Four years after the apocalypse, spring arrived as scheduled.
March is the most lively time of the year for Yuzhou. At this medicine fair, pharmacists and pharmacists from all over the country will gather together. Compared with the crowded medicine shops on the street, the pharmacists' guild hall looks more... It is much quieter. There are densely packed people standing in the tall hall, but there is no loud noise at all. However, this quietness is filled with a tense atmosphere that is not found in the outside world.
There are two simple barriers surrounding the field. The barriers are made of white gauze, which allows people to see the figures inside, but cannot see the specific movements.
At this time, there were two men in the two barriers who were concentrating on operating the tools in their hands, and an hourglass next to them measured time.
"Time's up!" Someone nearby shouted suddenly, "Withdraw your account!"
The barrier was removed, and the slightly messy processing station appeared in front of everyone. For these pharmacists, the tools and decorations were nothing new. Everyone's eyes immediately focused on the finished products on the table.
One of the younger men had a plate full of braised koji in front of him, while the other side had only half a plate, and it was clear who would win or lose.
"Simmer Kezi, Dengzhou Xiao Baisheng..." the person in charge of the decision shouted loudly.
This sound caused a round of applause from all around. Of course, for the loser, the applause was boos.
"Senior, I accept..." the young man said with his hands raised, but there was not much respect in his tone, and his eyebrows were full of ridicule.
The man who lost looked a little ugly, bowed his hands and left without saying a word.
For pharmacists, being modest and polite has never been the rule. Everyone relies on their craftsmanship. Even though this craftsmanship has a lot to do with age and experience, there is never a shortage of arrogant young people.
"Yes, he is indeed the most promising of this generation..." The older pharmacists around him nodded and said.
Xiao Bai, who was covered with praise and envy from everyone, was immediately surrounded by a group of young people, both men and women.
"I knew I was the best!" Everyone said with excitement and pride.
In this atmosphere of stars holding the moon, no one can help but feel elated, not to mention that he feels that he is fully qualified to do so.
"Young Master is so powerful, you can join the Pharmacist Association soon..." someone said suddenly, with a look of excitement and anticipation.
The Pharmacist Association was the top group of pharmacists in the Zhou Dynasty. Being able to occupy a position in it was enough for this life.
"The Medicine Master knows..." Xiao Bai touched his chin, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm, but his face was sarcastic, "I am too young after all..."
While they were talking, they saw a commotion at the door, and four or five people walked in. A woman in her twenties or fourteen years old was surrounded and walked at the front.
Their appearance immediately attracted the attention of the audience, and all the inquiring and approving glances towards Xiao Bai disappeared.
"Who is that?" The young people suddenly felt a little disappointed and asked each other.
"I know!" Looking at the woman who was surrounded by everyone and greeting her enthusiastically, a person suddenly shouted, "She is Mrs. Gu, Liu Gong's apprentice!"
"She is..." Xiao Bai looked over with a surprised look on his face, "She is so young..."
He looks pretty good... Of course, no one said this.
"That's right..." Someone on the side said rather unconvincedly, "But I have a good life, a good master, and a few decades of less hard work... and now I am one of the top ten elders of the Pharmacist Association..."
A trace of envy flashed in Xiao Bai's eyes.
"She married into a wealthy family..." More information was quickly found out by the young people, and a girl said, "She is the eldest young master of a wealthy family..."
In the past few years, Da Yousheng has expanded across the land of Da Zhou at an extremely fast rate.
"Bah, you actually married a pharmacist as a pharmacist!" The young male pharmacists were immediately angry. This was a great shame and humiliation for them, who were the only pharmacists who tried every possible means to seduce their daughters to win over the pharmacists.
"What? I think she used Liu Gong's name to trick her into marrying into someone else's family... Young Master Xin is a very nice person..." the girl said, showing a bit of shyness and a bit of injustice. , "It must be because that woman deliberately threatened him... Now everyone outside is laughing at the young master... saying that he can't even eat at the same table with her at home..."
"Where to eat?" Someone couldn't help but asked curiously.
"Eat while squatting..." the girl pouted angrily.
These words made everyone laugh.
"Anyway, since she has inherited Liu Gong's mantle, she should find a wife, how can she get married!" Xiao Bai stopped laughing and said, "A woman is a woman after all... She can only settle down by getting married and having children... ..”
Saying this, he sighed and shook his head. What a pity, what a pity. If this skill was passed into his own hands, he would definitely be able to carry it forward and forever maintain the Liu family's position of being respected by everyone.
Gu Shiba Niang and her entourage had already passed through the crowd and were walking towards this side. During this period, the eyes of the followers were still flickering.
