Chapter 35: Possessed

  Everyone's support is needed!

  After Master Kong came over, he didn't say any nonsense and directly asked: "How much does a listening ticket for Master Xu cost?"

  Jia Ding spread out his palm in front of Kong Yao Shi and shook it a few times, saying: "Five hundred taels of silver, not one cent less."

  "Give me one." said Kong Yao Shi readily.

  Jia Ding was taken aback. Since the Zhang family hung up the banner, Kong Yaoshi was still the first one to pay without haggling. He hastily took out a beautifully crafted wooden plaque that he had prepared in advance, wrote a number on it with a brush, and asked: "Sir, what's your surname?"

  "Hollow." Kong's words were concise and to the point.

  The butler added a "Kong" character to the wooden sign, then blew dry the ink marks and respectfully handed the wooden sign to Kong Yao Shi. The latter took a look, carefully put the wooden sign into his bosom, then took out a 500-tael silver note and handed it to the butler.

  Until Master Kong turned to leave, the house servant was still in a daze. When his master had initially set the price at 500 taels, he thought his master had gone mad. He never expected that there were indeed rich people in this world who would be willing to spend such a large sum of money just to learn from someone.

  Isn't teaching just talking to people, isn't it just chatting?

  The family is puzzled and cannot understand.

  Li Wenjun knew that Kong Yaoshi was a famous pharmacist in the prefectural city, and even he thought that Xu Yidan's lectures had something worth listening to. So there must be something valuable here, maybe something he needs. Many things in life are like passing through this village without finding this store again. If this is the opportunity he has been waiting for, if he misses it, who knows when he will meet again?

  Thinking of this, Li Wenjun no longer hesitated. He first found a quiet place to change his clothes and disguise himself. Then he went back to the entrance of Zhang's mansion, took out several gold coins, made up fifty taels of gold, and asked for an admission ticket.

  He hastily left after getting the tuition voucher, and if someone was jealous of his large sum of money and planned to take action against him, although he wasn't afraid, it would still be a bit of trouble.

  Perhaps it was because Fengshou Town had been quite prosperous these past few days, with people everywhere, and the government had strengthened its patrols, making it difficult to find a place to make a move. Even when Li Wenjun returned to Sun Baicao's father and son, no one jumped out to rob him.

  Li Wenjun asked about the situation of Sun Baicao and his son. Today, they didn't idle around either. They divided their work, with Sun Jianing staying behind to guard and Sun Baicao going out to gather information on market conditions. The father-son duo worked together, striving to get a good price for the medicinal herbs they had accumulated over a long time.

  No words were exchanged that night. The next day, Li Wenjun arrived at the Zhang residence a quarter of an hour early and presented his lesson ticket. The servant respectfully invited him in.

  After entering the Zhang family's gate, turn right, in a corner of the Zhang family, there is a private school, which was set up by Zhang Jianjie for his own children and relatives, as well as young slaves. All expenses are borne by the Zhang family. There are only a dozen or so children here, but the area of the private school is not small, covering an area of more than one mu.

  Xu Yidan's lecture hall was right here, Li Wenjun walked into the classroom, he still wore the same attire as when he asked for a ticket to listen to the class yesterday, looking like a young man in his thirties.

  Li Wenjun thought he wasn't late, but after entering the school hall, he found that it was almost full. He didn't know that the 50 places set by the Zhang family were all sold out yesterday. Just this one item, the Zhang family earned 25,000 taels of silver, and apart from the cost of inviting Xu Yidan, the Zhang family would definitely make a big profit.

  Li Wenjun sat down in a not-too-eye-catching place, casually glanced at the dozens of people listening to the lecture, except for Kong Yao Shi sitting in the front row, he knew him, and all the others were strangers to him. These people were all enthusiastically discussing, and the topic was basically centered around Xu Yidan.

  Li Wenjun was afraid that someone would talk to him, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he would be at a loss for words. So, after sitting down, he immediately closed his eyes and began to meditate. Sure enough, the person sitting next to him had originally wanted to chat with him, but seeing his appearance, they also lost interest.

  After a while, a middle-aged man wearing an official uniform accompanied by a man wearing a Confucian long gown walked into the school. Someone who recognized the man in the official uniform shouted: "Director Zhang has arrived."

  The newcomer was the master of this mansion, Zhang Jianjie, the richest man in Fengshou Town. His face was full of smiles, his hands clasped together, and he bowed to everyone, saying: "Everyone, Zhang has arrived late, and I've kept you all waiting for a long time."

  The man accompanying Zhang Jianjie didn't have a hint of a smile on his face, his expression was stern and emotionless, as if someone owed him eight hundred dollars.

  Zhang Jianjie bid farewell to the crowd, turned sideways and pointed to the man beside him, saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the famous doctor from the capital city, known as the 'Miraculous Hand of Spring' Xu Yidan, Master Xu. It's really a great honor for me, Zhang Fu, to have invited Master Xu here."

