In the evening, Qin Jiashan and his family came back from watching the play. As soon as Qin Xueqing and Qin Leyi entered the door, they shouted: "Hurry up and start eating, and we will continue to watch the lantern show at night." Qin Xianpei served the food, Qin Jiashan asked Chu'er to call Bai Cong'er to eat, Chu'er said, "Master, the third lady is a little uncomfortable, I want you to take a look." Qin Jiashan said: "You all eat first, I'll go and see." ”

As he spoke, he followed Chu'er to Bai Cong'er's house. As soon as he entered the house, Bai Cong'er threw himself into his arms, leaned his head on his shoulder and said, "Master, everyone is pregnant, you still have the heart to watch the show." Qin Jiashan said: "It's a good thing to be pregnant, but you can't help but let me watch the play, isn't there Chu'er waiting?" ”

Bai Cong'er raised his head and said faintly, "Master, you haven't been to my room for a few days. Did Wang Lijun snatch your soul away again? Qin Jiashan said: "Don't think about it, isn't it normal to go to her?" Besides, you're pregnant now, and I'm not doing well with you. You look so charming, you want to be like that when you see it, if you get rid of the child, you will be in trouble. ”

Bai Cong'er changed her smile: "As far as you can coax people, I actually don't feel uncomfortable today, I just want you to talk to me." I asked Chu'er and Uncle Xianpei to go to Shuitun this afternoon to buy two carp, which the old man surnamed Zhang had just caught from the river, and they were very fresh and lively. Today is March 3rd again, and you have been reunited with the eldest sister and the second sister at noon, so it should be my turn in the evening. ”

Qin Jiashan was very happy when he heard that Bai Cong'er had bought fish for him, and nodded again and again. Bai Cong'er asked Chu'er to carry the fish to Qin Xianpei, and asked the cook to make it, and after a while, it was served steamingly. Qin Xianpei asked Chu Er to bring a plate of cooked beef, a plate of green vegetables and a plate of roast chicken, as well as a small jar of "champion red" wine. Qin Jiashan and Bai Cong'er sat down and drank each other.

Bai Cong'er asked, "You haven't been to my room for a few days?" Qin Jiashan said: "It's about five or six days." Bai Cong deliberately sneered: "If you don't come to punish one wine a day, I'll pour you six first, which is considered a punishment for you, see if you don't come to me in the future?" If you don't come for a month, you'll be fined thirty at once, see if you can stand it? ”

Qin Jiashan held the wine glass in his hand: "Okay, I'll admit the punishment and drink six." Come every day after that so as not to be punished. As he spoke, he drank six in a row. After drinking, he picked up a piece of carp and put it in his mouth, and praised it while eating: "It's still good to be smart, I specially bought fish for me to eat, it's good, it's good, the taste is very beautiful, fresh and fresh." ”

Bai Cong'er filled the wine glass again: "Today is the third day of March, the day when the swallow returns." You said that today is such a good day, how many should you drink? Qin Jiashan was happy in his heart: "Then drink three." Bai Cong'er said: "No, you should drink nine, and if you get nine in three or three, you will drink nine." ”

In this way, Qin Jiashan drank more than half of a jar of wine. In the end, Qin Jiashan waved his hand and said, "I can't drink anymore, if I drink again, I will get drunk." I even watch the lantern show at night! ”

Bai Cong'er asked, "What kind of drama do you sing at night?" Qin Jiashan said: "Ma Xiaolou's "Chen Ping Fights the Dynasty". Bai Cong'er said: "What is "Chen Ping Fights the Dynasty"? I don't understand, tell me. As he spoke, he sat in Qin Jiashan's arms.

Qin Jiashan hugged Bai Cong'er and said: ""Chen Ping Fights the Dynasty" is a drama of the Han Dynasty, which tells the story of Liu Bang's death, the dictatorship of Empress Lu, who first made Mrs. Qi a 'human biao', and later poisoned Mrs. Qi's son Liu Ruyi with poisonous wine. The veteran Chen Ping couldn't stand it anymore, and took the golden whip given by Han Gaozu to beat Empress Lu. ”

Bai Cong'er interrupted him and said, "What do you mean by 'human biao'? Qin Jiashan said: "Look, I don't understand." 'Renbi' means gouging out people's eyes, cutting out their tongues, piercing their ears, and then cutting off their hands and feet and throwing them into a dung pit, torturing people to death little by little. ”

Bai Cong'er shuddered when she heard this, and asked, "Then why is Empress Lu so cruel?" Did Mrs. Qi do something wrong? Qin Jiashan said: "That's not it, Mrs. Qi is very virtuous, but Empress Lu is too ruthless." ”

Qin Jiashan was already drunk, and he deliberately scared Bai Cong'er half-drunk and half-sober: "If you do something sorry for me, I will also make you a 'human being'." This sentence frightened Bai Cong'er and almost threw the wine glass on the ground. Bai Cong'er hurriedly picked up the wine glass again and said to Qin Jiashan: "I still don't watch such a disgusting scene, let's only drink tonight, and we can't leave when we are drunk, so we will rest here." Qin Jiashan took the wine glass and drank it again, and finally drank dizzy, fell on the bed, and after a while, snoring sounded.

