In the early morning, the sky and earth were dark, and the cold wind penetrated the bones.
In the small courtyard with bamboo fence at the foot of the mountain, Jiang Ming was naked from the waist up, with his trouser legs rolled up to his knees, practicing his boxing moves one by one in the darkness.
Sweat as big as soybeans kept dripping, and the loess was already wet...
It wasn't until the sky was getting brighter that sporadic voices could be heard from the fields in the distance. Jiang Mingcai stopped breathing heavily. His whole body was steaming with heat, and the muscle lines between his shoulders and spine were faintly visible.
It had been two days since he came back from the mountains. Jiang Ming continued to practice boxing every morning. The medicinal power of fire cloud grass and toadstool mushrooms still remained, allowing him to get twice the result with half the effort and become much stronger.
Today, Jiang Ming is no longer in a weak state, and his strength is probably as good as that of an adult who has practiced twice.
"You still have to persist in practicing. Although you have become immortal, the unknown troubles will not disappear. You need to be prepared for danger in times of peace..." Jiang Ming said to himself. In a strange world, you need to stay awake at all times.
After scooping water from the water tank, he took a quick cold bath. The rice porridge cooked on the fire was almost ready. Jiang Ming filled a large bowl with pickled dried vegetables and started eating and drinking.
After eating, Jiang Ming lay down on a bamboo chair and looked at the distant mountains and forests. The light mist had not yet dissipated, covering the peaks. The gentle sunlight refracted in the mist, like a layer of golden gauze...
"Buy some more tea leaves, make tea and meditate at the foot of the mountain, and go up the mountain to collect herbs and flowers in your spare time... It's really the paradise of dreams..."
Jiang Ming admired the beautiful scenery in front of him, and then sighed: "It's a pity that I have to sacrifice myself for daily necessities."
His predecessor left little money. If Jiang Ming wanted to practice martial arts, he had to find a way to make money.
Whether you want to learn martial arts from a master or buy boxing elixirs, you need a lot of money.
Martial arts is not a poor man’s game!
Jiang Ming got up quickly, took out baskets of fresh medicinal herbs picked in the past few days from the house, and spread them on the ground to dry.
There are also some rhizomes that are difficult to dry. Jiang Ming still needs to make a charcoal fire and dry them carefully...
Some herbs left behind by the predecessor need to be further processed, poured into a pot and stir-fried over low heat to avoid mold...
By the time he finally finished his work, the sun was setting.
Jiang Ming gnawed on the dry biscuits, chewing hard while thinking:
"You can go to the medicine market tomorrow morning..."
There are a lot of medicinal materials left behind by the predecessor, and with the newly picked ones, I should be able to sell them for some money.
After drinking a large bowl of cold water and easing his somewhat choked throat, he began to select medicinal materials that could be sold, then classified and tied them with straw ropes, and carefully put them into the medicine basket...
…
The next day, at dawn, Jiang Ming opened his eyes, practiced his boxing skills twice, pulled out the medicine basket hidden by the bed, covered it with a piece of bare animal skin, and carried it out. Door.
The medicine market is located in an open space at the other end of Pingan Town, surrounded by a simple bamboo fence. Even in the early morning, many people have gathered.
Jiang Ming walked in, found an open space, spread out the animal skins, put the medicinal materials one by one, squatted on the ground and started setting up a stall.
But before the guests came, a burly middle-aged man with a ferocious knife mark on his face came over with a few gangster followers: "Hey, A Ming, there are so many goods out today, save money Want a wife?"
Jiang Ming looked up and immediately greeted the other party's eight generations of ancestors in his heart, but his face still showed a look of awe: "Good morning, Mr. Scar!"
As he spoke, he took out five copper coins from his pocket and put them into the opponent's hands.
"Master Scar" is the little leader of the Old Snake Gang in Fucheng, and it was the Old Snake Gang who took the lead in setting up this medicine market.
In Ping'an Town, every herbal collector must come to the medicine market to sell medicine.
Everyone who sells drugs in the drug market must pay venue fees.
That's the rule!
Someone once sneaked into the city to sell medicine, and his legs were broken off...
