Chapter 34: Sky-High Price

  Seeking a patron...

  As for what Sun Baicao said, Sun Jianing listened with great interest, but Li Wenjun just casually listened and didn't take these things to heart. He was more concerned about whether he could find the herbs he needed at the Trading Conference. If he could buy herbs like Wang Yueyan Grass at the conference, it would save him a lot of trouble collecting them later, and he could devote more time to cultivation and other things.

  The county town is quite far from Fengshou Town, and it takes at least half a day to get there by horse-drawn carriage. With nothing better to do, Sun Baicao finished telling the rumors about the county magistrate and the county governor, and then started talking about other interesting things.

  He said a few more, but Li Wenjun wasn't very interested. Just as they were approaching Fengshou Town, Sun Baicao mentioned a detail that caught Li Wenjun's attention.

  Sanshan County, although guarding three major mountains, the number of wild medicinal herbs growing on the mountain every year is limited after all, and it cannot meet the large-scale procurement needs of pharmaceutical merchants. In many years ago, pharmaceutical merchants have been trying to encourage more farmers to give up planting wheat, corn and other crops, and instead plant various medicinal herbs.

  Planting medicinal herbs is much more troublesome than planting food crops, requiring more experience and skills. In order to meet the demand, those pharmaceutical merchants have spared no expense, every year they would specially invite people to come and teach the medicinal herb farmers in Fengshou Town.

  At first, these lecturers were mainly good at planting medicinal herbs, but later on, I don't know when it started, the lecturers began to become diverse and have evolved into all sorts of people now.

  From the planting and drying of medicinal herbs to their initial processing, and even how to use them for healing, everything is publicly taught by someone at the annual trading fair.

  Due to the existence of these contents, Fengshou Town's Trade Fair is no longer just a medicinal materials trade fair, but to a large extent, it has become an academic conference related to all industries such as disease treatment.

  Upon hearing this, Li Wenjun's heart skipped a beat. He had been worried about how to start refining the Qi Gathering Powder recently. When selling medicine to sick people, pharmacies not only sell herbs to them but also sometimes sell finished medicinal pills.

  How to turn medicinal herbs into pills, such a process may help him understand the alchemy techniques in "Changchun Gong".

  Li Wenjun made a secret decision that after arriving at Fengshou Town, he must find those who taught the pill-making technique and listen to their lectures in person. Perhaps this was an excellent opportunity for him to break through his current predicament.

  Sun Baicao was an old customer of Fengshou Town, he drove the horse cart familiarly and brought Sun Jianing and Li Wenjun to a household in the town. This household had some kinship with their Sun family. Every year when Li Wenjun sold medicinal herbs, he would make this place his base. Of course, he couldn't use someone else's place for free, so when he came, he would bring some gifts, such as pork, and when he left, he would leave some money behind, which was a matter of course.

  Sun Baicao's relative's house had two courtyards, front and back, with several rooms in each courtyard, as well as an independent gate facing the street. Knowing that Sun Baicao was coming over, the host family had already vacated one of the courtyards beforehand and assigned it specifically for Sun Baicao's use.

  After getting off the horse cart, Li Wenjun helped Sun Baicao and his son unload the medicinal herbs from the horse cart and put them away in the warehouse. By the time they finished, it was already pitch dark.

  After dinner, Sun Baicao consulted with Li Wenjun and made a simple arrangement. He and his son Sun Jianing lived in one house, while Li Wenjun lived alone in another house. Exhausted from the day's work, Li Wenjun was eager to sleep, but he persisted in practicing for an hour before going to bed.

  The next day, after getting up and finishing breakfast, Li Wenjun suggested going out for a walk by himself. Sun Baicao reminded him to be careful, so he let Li Wenjun go. Sun Jianing originally wanted to follow Li Wenjun together, but was pulled back by Sun Baicao. The medicinal herbs they had brought still needed to be sold quickly, or else it would be troublesome if they were stuck in their hands.

  Li Wenjun walked alone on the main street of Fengshou Town, looking for those lecture halls that Sun Baicao had mentioned.

  Fengshou Town has thousands of households, and in terms of scale, it is not a big town. However, it is filled with wine houses and tea pavilions. Every year when the medicinal material trading conference arrives, business here will be very prosperous. There is a saying that if you don't open for one year, you'll eat for three years.

  Li Wenjun found that every household in Fengshou Town was surrounding the trading conference, and each household's door hung a sign, usually written with "This courtyard buys or sells certain medicinal herbs", and some even specified the quantity of the transaction and who was stationed here.

  Li Wenjun casually looked at a few signboards, but didn't find the medicinal herbs he needed. It was to be expected, after all, when he had wandered around Wufeng Mountain for over a month, he had only managed to collect half a basket of Wangyueya grass and other herbs. The quantity of wild medicinal herbs was extremely limited, and they were precious because of their rarity.

  The trading conference will last for half a month, so there is still plenty of time. Therefore, finding herbs can be put aside for the time being, and mastering the techniques of alchemy and medicine is more important. Li Wenjun gave up the idea of continuing to find herbs and focused on searching for lecture halls.

