Chapter 220 - Ginseng

Sadly Wang Ming didn't have many medicinal herbs at his home, most is only normal ingredients he uses in his cooking. They are 'healthy' ingredients that supply the body with vitamins and minerals. The only proper medicinal herb he had in his home is ginger.

Hopefully, he could get his hands on ginseng, dong quai, rhubarb, ling zhi ect. He needed something that could replenish life energy. Even though ginger could in the theory work, a ginseng is much more effective in replenishing energy.

Since Aunt Fu's injured, her body uses a lot of energy to heal her body. The more energy she has, the faster the healing process can be. His only problem was the clock, how could he get a ginseng at night. Even if he went to a herb shop now, most likely, it would be closed.

Wang Ming only had two options: To go to a herb shop and hope they're open, the other one is to call someone who most likely has access to expensive medicinal herbs. Even a blind man would know which direction to go to. He called Meng Hao. To this brother of his, Wang Ming felt guilt every time he thinks about him.

Meng Hao has done so much for him, from letting him rent the restaurant to sending a police force to the warehouse to rescue him. He also introduced him to a new family, Uncle Hou and Uncle Fu, who have been so nice to him. He had done nothing for Meng Hao than just to leech from him. Though this served as a big motivation for him to get stronger, richer and more powerful, that's the only way he would ever repay Meng Hao.

"Hello Meng Hao?"

Meng Hao didn't think that Wang Ming would call him so late. At first he wanted to tell him all about his grievances. Wang Ming had promised him last time to take care of himself to call, he hadn't held his promise. But right before he was about to w.h.i.n.e like a little girl, Meng Hao caught himself. He didn't know how Wang Ming would act if he knew Meng Hao's guy and his crush is him. He didn't want Wang Ming to judge and alienate him. He would still have to act until he gets enough courage to confront his feelings.

Acting like a caring brother, Meng Hao said. "Why are you calling me so late, do you want to do something today?" Wang Ming didn't know why, but when Meng Hao emphasized the word do. He felt a bit violated. "I need a favor again, little brother. Do you have or know someone that could get me ginsengs right now?"

"Only that? I thought you wanted something more difficult. You probably don't know, but my father's a versatile businessman he owns a lot of different shops including a herbal shop. We have tons of ginsengs. Let me get someone to send you a few kgs of wild ginseng. Sadly, I can't send you the 100 years old ones, the old man would kill me if I did. I hope that's good enough for you." Meng Hao sounded guilty when he said he couldn't send him the better ginsengs.

Wang Ming felt grateful that Meng Hao could get him ginsengs in such a brief notice, it's him that should be guilty and shameful, not Meng Hao. "Little brother, thank you. It's more than enough. I don't need that much, just a few hundred grams is enough. I don't want you to lose money."

"But.." Meng Hao tried to talk, but Wang Ming cut him off. "It's fine, just listen to your big brother. I appreciate everything you've done for me, I'll square it up sometimes. By the way I'm going to take part in the Pinnacle chefs competition in a few days, I hope you can come to cheer me on."

"Of course I'll come. I know how harsh the competition can be, Big brother, but I believe in you!"

Meng Hao's the only one so far that has truly believed in his skills to win the competition, even Wang Ming himself didn't believe that he could win. It felt amazing to have someone believe in him unconditionally, but it also made Wang Ming think if not Meng Hao regards him a bit too high. "Thank you, Little Brother remember to come and watch me. Let's talk another time."

Even though Meng Hao wanted to talk more and to catch up, he also had a lot to do. Ever since the launch of his company, there had been just too much to do. He barely has time to eat many days, though now he had something to look forward to. Only a few more days, he thought.

Waiting around another 30 minutes, Wang Ming heard someone knock on his door. A person who he assumed worked for Meng Hao's father was sweaty, huffing and puffing in front of his house. Even though he had told Meng Hao that he needs it as soon as possible, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the man.

After catching his breath, the man who looked a few years older than Wang Ming said. "Hello sir, my name is Hung Ba. I'm the manager of Meng's Herbs, on the order of Young Master Meng, I'm here to deliver 2 kgs of ginseng. Are you Wang Ming?"

"That's me." Wang Ming said. Hung Ba didn't confirm Wang Ming's identity or anything, before he could even do anything. Hung Ba put the box that contained the ginseng in Wang Ming's hands and ran off, like he was afraid that Wang Ming would fault him for something.

Looking inside the box, Wang Ming saw there was indeed ginseng inside. Seeing him run off like that made Wang Ming think that maybe he had done something wrong, that's why he ran. But the ginseng looked normal.

Having the ginseng in hand made Wang Ming excited, even though wild ginseng isn't incredibly expensive for his current net worth, many years back when his father was still rich. His father paid roughly 12 thousand yuan for 2kgs of ginseng. The price increase each year, so it wouldn't be weird for the price to be 15-20 thousand per kg now.

Placing the box carefully on the kitchen table, Wang Ming inspected the ginseng again carefully. Even though the ginseng came from Meng Hao's shop, he still had to be careful to check the authenticity of the ginseng. He had heard a few cases of people getting sick from eating fake ginseng, though most only lose money as the fake ginseng doesn't hurt them.

The most important aspect of determining if a ginseng is real or not, is of course to check if it has a certificate or not, but not all real wild ginseng have it. As it depends on what shop and in which part of China they originate from. But you can also tell if the ginseng is real by looking at its shape and color.

The color should be a mix of white and brown, while the shape should like a thin hand with fingers which are its roots. Looking further at the ginsengs, Wang Ming believed the ginsengs are real. The only problem he had with them is that they aren't wild ginsengs but cultivated ones. He could tell because all five ginsengs looked almost identical in both lengths, thickness and how their roots looked.

Sadly cultivated ginseng isn't as good as wild ginseng, as wild ginsengs are not only older, but they have a better effect than cultivated ones as they live in much harsher conditions than cultivated ginseng, which gives them more nutrition than their cultivated counterpart. But at least they aren't fake ginseng. He could still get a beneficial effect from these ginsengs.

Of course he would tell Meng Hao about this, when he meets him at the competition. Hopefully Hung Ba had nothing to do with this, or else he would be in for a bad time.

Having the ginsengs in hand, Wang Ming then stumbled upon another problem. How would he extract all the nutrients from the ginseng and then infuse it into the sauce? He couldn't just put the whole ginseng into the soy sauce, as the ginseng just tastes too bitter, it would totally ruin the sauce.

He needed to extract the medicinal attributes of the ginseng without getting the bitter taste. Wang Ming thought of a few ways to make it happen. The first one is to boil the ginseng, but the problem with this is that boiling the ginseng would only get roughly 50% of the nutrients at most of the ginseng.

Luckily, another idea came to his mind. He could crush the ginseng into small bits, then boil it in water, which would give the water a better chance to absorb all the nutrients. He would then on a low heat, heat away most of the water, leaving only a few milliliters of nutrient rich water. He didn't know if it would extract all 100% nutrients of the ginseng, but Wang Ming believed this would be a much better approach.