Ink Burns

Chapter 55 The Mission of Recognizing the Father

When the word "son" came out, Cheng Xinghe was overjoyed, his eyes widened, and he knelt down at Lord Liu's feet. He was so overjoyed that he burst into tears: "Father. Father!"

Lord Liu bent down cheerfully and lifted him up: "It is a great thing that we are father and son. There is no need to cry. There is no need to cry!"

When Cheng Xinghe wiped his tears and sat down, Lord Liu waved his hand and called out loudly, "Bring the rain-previous Longjing tea sent by Jinling Prefecture this spring! Take away the white needle. How can you be so perfunctory when my son comes to the mansion!"

Cheng Xinghe's hands couldn't stop shaking with excitement.

The maid, Xiao Moli, who was about twelve or thirteen years old, responded and brought tea.

Cheng Xinghe took it with both hands.

Lord Liu smiled and said, "My son, please taste it."

Cheng Xinghe was so moved by these four words that he burst into tears.

Lord Liu smiled and said, "Spring tea is best before the Grain Rain in Nanjing. The cup in your hand is the best tribute tea. One ounce of tea is worth one ounce of gold. This year, Nanjing Prefecture received a total of three and a half pounds of tea buds. I withheld one ounce and eight ounces. Try it and see how it is different from the ordinary tea leaves in the market."

One penny of tea is worth one ounce of gold.

Cheng Xinghe took a trembling sip, but the scene of his ex-father Cheng Daxing lying on his back spitting out tea leaves appeared in his mind.

A pariah is a pariah. No matter how much money he makes or what status he is elevated to, he is just a pariah!
After taking a sip, Cheng Xinghe felt like drinking nectar: "Fresh, long-lasting, mellow and rich, there is such a good tea in the world!"

Lord Liu was cheerful, his eyes hidden in his long silver beard, and a trace of loneliness and disappointment flashed across his face: "It's a pity that this tea soup will be finished this year, and I don't know if there will be any next year."

Cheng Xinghe quickly put down the teacup: "But what happened?"

Not enough money?

"Even if it's one ounce of tea for one ounce of gold, the Cheng family can afford it." Cheng Xinghe calculated in his mind: find a way to buy two ounces of tea, twenty gold, which is only three hundred ounces of silver, enough for two carts of medicine.

Lord Liu glanced at Cheng Xing with a sidelong glance and said, "Silver? Silver is the most worthless thing in the world. This year, Jinling Prefecture still remembered to send me tea, but it was just a spent force. Now the new prefect, Bai Yusi, came from the six ministries of the capital. He is tight-lipped and ruthless. He is a man from the north. He is holding a chicken feather as a sword and wants to disturb the peace of Songjiang Prefecture. If he gets caught, what good tea will we, the retired old officials, have to drink?"

Cheng Xinghe didn't understand.

This is a power struggle in the officialdom, which is too far away from him.

He usually just fought with Baiji Pharmacy and Cheng's second uncle. In the fights among these upper-class dignitaries, he was at most the sucker who served tea and wine and paid for meals.

After Lord Liu finished speaking, he lifted the teacup with one hand and pulled out a beautiful clear water line of tea, with the tea foam splashing everywhere, and he said no more.

Silence is sometimes the best form of oppression.

Cheng Xinghe laughed dryly: "I hope father will make it clear."

Lord Liu smiled, and shook his amiable long beard: "Winter is coming, have the local medicinal herbs been loaded onto the truck and sent to the capital?"

This is the case every year. This matter has been settled long ago. Winter is prone to plague. The best herbs for dispelling cold and strengthening the body will be supplied to the capital first. Some will be used to protect the dignitaries in the south of Zhili. A little will be kept as a backup. Ordinary people will have to rely on themselves for medicine. Drinking more ginger soup is better than anything else. Cheng Xinghe nodded repeatedly: "It's loaded. Two trucks are loaded with ginseng slices, rehmannia root, dried cordyceps, and angelica. They will be dispatched ten days ago."

Lord Liu shook his head: "Not enough, not enough this year - clean up the medicinal materials in the Cheng family warehouse, keep 50% of them, and send the remaining 50% to the capital. The rest will be sent to Yingtian Prefecture, Jinling Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture and other twelve prefectures in Nanzhili."

