Chapter 41 - 28: Taking Jingqi Out (3)
Jie Jingchen pushed Jie Jingshan’s wheelchair ahead of them while Qin Mei followed behind, looking around in awe, filled with emotion.
If she hadn’t traveled back in time from a later era, she would have found it hard to imagine Huaxia’s soaring future development.
At the same time, Qin Mei silently memorized the route so she wouldn’t get lost the next time she went out.
Just as Qin Mei had expected, Jie Jingchen took her to a state-run traditional Chinese medicine shop. Only two customers were waiting inside, and behind the counter, a pharmacist was weighing herbs on a traditional scale.
When it was Qin Mei’s turn, she took a prescription out of her small crossbody bag and gave it to the pharmacist.
The pharmacist glanced at it, then turned to fill the prescription.
Once the herbs were ready, Qin Mei handed the pharmacist another prescription.
The pharmacist looked at it, his eyes wide with shock. "You..."
"You don’t have any of them?" Qin Mei asked with a smile.
The pharmacist, stunned, stared at Qin Mei with suspicion and asked an unrelated question. "Comrade, who wrote this prescription for you?"
"My grandpa," Qin Mei answered with a sweet smile. She knew he wouldn’t believe someone her age could have written it. To avoid trouble, she lied and said it was her grandpa, which he should find more plausible.
’Grandpa?’ Jie Jingchen’s eye twitched. ’She lies so effortlessly.’
Qin Xiang had told him a lot about the Qin family. Grandpa Qin had passed away long ago. Besides, the Qin family was not a family of traditional Chinese doctors.
Hearing her answer, the pharmacist was less shocked. He said, "There are two herbs here that we don’t have in the shop."
"That’s fine. Just give me what you have. I’ll get the rest elsewhere," Qin Mei said with a gentle smile. This was better than she had expected.
The pharmacist let out a cold laugh. "Comrade, I can guarantee that if we don’t have an herb, no other pharmacy will either."
Qin Mei smiled but said nothing. ’If I can’t buy them in a shop, I’ll go find them in the mountains.’
Seeing this, the pharmacist said no more and simply filled the rest of the prescription.
The several packets of herbs were quite expensive. Even Jie Jingchen was surprised when he paid. Qin Mei didn’t think about the price; she never did when it came to medicine.
After leaving the pharmacy, Jie Jingchen asked, "Which two herbs are missing?"
"You wouldn’t know them even if I told you," Qin Mei said, glancing around and secretly memorizing the pharmacy’s location.
Seeing that she was unwilling to say, Jie Jingchen didn’t press her. "Where to now?"
"The black market," Qin Mei blurted out.
Jie Jingchen’s face darkened. Jie Jingshan also looked worried, her eyes darting around nervously as she whispered a warning, "Fourth Sister-in-law, be careful what you say."
"Is it that serious? It’s not like I’m going there for illegal speculation and profiteering." Qin Mei felt no remorse. Instead, she faced Jie Jingchen and asked, "What’s more important: your principles and stance, or treating your sister’s legs?"
Jie Jingchen stared at her and asked in a cold voice, "You think they’ll have them at the black market?"
"Maybe, maybe not. It’s not certain. We can try our luck. If we get lucky and they have them, we won’t need to go to the countryside and risk searching in mountains where we don’t know the terrain," Qin Mei said.
She wasn’t familiar with the local terrain, especially in the city. It would be easier in the countryside, like at Dazhuang Village. Although she had never been in the mountains there, her intuition told her they held many valuable treasures.
The villagers in Dazhuang Village were mostly conservative. The few opportunists among them only went into the mountains to hunt and wouldn’t think of looking for medicinal herbs. Besides, they only recognized common herbs and treated any they didn’t know as weeds.
"Let’s go to the hospital first," Jie Jingchen said, persuaded by Qin Mei.
"You think the hospital has them?" Qin Mei asked. If she could get them through official channels, that would be fine too. The hospital, the black market—it didn’t matter, as long as she could get the herbs.
"Mom works at the hospital." Jie Jingchen paused, then added, "Everyone needs to work together to treat Jing Qi’s legs. If Mom can get them, we’ll let her handle it. If she can’t, then we’ll try our luck at the black market."
"No problem," Qin Mei said, raising both hands in agreement. "It wouldn’t be convenient to push Jing Qi to the black market anyway. Leaving her with Mom at the hospital is better than taking her with us."
Jie Jingchen said nothing. That was exactly what he meant, he just hadn’t said it so bluntly. Qin Mei, however, had spelled it out directly.
