Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 477: Who Has a Problem?

Yi Chichi understood instantly, "Ah, it’s a task."

Uncle Yaozi glanced at her, "I’ve taught you the principle of ’seeing through without saying through’ more than once. Why can’t you remember it with that brain of yours?"

"There’s no outsiders here!"

The implication being: if there were, she wouldn’t speak carelessly.

Yaozi felt as sweet as honey inside. This troublesome girl has many faults, but a sweet mouth is one of her few positive traits.

"Your aunt loves shrimp, and we’re out!"

"Okay, I’ll pack some up and bring it over when I get home."

Yaozi was satisfied and said no more. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The wind picked up, stinging their faces a bit.

Best to pull up the scarf to cover the face, or else her face would crack by the time she got home.

Among all the state-run shops, the herbal medicine collection station was one of the most leisurely.

Unlike the department store, supply and marketing cooperative, barber shop, tailor shop, and other places bustling with people, it rarely had a moment of peace.

The purchase and collection of herbs had its seasons. In rural areas, due to a lack of medical resources, the villagers knew of a few herbs, more or less.

However, what they knew were common herbs found everywhere, which the collection station was not short of.

The station lacked herbs such as Huangqi, Dendrobium, Stonecrop, Notoginseng, and Astragalus.

Also lacking were toxic herbs like centipedes, scorpions, snake gall, snake venom, and toads.

The quantity of these found by non-herbalists was small, and they didn’t know how to process them.

Therefore, those coming to sell herbs at the collection station were a fixed group of people.

As soon as Yaozi arrived, an old man organizing herbs at the counter came up to him, "Did you bring what I asked for?"

"It’s all here!"

Yaozi handed over the burlap sack he was holding, "This is all I can spare, any more and our production teams won’t have enough."

"That’s not much at all."

The old man weighed the bag with a look of difficulty, "Why don’t you help think of some way to spare a bit more?"

"No can do."

Yaozi firmly refused, "Unless you can get me some western medicine."

The old man, "..."

If he could get western medicine, he wouldn’t be so short on Chinese medicinal herbs.

"Go ask your wife."

At least his wife worked at a hospital and might be able to connect with the pharmacy to spare some. He honestly had no other way here.

"Forget it, I’ll just have to find Old Huang and the others and think of a way."

Yaozi’s eyes widened suddenly, "Old Huang is back in business?"

"Not yet, but his daughter has learned a good deal of his skills, she might be able to spare some."

Yaozi oh-ed, watching as the old man opened the burlap sack to check the quality and sorting, skillfully found a chair to sit down on, motioned for Yi Chichi to sit, then leisurely poured himself a cup of tea and said, "Give me a few centipedes."

"What size?"

The old man didn’t lift his head, focused on his task.

"The biggest."

This Yi Chichi understood; never mind how ugly centipedes look, they’re valuable.

They’re priced by size and appearance, with the highest grade going for 156 yuan per kilogram.

Selling centipedes was a good way to make a fortune.

However, centipedes are hard to find, especially older, mature ones that are rarely seen.

Due to their rarity, the old man asked, "What do you need big centipedes for?"

"For medicine, what else?"

"That’s not what I meant. I mean if the condition isn’t severe, you could substitute with smaller centipedes."

He paused, then poignantly said, "Save money."

Yaozi sighed, "This isn’t something I can save on, small centipedes don’t have enough medicinal effect."

His wife specifically requested the best centipedes.

The old man had no choice; after grading and sorting, he weighed each type of medicinal herb, recorded the weight and price, then opened the drawer and took out the centipedes, "How many?"

"Start with eight."

The old man counted eight, wrapped them up, handed them over, and Yaozi quickly put them into Yi Chichi’s hands, signaling her to put them in her bag, then got up to look at the account, "Not bad, there’s some surplus."

Yi Chichi, who had just packed away the centipedes, looked up to see the old man nod, "There’s still 13.86 left."

While speaking, he counted the money and handed it over, along with the sheet, "Sign here."

Yaozi took the pen to sign, then pocketed the money, motioning Yi Chichi to head home.

"Come back when there’s more."

This was best left unsaid, as the old man opened his mouth again, "Couldn’t you really spare a bit more?"

"Can’t, go find Old Huang."

The topic was too terrifying, so terrifying that Yaozi grabbed Yi Chichi and dashed for the door.

Like being chased by a ghost.

Once they got some distance away, he let Gouzi slow down, with a look of lingering fear, "That old scholar, the old bastard, always thinking of taking my medicinal herbs."

Yi Chichi just laughed, "Uncle, you’re good at preparing herbs."

Uncle Yaozi wasn’t great at diagnosing illness, but he was a master at preparing herbs.

A talent like his, in later generations, would be highly revered by major traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies.

With the advancement of industrialization, herbs could also be prepared in batches, but for some high-quality, expensive herbs, industrial methods were a waste.

Because industrialization couldn’t guarantee the maximum medicinal properties of the herbs, experienced masters were different. The valuable medicinal herbs they prepared were at least 80% effective.

Uncle Yaozi was one of these people.

In her original world, if her family grandpa saw Uncle Yaozi, he would definitely have had the youngest uncle get him to oversee their pharmacy.

Unfortunately, born at the wrong time.

In an instant, she looked at Uncle Yaozi with regret in her eyes.

Uncle Yaozi didn’t notice her gaze, but was delighted by her words.

Who doesn’t like being praised? He was no different.

Especially being praised in areas where he excelled, the sense of achievement was overwhelming.

"When I was following my dad, I didn’t learn much, but I mastered this preparation stuff."

Speaking of this, he once again brought up, "Are you sure you don’t want to learn herbal preparation with me?"

Yi Chichi, "..."

Why are we talking about this topic again?

She said helplessly, "Uncle, my main job isn’t this."

"You can take it as a side job."

This is a case of not stopping until the Yellow River.

"Can’t do it at all, don’t have the time."

She counted on her fingers to show him, "The Friendship Store has two embroidery pieces I need to complete by October next year, and Tangtang introduced another one to me. If everything goes well, there will be jobs to take on every year, and I still have to have a baby."

Yaozi was silent; by what she said, there really was no time for a side job.

However, "When exactly are you having the baby?"

They’ve been hoping for so long, but haven’t seen her conceive.

Thinking of this, he hesitated, "Chichi, you can be honest with Uncle, is there a problem with you or Wen?"

Goodness, this ridiculous assumption made Yi Chichi dumbfounded.

It’s just that she’s been using some methods for contraception. Why did it turn into either she or Wen having a problem according to Uncle Yaozi?

If he’s thinking this, then the folks in the village...

Forget it, best not to think about it. Sometimes it’s better to be oblivious; otherwise, you’d just distress yourself.

"There’s no problem with me, and there’s no problem with Wen either. We’ve just agreed to have children later, so we’re using some methods for contraception."

This wasn’t something embarrassing, so Yi Chichi didn’t feel shy about explaining fully, to stop him from letting his thoughts run wild, and perhaps in a reckless moment, concoct some tonic to strengthen her body.