This is the status of the elder of the Pharmacy Association... .
"Master!" Someone behind him suddenly pushed Xiao Bai, and Xiao Bai was awakened from his imagination. "She is not much older than you. If you compete with her and win, wouldn't that mean..."
Several people's eyes lit up, this is a good idea!
"How can I compare to her..." Xiao Bai said with a smile.
"Why can't she be compared...Firstly, she studied medicine halfway...Secondly...Mr. Liu passed away early..." An insider hurriedly said, "I didn't even take her for a few years...how can I look like the young master?" You started learning when you were three years old..."
Xiao Bai's eyes were vaguely moving. Indeed, the profession of pharmacist requires both talent and experience. If this woman really enters the profession halfway, then... maybe she is really trying to make a fool of herself... at least for now...
"Brother Xiaobai...she's here..." the young man shouted in a low voice with his face flushed with excitement.
Gu Shiba Niang turned her head and whispered to a pharmacist, then walked towards the back of the hall, where there were several old friends whom she had not seen for a long time.
"Master Xiao Liu is here too?" she smiled.
"I don't call you Mr. Xiaoliu anymore...I'm almost forty..." The pharmacist stroked his white beard and smiled.
Gu Shiba Niang smiled, but before she could say anything, she saw someone standing up in front of her and blocking the way.
"Mrs. Gu, Xiao Bai from Dengzhou, dare to ask Mrs. Gu for advice..."
Gu Shiba Niang was startled and looked at the young man in front of her. Everyone around her suddenly fell silent.
Xiao Bai once again became the focus of the audience. Compared with before, Xiao Bai suddenly felt a little weaker, but he had already stood up and could not retreat.
"Don't be ridiculous..." An old pharmacist who was following Gu Shiba Niang glared and shouted in a low voice, "Where did it come from? You really don't understand the rules! Get off!"
These words made the young man in the public room blush immediately, and the contempt made his head heat up.
"What? Mrs. Gu, don't you dare?" Xiao Bai said with a snort, looking at Gu Shiba Niang with a bit of dissatisfaction, "We working as pharmacists are tired and hard. It is indeed not easy for my daughter's family, but..." .”
Before he finished speaking, Gu Shiba Niang raised her hand to stop him.
"Okay, you don't need to say anything..." She smiled slightly, "Tell me, what do you want to compare with me?"
This is promised! The hearts of all the young people were beating fast, and their faces were all flushed.
"Ms. Gu..." Several older pharmacists frowned and whispered.
"It's okay, it's good for young people to be motivated." Gu Shiba Niang said with a smile, gently rolling up her sleeves, "Come on, you choose first."
Xiao Bai took a deep breath, and several ideas flashed through his mind.
"Please give me Madam Gu's advice." He cupped his hands and said, walking towards the medicine table.
Gu Shiba Niang also walked over, and everyone moved out of the way.
Xiao Bai picked up a piece of white peony root from the medicine table and took out the medicine knife hanging from his waist. It was a famous camphor knife. He took a breath and raised the knife in his hand. Only the white snow was visible in the shadow of the knife. One piece, after a while, he stopped the knife and put it away, but when he saw that the table was covered with snowflakes, Xiao Bai grabbed a handful, put it to his mouth and blew it gently, and the white peony slices really flew like snowflakes.
“Good knife skills!”
"White peony flies up to the sky, Akebia has no edges, there is a line of tangerine peel, Pinellia ternata fish scales..."
The whole hall applauded, and Xiao Bai felt relieved and emboldened, and looked at Gu Shiba Niang.
This kind of knife skills cannot be practiced in a day or two. Even if you have a lot of medicine, you won't be able to practice good knife skills without seven or eight years.
The reason why Xiao Bai chose this is precisely because of this consideration. Everything must have an opening, just like the opening of the scene, a debut that won the applause of the audience.
Gu Shiba Niang smiled slightly and picked up a piece of white peony root. She didn't bring a knife, so she picked up an ordinary medicine knife on the medicine table. She picked up the knife and dropped it. After a while, it was all white. She followed suit. Xiao Bai also picked it up and blew it gently, like a goddess scattering flowers.
"Okay!" The whole hall cheered again.
Xiao Bai's face froze slightly. He didn't expect that she had mastered such knife skills. She didn't mean to join the industry halfway...
Gu Shiba Niang looked at him and smiled, shaking her head slightly. She could tell what this young man was thinking at a glance. In the past few years since she left the capital, she had spent almost all her time honing her skills. That kind of high-intensity The training lasted for four years.
In the past four years, her one day's work was equivalent to five days' work of other pharmacists. Her eating and sleeping combined did not exceed three hours a day, which has reached the point of madness.