Bai Cong'er pushed Qin Jiashan: "Master, master, why did you sleep?" I haven't taken off my clothes yet. Qin Jiashan was still snoring like thunder. Bai Cong'er took off Qin Jiashan's clothes, covered him with a quilt, and looked at Qin Jiashan uneasily. Seeing that he was sleeping very dead, she quietly took out the piece of cement that Lu Jiaheng gave her from her arms, and saw a bunch of keys in Qin Jiashan's jacket pocket. Dumbfounded, there were six keys in that bunch of keys. Who knew that was the key to the herb storehouse?

She picked up the keys and carefully identified them, recognizing one of them as the key on the gate of the Qin family, and the other as the key to the door of her own house. The other four don't know which one is the key to the storehouse. Bai Cong broke the cement in half, printed one key on the front of the cement, and the other key on the reverse of the cement, took the other half of the cement, and printed the remaining two keys as well.

Then he quietly put the key back in Qin Jiashan's pocket, and quietly went out of the door, and came to the hibiscus tree in front of the kitchen door, which was full of lilac flowers and exuded a rich fragrance. Bai Cong'er put two pieces of cement under the tree, covered them with leaves, and then turned around and went back to the house.

The big drama of Guandi Temple is still noisy with gongs and drums, and the big strings are shaking. Lu Jiaheng quietly came to the kitchen of the Qin family's compound, groped under the hibiscus tree for a while, felt two pieces of cement and put them in his pocket, and slipped out ghostly.

In the middle of the night the next day, the big drama of the Guandi Temple dispersed, and people went home. A dark shadow came to the storehouse of the Qin family's pharmacy, and he took out a bunch of keys and tried them one by one. Finally, the lock was opened and the warehouse was entered.

The medicinal materials in the warehouse were piled up, and I saw that the medicine shelves were full of various medicinal materials. The shadow took out a fire sickle and lit it, lighting half of the candle it had brought. Then he took out a scale from behind him, weighed the packets of medicinal herbs placed on the medicine shelf, and wrote them down in a small notebook. Due to the large number of medicinal herbs, he only weighed one-third of the medicinal herbs. Seeing that the sky was slightly bright outside, he hurriedly extinguished the candle, restored the medicinal herb package to its original state, and withdrew.

On the second night and the third night, after a while, the black shadow came to the storehouse again, continued to weigh and record the remaining medicinal materials, and finally locked the door and withdrew.

In March, the three major dramas were sung for six days before they ended. Qin Jiashan summoned the little mute who was burning the fire in the kitchen, and asked him and himself to go to the Qinjia Pagoda to burn the fire, and the preparation of the annual "Qin's Jinchuang Cream" and "Qin's Gum Shendan" began again on this warm spring day.

That little mute was picked up by Qin Jiashan eight years ago on the way to Shanxi to buy medicinal herbs. It was snowing heavily, and when he walked more than 20 miles outside the east gate of Changzhi, Shanxi, he saw a child lying on the side of the road, about eight or nine years old, who had passed out due to cold and hunger. Qin Jiashan hurriedly put the child in the car, there was a charcoal brazier and a hot water kettle in the car. After pouring some hot water on the child and giving him half a "Qin's Gum Ginseng Dan", the child gradually woke up. He was fed water and dry food, and the boy slowly recovered. Qin Jiashan asked where his family lived and who his parents were. The kid was just babbling, and Qin Jiashan knew that he was a mute. Considering that this child was indeed pitiful, Qin Jiashan decided to take him in.

After returning home, he named him Qin Ruixue, which means that he was saved in this heavy snowfall, and he will never forget his life-saving grace. Qin Jiashan did not arrange for him to be in the pharmacy, he had his own plans, and only let him light the fire in the kitchen every day. Only around March 3 every year, when he began to prepare "Qin's Jinchuang Cream" and "Qin's Gum Shendan", he was called to the tower courtyard to burn the fire. Since the formulas of "Qin's Jinchuang Cream" and "Qin's Gum Shendan" are top secret, many people want to get these two formulas with all their hearts, and Qin Jiashan has to take a series of measures to prevent it, for fear that others will steal it. That's what he had planned when he saved the little mute. When the little mute came to Qin's house, Qin Jiashan deliberately did not let him learn to read and write, nor did he let him go to the pharmacy to touch medicinal materials.

