"Hey! Don't go!!"
The bamboo shop owner reacted quickly and chased after him, shouting, "Don't leave so quickly, let's talk more."
Ying Bao turned around and said, "Then you name a price first, and we can talk about it if it's suitable."
The shop owner gritted his teeth and said, "Twenty cents, twenty cents for the one with the lid, that's fine. Any less and I won't do it. You can go to any store you want."
"Okay." Yingbao was satisfied and went back to the bamboo shop with the owner to discuss the details of the custom-made bamboo box.
After leaving the bamboo shop, Yingbao and Jiang Quan and Erni went to the paper shop and bought a stack of colored paper and four treasures of the study.
Then he went to a porcelain shop and ordered a batch of small porcelain bottles in different colors and shapes.
The paper is used to write product introductions, and the small porcelain bottles are used to hold medicinal powders and pills.
Back in the shop, Yingbao cut the colored papers into pieces and wrote some descriptions of the items according to the colors.
The inscription reads: Golden ears are a specialty of Qinchuan County, produced in Dongchen Village, Chuanhe Town. They are a rare treasure that can prolong life and beautify skin.
He also wrote about snow fungus and preserved fruits, and sorted the written papers aside, waiting for the bamboo box to be delivered so that they could be framed.
Jiang Cheng and Jiang Quan then understood their cousin's intention and came over to help write.
Jiang Quan had an idea and wrote some auspicious words on his gourds.
After writing, stick one on each gourd.
There were words written on the paper: Nine-turn fortune gourd, bring in wealth, make all your wishes come true, carp leap over the dragon gate, eliminate all diseases, and be immune to the five poisons.
Then he placed the gourd towards the door and sat beside it to admire it.
You know what, it soon attracted a lot of people to watch.
Among them are students from the county school opposite.
Because the Double Ninth Festival had just passed, the students were still on holiday. Many people did not go home, but went out to play with friends. Some had just returned from a poetry reading.
I wanted to see if this specialty store had any fresh fruits for sale, but instead I saw a room full of huge gourds.
"Ten taels each, that's too expensive." Someone shook his head and complained it was too expensive.
One of them laughed out loud: "This is a good omen. Why don't you buy one, Brother Huai Ming? It will bring you a good omen for the imperial examination next year."
The young student who was called Huai Ming looked embarrassed and waved his hands repeatedly. "It's too big. The dormitory can't fit it."
The other person said, "It doesn't matter. You can just buy it and make it into a bathtub."
Everyone laughed.
After laughing and joking for a while, several people went back to the dormitory one after another, but one person stopped and did not leave.
The man was about forty years old, with a thin and pale face. He kept staring at the gourd, seeming hesitant.
"Brother, is this, this gourd really effective?" he asked.
Jiang Quan smiled and said, "Of course."
"Then I'll buy it." The thin man gritted his teeth and said, "But, brother, can you give me a discount? I only have seven strings of cash left."
Jiang Quan shook his head when he heard this: "No, no! How can you bargain like that? The lowest price is nine taels, and I won't sell it for a penny less."
The thin man hesitated for a long time and sighed: "Then I'll come back tomorrow."
After watching the thin man leave, Yingbao frowned and glared at her second cousin. "How can you fool people so easily? What if this person takes your words seriously or uses it to blackmail you?"
Jiang Quan scratched his head and stole a glance at his little cousin. "Everyone knows that these are just auspicious words. Who is stupid enough to believe this..."
"If his family is in trouble and he uses this gourd as a lifeline, do you know how it will end?"
Ying Bao scolded her second cousin with a stern face: "Are you prepared to go to court or pay compensation to the other party?"
"I..." Jiang Quan was speechless.
Jiang Cheng also came over and said, "Even the fortune tellers outside don't dare to say anything definitive, but you dare to speak so brazenly."
Jiang Quan lowered his head.
After a while, the man came running over, untied the bag he was carrying, and dumped out a pile of copper coins. "This is nine strings of cash..."
Jiang Quan saw the man running towards him from afar and hid in the backyard. Erni also went to the kitchen to cook chestnuts, so only Jiang Cheng and Yingbao were left in the shop.
Yingbao pretended to be dumbfounded and asked, "What do you want to buy?"
The man was stunned when he saw that the person who was talking was a little kid of five or six years old. He pointed at the gourd and said, "I want to buy this...it will cure all diseases."
Yingbao's eyes flickered and she said, "Our gourd is just a lucky charm, it can't really cure all diseases."
“Is it impossible…” The man showed a look of despair, and his shoulders slumped.
Yingbao asked calmly, "Is there any patient at home?"
The man was stunned for a while before nodding.
Yingbao observed the man carefully and saw that he was wearing a yellowish plain cloth robe with several patches of the same color on the corners, but there was still a color difference, making him look extremely shabby.
"I wonder what the disease is? I have studied medicine and can help you take a look." Yingbao said.
The thin man then looked at Yingbao carefully and shook his head helplessly: "It's useless."
Yingbao knew that he didn't believe her, so she said seriously, "Don't underestimate me. Tell me about the patient's condition."
The thin man hesitated for a while before saying, "My child is sick and hasn't gotten better. I... I have no other options..."
As he said this, he turned around and quietly tested his eyes with his sleeve.
"Can you take me to see it?"
The reason why Yingbao helped him was because this man took her in in his previous life and let her pretend to be his daughter and settle down in the county town.
The man still didn't quite believe it, but when he saw the little girl taking a medicine box out of the house, he agreed to take her back.
So, Yingbao, Jiang Quan and Erni followed Gao Lifan to a shabby alley.
There were several families in the alley. When they saw Gao Lifan, they greeted him: "Mr. Gao is back. Hey? Who are these people?"
Gao Lifan: "I invited the doctor...
Everyone suddenly realized what was happening. Before they could say anything, Gao Lifan had already led the people into the house.
The room was dim, just like a lawyer's house.
A woman in a coarse cloth dress came out and saw her husband bringing a group of people home. She asked, "Ah Lang, who are they?"
"I'm here to treat Dongmei."
Gao Lifan brought Yingbao into his daughter's room and said, "My daughter Dongmei has a strange disease and has not been cured for a long time. You can come and see her if you want."
Yingbao walked forward and saw a girl of about sixteen or seventeen lying motionless, as if dead.
There was also a faint stench of decay in the room.
Erni pinched her nose and stayed beside her little cousin, muttering softly, "Yingbao, what's that smell? It smells so bad." She didn't even dare to breathe.
Yingbao had smelled this smell before. It was the stench of a human body, and maybe also the smell of rotting wounds.
"Are you okay?" she asked the girl lying on the bed, "Where are you hurt?"
The girl slowly opened her eyes and looked at Yingbao. It was a little difficult to speak, but her instinctive desire to survive still made her answer: "I have been bleeding since the miscarriage. It's not good."
"Miscarriage?" Yingbao frowned: "Can I check it for you?"
"Yeah." The girl nodded slightly.
She didn't want to die, she wanted to live well, longer and better than that man.