Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

Ignoring Ji Manqing's gesture, Ji Yongling said to Liang Jifa, "Thank you, Uncle Liang and Uncle Xu. I guarantee the quality of the medicinal herbs delivered by the Ji family. But may I make another request?"

Xu Shirong raised an eyebrow.

Liang Jifa leaned back a little more and laughed, "What? What are you up to now, young friend?"

Ji Yongling smiled, bowed and said, "Uncle Liang, please don't think I'm being presumptuous. I would like to ask you to let us make your shop's ordinary medicine pouches."

She had already looked them over. Both Liang Jifa and Xu Shirong had medicine pouches on their bodies, but Liang Jifa's medicine pouch was made of silk with embroidery, which looked very high-end and befitting the status of the owner of a large pharmacy.

Xu Shirong's medicine pouch was much simpler, made of coarse cloth without any decorations or even tassels.

Liang Jifa looked Ji Yongling up and down, then sighed: "Kid, should I praise you for being fearless like a newborn calf, or for catching a fly on a lion's head—you've got some nerve."

Xu Shirong shook his head with a smile: "You little rascal, you have no idea how many embroidery workshops are eyeing the medicine pouch business of Jishi Pharmacy. Not many people in our small town buy medicine pouches, but in the prefecture, not to mention the high-ranking officials and nobles, even the maids and servants in wealthy families wear medicine pouches."

Upon hearing this, Ji Manchuan's heart skipped a beat, and he nervously tugged at Ji Yongling's sleeve.

Ji Yongling kept his eyes fixed on Liang Jifa without glancing to the side.

Ji Yongling knew that the ancients had a custom of wearing sachets, but in the Northwest, people preferred to wear medicine sachets. Firstly, the medicine sachets could emit fragrance, and secondly, wearing sachets could cleanse impurities and prevent illness.

Ancient physicians believed that fragrance could dispel disease, so people often wore sachets to protect themselves from illness.

In Ningping County, for example, there's a saying: "Wear a sachet of fragrant herbs, and you won't be afraid of the five pests." Every year during the Dragon Boat Festival in May, people would insert mugwort leaves and wear herbal sachets to ward off evil spirits and impurities.

Liang Jifa was still pondering. In their pharmacy, this medicine pouch business was only a few copper coins' worth of profit—small investment, small profit. But the large volume and low loss rate made it irresistible, and the embroidery shop owner who was taking on this business had powerful connections, so they couldn't afford to offend him easily.

This is quite a dilemma.

Seeing that Liang Jifa looked somewhat troubled, Ji Yongling said, "Uncle Liang, I won't take this business from you for nothing. I don't know if you're going to send medicine bags to the south this time? If you are, I only ask for the order for the southern epidemic prevention medicine bags this time, and I'm willing to contribute the prescription for another medicine bag."

Liang Jifa's eyes lit up, then he regained his composure and nodded, saying, "It's to send a batch of medicine pouches over in the name of my Jishi Pharmacy. If it's just this batch of medicine pouches, then I can make the decision right now and hand it over to you. But I can't ask for your prescriptions too, or it would make me seem like I'm greedy and insatiable."

Xu Shirong also laughed and said, "Young friend, your prescriptions are truly inexhaustible, but there's no need to use them all at once. You should always keep some for yourself."

Ji Yongling smiled, knowing that she certainly didn't rely on these ineffective remedies.

She glanced at the old doctor who was busy seeing patients at the other end of the shop and said, "The prescriptions are developed to treat illnesses and save lives. If they are held by one person, they can only save one or a few people. If they are shared with the world, they can save thousands of people."

Liang Jifa and Xu Shirong both stood up, bowed, and said, "Young friend, you are very righteous! We are not worthy of your praise."

Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing were startled by the two men's actions. The two brothers exchanged a glance, and Ji Manchuan said, "Masters, please don't do this. It's too much for the children."

Liang Jifa waved his hand and said, "Young friend, you are worth it."

Ji Yongling clasped his hands in a fist and said, "I dare not accept such praise. The prescription I'm about to share is actually quite simple: 4 qian of Atractylodes lancea, 3 qian of Ligusticum chuanxiong, 3 qian of Angelica dahurica, 4 qian of Artemisia argyi, 3 qian of Pogostemon cablin, 3 qian of Eupatorium fortunei, 1 qian of Mentha haplocalyx, and 3 qian of Acorus tatarinowii. Grind them into powder, put them in a medicine bag, and carry it with you. It can dispel foul odors, invigorate the spleen, clear turbidity, and open the orifices and unblock the meridians."

Xu Shirong quickly bent down and wrote it down on a piece of paper.

Liang Jifa stroked his beard and nodded approvingly.

After a moment of silence, Ji Yongling asked a question he had wanted to ask for a long time: "Uncle Liang, what you really care about isn't the profits from these medicinal herbs and medicine pouches, is it?"

Liang Jifa paused, stroking his beard, and after a long while said, "That's right, young friend, you guessed correctly."

Xu Shirong was somewhat confused. He turned to look at Liang Jifa blankly, and after a moment, he seemed to understand something. His Xu Family Pharmacy and Jishi Pharmacy were founded almost at the same time, but now one has branches in many places, while the other is still stuck in one corner, barely making ends meet. The difference must be related to the vision of the people in charge.

Comparing yourself to others will only make you miserable; a mule can't carry a load as well as a horse.

"Sigh—" Xu Shirong sighed softly.

"Then it's settled. I'll have Manager Wang discuss the rest with you in detail." Liang Jifa glanced towards the door and saw his servants waving at him. He then clasped his hands in greeting to the group and said, "I've gained a lot from this trip to Ningping County. Especially from meeting such a clever child as you, young friend. Thank you, young friend, and thank you, Shirong. Farewell, everyone."

After seeing Liang Jifa off, Ji Yongling and the others were about to leave as well. Before leaving, she remembered the mugwort floss and asked, "Uncle, do you sell fine mugwort floss here?"

Xu Shirong was taken aback for a moment, and said, "What? Isn't there only one type of moxa wool, and it comes in different coarse and fine varieties?"

Ji Yongling understood. It seemed that the production of moxa wool was still in a relatively rudimentary stage at this time. So he said to Xu Shirong, "If moxa wool could be made into finer wool than it is now, would you buy it?"

“Oh, even finer? That’s great! We can sell it to those nobles at a high price, so they won’t complain about using the same stuff as peasants. But my place is small and I don’t have many nobles. Guangfa Pharmacy will definitely buy it,” Xu Shirong said with a smile.

Ji Yongling smiled, pursing her lips.

It seems that no matter the era, people like to regard material consumption as one of the standards for measuring social status and identity, and the rich always consume some expensive things to show their difference.

She then asked Xu Shirong for some mugwort floss from the shop to examine it carefully. After having a general idea in mind, she said goodbye and left.

What she didn't know was that no sooner had they left than Hu Ji's sister-in-law and her own son and daughter-in-law arrived at Xu's Pharmacy with their grandson.

The group went straight to the old doctor sitting by the window as they entered.

Hu Jipo's sister-in-law said, "Dr. Xu, please take a look. This child has been taking medicine for three days, but his stomach is still not getting better. It still hurts from time to time. What should we do?"

Dr. Xu was Xu Shirong's second uncle. The Xu family had been practicing medicine for generations. After opening a pharmacy, they divided their children into two groups: those with a talent for medicine followed the medicine-learning and prescription-writing, while those without talent learned the medicine-learning and running the pharmacy.

The Xu family was not large. When it came to Xu Shirong's generation, he took over the shop and continued to run it, while his father's only brother, Uncle Xu Er, took his son to practice medicine and treat patients.