There was no need to search for anything; Ajiu stood in the courtyard, watching her grandmother.
Tongzi was drying some fodder, and he was stuffing a large piece into his mouth, biting down with a crunch. He winced, baring his teeth,
"Pah, this lingzhi is truly disgusting."
"Grandma, this lingzhi is at least a hundred years old. Someone brought it to us as a gift the other day."
Tongzi went over and quickly took the disliked medicinal herb from his hand.
"It lacks spiritual energy, like a rotten piece of wood," Wang Shi said with great disdain. She turned and saw Ajiu, her eyes lighting up.
"Granddaughter, can you soak it with your water?"
"Grandma, you've just arrived and you're already stuffing only the best things into your mouth. Don't you see how tired I am?"
Ajiu grumbled.
She stepped forward to help Tongzi organize the herbs.
She could tell from before that Tongzi cherished these medicinal herbs, "I'll help you pack them."
Tongzi looked at the large piece of lingzhi that had been bitten, "What a waste. But Jiu'er, don't mind. It was a gift from someone else, so there's no need to feel bad."
"Are all these lingzhi and ginseng gifts? Who is so generous?" Ajiu asked as she put them one by one into the cloth bag.
"Huitangtang, Yaohuatang. They know that our Hualantang Medical Hall has a treatment formula for warm diseases, so they've all become polite. In fact, they just want to build a relationship and get their hands on that formula."
When this was mentioned, Tongzi's face showed disdain.
How they had squeezed their Hualantang Medical Hall before made them seem all the more shameless now.
"Did you say anything?" Ajiu asked subconsciously.
"What could I possibly know? I just said I'd ask my Cai'er sister later." Tongzi, while packing, didn't even let go of the dropped ginseng roots.
"Guess what, Jiu'er."
"What?" She was even playing hard to get.
"Each of those medical halls sent a chief physician, volunteering to go to Nanzhou County to help," Tongzi said, his face showing a hint of pride.
"This way, our Cai'er sister and the young master won't be so tired."
"That makes sense," Ajiu also smiled, "Then it seems like Cai'er sister-in-law will be back soon."
Ajiu carried the basket, talking as she followed Tongzi to the front hall, intending to put these processed herbs into their respective drawers.
"Ajiu, you rest. I'll pack them." Tongzi brought over a ladder. Some medicine drawers were quite high, and Ajiu couldn't reach them.
"Alright." Ajiu walked out of the door.
A large portion of the people entering the city were refugees from outside. The streets were filled with more beggars who had no relatives to turn to.
Under natural and man-made disasters, Heaven made no distinction between old and young. However, Ajiu clearly noticed that there were significantly fewer adult men among the refugees in the city, and few able-bodied men walked the streets.
Ajiu found the shop where she had bought seeds last time.
As soon as she entered, the boss waved his hand, "Not selling, not selling anymore."
"I'm not here to buy anything," Ajiu said, taking out the half jin of shriveled rice from her embrace and placing it on the counter.
"Half of the rice you sold me last time was shriveled."
The boss looked back at the rice bag, with their rice shop's mark on it, and couldn't help but look at Ajiu more closely.
"When did I ever sell you rice? Don't you think you can just find my rice bag from somewhere and try to cause trouble?"
Business was difficult in this era, and people were struggling to survive. Hearing that many villagers from outside the city had been admitted again, his mind was filled with the fear of being robbed of grain during the last riot.
Ajiu said nothing. She took out the face-covering cloth from her embrace and hung it up. "Boss, do you remember now?"
The boss's pupils contracted; he clearly recognized the girl at a glance.
"It's... it's you? No, I don't know you. You absolutely couldn't have bought rice from my family."
His retraction was too obvious, and even he didn't dare to look at Ajiu.
"If you don't compensate me for this half jin of seeds, I'll report you to the yamen. Let's see how your business will fare in the future."
Ajiu was not willing to suffer such a loss.
"Sue me if you want," the boss straightened his neck. "My rice and flour shop is the only one left in all of Nanming City. Even the prefect has to rely on my rice shop for food. Sue if you want to."
Saying this, the boss, as if guilty, reached out to grab the rice bag.
How could Ajiu not see his attempt to destroy evidence? She pulled out a handful from her embrace and, with a "swoosh"...