Qin Jiashan led Qin Lanting and the little mute to the tower courtyard, the hall of the tower courtyard is the place to live, the west wing is the place where the fire boils medicine pills and makes medicinal wine, the east wing is the warehouse, which is the place where medicinal materials and pills are stacked, and the one at the south end of the east wing is the knife room, which has two kinds of cutting knives, one is a thick knife and the other is a thin knife.

The thick knife is mainly used to cut general herbs, and the thin knife is mainly used to cut ginseng, rhino horn, musk, bezoar, borneol, deer antler, fur dog and other precious medicinal materials. There are rows of shelves inside, and all kinds of ointment pills and soup stickers are placed here.

Next to the White Pagoda there is a well with a reel on it. Qin Jiashan set up a cart, pulled a cart full of medicinal materials and daily necessities to the tower courtyard, locked the gate, the three of them will live here for more than ten days, everything for food and drink has been prepared.

In addition to lighting the fire, the little mute is also responsible for cooking. The strange thing is that there is obviously a well here, but Qin Jiashan asked Qin Lanting and Qin Ruixue to fetch water from the well in the street outside the door, and filled several large tanks in the kitchen. Qin Jiashan was not in a hurry to boil the pills. He first asked Qin Ruixue to split the wood, and Qin Lanting crushed the medicinal herbs into pieces, sifted them with a sieve, and wrapped them in oiled paper.

Qin Lanting made a gesture to Qin Ruixue and asked him to start the fire, while Qin Lanting used a roller to wring water from the well. The water wrenched out of the well smelled of medicine. It turned out that this well was specially used by Qin Jiashan to make medicinal materials, and I saw Qin Lanting take out the medicine bags that were sunk at the bottom of the well with hooks one by one. The main ingredients of these medicinal materials are Poria cocos, Atractylodes, Astragalus, etc., all of which sank into the well on March 3 last year, and soaked in the bottom of the well for a whole year, and the amount of medicine is very large, the well water is dyed brown, no wonder the well water exudes a strong smell of traditional Chinese medicine.

Qin Lanting poured the well water into the cauldron, and Qin Ruixue lit the fire below. Qin Jiashan saw that the water in the pot was boiling, and poured the ejiao, ginseng, and prepared medicinal powder into the pot one by one. The main ingredients of this "Qin's Gum Shendan" are Shandong Dong'e Ejiao and ginseng. These two medicinal materials are clear and known to everyone, but the other medicines are top secret and are not passed on by their own sons.

The medicine in the cauldron boiled for two days and two nights, and finally it became stronger and stronger, and the smell of the medicine became bigger and bigger. Qin Lanting kept stirring with a spoon, and Qin Jiashan smoked a hookah to see the color of the medicine in the pot. He seemed a little anxious, and couldn't help muttering, "Why haven't you come yet?" The time is coming soon. ”

At this moment, I heard a knock on the door. Hurriedly asked Qin Ruixue to open the door, only to see the old housekeeper Qin Xianpei driving a carriage in, which was full of iron boxes. Qin Jiashan hurriedly asked Qin Lanting and Qin Ruixue to help unload the car, and Qin Lanting, Qin Ruixue and Qin Xianpei unloaded the iron boxes on the car one by one and carried them to the west wing.

The box was not too heavy, Qin Ruixue had just moved the iron box, but she was suddenly shocked and let go. It turned out that the box was cold and cold, and apparently there were ice cubes in it. It turned out that a few years ago, due to Qin Ruixue's young age, Qin Jiashan did not let him move the box. Qin Ruixue is already sixteen this year, so Qin Jiashan asked him to help Qin Xianpei unload the car.

After the box was unloaded, Qin Xianpei drove away. As soon as Qin Jiashan saw that the medicine in the pot was almost in color, he opened the iron box, took out the water-drenched sheepskin bags from it, and poured bags of liquid into the pot.

On the second night of Qin Jiashan's arrival at the "Tower Courtyard", the black shadow came to the medicinal herb warehouse again. He checked the half-empty bag of medicinal herbs, weighed the remaining herbs, made a note, and then locked the door and slipped out......

The main ingredients of "Qin's Jinchuang Ointment" are gallnut, thief black bone, notoginseng, blood exhaustion, rhubarb and other ingredients. Qin Jiashan put the finished "Qin's Gum Shen Dan" and "Qin's Jinchuang Cream" on the shelf in the east wing, and by the eleventh day, the two medicines had finally been made. Qin Jiashan and Qin Lanting led Qin Ruixue back to Qin's house.

Time flies, in a blink of an eye, it is Layue, Bai Cong'er's pregnancy period has arrived, Qin Jiashan touched Bai Cong'er's fetal position, and pinched his fingers to calculate the date, and the date of delivery was calculated this night. Qin Jiashan called Qin Xianpei and asked him to invite the midwife Liu. Liu is in his 60s this year, and he has been delivering babies since he was in his 20s, and he has a lot of experience.

