Chapter 108: Chapter 110: Darkened Even More
She had dried all these herbs, prepared each one with her hands, selected, soaked, and ground them each without seeking help from anyone else. For who could assist her in such a task anyway?
A large quantity of herb powder was all mixed with water and honey into tiny beads the size of pearls and then stored in a jar. Tang Yuxin estimated that the Four-season Water that Chen Zhong kept was enough to prepare one prescription, which came out to be over three thousand six hundred pills, enough for ten years. And preparing these many pills had taken her half a month.
“Would they spoil over time?” Tang Yuxin held a small medicinal pill, trying to take it into her mouth, but couldn’t.
Chen Zhong glanced at her, “The formulas of our Chen Family don’t spoil easily.”
“Would it upset the stomach, since even medicines are known to be toxic?”
Despite her words, Tang Yuxin held the pill to her mouth and swallowed it directly. It didn’t taste bad; it had a subtle herbal flavor and since the pill was small, it wasn’t difficult to swallow. If she was to take one pill daily, it seemed like it wouldn’t be an unpleasant experience.
But, she was afraid it might harm her.
“You think too much,” Chen Zhong glared at her, “For generations, our Chen Family consumed these fragrant pills without any ill effect. Go on, take your pill. He patted Tang Yuxin’s head. When you get fairer, your father won’t sigh at me every day like I was the one who made you dark. Even without me, you would still be dark.”
Tang Yuxin nodded seriously. Indeed, she had to admit, her dark complexion wasn’t due to sun exposure, it was inevitable consequence of her genes. If she could just avoid growing any crooked features, that would be good enough for her. At least, she could face people confidently.
Her demands were not high, just this one thing: and of course, not to be too short, soaring over 160 cm would be best.
She put the bottle of medicine on her bedside table in a small jar. Half of the jar, over three hundred pills, was enough for the year. Making a prescription wasn’t easy in the Chen Family. When a girl is born in the family, her parents would start collecting ingredients from her birth year. By the time the child was around five years old, they would begin administering the pills. Thus, the girls of the Chen Family had a distinct advantage.
And Tang Yuxin really wondered, after death, would her bones truly smell fragrant?
It was such a strange thing to ponder upon, one that spanned such a long time, it seemed as though she might be overthinking things.
That night, she had a dream in which she was all grown up. She was back to her previous life, wearing thick cotton clothes as she walked through the school. Upon looking up, she saw her ordinary, featureless face.
Again, she grabbed a pill from the jar and put it to her mouth, swallowing it down without water. She had been taking the pills for a year now, yet witnessed no significant changes. She was still dark, darker than the previous year, even.
Softly, she sighed, hugging the jar of medicine, which had fewer pills now. She had taken them for nearly a year, yet there were no visible effects.
“Grandpa, I’ve gotten darker.”
With a lift of her finger, she had thrust a needle into the copper-wood plate, only the tail of the needle slightly shaking. Her finger strength could match Chen Zhong’s.
So, she had mastered the needle technique.
But since mastering the needle, why had she grown darker?