Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Someone wants to take you as his teacher, really?” Zhang Xiuying asked about it when they were having lunch.

“You know about that?” w.a.n.g Yao asked.

“I was told that someone knelt down in front of your clinic and wanted to learn skills from you,” his mother replied. Interesting news like that could spread far in a short time since it was a small village.

“Yes, it's true,” w.a.n.g Yao replied. “But, I refused.”

“What does he want to learn from you? Medicine?” his mother asked.

“No, martial arts,” w.a.n.g Yao replied.

“Martial arts?” Zhang Xiuying was shocked. She knew her son dabbled in martial arts, but she had never seen him use it. “Is it the young man who bought two houses in the village?”

“Yes,” w.a.n.g Yao said.

Zhang Xiuying did not asked more.

After lunch, w.a.n.g Yao returned to his clinic. He closed the clinic later in the afternoon and told his family that he would be coming back home. He needed to do some preparation on the hill for his upcoming journey to Jing.

A dose of regather soup… A dose of blood deblocking soup… In addition to those, w.a.n.g Yao thought of another prescription. Ginseng, the fruit of Chinese magnolia vine, poria cocos, Chinese peony, yushuai…

He had seen the prescription in Treatise on Miscellaneous Disease. The only difference was there was no yushuai in it.

Yushuai was used to generate Qi and blood, as well as to settle the spirit. It was a medium licorice root. He specifically chose it for its effect on the spirit. He planned to use it to cure the psychosis of Chenying's younger brother.

w.a.n.g Yao prepared the medical materials all afternoon. He then climbed down to carefully manage the medical fields. Common medical herbs grew very well, as did the licorice roots.

He felt the stronger and stronger nimbus in the tactic. It was not from its surrounding but from itself. These days, he found another function of these licorice roots other than for treatment, nimbus generation. It was used to reversely feed the heaven and earth.

It was already dark when he finished everything. Prepare more firewood? The dark didn't matter to him. He regarded nights as daytime. He walked on the mountain like a gust of wind. His dog also helped him. It didn't take long to gather the wood.

w.a.n.g Yao boiled some noodles for supper. Although he did not care what he ate, his dog did not like its supper. It seemed like the dog was liking its food less and less.

“What's up, San Xian? It tastes like the stewed pork ribs. Which is your favorite.”

Woof!

The dog had no appet.i.te for what he was eating. He liked the stewed meat w.a.n.g Yao cooked or bought.

Hha. w.a.n.g Yao touched the dog's head as he smiled.

It was sunny the next morning. Fragrances from the medicine floated out from the small room. Ginseng, matrimony vine, sealwort, gorgon fruit, glossy Ganoderma, Shanjing, Guiyuan… Regather soup was the most frequent medicine soup he boiled down, so it was the one with which he was most familiar. Regardless, he still decocted it based on the steps and did not try to finish it quickly. It had to be stewed to let the medical efficacy thoroughly integrate into the soup. The medical ingredients had to be added in a certain sequence. There could not be chaos or an attempt to hurriedly decoct the medicine.

A dose of regather soup wasn't finished until 10 a.m. w.a.n.g Yao continued decocting after drinking some water. Ephedra, the root of angelica, Chinese Peony, Panax Notoginseng, polygonum vine and Ziyu. Blood Deblocking Powder activated the blood and cleared it of contaminants. w.a.n.g Yao had also decocted this soup many times.

The two doses of medicine used four kinds of licorice roots. The prescriptions were from the system, so the amounts were all precise and could not be more nor less. He had to purchase some more from the system's pharmacy because his stock was short, which consumed many of the exchange points he had acc.u.mulated.

In the afternoon, there was a phone call from home asking him to come back home to have a meal. There were guests from Jing visiting them. It was his aunt and her husband.

Why did they come here again? w.a.n.g Yao was not affectionate to them, even though they were relatives, because they did not often have contact with each other. How could they become affectionate?

His mother was not like him. She treated them warmly. She cooked many dishes that filled the table. She even took out the quality liquor Chen Boyuan had brought from Jing.

“Ah, good wine,” his uncle-in-law said. He was more pa.s.sionate than his wife, who looked rather inhospitable.

