Gu Shiba Niang finished speaking quickly and couldn't help but smile when she looked at the "wild ginseng", "zombie silkworm" and "magnolia officinalis" scattered on the car.
She originally thought it was strange, but it turned out that these were all displayed in the lobby of Shunhe Hall. They were the most common counterfeit medicines in the medicine market. She had taken a look at them curiously.
It's such a coincidence that she might not be able to tell the quality of genuine wild ginseng and silkworms, but she can tell the fake ones at a glance. Of course, there are also some that she can't recognize...
"Dad, is your whole scorpion fake? But this is a scorpion..." She picked up a whole scorpion and looked at it from left to right. It was so big...
If she hadn't already had a preconception, she really wouldn't have regarded this as a fake. While thinking about it, she took out her whole scorpion for comparison, looked at it, and simply took a bite.
"Ah... Bah..." She turned her head and vomited a few mouthfuls, "It's all sand... No wonder it's heavy enough! But how can this be used as medicine? Where did you catch the scorpion from? It only eats sand... "
"I can feed you!" The old man came back to his senses and glared at her, his wrinkled face turned red, as if he was very excited.
Chinese medicines are all wild and can be found all over the sky. No one really goes out of their way to raise them. Gu Shiba Niang said, "Oh."
"How to make it eat?" She looked at the scorpion curiously and asked.
"Little girl, this book is for you," the old man ignored her words at all, grabbed the book and threw it to Gu Shiba Niang, looking at the little girl in front of him thoughtfully.
Gu Shiba Niang carefully took the book and opened it as if she had found a treasure. The yellowed paper and the handwriting were not neat, and her hands were shaking with excitement.
The car shook, and the old man jumped out of the car.
"Dad, are you here?" Gu Shiba Niang closed the book and looked at him and asked.
At this time, the car had arrived in Xianren County and was about to enter the city.
The old man chuckled, waved his hand, took the sack and walked away quickly without saying anything, blending into the crowd and disappearing.
This old man... Gu Shiba Niang looked at the direction he was leaving, and then looked at the book in her hand. What was the origin of this old man? Maybe not simple.
"Sister?" The boy asked her for instructions.
"Let's go." Gu Shiba Niang looked at the direction where the old man was going, put the book away and said.
A layer of autumn rain and a layer of coolness seemed to make people put on their jackets in the blink of an eye.
Gu Shiba Niang stood in the kitchen, slowly drinking hot soup and tea, while watching Mrs. Cao holding an old jacket and comparing it with Gu Hai's body. Gu Hai opened his hands and let his mother measure him. , his eyes never left the book in his hand.
It is now the end of September, and their family is still living in this small courtyard, although the food is still poor and the clothes are still shabby.
At least it's a way to avoid the fate of fate...
At this time in that life, their family was already living in Jiankang. At this time, my mother had been taken to the house to be bathed by a libertine with ulterior motives...
At this time, my brother had stopped studying, let alone preparing for exams...
At this time, I was being shouted around like a fool by the sisters in the clan...
But now, none of that happened, and it will never happen again.
Gu Shiba Niang closed her eyes.
Not sure what Gu Hai said, Cao hit him on the head, and the laughter of mother and son echoed in the yard.
Gu Shiba Niang closed her eyes, feeling warm in her heart, and the corners of her mouth could not help but curl up. Maybe life like this was good, without those people and things. She had a mother, a brother, and a guaranteed livelihood. This was actually enough.
"Ba Niang, go ahead and leave me to clean up." Ms. Cao finally measured it and let Gu Hai go to the room to read. She turned around and saw Gu Ba Niang standing in the kitchen in a daze, and said with a smile.
"I'll do it. Mom, don't touch it." Gu Shiniang said, neatly putting the bowls and chopsticks into the water. When her hands came into contact with the cold water, she subconsciously retracted and took a breath of cold air.
"What's wrong?" Ms. Cao, who had already approached the kitchen, asked hurriedly, grabbing her hand.
"It's okay..." Gu Shiba Niang smiled and wanted to take back her hand.
The slender fingers were slightly red and swollen, with some white blisters.
Tears suddenly welled up in Ms. Cao's eyes. These days, her daughter has been working harder than before. She stayed up until midnight reading at night and stayed in the medicine shop during the day, barely even caring about eating.
