Jie Jingchen pushed Jie Jingshan’s wheelchair ahead of them while Qin i followed behind, looking around in awe, filled with emotion.
If she hadn’t traveled back in ti from a later era, she would have found it hard to imagine Huaxia’s soaring future developnt.
At the sa ti, Qin i silently morized the route so she wouldn’t get lost the next ti she went out.
Just as Qin i had expected, Jie Jingchen took her to a state-run traditional Chinese dicine shop. Only two custors were waiting inside, and behind the counter, a pharmacist was weighing herbs on a traditional scale.
When it was Qin i’s turn, she took a prescription out of her small crossbody bag and gave it to the pharmacist.
The pharmacist glanced at it, then turned to fill the prescription.
Once the herbs were ready, Qin i handed the pharmacist another prescription.
The pharmacist looked at it, his eyes wide with shock. "You..."
"You don’t have any of them?" Qin i asked with a smile.
The pharmacist, stunned, stared at Qin i with suspicion and asked an unrelated question. "Comrade, who wrote this prescription for you?"
"My grandpa," Qin i answered with a sweet smile. She knew he wouldn’t believe soone her age could have written it. To avoid trouble, she lied and said it was her grandpa, which he should find more plausible.
’Grandpa?’ Jie Jingchen’s eye twitched. ’She lies so effortlessly.’
Qin Xiang had told him a lot about the Qin family. Grandpa Qin had passed away long ago. Besides, the Qin family was not a family of traditional Chinese doctors.
Hearing her answer, the pharmacist was less shocked. He said, "There are two herbs here that we don’t have in the shop."
"That’s fine. Just give what you have. I’ll get the rest elsewhere," Qin i said with a gentle smile. This was better than she had expected.
The pharmacist let out a cold laugh. "Comrade, I can guarantee that if we don’t have an herb, no other pharmacy will either."
Qin i smiled but said nothing. ’If I can’t buy them in a shop, I’ll go find them in the mountains.’
Seeing this, the pharmacist said no more and simply filled the rest of the prescription.
The several packets of herbs were quite expensive. Even Jie Jingchen was surprised when he paid. Qin i didn’t think about the price; she never did when it ca to dicine.
After leaving the pharmacy, Jie Jingchen asked, "Which two herbs are missing?"
"You wouldn’t know them even if I told you," Qin i said, glancing around and secretly morizing the pharmacy’s location.
Seeing that she was unwilling to say, Jie Jingchen didn’t press her. "Where to now?"
"The black market," Qin i blurted out.
Jie Jingchen’s face darkened. Jie Jingshan also looked worried, her eyes darting around nervously as she whispered a warning, "Fourth Sister-in-law, be careful what you say."
"Is it that serious? It’s not like I’m going there for illegal speculation and profiteering." Qin i felt no remorse. Instead, she faced Jie Jingchen and asked, "What’s more important: your principles and stance, or treating your sister’s legs?"
Jie Jingchen stared at her and asked in a cold voice, "You think they’ll have them at the black market?"
"Maybe, maybe not. It’s not certain. We can try our luck. If we get lucky and they have them, we won’t need to go to the countryside and risk searching in mountains where we don’t know the terrain," Qin i said.
She wasn’t familiar with the local terrain, especially in the city. It would be easier in the countryside, like at Dazhuang Village. Although she had never been in the mountains there, her intuition told her they held many valuable treasures.
The villagers in Dazhuang Village were mostly conservative. The few opportunists among them only went into the mountains to hunt and wouldn’t think of looking for dicinal herbs. Besides, they only recognized common herbs and treated any they didn’t know as weeds.
"Let’s go to the hospital first," Jie Jingchen said, persuaded by Qin i.
"You think the hospital has them?" Qin i asked. If she could get them through official channels, that would be fine too. The hospital, the black market—it didn’t matter, as long as she could get the herbs.
"Mom works at the hospital." Jie Jingchen paused, then added, "Everyone needs to work together to treat Jing Qi’s legs. If Mom can get them, we’ll let her handle it. If she can’t, then we’ll try our luck at the black market."
"No problem," Qin i said, raising both hands in agreent. "It wouldn’t be convenient to push Jing Qi to the black market anyway. Leaving her with Mom at the hospital is better than taking her with us."
Jie Jingchen said nothing. That was exactly what he ant, he just hadn’t said it so bluntly. Qin i, however, had spelled it out directly.
