A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 41 Luan Jingfu

Duan Rong took off his badge and handed it to the old man.

The old man took it and looked at it carefully in the evening light. He raised his head and looked at Duan Rong, and said, "Are you an apprentice escort?"

Duan Rong nodded.

The old man returned the badge to Duan Rong, chuckled, and said, "Apprentice escorts are here to boil medicine. You seem to be the first one!"

"One denarius."

Duan Rong took out a penny of silver and handed it to the old man.

The old man took it and handed Duan Rong a key with the boiler number on it.

Duan Rong took the key, and the old man covered himself with the quilt and lay down again.

Duan Rong looked at the black and dirty quilt and shook his head slightly.

This old man is actually not an ordinary person.

Ordinary people cannot enter the central courtyard to guard the medicine furnace room.

He is the father of Luan Jingfu, the current head of Yuanshun Escort Agency.

"My own father lives like this. This Luan Jingfu is probably a bit unfilial!"

Duan Rong muttered to himself, took the key, carried the medicine bag, and went into the medicine furnace room.

As soon as Duan Rong entered the medicine furnace room, he stood at the door, slightly stunned.

There were actually two people in the medicine furnace room. It seemed that the medicine was almost ready and they were waiting.

The two men were wearing standard brocade clothes with rolled edges, but they were dressed differently from Zhao Mu and his escorts.

Duan Rong's mind moved. Those were the clothes of the escort leader. These two people were the escort leaders! This was the first time Duan Rong had seen an escort leader!
Luan Jingfu, the chief of Yuanshun Escort Agency, is in charge of all escort duties and manages six escort teams.

Every escort team has a leader who leads several escorts and porters.

Although Duan Rong guessed their identities based on their clothes, he did not know them.

What made Duan Rong even more embarrassed was that the two men were obviously whispering something, but Duan Rong suddenly barged in.

As soon as Duan Rong stood at the door, the two of them immediately noticed him.

One of them with a long face looked at Duan Rong. Seeing that Duan Rong was wearing a brown shorts and holding a dose of medicine in his hand, he stared at Duan Rong and asked, "Which hospital are you from?"

"I am an apprentice escort in the Central Courtyard." Duan Rong answered truthfully immediately.

The long-faced man was slightly startled. He originally thought that it was someone from the inner courtyard who asked a servant to come and boil medicine, but he didn't expect it to be an apprentice escort. He shouted sternly: "Let me see the badge!"

Duan Rong handed over the badge. The man took a look at the badge and gave it back to Duan Rong, saying with a sinister look, "There is no more furnace available. Let's go."

Duan Rong glanced at the stoves against the wall. Obviously, there were still a few empty stoves, but he didn't say anything. He took the badge and walked out.

The long-faced escort leader behind Duan Rong asked, "Since when did even the apprentice escorts start to boil potions?"

Duan Rong went out and woke the old man up again, saying, "The people inside said there is no more stove."

The old man didn't seem surprised. He took out a penny of silver and gave it to Duan Rong, saying, "Give me the key. Come back tomorrow morning."

Duan Rong took the money and returned to the dormitory feeling a little depressed.

There was no way around it. He was just an apprentice now. In the escort agency's organizational structure, he was not even an intern. Anyone could give him the cold shoulder, and he could only take it.

It’s the same in every world, survival is not easy!

Duan Rong washed his body with well water and lay down on the bed, intending to read some books before going to sleep.

However, he had been working all night for the past few days and was really tired. After reading just a few lines, his eyelids drooped as if they were filled with lead.

Duan Rong closed his eyes and fell asleep on his stomach.

I had a dreamless night and fell into a deep sleep.

When Duan Rong woke up, the oil lamp had gone out. He jumped off the bed, put on his clothes, opened the door, and looked out. The crescent moon was setting in the west.

Duan Rong estimated the time, picked up the bag of medicine from the bedside, locked the door, and went to the medicine furnace room. The medicine furnace room opens at twelve o'clock.

The crescent moon was dim, and the few stars around it were twinkling like little eyes.

The entire Yuanshun Escort Agency was in silence. The lanterns hanging under the eaves illuminated the road ahead. Duan Rong hurriedly came to the medicine furnace room again.

Duan Rong woke up the sleeping old man, paid the silver, took the key, and walked into the medicine furnace room.

The room was empty except for the large lantern on the wall, which emitted a quiet yellow light.

There are a total of six medicine stoves in the room, surrounding three sides and standing against the walls.

On the east wall, there are fine charcoal and mountain spring water.

Duan Rong picked a medicine stove that was closest to the mountain spring water.

The medicine furnace was made of pure copper, supported by a thick iron frame and suspended above a large charcoal basin.

The mouth of the medicine furnace is a special mechanical spring that can be locked by twisting it and can only be opened with a matching key.

Once the furnace mouth is locked, the entire furnace will only have three needle-like holes for air to vent.

This is done by using high pressure and high temperature to stew the medicine, so as to thoroughly squeeze out the medicinal power.

Duan Rong used the key in his hand to open the spring of the furnace mouth, twisted it in the opposite direction, and took it out.

Duan Rong studied the spring and felt it was quite delicate.

It seems that there are many skilled craftsmen in this world. This copper furnace is probably not cheap. Charging them only one penny of silver is really a benefit given to them by the escort agency.

Duan Rong then studied the internal structure of the copper furnace.

The core of the copper furnace is a three-layer bamboo rack with a mesh. Duan Rong knew at a glance that this rack was the place to store the herbs.

The lead medicine is placed on the top, the main medicine is placed at the bottom, and the auxiliary medicine is placed in the middle.

Moreover, this copper stove has a layer of copper on the outside and a layer of grayish-white clay on the inside.

Duan Rong opened his own medicine bag, put the ingredients away one by one, and then put the three-layer shelf back into the copper furnace.

Then he scooped a few scoops of mountain spring water, filled the medicine stove with 90% water, put the lid back on, and tightened the machine spring.

Duan Rong did all this, found some thin firewood from the firewood pile, put it in the charcoal brazier, then took a bunch of hay, lit it in the lantern, put it in the charcoal brazier, and ignited the thin firewood.

In this way, Duan Rong added thicker charcoal into the charcoal basin little by little.

After a while, a raging flame had been burning in the charcoal brazier, roasting Duan Rong's cheeks so much that they hurt!

Seeing that the fire was already burning very brightly, Duan Rong stopped adding firewood.

This furnace will take an hour to boil, so we have to wait.

Duan Rong had nothing to do, and he was the only one in the medicine furnace room at the moment, so he put two pieces of blood deer antler in his mouth and stood up!

The copper furnace conducted heat well. After about a quarter of an hour, the furnace was boiling. Hot air spurted out from the pinhole-like holes, making strange noises.

Duan Rong stood there, and every once in a while, he would add a few pieces of thick firewood into the charcoal basin!

An hour passed quickly.

At this time, the needle hole of the copper furnace no longer sprayed out hot air!
Although the charcoal basin under the copper stove was full of red charcoal, there were no flames.

And in the medicine furnace room, the whole room was filled with a strange medicinal fragrance!

Duan Rong was standing there, and for some reason, he felt that the fragrance of the medicine made his heart beat wildly.

After standing for an hour, the two pieces of blood antler in Duan Rong's mouth had already melted.

Duan Rong let out a long sigh and then dispersed his energy.

These past few days, he only stood in the meditation posture for an hour every day, but the feeling of physical weakness was becoming more and more intense.

Duan Rong opened his eyes, glanced at the copper stove reflecting the red charcoal fire, and said excitedly: "The medicine is finally ready!"

(End of this chapter)