"...I accidentally burned it. It's okay, mother." Gu Shiba Niang took back her hand and smiled, busy changing the subject, with a bit of joy on her face, "Mom, do you know? I know there are other things about Baizhu. Preparation method…”
"Really, what kind of preparation method?" Mrs. Cao knew that her daughter didn't want to worry about herself, so she followed her words obediently, reaching out to help her lick her hanging hair.
"In the books I read before, it was written about cleaning, cutting, boiling, soiling, and crushing. This is already quite a lot. However, Liu Gong's book said that those who are afraid of the dryness of Atractylodes should be stir-fried with honey water. , those who are afraid of stagnation, stir-fry Atractylodes with ginger juice, I have tried it, and someone came to get the medicine, I also told him, he bought a piece of Atractylodes stir-fried with ginger juice, and told me yesterday that the effect is very good, and I said I was going to tell other people and ask them to come to me to get medicine..." Gu Shiba Niang originally wanted to change the topic, but she became really happy as she said it. Is there anything more worthy of happiness than being recognized? .
"Eighteenth Mother is really capable." Cao smiled lovingly at her daughter.
"Mom, you don't know. I didn't know how to prepare medicinal materials before and thought it was nothing. Now that I have learned it, I feel that it is very knowledgeable..." Gu Shiba's eyebrows were raised and her face was filled with joy.
Mrs. Cao looked at her and could only nod and smile lovingly.
"...I will definitely learn to be a good pharmacist..." Gu Shiba Niang said seriously.
A trace of hesitation flashed across Cao's face. She looked at her daughter's high spirits and sighed.
"...Eighteen Mother...I have suffered a lot these days...when your brother becomes famous..." she said softly.
Gu Shiba Niang looked at Mrs. Cao and smiled, "Mom, don't you want me to be a pharmacist?"
Her daughter was very quick-thinking now. In front of her, Mrs. Cao felt that she could hardly hide any thoughts.
"Eighteenth Mother, I'm not looking down on you, but you have to know that the world is like this. Girls who are craftsmen are always looked down upon..." Cao said with a sigh.
Gu Shiba Niang shook her head, "I don't care. I don't care what others think of me. Whether my life is good or not, I just know it. I don't need to show it to others."
Mrs. Cao hesitated to speak, "Eighteenth Mother, I know you want to be strong... But, your daughter's family will eventually marry someone. All we women want in this life is to marry into a good family... "
"No..." Gu Shiba's expression suddenly fell silent, and she slowly shook her head.
"What's not?" Mrs. Cao was stunned. Would she rather be strong or marry
No, marrying into a good family does not mean that your life will be complete... At least not for her. She once thought that way. She once thought that marrying into the Shen family was the greatest happiness in her life...
Gu Shiba Niang closed her eyes and blocked her tears. In this life, her happiness could no longer rely on charity from others, but could only be in her own hands. Others were unreliable.
Ms. Cao saw her daughter's demeanor change in an instant. She seemed very tired. She couldn't help but hurriedly put the topic aside. At the same time, she felt a little guilty. Life was already so difficult. She relied on her daughter's luck to get through the difficulties, but she said such words. , although I didn’t mean it that way, but it sounded like she disliked her daughter being a craftsman.
"Eighteenth Mother, mother..." Mrs. Cao held her daughter's hand, full of guilt and determination, "How is the business of the medicine store recently?"
"It's not bad, it's much better than before." Gu Shiba Niang looked at her a little puzzled by Cao's sudden change of topic.
"Mom is fine at home. I'll go over and help you..." Ms. Cao said with a smile.
"Mother..." Gu Shiba Niang felt that her heart was hot. She stretched out her hand to shake Cao's arm, "No need..."
"Why, you think Mom is stupid and can't do it?" Ms. Cao raised her hand and scratched her nose and said with a smile, "Don't forget, Mom has cooked whole scorpion in water!"
Gu Shiba Niang smiled, "Mom, that's not boiled, it's boiled..."
"Really? It's just water, so it's not the same?" Mrs. Cao said as she quickly put the sewing basket away, picked up some clothes, and went out with Gu Shiba Niang.
"Of course it's different. One word makes a big difference..." Gu Shiba Niang said with a smile, "Come on, let me teach you my daughter..."
"Then it's up to you, Master Gu..."
The mother and daughter's chuckles filled the alley, attracting visits from the birds on the wall.