The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 110

Chapter 110: Reaching a Cooperation

After Xue Luan returned from Whitewater Village, she told her parents what she had discussed with Lin Shuang.

Doctor Xue nodded after listening. “The few medicine merchants we’re currently cooperating with have complained to me more than once that of the medicinal herbs bought from the north, three out of ten will be moldy by the time they are transported to the south. If we can cultivate them locally, we can indeed save a sum of money.”

Not to mention anything else, just transporting the medicinal herbs from the deep mountains and old forests of the various provinces to the prefectural city, the transportation cost could account for twenty to thirty percent of the total cost, not to mention having to transport the same medicinal herbs from the remote northern and southern border regions.

Xue Luan: “Daughter has calculated it. To transport angelica from the northern border, the transportation fee for each catty is twenty copper coins. If it is successfully planted in Whitewater Village, we can save at least thirty to forty percent of the cost.”

She took out the account book she had with her, and half a page was densely filled with numbers.

Mrs. Xue looked at her daughter’s appearance, both heartbroken and gratified.

She was heartbroken that she should have been like other boudoir young ladies, reciting poetry and painting without any worries. Now, with a still-immature face, she was starting to manage the family’s business.

She was gratified that this child was not just on a whim but had made long-term plans.

“Mother?” Xue Luan noticed her mother’s gaze and called out.

Mrs. Xue quickly wiped the corner of her eye. “I was just thinking of when you were little, a small little thing, carrying your father’s medicine box, always saying that you wanted to be a doctor who saved lives, just like your father…”

“Selling medicinal herbs and reducing the cost of medical treatment for the common people, isn’t daughter doing this now?” Xue Luan smiled.

It could barely be considered as reaching the same goal by different routes.

But besides the problem of transportation costs, there was another major difficulty, which was that the local common people were not familiar with the medicinal properties and planting conditions of the medicinal herbs, and they could not guarantee that they could cultivate high-quality medicinal herbs.

Mrs. Xue said with concern, “Medicinal herbs are not like crops. I’ve heard that someone tried to plant sanqi before, but in the end, it all rotted in the fields, and the seeds were wasted…”

“Mother, don’t worry. From what I’ve seen, the medicine seedlings in Sister Shuang’s few mu of land are growing very well. We’ll know the results next year,” Xue Luan said. “Sister Shuang is also building a shade shed. Precious medicinal herbs like ginseng, coptis, asarum, and sanqi can all be cultivated in it.”

Doctor Xue nodded in approval. “Looking at this, Miss Shuang must be well-versed in this. I think we can just go with the flow.”

Xue Luan continued, “Selling medicinal herbs is about earning a price difference. We can’t just focus on the transportation. We can also hoard goods according to the season.”

She flipped through her small booklet. “Daughter has compiled a price list of medicinal herbs for the past three years. If we hoard or distribute them in advance according to the price list, we shouldn’t be wrong.”

“In addition, we can set prices according to grades. For the same astragalus, we can divide it into ‘flag,’ ‘general,’ and ‘hair’ grades according to thickness. The top grade is for the wealthy families, the middle grade is for the clinics, and the lower grade is ground into powder and made into tea bags!”

She smiled. “The day before yesterday, I saw a merchant ship from the south at the docks. A bag of ordinary chrysanthemum tea, with a few slices of ginseng roots, was actually sold for twenty copper coins a bag!”

Mrs. Xue was lost in thought. “Speaking of which… your maternal grandfather’s family also has a folk remedy in Jiangnan, which is to make a ‘four seasons health soup’ with the scraps. Maybe we can also do that?”

“Excellent!” Xue Luan quickly wrote it down in her account book. “We can also prepare medicine bags according to the solar terms. Add mint in the spring and bamboo leaves in the summer. Just the packaging can be done with different colors of mulberry paper…”

She had learned the trick of packaging mohele at Linglong Pavilion that day.

Looking at her daughter’s shining eyes, Doctor Xue was happy in his heart, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t quite lift.

If this was really done, it should be successful, and their family might also be able to make a beautiful comeback because of this. But to do the medicinal herb business, they also had to cooperate with the villagers. The seeds could not be solved, and the procurement cost and turnover of the medicinal herbs also required a large expenditure, not to mention having to set aside a corresponding place for her to store them.