They did not eat much. It was as if they had no appet.i.te.

“Don't you like it?” Zhang Xiuying asked in a low voice.

“That's not it at all! It's good. My appet.i.te is not very good.” She spoke quite pleasantly.

They said goodbye after eating and talking for a while.

“Why did they come back again?” w.a.n.g Yao asked.

“Your aunt's body is not good, so she wanted to come back,” Zhang Xiuying replied.

“What's that mean for us?” w.a.n.g Yao asked.

“They might want us to look after her,” his mother replied.

w.a.n.g Yao just smiled. He then said, “They really like living in Jing. Why would they come back?”

“People often feel homesick when they start getting older,” Zhang Xiuying replied.

w.a.n.g Yao felt that these relative only contacted them when they needed something. He didn't care for those kind of people too much.

“I guess my aunt does not get along well with her husband,” he said as he poured a cup of water for his parents.

“Nonsense!” Zhang Xiuying exclaimed. “How could you possibly think something like that?”

“Please don't be angry,” w.a.n.g Yao said.

He could cure disease and also knew a bit of anthroposcopy. His aunt's complexion had not been ruddy or glossy. He guessed the couple had not been close or intimate for some time. They were at the age where they should be full of desire, but they were too restrained. This might be because of illness or emotional incompatibility. He knew the couple was physically good. His uncle even showed some signs of too much s.e.x. Why was that? Of course, he could not talk with his parent about such topics.

Instead, he asked. “What do your sister and your brother-in-law do at home?”

“You asked that last time. They are farmers,” his mother replied.

“Farmers? How could they afford Maotai, especially authentic Maotai?” w.a.n.g Yao asked.

“How? Do you look down upon farmers?” his mother angrily asked.

“That's not what I meant,” w.a.n.g Yao replied with a smile.

Maotai was high quality. Unfortunately, most people usually had fake Maotai. In his view, even the Maotai the secretary of the County Committee drank might not be real, let alone in such a small village.

In the afternoon, he should have gone up to the hill. But, he saw someone looking for a doctor on his way, so he went to the clinic. It was a young man. His face was a little ruddy, and his breath was hot.

“Are you Doctor w.a.n.g?” the young man asked.

“Yes, please have a seat,” w.a.n.g Yao replied.

“I… I…” The young man was ashamed to speak out.

“Your s.e.x desire is strong, like a fire, isn't it?” w.a.n.g Yao asked.

“Yes,” the young man replied. “Sometimes, I think of it all day. Can you think of some way to help? ”

w.a.n.g Yao felt his pulse. “It's not a big problem. I'll give you a prescription. After you take it, you will feel better in three days.”

“Really?” The young man was shocked.

“Do you like to eat beef or mutton?” w.a.n.g Yao asked.

“Yes, I really like to eat both of them,” the young man replied.

“And scallops?” w.a.n.g Yao inquired.

“Yes, very much,” the young man said.

“Then, you need to have them less,” w.a.n.g Yao said. “For a month, you are not allowed to have meat. You need be a vegetarian.”

The young man was shocked hearing his words. “Vegetarian?”

“Yes, can you do it?” w.a.n.g Yao asked.

“Yes, I can,” the young man hurriedly said.

The medicine w.a.n.g Yao gave him was to cool his blood and remove the heat poison. The const.i.tution of the young man was the type with excessive heat, which was commonly a strong s.e.x desire. Since he liked to eat some dry and hot food, like beef and mutton, it was like putting oil on fire. It was the consequence of a congenital const.i.tution and acquired habits.

The young man took his medicine and left. w.a.n.g Yao felt the young man might not listen to him.

w.a.n.g Yao went up to the hill and prepared some medicine. The red-rooted salvia, angelica root, rehmannia root, common peony root, peach kernel, Peoria cocos, licorice and Changyang. The medicine was prepared for Du Feng to cure his heart disease.

In a house in Dao…

An old man with a white beard and white hair coughed seriously. Being out of breath made him bend his back. It was as if he wouldn't finish until he coughed out his lungs. His face should have been ruddy from coughing this way, but it was not. Instead, it was pale, which was very strange.