one to tease her daughter-in-law; they were considerate of each other. Life was quite good.

In the 16th year of the Hongwu reign, Xu Huizhen was making pills at home when she was taken to the residence of Li Wenzhong, Duke of Cao. Duke Cao had just returned from the battlefield and had barely enjoyed his days when he suddenly fell ill. Li Wenzhong was Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew, so Zhu Yuanzhang rushed to visit him. The entire Imperial Hospital was mobilized, including Xu Huizhen, who was unemployed at home. She was also taken to the residence of Duke Cao.

Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting in Li Wenzhong's room with a serious face, and a group of imperial doctors took turns taking the pulse of the pale-faced Li Wenzhong.

The imperial physicians, all with pale faces, diagnosed that it was a stroke. However, after taking medicine and applying acupuncture, Li Wenzhong just didn't move or open his eyes. Zhu Yuanzhang looked very unhappy. He didn't have many relatives and many people died of starvation during the famine. So he valued this only surviving nephew very much.

Seeing Xu Huizhen coming, she hurriedly said, "Xu girl, please take Baoer's pulse. He's been given so many injections and still isn't waking up. It's frustrating!"

Xu Huizhen's pulse number one: This isn't an easily treatable disease. It's a stroke, a life-threatening condition.

"Your Majesty, Duke Cao has suffered a stroke. The situation is not auspicious. Now we can only do our best and leave the rest to fate. Even if he is lucky enough to be saved, there will probably be sequelae.

Zhu Yuanzhang automatically filtered out the rest and only heard the words "luckily saved":

"Xu girl, you must be lucky. Bao'er has been following me on many campaigns and hasn't had a single day of comfort. He's only 46, and Jinglong is only 14. What will happen if something happens to him?"

Li Jinglong, who was standing next to him, whimpered a few times, which made Xu Huizhen feel overwhelmed. If Li Wenzhong died today, these people would be in trouble because of all the accusations made against them.

Xu Huizhen ordered the Cao family to bring ice. Wealthy households like the Cao family had ice rooms, and soon a basket of ice arrived. Xu Huizhen asked the kitchen to bring a whole cow's stomach, poured ice into it, and made a simple ice pillow, which she then had shoved under Li Wenzhong's head.

Thirty-six needles flew out of her hand, a row of silver needles flashed with cold light, the needle ends trembling slightly, the sound of needle drops could be heard throughout the room, no one dared to breathe loudly, Xu Huizhen dissolved two freshly made Niuhuang Angong Pills in water, that is, the pills Xu Huizhen made at home were Angong Pills.

In ancient times, there were no animals that needed to be protected. Medicinal materials such as rhinoceros horn, bezoar, musk, and borneol were all purely natural. How could Xu Huizhen miss such an opportunity? She made various finished Chinese medicines at home.

It was also a coincidence that two days ago, an old cow in the farmyard of Duke Wei's mansion fell into a ditch and broke its leg. The servant reported it to the authorities and the cow was killed. Who would have thought that half a pound of bezoar was found in the cow's gallbladder. Duke Wei's mouth was blistered at the time, and Xu Huizhen prescribed Qing Pills for Xu Da, but after searching for them, she only gave him six pills.

Xu Da was furious at Xu Huizhen's stingy look. "Xu girl, are these medicines made of gold? How can you be so stingy? This is not even enough for an old man like me to fill my teeth. I need to prepare a hundred pills."

Xu Huizhen's face was full of pain. "My dear Duke, you just need to eat less meat to treat your illness. I finally managed to find some ox gallstones and made this medicine. Is it easy? Do you think you can eat 100 pills like a meal?"

Xu Da grasped the key point: "I thought it was something good, you ignorant little girl. It turns out to be bezoar. We have it at home. The farm gave away half a pound of it when we slaughtered a cow. It's rare in the Central Plains, but there are plenty of it on the grasslands. Just ask someone to keep an eye out for you."

Xu Da was showing off his own bezoar like a child. Xu Huizhen couldn't bear to see the old man showing off so much, so she exchanged a bottle of Qingxin Pills and a bottle of Shangqing Pills for the bezoar from the old man. She went home and happily prepared thousands of Angong Pills, which took her three days to make.