The young man before his eyes was definitely a cultivator, Huang Yaoshi thought secretly.
Though he was wearing a pair of glasses, the light blue lenses concealed the sharpness in his eyes, yet by the robust and powerful breathing he possessed, remaining unperturbed by the bitter cold, one could discern something was amiss.
Zhou Ziang had visited the pharmacy once before; it was Mei Nian who had served him that time. Huang Yaoshi was busy with his own matters, so he did not pay attention to him.
Mei Nian was not around, and Huang Yaoshi thought of keeping an eye on the little apprentice nephew for his boss’s wife, so he couldn’t help but be a bit more strict.
The young man that Xiao Xian had brought was overly handsome, possibly even more silver-tongued, and Xiao Xian was still young. It would be terrible if he were swindled.
Zhou Ziang, under the scrupulous and guarded gaze of Huang Yaoshi, was actually quite open and unaffected, not showing the slightest bit of strangeness. This only added to Huang Yaoshi’s astonishment based on his posed behavior.
"Master Huang, what’s entertaining you so much? Is the ginseng usable?" Xiao Xian, hearing about ginseng over the phone, guessed it must be related to the ginseng in the store. Mei Nian hadn’t returned from the northeast yet, so the ginseng Huang Yaoshi referred to must be the batch from the Wanlin Hills that she brought.
Since the ginseng had passed muster, the quality of the other herbs could also be assured, and thinking he could help solve the pharmacy’s urgent needs, Xiao Xian felt very happy.
Huang Yaoshi stroked his beard, his eyes darting across Zhou Ziang’s face a few times.
"He is someone I found to help improve the medicinal formula; in fact... The hangover medicine recipe that you’ve seen, we collaborated to e up with it," Xiao Xian, not catching on to Huang Yaoshi’s inexplicable concerns, divulged Zhou Ziang and the hangover medicine matter in order to reassure Huang Yaoshi with more confidence.
"Learned in Western pharmacology, yet seeking to improve traditional Chinese medicine? Young man, it’s not that this old man doesn’t trust you, but how do I know that you are not here to steal the formulas," stealing formulas was indeed a minor matter. Different people need different medication dosages, and if Xiao Xian is deceived and a pregnant woman is harmed, that would be a serious matter.
"Old sir, although I may not be highly skilled in traditional Chinese medicine, I still can differentiate some of it. For example, these few ginseng plants you have displayed on the counter, they are quite a subject to study," Zhou Ziang, avoiding Huang Yaoshi’s challenging questions with veiled barbs, walked straight to the counter and picked up two ginseng plants that Huang Yaoshi had placed there.
Only Mei Nian, Huang Yaoshi, and Xiao Xian knew about the break in ginseng supply for the "Plum Rice Ball." What Zhou Ziang had in his hands was the precious ginseng that allowed Huang Yaoshi to hold his head high, the same ginseng Xiao Xian brought a few days earlier.
Huang Yaoshi only brought out two of the plants, the remaining twenty were still in processing.
When Xiao Xian first picked the ginseng from Wanlin Hills, they were all fresh ginseng. Fresh ginseng could be used to steep in wine, or to cook in dishes and stews, but it wasn’t suitable to sell directly in the pharmacy. The ginseng sold in stores were dried ginseng.
Although all were ginseng, the uses of fresh ginseng and dried ginseng were vastly different.
Most fresh ginseng are garden ginseng, excellent for steeping in wine, but raw, unprocessed ginseng is hard to dissolve in soup. Therefore, the ginseng used for medicine in households is generally dried ginseng, sliced and preserved, not consumed all at once but over several months or even half a year. Good ginseng, once dried, increases significantly in value.
The recent weather was a mix of rain and snow, making it inconvenient to choose a good day to dry the ginseng, and it was unknown by what method Huang Yaoshi managed to dry the ginseng so well, giving it a surface appearance indistinguishable from hundred-year-old ginseng.
Huang Yaoshi intended to test Zhou Ziang, so he winked at Xiao Xian, signaling her to keep quiet.
When Xiao Xian had initially brought back those herbs, Huang Yaoshi simply accepted them, not because he thought Xiao Xian was exaggerating. Given Xiao Xian’s young age, it was impossible for him to have cultivated so many precious herbs. Each herb requires an extremely demanding growing environment, not to mention ginseng which has nearly impossible demands.
After Huang Yaoshi sent the herbs to a specialized processor and carefully analyzed the herbs and ginseng Xiao Xian had brought, setting aside other considerations, the efficacy of each was almost indistinguishable from wild herbs, with some even superior. After drying and processing the herbs, even placed on the counter, Huang Yaoshi himself could hardly identify them.
"What wisdom is there? Please enlighten me," Huang Yaoshi strutted to the inside of the counter and took out a magnifying glass and a brass medicine scale. To judge the quality of ginseng, one must inspect from the ginseng head to the roots, without missing a single area. As for weight, that’s another matter; it’s not the case that the older the ginseng, the heavier it is. Taking the most mon garden ginseng as an example, after five to six years, it should be harvested. Beyond that, with the loss of soil nutrients, the weight of the ginseng does not increase, and it may even wither. Hence, garden ginseng typically weighs around 100 grams.
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