Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

Xingbao and Guixiang quickly looked up and saw a dozen or so young students dressed in black Zhongshan suits sitting neatly in the main room. The one in the lead was none other than their senior brother, Wang Anping, whom they had met not long ago.

The two didn't dare delay and quickly stepped forward, bowing respectfully: "Greetings, senior brother! Greetings, brothers!" After bowing, Xingbao approached Wang Anping, tilting his little face up and asking curiously, "Senior brother, are these all your classmates? Where are you going?"

Wang Anping smiled and put his arm around Xingbao, pulling him to sit down on a bench. Turning to the other students, he introduced them, "Classmates, these twins are the prodigy siblings I mentioned to you. Last time, I saw Grandpa test their medical knowledge, and they even outperformed us brothers. Not only that, they also learn new things from their older brother, so their knowledge is far greater than that of other children their age!" He then pulled over the older brother, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, and continued, "This is their older brother, Song Yanbang, who will officially enter the middle school section of Shuangfeng Academy next year."

The eldest brother quickly stepped forward, cupped his hands in greeting to the crowd, and said, "Greetings, brothers."

After exchanging pleasantries, Wang Anping's smile gradually faded. He sighed softly, his expression darkening, and said in a deep voice, "Yanbang, Xingbao, Guixiang, we are here on behalf of all the students from Shaoyang to visit and comfort the soldiers on the front lines."

The moment those words were spoken, the once lively main room fell silent, as if the air itself had frozen. Xingbao's curious expression vanished instantly; his small hands gripped Wang Anping's clothes tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white, his eyes filled with surprise and worry. He wanted to say, "Senior brother, don't go," but the words stuck in his throat, his lips moving only briefly before he could utter a sound. He could only stare intently at Wang Anping, his worry almost overflowing.

Wang Anping sensed Xingbao's nervousness, gently patted his head, looked towards the door, and softened his voice: "Don't worry, your senior brother won't go to the battlefield, he's just going to the front lines to comfort the soldiers." But as soon as he said this, even he himself wasn't sure if it was true or not, and there was a hint of uncertainty in his tone that he himself didn't even realize.

In the midst of this somber atmosphere, the second brother entered carrying a clean wooden tray laden with freshly washed water chestnuts, each one plump and round. He placed the tray on the table and greeted them with a smile, "Brothers, these are water chestnuts we dug up on the riverbank today. They're very fresh, please have a taste!"

The second brother's words broke the silence in the main room. Xingbao gradually came to his senses and looked up at Wang Anping, saying, "Senior brother, you guys eat first. I'll go prepare something." After saying that, he hurriedly slid off the stool and ran to the room in the backyard.

As soon as he entered the room, Xingbao called out towards the kitchen, "Mom, my senior brother and the others are here tonight. What delicious food are you making?"

Mother was busy at the stove when she heard Xingbao's voice. She turned around and replied with a smile, "Mother has already prepared everything! I stewed pheasant with matsutake mushrooms, stir-fried rabbit with chili peppers, and also stir-fried some potato shreds with the potatoes you grew. I'll also make a winter melon soup. Your senior brothers will definitely love this kind of meal. Are you satisfied?"

"Thank you, Mother!" Xingbao replied with a smile. Seeing that his mother and Sister Shanshan, who was helping out, weren't paying attention to him, he quietly slipped to the corner of the wall and entered his spatial dimension. He found the strongest Panax notoginseng plant in the dimension, carefully broke off a small piece along with the seedling, and replanted it. He dug out the remaining large piece of Panax notoginseng and carefully cleaned the soil from the roots. He weighed the Panax notoginseng in his hand, recalled the formula on the Yunnan Baiyao bottle from his previous life, and combined it with the knowledge he had learned from medical books in this life, pondering how to concoct a simplified version of the wound medicine.

With the medicine prescription settled, Xingbao hurriedly ran to the counter in the front hall to find his father. He took paper and pen, wrote down the names and weights of the other medicinal herbs that needed to be added, and handed them to his father: "Father, this is the prescription for the wound medicine I made using Panax notoginseng. Please help me buy these herbs and grind them into powder, the finer the better. Have my senior brothers take them to the front lines tomorrow. If we can find Uncle, we can give them to him. By the way, Father, could you rewrite the letter we wrote to Uncle last time when you have time? I'm worried that the first one didn't get through."

