The young man in azure gave him a stare and noticed that his obstinate young brother finally stopped talking. He looked at Gu Ye’s pair of hands and said in a soft voice, “Young Miss, it seems you have experiences in prepared medicinal herbs. Did you bring any of your herbs? This one is the shopkeeper of Jimin Hall. Why don’t you let him take a look? I trust that he will offer you a fair price for them.”
Gu Ye looked down on her hands that were now covered in small cuts. She turned them from side to side and looked at them, some of the wounds also had herb juices in them that wouldn’t come off with regular washing. This was a pair of hands belonging to a beginner apothecary; anyone in this field could tell by this signature look.
“Ye-er, I found an empty spot further up, let’s try to set up our own booth too?” Gu Xiao walked through the crowd and noticed the two young men in fancy clothes talking to his granddaughter. He worried that they’d bully her and immediately walked over to her.
“Okay!” Gu Ye had noticed a few men who looked like they could be medicinal herb merchants, perhaps one or few of them would actually be able to appreciate the quality of her work? When Gu Ye turned back to look at the pair of pretty boys, they had already walked away. Gu Ye shrugged, perhaps the young man in azure was only being polite and didn’t mean anything by what he said. In addition, the two boys were too young; she didn’t think they’d have the experience necessary to recognize her master’s work.
By this time, Gu Xiao had already carried out two basket-full of medicinal herbs from the inn and placed them on the ground at the street corner. Gu Ye took a look, one of the baskets contained her practice ones with flaws, the other basket contained her successful work. As for the bag that was her master’s work, she hadn’t planned on showing them just yet.
“Eh? These medicinal herbs don’t look half bad. I didn’t expect to find processed medicinal herbs of an apothecary’s quality here,” said a young man as he picked up a pack of five-flavor berries from Gu Ye’s practiced batch and show it to the old man next to him.
“Young Miss, pray tell who made these?” The old man carefully examined its form – it had a small wrinkled layer and also a layered of white salt on its surface. Tasting it gave all 5 tastes – sour, salty, bitter, spicy, and sweet. The work was that of a novice, but the efficacy was undeniable.
“They were made by me… I have more over here….” Before Gu Ye could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a loud, maniacal laugh.
Looking up, it was the young man in blue that she had ran into earlier. He was holding his stomach with both hands and, as though he had just heard the funniest joke in the world, pointed at her and laughing nonstop, “It takes one tens or even dozens of years to complete their apprenticeship. And you? Even if you started learning the minute you were born, we are still talking about just a few years. Are the medicinal herbs prepared by you edible? Who is going to be held accountable if your herbs turned out to be deadly poisonous?”
“Second brother!” The young man in azure was both baffled and upset by his younger brother’s behavior today. What did he have against this little girl that he kept picking on her?
After shouting at his younger brother to stop, he looked up at the old and young man and walked up to greet them, “Greetings, Housemaster Zhao. Third Brother Zhao, it has been a while. How have you been?”
He had no expected to run into the housemaster of Baicao (“Hundred Herbs”) Hall. Could it be possible that…. They have certain information?
“Young man, you are being too polite. How interesting running into someone we know in this nameless town?” said the old man as he nodded and smiled. Bai Jizheng was just about to ask about their purpose of visit when he was interrupted by a crisp voice.
“I will!” said Gu Ye with a stone-cold look and fierceness coming from her eyes. Her little body exuding an sacred and inviolable aura. The young man in blue slowly stopped laughing, but there were still disbelieve and contempt in his eyes.
“Young Miss, he….” The young man in azure was apologetic but before he could say anything else, Gu Ye had interrupted him.