“Every boy in the Miao villages has to choose what they want to become when he is six years old. Cheng Yang chose to become a Miao Doctor. It took him 29 years and 5 months to finally become the youngest highly-skilled doctor in all the Miao villages among the hundreds of thousands of mountains at that time.”
Speaking of this, Old Yang suddenly laughed and continued, “When he became a highly-skilled doctor, even the Miao village he lived in became more important among the mountains. Many villagers from other villages where there aren’t any highly-skilled doctors were willing to give him meat, poisonous insects, lands, and grain seeds to ask him to treat them. His wife was the most beautiful girl in another village.
“They got married before he became a highly-skilled doctor. But in order to study medical skills, he didn’t have a child with his wife. When he finally became a highly-skilled doctor and was about to have a child under the blessings of all the villagers, a disaster came.
“His wife suddenly had leprosy!
“He left with his wife to avoid infecting the rest of the villagers. He did his best to find herbs in the mountains to treat his wife. Despite his efforts, his lovely wife died in the end.”
There were tears in Old Yang’s eyes when he spoke these words.
“Cheng Yang failed to save his wife. He even considered dying with his wife but decided against it, not because he was afraid of death but because he felt sorry for his wife. He was too ashamed to see her in the underworld. He vowed to spend the rest of his life treating leprosy!
“As a result, he did not return to his village after his wife was buried. Instead, he left the mountains and went to Leprosy Village. He put the illness to the test on himself. Leprosy had infected him. The symptoms, however, began to appear on him after three years. Then he started treating himself.”
All of a sudden, Old Yang smiled.
“However, fate played tricks on him.”
Looking up at the sky that was gradually getting bright, Old Yang laughed and said in a mocking tone, “He has waited for three years. But one day after he began to study on how to cure the disease, the government sent people to the village and gave out specific medicine to treat the disease.”
Hearing this, Fang Qiu was stunned.
“Cheng Yang didn’t know whether he should feel happy or sad.”
Old Yang continued, “He should feel happy because no one would suffer the pain of leprosy anymore. He should feel sad because all his efforts over the years were wasted. He also regretted that he hadn’t gotten out of the mountains earlier. If he had done so, his wife wouldn’t have died so quickly and she might have lived until now.
“At last, he chose to stay here because this village needed a doctor. He wanted to help the people in this village survive.
“In the blink of an eye, forty years have passed.”
Hearing this, Fang Qiu was shocked.
“I didn’t expect you to be a highly-skilled doctor. It is my honor to see you,” said Fang Qiu.
Fang Qiu immediately bowed to Old Yang.
“I’m not Cheng Yang.”
Old Yang shook his head with a smile and said, “After leaving the Miao villages, I was not Cheng Yang anymore. Everyone in the village hopes that I could become a towering poplar tree among the hundreds of thousands of mountains to support the village. Now that decades have passed, I am already no longer Cheng Yang.”
“No, you are like a big tree now,” said Fang Qiu.
Old Yang shook his head and chuckled.
Miao medicine was a part of traditional Chinese Medicine. Some herbs and prescriptions of Miao medicine were more powerful than those of ordinary traditional Chinese Medicine. Moreover, there were many special treatment methods in Miao medicine, which were much better than those of ordinary traditional Chinese Medicine.
However, Miao Doctors had always lived in Miao villages in the mountains, so their skills had never been learned by the outside world. Because the Chinese Medicine industry did not know much about Miao Doctors, they did not count them in any records.
For example, Old Yang was not among the 50 highly-skilled doctors in the country.
He was the 51st highly-skilled doctor, and only Fang Qiu knew it!
“It all belongs to the past.”
Old Yang waved his hand and said, “I’m just an ordinary old man now.”
Fang Qiu immediately shook his head and said, “No. This world still needs you. After this infectious disease disappears, you should get out of here and help other people.”
Old Yang waved his hand and said, “No, I won’t. This world belongs to you guys. No matter how skilled I am, the number of people I can save is limited. Besides, I’m disabled now.”
When Old Yang said these words, he pointed to the children who were playing and added, “Now all I want to do is teach them everything I know. I’ve spent the last four decades helping them. I’d like to stay here and teach these kids. I’m hoping that these kids will be able to help others in the future.”
“But, sir, if you’re willing to come out of here, you can teach more people,” said Fang Qiu.
“It’s easy for me to leave the mountain. But if I leave, no one will teach the children here.”
