Old Zhou Tou couldn't help asking about Zhou Liwei's situation. He hadn't seen this grandson for several years.
"He is now the ambassador of the Salt Works Inspection Office of the Salt Transportation Department. Although he is a low-ranking person, he is in charge of the largest salt plant in Qingzhou. If he works for a few more years, as long as he doesn't make mistakes, he will be able to rise one liter in the future. But he still has to study for the exam, if he really fails the exam, at most he will be an off-site inspector."
Zhou Dalang: "Didn't he take the exam?"
"I didn't pass the exam," Zhou Man said depressedly, "It's too bad, Bai Shan doesn't even have the nerve to let him go through the back door."
Old Zhou was a little angry, "Stinky boy, if you walk through the back door, you will fail the exam."
Zhou Man interceded for him, "We can't blame him entirely. The saltworks were so busy in those years that he hardly had any free time, and the work was heavy. I heard from his wife that it was dark every day when he went home. , Sometimes I fell asleep on the bed without even wanting to eat."
But now Zhou Liwei himself doesn't want to take the exam anymore, he thinks it's pretty good now, he's already an eighth-rank official, he doesn't even dare to think about it before.
He is already very satisfied to be able to become an eighth-rank official from a steward, and leave the rest to his son.
Zhou Man said: "He said, let his son study hard to go to the examiner, and he will not take the exam."
Qian didn't care much about this, and said with a smile: "It's good that they are safe and healthy. He can support himself now with a skill. Even if his children can't study well in the future, they can't fail with a skill."
She thought very openly, and comforted the old Zhou, "Children and grandchildren have their own blessings. There are so many children in the family, how much can you worry about? We are getting older now, and taking care of ourselves is to accumulate blessings and save effort for them."
Mrs. Liu couldn't help nodding her head and praised: "The in-laws can think about it."
Mr. Zhuang also nodded and smiled, "It's a good thing to live long with a broad mind."
He raised his hand to toast Mrs. Liu, and said with a smile, "Old lady, you should also relax. Now Zhishan and Ziqian can take care of themselves and shoulder the heavy burden."
Mrs. Liu responded with a smile, "Okay."
It's just that she has worked hard all her life, and it is impossible to really let go. Sure enough, as soon as she returned to the East Courtyard, she heard that Zhou Man was making pills for the emperor, so she paid more attention to restraining the servants. Except for a few confidantes, the rest Can't wait to get close to Zhouman's pharmacy.
"Daji wants to go out with Ziqian, and the yard will be handed over to you," Zhou Man said to Liu Mama, "You take people to guard the pharmacy yourself, and don't allow anyone to approach."
Madam Liu responded, "Tomorrow, the maidservant will bring a needle and thread to guard the door for the lady."
Mrs. Liu smiled and nodded, "Where's eldest sister? Are you asleep?"
"The light in the main room is off, he should be asleep."
"She is young, it's the first time she has walked such a long distance, she must be tired, don't wake her up early tomorrow, let her sleep until she wakes up naturally, I heard that she likes sweets, let the kitchen make some desserts for her..."
Mrs. Liu explained everything in detail before falling asleep.
In the main room, Zhou Man's mother and daughter were lying on the bed and whispering.
"... Mother, there are many people in the family and many children. I like it very much."
"If you like it, go and play with them, but you are not allowed to bully others. Mom will be busy these two days, and I will take you to play with Da Baoer when you are done."
"Mother, why doesn't Dabao live with us?"
"He has his own home in the capital, so he went to live in his own home."
"Is his house far away?"
"Not far, one square away."
"What is Fang?"
"Uh..." Zhou Man counted and said: "It's just three streets away. As for what a workshop is, I'll show you later."
"It's so far away. In the past, our two families were separated by only three houses."
Can Beihai County compare with Beijing
Zhou Man said with pride: "When my mother is free, I will take you around the capital with a horse, and then you will know how big the capital is."
"But it's so cold now, I don't want to ride a horse, I want to take a car."
"There are so many demands," Zhou Man covered her with the quilt, closed her eyes and said, "Hurry up and sleep, I won't take you out if you talk too much."
Little Bai Jingxing hurriedly closed her eyes, and started snoring after a while. She was really sleepy, and she was very tired today.
Zhou Man also expended a lot of energy and fell asleep after a while.
Zhou Man went into the palace every day to boil medicine for the emperor to perform acupuncture. After disposing of the dregs of the medicine, she went home to make pills. After the emperor finished taking the decoction on the third day, she also made the pills. There were three porcelain bottles in total. After the inspection, the courtyard inspected it and handed it to the emperor with her, "Your Majesty, take this medicine twice a day, take one pill in the morning and evening, and it's almost done after you take it."
If it’s not good, Zhou Man thought about her points and sighed sadly. In order to make medicine for the emperor, she bought two more medicines. However, this is already the upper limit of what he can take, and it may not be effective if he uses it later. , can only think of other prescriptions.
The emperor took it. In the past three days, he has already felt that his body is different. He has a feeling that his body is better now than before he took the elixir.
He couldn't help looking at Zhou Man, then at Xiao Yuanzheng, thinking of the brand new prescription that Xiao Yuanzheng said, and seeing Zhou Man's thin figure now, he sighed and said: "If I had known this, I should have I sent you back to Beijing earlier."
Zhou Man: ... Aren't they talking about medicine? Why did this come up all of a sudden
The emperor accepted the medicine, took one bottle for himself, and handed over the other two bottles to Gu Zhong for storage, and then let the two retreat.
But when the two of them returned to the Tai Hospital, the rewards arrived. Both Xiao Yuanzheng and Zhou Man received a lot of gold, silver, jade and cloth rewards.
Xiao Yuan was about to become richer than Zhou Man, and needed a large group of people to carry it back to Xiao's house. I heard that the emperor was grateful that Xiao Yuan was testing the medicine for him. It was a hard time.
Zhou Man glanced at Xiao Yuanzheng enviously, and then moved closer to Xiao Yuanzheng, "Yuanzheng, do you think I can rest for a few days?"
Xiao Yuan was looking at her, thinking that she had been busy for nearly 20 days, and she had lost a lot of weight, so she nodded, "Okay, I will give you three days off, take a good rest, but you are not allowed to go out of Beijing. If there is an edict..."
"I will definitely receive it as soon as possible."
Xiao Yuanzheng was satisfied, waved his hand and said: "Go, you are inconvenient now, you should pay more attention to rest."
Imperial Physician Zheng listened suspiciously, "What's wrong with Imperial Physician Zhou?"
Doctor Lu raised his eyelids to look at him, "Doctor Zhou is pregnant, can't you tell?"
Imperial Physician Zheng: ... He really can't see it.
He couldn't help but look at Zhou Man's flat stomach, is this less than three months old
Hard work, working so hard while pregnant
Imperial Physician Zheng hurriedly raised his hand, "Congratulations to Imperial Physician Zhou."
Zhou Man thought that the days are not so shallow now, so he accepted it calmly, "Thank you, thank you."
The other imperial physicians also congratulated her.
When Zhou Man left and Xiao Yuanzheng returned home with his reward, the imperial physicians got together and chatted, "Why is Xiao Yuanzheng's reward bigger than Master Zhou's? Isn't this Master Zhou's first contribution?" ?Looking at this period of time, Master Zhou has lost a lot of weight in order to study the prescription, so he is still pregnant."
"That's right, since His Majesty cut off the elixir, Mr. Zhou either looked for medical books in the palace, or researched the properties of the medicine at home. He heard that he would go to bed after the end of the day, and even had to be fed by others. Just eat. Why is Xiao Yuanzheng's reward more generous than Zhou Man's?"