On the road, Gong Xiaohua was thinking about what things would be appropriate to prepare for Little Hao.
Early summer had already begun, the rainy season with frequent downpours. Preparing some waterproof fabrics and wearing them over the body when it rains outside can avoid catching a cold from the rain when on the road.
Moreover, in this era when medical technology is so backward, a minor cold or injury can easily cost a life. She must go to the pharmacy to buy some medicinal materials to treat colds and external injuries, and make them into pills and ointments separately for convenient carrying.
She also needs to prepare some dried cooked food to replenish strength for the journey.
Gong Xiaohua plans to make these things herself, no one in this era has these skills yet, but she does.
Her previous career as a special agent involved mastery of many skills, and she belonged to those with an exceptional talent who never forgets anything after seeing it once, and had profound attainments in most fields of knowledge.
Because time was pressing, she planned to secretly make these items herself in a remote place.
If the original owner, who hadn't even fully learned how to recognize words, suddenly knew how to make medicine and fabrics, what she would face was likely being burned at the stake.
It wouldn’t work even with the excuse of a fortune teller’s words. It seemed she would have to pay Old Man Qi a visit and see if she could borrow some medical books, so that she would have a legitimate reason.
With the pressing time, she planned to use the traditional crafting method for the waterproof fabric, using only coarse cotton cloth and mature tung oil.
Tung oil is extracted from the fruit of the tung tree, which is itself a medicinal material sold in pharmacies.
As for the cold-treating pills, Gong Xiaohua decided to make the modern “Qiwu Qianghuo Pills”, mainly composed by refining nine types of medicinal materials.
For external injury medicine, she planned to make the famous Jinchuang medicated oil from later generations, with main ingredients like pine resin, lard, musk and camphor, simple to produce and very effective.
For food, she planned to make pork jerky, also very easy to make, requiring mainly pork and honey.
Moreover, honey was needed to produce the pills, while lard was needed for the Jinchuang oil, so the preparations for the three items complemented each other, greatly reducing production time.
She didn’t plan to make too much, only three boxes of each medicine, two boxes for Little Hao and his family to use, and keeping the remaining one box for her own family.
The pork jerky would only be around two catties too; having too much extra would be cumbersome to carry.
With the plans made, Gong Xiaohua began buying the necessary materials.
Medicinal materials were rather expensive; all the raw materials cost Gong Xiaohua 200 wen.
The coarse cotton cloth was bought at a shop as old stock from past years, this type of fabric was very cheap, only costing 50 wen for one bolt.
She bought about four catties of pork leg with streaks of fat and lean. The lean meat was for making jerky, the fatty cuts for rendering lard to make the Jinchuang oil. The meat totaled 40 wen.
Finally at a general store she bought the tools for production, including an mortar and pestle, small ceramic bottles, honey, and a small ceramic jar, etc. Just the jar of honey already cost 50 wen. The tools altogether cost another 150 wen.
The total was 440 wen, nearly her wages for a whole month. Since coming here, her earnings fell far short of her expenses.
Gong the special agent, formerly never lacking money, had no financial sense; now looking at her purse, emptied cleaner than her face, not earning her family any income but instead having to ask her mother for money, it was very distressing.
She had thoughts that after her brother married, she would save up to buy a house and move out. At this rate when would she ever save enough for a house? Seemed she would have to work hard for a promotion and raise.
After buying all the necessary materials, there was still time before noon, so she found a remote spot where a little beggar stayed, put the things she bought in the dilapidated countryside temple where he lodged, and entrusted him to watch her belongings, with the condition to provide him half a month of meals.
The next day, Gong Xiaohua got up an hour early. She had to go to the little beggar’s place and get everything made today. Tomorrow Little Hao's family would depart on their thousand-li exile journey.
On the way there she bought some stuffed steamed buns with pickled vegetables to bring the little beggar as breakfast.
When she arrived at the broken temple, in addition to the little beggar she met yesterday, there were three other children around the same age.
Seeing Gong Xiaohua entering from outside carrying food, the children all ran up to her, gazing at her with bright eyes.
Gou Dan brother told us that a beautiful lady sister would bring food today and asked them to stay here without moving.
"Sister, we took turns watching your things, everything is still complete and intact here."
Gong Xiaohua handed the food to the beggar she met yesterday, also reaching out to pat his little head, and said,
"Good child, take this and share with the brothers, sister didn't know earlier that there were others here too, I only bought enough for one person."
"Sister, you said one portion is enough for one person, we can split and eat together."
"Don't worry, sister will still need your help later."
After they finished breakfast, she assigned them work, some to pick firewood for cooking fires, some to grind herbs into powder.
One child asked: "Sister, what's this for?"
"These are medicinal ingredients, used to treat colds and injuries."
"Wow, sister are you a doctor? Then in the future when we fall sick can we see you?" Tie Dan died because the doctor refused to see him." As he finished speaking, the children became red-rimmed eyes.
Gong Xiaohua stopped what she was doing, went in front of the children, and helped wipe their teary eyes. She gently said:
"Sister isn't a doctor, but can treat some minor illnesses. In the future if any of you fall sick, come to the Department of Justice to find me, if sister can cure it, I definitely will."
"So great, thank you sister, you're so nice!"
"Alright, let's get to work."
"Okay!"
Under her direction, the children divided the labor, one tended the fire, two ground medicine, another assisted her to render honey, while she prepared the initial stages for making jerky.
Pork jerky was simple, pound the lean meat into a paste, mix with a little honey, sandwich it between two large wild vegetable leaves—it should use oiled paper but after searching the whole street, she couldn't find anyone who had heard of such a thing, so wild leaves had to substitute—flatten into thin sheets, and slow bake on a hot stone slab.
Next was making pills and medicated oil. After rendering the honey, she started stewing lard.
Mix the prepared honey with the cold herbal powder for treating colds, blend thoroughly then chill and cut, finally roll into spheres and leave to dry in the wind, and the “Qiwu Qianghuo Pills” were easily made.
Jinchuang oil used the same method as the Qiwu Qianghuo Pills, blending the pounded medicine powder into cooled lard and mixing into an emulsion, then directly pouring it into small bottles.
When the medicines were done, the jerky had finished baking too. The smells of the stewing lard and jerky made the children continuously swallow saliva. But they also behaved very properly, not even thinking of secretly stealing a piece to eat when Gong Xiaohua wasn't paying attention.
Gong Xiaohua added salt she brought from home to the meat residue from rendering lard, then shared it all for the children to eat.
Lastly was to make the waterproof fabric. It was not early and she still had to go to work, so Gong Xiaohua planned to make the fabric after getting off work in the afternoon.
She brought the Jinchuang oil on her person, leaving the other medicines and jerky to continue drying in the broken temple, intending to return for them later in the afternoon.
Before leaving, she gave the children twenty wen and asked them to buy some food to eat at noon.
If she had spare time in the future, she wanted to find some way for these children to survive instead of perishing in this broken temple.