Volume One, Chapter Three: The Equipment Exploded—This Is a Century-Old Ginseng After All

After a night of merging memories, Zhou Wu had already gained a rough understanding of this era. The dynasty known as the Great Dragon Empire had never appeared in any history Zhou Wu knew; it could only be understood as a parallel world. If one had to compare it with the dynasties of old, it probably belonged to the age of Han and Tang.

Still, the Great Dragon Empire had only recently been founded, its ruler no more than the second generation upon the throne. The frontiers were still often troubled by minor clashes with neighboring states. The village where Zhou Wu now lived was also near the border, but the adjoining nation had no real enmity with the Great Dragon Empire, so all in all, things were fairly peaceful.

"We’re here."

As they spoke, the mule cart had already reached the town.

"Wow."

Zhou Wu, seeing an ancient city with his own eyes for the first time, could not help but marvel. The entire county town was enclosed by walls, far safer than the village. The ramparts stood about three to four meters high, solid stone all the way through; in an age of cold steel, their defensive power was beyond question.

Passing through the city gate, Zhou Wu even took a closer look. Sure enough, it was a heavy wooden gate reinforced with iron. The old television dramas had always said that ancient gates took ten men to push open, and it really had not lied.

"Whoa there—arrived. Scholar Zhou, I’ll be back here at shen hour this afternoon."

"All right, thank you, Uncle Zhang."

Old Zhang let Zhou Wu off in a bustling part of the town, agreed on the return time for the afternoon, and then went off on his own to deliver goods to a few longtime customers.

Though it was only a county town, the clustered buildings with their old-world charm still made Zhou Wu feel a little dazed. The hawkers calling out along the streets, the constant stream of people hurrying to and fro—only then did Zhou Wu truly feel that he had indeed crossed into another world.

But after only a brief moment of wonder, Zhou Wu remembered that he had come to the county town on business today, so he began asking around for a clinic. In the end, after several neighbors all mentioned Apricot Hall, Zhou Wu inquired further about it.

Apricot Hall was the largest local clinic. It was said that its main branch was in the imperial capital, and this was only a branch house. It had deep resources, and the physicians at Apricot Hall were far more skilled than the average quack.

Still, Zhou Wu decided to first sound out the price of ginseng, so as not to be cheated. He casually stepped into a clinic.

"Sir, are you here for treatment or for medicine?"

As soon as he entered, the young pharmacy assistant greeted him warmly. Looking around, Zhou Wu saw only the boy; the doctor was not in the front hall. He should have been treating someone, with the assistant going to the back room to call him out. Clinics like this were all run in such a family style.

"For medicine."

"Oh? Does the customer have a prescription?"

"No. I’d like to ask whether you have century-old ginseng."

"You jest, sir. How could a small shop like ours have century-old ginseng? We only have ordinary ginseng."

"Oh. Then how much is it?"

"At our place, ginseng is fifty coins per slice."

"Fifty coins."

At first Zhou Wu did not react. He could not tell whether this was expensive or cheap, and in his mind he was still calculating the value of ginseng.

"A single slice of ginseng costs fifty coins, and that is only ordinary ginseng of average age. A root, by the standards of a clinic, can at least be cut into a hundred or so slices—that would be equivalent to five thousand coins. Damn."

Only after calculating it did he realize: a single ordinary ginseng root was worth five thousand coins, or five strings of cash. One dou of rice, about seven to eight jin, now sold for only twenty coins. With five thousand coins, one could buy two hundred and fifty dou of rice—roughly two thousand jin. A castrated ox cost only about three strings of cash, and an ordinary mare about four strings.

"Haha..."

Once he had made up his mind, Zhou Wu could not help laughing aloud. The pharmacy boy, seeing that the man had not reacted for a long while and assuming he was just another looker who would not buy, was about to speak in mockery when the sudden burst of laughter startled him into freezing in place.

"So he’s got some sort of brain ailment after all. Good thing I didn’t say anything, or I’d have gotten beaten for nothing."

Under the grateful gaze of the assistant, who felt he had just escaped disaster, Zhou Wu swaggered away.

Now that he had a sense of the market, Zhou Wu did not bother checking with other shops. He went straight to Apricot Hall in the county town.

...

"So this is a true national chain. The scale really is different."

Standing at the entrance to Apricot Hall, even the storefront alone was beyond what a private clinic could compare with. It was imposing. Inside, the main hall was packed with common folk waiting to be seen.

"Sir, are you here for treatment or for medicine?"

Zhou Wu crept into the hall, and a pharmacy assistant immediately came forward, asking politely.

"Do you buy medicine here?"

Zhou Wu lowered his voice as much as possible. Wealth should not be flaunted.

"Sir, by rights Apricot Hall does not take loose medicinal materials. However, if they are rare and precious herbs, that is another matter."

The assistant seemed accustomed to such situations and simply told Zhou Wu the rules of Apricot Hall. In plain terms, Apricot Hall was wealthy and powerful; they did not take in herbs of uncertain origin. But if the goods were top-grade, that was another story.

"Ginseng."

"Century-old ginseng."

Zhou Wu did not bother with nonsense and went straight to the point, naming his ginseng. Afraid the other side might look down on it, he hurriedly added that it was century-old ginseng.

"Oh, sir, please come this way."

Hearing the words "century-old ginseng," the assistant immediately led Zhou Wu quietly into the inner hall.

"Please have some tea, sir. I’ll go call the proprietor to take a look."

After settling Zhou Wu down, the assistant hurried off to fetch the proprietor. One must know that century-old ginseng, even for a huge chain clinic like Apricot Hall, the largest in the Great Dragon Empire, was still highly attractive.

A clinic with a reputation cared about nothing more than two things. First was the physician’s skill. On this point, Apricot Hall had no worries at all, for it cultivated its own doctors in-house, and all of them were signed to lifelong contracts.

The second was medicinal materials. Good medical skill alone was useless without good ingredients—however capable the cook, one cannot make a meal without rice. Ordinary commoners did not matter; for minor ailments they could just buy some medicine, and they could not afford top-grade herbs anyway. But officials and nobility were different. Even for the most ordinary case of seasonal cold, the medicinal ingredients had to be the very best.

"Sorry to trouble you, young man."

Zhou Wu found this all rather strange. Something felt off about the script. Why was there not the slightest hint of the contempt and snobbery so common in the novels of his previous life? On the contrary, they were all so courteous that Zhou Wu almost felt embarrassed.

Not long after, following the assistant, an old man with white hair came in. He must be the proprietor of Apricot Hall.

"I am Hu Dong, proprietor of Apricot Hall. Greetings."

"I am Zhou Wu. Pleased to meet you, Proprietor Hu."

Sure enough, this was the proprietor of the county town’s Apricot Hall. Zhou Wu quickly rose and returned the greeting.

From the look of him, he did not seem like a deceitful man, and Zhou Wu’s heart relaxed by half.

"I’ve heard from the staff below that you have century-old ginseng. May this old one have a look?"

"By all means."

Zhou Wu took the ginseng package from inside his robe and placed it on the table.

Hu Dong gently picked up the bundle and slowly unwrapped layer after layer of the cloth. When the contents were finally revealed, he was instantly overjoyed.