Their family had just paid three hundred taels of silver for Feng Er’s ox-bezoar a few days ago. Now, to take out another large sum of money was indeed a little difficult.

Xue Luan saw that her father’s smile was a little forced and asked cautiously, “Father, is our family out of silver?”

Her daughter had finally found a path. How could Doctor Xue admit it? He smiled. “Father will find a way for the silver. You can just focus on your work.”

Xue Luan was not a child anymore. How could he fool her with just a few words?

When she had been calculating the costs these two days, she had already calculated the income and expenditure of her family’s clinic and had a rough idea of the family’s current situation.

“Father, Mother, actually, I think that for the matter of the medicinal herbs, we don’t necessarily have to carry it all ourselves.”

Doctor Xue was stunned for a moment. “You want to find someone to partner with?”

Xue Luan nodded. “Find Sister Shuang.”

“Find Shuang’er? But she’s just a little girl. How much silver can they have?”

Xue Luan smiled. “Father, you don’t know that the mohele that was so popular in the prefectural city last year, the sisters earned a lot of silver.”

Mrs. Xue quickly chimed in, “Shuang’er even came to our door with gifts to thank us later, saying that A’Luan and her little sisters had helped a lot.”

“Mohele? What did Luan’er help with?” Doctor Xue asked in confusion.

“Creating hype,” Mrs. Xue glared at him. “You’re just cooped up in your consultation room. You don’t care about what’s going on outside at all.”

Xue Luan then told them about the matter of selling the Qixi clay dolls in the prefectural city and also did a rough calculation. It was basically certain that Lin Shuang and Hu Guiying had made a huge profit at that time.

Doctor Xue couldn’t help but be surprised. “This thing is even more valuable than curing a person.”

Xue Luan: “The business of the rich, how can the poor calculate it? But that job can only be done for a year or two. After next year, it won’t be so easy.”

Mrs. Xue asked, “Will she be willing to partner with us?”

Xue Luan said, “I think there’s a seventy percent chance. She specially built two medicine storerooms. If she just wanted to plant medicine, she wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble. Since we have this relationship, it’s not a big deal to ask. If it works out, wouldn’t everyone be happy?”

Mrs. Xue already had a very good impression of Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen. Whether it was the reminder of the poisoning incident of Qin Sheng, or the righteous deed of the two of them saving people in the flood, all of it had filled her with goodwill. Now, hearing her daughter analyze the mohele incident that the few of them had planned, she felt that this woman was even more reliable and couldn’t help but be eager to try.

“Then Luan’er can go and ask. If it works out, with her, Mother will also be more at ease.”

Xue Luan readily agreed and went to Whitewater Village the next day.

Hearing her explain her purpose, Lin Shuang’s face lit up with a smile. “Why not? Since A’Luan thinks highly of Sister Shuang, then sister will join your game.”

She had indeed had this thought, but she was really reluctant to part with her current life, reluctant to part with Jiang Huaizhen.

Jiang Huaizhen would naturally not stop her from doing business, but once she stepped into this line of work, it meant that she would be busy for the rest of her life, and she would have even less time for her family.

And the Qin family on the other side was watching with covetous eyes, and they would inevitably have to confront them. Not just the Qin family, as long as they did these businesses, there would be endless competitors. She hated those deceitful relationships. She just wanted to live a good life with Jiang Huaizhen in the village, take care of Old Madam Jiang, and raise Ping’er. That would be enough.

But in that case, the knowledge and experience that she had exchanged for her life in her past life would have been wasted.

Now that Xue Luan was asking for a cooperation, she didn’t have to show her face, just had to contribute money and give some advice, which was perfect.

So she readily agreed and agreed to invest two hundred taels of silver.

Xue Luan had found a partner, and the problem of money was solved. She ran home in a frenzy of joy and told her parents the good news.

Two days later, Doctor Xue bought the two courtyards next to the clinic. After they were connected, they were used as a place for Xue Luan to show her skills.

At the same time, the signboard of the Everlasting Peace Hall was changed, and the industry was divided into two from the inside. The front part was the clinic, and the back part, along with the newly bought courtyard, was connected and used as an apothecary.

