CHAPTER 666: CHAPTER 52: 1+1=3

After the exceptional ginseng assessment just now, Huang Yaoshi had also come to trust Zhou Ziang, and the prescription he sent over included an additional herb.

"How come there’s another type of bamboo shoots?" Xiao Xian noticed an extra herb in the prescription.

"The antiemetic you want to make, in traditional Chinese medicine, is based on the Yin and Yang theory; the drug making needs to consider each person’s Yin and Yang constitution. Your aunt is suitable for orange peel and ginger juice drink, but not everyone is. There are also people with a Yang-hot constitution, who would only have their Yang-fire exacerbated by taking your devised medicine." After sending Zhuo Feng and his wife away, Huang Yaoshi studied the hangover medicine that Xiao Xian had bought in detail. Impressed, he grew more confident in Westernized Chinese medicine, so he turned to the medical books to find a new convenient experimental antiemetic prescription.

"A single-agent drug is more convenient to synthesize than a two-agent drug; as for selecting the herbs, I’ll leave that to you." When the hangover medicine officially hit the market, Zhou Ziang also bought some to satisfy his curiosity about how Xiao Xian and her team had improved the condensed herbs, despite the loss of components and medicinal effects.

This time, upon meeting Xiao Xian, he learned that she had chosen the most foolish yet simplest method: using older herbs.

"No problem, but I need Master Huang to do me a favor by providing some herbs for preliminary testing." Xiao Xian didn’t request to check the inventory of the pharmacy as she did for the hangover medicine, but instead picked out some of the most common orange peel, old ginger, and bamboo shoots at random.

Huang Yaoshi found her choice curious and couldn’t help reminding her, "Xiao Xian, the herbs you’ve chosen are quite common, and these orange peels are freshly harvested this year."

"It’s fine, for the herbs I just asked for, give me three bags of each... not enough, make it ten bags." Xiao Xian was unapologetic; with the ever-nagging Mei Nian absent, she treated the "Plum Rice Ball" as if it were her own backyard.

Zhou Ziang watched Xiao Xian’s approach thoughtfully; it seemed that he also understood what Xiao Xian was planning to do next.

Packed tightly into thirty bags of ginger, orange peel, and bamboo shoots, they were spread out in Bai Juyi’s old house.

Zhuo Feng was admitted to Si Yiyi Hospital, and Feng Xing, being an overly devoted husband, flat out declined the hospital’s nursing care, shuttling back and forth daily between the Agricultural Specialty Store and the hospital. Bai Juyi’s house, which had been set up earlier, was also tidied up.

It was rather inconvenient to stay at Mao Dazhu’s house, and though Xue Rou was very welcoming toward Xiao Xian at the Zeng Family’s house, there were things that were better not done there. Therefore, after some consideration, Xiao Xian decided to move into Bai Juyi’s unoccupied commercial apartment.

After more than a year, from the downtown area to the suburbs, and back from the suburbs to the downtown, when Xiao Xian used the key given to her by Mao Dazhu to open Bai Juyi’s door, the stuffiness of the room from not being aired out for so long made her pause slightly.

Mao Dazhu was somewhat worried when he heard she would be living alone in Bai Juyi’s old house. Although Bai Juyi died in a hospital, he had lived in that old house for decades, and it concerned him that Xiao Xian would be there by herself.

However, a few sincere words from Xiao Xian moved Mao Dazhu to tears, "Mr. Bai and his wife are my mentors, who would be afraid of their own mentors? He lived alone throughout his life; let me, an unworthy disciple who appeared halfway, help clean up his house after his death."

Although it’s called an old house, thanks to Mao Dazhu’s periodic cleaning and Feng Xing’s tidying up, everything from curtains to bedding had been changed. The decorations in the house had also been replaced; the only thing reminiscent of Bai Juyi was the black and white photo hanging in the entrance hall next to a picture of a blooming "Shen Zhou Red Snow" Daffodil.

Xiao Xian quickly tidied up the house and then went out to the balcony to take a look.

After Zhuo Feng and her husband left, the balcony garden had been neglected. The property management had locked the stairwell door; upon unlocking it, the vegetable patches and soil were scattered to one side.

The new owners of Zhuo Feng’s apartment were a couple of civil servants who were not at home during the day, so Xiao Xian didn’t bother to pay them a visit.

Looking down from the rooftop, Xiao Xian felt as if she had returned to several years ago, when she and Zhuo Feng and her husband came back from school just to find vegetables falling from the sky onto Xiao Xiao Otuo.

Over the past year, thanks to the crops from Yanqing Farm and Xiao Xian’s occasional cushions and fresh fruits of Hairy Crab and Sea Buckthorn, the Agricultural Specialty Store made over a hundred thousand in income after costs last year, plus the money from selling the house. Next year, once Zhuo Feng gives birth, Feng Xing plans to apply for a bank loan to rent more land in Yanqing and expand both the Agricultural Specialty Store and the farm.