  Under his nose was a mouth, couldn't find the way can ask. Li Wenjun stopped a passerby and asked him.

  The passerby was very enthusiastic and told him that schools are divided into two types: public schools and private schools.

  As the name suggests, the former is open lectures, publicly held, unlimited in number, anyone can listen, and no money is needed. This kind of lecture is usually sponsored by wealthy and influential medicinal material merchants to promote themselves. However, although it's public, the content of the lecture is often not much different from what one can learn on their own, mostly general knowledge, and it's hard to hear unique insights or personal experiences in open lectures.

  Private school, that is to say, the place of lecture is semi-public, the number of people is limited, whoever wants to listen must pay money, as for how much to spend, it depends on who the lecturer is, what the content of the course is, and how deep the content of the course involves.

  Public schools are generally held outside the town, where a temporary platform is set up or the lecturer simply stands on a horse-drawn carriage to give lectures. Private schools, on the other hand, have more complex venues, some in the private residences of wealthy merchants or landlords, others in taverns and tea houses, and still others in Confucian academies.

  However, whether it is a public school or a private school, wherever it is located, whoever is invited to give lectures, and at what time the lecture is given, all of these will be publicly announced in advance. Just like each household announces what medicinal materials they are buying or selling, the place where the lecture is held will also put up a sign at their own door to make an announcement.

  Li Wenjun repeatedly thanked the kind-hearted passerby and began to wander around the streets, looking for a place that suited him.

  The town of Fengshou was not small, and Li Wenjun had been walking until late afternoon before he barely finished circling the entire town. As he walked to the end, he came to a grandly built mansion with lanterns and streamers, two giant Kongming lanterns floating in the air, and a large red banner hanging down from the lanterns, with the ends fixed on the ground.

  One banner reads "Warmly welcome the famous doctor of the capital, Master Xu Yidan, who has arrived at the Wei Mansion with his magical skills to bring back spring". Another banner reads "Tomorrow at 8 o'clock, Master Xu will personally lecture on the art of Dan medicine, limited to 50 people".

  Inside the gatehouse of the mansion, two lanterns were still hanging, with "Zhang Fu" written on them. Li Wenjun was unfamiliar with Fengshou Town; if he had been familiar with it, he would have known that this was no ordinary place, but rather the residence of Zhang Jianjie, the richest merchant in Fengshou Town.

  Li Wenjun saw the huge Kongming lantern and the bright banner from a distance, and as he walked closer, he looked at the four words "Dan Yao's Art" on the banner, and he was thrilled.

  In Fengshou Town, he had turned around in a circle and saw many notices of lectures. This was the only lecture that talked about "Dan medicine technique". Regardless of whether this lecture would inspire him to refine the Gathering Qi Powder, Li Wenjun did not want to miss it.

  A crowd of people gathered at the gate, some of whom could no longer hold back and stepped forward to sign up. Li Wenjun also walked over, preparing to register with the doorman at the gate.

  Only one house servant stood on the steps, hoarsely saying: "Everyone, I've explained many times. Master Xu has traveled far from the capital, and after a lot of hard work, it's not good to be slow. We must give them some respect. Whoever wants to come tomorrow to listen to the lecture, regardless of age or sex, will have to pay 500 taels of silver per person, not one copper coin less."

  Li Wenjun took a deep breath, he didn't expect to spend 500 taels of silver just by listening to a lecture, was Xu Yidan's words worth its weight in gold?

  Li Wenjun hesitated, his money was limited. The gold and silver jewelry he had snatched from the old Taoist's storage package could be exchanged for about a thousand taels of silver, but he had already spent a lot. When robbing the wild mountain spirit, he bought two horses one after another, only to lose them again. He also spent some money buying makeup tools and other things. The cost of learning martial arts was also a significant expense. His daily expenses were not very frugal either.

  Up to now, he still has about 700 taels of silver left. If he spends 500 taels today, he will only have 200 taels left. Not to mention his daily expenses for food and clothing, the trading conference will last for another half month. If he doesn't gain anything from listening to Xu Yidan's lecture this time, he will definitely want to listen to others' lectures. Will 200 taels of silver be enough? If not, where will the tuition fees come from?

  Li Wenjun always thought he had enough money, but when it came down to it, he realized that he wasn't just short of money, but very short of money. It seems Sun Jianing was right, he really needs to think of a way to make some money now. Just sitting around and eating away one's resources isn't the right way to live.

  Li Wenjun was in a dilemma and couldn't make up his mind when he saw a group of people approaching, led by Kong Yaoshi, with two bailiffs following behind him.

  Since losing the Wild Mountain Spirit, Kong Yao Shi has been staying in the county town. Feng Shou Town holds a medicinal material trading conference every year, he knows that he stayed behind, on the one hand to avoid going back to Fu Cheng and facing the thunderous anger of Master Zhi, on the other hand, it was also to see if he could have enough luck at the trading conference to get another hundred-year-old medicinal material.

  Like Li Wenjun, Kong Yaoshi also saw the Kongming lantern from afar. For Xu Yidan, he had long heard of his great name, so as soon as he saw the words on the banner, he hurried over in a flurry.