A Western Doctor’s Happy Farming Life[1] Chapter 15

After half an hour, a cage in rectangle shape featuring one meter long showed up in Wu Dahu’s hands.

Song Qinghan went to find some soft grass and set them in the cage. Then he looked around at the yard and not long a cluster of firewood captured his attention.

It suddenly occurred to him that he could place the firewood on the cage. In that case, with the blockade of the firewood, these two rabbits wouldn’t get wet even in a shower day.

He held the two rabbits and put them into the cage. Then he dropped some vegetables in and closed the gate of the cage.

It was night when he finished dealing with the rabbit stuffs. They made a soup using the dried meat. Along with some rice, they finished their dinner. And then went to sleep.

The next morning, they walked into the back mountain together again.

In front of the illicium verums tree, Wu Dahu asked Song Qinghan to stay and pick the fruits at his own tempo, while he took him as a circle range and explored the prey out.

At noon, Wu Dahu came back with two wild chickens and a wild hare.

In the meantime, Song Qinghan had also already picked a full basket of illicium verums, and he let Wu Dahu to help carry the basket, then the two together headed downwards the mountain.

When they got home, Wu Dahu went to deal with the animal flesh, while Song Qinghan washed the illicium virums he just picked and spread them evenly in the yard, waiting for the sun to dry them naturally.

After everything was set up, Song Qinghan made a tea using the fructus momordicae he picked yesterday. They enjoyed a leisure noon time drinking the tea, and Wu Dahu suddenly asked, “Did you store the fruits just like that?”

What Wu Dahu said seemed to be a wake-up call to Song Qinghan. He shook his head and recalled the exact image of fructus momordicae he had long seen in modern time, then he said with a tone of uncertainty, “It requires me to move the fluff off from their surfaces, and then dry under the sun.”

He would have had this process done if he didn’t notice those two rabbits.

Wu Dahu nodded and pulled up his sleeves and was about to get himself busy.

He took out a grindstone paper which no one would know where it came from. And then he carefully removed the fluff off from the fruits’ surfaces one after another, then put those processed ones into a basin.

Seeing this, Song Qinghan carefully placed a shelf on the stove, and put all the processed fructus momordicae on the it, slowly roasting them.

They would be said to be a couple on the same page. With their perfect cooperation, the deep brown fruits were all gradually tanned. It was quite a big harvest for Song Qinghan to pick and store in a fabric bag.

He had conceived an idea that he would sell these fruits tomorrow when they sold seasonings. As long as he could sell the first batch, he would be confident for the booming business.

By nightfall, it was a proper time to picked all the illicium verums up. Wu Dahu collected all of them and put them into a big cloth bag with gingers, garlic and onions.

After preparing these stuffs which were ready to be sold, he tried to make the preys into dried meat, conducting the method that Song Qinghan had taught. He cut the meat in the size of a fingernail and wrapped them in a Kraft bag.

It was quite a busy yet a rich day, Song Qinghan heard Wu Dahu coughing twice before they went to bed. He couldn’t help but ask in concern, “That will be unhealthy for you to sleep on the ground. Why don’t you get here and sleep?”

After a long silence, Wu Dahu refused, saying, “No, that’s too small to accommodate both of us. If I go to bed with you, you probably won’t sleep well.”

Looking at the bed with a shabby look, Song Qinghan thought for a moment and suggested, saying, “How about this. If we get a good sell tomorrow, we’ll go buy a new bed in a big size.”

Considering that if they got a bigger-sized bed, they would need a bigger room for its accommodation. But since he noticed the excitement flowing from Song Qinghan’s expression, he couldn’t resist but nodded and showed his agreement, saying, “Deal, we’ll do that.”

That night came with no other conversation. The next morning, Wu Dahu got up earlier than Song Qinghan. He prepared all the stuffs, including steaming the Chinese yams, heating up the dried meat. And then he packed these all up in a basket, carrying on his back. Later, he finished breakfast together with Song Qinghan, and the two headed to the bazaar.

Concerning that Song Qinghan couldn’t walk so long in his pregnancy, Wu Dahu led him to the nearby village, paid the money to get on an oxcart. With that cart, the trip became easier and more convenient.

Although they had come to the town once last time, it was just a rough look and didn’t notice anything special.

This time, along with Wu Dahu, Song Qinghan carefully looked around in the town and found that although the town was rather small, it was another type of delicacy and got everything here. Various stores such as oil store, iron shop, fabric shop and so on could be easily found here.

Song Qinghan stared at Wu Dahu’s clothes, which were washed brightly and neatly, he pondered in his mind that although making Wu Dahu dressed too well would cause him to feel a sense of crisis, the way how Wu Dahu probably would attract many other femina males, he still wanted to keep Wu Dahu in decency. After all, it was also an enjoyment to see his man in a good dress though.

The two went straight to the meat shop. Noticing two customers coming up so early, Butcher Chen, the owner of the meat shop, happened to be pleased and was showing a rather good attitude towards them. He spoke in a tone of catering while he picked up a piece of fresh ribs, “Are you here to buy meat? My dear customers. Look how fresh the ribs are.”

Not answering his question directly, Wu Dahu put down the basket, took out the dried meat bag, and poured four or five pieces and handed it over, saying, “Mr Chen, have a taste of this meat.”

Butcher took a look and saw that it was just an ordinary dried meat cut into little pieces. He took it with some amusement but still put it in his mouth.

As soon as he chewed, his eyes lit up. He pointed at the meat in his mouth, asking in curiosity, “Brother Dahu! What meat is this? How come it tastes so good? Are you going to sell it.”

He was a long time acquaintance with Wu Dahu. After all, he ran his meat shop in the fame of the fairest price within the village. All the hunters were rather willing to come to his shop for selling their trophies. In this long-term business partnership, they got along well with each other.

