Rise of the Poor

Chapter 16: There are many twists and turns

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After Zhu Ping'an and his brother entered the pharmacy, a young apprentice came over to greet them. He did not look down on them because of their simple attire. The apprentice asked with a smile, "Are you here to see a doctor or get medicine? If you want to see a doctor, please wait a moment."

Zhu Pingchuan's face turned red, and he shook his head repeatedly, stuttering a little. "No, no, we don't treat patients... or prescribe medicine... We sell..." When he said this, his voice became much smaller, as soft as a mosquito. He was really embarrassed.

"We sell medicine."

In contrast to Zhu Pingchuan's uneasiness, Zhu Ping'an was calm and confident, not shy at all. Seeing that his brother was too embarrassed to speak out, he took over the conversation.

"Selling herbs? We usually don't buy them..." The apprentice glanced at the basket on Zhu Pingchuan's back. For safety reasons, the herbal medicine shop usually has a special supplier. Ordinary people don't know the skills of picking herbs, which often causes the Chinese herbs to lose their efficacy. These two brothers are obviously not herbal farmers, and what good things can two children have? For the sake of the herbal medicine shop, they politely refused.

Another young apprentice behind the counter was dispensing medicine for the women and children who were seeing the doctor according to the prescription. He paused for a moment and whispered to the young apprentice who was receiving Zhu Pingchuan.

Seeing their senior brother calling them, the apprentice who was receiving Zhu Ping'an and his friends said to them apologetically, "Excuse me, why don't you go look somewhere else."

It was over after he finished speaking.

Zhu Pingchuan was already feeling uneasy, and when he saw the apprentice refuse, his face turned even redder, and he wanted to take Zhu Ping'an away.

Is this a bad start

However, since Liu Bei visited Zhu Ping'an three times, there was no harm in visiting a few more. Zhu Ping'an prepared to leave.

The two apprentices murmured for a while, and one of them said to the old Chinese doctor very embarrassedly, "Master, all the herbs in this prescription are ready, except for the honeysuckle flower."

"We are short of honeysuckle?" The old Chinese doctor who was stroking his beard paused and turned around to ask, "Why are we short of honeysuckle? Didn't we just get a batch a few days ago?"

"The shop assistant didn't take good care of the honeysuckle in stock, and water stains soaked it." The young apprentice confessed truthfully.

At this time, Zhu Ping'an had already walked to the door, and his sharp ears caught the conversation between the apprentice and the old Chinese doctor.

"Brother, where are you going?"

Zhu Pingchuan's voice sounded at the door.

Zhu Ping'an broke free, snatched the backpack from Zhu Pingchuan, and ran towards the old Chinese doctor with both hands.

The old Chinese doctor was explaining to the woman with a hint of apology, while the woman wanted to boil the medicine for her son as soon as possible and had a worried look on her face.

"Old doctor, I have medicine to sell." Zhu Ping'an held the backpack in front of the old Chinese doctor as if he was presenting a treasure.

"Hey." The young apprentice stepped forward to stop him, fearing that Zhu Ping'an would offend the nobleman and disturb his master's diagnosis.

The title of "Old Miracle Doctor" really touched the heart of the old Chinese doctor. Who doesn't like a good reputation, especially a doctor? Just because of Zhu Ping'an's words, the old Chinese doctor decided to see what kind of herbs the child had in his hand and give him a chance.

"Do you have herbs?" The old Chinese doctor just glanced casually, but after one glance, his eyes suddenly lit up and he even broke two strands of his beard.

"What you have here is... Well, not bad, not bad. It is picked properly and dried just right. It can be top quality." The old Chinese doctor pushed the apprentice away, walked forward, picked up a honeysuckle from the basket held by Zhu Ping'an, looked at it carefully, put it to the tip of his nose and sniffed it, and a smile spread across his old face.

When the young apprentice saw the honeysuckle picked up by the old Chinese doctor, he remained silent. He felt a little ashamed and almost pushed away the charcoal that was sent to him in the snow.

"My dear, we have taken your honeysuckle flowers from our pharmacy. Erbao, go and weigh them. We will first prepare the medicine for Madam Liu, and then settle the bill for you according to the top grade." The old Chinese doctor nodded with satisfaction and spoke to Zhu Ping'an in a friendly manner. He even addressed him in a way that brought them closer. He asked the apprentice to weigh the honeysuckle flowers and turned back to chat with his wife, "Madam, this is wild honeysuckle. Its medicinal effect is more than twice that of the honeysuckle grown by farmers. Your son will recover a day faster."