She knows what she lacks, knows what she will face, and knows what she wants. There is no room for hypocrisy in the craft. Without hard training, even if she is talented and intelligent and has the support of experts, she will not be able to succeed. , there is no other way but to practice hard.
"Then it's my turn now?" She looked at the young man in front of her and said with a smile.
Xiao Bai had no other choice at this time and nodded.
Gu Shiba Niang glanced at the medicine table, her eyes suddenly lit up, she walked a few steps and reached out to pick up a Chinese medicine.
"A sprig of wormwood on the snow!" everyone shouted.
Xiao Bai's complexion also changed slightly.
"That's it..." Gu Shiba Niang said to herself, stood up and walked towards the barrier that had been re-erected. Soon people could only see the shadow of her movements, but they didn't know how to operate it.
"This is not difficult..." Xiao Bai encouraged himself and said with a smile, he also took it and walked to the other side and started making it.
Time went by like water... but the number of people in the hall not only did not decrease, but increased. Speaking of it, this was the first time that Mrs. Gu had a medicine competition with others in public since that not-so-happy medicine meeting.
"What?" After receiving the news, the pharmacists in the back hall looked at each other and immediately stood up with smiles on their faces, "Let's take a look..."
Only a middle-aged man in gray robe remained motionless, and his expression was very ugly.
"Master Liu, let's take a look..." Someone called him.
"No!" Liu Jian said in a stiff tone with a face as deep as the bottom of a pot.
The man wanted to say hello, but another person pulled him back and winked. He suddenly realized that, not to mention that Mr. Liu and Mrs. Gu had a bad relationship, they were fighting for medicine outside. I am afraid that Master Liu would spend his whole life fighting against medicine. the pain…
Everyone went out, and Liu Jian sat alone in the room, almost crushing the tea cup in his hand, and fighting for medicine again! Fight medicine! This woman!
"I will never change my nature!" He spat out four words angrily.
An hour later, Gu Shiba Niang came out, holding a sprig of artemisia that had grown into pieces on the snow. The moment she came out, Xiao Bai also came out.
This young man is really good... Everyone nodded with some approval. His speed was fast enough, which showed that he had solid basic skills.
"Then please give me an evaluation..." someone shouted.
"No need." Gu Shiba Niang smiled, reached out, picked up a piece, and threw it into her mouth.
Everyone was stunned, and when they reacted, there was an explosion.
A piece of artemisia on the snow is as poisonous as arsenic and must be processed very harshly. The common method of processing is to add wine and break it into pieces, then grind it for three and a half turns at the bottom of a bowl. If you grind it more or less or even half a turn, it will still be very poisonous, so it is called " "Three and a half turns", no one would dare to eat such a big piece even after it was concocted...
Everyone's faces were pale, and they broke out in cold sweat when they looked at Gu Shiba Niang.
"Quickly, boil some licorice and mung beans in water..." people who came to their senses shouted one after another.
Gu Shiba Niang laughed and raised the tray towards Xiao Bai who was already stunned.
"Young man, please..." She pointed at the pills in his hand and smiled.
Xiao Bai didn't dare to eat, he lowered his head dejectedly.
"I lost..." he said.
Just one move...
"Young man, the preparation is not just for looking good...the medicine is not for looking..." Gu Shiba Niang said slowly, throwing the medicine in her hand and laughing inwardly.
Ever since she worshiped Liu Gong as her master, Gu Shiba Niang had already known that this situation would keep happening.
For this kind of thing, what she has to do is to shock.
Not only to clear away those troubles that constantly waste time, but also to prove to everyone that she lives up to Liu Gong's reputation.
She will never let Mr. Liu down, not even once.
Watching Gu Shiba Niang leave with a somewhat arrogant and somewhat sarcastic smile, without saying another word to the young man, it was a sign of disdain for someone who was superior and not a person of status.
Xiao Bai stood there for a moment with a gloomy face, then suddenly turned around and ran out with his face covered.
No one sympathized with him, and no one accused Gu Shiba Niang of not being tolerant and encouraging to the younger generation.
In their circle, everyone must be responsible for their actions. If you dare to challenge, you must dare to suffer failure. No one will be responsible for you except yourself.
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One day off on Sunday…
Yes, this is actually the main text. As I said in the finale, I want to skip Yuan Sufang’s story because I don’t want to ramble on about the same battle scenes anymore. Everyone is tired from reading it and it’s time to come to an end. But for the sake of the overall nature of the article, it must be cut off.
It’s very casual to write like this, it’s good, it won’t be too long, it won’t be endless hahahaha