After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

Dr. Wang and Liu Fen's hasty escape became the biggest source of amusement in Heishan Village for the next few days.

But jokes can't fill an empty stomach.

The cracks at the bottom of the Ye family's rice jar are now clearly visible.

Ye Guoliang squatted on the doorstep, puffing on his pipe one after another. In the swirling smoke, his weathered face looked even more sorrowful. Several times he wanted to say something to his daughter, but the words caught in his throat, and in the end, only a heavy sigh remained.

Guilt was like a mountain, weighing him down so he couldn't lift his head.

Ye Zhen is changing Ye Cheng's dressing.

She removed the old gauze and carefully examined the wound. More pink granulation tissue had grown, the recovery speed was astonishing.

She felt no joy.

A successful surgery is only the first step. Subsequent nutrition and infection control are crucial in determining whether the leg can be completely saved.

It's absolutely impossible to rely on rice water and wild vegetables.

"I'm going into the mountains," Ye Zhen announced calmly, tossing the used gauze into a basin.

"Going again?!" Li Cuifang immediately tensed up. "It's not safe in the mountains, and besides, we still have enough herbs at home..."

"I'm not going to gather herbs," Ye Zhen interrupted her, raising her eyes with a clear and firm gaze. "I'm going to make money."

She knew perfectly well that the herbal remedies and acupuncture she had used last time were merely an emergency measure based on her knowledge of the anti-inflammatory properties of plants and human neurology—a measure taken without adequate resources. True modern medicine, on the other hand, is all about spending money.

Ye Guoliang suddenly stood up, tapping his pipe on the sole of his shoe: "Damn! I'll go to the commune to carry heavy loads; I can earn eighty cents a day!"

"Can your back handle it?" Ye Zhen retorted immediately. "Stay home and look after my brother. I'll be right back."

She didn't give her parents another chance to object; she shouldered the tattered bamboo basket and turned to leave.

His back view was crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

Looking at her daughter's thin back, Li Cuifang's eyes reddened again, and she murmured, "This child, why is she so stubborn..."

Ye Guoliang didn't speak, but just stared at the empty door. After a long while, he whispered, "Our family has hope."

Upon re-entering the Black Mountain, Ye Zhen's goal was clear.

She didn't linger at the foot of the mountain, but went straight into the deeper, damper forest. In this day and age, treasures are everywhere, but few people know their value.

She stopped in a patch of decaying fallen logs, the air thick with the distinctive smell of soil and fungi.

Soon, her gaze settled on an inconspicuous piece of dead wood.

On it, there was a small cluster of dark brown, fungus-like things, but the surface was covered with a layer of fine white mycelium, and the shape was somewhat like a cicada.

Even if the villagers saw it, they would only regard it as an inedible wild mushroom and disregard it.

Ye Zhen's eyes lit up.

Cicada flower, a precious fungal medicinal herb, has been proven in later generations to contain abundant active ingredients and has remarkable effects on certain intractable diseases. However, it has extremely demanding requirements for its growing environment and a very short harvesting period; once the mycelium ages, its value is greatly reduced.

This cluster in front of us is at its best quality.

She carefully peeled off the entire cluster of cicada flowers along with a small piece of bark, wrapped it in a clean cloth, and solemnly placed it at the bottom of the bamboo basket.

With this, you'll have enough start-up capital.

It takes more than 20 miles of mountain road to get from Heishan Village to the county seat.

Ye Zhen set off before dawn and finally arrived at the entrance of the state-run pharmacy in the county town before noon.

Inside the pharmacy, an elderly pharmacist, dressed in a Zhongshan suit and wearing reading glasses, was reclining in a chair, listening to a storytelling performance on the radio, looking relaxed and content.

Seeing Ye Zhen enter, he merely lifted his eyelids, his voice languid: "Little girl, what would you like to buy? Safflower oil or licorice tablets?"

"I'm not buying medicine." Ye Zhen put down her basket, took out the cloth bag from it, and opened it layer by layer. "I'm selling medicine."

The old pharmacist glanced at the dark, unsightly thing and waved his hand impatiently: "No, no, what kind of weird wild mushrooms are these? Be careful they don't kill you. Go away, don't interrupt my storytelling."

