Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 137: The Treasure of Chinese Medicine—Watermelon Frost
Plant a watermelon seed around the Qingming Festival.
Harvest it in the height of summer,
And store it until the First Frost of late autumn.
Then, cut the watermelon into small slices.
Next, prepare a clean, dry, unglazed earthenware jar.
Layer the watermelon and Mangxiao in the jar, one after the other, and seal it with a lid.
Move the jar to a cool, ventilated place.
After letting it sit for a few days, snow-white crystals will precipitate on the jar’s surface, resembling the first snow on green tiles.
Place a sheet of paper beneath the jar and gently brush the crystals from the surface onto it.
This is the treasured gem of traditional Chinese medicine, passed down for a thousand years—Watermelon Frost.
Watermelons were introduced to Central Earth during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and the Song people discovered that a marvelous transformation occurred when they were combined with Mangxiao.
The Compendium of Materia Medica - Supplement records that after the First Frost, a white frost forms on the watermelon rind; collecting it to treat throat ailments is miraculously effective.
This wisdom of creating a frost that gathers the essence of heaven and earth’s cycle from summer heat to winter cold is called "a creation of divine workmanship" in the Complete Collection of Surgery.
To this day, Watermelon Frost continues to protect people’s vital throat passages.
...
Watermelon Frost is an ancient formula.
It doesn’t require a patent application.
As long as you have a batch number and the proper qualifications, you can produce it.
However, there are only a few companies in the entire country famous for producing Watermelon Frost.
Why?
Naturally, there are intricacies involved.
The choice of watermelon, the refinement of the technique, and market strategy all affect the value of the Watermelon Frost.
Many pharmaceutical companies produce Watermelon Frost with mediocre results and low profits. Unwilling to invest more capital into research, they naturally lack a competitive edge.
But Li Xu was different.
With the system’s intelligence specifying the watermelons and providing detailed production techniques... the Watermelon Frost he produced would be absolutely exceptional.
Ding Kaifang had immense trust in Li Xu.
Upon hearing that Li Xu planned to make Watermelon Frost, he agreed immediately. "Doctor Li, will we need to update the production line?"
Li Xu shook his head. "No. Just help me procure some earthenware jars, hmm... at least ten thousand of them. They must be unglazed. Also, get some automatic watermelon cutting equipment. Most of the process will have to be done by hand." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
Ding Kaifang said, "No problem. Leave it to me."
Neither of them mentioned costs or profit sharing.
It was still too early for that.
It wouldn’t be too late to discuss it after the Watermelon Frost was made and they could see its effectiveness.
Even if the Watermelon Frost they made this time turned out to be ineffective,
Ding Kaifang wouldn’t care.
He had previously invested over a hundred million yuan into researching new drugs without seeing so much as a ripple.
This was just buying some earthenware jars and simple cutting equipment.
Within a day,
Zhou Xiaolin had harvested all the watermelons and transported them to the warehouse at Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory.
Although there were many watermelons,
the factory’s warehouse was also very large, and they only took up a third of the space.
"Doctor Li, when do we start making the Watermelon Frost?" Ding Kaifang asked, looking eager to get started.
"The most suitable time is the First Frost. We still have to wait a while."
"Ah..."
Ding Kaifang opened the calendar on his phone.
This year, the First Frost was in mid-September.
It was only August, so it was indeed still early.
"But... we still have over half a month to wait. I hope the watermelons don’t spoil," Ding Kaifang said, worried.
Li Xu reassured him, "If they’re kept in a cool, ventilated place, watermelons can last for more than half a month."
In the afternoon, the logistics company called. The Aconite shipped from Jiangyou had arrived.
Li Xu had the Aconite stored in another one of Ding’s Pharmaceutical’s warehouses.
There were over 6,000 jin of processed Aconite in total.
One thousand jin were sent to the Guanghe District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
He kept the remaining Aconite for now.
Ding Kaifang asked about the situation, and when he heard that Li Xu wanted to produce the True Martial Pill, his interest was immediately piqued.
Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory had been on the verge of bankruptcy.
It was the Mao Duddu Eye Drops that had injected new life into the factory.
However, while the Mao Duddu Eye Drops had promising prospects and were destined to bring in substantial profits, its current production volume was limited.
The market was confined to Feng City and had not yet expanded nationwide.
Its contribution to the factory’s bottom line was minimal.
Last month, the factory’s expenses were 3 million yuan.
But the profit from Mao Duddu Eye Drops was only 300,000 yuan, and 150,000 of that was paid to Li Xu.
This left the factory with a profit of 150,000 yuan.
It still had a loss of 2.85 million yuan.
Moreover, having only one product, the Mao Duddu Eye Drops, made the factory’s portfolio too narrow.
Ding Kaifang had always wanted to expand their product line.
But given his past lessons, he had been hesitant to make a move.
So, when he heard Li Xu’s idea to produce the True Martial Pill, he was immediately interested.
"Doctor Li, are you saying that these high-quality Aconites will be very effective when made into the True Martial Pill?"
"That’s right. Aconite is the monarch herb in the True Martial Soup Pill and plays the primary role, but the other four adjuvant herbs can’t be ignored. I want to purchase some better-quality ones."
"Doctor Li, you only have so much time and energy. How can you manage to source ingredients from all over the country by yourself? How about this: if you trust me, let the factory handle the procurement. Don’t worry, we’ll source them from the designated authentic production regions. They’ll be absolutely genuine."
"Well..."
A thought stirred in Li Xu’s mind.
Indeed, there were thousands of types of medicinal herbs; he could never manage it all alone.
If he let the factory handle procurement, they might not be able to acquire rare treasures, but buying genuine ingredients wouldn’t be a problem.
"Alright,"
Li Xu nodded.
He agreed to let the factory help with procurement.
"Don’t buy too much at first. Just buy a portion so we can produce some True Martial Pills and test the market response."
"No problem,"
Ding Kaifang nodded.
He had been in business for many years and naturally understood the need to test the waters first instead of diving all in at once.
"I’ll have someone sort out the production license number first..."
Ding Kaifang was about to leave.
Li Xu called out to him, "Don’t forget, there’s also the Watermelon Frost..."
"I won’t."
...
「Sunshine District.」
A month ago, Wang Ruiying returned home and, following Doctor Li’s instructions, took a hair dryer out of the drawer under the bathroom sink.
She had always used this pink hair dryer, and it worked very well for drying her hair.
She just never imagined it had any other use.
"A hair dryer can cure an illness?"
she muttered to herself. Recalling Doctor Li’s confident words, she decided to give it a try.
She set the hair dryer to a medium heat setting, faced the mirror, and aimed it at the hollow at the base of her neck—the "Mingmen acupoint," as Doctor Li had called it.
The warm air was like an invisible hand gently caressing her skin. Soon, a warm current spread out from that point, climbing up her spine and extending down to her waist.
"Huh, this actually feels pretty good," Wang Ruiying said, surprised to find that the faint ache in her body had been soothed considerably.
In the following days, she strictly followed Li Xu’s advice: blow-drying her Mingmen acupoint for five minutes every morning before leaving the house, and blow-drying her navel and the soles of her feet for five minutes each after her evening shower.
A week later, the effects began to show.
The draft created by the chubby guy in the office who always cranked up the air conditioning no longer made her sneeze instantly when he walked past her desk. At night, her once-icy toes now stayed warm until morning.
Most noticeably, she went three consecutive weeks without catching a cold—something that would have been a miracle before.
"Doctor Li is a miracle worker!" Wang Ruiying boasted to a colleague in the breakroom. "He solved my problem with just a hair dryer."
"For real?" her colleague asked doubtfully. "Isn’t it just for drying hair?"
"I didn’t believe it at first either, but look at me. I haven’t even sneezed once this past month," Wang Ruiying said smugly. "I used to be the office’s ’Cold Queen’."
...
