Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 12
Recognising Medicinal Herbs
“Mr. Cao, exercise can also strengthen someone’s immune system. Will my body become stronger if I exercise more?”
Mr. Cao paused for a moment and said, “Yes, the Five Animals Qigong created by the legendary doctor Hua Tuo was made so that people could strengthen their bodies.” [1]
“I see. Sir, I’m actually here today because I want to ask you for advice on something.”
“Go ahead!”
“I know that dandelions have medicinal properties. Are there any other medicinal herbs that can be gathered around the village? And if there are, can they be sold for money?”
“Of course. There are many medicinal herbs around the village such as groundnut, calamus, horsetail, and psyllium! As long as they are gathered and dried properly, they can be sold.”
“But I don’t know any of these medicinal herbs!”
Mr. Cao thought for a moment before grabbing a thick booklet from a shelf with the words “Hundred Herbs Compendium” written on the cover. [2]
“I don’t have the time to teach you everything, but I heard that you know your letters, so you can refer to this booklet instead.”
Mo Yan took the copy of the ‘Hundred Herbs Compendium’ reverently, like she had just been given a treasure, and thanked Mr. Cao before returning home.
As soon as she got home, she sat in the courtyard and started reading using the light of the setting sun. The booklet was very informative. Not only did it record the properties of the herbs and the environments they grew in in detail, but it also had accompanying pictures.
When Mo Feng came home, he saw her reading and came over to try and incense her, “What are you reading so seriously? Where did you borrow a storybook from?”
As she didn’t want to have a conversation with him, Mo Yan showed him the cover. Mo Feng took a single glance before swiftly leaving, “Why are you reading this for? Do you want to be a physician or something?”
When he saw that Mo Yan was ignoring him, he listlessly went to the kitchen to look for food.
After making dinner, Mrs. Liang started sweeping the courtyard. Mo Ling only returned from the fields when it was already dark.
After dinner, Mo Yan went to tell stories again. She was very apprehensive while walking to the threshing field, wondering if anyone would come to listen and give wheat.
She heard the sounds of children and Erdan playing in the threshing field from afar.
When he saw Mo Yan coming, Erdan laughed and clapped his hands as he said, “It’s storytime, storytime!”
There were already quite a few people sitting on the threshing field. Mr Tian and Cao Zhang had come over with their lantern and desk as usual, and nothing had changed.
Standing behind the table, Mo Yan remembered that she didn’t have a way to signify she was going to start telling a story. Cao Zhang immediately handed over the fan he was holding, “Use this instead.”
Mo Yan rapped the folding fan on the table and asked, “What story should I tell today?”
“Jing Ke assassinating the Emperor Qin!” [3]
The voice came from the back of the crowd, and she instantly knew it was Lu Junming.
“Alright, I’ll tell that story then!”
From the beginning with the rustling winds and the cold waters, to Fan Yuqi’s sacrifice of his own life, to the entrance of Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang into the country of Qin. The heroes thought assassinating the then-King Qin was an act of justice, believing him to be tyrannical and that his death would save his people. However, the common folk believed the biggest misfortune in their lives was that China could not be united and war was rampant.
From the ancient times to now, none of the founding emperors of a dynasty have not been tyrannical to some extent. The villagers thought what she said made sense, but this was the first time they had ever heard anything like this.
When Mo Yan concluded, however, she didn’t talk about Jing Ke’s death in detail and only alluded to it with the words ‘The hero did not return from his valiant mission.’
The story lasted for nearly two hours, but the audience was silent the entire time and no one made a sound.
When the story was finished, Mo Ling was the first to clap and compliment Mo Yan, and all of the fatigue she had accumulated throughout the day had been washed away. Everyone else clapped for Mo Yan as well, without any dissent.
Governing official Wu placed the grain bowl on the table as usual, and the crowd went up to donate wheat. There was more grain in the bowl than yesterday.
Mo Yan was already satisfied that people had shown up to hear her tell stories. She didn’t really care about the amount of grain she had received.
She handed the fan back to Cao Zhang, “Thank you, young Mr. Cao!”
Being called by an honorific in front of Mr. Tian made Cao Zhang a little embarrassed, “Yan’er, why are you being so courteous? You’ve always called me by my name in the past. And I am your brother’s deskmate, after all.”
