One day later, Fang Qiu returned to Jiangjing.
On the way back to school, Fang Qiu could not wait to take out his mobile phone and call the keeper of Yaowang Mountain.
“Hello?” The call was quickly connected.
“Mr. Zhao.”
Fang Qiu addressed him respectfully and said, “I have something important to talk to you. Can you meet me?”
Last time, when he went to his house to treat his son’s wife, Fang Qiu learned that the keeper of Yaowang Mountain’s surname was Zhao and his name was Zhao Shanlin.
Since then, Fang Qiu and his three roommates had addressed the keeper of Yaowang Mountain as Mr. Zhao.
“Something important?”
Hearing this, Zhao Shanlin immediately said, “Okay. Anyway, I have nothing to do now. Tell me, where do you want to meet?”
Fang Qiu said, “Let’s go to Yaowang Mountain.”
Zhao Shanlin said, “Okay, I’ll go to the school now.”
When Fang Qiu came back to the school, he first put his backpack containing Fairy Desert Cistanche back to his dormitory. Then he rushed to Yaowang Mountain with a paper bag in his hand.
He had bought this paper bag from Korla to place the two Desert Cistanches.
After all, carrying it in each hand would be too eye-catching.
He came to Yaowang Mountain and went to the place where Zhao Shanlin used to work.
After a short while, Zhao Shanlin arrived.
Along the way, his eyes fell on the herbs growing on both sides of the road. When he came to the medicine field, he saw the weeds growing in the field, so he cleared it carefully without any hesitation. He was focused on his work and had a smile on his face.
Fang Qiu smiled when he saw that and immediately went up to him and shouted, “Mr. Zhao, you’re here.”
“Yes.”
Mr. Zhao nodded, but his attention was still deeply focused on the herbs in the field. He did not raise his head until he had completely cleared the weeds and loosened the soil a little. He looked at Fang Qiu and asked with a smile, “What’s the matter? Why did you call me here in such a hurry?”
“Mr. Zhao, look at this.”
Fang Qiu held up the paper bag and handed it to Mr. Zhao.
“What’s that?”
Mr. Zhao took the paper bag and looked inside. He had a slightly stunned look and said, “Isn’t this the Desert Cistanche? It looks alive and there is dirt on the roots. Has it been dug up recently only?”
“Yes.” Fang Qiu nodded instantly.
“You asked me to come and see this Desert Cistanche?” Mr. Zhao looked at Fang Qiu with a puzzled face.
Fang Qiu said, “Mr. Zhao, I’ve found Gu Fang!”
Zhao Shanlin was stunned at first, then he was instantly surprised and asked, “Hmm? Did you really find it?”
“Yes.” Fang Qiu nodded with certainty.
“Is there Desert Cistanche in the prescription?”
Zhao Shanlin began to understand why Fang Qiu would bring two Desert Cistanche to him.
“That’s right.”
Fang Qiu immediately nodded and said, “The efficacy of the Desert Cistanche is not ordinary. If we make it a key product and combine it with the ancient prescription, maybe we can make it into a renowned product and set a benchmark in the Chinese Medicine industry.”
Zhao Shanlin nodded and said, “Yes. Indeed, this Desert Cistanche is good medicine.”
Fang Qiu said, “Mr. Zhao, the reason why I’m in such a hurry to find you is that the biggest problem now is that we should successfully cultivate the Desert Cistanche first!”
“Can you cultivate the Desert Cistanche in Yaowang Mountain?” Fang Qiu asked him eagerly.
Mr. Zhao sighed and said, “Alas. It’s no use even if you bring the Desert Cistanche to Yaowang Mountain. We’re in the south and there’s no way to grow Desert Cistanche in the south.”
“Why?” Fang Qiu was confused.
“First of all, the temperature difference in the south is relatively small. Desert Cistanche normally grows on soft sandy land with light salinization. Generally, it grows in sandy land or semi-fixed dunes, dry and old riverbeds, lake basins, lowlands, etc. Its living environment is very poor, so there is no suitable place for it to live in the south at all.”
“The most suitable place to grow Desert Cistanche is a place with an arid climate, less rainfall, strong evaporation, long daylight and a vast temperature difference between day and night.”
“Secondly, the soil for planting Desert Cistanche must be gray-brown desert soil or brown desert soil. We don’t have that kind of soil in the south.”
“Third, the Desert Cistanche is a parasite of the haloxylon ammondendron which is a strong plant. Desert Cistanche thrives on the side root which is about 30 to100 centimeters deep. There is no such tree in the south that can allow Desert Cistanche to be its parasite.”
“That is to say, in order to cultivate the Desert Cistanche, we should first cultivate the haloxylon ammondendron. But we can’t grow the haloxylon ammondendron in the South at all. Without the host, the Desert Cistanche can’t be cultivated.”
Fang Qiu was stunned when he heard that.
He had no idea about the stringent conditions for cultivating Desert Cistanche, such as soil, climate, etc. He was only knowledgeable about the properties of medicine, but he had never thought that it would be so difficult to cultivate Desert Cistanche.
After hearing what Zhao Shanlin said, Fang Qiu smiled awkwardly.
Fang Qiu thought about it carefully.
It was because Desert Cistanche grew in Beijiang that it had its unique medicinal properties. It was the Genuine Medicine that was often mentioned by people in the Chinese medicine industry, which referred to some wild herbs growing in the most suitable places.
The medicinal property of this kind of medicinal material was the best.
