Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

Perhaps startled by Wei Bao's presence at the henhouse, the hens in the yard were hesitant to return to lay their eggs, laying them much later than usual. It wasn't until the afternoon that Wei Bao finally got his wish. He ran excitedly from the henhouse, clutching a warm egg in each of his little hands, his face beaming with pride, and shouted loudly into the house, "Sister Xiangxiang, look! I found eggs! I really found eggs!"

Gui Xiang was busy with her work when she heard this. She looked up and glanced at her, then replied gently, "Wei Bao is so good. He can pick up the eggs by himself now. I'm busy right now, so you take the eggs to Mom carefully and don't break them."

"Okay!" Wei Bao replied crisply, obediently turning around and running towards the door, shouting as she ran, "Mommy, Mommy! I found an egg!"

At this moment, Mother was sitting under the eaves, gathered with Aunt Deng, Aunt Long, and several other neighboring women. They chatted idly while basking in the warm afternoon sun, their needles flying as they hurriedly sewed clothes. With many children in the family, clothes and shoes changed with the seasons, so there was always endless needlework. The early spring chill hadn't completely dissipated, and the wind still carried a hint of cold, but the afternoon sun was warm and gentle, feeling comfortably cozy against their skin. Many women in the village took advantage of the good weather, sitting in front of their homes doing handicrafts and looking after their children, enjoying a peaceful and leisurely time.

Hearing Wei Bao's clear voice, everyone looked up and teased his mother with smiles, "Third Aunt, your fifth son must be craving eggs. He's so clever, already squatting down to collect them at such a young age!"

Upon hearing this, Mother smiled and put down her needlework, replying casually, "There are eggs at home every day, so how could he lack food? This little ungrateful rascal, this morning he heard his sister complaining about not getting any red eggs, and he's been thinking about collecting eggs all day to please his sister."

The aunties listened with admiration, praising her repeatedly: "At such a young age, she already knows how to cherish her older sister and be considerate of others. She's so sensible! Third Aunt, your children are all well-behaved, sensible, diligent, and capable. You'll have a very happy life ahead of you!"

Mother smiled and waved her hand, her tone carrying the gentle warmth of an ordinary family: "Enjoying happiness is still a long way off. Right now, I'm content as long as you don't make me angry." With that, she put down her needlework, got up, and walked towards Wei Bao, who was running over. She said softly, "Wei Bao, come and put the eggs away for me. I'll fry some delicious eggs for you tonight."

Wei Bao carefully handed the two eggs to his mother, tilted his little face up, and said in a clear voice, "Mom, I'm going to Grandma's house to play now."

"Go on, walk slowly on the road, follow Snowball, and be careful not to fall." The mother gently instructed, watching the little guy skip and hop outside.

To better focus on his pharmacological research and herbal decoction preparation, Xingbao has taken over the place of his second brother, who works away from home, and now lives in the bamboo house in front of the house. He spends most of his free time there. The early spring nights are still chilly, but the bamboo house is well-ventilated and serves as his private medicine room since he doesn't keep guests at night. He can brew medicine and conduct experiments at night without disturbing anyone in the house, making it quiet and secure.

As early as last autumn, Xingbao, along with Guixiang, collected fresh leaves from three camphor trees in the backyard and, using the distillation apparatus they used for brewing wine, began their extraction experiments. After meticulous distillation, separation, and purification, each of the three camphor trees yielded a small amount of borneol, camphor essential oil, and clear, pure camphor hydrosol. The siblings packed all of these up and sent them to their master for use in medicine. After repeated testing and verification by their master, the results were immediately apparent: of the three trees, only the camphor tree that had been nourished by the spiritual spring water produced the purest and most potent borneol, with an efficacy even slightly exceeding that of the high-quality borneol available on the market. The other two ordinary camphor trees produced medicinal materials of mediocre quality and weak efficacy. The master then instructed Xingbao not to waste any more energy refining them, as it would be time-consuming, laborious, and yield minimal results—better than nothing, but ultimately not worth the effort.

Even though only a few coins' worth of high-grade borneol could be extracted each year, it delighted the master for a long time, who said that Xingbao had unintentionally found a priceless treasure of a life-saving medicine. Based on the tree's growth, in a few more years, when this camphor tree had fully matured and its branches and leaves were lush, it could reliably extract two or three ounces of high-quality borneol each year. It should be noted that in the current turbulent times of war, precious medicinal materials were extremely scarce. The price of imported borneol had already soared to 20,000 silver dollars per pound, and it was a tightly controlled medicinal material, never entering the civilian market. Ordinary doctors couldn't buy it even if they spent all their wealth, demonstrating the preciousness of this spiritual plant. Meanwhile, the camphor essential oil and hydrosol extracted simultaneously, mainly for moisturizing and repairing the skin, were not very useful in the resource-scarce, subsistent mountain villages, where people only sought basic sustenance. Therefore, they were kept as medicines for pain relief, soothing, and repelling mosquitoes and insects.

Currently, Xingbao's improved formula for Baiyao is missing two key ingredients: borneol and musk. He has to temporarily substitute other similar herbs to make do. However, these substitutes are ultimately less potent; compared to the complete traditional Baiyao, its hemostatic, bruise-reducing, wound-healing, and swelling-reducing effects are slightly inferior, which is a minor drawback. Fortunately, once the camphor trees are in full bloom this autumn, high-quality borneol can be extracted again to complete the formula. This will allow the improved Baiyao's healing effects to approach those of the original formula, with almost identical efficacy, sufficient to treat various external injuries and pains.

Xingbao was sitting quietly at the entrance of the bamboo house. In front of him was a half-eaten rough porcelain bowl, filled with a dark-colored, faintly bitter medicinal soup. A dozen or so loofah seeds had been soaking in the soup for several days, absorbing all the medicinal liquid and sinking to the bottom of the bowl. He gently picked up a soaked loofah seed with his fingertips, narrowed his eyes slightly, and used his subtle spiritual power to carefully explore and sense the seed's internal state.

Through subtle spiritual exploration, he could clearly sense that the medicinally soaked loofah seed was full of vitality and vigor. If buried in moist soil, it would sprout and grow within a few days. The herbal decoction he had prepared over the past few days had indeed served to promote germination and provide nutrients for the seed's early growth, effectively increasing the germination rate. However, after repeated examinations, there was still no sign of improvement. The decoction could only strengthen the seed's foundation and promote germination; it lacked the miraculous effect of the spiritual spring water in awakening the seed's essence and stimulating its latent potential. This pharmacological breeding experiment ultimately failed to break through the bottleneck and was declared a failure once again.

Xingbao remained calm, showing little disappointment. Each experiment was, after all, a process of trial and error, gradual refinement. He meticulously recorded the experimental data, the efficacy and shortcomings of the medicine, and the reasons for success or failure, carefully storing them away. He didn't discard the soaked loofah seeds carelessly; instead, he carefully stored them in his spiritual spring space, planning to transplant them to the vegetable garden behind the shop in the spring when the temperature warmed up, allowing them to grow naturally and perhaps reap unexpected surprises. He had handled all the seeds used in these pharmacological experiments in the same way. The remaining medicine, no longer useful in experiments, was used as natural organic fertilizer to water the fruit trees and plants in the backyard, making the most of everything.