Cheng Xinghe hesitated: "Then, if, if the epidemic comes, how should we in Songjiang Prefecture deal with it?"

how to respond?

To hell with him.

Lord Liu stroked his hair and beard, "Last month, dysentery broke out in northern Anhui and is spreading everywhere. In the past few days, the number of refugees outside the city has increased, and the number of bodies dying in ruined temples and wastelands has also increased. In the face of the plague, each prefecture has always been responsible for its own management. Our Lord Bai will definitely seal off the city to protect Songjiang - I will secretly open the city gates to let all the sick refugees in."

All the sick refugees came in, but all the medicines in the city were sent out.
Cheng Xinghe was like listening to a divine book.

"This, this, this will lead to many casualties!" Cheng Xinghe did not value the lives of the refugees in the city, but he valued his life: "Once the plague spreads, even if we live in a corner, there is no guarantee that we will not be infected. When the time comes, there will not be enough medicine. This, this, this, what should we do!"

Lord Liu spat, "Idiot," and said, "When you deliver the medicine to the capital, you should withhold the sufficient amount of medicinal materials to save our lives!"

Oh, that's why the five out of a hundred is so.

Cheng Xinghe felt relieved.

Immediately afterwards, Lord Liu threw down a prescription: "This is a prescription that has been circulated in northern Anhui. Keep the medicine and send it according to this. You can also keep three parts of medicine with similar efficacy in case of emergency."

Lord Liu stepped forward, staring at Cheng Xinghe with a burning gaze: "When the time comes, we will give medicine to those who are on good terms with us, and we will watch those who are not on good terms with us die. In the face of the epidemic, your position is higher than that of the prefect, don't you know?"

Cheng Xinghe took it but didn't dare to speak.

After the previous Emperor Mingde ascended the throne, he relied more and more on Jiangnan. The number of households and population in the thirteen prefectures of Nanzhili gradually increased. Last year, a survey found that there were 300,000 households and more than one million people in Songjiang Prefecture and its seven counties alone. With so many people, in the coldest days of winter, how could you not keep any medicine?

Cheng Xing's hands began to tremble again, and the four corners of the prescription also trembled, as if his mind was blown away by the autumn wind.

"Then, what should we do if a patient comes to the pharmacy to buy medicine and we don't have any?" Cheng Xinghe swallowed hard, "The Cheng family is the largest medicine merchant in Songjiang Prefecture, and they always put kindness first. They provide free medical treatment and distribute medicine, and are known as 'good people' in the eyes of the people."

Just because they survived this winter, it doesn’t mean they are no longer human beings!

If someone comes to get medicine with a blind eye and just says "there is no medicine", the pharmacy will probably be overwhelmed by refugees and patients!

Moreover, Cheng Xinghe recalled the drummer who sang the "Fake Medicine Song" when he went out this morning.
Not only does he want to be the prefect's illegitimate son, he also wants to continue to be the head of the Cheng family!
He wants them all!
The Cheng family is gone, what’s the point of him being the head of the family!
Lord Liu laughed, "Who told you that you can't produce medicine? Didn't Cheng Daxing often mix real and fake medicine? You can't produce real medicine, and you can't produce fake and inferior medicine? You sent ten-year-old angelica to the capital, can't you produce one-year-old angelica? You don't have one ounce of astragalus, can't you produce astragalus mixed with sweet potato vines?"

Lord Liu narrowed his eyes and smiled: "The reputation is just a lie on your lips. Don't listen to lies every day and take them seriously."

Cheng Xinghe trembled as he looked at the prescriptions, which were all commonly used medicines for treating dysentery.

Coptis chinensis, Scutellaria baicalensis, Pulsatilla chinensis, Portulaca oleracea, Phellodendron amurense, Honeysuckle
Making counterfeit drugs is much easier than stocking up on genuine drugs.

Coptis chinensis can be replaced by Coptis chinensis; Pulsatilla chinensis can be replaced by wild cotton; Phellodendron chinense needs to grow for ten years before it can be used, so it is expensive, but it is made from cypress bark and looks exactly the same. Unless you taste the bitterness, no one can tell the difference.
(End of this chapter)