Chapter 43: Getting Medicine

Yun Cuihe, who was busy in the kitchen, stretched her neck to look outside.

“Hey, you need to hurry up; the rice porridge is already ready.”

“I know, Mother.”

With that, Lu Xinghe quickly left.

After finishing her water, Chu Yue put the bowl in the kitchen and filled a basin with water to wash her hair with soapberry. She then filled a second basin and brought it into the room.

She took off her old clothes and removed the cloth wrap from her arm, washing her body with clean water before changing into a fresh outfit. She felt much more comfortable afterward.

The light blue top paired with the dark blue skirt gave her an air of literary elegance.

Just as she stepped outside with her clothes, she saw Lu Xinghe sitting under the eaves. Hearing the door open, he got up and looked at Chu Yue.

“Let’s eat first; you can wash the clothes later.”

“Alright.”

Chu Yue placed the basin with the dirty clothes in front of the house and followed Lu Xinghe to the kitchen.

For dinner, they had rice porridge, wild vegetables, and a large bowl of egg drop soup. Since everyone had worked in the fields today, they made more porridge than usual, with each person getting two full bowls.

After eating to their hearts’ content, Chu Yue went to wash the clothes while Lu Xinghe took the flail to thresh the rice that had been drying all day.

Recently, everyone had been busy harvesting rice and needed the flail, so he had to thresh it before dark. Tomorrow, their grandparents and uncles would need it, and he didn’t want to delay them.

Yun Cuihe brought out a winnowing basket and began to sweep the scattered rice into it.

Once Chu Yue finished washing the clothes, she helped pack the rice into a basket. Lu Xinghe then carried the rice into the kitchen, stacking it up, ready to be left for a couple of days before being taken to the village where families with stone mortars lived for threshing.

After Lu Xinghe stacked the rice in the kitchen, the sky had turned completely dark, and the moon had risen.

Since coming here, Chu Yue had never been so busy so late at night. Seeing that Lu Xinghe’s clothes were soaked through, she quickly filled a large basin with water, took a towel, and brought it into the room.

“Go wash up first. We can take the flail to Grandpa and Grandma’s place on the way to town tomorrow morning, okay? It’s quite late now. They won’t need it at night anyway.”

Lu Xinghe nodded. “Okay.”

While Lu Xinghe was washing up in the room, Chu Yue waited outside. Perhaps she was just too tired, but she fell asleep as she sat there, only waking up the next morning to find herself on the kang.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at the sky outside. It was already bright.

Chu Yue quickly put on her shoes and got out of bed. Lu Xinghe was already spreading the rice out to dry in the courtyard. The flail had already been delivered to Grandpa and Grandma’s by Lu Xingping, while Lu Xing’an and Yun Cuihe were busy in the kitchen.

Seeing everyone working while she had been sleeping soundly, Chu Yue felt a pang of guilt.

“Husband, why didn’t you wake me up when you got up?”

Seeing the little girl’s face full of self-blame, Lu Xinghe smiled and rubbed her head. “It’s okay. You were tired yesterday. It’s good to get some extra sleep.”

Yun Cuihe seemed to notice that Chu Yue had woken up and called out from the kitchen. “Yue’er, wash your face and set the table. We’re about to eat.”

“Okay, Mother.”

Chu Yue had been worried that her family would be annoyed with her for sleeping in. Hearing Yun Cuihe’s affectionate address, she felt relieved.

After breakfast, Chu Yue and Lu Xinghe set off for town.

Before they left, she carefully put the prescription Dr. Zhu had given her the day before into her pouch.

The cart was borrowed from Aunt Lin’s house when Lu Xingping went to deliver the flail that morning. Now, Chu Yue was sitting on the cart with a backpack full of medicinal herbs, while Lu Xinghe pushed it easily towards Nanping Town, seemingly with inexhaustible strength, making Chu Yue marvel in her heart.

They were both eighteen years old, but her lazy and gluttonous brother just loafed around at home, a stark contrast. She heard he was about to get married, and she wondered which unfortunate girl would be marrying him.

Thinking about the Chu family, she thought of Xiaotao. She wondered how she was doing. It would be nice if she lived closer to Niutou Village so she could visit her whenever she had time.

After fifteen minutes, they arrived in Nanping Town and went straight to Chen’s Pharmacy.

This wasn’t the first time Chu Yue and Lu Xinghe had been here. As soon as they arrived, Mr. Chen greeted them enthusiastically.

“Little miss, you’re here to sell medicinal herbs with your husband again.”

Chu Yue smiled. “Not only to sell medicinal herbs, but also to buy some.”

She said this and took out the prescription Dr. Zhu had given her from her pouch and handed it to Mr. Chen.

“Mr. Chen, please take a look at this prescription. How much would it cost for one dose of medicine according to this?”

Mr. Chen took the prescription and had his assistant lead Lu Xinghe to the backyard to check the medicinal herbs. He then moved the prescription a little further away and carefully examined the herbs and amounts listed on it. Finally, after tapping his abacus for a while, he looked at Chu Yue.

“Miss Chu, there’s a ginseng in this prescription. You’ve sold me this before, so you know how precious it is. Even if you only use a few slices of three-year-old ginseng per dose, it would cost at least this much.”

He said this and raised three fingers.

“Three hundred wen per dose?”

Chu Yue took a deep breath.

That would mean three hundred wen a day, nine taels of silver a month. Dr. Zhu said that her mother would need to take the medicine for at least two months, which would be eighteen taels?

No wonder her husband had never been able to see his mother improve after buying her medicine. He would spend over two hundred wen each time, buying six doses of medicine. It seemed it wouldn’t have much effect.

But her mother’s health had to be treated.

Chu Yue gritted her teeth and looked at Mr. Chen. “Please prepare ten doses of medicine for me according to this prescription. Then also weigh out two taels of wolfberry, two taels of angelica, and one tael of astragalus.”

“Alright, Miss Chu. Just wait a moment.”

Mr. Chen laid out ten sheets of oil paper on the counter and then weighed out each herb listed on the prescription, putting them into the oil paper. Each dose was quite generous. After weighing out all the herbs, Mr. Chen wrapped them up in bundles and handed them to Chu Yue.

He then weighed out the other herbs she had requested and handed them to her before saying, “When you decoct the medicine, soak it in cold water for two quarters of an hour first, then simmer it over low heat. Boil three bowls of water down to one bowl before taking it. Have you remembered?”

Chu Yue nodded.

“Thank you, Mr. Chen, for reminding me. I’ve remembered.”

After paying Mr. Chen the three taels and two hundred wen for the medicine, he turned around and took a few pieces of Codonopsis pilosula from a small drawer behind him and handed them to Chu Yue.

“This Codonopsis pilosula^[1]Codonopsis pilosula, commonly known as “dang shen” or “poor man’s ginseng,” is a perennial herb native to Asia, particularly China. It belongs to the Campanulaceae … Continue reading  is also a nourishing herb, perfect for soup. It’s a gift for you.”

Chu Yue quickly took the Codonopsis pilosula and thanked him. “Thank you, Mr. Chen.”

Just then, Lu Xinghe came out of the backyard, carrying an empty backpack, after finishing checking the herbs. The assistant who had gone in with him was also there.

The backpack of herbs today didn’t have any precious ones, and they only sold for one tael and eight hundred wen. However, compared to the past, it was still considered good.