Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence-Chapter 151: Magazine Recommendation

Urban Life magazine featured a recipe for making Mugwort Bags.

Wang Ruiying and Huang Jiaojiao eagerly followed the magazine’s recipe, buying all the necessary materials and sewing a few small Mugwort Bags.

Huang Jiaojiao picked out a particularly exquisite embroidered pouch and cheerfully hung it from her handbag.

"I’m taking this out with me to the night market tonight!" she declared confidently.

However, reality soon dealt her a harsh blow.

That evening, Huang Jiaojiao, wearing a new floral miniskirt and carrying her favorite little handbag, was having a wonderful time at the night market.

Before long, however, her legs began to itch intensely.

She looked down to see several red, swollen mosquito bites on her fair calves.

"What’s going on?" she muttered, touching the Mugwort Bag at her waist. "Isn’t this supposed to repel mosquitoes?"

Back home, Huang Jiaojiao counted in the mirror. She had a good seven or eight bites.

She angrily tossed the Mugwort Bag onto her bedside table and went to complain to Wang Ruiying first thing the next morning.

"Sister Ruiying, that Mugwort Bag is completely useless!" she fumed, extending a calf covered in red dots. "Look at me! I got eaten alive!"

Wang Ruiying frowned as well. "That’s strange. I hung mine on the balcony last night. There were a few less mosquitoes, but it was nowhere near as miraculous as the magazine claimed..."

The more they thought about it, the more something felt off. Wang Ruiying pulled out her phone, opened the Urban Life official social media account, and wrote in the comments:

"Hey, editors, the Mugwort Bag recipe you recommended doesn’t work very well. My friend wore one and still got covered in bites!" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Soon, other readers’ comments began pouring in:

"Same here! I made three, and the mosquitoes bit me anyway."

"Did the editors get paid off by the mugwort suppliers?"

"My grandma says this recipe isn’t as good as the folk remedies she used in her youth."

...

Meanwhile, in the offices of Urban Life magazine, Lin Xiaoyu excitedly pulled up their official account on her computer.

Media was much more advanced these days.

The magazine didn’t just have a print edition;

it also had a digital one.

The digital version was posted to their official social media account,

where readers could leave comments.

She had expected the special summer issue on mosquito repellent to be a big hit,

but the comments on their official account made her brow furrow deeper and deeper.

’How can this be?’ she muttered to herself. ’The one I used was so effective...’

She thought of that exquisite Brocade Bag, of that quiet evening, of the rare, good night’s sleep she’d had.

A mix of indignation and confusion washed over her. She picked up her phone and dialed Hu Qiming’s number.

"Dr. Hu, it’s Lin Xiaoyu." There was a hint of accusation in her voice. "I wanted to ask about that Mugwort Bag of yours..."

On the other end of the line, Hu Qiming listened to her question and quickly explained, "Editor Lin, the one I gave you wasn’t an ordinary Mugwort Bag! It was a premium version specially made by a classmate of mine. It has..."

He deliberately lowered his voice. "Thousand-year-old rosewood powder. One of these is worth a thousand of the regular ones!"

"Thousand-year-old rosewood?" Lin Xiaoyu gasped. "Then... doesn’t that mean..."

"That’s right," Hu Qiming said smugly. "That kind of material is incredibly rare; it’s impossible to mass-produce. Of course the regular recipe you published in your magazine is going to be far less effective."

After hanging up, Lin Xiaoyu was left speechless.

She finally recalled that night at the barbecue when Hu Qiming had bragged to her about the premium Mugwort Bag.

She hadn’t paid it any mind at the time.

’It’s all mugwort,’ she’d thought. ’How big could the difference between ’premium’ and ’regular’ be?’

Now, it seemed,

the difference was far greater than she could have imagined.

The crux of the problem wasn’t that her article was wrong, but that she had unwittingly reviewed a "limited edition" product.

As she watched the doubts pile up in the comments, she suddenly had an idea.

Her slender fingers flew across the keyboard:

"Dear readers, while the standard Mugwort Bag has limited effectiveness, the premium version is excellent and is specially made by ’Li’s Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic.’ Anyone interested can go to their clinic to purchase one~"

The moment her reply was posted, the comments section erupted.

"Heh, so after all that, this was just an ad for a clinic?"

"The media is so shameless these days!"

"Still, since someone recommended it, I’m kind of tempted to give it a try..."

"Hey, person above me, wake up! This is obviously sponsored content!"

Lin Xiaoyu read the comments and shook her head with a wry smile.

She knew this would probably draw criticism, but at least... she was telling the truth. If any of her readers went to try it, they definitely wouldn’t be disappointed.

"I just gave that clinic a ton of free advertising."

Lin Xiaoyu grumbled.

...

「Feng City, in an office somewhere.」

Yang Qing was also scrolling through the comments on the Urban Life magazine’s official account.

She saw Lin Xiaoyu’s latest update.

She tossed the Mugwort Bag she was holding. ’So they don’t really work after all.’

Her younger brother, Yang Tian, was a soldier stationed in the Border North Bay Area. The place was one of the four most mosquito-infested regions in the world, known as the ’Mosquito Kingdom.’ The locals had a saying: "Three mosquitoes make a meal, and ten can take down a cow."

She had been planning to make a few Mugwort Bags to send to her brother.

But if they weren’t very effective,

there was no point.

Then, Yang Qing saw Lin Xiaoyu’s follow-up comment: Li’s Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic had premium Mugwort Bags...

’Should I give it a try?’

Yang Qing was tempted.

However, she saw other people calling it an advertisement.

That made her hesitate.

But then she remembered how her brother was covered in mosquito bites the last time he was home on leave, and she decided to give it a shot anyway.

Just in case?

What if it actually works.

...

「Li’s Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic.」

Li Xu was in the middle of explaining about the premium Mugwort Bags to a customer.

Song Sisi was organizing the medicinal herb cabinet nearby, occasionally glancing over—’That’s the seventh person today to ask about the premium Mugwort Bags,’ she thought.

After the person left,

"Boss," she finally couldn’t resist leaning in to ask quietly, "why are so many people asking about Mugwort Bags today?"

Li Xu said, "I asked one of them. It seems Urban Life magazine recommended that its readers come here to buy the premium Mugwort Bags. That’s why they’re all showing up."

Each premium Mugwort Bag required one gram of rosewood, meaning a thousand bags would use up a whole kilogram...

And the rosewood sculpture, in total, was only a little over two feet tall and weighed just over ten pounds.

It had other uses, too.

Every bit used was a bit gone forever.

It was impossible to use it all for making premium Mugwort Bags, so they couldn’t be sold to the public.

"Is Dr. Li in?" A clear, feminine voice interrupted their conversation.

Yang Qing stood at the entrance to the clinic, clutching her phone.

She was dressed simply in a white t-shirt and jeans, her hair tied back neatly in a ponytail. Her eyes showed a mixture of hope and apprehension.

"Excuse me..." she began, hesitating for a moment. "Do you sell the premium Mugwort Bags here?"

Li Xu and Song Sisi exchanged a glance.

This was the eighth person today.

"I’m sorry," Li Xu said gently, "the materials used are too precious. We don’t sell them to the public."

Yang Qing’s eyes, however, visibly brightened.

’If he had been eager to sell it,’ she thought, ’I would have hesitated, assuming it was just a paid advertisement in *Urban Life*. But he’s reluctant to sell them...’

’That must mean the premium Mugwort Bags really do work.’