Father took the prescription and immediately understood. He quickly called his second brother to help watch the counter, pocketed the silver dollars, and hurried to the village pharmacy. Xingbao found a garlic burrow, carried the cleaned Panax notoginseng back to the main room, sat on a small stool in the corner, listened to his fellow apprentices chatting, and vigorously pounded the Panax notoginseng.

Wang Anping noticed his movements and asked curiously, "Xingbao, what are you busy with?"

While grinding the herbs, Xingbao looked up and replied, "Senior brother, a few days ago I asked the postman in the district, Brother Qianjin, to bring me some Panax notoginseng. I'm grinding it into powder to make medicine for my wounds now. Once it's done, I'll have to trouble you to take it to my uncle in Shanghai."

Upon hearing this, Wang Anping and his classmates became curious and crowded around. One of the young men, wearing glasses, asked, "Xingbao, what is your uncle doing in Shanghai? Why did you have to specially deliver medicine to him?"

Xingbao pursed his lips in regret as soon as he finished speaking, realizing he had let something slip. He quickly turned his head and glanced towards the kitchen, seeing his mother still busy inside, and hurriedly lowered his voice to say, "Senior brother, fellow brothers, my mother doesn't know about this yet."

Wang Anping and his classmates exchanged glances and nodded slightly, clearly understanding the reason, and softened their voices. Xingbao then continued, "My uncle is an artilleryman in the 36th Division. Some time ago, I heard from a peddler from Hengyang that the 36th Division had already joined the battle in Shanghai on August 18th, but the fighting was fierce, and the troops suffered heavy losses. Later, they retreated to Jiangwan to garrison, and then there was no news!"

Wang Anping frowned slightly, about to ask for more details, when the older brother beside him suddenly coughed twice, subtly gesturing to the others. Everyone instantly understood, immediately stopping their conversation and changing the subject to academic topics. Just as they composed themselves, Sister Shanshan emerged from the kitchen carrying steaming dishes, calling out loudly, "The food's ready! Everyone, sit down and eat while it's hot!"

The meal was lively and cheerful, and everyone chatted for a while before Dad returned with the finely ground medicinal herbs. As it was getting late and time to arrange accommodations, Wang Anping suddenly pulled Xingbao aside and whispered, "Xingbao, we have a lot of donated supplies in our luggage. Could you please ask your uncle to help us make proper arrangements?"

Xingbao nodded in agreement and ran to discuss it with his father. Considering the safety of the supplies and the students, all four guest rooms in the house were vacated for Wang Anping and his group to stay in; the porters and other travelers from the shop were temporarily housed by their father at the neighbor's house.

As night deepened and all was quiet, Xingbao, along with his two older brothers, gathered in the small classroom by the dim light of an oil lamp to grind the medicinal powder they had bought into a finer grind—only a sufficiently fine grind would allow the medicine to exert its full effect. The three of them took turns grinding until the early hours of the morning, when the powder finally met Xingbao's requirements.

After preparing the medicinal powder, Xingbao mixed it into a wound medicine according to the proportions he had figured out. He then had his father catch a rooster, tie its beak to prevent it from struggling, and conducted a simple hemostatic experiment. Although this was a low-grade version of Baiyao (a traditional Chinese medicine), the Panax notoginseng in it was cultivated with spiritual spring water from his space, making its medicinal effects far superior to ordinary herbs. Even though Xingbao had deliberately increased the amount of other herbs, the final effect was still surprisingly good—as long as it wasn't a major hemorrhage involving an artery, sprinkling the powder on it would quickly stop the bleeding.

Meanwhile, Dad rewrote a letter to his uncle. After finishing the letter, Xingbao specifically instructed his father to add a sentence at the end, urging his uncle to reply and to have the messenger bring the letter back in person.

Father was puzzled and frowned, asking, "Xingbao, why do you insist on having your senior brother bring the reply back? Wouldn't it be the same to have the postman send it?"

Xingbao's expression instantly darkened, and he said softly, "I'm worried that my senior brothers might get carried away and enlist in the army once they get to the front lines." Seeing his father's face darken, he quickly added, "Father, I'm not against my senior brothers joining the army, it's just that the situation in Shanghai is too dangerous right now. These students haven't received systematic training, and if they rashly join the army, at most they'll just be another casualty. But if they can come back safely, even if they only join the local security force, having witnessed the fierce fighting on the front lines, combined with their knowledge, they'll definitely be able to achieve something great in the future."