You are unlucky and I am tough

"Is there something wrong with you two?" Cheng Lizheng saw the expressions of the two and asked with a smile.

Cheng Shuang nodded, "Master Lizheng, Qinglang knows Gastrodia elata because he has seen it in my medical books."

"Medical book?"

Cheng Li was puzzled, "How come you have a medical book?"

Cheng Shuang picked up another piece of duck meat for Cheng Lizheng and said, "My master gave it to me. He is an extremely skilled doctor."

"Wait..." Cheng Lizheng became more and more confused. "Cheng Shuang, when did you get a master?"

Cheng Shuang glanced at Wei Qinglang again and simply put down her chopsticks. "It's like this, Village Chief, the last time I came to the county, I met a wandering doctor. He said I was a rare medical genius that only appears once in a century. He chased me and wanted to take me as his apprentice. I saw that his medical skills were indeed very impressive, so I became his disciple.

I've been coming to the county town quite often lately to learn medicine from my master. He's a very eccentric person and he wouldn't let me tell anyone, saying he's old and doesn't have much time left, so he wants to pass on his medical skills to me before he dies. There's no need to tell anyone who he is."

"The wandering miracle doctor accepted you as his apprentice?" Cheng Li was listening to this strange story and was a little bit unbelieving.

Cheng Shuang, a woman, was actually able to be diagnosed as a doctor by a miracle doctor.

"Oh, by the way, Grandpa Lizheng, my master also knows about the Chengjia Village's head disease."

Cheng Shuang didn't give the old man a chance to ponder the matter, and quickly diverted his attention, saying, "He went to Goutou Town and found that many people in the town had headaches. He took the pulses of several of them, and then went back to research a cure. He said he would teach me, so I learned how to treat those people!"

Cheng Lizheng was completely stunned, his hands shaking as he held the chopsticks. After a long pause, he said, "Are you saying that the headaches that the villagers have been unable to cure for decades can be completely cured?"

Cheng Shuang nodded seriously, "Yes, it's not like other doctors use medicine to temporarily suppress it. My master said it's a complete cure, and it won't recur in the future."

To Cheng Lizheng's shock, Cheng Shuang told him in detail what caused the disease, how to treat it, how long it would take, what medicinal herbs would be needed, etc.

Cheng Lizheng took in too much information at once. It took him a long time to recover, and then he began to be ecstatic.

If this is true, the villagers in the village, especially the future generations, will no longer have to suffer from headaches.

The three of them chatted for a long time. After Cheng Lizheng calmed down from his excitement, he began to consider practical issues.

"You just said that this disease requires Gastrodia elata. This medicine is so expensive. How can the villagers afford it? Every household in the village has several adults suffering from headaches. They would have to sell their fields to afford the medicine."

Cheng Li was feeling frustrated, "If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have sold that Gastrodia elata."

"Don't worry." Cheng Shuang comforted him, "There are Gastrodia elata in the old forest of our village. We can go into the mountains to look for them when the time comes. The environment of the old forest is suitable for the growth of Gastrodia elata, so there must be more than one.

Furthermore, the amount of Gastrodia elata used is very small. The one you sold this morning was enough for almost a hundred people. Of the ten prescriptions I mentioned, only the first three, for the first three days, required Gastrodia elata. The total cost of those three prescriptions was about six or seven taels of silver.

If we can find Gastrodia elata, we can deduct the cost of buying it, and the other herbs combined for ten sets will only cost about eight or nine coins."

Cheng Shuang said this with confidence. With the mall around, she had nothing to worry about. If she couldn't find new Gastrodia elata in the old forest, she would just buy a few from the mall. If the efficacy wasn't as good as that of pure wild ones, she could adjust the prescription.

Wei Qinglang also said: "When the time comes, the village head can ask a few villagers to go into the mountains with me to look for medicinal herbs."

"Yes, yes, there must be some in the mountains. Once we get the Gastrodia elata, everything else will be easy." Cheng Lizheng nodded repeatedly as he listened.

Then he agreed to Cheng Shuang's suggestion not to make the matter public first, and took the initiative to ask Cheng Shuang to use him for experiments first, and tell the villagers the good news if he was really cured.

Cheng Lizheng didn't know how to express his excitement at the moment. The headache had caused the people around their Chengjia Village to suffer for decades. Even in the prosperous Daliang Dynasty when the weather was good and the country was peaceful and the people were safe, their villages were poorer than other villages.

Girls cannot marry outside the village, and men cannot marry outside the village, so they can only marry back and forth between several nearby villages.

If the headache can be cured, life in the village will be better and future generations will not have to suffer.

.

After the meal, Cheng Lizheng paid the bill of 780 wen.

After coming out of the restaurant, the old man was still in a good mood. When he heard Cheng Shuang say that she was going to buy something, he immediately said that he also wanted to buy something to take home.