The charcoal fire in Bai Cong'er's room was burning very strongly, and the whole room was warm. From the beginning of the day, Bai Cong'er's stomach began to have labor pains, and later the labor pains became more frequent and more severe. Liu was by the side, rubbing her stomach and comforting her. Finally, at the time of the child, a baby boy weighing eight pounds was finally born.

When the neighbors heard the news, they all came to say goodbye, and they sent brown sugar and red-skinned eggs, as well as yellow and clear millet, which are all must-eat things during the confinement period. Qin Jiashan was very happy and named the child Qin Pingkang, and still took the "Pingkang Sticker" by Wang Xizhi, nicknamed Eight Catties. When the child was nine days old, Qin Jiashan held a feast, feasted relatives, friends and neighbors near the door, and the men in the pharmacy and the long-term workers who worked in the Qin family were also wiped out. The courtyard of the Qin family was full of banquets, but later due to too many guests, the courtyard could not be arranged, and the street outside the gate was also full of banquets.

Lu Jiaheng took advantage of the fact that people were watching the children, and also mixed in the crowd and squeezed into Bai Cong'er's west wing. He congratulated Bai Cong'er in front of everyone: "Young grandma, I congratulate you on giving birth to a white fat boy." Bai Cong'er gave him a blank look and didn't make a sound. Lu Jiaheng came to the side of the bed, opened the quilt with his hand and looked at the baby, the baby really looked like him. He looked up and found that Bai Cong'er was staring at him with a smile in his eyes. He didn't dare to stay in the house any longer, and withdrew to hide the ecstasy in his heart. His steps also became brisk, and he hummed a little song in his mouth, and hit Qin Jiashan's arms head-on, Qin Jiashan patted him lightly on the head: "Why don't you hurry up and help serve the guests?" ”

In the blink of an eye, more than a year has passed, and Xiao Pingyasu has also grown to a year old and has begun to toddle. This child also looks more and more like Lu Jiaheng. One day, Lu Jiaheng saw that there was no one around, slipped into Bai Cong'er's house, held Bai Cong'er and the child in his arms, and whispered: "I have probably mastered the formulas of those two medicines, especially the 'Qin's Jinchuang Ointment', the medicine I configured was compared with the original medicine, and it was close to the original medicine in terms of color, taste, and efficacy. But I still can't figure out the formula of 'Qin's Gum Ginseng Dan', obviously I have marked each medicine, weighed it, and knew that every time he boiled 200 pills. Both the drug and the dosage are very accurate, but the pill is very different from the original drug. ”

Bai Cong'er said: "How easy is it to try to trick that old guy? He didn't know this secret recipe except for his son, and he didn't even know that his eldest wife and second wife had been in the Qin family for so many years, how could he tell me? ”

Lu Jiaheng said: "I don't want you to play that old guy's words, that old guy is as shrewd as a fox, and he will know what you want to do as soon as you open your mouth." Asking him can only make him suspicious, stealing chickens will not make rice. ”

Bai Cong'er said: "If you don't ask him, who should you ask?" Ask the boss Qin Lanting? Except for the old fellow, he was left with the recipe. But don't underestimate Qin Lanting, don't look at him as loyal on the surface and doesn't like to talk, but he has more ideas in his heart than his father. I think let's forget it, now Kang'er is one year old, you can take our mother and daughter away after the New Year. Anyway, you have already learned the formula of 'Qin's Jinchuang Ointment', and you also have the ability to deal with various incurable diseases, let's leave Taiping Town, take your father and mother, fly away, and open a pharmacy in a foreign country, and we can always take care of the life of the family. ”

Lu Jiaheng said: "You don't know, the effect of 'Qin's Gum Shen Dan' is peculiar, you can cure the sick if you are sick, and you can maintain your health if you are not sick." It is a rare good medicine, in order to get the formula, I have been researching for several years, its main ingredients and dosage have been studied by me, and now it is about to succeed, how can it fall short? ”

Bai Cong'er said: "It's impossible to get the formula from the old guy and Qin Lanting, what do you say?" Lu Jiaheng stretched out his head and looked around the house, turned around and whispered to Bai Cong'er: "You forgot, there was a little mute Qin Ruixue when boiling medicine." ”。

Bai Cong'er groaned slightly, then shook his head and said, "That little mute Qin Ruixue was at the scene when he boiled the medicine, but he didn't know the medicinal materials at all. Besides, even if he knows what medicine to use, he can't speak or write, don't say he doesn't want to, and even if he does, I don't understand. This was the purpose of the old guy's rescue, and he deliberately did not let him study and touch medicinal herbs. ”

Lu Jiaheng blinked and said: "I already know the main ingredients of this medicine, but I can't figure out what ingredients are added when boiling it." You'll have to figure out what was added to the little mute's words. As for what to do, you decide. ”