  Xu Yidan nodded slightly and said calmly: "Officer Zhang, I don't have much time to waste. Let's get started."

  "Master Xu, after you." Zhang Jianjie hastily raised his hand and made a gesture of invitation.

  Xu Yidan stepped forward, walking to the front of the crowd, where several tables were set up, with many items placed on top, including a stove, mortar, pestle, and sand pot, all of which were tools for decocting and preparing medicine.

  Xu Yidan stood behind the table, facing everyone. He opened his mouth and went straight to the topic, saying: "Everyone, today I'm talking about pharmaceutical techniques. Pharmaceutical techniques refer to extracting and refining the essence of medicinal herbs, making them into powders, ointments, pills, and other forms that are convenient for patients to use. The first step in pharmaceuticals is selecting medicines. If the medicines are not selected properly, no matter how exquisite your pharmaceutical technique is, the resulting medicine will be a failure. Let's start by talking about how to select medicines."

  Kong Yaoshi and others all held their breath, even Li Wenjun was no exception, he too listened carefully, fearing that he would miss a single word from Xu Yidan. Perhaps the missed sentence was the opportunity he had been searching for for a long time.

  Xu Yidan is indeed a renowned doctor from the capital, with a profound understanding of every step in the art of medicine. What he has just said may be only a tiny part of his vast knowledge, but it has left Kong Yao Shi and others listening in awe.

  Li Wenjun is completely a layman in the art of medicine, and many things that Xu Yidan says are somewhat obscure and difficult to understand for him. Only on very rare occasions can he verify and deepen his understanding from Xu Yidan's explanations and what he has read in "Changchun Gong" and "Xiuxian Zalun".

  With a flicker of time, Xu Yidan stopped and pointed to the various objects on the table, saying: "Today's lecture will stop here. Everyone take a break for now, after half an incense stick, I will demonstrate in front of everyone how to make medicine. During the demonstration, I will take some time to answer your questions. You can use this break to think carefully about what you want to ask me later."

  Everyone was excited, and Li Wenjun also looked forward to Xu Yidan's upcoming demonstration.

  The time of the half-column fragrance passed quickly. After resting for a while, drinking tea and moistening his throat, Xu Yidan walked back to the table again. He took out a package, opened it, and saw that there were many paper packages inside. When he opened the paper packages, they were all wrapped in various herbs.

  "I'm about to make a medicine for jaundice, everyone can see how I make the medicine." Xu Yidan said while starting to weigh the herbs with a balance.

  Xu Yidan's movements were very stable, and the steps were clearly explained, with a clear logic, not chaotic at all. After weighing out the medicinal herbs needed for refining the golden elixir, he processed them with a mortar and pestle, then poured them into a sand pot, and began to decoct.

  Decoction takes a lot of time, so Xu Yidan uses this opportunity to let everyone ask questions freely. Of course, it's said that it's free, but there are actually limitations. Each person only has one chance to ask a question and can only ask one question. Specifically, whether each person can ask a question or not is decided by drawing lots.

  Li Wenjun really wanted to ask what would happen if Xu Yidan were in his position and how he should refine the Qi San. However, it was not wise to do so, and he chose to give up asking without hesitation.

  Soon, the draw came to an end. Among the fifty people, only ten of them got the chance to ask questions. They seized this opportunity and asked Xu Yidan the doubts in their minds.

  Xu Yidan patiently answered, Li Wenjun furrowed his brow, and nine people passed by in a row. He was depressed to find that he couldn't understand the questions of the person asking, and Xu Yidan's answers were also confusing to him. Listening to Kong Yaoshi and Xu Yidan's conversation was like listening to a heavenly book for him.

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

  Xu Yidan's lectures had indeed answered some of his questions, but they did not help him to concoct the Gathering Qi Powder, and the alchemical furnace he most wanted to see was nowhere to be found.

  Just then, the last questioner 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. The medicine cannot be poured in, and the pills cannot be fed in either. What should I do to give him the medicine?"

  Xu Yidan said: "When giving medicine to patients, it's not necessarily about putting the medicine in their mouth and having them swallow it. There are other ways. For example, you can decoct the medicinal herbs into a liquid and have the patient bathe with it or apply it as an ointment. Of course, doing it this way will reduce the efficacy of the medicine, and some illnesses aren't suitable for these two methods. Recently, I've been trying out a new method - forging hollow iron needles, then inserting the needle into the patient's blood vessels and directly injecting the medicinal liquid into their body."

  Boom!

  The classroom suddenly boiled over, and everyone was talking about it, as if they had heard a tale from the Arabian Nights.

  Kong Yaoshi and others were making a racket discussing, Li Wenjun pretended not to hear, he sat there stupidly, his eyes staring blankly, muttering to himself. At first glance, it seemed as if he was possessed by evil spirits.