Ruling the Historical Romance Novel as the Female Supporting Character-Chapter 97: Distilling Without the System
If Qin Kaize were to be worn out by his self-imposed bride, then that would be their problem. Besides, traditional Chinese medicine worked slowly. Even if it were to harm him, it would be a lengthy process. During that time, Xia Weiguo and the two old men might have already entrusted their money and treasures to Su Yijia. When they reveal everything Su Yijia did, all that would be theirs. Unfortunately, Su Yijia’s mind was messed up. She preferred to mess with herself rather than Qin Kaize.
"You don’t need to spend money carelessly, buying medicine as supplements. These days, medicine is often more poison than cure. If you spend the money, and it ends up affecting your health, you’ll regret it," Qin’s mother said with a worried expression. In her view, the money Su Yijia held was essentially their Qin family’s. Every extra penny spent was like a dagger to her heart. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"It’s none of your business. Don’t hold me back," Su Yijia replied, chasing her away.
Qin’s mother snorted and reluctantly walked away.
With the assurance that none of the three members of the Qin family were eavesdropping, Su Yijia began her work. She cleaned the two cooking pots and the steaming tray and placed them on the stove. After filling one pot with two-thirds full of water, she set up the first steaming tray with a layer of gauze. She spread the herbs evenly and then removed the tray’s bottom. The tray with the bottom intact went to the second layer, and the one without the bottom to the third layer. This arrangement allowed a bowl to fit into the stack, covered by the lid, with enough room for the steam. When the water boiled, Su Yijia took a scale weight from the refrigerator, placed it on top of the lid, which helped accelerate the formation of steam.
These actions left Gao Huabin puzzled. He had grown up in a village where most people relied on the prescriptions of local traditional Chinese doctors. He had never seen anyone prepare medicine in this manner.
"Sister-in-law, what are you doing?" Gao Huabin asked out of curiosity.
"I’m distilling the essence of the medicine. This process purifies the medicine," Su Yijia explained.
Although it would have been faster to use the system to directly refine the herbs in the space, she needed to provide an explanation to the people around her. She could secretly sell the oils she created without letting these people know. After all, it was not that there was no technology for oil refining, but in the current situation where there was not enough grain, the authorities would not allocate a large amount of arable land to grow crops that could be used for oil extraction. Even if they managed to cultivate soybeans or maize, which could be used to produce oil, the authorities would initially use them for food, rather than oil extraction.
And ninety-nine percent of the population had no idea how to extract oil. This allowed Su Yijia to quietly sell the oil and make a profit. However, things that could demonstrate her medical skills needed to be done openly. Fortunately, the medicinal formula provided by the system could be prepared all by herself. For the next three days, Su Yijia didn’t leave her house, focusing on making the medicine.
The medicinal ingredients had to be divided into ten portions. After boiling each portion in the pot three times, it could distill two bowls of essence. The volume of one bowl was about 300 milliliters, so ten portions yielded a total of six liters of essence. However, the manual method was less efficient than using the system. She had to steam it again to distill the pure essence. When six liters of essence were distilled, it would reduce to three liters, essentially doubling the cost.
Using a distillation machine would avoid this kind of consumption. However, currently, China didn’t sell any of these to the individuals, and Su Yijia couldn’t buy them. In the future, if she intended to sell these products, she would have to combine them with the low-cost products she produced using the system. Her current funds wouldn’t withstand too much of this kind of work.
Ten soy sauce bottles could only hold two liters. Su Yijia cleaned a large kettle and poured the remaining one liter into it. She used this kettle for herself. She had no particular requirements for it.
"Why does this place smell like medicine? Isn’t the medicine still with me?" As soon as Ke Zeming walked into the yard carrying two boxes, he was greeted by the lingering smell of medicine.
Su Yijia pointed at her face, which had just been coated with the whitening liquid, and wrinkled her nose. "I just put on some soy sauce to marinate. You’ve been away for so many days; I thought you weren’t willing to give them the medicine."
"They don’t need the medicine. They just wanted to have it in hand to use as leverage when negotiating with you. Little did they know, you ran straight back to the Qin family for help without giving them a chance to ask for it," Ke Zeming said, offering her the boxes with a hint of teasing in his tone.
Su Yijia felt embarrassed and didn’t dare to reach out to take the boxes.
"Hmm?" Ke Zeming let out a light grunt, signaling her to quickly take the boxes.
"Maybe... you should just confiscate them for now. I can’t afford to buy them at the moment," Su Yijia said. She had never been in such financial hardship in her two lifetimes. She had never had to worry about money, but now she was barely scraping by.
"It’s okay, I’ll front the cost for you first, and you can have your husband pay me back later," Ke Zeming generously offered. Seeing Su Yijia’s embarrassment, he added, "If you really need these medicines, don’t be polite with me. These are valuable. If they hadn’t known that you ordered them at the pharmacy and got intercepted by those people, they wouldn’t have given the medicines to you first. Many people are waiting for that ginseng. A 300-year-old ginseng is a rare find, and they believe it can save lives."
"Thank you," Su Yijia took the offer with her buzzing head. She could find a way to repay the money, but obtaining several 300-year-old ginseng roots was an entirely different matter. This was not something that could be measured with money.
"So, what kind of medicine do you plan to make? May I ask?" Ke Zeming couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer.
"So you went to the hospital to check if my medical skills were valid?" Su Yijia couldn’t help but blurt out, but she immediately felt remorseful. She quickly covered her mouth and smiled apologetically at Ke Zeming. His question had touched a sensitive topic.
Ke Zeming blushed with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. He couldn’t really do anything to his best friend’s wife, not to mention that she really got some real medical skills. He never heard someone who hit the doctor just because he was unsatisfied with the diagnose.
"Ahem! Your medical skills are indeed remarkable, but the doctor assured me that I could be treated as long as I cooperated and took my medications as prescribed," Ke Zeming said, his words firm and confident, even though he felt the judgmental gazes of Gao Huabin and Qin Kaize. Thankfully, Su Yijia nodded in agreement, endorsing the doctor’s advice.
Ke Zeming was grateful for Su Yijia’s support, as it helped him save face and reassured his own doubts. He had seen many doctors in the past, and none had identified his ailment. Even during the recent hospital visit, a comprehensive series of tests were required to reach a diagnosis. However, Kaize’s wife, with just a pair of eyes and two fingers, could diagnose his condition with remarkable clarity. If this had been in the past, she could have easily earned the title of "Little Medical Genius."