The three of them went to a spice shop first. Cheng Shuang bought star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, bay leaves, cumin, and other spices. She also bought a few bags of spices, but she couldn't find cardamom and cloves.

After going out, she found a herbal medicine shop and bought cloves and cardamom.

After buying everything here, the donkey cart went to the grocery store.

Cheng Li was just about to buy some salt, soy sauce, and vegetable seeds for his family. The food at home was enough for the family to eat until the autumn harvest, so there was no need to buy more food.

"Shuang girl." Cheng Li was sitting in the donkey cart looking at the things Cheng Shuang bought and asked curiously, "What are you buying these things for?"

"Make spice bags." Cheng Shuang lowered her head and sorted the things in the backpack.

She casually explained, "My master is a foodie, and he taught me how to use these herbs to make spiced braised meat. We have too much wild boar meat at home, and I want to make it into braised meat. Once it's air-dried, it can be stored for a long time. I'll give you a piece when it's ready to try."

Cheng Lizheng stroked his graying beard and said, "That old man must be a remarkable man."

Cheng Shuang smiled and said nothing.

When he arrived at the grocery store, Cheng Lizheng bought salt and soy sauce. He bought a pound of salt at 80 cents per pound, and a dou of soy sauce at 70 cents per dou, which weighed about 500 grams.

Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang also bought some, but they didn't dare to buy too much. They bought a pound of salt and two buckets of soy sauce.

Then they discovered ginger and bought a pound of it for three cents.

Cheng Shuang also bought some white sugar, which was quite expensive, so she bought a pound at 60 wen.

Afterwards they went to the bookstore to buy some paper, as their younger siblings at home studied and practiced calligraphy every day, so they wasted a lot of paper.

Cheng Shuang still remembered to buy snacks for her younger brother and sister-in-law, so she picked out a bag of snacks for each of them when she passed by the snack shop. When Cheng Lizheng came, he also brought a bag for each of the grandchildren in the family.

Cheng Shuang also bought three strings of candied haws on the street. The three of them shared one string and took the remaining two strings back to their younger brother and sister-in-law.

Finally, the donkey cart arrived at Roushi Street. The three got off and walked, while Wei Qinglang led the donkey cart.

Cheng Shuang bought enough spices and thought of braising some domestic pork in addition to wild boar meat.

There were no refrigerators in this dynasty, so the braising liquid was easy to preserve by drying it in the air. This way, people could eat meat every day without having to buy it every day.

Pork cost thirty cents per pound. She bought two pig's trotters, five pounds of pork belly and half a pig's head, spending four hundred and fifty cents.

Cheng Lizheng only bought pork fat at six cents a pound, and bought three pounds to go back and make lard.

Seeing that he was not planning to buy any more, Wei Qinglang asked, "Grandpa Lizheng, aren't you going to buy two pounds of meat to take back?"

Cheng Lizheng shook his head. "You gave me pheasants and rabbits before. We still have some wild boar meat at home. We've already eaten enough fat, so we won't buy any more. The pig fat can also be a meat dish after it's been boiled."

Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang looked at each other with the same expression, well, they were too extravagant and didn't know how to live.

On the way back to the village, Cheng Lizheng saw that they bought so many things but no seeds, so he asked them what they planned to plant on the five acres of land. Wei Qinglang said that they had not decided yet and needed to discuss it again.

Cheng Lizheng knew that they were not short of food now, so he didn't ask too many questions. At worst, they could just leave the land empty until the autumn planting season and then plant grain.

After returning to Chengjia Village, the donkey cart first sent Cheng Lizheng home and then turned back.

Wei Changgui and Luo Erniu, who were sitting and talking on the ridge of a field not far away, stretched their necks to watch the donkey cart go away.

Luo Erniu said, "Your third son is really becoming more and more capable. It hasn't been long since the family was divided, but he already has farmland and land. He built a new house on more than three acres of land, and the family also bought a donkey cart."

"Hmph, I don't care. Other people's seeds can never be tamed no matter how many years they are raised." Wei Changgui actually felt a little regretful in his heart, but he still spoke stubbornly.

"It's not like I don't have my own son, so why should I rely on him to live a good life?"

"Nanxing is also your biological son." Luo Erniu said with a calculating look on his face, "If Nanxing follows him now, his life will get better and better in the future. I'm afraid he will be taught bad habits and won't know how to respect you."

"He dares?" Wei Changgui glared at his son. If his son didn't support his parents, his spine would be broken.

"So I asked you to consider my suggestion of marrying Cuihua to Nanxing. With Cuihua around, given our relationship as old brothers, she will definitely persuade Nanxing to side with you."

Wei Changgui thought about it carefully and waved his hand, "I'll think about it again."

Although the two had a good relationship, he began to look down on the Luo family after he got seventy taels.

Luo Cuihua's looks were too good for his son, but he also felt that what Luo Erniu said made sense. Wei Nanxing was his son and he would be the one to take care of him in his old age. He couldn't be corrupted by Wei Qinglang.