The pharmacy was right next to the hospital. Just as they pushed Jing Qi into the departnt where Mrs. Xie worked, one of her colleagues saw them. Spotting them pushing Jing Qi toward the hospital, the colleague turned and ran toward Mrs. Xie’s office.
"Director, bad news! Sothing’s happened to your daughter!" she yelled as she ran.
Qin i stopped in her tracks, utterly bewildered.
’What is going on?’
"What happened to Jing Qi?" Mrs. Xie rushed out of her office frantically, her face full of worry. She nearly stumbled when she finally reached them.
"Mom, calm down. Jing Qi is fine," Jie Jingchen said, steadying Mrs. Xie by her shoulders.
"Mom, nothing happened to ," Jie Jingshan, in her wheelchair, also chid in to reassure her.
Mrs. Xie pushed Jie Jingchen aside and crouched in front of Jie Jingshan. She cupped her daughter’s face with trembling hands, then checked her all over. Only after confirming that she was okay did Mrs. Xie breathe a sigh of relief. "What’s going on?"
"Mom, Fourth Brother and Fourth Sister-in-law brought out to buy dicine," Jie Jingshan said.
"Buy dicine?" Worry clouded Mrs. Xie’s lovely eyes again as she asked with urgent concern, "Are you sick?"
"No, I’m not sick..."
"Then who’s sick?" Mrs. Xie cut Jie Jingshan off, looking up at Jie Jingchen and Qin i. They didn’t look sick either.
"Mom, it’s not about being sick. Fourth Sister-in-law is going to treat my legs. We ca out to get the herbs," Jie Jingshan explained.
’Treat her legs? Get herbs?’ Qin i had indeed ntioned it after dinner last night.
Mrs. Xie simply hadn’t expected Qin i to be such a woman of action. She had only ntioned it last night, and today she was already on the move, even bringing Jie Jingshan out with her...
Wait a minute. It was only then that Mrs. Xie noticed the change in her daughter. The once gloomy girl now seed as lively and cheerful as she was before the accident. The once-insecure girl now looked much more confident.
More importantly, her daughter had previously been unwilling to even leave her own room, let alone go outside.
For four years, she had barely left the house except for her leg treatnts.
Today, her daughter was also talking more.
Mrs. Xie stood up, her gaze on Qin i a complex mix of emotions. She knew perfectly well that her daughter’s sudden transformation was inextricably linked to Qin i, and she knew why Qin i had been able to change her daughter.
While she felt grateful and relieved, she couldn’t help but also feel a little worried.
She was truly afraid of her daughter once again having to endure devastating disappointnt after getting her hopes up.
"Qin i," Mrs. Xie began, her voice pained. With her daughter present, there were so questions she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
"Mom, we couldn’t get two of the herbs. Could you see if there’s a way?" Qin i smiled and handed the prescription to Mrs. Xie.
Mrs. Xie’s eyes flickered. She hesitated for a few seconds before taking the prescription from Qin i’s hand. Looking at the marked items, she saw which two herbs they were, and a trace of surprise flashed through her eyes.
Her specialty was Western dicine, not Chinese dicine. She didn’t know many Chinese herbs, but as it happened, she knew these two.
"Does the hospital have them?" Qin i asked.
Mrs. Xie shook her head. "No."
A flash of disappointnt crossed Qin i’s almond-shaped eyes, but then she smiled. "That’s okay. I’ll find another way."
"These two herbs are very expensive," Mrs. Xie said.
Jie Jingchen was shocked. If even his mom said sothing was expensive, it must be outrageously so.
He secretly felt his pocket. He had brought money, but he hadn’t expected a few prescriptions to be so costly. Now his mom was saying the two missing herbs were also very expensive. If they tried their luck at the black market, even if they were lucky enough to find them, Jie Jingchen wasn’t sure if he had enough money left to buy them.
"They are very expensive," Qin i nodded. In the future, these two herbs would sell for astronomical prices, so rare that money couldn’t buy them.
"However..." Mrs. Xie’s tone shifted. She looked at Qin i and smiled elegantly. "I know where to buy them."
"Really?" Qin i was very surprised. ’Coming to the hospital first really did bring an unexpected reward. If my mother-in-law takes on the task of getting these two herbs, I can start preparing for the next steps.’
"Of course," Mrs. Xie said, her voice full of confidence and pride.
"Mom, you’re amazing," Qin i praised without hesitation.
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