The most dissolute couple in the capital

In the following days, Li Chengjing was forced to shine in the job of "medicine apprentice," a job that required no skills and severely damaged his handsome image. He would still be hit on the back of his hand with a ruler by Master Qi for picking the wrong herbs, and his eyes would burst into tears from the smoke while brewing medicine. In his heart, he would curse Wang Chengyuan and He Li, those two bastards who were probably drinking and listening to music in Chang'an at that moment, a thousand times over.

But strangely, his resistance had lessened considerably.

Seeing the villagers queuing up every day, Li Chengjing's original "I am the greatest in the world" young master logic was severely impacted. He discovered that most of the elderly farmers who came for treatment suffered from lumbar muscle strain and chronic rheumatism, which were the result of years of toiling in the fields; while the women were often deficient in both qi and blood, pale and thin, and even when they were sick, they couldn't bear to spend a few coins to get a good dose of medicine.

As time went on, Li Chengjing became able to retrieve the corresponding medicinal materials from the box before Elder Qi could even call out the name of the medicine.

Progress, that's what progress is.

"Medicine Boy Brother"

A little girl with two pigtails came running over, holding up half a dark, mushy pancake: "My mom asked me to bring you food! She said you're pretty and work so hard, it's so pitiful!"

Li Chengjing's lips twitched.

Pitiful?

How could a mere country girl describe him as "pitiful" when he was the dignified King of Liang?

But when he looked down at his blistered hands and then at the girl's sincere, shining eyes, he swallowed the words "I don't care" that were on the tip of his tongue.

"...Just put it there."

The little girl shoved the pancake into his hand, then ran off, turning back after a few steps to shout, "Brother Medicine Boy, you're so handsome! Even more handsome than my family's big white goose!"

Lee Seung-kyung: "..."

In his spare time, Li Chengjing's irrepressible urge to mix cosmetics reignited.

He noticed several young girls in the village who often came to help; their hands were red from the cold, and blood was seeping from the cracks, which was really an eyesore.

So, he casually took a small piece of beeswax from the supplies he had brought to Old Qi, and also picked some wild mint that hadn't completely withered and a few cheap herbs that could improve blood circulation. He put them in a mortar and pestle and pounded them vigorously. Finally, he simmered them over a low flame and filtered out the residue.

In less than half an hour, several boxes of simplified "Liang Wang Special Hand Cream" were freshly made.

"Take these and apply them three times a day. Avoid contact with cold water." Li Chengjing tossed several small, rough porcelain boxes to the girls.

The girls happily accepted the medicine, and as soon as they applied it, they felt a cooling sensation that dispelled the stinging pain. The herbal fragrance was even better than the cheap face powder sold in the town's general store. Within a few days, the chilblains on their hands had indeed subsided by more than half.

This caused a complete reversal in Li Chengjing's reputation in the village. The girls started calling him "handsome big brother," which made him feel incredibly accomplished.

Unfortunately, this blissful mood didn't last long.

On the third day at noon, the same shrewish aunt from the previous two days came again.

This time, she didn't dare to throw a tantrum. Instead, her face was ashen: "Dr. Qi, my son Da Niu's fever spiked again last night, even higher than the previous two days. He won't even drink water! Please, please take another look!"

Li Chengjing paused in cutting the medicine, then leaned over to take a look.

Old Qi walked over with a solemn expression, examined Da Niu's eyes, and carefully felt his pulse for a long time. He said in a deep voice, "This shouldn't be... This pulse indicates that although the external pathogens are strong, there is internal heat stagnation. How could ordinary Ephedra and Cinnamon Twig Decoction not suppress it?"

He pondered for a moment, then picked up his pen again and wrote a prescription, handing it to Li Chengjing: "Xiao Jing, go and get the medicine. This time, add Bupleurum and Pinellia, and brew it immediately."

"Understood." Li Chengjing put away his nonchalant expression, grabbed the medicine, and squatted in front of the small red clay stove to start boiling it.

As the water in the medicine pot bubbled and boiled, white steam rose into the air. Li Chengjing casually fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan, when suddenly he caught a very discordant note.

"Something's not right." Li Chengjing leaned closer to the medicine jar and sniffed hard.

