Ms. Cui turned her head trying to look for the hourglass, couldn’t find it after a long search, so she asked, "What ti is it now?"
Manbao sank into the system to check the ti and said, "It will be 1 p.m. in a quarter of an hour."
Ms. Cui was surprised, "I’ve slept for nearly an hour? How does it feel as if I just dozed off for a mont?"
Madam Tang and Manbao were also surprised, they had been talking non-stop for almost an hour? No wonder they felt a bit dry in the mouth.
The two picked up their teacups together and drank tea.
Ms. Cui glanced at the sunlight outside and asked, "Where are my husband and the others?"
The maid waiting outside heard and imdiately ca in to reply, "The master and others are talking in the garden."
Ms. Cui nodded but did not let her go to ask further questions, and waved her to withdraw.
She said to Manbao, "It’s rare to sleep this well, I’ll stay at your house a while longer today."
Manbao suggested, "Why don’t you also stay for dinner?"
Ms. Cui thought for a mont and looked at Madam Tang, who then smiled and said, "I’m easygoing."
She is the eldest in her household besides her father-in-law, unlike Ms. Cui who still has a mother-in-law.
Ms. Cui smiled and said to Manbao, "Then I’ll be intruding."
They had nothing to do the whole day, so Manbao simply offered to examine Ms. Cui, "I see your appetite doesn’t seem good, is the pregnancy sickness severe?"
Ms. Cui nodded and sighed, "I feel like vomiting just by looking at greasy food."
No wonder she seed out of appetite during lunch.
Manbao thought for a while and said, "Shall I co up with so dietary redies for you?"
Ms. Cui kept nodding, "I was about to speak to you about it, I can’t even drink dicine now; the prenatal dicine prescribed by the doctor, I take half a bowl and end up vomiting a whole bowl."
Manbao listened with concern, "Is it that severe? Should I perform acupuncture on you?"
Ms. Cui nodded repeatedly, unable to hold back a smile, "That sounds good."
Manbao then said, "Once every five days would be fine, should I co to your house?"
Ms. Cui thought for a bit and shook her head, "No, I’ll co to your house instead, you’re so busy every day, it would be tiring for you to make an extra trip."
Madam Tang couldn’t help but laugh, "Isn’t it because you want to get out for so fresh air?"
Ms. Cui laughed without speaking.
Being able to save on travel ti was naturally most agreeable to Manbao, she nodded, "Alright then, you co, I’ll have the kitchen fix you a bowl of porridge, rest for a bit and I’ll perform the acupuncture."
There was no need for Manbao to speak personally, just calling out would have soone go and notify.
The kitchen soon sent over a bowl of porridge, with a small dish of pickles on the tray.
Ms. Cui hadn’t eaten much at noon, originally didn’t feel much appetite seeing the porridge, but after taking a bite of porridge and a bite of pickle, she surprisingly found it appetizing, her stomach opened up.
She ate a bowl of porridge, looked at the bowl in her hands and remained silent for a while.
The maid Ying Yue standing by was very happy and quickly asked, "Madam, would you like another bowl?"
Ms. Cui thought for a mont and nodded, handing the bowl to her.
Ying Yue then looked sowhat embarrassed towards Manbao.
Manbao smiled and said, "Just go directly to the kitchen to get it, my family may not have much else, but there’s plenty of porridge."
They watched as Ms. Cui ate three bowls of porridge successively, Madam Tang closed her slightly open mouth and said, "You call this a poor appetite?"
Ms. Cui then put down the bowl sowhat embarrassedly, "I don’t know what happened, but suddenly I’m hungry."
She paused and said, "Your pickles are delicious, crisp and refreshing, very appetizing."
Manbao looked at the small bowl of pickles and said, "These were pickled by my sister-in-law, if you like them, I’ll pack a jar for you to take. But don’t just eat the pickles, eat so other things too; vegetables, and if you can’t stand fishy slls from at, you can have so at consom and egg custard, that should be fine."
Ying Yue quickly took note beside her.
Ms. Cui smiled, "Thank you so much, I thought it was this kid being greedy, and only liking others’ food."
Manbao found so brush, ink, and paper from the desk beside her to write a nu for her, Madam Tang sohow found a fan and fanned herself lightly while leaning over to watch her writing.
After a while, she couldn’t help but laugh, "You write your nu in such detail, but I heard your cooking skills are quite average?"
Manbao said, "That’s because I haven’t learned, but morizing recipes is sothing I’m good at."
Madam Tang asked, "Do you really morize recipes? Why do you morize these things?"
Manbao then earnestly said, "Every herb can be used as dicine, and so can each vegetable; not only can vegetables be made into dicine, but various ats also have different uses, thus the saying that foods can nourish the body. When als are well matched, they can naturally beco akin to prescriptions, hence the need to morize recipes."
As for the actual cooking, she was indeed capable; after all, most recipes involve boiling and stewing, which isn’t difficult, especially if one disregards texture.
In this regard, Manbao was quite justified, "Do you require dicine to taste good? You gulp it down, it tastes as it should."
Madam Tang and Madam Yang: ...
Madam Yang extracted the nu from her hand and handed it to Ying Yue, "Alright, let them handle such matters."
Manbao nodded.
Madam Tang withdrew her gaze, fanning herself, she asked, "I just saw so unfamiliar recipes up there, where did you get these recipes from?"
"Exchanged with Doctor Ning from Baohe Clinic, it’s passed down from his family," Manbao spoke with so pride, "This isn’t a loan, but a recipe book with notes given directly to by their family."
Sounding quite impressive, Madam Tang asked dazedly, "What did you exchange for it?"
"A copy of Hundred and Ten Prescriptions, which includes around twenty redies for illnesses." This is a dical book split into five volus, containing a large amount of analysis, as well as varying situations and dication suggestions for each illness, so one thick volu only prints about twenty prescriptions.
This dical book was her study material, after purchasing it from the encyclopedia pavilion, she directly paid points to print several copies; she most liked using it to exchange for things.
Currently, more than half of the dical books in Manbao’s study were bought from the encyclopedia pavilion, while the remainder, aside from bits and pieces picked up from bookstores, were obtained through exchanges for leisurely reading then copied, or directly traded.
Madam Tang, unaware of how easily she obtained this dical book, imdiately nodded her forehead upon hearing, "Haven’t you made a loss?"
Using dical redies to exchange for dietary redies, even if those redies are dicinal als, this seed like a loss, didn’t it?
Manbao, however, shook her head and said, "Knowledge isn’t asured by such values, I still have to explain if they ask ; trading for things saves ti and gives benefits."
Madam Tang: ...
Ms. Cui laughed, "You sure have a good outlook."
Manbao chuckled, "Of course, if I couldn’t see it this way, those who write, print, and spread books, how could they look at it?"
Actually, what she ant was, if she couldn’t look at it this way, then the encyclopedia pavilion, which opened its doors allowing people free access to view and borrow books, how could they look at it unequivocally?
Inside were limitless knowledge, which could be bought with so points; if only there was a library like that here.
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