He and Doctor Yang would see patients in the front, and the apothecary in the back would be in charge of Xue Luan. The two sides were managed separately and were no longer mixed.

Lin Shuang was also invited to give some suggestions, and the matter went smoothly.

The only thing that worried her was still the Qin family.

In her past life, the Everlasting Peace Apothecary had been destroyed by two things. The first was that the well in the clinic had a source of plague, which had caused the patients who came for medical treatment and the doctors and apprentices in the clinic to all fall ill.

Fortunately, Doctor Xue had treated the common people for these years and had benefited many people. For a time, he had not been defeated, and many people had still continued to go to him for medical treatment afterward.

It wasn’t until later that another fatal blow came.

Lin Shuang didn’t know the specifics, only that after that incident, the reputation of the Everlasting Peace Apothecary had plummeted, and in the end, it had still fallen. Doctor Xue was imprisoned, and his wife, with their two children, had left Changping County, their whereabouts unknown.

In this life, the poisoning had not succeeded. Qin Sheng had been taken to the yamen and had even died there. After such a big fall, with Old Madam Qin’s vengeful personality, it was impossible for her to just let it go.

Now that the Xue family had officially brought out the name of the Everlasting Peace Hall and had also made internal adjustments, it was as if they were going against the Qin family’s Benevolence Hall.

Doctor Xue’s medical skills were superb, and his medicine was cheap and effective. He had a natural affinity with the ordinary common people. Once the medicinal herbs could keep up, and if they expanded the place and hired a few more doctors to see patients, this would be a heavy blow to the Benevolence Hall.

Old Madam Qin would definitely not sit by and watch.

But for the matter of the frame-up, Lin Shuang only knew the result and not the reason. She could only remind the Xue father and daughter, both openly and secretly, to be careful.

…

It wasn’t until the end of November that someone sent a letter to the West Mountain Valley.

There were only a few short lines on the letter: On the twenty-ninth of this month, there will be a person with a heart condition who will mistakenly take a forbidden medicine, inducing a rise in liver yang, leading to a severe headache, and will go to the Everlasting Peace Hall for medical treatment. This is a trap. Be careful.

The signature was: Qin Chong.

After Lin Shuang had finished reading the letter, her heart suddenly pounded.

She realized that the second great calamity of the Everlasting Peace Apothecary was about to come.

But how could she explain the matter of Qin Chong to Jiang Huaizhen?

After all, in this life, she had never even met Qin Chong, let alone had any connection with him.

She did not hide the letter from Jiang Huaizhen. Sure enough, after the other had finished reading it, she frowned. “How can this young master of the Qin family be so kind as to specially write a letter to remind us?”

Lin Shuang could only shake her head. “I don’t know either. But no matter what, since someone has revealed the news, we still have to remind Doctor Xue’s side and discuss a countermeasure.”

Jiang Huaizhen hummed in agreement, then glanced at the letter with a blank expression.

Lin Shuang was uneasy in her heart, but she didn’t know what to explain to her for a moment.

The next day, the two of them went to the city early in the morning and went straight to the Everlasting Peace Hall.

The clinic was still crowded with people.

By the time Doctor Xue had hurried to the inner room.

Lin Shuang said directly, “Tomorrow, someone will come to the Everlasting Peace for an acute illness. This person cannot be treated.”

Doctor Xue was stunned for a moment. “Why is that?”

Lin Shuang nodded. “He originally had a heart condition, had his medicine changed, and had mistakenly taken a forbidden medicine, inducing a rise in liver yang. No matter what medicine you prescribe, you won’t be able to save him, and you’ll just get yourself into trouble.”

This was clearly a trap set by someone. Doctor Xue could almost imagine what the consequences would be if he made a mistake.

“How do you know about this?” he asked uneasily.

“I know someone in the Qin family,” Lin Shuang said, not daring to look at Jiang Huaizhen next to her.

Hearing this, Doctor Xue gritted his teeth. “In that case, then I won’t open the door tomorrow.”

Lin Shuang shook her head. “If you don’t open the door, they will just come on another day. It’s impossible to guard against.”

“Then what should we do?”

