Start with a photographic memory and build a memory palace

Chapter 13 Alchemy

……

the next day.

After getting up, Wu Wen discovered that Master Zhu Jiu had gotten up early and was sitting in front of the stove in the kitchen cooking something.

He went forward to take a look, and saw that what was being boiled in the pot was the tiger bones that Zhou Da Kui had brought yesterday.

"Don't do anything for the next two days. Just follow me and watch carefully to learn how tiger bone paste is made."

Seeing Wu Wen standing beside him, Master Zhu Jiu added dry firewood to the stove and spoke softly.

"Yeah!" Wu Wen nodded in response and stood aside to watch.

"This tiger bone paste has the effect of strengthening tendons and bones and increasing strength. In many famous families and military generals' homes, they let their disciples take tiger bone paste from a young age, so these people have been stronger than ordinary people since childhood."

Master Zhu Jiu slowly explained the effects of tiger bone paste, and then began to explain in detail how to make it.

The first is the secret recipe. To make tiger bone paste, the main ingredient is tiger bone, and the auxiliary ingredients include ginseng, astragalus, ganoderma lucidum, dog spine and other precious medicinal materials.

The medicinal materials used in this pot of tiger bone paste almost exhausted all of Master Zhu Jiu's collection over the years.

The second thing is the ratio of ingredients, which must be strictly followed. Even the slightest mistake will lead to a significant reduction in the medicinal properties.

Then comes the order of adding herbs, controlling the heat and other requirements during the cooking process.

Wu Wen listened carefully to Master Zhu Jiu's teachings and wrote down every word he said.

Suddenly, Master Zhu Jiu smiled and said to Wu Wen with pride: "The tiger bone paste I made is different from others. I added two more herbs to it, which not only greatly enhanced its efficacy, but also made its medicinal properties more potent.

Therefore, when taking this tiger bone paste, you need to use it together with another medicine to moderate its medicinal properties and relieve its effects. "

"What medicine should be used in combination?" Wu Wen asked curiously.

However, Master Zhu Jiu just smiled slightly and did not answer.

Afterwards, he used tiger bone paste as an example to explain to Wu Wen what the monarch, minister, assistant and envoy meant.

In traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions, the drug that plays the main role is called the monarch, the one that plays an auxiliary role is called the minister, the one that treats concurrent symptoms and eliminates the side effects of the main drug is called the adjuvant, and the one that leads the drug directly to the lesion is called the messenger.

In Wu Wen's opinion, the so-called monarch, minister, assistant and envoy is actually the exquisite logic of the mutual coordination and interaction between drugs.

In traditional Chinese medicine, everything can be used as medicine.

The monarch, minister, assistant and envoy in traditional Chinese medicine, in a small sense, are a combination of medicines, but in a broad sense, they are the logical relationship of interaction between all things.

From day to night.

Master Zhu Jiu was very careful in controlling the heat, and he kept adding water and various medicinal materials into the pot.

Wu Wen stayed with him in front of the stove to boil the tiger bone paste, not daring to relax for a moment.

Another night passed.

As the sun rose, Master Zhu Jiu looked up at the sun in the sky and stretched out his palms, as if he was feeling the warm sunshine and the vitality in the air.

"Remember, the timing of drug development is also critical."

"It must be accompanied by the rising of the sun before the fire can be slowly extinguished. Only when the sun rises high in the sky can the tiger bone paste be considered truly cooked."

Upon hearing this request, Wu Wen was startled, thinking to himself, this is not the production of blue and white porcelain. If he wants the sky blue color to wait for the rain, why does he need such a particular timing?

Master Zhu Jiu pulled out the firewood from the stove one by one, and used the residual heat to put the finishing touches on the tiger bone paste in the pot.

He didn't lift the lid of the pot until the sun was at its highest point in the sky.

I saw that the pot, which was originally full of medicine, had now condensed into a palm-sized piece of dark brown sticky paste.

Master Zhu Jiu pointed at the tiger bone paste in the pot and explained to Wu Wen: "To judge whether this paste is cooked well, first, you have to smell its fragrance, second, you have to look at its shape, third, you have to observe its color, and fourth, you have to taste its flavor."

As he spoke, he stretched out a finger and gently picked up a little tiger bone paste from the pot.

Put it in front of your nose and smell it first.

"The medicinal fragrance is refreshing." Then he turned his finger over and watched the sticky tiger bone paste slowly condense, as if it was about to form a drop of water and drip down.

"The medicine shape is condensed."

Then hold your finger above your head and observe its color through the sunlight.

"The color is like amber."

Finally, put your fingers into your mouth and savor it slowly.

“The medicinal taste is pure.”

"Did you see that?" Master Zhu Jiu said to Wu Wen, "This means that the pot of tiger bone paste is ready."

Wu Wen nodded seriously, keeping everything that Jiu Ye said in mind.

Take the boiled tiger bone paste out of the pot and place it on a wooden plate that has been prepared.

Then he took two wooden boards with arc-shaped grooves, put the tiger bone paste in them, and rubbed the two wooden boards against each other to make the tiger bone paste into pills.

Then seal it with beeswax and put it in a porcelain bottle.

There are exactly three bottles, with a total of eighteen pills.

Master Zhu Jiu took out a bottle and said, "This is for the Zhou family."

Then he handed the remaining two bottles to Wu Wen.

"These two bottles are for you to take."

"Give it to me?" Wu Wen looked at the two bottles of tiger bone ointment in his hand, feeling surprised and moved.

He watched the entire process of making the tiger bone paste from beginning to end. Not only was the process complicated, but the material cost was also very high.

"Yes!" Master Zhu Jiu nodded seriously.

"Take out one pill every day, dissolve it in warm water and drink it. Within a month, you will be able to gain at least 20 kilograms of strength!"

Twenty pounds! Hearing that the medicine was so effective, Wu Wen was moved again.

He had only heard of drugs like steroids having this effect before.

But compared with tiger bone ointment, those medicines with various side effects are simply not worth mentioning and can be thrown directly into the trash can.

Taking tiger bone paste can not only increase strength, but also has no side effects. It can also strengthen muscles and bones, making people healthy and strong.

Suddenly, Wu Wen thought of a question: "Master Jiu, you said before that the tiger bone ointment you made needs to be used with another medicine. What is that medicine?"

"You don't need to ask more questions. I have already added it in." Master Zhu Jiu replied calmly.

Added it? Wu Wen instantly fell into deep thought. Thinking back carefully, he had seen the whole process of Jiu Ye making the medicine, but he really couldn't find out when the other party added it, so he didn't know what he added!
"You've been tired for a whole day and night, go and rest first!"

Watching Jiu Ye return to the room, Wu Wen, puzzled, stood there for a while before returning to his room with the medicine.

Lying in bed.

Just like watching a movie, the entire process of refining the medicine appeared in his mind.

The scene in the courtyard is still vivid in my mind.

Master Jiu sat in front of the stove, concentrating on making the tiger bone paste.

Starting with the formula, Wu Wen uses the logical relationship between monarch, minister, assistant and envoy to clarify the effects of various medicines in the formula.

Then analyze Master Zhu Jiu's refining process one by one.

Various drugs were mixed together. Although he didn't know what reactions occurred during the process, he could analyze the prerequisites, process and results.

Just like a butcher cutting up an ox, the method of refining tiger bone paste is disassembled and analyzed step by step.

……

(End of this chapter)