Old Yang smiled and continued, “Even if I don’t leave this village, the people outside will have teachers to teach them. But it’s different here.”
Hearing this, Fang Qiu became silent.
“Let’s go home.”
Old Yang stood up and walked to a room not far away. As he walked, he said, “You are a good person and a good doctor. Come with me. I have something for you.”
Fang Qiu followed him.
They entered the room.
Old Yang walked to the bed and pulled out a book that had turned yellow with some black spots under the bed.
“Cheng Yang got this book from a Miao Doctor when he became a highly-skilled doctor in the village. It was the treasure of the Miao villages.”
Old Yang touched the book with his hand and said, “This book is called Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic. It is the same as other editions of Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic. But it is a little primitive. When I got this book, I heard from the previous generation of Miao Doctors that there was a big secret in this book. But Cheng Yang has never understood it. This book has been here for decades, and it is useless for me to keep it. Today, I want to give it to you.”
After saying these words, Old Yang handed the book to Fang Qiu.
“Thank you, sir,” said Fang Qiu.
Fang Qiu took the book and thanked him. But he found that Old Yang was looking at the children outside the window.
“Originally, I was going to pass this book down to the younger generations in the village, but I’m old, and I don’t know how many years I can keep it. I don’t want this book to be turned into dust after I die,” said Old Yang.
Fang Qiu nodded and said, “I understand.”
Then Fang Qiu looked at the children outside the window, too. He had a mixed feeling.
At night, Old Yang fell asleep.
In the dark, Fang Qiu opened Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic and began to read it carefully.
The records in the book were indeed the same as those of the ordinary Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic. The only difference was that this book looked older.
He then used Absolute Touch!
After reading the whole book, Fang Qiu immediately closed his eyes and carefully touched the pages with his hand.
The moment Fang Qiu took the book, he could tell that this book contained far more things than the one he read in the school library and the one that assisted him in his acupuncture studies.
Fang Qiu, however, did not explore the book’s secret at first out of respect for Old Yang and this ancient book. He carefully read it. He didn’t want to miss anything. He expected to find notes or reminders in the book from the previous owners, but there were none.
“There are words on the pages!”
As soon as he used his Absolute Touch, Fang Qiu immediately felt some words and even some patterns on one of the pages of the book.
He slowly felt those words and patterns with his finger pulps, and those words and patterns emerged in his mind one by one.
“The heaven is the spirit, the earth is the essence, the human beings are the origin, and the medicine is the element. The one who uses the medicine is the pharmacist, and the one who plants herbs is the planter.”
After the terminology, Fang Qiu immediately felt many patterns hidden in the book. They turned out to be a series of ways to cultivate herbs!
They were about how and when to plant the herbs.
There were lots of words and all kinds of methods to cultivate herbs.
“It’s actually about planting herbs?
“Planter?”
Fang Qiu was very surprised.
He didn’t expect that there was such a big secret hidden in this Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic.
With surprise and joy, Fang Qiu continued to touch.
The more he touched the pages, the happier he looked.
The shock in his heart grew stronger and stronger.
The records of planting herbs were very detailed, and there was a detailed description of the effect of each herb. The effect of those herbs was much better than that of the medicine in the market!
These records were priceless!
Fang Qiu was well aware of this.
In this world, it was very difficult to find Genuine Medicine. In order to make more money, almost all pharmaceutical companies were trying various kinds of methods to accelerate the ripening of herbs, like using greenhouses and potions.
They even planted herbs that were not native.
There were an increasing number of herbs on the market, but their efficacy was deteriorating. They didn’t even come close to comparing to the previous herbs. People began to distrust Chinese medicine as a result of the lower efficacy of herbs. The medicines the doctors prescribed were becoming less and less effective for the patients. Initially, the effects of Chinese medicine were slow. Furthermore, the quality of the herbs was insufficient, resulting in a slower efficacy. Thus, Chinese medicine was becoming less and less popular during this time.
However, things would be different with these records in the book.
If Fang Qiu gave the records in the book to Zhao Shanlin, the latter would definitely be able to cultivate more effective Chinese Medicine herbs.
Fang Qiu still remembered one of the three points that Xu Miaolin had told him— herbs hindered the development of traditional Chinese Medicine. Now with the planting techniques recorded in this book, Fang Qiu could continue with the plan he made when he established his company. He could sell quality herbs cultivated by his company in the market and drive out those inferior herbs from other Chinese Medicine manufacturers.
In this way, the business of Chinese Medicine would thrive!