“But she was still a child back then. She’s grown up now, she can’t just call other people her ‘brother’!”
The person who spoke up was Lu Junming, who placed a small string of copper coins in Mo Yan’s hand.
Cao Zhang nodded slightly and said, “Yan’er, keep the fan. I still have plenty at home.”
Lu Junming handed the fan in Mo Yan’s hand back to him, then said to her, “I also have many fans like this. I’ll give one to you tomorrow.”
Mrs. Liang had come over at some point. She took the copper coins from Mo Yan’s hand and handed them back to Lu Junming, “Young Master Lu, that’s too much money, we can’t accept it. I’m sorry, but we can’t accept the fan either! A girl shouldn’t accept something from a boy so easily.”
Lu Junming took back the coins and clutched them in his palm tightly before suddenly turning around to leave.
Mrs. Liang then turned towards Cao Zhang with a smile, the expression of her face being entirely different compared to when she was interacting with Lu Junming, “Young Mr. Cao, I’d appreciate it if you lent Yan’er your fan for a while.”
Cao Zhang handed the fan back to Mo Yan, “Mrs. Liang, you can just call me Zhang’er.”
Mrs. Liang smiled faintly and nodded at him, “That’s hardly polite.” She looked extremely dignified, a far cry from what she’s usually like.
Mo Ling pulled her sister away from the threshing field as Mr. Tian moved the desk back to the school with Cao Zhang. The crowd dispersed, and Mrs. Liang went back home with the wheat her daughter had gotten them that night.
Mo Yan and Mo Ling laid on the kang as they talked about gathering medicinal herbs to sell. Most of the people in the village were illiterate, much less knew about medicinal herbs, so no one had ever thought of gathering and selling them for money before.
“Can they really be sold for money?” Mo Ling asked.
“All of them have medicinal properties, so of course they can be sold for money.”
“Let’s not go to the fields tomorrow. Let’s go and gather some herbs secretly. We can’t let anyone else know about this, or they’ll take them all and we won’t be able to gather any!”
“Okay! Let’s search for them at the pond first. Not many people go there, and we can look after the ducklings too.”
“Let’s do that then!”
Both sisters were tired and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, Mo Ling got up at the crack of dawn to make breakfast, when the roosters were crowing and the worms hadn’t left their holes yet. Mrs. Liang had woken up even earlier, having already cooked some soybeans and taken them out to the courtyard to dry in preparation to make soybean paste.
At the kitchen table, Mrs. Liang asked Mo Ling, “What are you planning to do today?”
“Yan’er and I are going to gather medicinal herbs. Mr. Cao says they can be sold for money.”
Mo Ling was afraid she would object, so she used Mr. Cao’s name.
“In all the years I’ve lived in this village, I’ve never heard of anyone saying there are any medicinal herbs here!”
Mo Yan lifted her small face proudly, “Mr. Cao himself told me about the medicinal herbs that grow around the village. He even lent me a booklet on medicinal herbs.”
“Okay, go then! Teach me about them as well when you return!”
After eating, Mo Ling took a backpack and Mo Yan took a basket as they left their home. Both of them carried a small sickle to harvest the medicinal herbs with.
Mrs. Liang had been cleaning the stove, and came out with a broom in her hand, saying, “Don’t tell anyone about this!”
The two sisters looked at each other and smiled. As always, their mum was a shrewd person and would always try to avoid any losses.
The ducklings had gotten used to the routine of going to the pond every day, and were waiting to leave at the front gate. As soon as it was opened, they jostled each other as they raced each other to leave the Mo family first, flapping their wings as they rushed towards the alley.
PS: Edited Sept 11, 2023, to try and get the rest of the story up to the current standards. This includes using the current terms and polishing up the translation. Thanks for reading!
[1] This is an actual exercise created by an actual legendary doctor known as Hua Tuo, who was active in the 2nd century AD.
[2] Standardised the name of the booklet. It doesn’t come up much, but the new name is more faithful to the original text.
[3] Also a real event, also from the Warring States period. Emperor Qin eventually united all of China, although the reign of his dynasty only lasted fifteen years.