Amidst the intensely bitter medicinal aroma, there was an extremely subtle sour, rotten smell. To an ordinary person, this would merely be the earthy scent inherent in herbs, but to His Highness Prince Liang, who could distinguish rose petals from eighteen different origins, this aroma was distinct.

Li Chengjing immediately extinguished the fire and rushed to Elder Qi with the dregs of the medicine: "Elder Qi, there's something wrong with this medicine!"

Old Master Qi was examining the next patient when he heard this and was taken aback: "Don't talk nonsense, I have carefully considered this prescription."

"It's not the prescription that's the problem, it's the herbs!" Without another word, Li Chengjing brought over the several winnowing baskets he had used to prepare the medicine, and shoveled out a few slices of pinellia from them. "Smell this pinellia, doesn't it have a musty smell? Although the processing has masked the smell, it's definitely damp and moldy!"

Old Qi suspiciously took the few pieces of Pinellia ternata and sniffed them for a long time.

The medicine wasn't brought by them; it was sent by the village.

The village's medicinal herbs were stored in extremely poor conditions, simply piled up in a dark and damp warehouse. In addition, Qi was old and his sense of smell was far less acute than Li Chengjing's.

"It seems to have a slightly off-taste." Old Qi frowned, but hesitated. "But in the countryside, it's common for medicinal herbs to get a little damp. As long as the medicinal properties aren't lost, it's not a problem. This Pinellia ternata is precious; if we throw it all away, the village won't have the money to replace it..."

"What does it matter if we don't have money? I'll make up the difference. How can we skimp on life-saving medicine? That kid was already half-dead from the fever!"

Old Qi was taken aback by his shout: "But now there's only this much Pinellia left."

"I have a way." Li Chengjing snorted coldly, turned around and strode to a box of personal belongings he had brought, and pulled out an exquisite oil paper package.

Those were top-grade medicinal herbs that Cui Qingyi specially prepared for him in case he was not used to the local environment in the countryside.

Without any hesitation, he grabbed a handful of top-quality Pinellia ternata, brewed another pot of medicine, and personally served it to the old woman: "Feed him this. If his fever doesn't break by tonight, I... I'll twist my head off and use it as a chamber pot!"

The woman was so frightened by his fierce expression that she nodded repeatedly and thanked him profusely as she fed the child the medicine.

That night, miraculously, Da Niu broke out in a sweat, and his high fever completely subsided.

When it was late at night, Old Master Qi called Li Chengjing to the backyard.

"Unauthorized replacement of medicinal herbs is a serious offense. If something really goes wrong, can you bear the responsibility?" Boss Qi said sternly, his face grim.

Li Chengjing rolled his eyes, slumped back in the armchair, and instinctively tried to cross his legs, but then realized he was wearing coarse cloth shorts and had to give up. "Old Qi, don't play the strict teacher with me. Everything turned out fine, didn't it? I even used my own top-grade private medicine to make up for it, and I didn't complain about losing out!"

Old Qi looked at the carefree prince in front of him, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.

Although this kid is bad at studying and has a terrible temper, his talent for smell, coupled with his respect for human life, already qualifies him to practice medicine.

"How did you become so certain today that there was something wrong with that Pinellia ternata?" Old Qi sighed, his tone softening.

Li Chengjing sneered, pulled out several cloth bags from his sleeve, and slammed them on the table with a "thud".

"It's not just the Pinellia ternata from Da Niu's family. I had nothing to do tonight, so I went to the village chief's storeroom and looked through the medicinal dregs that Li Er's and Wang San's families had collected before."

Li Chengjing's eyes flashed coldly: "Not only Pinellia ternata, but also dried tangerine peel, Saposhnikovia divaricata... all of them are inferior goods, damp and moldy. Old Qi, are the medicinal herbs in this village improperly stored, or were there problems with them from the moment they were purchased?"

Old Qi's expression changed drastically.

"They're using moldy, substandard medicine instead of good medicine, but charging the price of good medicine. No wonder six children in the village have been suffering from persistent colds for the past two weeks. This isn't a natural disaster; it's clearly someone taking kickbacks on the medicinal herbs, so much so that even their conscience has been devoured by dogs!"