“Open the door as usual, but Doctor Yang has to rest. You can see patients by yourself tomorrow. When they get close, you can just go out for a house call. If there’s no doctor in the shop, they’ll have no other choice. This will catch them off guard. Then you can have Huaizhen’s friend at the yamen come forward and lead them to the Benevolence Hall for treatment.”

Hearing this, Doctor Xue quickly nodded. “That’s also good. If this patient can really be saved, and we transfer him to the Benevolence Hall, maybe we can save his life.”

After the two of them had bid farewell to Doctor Xue, they returned to their home in Lotus Lane.

Lin Shuang thought that Jiang Huaizhen would ask something, but she didn’t say a word, which made her a little anxious.

She didn’t know if she could tell the other about her rebirth. Would the other believe such a strange and bizarre thing? Would she distance herself from her because of it?

But she had a premonition that this young master of the Qin family would definitely not let her go easily.

In that case, if the two of them were in frequent contact, no matter how considerate and how much Huaizhen liked her, she might not be able to tolerate her.

She couldn’t think of any other way for the time being and could only be as gentle as possible to Jiang Huaizhen.

She just hoped that she would like her more than anything else and would not ask about these things.

And, she had to find a way to make that one surnamed Qin give up on the idea of contacting her as soon as possible. Otherwise, something would happen sooner or later.

“Should we just stay in the city tonight?”

Jiang Huaizhen said “alright.”

“But we have to tell Guiying to go and wait near the entrance of the Everlasting Peace Apothecary. If there’s a dispute when the person is sent over, with a yamen official there, we won’t be caught in a situation where we’re right but can’t explain it.”

“Alright. I’ll go and find her when I’m off duty at night.”

After they had finished their business, Lin Shuang looked at her and said, “Is there anything you want to eat? It just so happens that we’re in the city, and it’s convenient to buy ingredients. I’ll make you something delicious.”

Jiang Huaizhen shook her head. “There’s nothing I particularly want to eat.”

Seeing that she seemed to be in a normal mood, Lin Shuang was slightly relieved and then gave her a reproachful look. “Asking you is like asking for nothing. I’ll just see for myself.”

With that, she went out to buy ingredients.

Then she used all her skills and made two desserts, one was a biluo, and the other was a touhua ci.

Biluo was a kind of pastry with a filling, with various flavors such as sweet and salty. It was the most popular dessert at the time, and some dessert shops sold it. The filling of the sweet biluo was rich and varied. A common one was the cherry biluo, where the cherries were pitted, mixed with sugar and other seasonings to make a filling, and then wrapped in a dough and steamed or baked.

Such a biluo had a thin and tough outer skin, and the filling was sweet and juicy.

Jiang Huaizhen quite liked to eat it, but seeing her busy for a long time, she said with a heartache, “There are some in the dessert shop nearby. You can just buy them from the shop. Why do you have to go to the trouble of making them yourself?”

Lin Shuang snorted. “I should have just bought one from the shop and brought it back for you to compare. Is the filling they make as good as mine, and do they put as much? These cherries are all fresh, and each one is very crisp, not like the soft ones in the shop!”

“Go on, try this touhua ci. See if it’s good.”

With that, Lin Shuang took a piece and brought it to her mouth.

Jiang Huaizhen swallowed the biluo she had just eaten, then drank a mouthful of water before she took it and put it in her mouth.

Touhua ci was made with glutinous rice flour for the outer skin, and the inside was filled with bean paste. The taste was soft, glutinous, and sweet.

Jiang Huaizhen chewed a couple of times and swallowed. “I should have eaten the touhua ci first. It’s not as sweet as the biluo. After eating the biluo, this one tastes a little bland.”

“Then which one do you like?”

“I like them all,” Jiang Huaizhen said. “They’re both sweet. I feel very happy when I eat them.”

“…Are you not happy? Do you need dessert to make you happy?” Lin Shuang looked at her cautiously.

Jiang Huaizhen smiled. “I’m like this every day. There’s nothing particularly happy, and there’s nothing unhappy at the moment.”

Lin Shuang’s smile faded slightly, and she asked, “Then when I’m intimate with you, are you not happy either?”

Jiang Huaizhen’s expression froze, and then she said softly, “I’m happy.”

Lin Shuang said no more and rested her chin on her hand, watching her eat.