The pharmacy was right next to the hospital. Just as they pushed Jing Qi into the department where Mrs. Xie worked, one of her colleagues saw them. Spotting them pushing Jing Qi toward the hospital, the colleague turned and ran toward Mrs. Xie’s office.
"Director, bad news! Something’s happened to your daughter!" she yelled as she ran.
Qin Mei stopped in her tracks, utterly bewildered.
’What is going on?’
"What happened to Jing Qi?" Mrs. Xie rushed out of her office frantically, her face full of worry. She nearly stumbled when she finally reached them.
"Mom, calm down. Jing Qi is fine," Jie Jingchen said, steadying Mrs. Xie by her shoulders.
"Mom, nothing happened to me," Jie Jingshan, in her wheelchair, also chimed in to reassure her.
Mrs. Xie pushed Jie Jingchen aside and crouched in front of Jie Jingshan. She cupped her daughter’s face with trembling hands, then checked her all over. Only after confirming that she was okay did Mrs. Xie breathe a sigh of relief. "What’s going on?"
"Mom, Fourth Brother and Fourth Sister-in-law brought me out to buy medicine," Jie Jingshan said.
"Buy medicine?" Worry clouded Mrs. Xie’s lovely eyes again as she asked with urgent concern, "Are you sick?"
"No, I’m not sick..."
"Then who’s sick?" Mrs. Xie cut Jie Jingshan off, looking up at Jie Jingchen and Qin Mei. They didn’t look sick either.
"Mom, it’s not about being sick. Fourth Sister-in-law is going to treat my legs. We came out to get the herbs," Jie Jingshan explained.
’Treat her legs? Get herbs?’ Qin Mei had indeed mentioned it after dinner last night.
Mrs. Xie simply hadn’t expected Qin Mei to be such a woman of action. She had only mentioned it last night, and today she was already on the move, even bringing Jie Jingshan out with her...
Wait a minute. It was only then that Mrs. Xie noticed the change in her daughter. The once gloomy girl now seemed as lively and cheerful as she was before the accident. The once-insecure girl now looked much more confident.
More importantly, her daughter had previously been unwilling to even leave her own room, let alone go outside.
For four years, she had barely left the house except for her leg treatments.
Today, her daughter was also talking more.
Mrs. Xie stood up, her gaze on Qin Mei a complex mix of emotions. She knew perfectly well that her daughter’s sudden transformation was inextricably linked to Qin Mei, and she knew why Qin Mei had been able to change her daughter.
While she felt grateful and relieved, she couldn’t help but also feel a little worried.
She was truly afraid of her daughter once again having to endure devastating disappointment after getting her hopes up.
"Qin Mei," Mrs. Xie began, her voice pained. With her daughter present, there were some questions she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
"Mom, we couldn’t get two of the herbs. Could you see if there’s a way?" Qin Mei smiled and handed the prescription to Mrs. Xie.
Mrs. Xie’s eyes flickered. She hesitated for a few seconds before taking the prescription from Qin Mei’s hand. Looking at the marked items, she saw which two herbs they were, and a trace of surprise flashed through her eyes.
Her specialty was Western medicine, not Chinese medicine. She didn’t know many Chinese herbs, but as it happened, she knew these two.
"Does the hospital have them?" Qin Mei asked.
Mrs. Xie shook her head. "No."
A flash of disappointment crossed Qin Mei’s almond-shaped eyes, but then she smiled. "That’s okay. I’ll find another way."
"These two herbs are very expensive," Mrs. Xie said.
Jie Jingchen was shocked. If even his mom said something was expensive, it must be outrageously so.
He secretly felt his pocket. He had brought money, but he hadn’t expected a few prescriptions to be so costly. Now his mom was saying the two missing herbs were also very expensive. If they tried their luck at the black market, even if they were lucky enough to find them, Jie Jingchen wasn’t sure if he had enough money left to buy them.
"They are very expensive," Qin Mei nodded. In the future, these two herbs would sell for astronomical prices, so rare that money couldn’t buy them.
"However..." Mrs. Xie’s tone shifted. She looked at Qin Mei and smiled elegantly. "I know where to buy them."
"Really?" Qin Mei was very surprised. ’Coming to the hospital first really did bring an unexpected reward. If my mother-in-law takes on the task of getting these two herbs, I can start preparing for the next steps.’
"Of course," Mrs. Xie said, her voice full of confidence and pride.
"Mom, you’re amazing," Qin Mei praised without hesitation.