Chapter 34

Everyone's support should be strong.

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When Kong Yishi arrived, he didn't waste any words and directly asked, "How much for a ticket to listen to Master Xu's lecture?"

The servant spread his palm in front of Kong Yishi and said, "Five hundred taels of silver, not a single coin less."

"Give me one," Kong Yishi replied straightforwardly.

The servant was taken aback. Since the Zhang family hung up the banner, Kong Yishi was the first person who didn't haggle and paid the money without hesitation. He quickly took out a pre-prepared exquisite wooden plaque, wrote a number on it with a brush, and asked, "Sir, what is your surname?"

"Kong," Kong Yishi replied succinctly.

The servant added the character "Kong" to the wooden plaque, then blew to dry the ink and respectfully handed the plaque to Kong Yishi. The latter looked at it, carefully put the plaque in his chest, and then took out a silver note worth five hundred taels and handed it to the servant.

Even after Kong Yishi turned and left, the servant was still in a daze. When his master set the price at five hundred taels, he thought his master was crazy. He never expected that there were indeed rich people in the world who were willing to spend such a large sum of money to listen to a lecture.

Isn't a lecture just like talking to someone, chatting and discussing?

The servant was puzzled.

Li Wenjun knew that Kong Yishi was a famous pharmacist in the city. If even he found Xu Yidan's lecture worth listening to, there must be something valuable in it, perhaps something he needed. Many things in the world are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. If this was the opportunity he had been waiting for, missing it would mean not knowing when he would encounter it again.

Thinking of this, Li Wenjun no longer hesitated. He first found a secluded place, changed his clothes, and did a simple disguise. Then he returned to the Zhang family's gate, took out a few gold ingots, and gathered fifty taels of gold to buy a ticket.

After getting the ticket, he hurriedly left. If someone envied him for carrying a large sum of money and planned to attack him, he wasn't afraid, but it would still be a considerable trouble.

Perhaps because Fengshou Town had been bustling lately, with people everywhere, and the government had increased patrols, it was hard to find a place to attack. Li Wenjun returned to Sun Baicao and his son without anyone trying to rob him.

Li Wenjun asked about Sun Baicao and his son's situation. Sun Baicao and his son hadn't been idle today. They divided the work: Sun Jianing stayed behind, while Sun Baicao went out to inquire about the market. They cooperated to try to get a good price for the herbs they had accumulated for a long time.

The night passed without incident. The next day, Li Wenjun arrived at the Zhang family's gate fifteen minutes early, showed his ticket, and the servant respectfully invited him in.

After entering the Zhang family's gate, he turned right. In a corner of the Zhang family's estate, there was a primary school that Zhang Jianjie had set up for his own children, relatives, and servants' children. All expenses were covered by the Zhang family. There were only a dozen children, but the school's area was not small, covering more than one mu.

Xu Yidan's lecture was held here. Li Wenjun entered the school, still dressed as he was when he bought the ticket yesterday, looking like a young man around thirty.

Li Wenjun thought he wasn't late, but when he entered the school, he found that it was almost full. He didn't know that the fifty spots the Zhang family had set up were all sold out the previous day. Just this one item brought in 25,000 taels of silver for the Zhang family. After paying Xu Yidan, the Zhang family would still make a substantial profit.

Li Wenjun sat in a place that wasn't too conspicuous and casually glanced at the dozens of people listening. Apart from Kong Yishi, who was sitting in the front row, he recognized no one else. These people were all discussing Xu Yidan enthusiastically.

Li Wenjun was afraid that someone might talk to him, and he would reveal his lack of knowledge. So, as soon as he sat down, he closed his eyes and pretended to rest. Indeed, the person sitting next to him had wanted to chat but lost interest when he saw Li Wenjun's demeanor.

After a while, a middle-aged man in a scholar's robe accompanied by a man in a wealthy man's attire entered the school. Someone who recognized the man in the wealthy man's attire shouted, "Mr. Zhang is here."

The man who arrived was the master of the house, the richest man in Fengshou Town, Zhang Jianjie. He smiled and clasped his hands, bowing to everyone and said, "Everyone, I am late, and I have kept you waiting."

The man in the scholar's robe, who was accompanied by Zhang Jianjie, had no smile on his face, looking stern and expressionless, as if someone owed him 800 strings of coins.

After Zhang Jianjie greeted everyone, he turned and pointed to the man beside him, saying, "Everyone, this is the famous doctor from the capital, Master Xu Yidan, known for his miraculous healing. It is a great honor for the Zhang family to have Master Xu here today."

