Chapter 2529 - 2503: You Must Believe Me

The Lan Family finally decided on a date, choosing the twenty-first day of the twelfth lunar month from the three dates reported by the Zhou Family.

This time, the family didn’t invite many guests, just a few nearby families and the people they knew in the capital.

On Manbao’s side, she mostly invited doctors from Jishi Hall and a few like Yin Huo.

As the New Year approached, many families were holding weddings to bring brides home for the celebrations. Shopkeeper Zheng had attended eight banquets in the past three months, and seeing Zhou Man’s nieces and nephews in their prime age, he felt a pinch in his wallet.

Looking at his son who had recently returned to the capital, Shopkeeper Zheng balanced his emotions and sauntered over to Zhou Man, saying, "Imperial Doctor Zhou."

Manbao was watching the guests trying to get Zhou Liwei (Second Son) to drink, and upon hearing this, she turned her head, her eyes slightly brightening, "Shopkeeper Zheng, I was just about to look for you. My niece said the China root she bought from you is gone?"

Shopkeeper Zheng smirked and said, "What do you mean ’gone’? It’s because your niece bought it all."

He continued, "The pharmacies in the capital have to keep some in reserve, but your niece’s workshop has been competing with me for quite a few herbs these past months."

The herbs required for ointments and creams are only a few types, so recently, the herbs Zhou Lijun has been buying in large quantities have been increasing in price. Shopkeeper Zheng was quite troubled as prescriptions using those herbs were costing more, and some patients were secretly complaining.

Manbao sighed upon hearing this and said, "Firstly, transportation is really inconvenient these days, and secondly, the herbs are all wild and scarcely cultivated, hence their high value."

Shopkeeper Zheng was taken aback and asked, "Imperial Doctor Zhou, do you mean the herbs can be cultivated?"

Manbao replied, "Herbs like red dates and ginger are mostly cultivated, aren’t they?"

Of course, there is also wild harvesting, but for now, these two herbs are primarily cultivated.

"But these are not just herbs; they are also food ingredients, and food ingredients can naturally be cultivated."

Manbao then said, "We also cultivate yams at home."

Shopkeeper Zheng laughed, "Yams can also be used as food."

Though very few people eat them, most are still used as medicine or medicinal cuisine. Shopkeeper Zheng knew that aside from some places in Lu, most other regions still harvest wild yams.

Honestly, Zhou Man’s village cultivating yams was unexpected for Shopkeeper Zheng.

Manbao said blandly, "We also have Ligustrum; my family has filled an entire mountain with it. Our village’s Ligustrum now occupies almost half of the mountain."

This was told to her by Second Brother and Third Brother, so Qili Village was no longer the poorest village under Dali Village. Last year, their village teamed up with Old Master Bai to pay for repairing the road to the county, making it particularly spacious, not as good as official roads but close enough.

So now every autumn, labor is hard to find. Before, the Zhou Family could hire temporary workers from the village for their fields, but now they had to go to other villages or the county to hire.

Even Old Master Bai complained privately about the difficulty in finding temporary workers.

Shopkeeper Zheng hesitated for a while before pondering, "So, herbs can be cultivated. How many types of herbs can be cultivated by Imperial Doctor Zhou now?"

Manbao’s gaze shifted slightly. For all these years, any herb she saw, as long as it was alive, she recorded it in her encyclopedic library.

All hosts know that items recorded in the library can be purchased from it, if available.

However, species cultivated through the library might have unstable genes but could also potentially be better.

Since deducing the main issue of the other world was genetic instability, Manbao had been paying attention to books and information on the subject.

She occasionally inquired about the progress of research on the species recorded by Doctor D and in the library.

Many of the things she gave to Doctor D and the library are now cultivated in that world, and aside from a few, most still have stable genes.

She believed the genetic anomalies were due to environmental issues there, possibly stemming from the transmission of mutations in original species. Now that they have acquired original species, there is a high probability of maintaining stable genes without mutation.

Keke once said, plant cultivation is the easiest among her records, maintaining its inherent genetic stability and even optimizing it; animals come next, with humans being the hardest.

Manbao speculated it was because that world didn’t have new original humans joining in; whether it was enduring or researching, they lacked samples.

Thanks to the alliance law Keke mentioned, intelligent creatures aren’t part of the trade, and her world is too distant from that world, so even if someone disregards the law, they wouldn’t find them.

Manbao felt a surge of happiness and told Shopkeeper Zheng, "We have been cultivating various wild herbs brought back from the wild at home; there are some even in our garden. Would you like to take a look?"

Shopkeeper Zheng was delighted and immediately said, "Sure."

Ignoring the people dining at the feast, Shopkeeper Zheng and Zhou Man headed towards the garden while discussing, "Among herbs, besides stones and insects, what’s left are plants. Generally, any vegetation can be cultivated, but cultivating medicinal herbs requires field resources, while those scattered in the mountains are mostly sufficient; moreover, cultivating medicinal herbs is challenging, especially for ginseng and ganoderma, which rarely survive, and other herbs mostly take over two years to grow."

Shopkeeper Zheng shook his head slightly and said, "So, I’m aware that only about twenty kinds of herbal medicines can be cultivated, mostly consisting of red dates, safflower, ginger, pomegranate, garlic, and lotus seeds." He continued, "However, the Classic of Herbal Medicine records 239 types of herbs, and the Herbal Classics collected by the Zheng Family include 730 kinds. Out of these, large-scale cultivation for most of them is rare."

Yet Manbao knew these herbs hadn’t fully encompassed the usable herbs in the world. Although their world lacked many herbs, she knew they existed, as the library wouldn’t have records otherwise.

This world didn’t face the crisis of their world, meaning that those herbs existed here, or at least most of them did.

Manbao felt invigorated, thinking if these herbs could be discovered and utilized, how many diseases could be treated?

It would also mitigate the consequences brought by the scarcity of certain medicines.

In the garden, beside the field carved out by her sister-in-law’s vegetable patch, Manbao glanced around and turned to Shopkeeper Zheng, who had remained silent throughout, saying, "Shopkeeper, you must trust me, herbs can indeed be cultivated; it’s just that these herbs might have been dug up from the wild, and may experience soil incompatibility, considering it’s winter now. Come spring, it will surely look different..."