Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn

Chapter 743: Chapter 88: Mysteriously Ineffective Medicine (Part 2)

It’s all thanks to Ye Heng who spent a lot of money, purchasing the Farmer Spring water from Zone C several times to irrigate the ginseng seedlings irregularly. Now that the Farmer Spring water has vanished, the survival rate of the next batch of ginseng remains uncertain.

Despite spending a significant amount of Heaven-defying Value, Xu Lan Ya has reaped a benefit: her few acres of ginseng fields have become the highest survival rate for precious medicinal herbs in the entire Spiritual Fruit Garden.

Earlier, when Zhang Yiyi was picking the corresponding fruits from the Spiritual Fruit Garden for the dormitory, Xiao Xian and Yiyi also commented that although the fruit harvest from the Spiritual Fruit Garden is both fast and good, and they look very beautiful, there is a fatal certainty: the taste is distorted, slightly inferior to that of fruits grown outside under normal conditions.

It’s like a potted flower grown in a greenhouse; it’s beautiful, sure, but it lacks the unique beauty that comes with enduring frost.

The herbs in the Spiritual Fruit Garden are the same; both the survival rate and the medicinal effects are discounted to a certain extent.

Therefore, Xu Lan Ya’s ginseng fields, with only a 60% survival rate, have become the elite among them and have enjoyed a tax exemption policy for two consecutive years.

"Oh, you’ve never seen ginseng like that before? Who’s so bold, knowing that I, Xu Lan Ya, am planting ginseng, and yet dares to plant alongside me? What’s her planting permit number?" On the planting area of each student in the Spiritual Fruit Garden, there’s a signboard that indicates the planting permit number, which is the person’s admission number.

Ye Heng reported a very recent number, "Judging by the number, it should be a new student."

"A new student?" Xu Lan Ya raised her eyebrows high; there’s even a bold newcomer in the North Campus who dares to challenge her.

"Wait a minute, I’ll go over now and see what kind of extraordinary ginseng seedlings the other party has planted," Xu Lan Ya snorted. There are only a few varieties of ginseng.

From the rarest wild ginseng to the red and white ginseng, Korean ginseng, garden ginseng, and American ginseng. It’s normal for Ye Heng, who comes from a humble background, not to recognize the various types of ginseng.

Xu Lan Ya felt even more contempt in her heart; this Ye Heng is becoming less and less useful. At the same time, she felt annoyed that she did not obtain the ginseng spiritual vein in Changbai Mountain last time.

According to what Xu Changfu said, as long as one secures the ginseng spiritual vein and transplants it to a suitable place, even the most ordinary garden ginseng planted will turn into the most valuable wild ginseng in less than ten years.

Since the ginseng spiritual vein was already gone, having Ye Heng to order around was better than nothing.

Xu Lan Ya arrived at the Spiritual Fruit Garden, and as she just entered the ginseng field, she was greeted with a fragrance of herbs.

At around nine o’clock in the evening, in the "Plum Rice Ball", Huang Yaoshi hung up a phone call, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.

"Madam, this is already the third consecutive customer complaint we’ve had in the store, what do you think?" The recent phone call was from a long-time customer of the herbal shop who, at the beginning of the month, bought a piece of Tai Sui weighing about two pounds.

Strictly speaking, Tai Sui is not an herb, but a collective term for a type of slime mold, which in ancient times was believed to grant immortality and has always been considered an Immortal Elixir that could make one live forever.

This piece of Tai Sui from Plum Rice Ball was accidentally discovered by a few miners from Shanxi inside a large rock, a brilliant red color like dazzling agate. According to the market price for Tai Sui, which starts at ten thousand per pound, this two-pound piece of Tai Sui was sold for an exorbitant price of twenty-five thousand.

To facilitate the customer’s consumption, Pharmacist Huang went through the "Compendium of Materia Medica" and, following the methods described therein, recommended that the customer grind the Tai Sui into powder and soak it for several days before drinking. The customer originally purchased the Tai Sui to treat his mother’s cancer, but after using it for a while, it had no effect at all.

The customer sent the remaining pound and more of Tai Sui for laboratory testing. The results were astonishing; what was bought from "Plum Rice Ball" was indeed Tai Sui, but it wasn’t just that there was no treatment for cancer – there wasn’t even the most basic fortifying and health-enhancing effect.

Having spent a fortune on what was supposed to be top-quality medical material, it turned into a useless stone in the blink of an eye. The customer couldn’t say the shop sold fake medicine. Such a miserable outcome, even for a long-time customer, was bound to provoke anger directed at Pharmacist Huang.

"Perhaps it wasn’t stored properly in the warehouse, and the medicine has gone bad," Mei Nian had already completely recovered and was busy with the shop’s matters all this time.

"That’s possible. How about this, I will find some people tomorrow to tidy up the warehouse where the medical materials are stored. Spring is here and moisture levels are high," Pharmacist Huang received several complaints ranging from antler to Cordyceps and now to this issue with Tai Sui. Each time, the feedback was similar, with customers claiming that the herbs were real, but the efficacy itself was completely gone.

Such an incident was unprecedented for Pharmacist Huang in all his years in this profession. If an explanation had to be forced, it could only be as Mei Nian suggested – due to improper storage, the quality had deteriorated.

"If there’s nothing else, I’m going back first," after notifying, Mei Nian left the shop.

After leaving the shop, Mei Nian flipped her palm, and a neon-light-like luminescence fluttered between her palms. With a soft chuckle, the radiant essence of Tai Sui had long been absorbed into her body.

"This place called Beijing is so much better than that ghostly ice and snow-bound place. The medicinal materials in this shop aren’t bad. It’s just that the old pharmacist still has some skill and is considered a leader in his specialty of medicinal materials. Though he has not yet figured out why the herbs are losing their potency, all the spiritual energy from those precious materials has already been drained by me. However, as it keeps happening, he will surely realize that it’s not due to storage issues. Besides, this is just an ordinary shop; while it has a variety of materials, the spiritual energy within them isn’t concentrated. They’re all herbs from several decades or at most a hundred years, and for me, they’re just a drop in the bucket," Mei Nian, still with her ear-length hair, smacked her lips, revealing a trace of cold light in her eyes.

Only Mei Nian and Pharmacist Huang knew about the inexplicable loss of potency in the shop’s medicinal materials.

To avoid customers bringing back the sold medicine and causing more issues, Pharmacist Huang did not allow the clients to return the materials for further tests. In fact, even if Pharmacist Huang did check, he would not be able to discern the reason.

Only an author of spirit plant cultivation novels like Xiao Xian would notice after a few glances that the materials in the hands of the customers were very similar to those used by Xiao Xian’s "Spirit Stacking." On the outside, there was no change, but the essence of the medicine was already gone.

"It seems I can no longer continue to target the shop’s medicines. I’m still living here and cannot expose myself yet. It seems I can’t meddle with the shop’s materials anymore. Perhaps I could take a look at that silly goose’s research base; I might discover something interesting," Mei Nian started the car, her hair dancing in the night wind like a swarm of snakes, a hint of a wicked smile blooming on her lips, utterly unlike the former "Mei Nian." (To be continued. If you like this work, we welcome you to Qidian () to cast your recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)