"It's almost impossible for these herb collectors to stand up..." Jiang Ming sighed in his heart. The officials in the city were fat but extremely shrewd.
With such a big business of medicinal materials, how could they let these mud-legged medicinal collectors get rich?
Behind the Old Snake Gang, various families and officials are indispensable...
Mr. Scar seemed to be smiling but was not smiling. He was scratching and pulling on the medicinal materials with his toes, and he was about to crush several medicinal materials:
"There are so many goods this time, the land fee is a bit..."
"Master Scar is wise!" Jiang Ming quickly smiled apologetically and handed over three more coins.
"It's a good thing I didn't bring the Fire Cloud Grass back, otherwise I would have been in bad luck, let alone making money!" Jiang Ming thought to himself, with a smile on his face as he watched the scar face leave...
…
After sending Mr. Scar away, a while later, when the sky was bright, only twos and threes of people walked into the medicine market to purchase.
At a glance, Jiang Ming saw that most of the people who came to buy medicine were neatly dressed and had tender skin. It looked like they were from the city, and many of them were accompanied by their entourage.
This is the business of medicinal materials. Ordinary people cannot do it. Herbal collectors are only at the bottom of the medicinal materials chain and can only be exploited by drug dealers and gangs.
Jiang Ming watched the gentlemen in the city walking around and choosing, and finally an old man in a gray robe walked up to him.
"Huh? How do you sell Zhuling?"
Jiang Ming straightened up quickly and said, "Look at Mian Shan. If you want both, I'll give you twenty-five coppers. It's hard to find Zhuling now, so the price is cheap. Do you think so?"
Picking Polyporus requires a lot of experience and is difficult to find, but if you find the right place, you can dig dozens or hundreds of kilograms. By chance, my predecessor came across a place where Polyporus grows, which is considered a treasure land for food.
In order to ship quickly, Jiang Ming kept the price relatively low.
The old man raised his eyebrows: "Young man can talk, okay, just pretend."
He winked behind him, and his entourage immediately came forward to pay for the medicine.
Before leaving, the old man left another message: "Black tea medicine, water golden vine, double the price, and... fire cloud grass, find a big reward!"
Jiang Ming didn't ask any more questions and just nodded.
This is also one of the rules. The gentlemen who come to purchase sometimes ask the herbal collectors to purchase some urgently needed medicinal materials. This is regarded as a bounty task. The reward for such tasks is generally relatively high, but the medicinal materials are also relatively difficult to find.
Especially the Fire Cloud Grass...
Jiang Ming's heart moved slightly. This fire cloud grass used to be rarer than the thousand-year-old ginseng.
This year, there are suddenly more of them. Although they are still hard to find, I have heard that two or three people have found them.
"This doesn't include the one I ate!" Jiang Ming's eyes flashed.
"The reward prices for the families and gangs in the city are also increasing day by day, especially the Wang family. I heard that the current reward price is already sixty taels..."
If Jiang Ming had sixty taels of silver, it would be enough for him to find a good martial arts school in the city and study for several years.
"It's a pity that this road is blocked..." Jiang Ming suddenly felt calm as he thought of the town's mountain guard, Mr. Scar, and those simpering medicine-buying gentlemen.
This windfall is not something he can make now.
"Little boy, do you still have Zhuling?" A rough shout brought Jiang Ming back to his senses.
He looked up and saw that he was a regular customer. He quickly smiled and said, "I'm really sorry, everything is sold out."
A hint of impatience flashed in the man's eyes, and he threw up his sleeves and left.
Jiang Ming shook his head speechlessly. Except for Polyporus cocos, his other medicinal materials were not rare. It would be difficult to sell them next...
Sure enough, until it was close to noon, all the men buying medicine were gone, and Jiang Ming still had half of his medicine left, and no one cared about it.
In one morning, a total of sixty copper coins were sold. Excluding the exploitation by the clerk and Mr. Scar in the past few days, there were only fifty copper coins.
This is plus the inventory of the predecessor...
"Hey, life is not easy!" Jiang Ming sighed, put the remaining medicinal materials into the medicine basket, bought some rice and noodles in the town, and then went back home...
"Maybe it's time to try that prescription." On the way home, Jiang Ming lowered his head and thought to himself.
