Chapter 6: Selling Ginseng
After moving away from the crowd, Lin Xin realized that the little bundle in her arms was a bit off. His little arms were tightly wrapped around her neck, his little body was extremely stiff, and he occasionally let out one or two suppressed sobs.
Lin Xin felt a wave of annoyance. She had forgotten that Lin Nan was just an ordinary child who hadn’t experienced the man-eats-man apocalypse and had probably never seen blood before. The miserable state of those two people today must have scared him badly.
“Nan Nan, Nan Nan?” Lin Xin gently patted the child’s back in her arms while channeling a trace of wood element ability into his body. She softened her voice and asked by his ear, “What’s wrong?”
Lin Nan stared at her blankly for a moment, then suddenly burst into tears with a “wah,” sobbing while mumbling indistinctly, “Blood, so much blood, wah wah wah~ Older Sister~”
Seeing that he could speak, Lin Xin secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly coaxed him, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. Nan Nan is the bravest. When Nan Nan grows up, he’ll protect Older Sister, right? And that blood was from the bad guys. Once bad guys bleed, they can’t bully good people anymore!”
“Re-Really?” Lin Nan sniffled and confirmed with his older sister.
“Of course. When has Older Sister ever lied to Nan Nan? Right?”
“Then, then when Nan Nan grows up, he’ll make the bad guys bleed too, so no one can bully Older Sister.”
Lin Xin was left with a face full of black lines, afraid that continuing would teach the child badly. She quickly changed the subject, pointing to the shops on both sides of the street and telling him what things they sold, asking if he saw anything he liked. Once the big radish was sold for money later, she’d buy it for him.
After coaxing him for a long time, she finally got Lin Nan to forget the unpleasant incident that had just happened. Now he was chattering away like a chatterbox, saying he wanted this and that. Lin Xin wiped the nonexistent cold sweat from her forehead, thinking that next time she absolutely couldn’t do anything bloody in front of her younger brother, or if she scared him badly, where would she find another Lin Nan to compensate the original owner?
After this incident, Lin Xin had learned her lesson. This time, when choosing an apothecary, she wouldn’t look at whether the facade was luxurious. That Yong An Tang was decorated quite nicely, but what happened? It was like a donkey dung ball—smooth on the outside, but full of shit inside.
From the street head to the street tail, she didn’t see any other apothecary. Helplessly, she had no choice but to ask the auntie selling eggs by the roadside.
“On this street, besides Yong An Tang, you won’t find a second medical hall or apothecary,” the auntie said with a pout. “Ever since the old owner passed away and the young owner took over, Yong An Tang hasn’t been the same. Not only is seeing a doctor expensively to death, but they also announced they’d found a new channel for medicinal herbs and won’t accept scattered medicinal herbs anymore. Even many old customers have stopped cooperating.”
“Sure enough, it’s a donkey dung egg!” Lin Xin muttered softly, then asked again, “Then is there no apothecary in town that accepts medicinal herbs?”
“There is one, but…” The auntie looked at the clothing of Lin Xin and her younger brother, then at the back basket behind them, before saying quietly, “The old doctor sitting there has a bit of a weird temper and speaks very unpleasantly, but his medical skill is truly good. You can go there and try your luck. Speak nicely, and maybe you can sell at a good price.”
“Thank you, Auntie,” Lin Xin said as she stood up. Using the back basket for cover, she took out a handful of wild chrysanthemum from the space. “I’ve wasted half a day of Auntie’s time telling me so much. This wild chrysanthemum isn’t worth much money. Auntie, take it back to brew water and drink; it can clear heat and reduce fire.”
“No need, no need,” the auntie quickly waved her hands in refusal. “This is just a couple of sentences from me; how could it be worth taking your things! Besides, you’re not well-off either. This can at least buy one or two wen qian! Be good and take it back quickly!”
Seeing her about to put the wild chrysanthemum into her own back basket, Lin Xin immediately picked up Lin Nan and ran off quickly.
“This child!” The auntie watched the siblings’ receding figures and muttered with a smile.
Following the route the auntie told her, Lin Xin finally found the apothecary hidden deep at the end of another street, but her steps hesitated.
This apothecary was far beyond her expectations. First, it had no name at all—just two words “Medical Hall” written on a wooden board. The characters were well-written, with sharp strokes and iron hooks like silver, but as a signboard for a medical hall and apothecary, it seemed too perfunctory.
The outside walls didn’t know how many years of wear they’d endured—spotty and mottled, the doorposts faded, and even a roof tile on the door cornice was missing. She had good reason to doubt whether this apothecary could afford to pay her for the ginseng.
However, time waits for no one. Lunchtime was approaching, and her pockets were still empty! Even if she could go hungry, what about Lin Nan? In this public place, even with the space, it wasn’t convenient to use it.
In the end, Lin Xin gritted her teeth and stepped onto the doorstep, one foot crossing the threshold as she poked her head inside to look.
Whoa! The inside was like a completely different world from the outside!
The two full-wall herbal cabinets were made of rosewood, the chair under the dozing old man’s butt and the table he was sprawled on were golden nanmu, separated from the inner room by a four-panel ivory screen. Even the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone used for writing prescriptions on the table didn’t look ordinary. Lin Xin’s heart settled into her stomach—at least the money for the ginseng could definitely be paid here.
“Little girl, have you looked enough? If you keep staring at this old man, I’ll have to charge you, ha!” Seeing Lin Xin lingering at the door, peeking in but not entering, the dozing old man couldn’t help but speak up.
Lin Xin straightened up at his words, coughed dryly, walked into the room, and got straight to the point: “Do you accept medicinal herbs here?”
“Medicinal herbs?” The old man squinted his eyes and replied, “Of course I do, but I have very high requirements for the quality of medicinal herbs. I don’t want those messily processed things.”
“What about unprocessed ones? Do you accept them? What price?”
“Unprocessed? Fresh medicinal herbs?” The old man immediately lost most of his interest. “Bring it out first for me to see!”
Lin Xin readily took out the mud-caked ginseng wrapped in ragged cloth from the back basket and placed it on the golden nanmu table.
“Hiss~” As the ragged cloth was unwrapped, a faint medicinal fragrance wafted out. The old man suddenly widened his eyes, looking incredulously at the ginseng on the table, as if he wanted to bite it to check if it was real.
With great effort shifting his gaze from the ginseng, the old man wiped his face and asked Lin Xin in an almost fawning tone, “Little girl, what price are you planning to sell this ginseng for?”
Price? Lin Xin was stunned. How would she know what price to sell it for!
But the old man seemed quite understanding of her, very empathetically saying, “I won’t cheat you. This ginseng has a hundred and twenty years of age, but to preserve its medicinal properties without loss, I still have to process it myself, so the price I can offer is one thousand two hundred taels of silver. I dare to guarantee that besides here, you won’t find a second place in the entire town with such a high price.”
One thousand two hundred taels—Lin Xin didn’t know the purchasing power of that amount, but she figured the old man really wasn’t cheating her. And what he said was right; she hadn’t studied traditional Chinese medicine and had only awakened the wood element ability in the apocalypse, so she fundamentally didn’t know how to process medicinal herbs.
Most importantly, she had confidence! She had as much ginseng like today’s as she wanted. Worst case, if she was really cheated this time, she could make it up next time.
So Lin Xin nodded readily. “Alright.”