Zhu Pingchuan, who was standing at the gate, opened his mouth wide when he heard what the old Chinese doctor said. He felt as if he had fallen into the clouds. The wild flowers that his brother picked at random in the mountains turned out to be Chinese medicine, and there were actually people who bought the wild flowers.

"Thank you, old doctor." Zhu Ping'an bowed and thanked him in a naive manner.

Chinese herbal medicines are divided into three grades: high, medium and low. The price difference is quite large. If you buy them as high-quality ones, the price will probably be more than double.

A young apprentice weighed it, and another apprentice packed the medicine for Madam Liu and handed it to the maid standing beside her, whispering some precautions.

When Mrs. Liu heard that her son would recover one day earlier because of the honeysuckle, she was overjoyed and asked her maid to give Zhu Ping'an a silver coin as a reward before leaving.

Zhu Pingchuan on the side was already in a mess. Not only could the wild flowers in the mountains be sold for money, but people even gave them silver as rewards.

Zhu Ping'an took the silver, his chubby face smiled so much that his eyes could hardly be seen, and he arched his chubby paws to thank the man.

"Thank you, ma'am. I'm sure my little brother will recover soon."

Mrs. Liu walked to the door and looked back, a little surprised, then turned her head and whispered a few words to the maid beside her.

Then, the little maid came running over, holding her skirt in her hand, and stuffed another silver coin into Zhu Ping'an's hand.

"You have such a sweet mouth, little brother. Madam asked me to give it to you. Go back and buy some delicious food." After the little maid said this, she touched Zhu Ping'an's chubby face, then picked up her skirt and went to chase after the madam.

Zhu Ping'an held two silver coins in his chubby hands, and his chubby face was smiling like a bulldog.

Zhu Pingchuan blushed so much that he really didn't want to recognize his brother.

"A total of two catties, three ounces and four cents of honeysuckle weighs. Top-quality honeysuckle weighs 50 cents per catty, medium-quality honeysuckle weighs 38 cents, and low-quality honeysuckle weighs 25 cents. Based on the top-quality weight, the total cost is 117 cents." After weighing the weight, the apprentice cleared his throat and loudly announced the price.

Zhu Ping'an was quite satisfied with the price. This pharmacy was quite fair and did not shortchange customers. The honeysuckle was weighed at only two pounds and three ounces at home. Even though he carried a basket of honeysuckle home, it was actually not that heavy, not to mention after being dried.

It seems that this is a trustworthy pharmacy.

When Zhu Pingchuan heard the price offered by the apprentice, he was really shocked. He was even more shocked than when he saw the noble lady reward Zhu Ping'an with two silver coins.

Zhu Pingchuan is like Zhu Shouyi, dull but not pedantic. He knows very well that rewards are just occasional. The wild flower called honeysuckle is a long-term income. You know, there are many such wild flowers in the mountains.

Just thinking about it makes my breathing quicken.

The old Chinese doctor asked the apprentice to get a bunch of copper coins from the counter. In front of Zhu Ping'an and Zhu Pingchuan, he counted out 120 coins and put them in the backpack at Zhu Ping'an's feet. He smiled kindly and said, "This is a total of 120 big coins. The extra 3 coins are your reward for helping me out just now."

"Thank you, old doctor. We'll be leaving now." Zhu Ping'an waved his fat paws, bowed in a naive manner to thank him and said goodbye.

I was afraid that Mr. Zhu would worry if he had to wait for a long time.

Zhu Pingchuan held the backpack and walked towards the door holding Zhu Ping'an's hand.

I had only taken a few steps when I heard the old Chinese doctor's voice from behind, "Wait."

Hearing this, Zhu Pingchuan's forehead was covered with cold sweat, thinking that maybe the other party had changed his mind. That's right, who would buy wild flowers, and give such a high price, almost as much as working for half a month. He couldn't help but feel nervous.

Zhu Pingan turned his head and asked, "Is there anything else, old doctor?"

"If you still have this kind of medicinal material in the future, you can send it to us directly after drying. But the price will fluctuate, so you should be mentally prepared." The old doctor said, twirling his beard. On the one hand, he admired Zhu Ping'an's aura, and on the other hand, the quality of honeysuckle is really good. The demand for honeysuckle in the pharmacy is still very large, and prescriptions and medicated diet recipes containing honeysuckle are particularly common, so he decided to stop them and make a good relationship with them.

After hearing this, Zhu Pingchuan immediately breathed a sigh of relief and agreed repeatedly with "yeah hey".