Chapter 9 Hawthorn Digests Food

  Angelica rushed over and said, "I'll help you with the calculation."

  "Never mind, I'll do it myself!" Zuo Shaoyang picked up his pen and began calculating on paper. Huixiang was worried and also took out an abacus from the drawer to calculate. But before she had even arranged the abacus, Zuo Shaoyang had already calculated the result: "A total of 96 copper coins!"

  Everyone naturally wouldn't believe Zuo Shaoyang's result calculated with a pen, and they all looked at Huixiang who was holding an abacus to calculate. After a while, Huixiang stared at Zuo Shaoyang in surprise and said: "It is indeed 96 wen, no mistake."

  Everyone was stunned, as the weights of these several medicines were different, and the unit prices of each medicine were also different. The calculation result was almost impossible to calculate mentally, and it had to be calculated with an abacus. It was unexpected that Zuo Shao Yang could use a pen to calculate such relatively complex calculations, and everyone was amazed.

  Zhao the Third didn't pay attention to Zuo Shao Yang's calculations, but was rather pleased with her own cleverness. She tossed a hawthorn into her mouth and said, "I told you, it wouldn't cost that much! I didn't care if you could cure me or not, I just opened over ten packets of medicine in one breath, and it didn't even add up to a hundred coins. You actually want me to pay over four thousand coins? Your heart is too black!"

  Zuo Shaoyang felt a bit embarrassed, and smiled apologetically: "Third Aunt, I didn't understand earlier, please don't be angry. It's not convenient for you to carry these dozens of medicines by yourself, let me send them home for you!"

  "Oh! You're speaking words that Auntie loves to hear, Left Da Lang! Say something and don't be unhappy. In the past, you were like a wooden stump, didn't understand anything, and couldn't speak. When you saw people, you'd just smile foolishly. Now it's much better, you've become more clever! Good boy! Come to my house and I'll give you hawthorn fruit leather to eat! It's good for digestion!"

  "Thank you, Aunt San!" Zuo Shaoyang tied up the dozen or so packets of medicine and picked them up with his hand, saying to Zuo Gui, "I'll take the medicine to Aunt San's house for her!"

  Although possessed by the deceased Zuo Gui's body, the old man with a goat beard in front of him was his own father, but Zuo Shao Yang still couldn't turn around for a while, and he really couldn't call out "dad".

  Zuo Gui didn't mind, nodded: "Go quickly and come back quickly, waiting for you to have dinner!"

  "Oh!"

  Zuo Shaoyang carried a medicine bag and followed Zhao Sanniang out of the door.

  Alang was worried and chased after him, saying: "I'll go! You're injured, you should rest well!"

  "I'm fine, sis, you hurry up and cook dinner, I'm still waiting for a good meal when I get back, by the way, it's best to have some wine to drink, that's what makes it great."

  "Wine?" Xiangxiu smiled bitterly, "At home, we can't even afford to lift the lid of a pot, where would we get the money to drink wine?"

  "Oh, forget it! I'm out of here!"

  Out the door, outside was indeed completely dark, but not yet started the night watch. The Tang Dynasty implemented curfew, which began after the second watch at night, equivalent to 9 pm today. Ancient people had few evening entertainment activities and were accustomed to going to bed early, so most people entered dreamland at this hour. At this time, there were already significantly fewer people on the street, walking on the bluestone road, with snow piles piled up on both sides of the road, reflecting a dull silver color under the lamp light.

  Zuo Shaoyang was not used to wearing this hemp-padded jacket, which was far less warm than the down jackets and woolen sweaters of modern society. The cold wind kept piercing through the collar and cuffs, penetrating the thick but poorly insulated fabric, all the way into his bones, chilling him to the marrow.

  Zhao San Niang was wearing a silk padded jacket, with her hands tucked into the sleeves, but she didn't feel any cold. As she walked, she muttered to herself about how Left Guifu and his wife were foolish people, telling Left Shaoyang to be more clever in the future, but never mentioning the rent again. It seemed as if she had already decided that Left Shaoyang was just trying to cheat her, thinking of ways to delay for a few more days. In her heart, she had already made up her mind: on New Year's Eve, no matter what, she would take back the house.

  Zhao San Niang's home is not located in this area, it's separated by two streets.

  All the way, Zhaosan Niang followed Zhao San's words and picked out good things to say. Sometimes she praised Zhao San's clothes for being beautiful, sometimes she said that Zhao San's face was well-maintained, looking like an 18-year-old girl. Sometimes she said that Zhao San was good at managing finances and would definitely have a wealthy family in the future. Sometimes she said that Zhao San had a kind heart and couldn't even bear to step on an ant, making Zhao San very happy.