Wu Dahu raised his eyebrows slightly and said calmly, “Well, it’s just an ordinary meat of wild chicken.”

Butcher Chen subconsciously denied, shouting, “That’s impossible!”

In his experience, he had tasted all kinds of meat from wild chicken. It couldn’t be a taste like this no matter how one cooked.

He thought that Wu Dahu was not willing to tell the fact. Pondering for a while, he tried to negotiate with him, saying, “Brother Dahu, you know my personality and credibility. Here is the only place where you can receive the fairest price. Well, I will make it clear. This meat tastes not bad, it is also feasible if you want a higher price for trading. Now, can you please tell me the truth? What is the meat?”

Wu Dahu remained calm in his face and said seriously, “Wild chicken, but…”

A rather sullen expression showed up on Butcher Chen’s face. Hearing that, he asked in a hurried tone, “But WHAT?”

Wu Dahu took out a handful of illicium verums and chopped garlic and onions from the basket and laughed, continued to say, “But it is a meat of wild chicken with added ingredients.”

Butcher Chen stared at the seasonings surprisingly, with his eyebrows frown, he asked in a doubt, “These stuffs? Come on, don’t play a trick on me.”

Wu Dahu smiled and shook his head, saying disdainfully, “You know my credibility though. If you don’t even give credence to me, then how about I give you some of the seasonings and you have a try with that?”

After that, he delivered Butcher Chen the seasonings matching to meat weighing one kilogram.

Butcher Chen accepted the seasonings with a mixed feeling. But seeing his sincere attitude, butcher Chen promised, saying, “I’ll go back and have a try. It they really better the flavor of the meat, I’ll buy it at you in the future. By the way, how much do you sell for this one? ”

Wu Dahu pondered for a moment and asked, “How about three coins?”

Butcher Chen patted his thigh and hurriedly waved his hand, saying, “Oh, that’s too cheap for that! If it really works, it will be worth for five coins.”

Song Qinghan stood aside but couldn’t give any advise because he got no any certain conception about the currency here. In that case, he regarded one coin as one Yuan. Considering that a bag of seasonings was worth for five coins, he thought it was not bad. So he nodded and agreed, saying, “Well, if he is the fairest butcher here, I will trust him over that. After all, he got more experience on this kind of business.”

Seeing that Song Qinghan was quite rational, Butcher Chen gave him a strange glance. That was a totally different image from the rumors.

Wu Dahu nodded obediently. Thinking of his purpose of trip today, he said directly, “Mr Chen, we want you to help us deliverf these pieces of meat to the purchaser who come over for free, do you agree with that?”

“Deliver for free?” gushed Butcher Chen, he looked at the pile of dried meat and felt somehow a little distressed. However, seeing that Wu Dahu had made up his mind, he could only promise, saying, “That won’t be a problem. It will also be my turn to show my gratitude to you that I can send these stuffs as a customer gift.”

Wu Dahu said honestly, “Actually, what our final goal is is to sell the seasonings.”

Butcher Chen found the way funny, but he could understand their what they did. He casually waved his hand and said, “As long as you don’t drive my guests away!”

Song Qinghan and Wu Dahu exchanged glances and nodded at the same time, placing the stuffs they brought next to the meat shop.

As they acted, Butcher Chen noticed their steamed Chinese yams and found them sweet-smelling, he couldn’t help but purchase two from them, he said while eating the yams, “Brother Dahu! You’re gonna to be rich some day! How did you discover the strange stuffs in such an odd methods? You bet, people here can’t be that smart as you.”

Wu Dahu, true to form, was showing his calmness on his face. He took a fructus momordicae and gave it to Butcher Chen, “Take this back and soak it in water and boil with it. It can be used to cooling your body heat.”

Butcher Chen took it without hesitation and smiled at Wu Dahu, saying, “Well mate, you must be deliberately aiming to sell all the stuffs today! Coincidentally, I got an annoying bubble in my mouth recently. How do you know that I need to cool my body heat?”

While they were chattering, those who bought meat walked over one after another. Nobody would refuse the free try of tasting the dried meat.

Some in the crowd who tasted the meat made a quick decision to purchase some bags of the seasonings, while some hesitated. But anyway, it was a victory though, which was a better case than their previous scenario.

As expected, the steamed Chinese yams were the best item they brought. It was cheap yet enough for a satiety. Some people even came from other places in the town and bought a few pieces to eat.

However, compared with the steamed yams, the fructus momordicae seemed to be less welcomed. None of them was sold.

It was not strange that no one would love to buy such a thing. However, they were more willing to go to the pharmacy to buy such medicinal materials. After all, no one would take the responsibility if they purchased them from the street vendors.

Nevertheless, a strange old man stood there for a quite long while. After the crowd dissipated, he slowly walked over and picked up a fructus momordicae.

Song Qinghan smiled and said peddling, “This is called fructus momordicae. It helps cool our blood heat and also promote our appearance. It’s wonderful to soak it in water and drink.”

The old man took one of the fruits and tore it apart, and then took a smell over it. A fit of confusion and doubt suddenly flashed in his eyes. He asked, “Where did you get this?”

Song Qinghan frowned unpleasing, but he still answered the old man’s question patiently, “This is our exclusive secret prescription, I can’t tell you about that.”

The old man glanced at Song Qinghan and said with a strange tone, “Which family do you belong to? How come I can’t recognize you at all?”

Seeing that the old man was reluctant to buy and asked something strange, Song Qinghan became sullen on his face and complained in a low voice, “Oh god, we’ve got billion people in this world, how come you can recognize everyone?”

To his surprise, this old man would thought about this question for a while and answered in agreement, saying, “You’re right. Well, pack all these fruits up and I will buy them all.”