Xu Yidan nodded modestly and said, "Mr. Zhang, I have limited time and cannot waste it. Let's start now."

"Master Xu, please," Zhang Jianjie quickly raised his hand and made a gesture inviting him to proceed.

Xu Yidan stepped forward and walked to the front of the crowd. There were several tables there, with various items such as stoves, mortars, scales, and pots, all tools for making medicine.

Xu Yidan stood behind the table, facing the crowd, and immediately got to the point, saying, "Everyone, today I will talk about the art of making medicine. The art of making medicine involves extracting the essence from herbs and refining it into powders, ointments, and pills for the convenience of patients. The first step in making medicine is selecting the herbs. If you choose the wrong herbs, no matter how skilled you are in the art of making medicine, the medicine you make will be a failure. Let's start with how to select herbs."

Kong Yishi and the others listened intently, and Li Wenjun was no exception. He listened carefully, afraid of missing a single word from Xu Yidan. Perhaps the word he missed would be the opportunity he had been seeking for a long time.

Xu Yidan, a renowned doctor from the capital, had a deep and unique understanding of the art of making medicine. Even though what he was teaching was just a small part of his knowledge, it still captivated Kong Yishi and the others.

Li Wenjun was a complete novice in the art of medicine. Many of the things Xu Yidan said were difficult and profound for him. Only occasionally could he connect Xu Yidan's explanations with what he had read in the "Changchun Gong" and "Xianxian Zalun," deepening his understanding.

An hour passed, and Xu Yidan stopped. He pointed to the various items on the table and said, "That's all for today. Everyone can take a short break. In half an incense stick's time, I will demonstrate the process of making medicine. During the demonstration, I will answer your questions. You can use this break to think about what you want to ask."

Everyone immediately became excited, and Li Wenjun was also eagerly looking forward to Xu Yidan's demonstration.

The half incense stick's time passed quickly. After a short break and a cup of tea to clear his throat, Xu Yidan returned to the table. He took out a package, opened it, and inside were many paper-wrapped bundles. When the paper was opened, they contained various herbs.

"I am about to make a wound-healing medicine. You can watch how I make it," Xu Yidan said as he began to weigh the herbs with a scale.

Xu Yidan's movements were steady, and he explained the steps clearly and logically. He weighed the herbs needed for the wound-healing medicine, processed them with a mortar, and then poured them into a pot to boil.

Boiling the medicine took a long time, so Xu Yidan used this time to let people ask questions. Of course, it was not entirely random; each person had only one chance to ask one question. Whether someone could ask a question was determined by a lottery.

Li Wenjun wanted to ask how Xu Yidan would refine Qi-gathering Powder if he were in his position. However, this was not a wise move, so he decisively chose not to ask.

The lottery was quickly over, and only ten out of the fifty people drew the chance to ask a question. They eagerly seized this opportunity to ask Xu Yidan their questions.

Xu Yidan patiently answered, but Li Wenjun frowned. After nine people had asked their questions, he was frustrated to find that he didn't understand the questions or Xu Yidan's answers. Listening to the exchange between Kong Yishi and Xu Yidan was like listening to a foreign language.

Li Wenjun thought to himself: What a waste, what a waste.

Xu Yidan's lecture did answer some of his questions, but it didn't help him refine Qi-gathering Powder, and he didn't see any alchemy furnace, which he had been hoping to see.

At this moment, the last person to ask a question stood up. He seemed to be a doctor and asked, "Master Xu, I have a patient who has been bedridden for a long time and is unconscious. He cannot swallow liquid medicine, and pills cannot be fed to him. How can I treat him?"

Xu Yidan replied, "Treating a patient does not necessarily mean giving them medicine orally. There are other methods. For example, you can boil the herbs into a liquid and use it to bathe or rub the patient, or you can make an ointment and apply it to their body. Of course, these methods will reduce the effectiveness of the medicine, and some conditions are not suitable for these methods. Recently, I have been trying a new method: creating hollow iron needles and inserting them into the patient's veins to directly inject the medicine into their body."

Boom!

The schoolroom erupted in a flurry of discussion. People were talking excitedly, as if they had heard a fairy tale.

While Kong Yishi and others were discussing noisily, Li Wenjun was oblivious. He sat there in a daze, his eyes vacant, muttering to himself. At first glance, he looked like he was possessed.