I just wrote a love poem, how did that make me so powerful?

Li Yedao shook his head.

"If those things are the root of the disease... then aren't we using medicine with medicinal properties, but rather with substances designed to deal with those living things?"

He looked up at Xu Qing, his old eyes reflecting the afterglow of the setting sun, so bright it was frightening.

"If that's really the case, then haven't we been groping in the dark for the past forty years?"

Li Yedao became more and more excited as he spoke, grabbing Xu Qing's hand and pressing her for more information.

"Tell me, are these things beneficial or harmful? How do you distinguish them? And how do you kill them?"

Xu Qing smiled slightly: "Dr. Li, this is your area of ​​expertise. I only discovered it by chance and studied it for a short while. Compared to you, I am far inferior."

Li Yedao was taken aback, then smiled bitterly: "Yes, you're right. To distinguish between their good and bad, and then treat them accordingly, would truly require the rest of my life to do..."

As he spoke, he stared at Xu Qing again, "No, you still have something, don't you?"

"I couldn't hide it from you, this way please."

Xu Qing then took Li Yedao to a small, temporarily vacated hut behind the workshop.

Inside the room were a copper pot and several copper pipes, as well as a clay distillation apparatus.

Xu Qing poured a jar of rice wine into the pot, lit the charcoal fire underneath, and put the lid on. One end of the copper pipe was connected to the pot lid, and the other end was connected to a cooled porcelain bottle.

The liquor in the pot was heated and turned into steam, which traveled along a copper pipe wrapped with a damp cloth. There was also a dripping kettle on top of the pipe, dripping well water to cool it down.

After cooling, it condensed back into liquid and dripped into the bottle drop by drop.

The distilled liquid is clear and transparent, with a stronger aroma than the original wine.

Li Yedao leaned closer and sniffed it, raising an eyebrow: "This is... wine?"

Xu Qing took a little bit in a small bowl and handed it over: "Please try it."

Li Yedao took the bowl, took a small sip, and was immediately stunned, slowly savoring the taste.

"This is stronger than regular wine, hot and spicy, but it's not unpleasant after you put it in your mouth. Instead, it's purer and sweeter."

Xu Qing explained, "This is called distilled spirit. By heating ordinary liquor and then condensing it once, a purer liquid can be extracted. If the liquor is distilled a second time, there are almost no impurities. This kind of liquor is called alcohol."

He took a piece of cotton cloth, soaked it in the freshly distilled wine, and then lit it over a fire. The cloth caught fire, but burned very slowly, with a bluish flame and no black smoke.

"Using this to clean wounds is much more effective than using ordinary wine or herbal decoctions. Dr. Li, have you considered... if we use this wine to disinfect all surgeries from now on, we'll never have to worry about wounds getting infected again..."

Li Yedao asked疑惑地问道：“How do you know?”

Xu Qing smiled and said, "Wait a moment, I'll demonstrate for you."

Xu Qing took another clean small bowl from the table, which was half-filled with the same water as before.

He placed the bowl in front of Li Yedao and Jingmo, picked up a drop of water with the tip of a fine needle and placed it on the substrate to fix its position, and then looked up at Li Yedao.

"Dr. Li, you just saw something alive in the water, didn't you?"

Li Yedao nodded, still staring at the bowl of water.

Xu Qing brought over a small porcelain bottle containing the second distillation of the liquor.

It is transparent and clear, and it gleams with a unique light under the lamp.

He used the tip of a needle to pick up a little wine.

He gestured for Jingmo to come closer.

"Jingmo, take a look..."

Jingmo couldn't wait any longer. He rubbed his hands together and quickly moved closer to the camera.

Xu Qing gently dripped the alcohol onto the slide, onto the edge where the water drop had been.

The alcohol and water slowly mixed and began to spread within the water droplets.

Jingmo pressed his eyes against the lens, observing intently, even forgetting to breathe.

The tiny creatures that were just swimming in the microscope tube changed when the alcohol diffused to their location.

First it slowed down, then it stopped moving.

Some were curled up in a ball. Others seemed to be wrapped up, spinning around in place for a few moments before stopping.

The once vibrant microscopic world became deathly still in the area where the alcohol had diffused. Only a few tiny, motionless remnants floated in the air.

Jingmo's mouth gaped open, and it took him a long time to speak.

"They're not moving...they're all motionless...like they're dead."

Xu Qing laughed and said, "Remove one thing, and it's dead."

He pointed to the porcelain vase.

"That's the effect of alcohol. Double distillation kills those invisible living things in the water."

He then looked at Li Yedao.

"It can also kill those little things that cause wounds to fester and fevers to break out."

Li Yedao didn't say anything. He reached out and took the small porcelain bottle, turned it around in his hand, and then looked at the transparent liquid inside under the light.

He slowly felt around the bottle with his hand, and after a long time he put it down, looked up at Xu Qing, and said in a low voice.

"In my more than forty years of medical practice, I never imagined that healing could reach this level. If these two things of yours were used on an ordinary patient, they could probably save countless lives!"

Xu Qing added, "Actually, it's easy to deal with them outside the body. Whether it's burning, boiling, or spraying with alcohol, they can all be eliminated. But the difficulty lies inside the human body because these methods cannot be used inside the body."

Li Yedao and Jingmo nodded at the same time.

"Yeah, yeah..."

After Li Yedao finished speaking, he picked up the porcelain bottle, looked at the crystal-clear liquid inside, then at the microscope next to him, and then at Xu Qing.

Then, he turned around and said something to Jingmo.

"Jingmo, write this down. From this day forward, I'm afraid I'll have to spend the rest of my life on these two things."

He turned to look at Xu Qing, his tone even more earnest than before.

"Young Master Xu, no, Mr. Xu, you win. I promise to go to the capital to treat Miss Song's illness until she is cured. No wonder you were so confident before. Learning knows no age, but the accomplished are always the best. In this matter, you are worthy of being my teacher."

Xu Qing smiled slightly, "I don't deserve such praise. This was just a chance discovery for me, a mere attempt to spark further discussion."

Li Yedao held her hand.

"No, no, no, I'm the one who added the unhelpful touch. It seems you've been researching this for a while, why don't you explain it to us in detail?"

Xu Qing nodded, "Alright, then I'll show off my limited skills before an expert."

……

……

In the evening, Gu Zhiyi and Su Man arrived at the Xiao family's backyard at almost the same time.

Gu Zhiyi was worried that Li Yedao's arrogant personality would cause a fight with Xu Qing.

Su Man ostensibly came to see Xiao Lanzhi to discuss the distribution of bras in the capital.

But when the two met at the backyard gate, they exchanged a glance.

They both saw the same worry on each other's faces.

The two walked side by side toward the backyard, and Gu Zhiyi said something in a low voice.

"With Dr. Li's temper, sometimes he doesn't even listen to me. Xu Qing made a bet with him, and I'm really scared..."

Su Man did not answer, but quickened her pace.

As the two walked through the moon gate into the backyard, they stopped at the same time.