Chapter 181

The doctor walked out and said, “Since we all know each other, please come in and have a seat! This Qin won’t come to you if he hasn’t something to ask of you. I haven’t seen him for a long time.”

Qin Shuwu glanced at the doctor and said, “Who will come to the hospital if he is well!”

The doctor also retorted, “Who says that one can’t come to the hospital if he is well! According to what you said, can’t a doctor have friends?”

The two of them were probably enemies. Xu Ran saw that the situation was heating up, so he took up the role of the peacemaker immediately, “Doctor, Brother Qin, since you haven’t seen each other for a long time, shouldn’t you sit down and have a nice chat peacefully? Didn’t you miss each other?”

After Xu Ran asked this question, he got two eye-rollings and two snorts at the same time.

“Humph, who would miss him!”

They even said the same thing.

Xu Ran threw up his hands, hinting that since you two had a tacit understanding, why would you keep on acting this way.

Xu Ran stared carefully at the doctor and found that although he had a long beard, he didn’t seem old. He might be at the same age as Qin Shuwu. It seemed that he grew a beard as a cover-up!

Without Xu Ran chiming in, the two of them started to bicker again. All kinds of trifles and old memories were mentioned.

Xu Ran stood aside helplessly and watched them. Actually, these two’s ages added up to 80 or 90 years old! It was really childish of them to do so.

However, the two of them had completely forgotten about their business. When they talked their mouths dry and wanted to drink water, Xu Ran finally found a chance to chime in.

“Brother Qin, what herbs did you buy before? Let’s see if the doctor has the ones you didn’t get. It’s getting late now, and I have to go home and do farm work.”

It was now that Qin Shuwu remembered why he was here, so he took out a piece of paper and handed it to the doctor, “Old He, have a look and tell me if you still have these kinds of herbs on the paper. I buy them for Xu Ran. Don’t fool me.”

Only then did Xu Ran know that the doctor’s surname was He. Hearing Qin Shuwu’s words, Xu Ran chipped in at once, “Please, Dr. He.”

Dr. He had initially thought that Qin Shuwu was annoying, so he didn’t want to sell herbs to him. However, it was actually Xu Ran who wanted to buy them. Now that five jins of herbs had been sold, Dr. He was not afraid that his herbs would be unsalable later.

Dr. He stood up and said, “Alright, I’ll look for them for the sake of you. But I’m telling you, you are so lucky. I just got my latest batch of herbs.”

Xu Ran laughed, “Thank you, Dr. He.”

Dr. He waved his hand. “Never mind. It’s not like you won’t pay me. Speaking of this, Qin, the herbs your clerk is carrying are bought from somewhere else by you, right? I’m telling you, Qin, you just wait and see. Since you buy herbs from others, see if I’ll buy fruits from you in the future!”

As soon as Xu Ran heard this, he knew that they were going to rake up the past. Although things turned out this way because Qin Shuwu had bought the herbs for him, instinct told Xu Ran he wouldn’t want to get involved. Once it got started, no one would know how long it would take them to stop. Xu Ran really wanted to go home.

So Xu Ran winked madly at Qin Shuwu.

Qin Shuwu saw it. He glanced at Dr. He and didn’t talk back but only said, “Go get your herbs! If I knew that you had everything here, why would I go somewhere else? I’m not stupid.”

Dr. He seemed quite satisfied with what he said, so he didn’t go after Qin Shuwu and focused on getting his herbs.

Xu Ran leaned closer to Qin Shuwu to thank him. Qin Shuwu gave him a look, meaning- ‘I will remember this. You will repay me in the future!’

Xu Ran touched his own chest. How could he get rid of this strong sense of guilt?

After getting the herbs, Xu Ran paid for them. Qin Shuwu bickered with Dr. He again before leaving.

Dr. He might have charged Xu Ran at a discount price. The herbs that Xu Ran had bought here weighed about 20 to 30 jins in total, but the price was the same as that of 10 jins from someone else. What’s more, Qin Shuwu had said that Dr. He charged Xu Ran this price for his sake. Xu Ran found himself speechless. It was a huge price spread.

The poor couldn’t afford seeing a doctor. This was something that had been passed down since ancient times.

On their way back, Xu Ran mentioned the wooden shelf to Qin Shuwu again. Xu Ran said, “Brother Qin, here’s my idea. I will just engrave the names of these dishes directly in this wooden shelf, and then dye them, like what they do with Chinese chess. It will be conspicuous and attract people’s attention for sure.”

Qin Shuwu nodded, “You have so many ideas, and you could make decisions on stuff like this yourself. Anyway, I’ll just be responsible for the shop front and its renovation. Everything else depends on you. If you have so much work to do at home, hire someone to do it. This shop must be opened as soon as possible. Didn’t you say that you still wanted to look for fruit trees? By the way, when it comes to this, now I remember. Did you buy that mountain or not?”

Xu Ran nodded, “I did. It has fifty acres.” However, Xu Ran didn’t seem to want to talk about it.

Qin Shuwu could also tell that. He asked, “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Xu Ran looked around and saw that there were not many around. The clerk was quite far away from them, so he told Qin Shuwu what had happened that day in a low voice.