  Two people arrived at Zhao San Niang's house, and Zhao San Niang walked up the stone steps, knocked on the door ring, turned around to Zuo Shao Yang and said: "You kid, haven't seen you for a few days, you're much more clever now, and you can even talk! Especially, you can say what your aunt's illness is all at once, it's really impressive. I don't know if the prescription your dad made will work or not. If it really works, to be honest, I would miss you guys so much that I wouldn't want to drive you away. Your parents are kind and honest people, I know that in my heart, so even though you owe me rent, I haven't been too harsh on you. But I also need to eat, can't just suffer with you guys, right? Alas! If your dad was as sensible and articulate as you, I could give you a few more days of extension!

  Zuō shǎo yáng zhī dào, rú guǒ zì jǐ de fǎ zi néng xíng, nà lián wǔ tiān dōu yòng bù liǎo jiù jiāo shàng fáng zū, yào shì còu bù dào qián, zài kuò xiàn jǐ gè yuè kě pà yī shí bàn huì yě còu bù dào jiǔ qiān wén lái. Suǒ yǐ suō fāng dà fāng, tǐng zhe xiōng pēi yǒu jǐ fēn dà qì dào: "Sān shěn, duō xiè nǐ le, bú guò, nín kuò xiàn wǒ jiā yě bù shǎo le, zhè yī cì, wǒ mò zū jìn lì, zá guō mài tiě yě yào bǎ gāi nín de qián gěi jiāo le!"

  Zhao San Niang listened to him speaking generously, and was somewhat surprised. She looked at him carefully for a few moments: "Alright! I believe you! On New Year's Eve, I'll come to hear your good news!"

  "Keep it in your belly! Third Aunt." Zuo Shao Yang chuckled.

  At this time, the big gate of Zhao San Niang's house opened, and an old man came out with his back bent. Seeing Zhao San Niang, he hurriedly bowed to one side and made a courtesy call: "Madam is back!"

  Zhao San Niang nodded and said: "Take over the medicine package from Master Zuo's hand, what a lack of strength!"

  The old man hastily agreed and rushed out, taking the medicine package from Zuo Shao Yang's hand.

  Zuo Shaoyang took a step forward and said to Zhao Sanniang, "Auntie, I have something to say but I don't know if I should say it."

  "Speak up if you have anything to say!"

  "This is also said for your own illness."

  "Is it? Then hurry up and say it."

  "Auntie, do you know how you got this stomachache?"

  Zhao San Niang shook her head.

  "It's this thing that has ruined you!" he said, pointing at the half package of hawthorn in Zhao Sanniang's hand.

  "What? Hawthorn?"

  "Hmm! Hawthorn can eliminate food accumulation, especially meat accumulation. In other words, hawthorn is good at digesting the accumulation caused by eating meat. If you feel too full after a meal, especially after eating a lot of fish and meat, eating some hawthorn would be most suitable to help with digestion. However, if you casually snack on hawthorn for no reason, that's troublesome!"

  "What's wrong?"

  "Think about it, hawthorn is good at digesting food. Once it enters the stomach, it can digest anything. If there's meat, it digests meat; if there's rice, it digests rice. But if there's nothing, Aunt San, what do you think it will digest?"

  "What's wrong?" Zhao San Niang vaguely felt something was off and a chill ran down her spine.

  "Ah, meat dissolver!" Left Shao Yang lowered his voice and said, "You eat hawthorn on an empty stomach, and it's been months since you've been using hawthorn as a snack. It's originally meant to dissolve accumulated meat, but with an empty stomach, there's no meat for it to dissolve! Hawthorn doesn't know that your purpose for eating it isn't to aid digestion, but to curb hunger! Without meat, it can only dissolve your stomach instead! Over time, your stomach has been damaged by the hawthorn, full of rotten holes. In medicine, we call this gastric ulcer, and your stomach has been ruined by the hawthorn you've been snacking on! Those symptoms of yours, such as epigastric pain, anorexia, and vomiting acid water, are all consequences of this!"

  "Ah?" Zhao San Niang was startled and stared at Zuo Shao Yang, "Don't scare your aunt!"

  "You don't believe it, just ignore it and keep eating. The illnesses you have now are only the beginning, but soon, not long from now, your stomach will be useless. At that time, haha, Auntie, I'm not scaring you, but when you want to seek help, there won't be anywhere to go!"

  Zhao San Niang's face was uncertain, looking at Zuo Shao Yang, seeing that his expression seemed not to be deceiving himself, carefully considering it, also feeling that what Zuo Shao Yang said made sense, she said: "Then what should I do?"

  "It's very simple, Auntie wants to cure your illness, the most important thing is to change this bad habit of eating hawthorn as a snack! At least before you recover from the illness, you can't eat it, and after you recover, you still can't eat it as a snack! Especially not on an empty stomach before meals. And you need to keep taking the medicine we prescribed, it won't take long for your illness to be cured!"