812 Medicinal Wine
“Are you my biological sister or not!” Xia Wen said helplessly as he slumped at the door.
“What’s in all these bags?” Qiao Mei asked curiously.
Xia He opened the bags excitedly. There were many old clothes that the three of them had worn when they were young and which were still in very good condition. Xu Lan had wanted to buy new clothes for the four children, but she was worried that it would appear too pretentious and Li Gui would be too embarrassed to accept the gift. Therefore she only bought a few new pieces and then stuffed all the old clothes in as well.
“Mother wants to give these to the children and she insists that I bring them over. It has been such a difficult journey,” Xia He said.
Xia Wen sat on the ground and patted the bag beside him. “These are the textbooks which the schools in the capital are using at the moment. The children can’t go to school immediately and have to learn at home. We can enroll them during springtime. When I have time, I’ll come and teach them using these textbooks.”
The pace of teaching in the county city was worlds apart from that in the capital. Zhang Wei was in the fifth grade of the elementary school in the village, but he would barely be able to keep up in the third grade in the capital.
Zhang Wei and the others would also be a little older than the other students in their respective classes when they went to school. Qiao Mei wondered if they would be ostracized and hoped that they would be able to adapt to life here.
“Thank you, eldest brother and elder sister. Just put these things aside and let the children choose for themselves. My mother has gone to buy groceries and will be back soon.” Qiao Mei invited Xia He and Xia Wen into the house. They had not had time to buy furniture for the courtyard yet.
“I see you’ve cleaned up this house very well these past few days. It’s completely different from how it looked when we first saw it,” Xia Wen said as he looked around.
Xia He straightened up and said to Xia Wen, “Of course! I’m the one who cleaned up everything in this house!”
Qiao Mei took out three small bottles from the room. She handed two to Xia He and the last one to Xia Wen. The liquid in the small bottles emitted a dark green light and looked similar to pesticide, but it was actually wondrous medication.
“This bottle is for mother. Please help me bring it back to her later. This is the medicinal wine I made with 100-year-old ginseng. It’s very nutritious. We all have a bottle each,” Qiao Mei said.
Xia Wen looked at the small bottle suspiciously. Although he had never seen medicinal wine made with ginseng, this dark green liquid did not look like anything nice.
Could it be that it had gone bad during the process? It might even have mutated!
“Qiao Mei… can we really drink this… Why don’t we ask Aunt’s cousin? He’s very good with Chinese medicine,” Xia Wen said with a frown.
Without saying another word, Qiao Mei put two drops into the water and poured it out into two small teacups for Xia Wen and Xia He to try. With just two drops, they could smell the fragrance of the water.
This was the first time they had encountered water that smelt like that. Qiao Mei only put two drops, but it already made the water so clear. After drinking it, they immediately felt refreshed. The soreness in Xia He’s shoulders from carrying the things just now instantly felt much better, and Xia Wen’s headache also eased a lot.
“This is really effective! It’s so magical!” Xia He looked at the small bottle in her hand in shock.
“You can’t take too much. After all, it’s very nourishing. If you have a headache or a fever, you’ll feel much better after putting one drop into your drinking water. If your life is in danger, you can drink it directly,” Qiao Mei instructed.
After all, this was the essence extracted from the 1,000-year-old ginseng. If a normal healthy person drank it all at once, it would probably be so nutritious that the person would bleed from all seven orifices.
Actually, she had prepared a big bottle for Xia Zhe because she was worried that Xia Zhe would get injured in the army. She could only wait and see if she could ask Xia Mao to give it to him.
“Eldest brother, why isn’t eldest sister-in-law here?” Qiao Mei asked curiously.
Xia Wen looked troubled. Over the past few days, the Tan family members had been coming over to his place non-stop. They did not stay for dinner and would just chat in the house. When they saw him come home, they would leave in a hurry with strange expressions on their faces.
If Tan Jing did not say anything, he would not ask too many questions. After all, this was the Tan family’s own matters and it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble. If there were any matters that Tan Jing could not handle, someone from the Tan family would naturally come looking for him.
Most of the time, it was either about money or asking the Xia family to recommend jobs to the Tan brothers. Tan Jing was the eldest daughter of the Tan family and she had three younger brothers and a younger sister. These four people were all living off the two elders of the Tan family.
If not for the two elders who had rented out their land and collected rent every year, the entire family would have starved to death.