Qin Shuwu sighed after listening and patted Xu Ran on the shoulder, “You did right. It would be troublesome if such people really knew that the house belongs to you. You know, it’s just how the world works. A higher official has a say. Even though you are a Xiucai, you don’t have the real power. You are actually nobody.”

Xu Ran knew this. As a matter of fact, the case was just the same as modern times. He was a university student but university students were everywhere. It wouldn’t make much difference if he just disappeared.

Xu Ran said, “I know that, so I have never taken this identity seriously. If I really don’t want to be bullied by these Yamen officials for the rest of my life again, I can only count on my sons. I don’t want to take the imperial examination again since its location is getting further and further away, and I can’t take my spouse and kids with me.”

This time, Qin Shuwu didn’t blame Xu Ran for not being ambitious. In fact, they were both the same kind of people. No matter how good it was outside home, they always wanted to go home. The so-called fame, money and positions, they sounded attractive, but it varied with each individual. Just like how their idea was to just live a good life as a family, the rest was not that important to them.

After Xu Ran said this, the two of them went silent. Qin Shuwu didn’t continue the topic, while Xu Ran didn’t know what to say.

They walked to the front of Qin Shuwu’s fruit shop. The renovating workers were still working, and Xu Ran also offered some small opinions. Then he carried the herbs, bought rice and flour and went home.

When Xu Ran got back home, he handed the herbs he bought to Gao Quan. “Have a look to see if I got the right ones. I don’t know about herbs. The doctors got them for me. If there is a problem, tell me. I’ll go back to town to sort it out.”

Gao Quan took over the herbs and said, “I will check them carefully. Of course I will tell you if there’s any problem.”

Xu Ran nodded and didn’t speak again.

Gao Quan also understood that since Xu Ran had given him the herbs, Xu Ran naturally trusted the prescription made by him.

The prescription had been personally tried by his group of people before, so Gao Quan definitely remembered it correctly. What’s more, Tangtang and Guoguo were the old Lord’s grandchildren, so how would he hurt them?

Gao Quan spent a whole day examining these herbs, and then told Xu Ran that there was no problem. Some of the herbs were of high quality.

He named those quality ones. After hearing it, Xu Ran found that they were all bought from Dr. He. It seemed that not only did this Dr. He have great medical skill, but he was also good at running business. No wonder he was friend with Qin Shuwu. Although they bickered once they met, apparently, they were on good terms.

Since there was no problem with the herbs, Xu Ran asked Gao Quan to arrange the medicated bath.

While he went for Xu An himself. Xu An and the others had just finished raising the seedlings recently, so they were not very busy. Yueya’er at home was getting one year older and didn’t need someone to look after him often. Wu Mei could just rest assured while doing farm work outside.

Xu Ran told Xu An about the wooden shelf, and then showed him the shelf roughly with his hands. He also said that when Xu An got the wooden planks and was about to make the shelf, Xu Ran would come over and watch, so that there would be no mistakes.

Xu An agreed. After all, he couldn’t draw himself and nor could Xu Ran. He might not understand Xu Ran completely just by words, so Xu Ran might as well come over and watch it personally.

Xu An said, “Then I’ll find time to make it for you in the next few days. But Xu Ran, how did you come up with these bizarre ideas?”

Xu Ran smiled and didn’t answer Xu An. He couldn’t come up with a reason himself. Could he say that he got those ideas from his dreams?

Fortunately, Xu An just asked casually. Seeing that Xu Ran was unwilling to answer him, he stopped talking about it.

Someone would make the wooden shelf, but there was another important thing that Xu Ran had to think over himself, which was the name of the shop. Looking back, it had taken a long time for him to name Tangtang and Guoguo, and he had referred how Zhuo Yun had named Qingshu. It was very difficult for him to name the shop!

On his way back home from Xu An’s place, Xu Ran had been thinking about the name. He even wanted to ask Tangtang and Guoguo to name the shop when they came back.

However, this was absolutely impossible. It was embarrassing to say that. He was a model in the eyes of Tangtang and Guoguo. He couldn’t do that.

Xu Ran was twiddling his fingers. He didn’t look at the ground while walking, and was almost tripped by the stone under his feet. He was torn.

He thought of all kinds of private dishes now, private dishes!

Xu Ran clapped a hand to his forehead. He would call it Private Dishes! Just add a surname in front of it, and that would be the name!

Xu Ran thought about it and felt that it was better to call the shop the Qin’s Private Dishes. Although he and Qin Shuwu owned half of the shop separately, the shop was purchased by Qin Shuwu. Everyone around must know it, and the shop was next to his fruit shop. Thus, everyone could tell that the two shops shared the same boss at a glance. Presumably, many customers from next door would visit the shop for the sake of Qin Shuwu.

And he just needed to be responsible for collecting money and creating some new dishes regularly. He didn’t have to worry about anything else at all. There was no pressure on him.

The more Xu Ran thought about it, the happier he got. He would really like to give a like to his resources.

Hardly had he arrived at home than he came up with the name, so he kept a smile on his face when he was at home. Those who didn’t know the situation would think that he had picked up some gold.