Ye Zhen wasn't annoyed; she simply spoke calmly.

"Cicada flower belongs to the Cordyceps fungus family. Its main active ingredients are cicada nystatin and pentostatin, which have sedative, anticonvulsant, and renal function-improving effects."

Her voice was cool and clear, and she spoke a string of unheard-of professional terms with an unquestionable sense of authority.

"This one has plump mycelium, the spores haven't fully dispersed yet, and the stroma is between four and five centimeters long, making it a top-grade product. Look at the wood of the base; it's oak, which is of better quality than wood grown on ordinary miscellaneous wood. If you take it to a pharmaceutical company in the provincial capital, the purchase price won't be less than fifty yuan per ounce."

"..."

The storyteller's voice was still playing on the radio.

The old pharmacist seemed to have been put on pause, his entire body frozen in the recliner.

He slowly, very slowly, sat up straight, adjusted his reading glasses, and his eyes went from languid to shocked, and then from shocked to incredulous fervor.

He snatched the cicada flower, brought it close to his eyes, took out a magnifying glass, and examined it from all angles, muttering to himself, "That's right... it's a cicada flower... this is exactly what it looks like in the 'Supplement to the Illustrated Handbook of Medicinal Plants'... Good heavens, I've been a pharmacist for thirty years, and I've only ever seen it in books..."

He abruptly raised his head, staring at Ye Zhen as if she were a monster: "You...you little girl, how do you know all this? What...what antibiotics?"

Ye Zhen said calmly, "I read it in a book."

Ghost letter!

The old pharmacist roared inwardly. He had read more books than this young girl had eaten salt, but he had never seen anyone explain the chemical composition of medicinal herbs so clearly!

This isn't some country bumpkin; she's clearly a seasoned expert who escaped from some medical school!

His attitude made a complete 180-degree turn, his face was full of enthusiastic smiles, and he even personally poured Ye Zhen a glass of water.

"Young comrade! No, young expert! Don't leave! Our pharmacy will buy these cicada flowers! The price is negotiable!" He rubbed his hands together, his face full of excitement. "Fifty yuan per tael is the provincial price. Our county is small, we can't afford that much... but forty yuan! I'll make the decision, forty yuan per tael, what do you say?"

One or two ounces cost forty yuan!

In an era when workers' monthly wages were generally only twenty or thirty yuan, this was an absolute fortune!

Ye Zhen did a quick mental calculation and estimated that this cluster weighed about two ounces.

She nodded. "Okay. Also, I need a few things."

She walked to the counter, picked up a pen and paper, and quickly wrote down a form.

"Crude penicillin injection, saline solution, 5% glucose, vitamin C tablets, and the best high-protein malted milk powder."

The experienced pharmacist looked at the list, growing increasingly alarmed. Aside from malted milk powder, these were things ordinary people would never buy, especially penicillin, a controlled substance requiring a doctor's prescription.

He didn't ask any further questions, assuming it was just for the "little expert's" own use.

"No problem! I'll charge you the cost price!"

After tallying the transactions, Ye Zhen walked out of the pharmacy with her basket filled with heavy supplies and her remaining sixty-five yuan and a stack of cloth and grain coupons in her arms.

With these, my brother's life is safe.

She exhaled a breath of relief, feeling much lighter, and turned into the supply and marketing cooperative, intending to buy some more flour and meat to give her family a good meal.

Just as she passed the bulletin board at the entrance of the county government, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

On the bulletin board, a notice written with a calligraphy brush stands out.

The notice reads: "We are seeking an unnamed heroine who treated a seriously wounded officer of our unit in the Black Mountain region. She is approximately twenty years old, possesses exceptional medical skills, and carries surgical instruments… Anyone with information is urged to contact the county armed forces department immediately. A generous reward will be offered by the military region."

The signature reads: Unit 761 of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Ye Zhen's heart skipped a beat.

She subconsciously touched Gu Zheng's wallet in her pocket.

A generous reward?

They'd probably find her, arrest her as a thief taking advantage of the chaos, and then "reward" her with a peanut, right?

Ye Zhen's face paled. She pulled down her straw hat, lowered the brim, and turned to quickly blend into the crowd, as if a raging flood was chasing her.

Run! We must leave the county town immediately!