It would not work if he were to change the place to cultivate it.
Fang Qiu was embarrassed.
He had already won the championship of the Young Chinese Medicine Doctor. How could he forget about this matter? If someone knew about this, wouldn’t it be so embarrassing?
Fang Qiu asked, “What should we do if we need to cultivate a large number of it?”
“Well…”
After thinking for a while, Zhao Shanlin said, “If you want to grow it in a large area, you must grow it in Beijiang. After all, what you need to do is to make it a key product and set up a benchmark in the Chinese medicine field, so you must use the Genuine Medicine. Therefore, it will be best to grow it in Beijiang. But if you want to grow seedlings, you might be able to find a place in Jiangjing to try it, but the conditions are very severe. You have to be mentally prepared that you need to spend a lot of money to cultivate it!”
Fang Qiu thought for a moment and said, “Well, Mr. Zhao. I’ll give you ten million yuan. I’ll leave the whole cultivation matter to you.”
“What?” Zhao Shanlin was shocked.
In his opinion, Fang Qiu was just an ordinary college student.
How could a student have so much money?
Even though he had so much money, how could he take it out without hesitation? He did not even know if he could make it. Wouldn’t the price of ten million be too high?
But when he saw the determination in Fang Qiu’s eyes, he knew that Fang Qiu did not care about the price at all. He just wanted to accomplish this matter!
He was indeed a Chinese Medicine practitioner!
Mr. Zhao could not help exclaiming.
For the sake of Chinese Medicine, a real Chinese Medicine practitioner would do anything to accomplish it at all costs.
“Okay!”
Thinking of this, Zhao Shanlin nodded immediately and said, “Since you can contribute so much to traditional Chinese Medicine, how can I, an old man, stay out of it? Leave it to me. I will quit my job later and concentrate on doing this for you!”
“Thank you.”
Fang Qiu immediately thanked him, took out a bank card from his trouser pocket, handed it over, and said, “There is one million in this card, which will be your pay and daily expenses.”
Mr. Zhao was stunned.
He hurriedly reached out to refuse and said, “How can I do it? Since I agreed to help you, I’ll just be helping you. I can’t accept the money!”
“You must take the money.”
Fang Qiu once again handed the card to Zhao Shanlin and said with a serious face, “Putting aside our relationship and the whole matter, I want to start a company and ask you to help me cultivate medicine, which means that I’m asking you to work for me so you have to accept the money anyway.”
Fang Qiu knew although Zhao Shanlin bought a house for his son, he still needed to pay the mortgage after that. Once he resigned, his life would be very difficult, so Fang Qiu had to give him the money.
“No, I really can’t accept this money.”
Mr. Zhao said with a wry smile, “You helped treat my daughter-in-law before. Now I’m helping you cultivate Chinese medicine. How can I let you pay for it?”
“Mr. Zhao, this is work.”
Fang Qiu continued to persuade him, “Take this money as your salary. Where can I find such a good teacher like you to help me at the price of only one million? If you don’t accept the money, I will not dare ask you to cultivate the Desert Cistanche.”
“You, you…” Zhao Shanlin hesitated.
He really wanted to do this.
He liked traditional Chinese medicine and he hoped that traditional Chinese medicine could make great achievements. What’s more, he was the one who brought up this idea to Fang Qiu. Accomplishing this matter could be regarded as fulfilling his wish.
“Well… All right.”
After hesitating for a long time, Zhao Shanlin took the bank card handed over by Fang Qiu and then said to him with a serious face, “Don’t worry. Even if I have to risk my life, I will cultivate the Desert Cistanche for you!”
“I don’t want you to risk your life.”
Fang Qiu shook his head with a smile and said, “I believe in you, but you do need to find some helpers.”
Zhao Shanlin was stunned.
Then, his eyes lit up and he burst out laughing.
One day later, Zhu Benzheng, Zhou Xiaotian and Sun Hao met reluctantly at the school gate.
They just started their holidays. The three of them had only stayed home for a few days before they were asked to come to school by Fang Qiu.
The three of them met.
They looked at each other and smiled wryly, feeling depressed.
Sun Hao asked, “Hey, what does Fang Qiu want to do? Why is he asking us to come back as soon as possible?”
Zhou Xiaotian shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Zhu Benzheng also shook his head and said, “I don’t know either. Fang Qiu refused to tell me on the phone. He just kept saying that he has something very important to tell us.”
“Me too.” Zhou Xiaotian sneered.
“Me too.”
Sun Hao gave a wry smile and glanced at the empty campus. Then he gritted his teeth and said, “Since he’s already here, let’s go and ask him. Fang Qiu is waiting for us in the dormitory anyway. I’d like to see what he wants to say. If he dares to lie to us… Humph!”
As they spoke, the three of them walked toward the dormitory building.
It turned out that Fang Qiu was not in the dormitory.
After making a phone call, the three of them rushed to Yaowang Mountain together and finally met Fang Qiu and Zhao Shanlin at Yaowang Mountain.
“Fang, why are you so anxious?”
Seeing Fang Qiu, Sun Hao went straight up, patted Fang Qiu on the shoulder and said, “I’m telling you, if you can’t give us a good explanation, this matter won’t be settled.”
Fang Qiu said directly, “I’ve found the ancient prescription.”
“Oh.” The three of them nodded.
When they were about to say something, their faces suddenly changed. Three of them asked at the same time, “What did you just say?”