Quick Transmigration: Underdog Turns out to be Untouchable

Chapter 880: Chapter 791: Unwilling to Be a Slave (Part 11)

For example, plantain, wild rhubarb, dandelion, and purslane, among which the Mugwort that Nangong Shuangshuang urgently needs is the most abundant, growing luxuriously dense.

In fact, many herbs grow in places easily accessible to people, but too few people recognize or know their effects, so they are all classified as weeds, such as the very common cocklebur.

It is one of the most common Chinese herbs in the field, also called hedgehog burr in some places, because its oval-shaped fruits are full of small spines, sticking to clothes like a hedgehog if you’re not careful. This cocklebur can treat wind-cold, rhinitis, rheumatism and arthritic pain, urticaria, and itching.

However, people are overly familiar with cocklebur, so even when they spot one near their doorstep, they merely dismiss it as a weed instead of realizing it’s a medicinal herb.

On the first day, after returning with a full load, Nangong Shuangshuang began busying herself drying the harvested herbs. The plantain had already sprouted ears, and some that grew well were left untouched by Nangong Shuangshuang, as she planned to harvest seeds once they matured.

Some seeds would be used for medicine, and others would be sprinkled on the corners of the Violence Room in spring next year. This plant has an extremely vigorous life force and will grow into a patch without any tending.

Besides these, Nangong Shuangshuang also picked some not-so-tender but not-too-old plantain ears and whole plants together and dried them. Boiling these ears with mung beans in a pot of soup and adding a few pieces of rock sugar until the soup turns red is best for someone with a sore, dry, and itchy throat, experiencing hotness or cold-induced pharyngitis with hoarse voice.

Rhubarb also needs special processing; now is the best season to harvest it, usually in late autumn when its stems and leaves wither, or just before the next spring’s sprouting. Now in spring, it’s right before rhubarb shoots in ears.

Nangong Shuangshuang carefully removed the fine roots of the rhubarb, scraped the outer skin, cut it into segments, threaded it with fine string, and hung it to dry naturally on a rack. Rhubarb can treat food stagnation, clear damp heat, reduce internal fire, cool the blood, remove stasis, detoxify, etc. It’s an affordable yet valuable herb.

Nangong Shuangshuang dried the dandelion directly and drank it as tea. Purslane was sent to the kitchen for salads, soups, and dumplings, with many preparations.

The Mugwort was of utmost importance, and Nangong Shuangshuang handled it most meticulously. First, she plucked off the withered and diseased leaves, left the best-shaped ones to dry, ground them into Mugwort Wool, and made Mugwort Sticks. These were needed urgently for treating Xiao Chun.

Mugwort looks common, found in barren mountains, wild lands, in front of houses, behind houses, fields, and roadside. Yet, it has high medicinal value, able to treat many conditions. Mugwort’s entire plant is medicinal, effective in warming the meridian to stop pain, dispelling cold and dampness, stopping bleeding, reducing inflammation, relieving asthma, easing cough, securing pregnancy, and treating allergies.

With the Mugwort Stick made, Nangong Shuangshuang combined it with Mugwort Moxibustion to perform acupuncture on Xiao Chun once, producing excellent results. Xiao Chun felt a profound improvement in his legs, much lighter than before, and was overjoyed.

Seeing how much better the treatment effect was with Mugwort Moxibustion, without Nangong Shuangshuang having to say a word, Bai Ruoyun began frequently taking Nangong Shuangshuang out to pick Mugwort. At this moment, Bai Ruoyun even felt a sense of awe towards this fourteen-year-old girl, Nangong Shuangshuang.

Bai Ruoyun thought Nangong Shuangshuang’s medical skills were miraculous. Previously, when she was beside Lianpin, she had seen those Imperial Physicians treating Lianpin.

Those Imperial Physicians chanted a bunch of lengthy sayings that made her dizzy, then prescribed a heap of expensive, reportedly hard-to-cultivate medicines, yet the treatment effects were mediocre.

However, Nangong Shuangshuang was different. She was able to use weeds, which Bai Ruoyun always thought were commonly seen, to treat illnesses! This didn’t cost anything! Moreover, the results were so quick, even better than the costly medicine prescribed by the Imperial Physicians, her medical skills must surpass theirs!

Yet, Bai Ruoyun lacked understanding in medicine. Although those Imperial Physician’s skills weren’t as exceptional as Nangong Shuangshuang’s, they weren’t useless. Lianpin walked the sickly beauty path, seeing Imperial Physicians all day without actually being sick; how could they prescribe treatments?

Lianpin herself was deeply favored by the Emperor, so the Imperial Physicians didn’t dare to offend and could only chant eloquently, prescribing expensive nourishing medicines that didn’t treat ailments. How could Lianpin’s sickness be cured like this?

Moreover, Nangong Shuangshuang’s use of these common herbs was just apt. The Imperial Physicians wouldn’t dare use such cheap herbs on nobility, it would disgrace their status, and if known, it would be a great offense. Besides, saving money for the nobility wasn’t the Imperial Physician’s concern.

Perhaps, having witnessed too many instances of servants dying from illness due to lack of treatment and medicine, Bai Ruoyun developed an almost obsessive desire to collect herbs.

Knowing that the overgrown corners of the Imperial Palace were actually filled with various herbs, Bai Ruoyun began taking Nangong Shuangshuang to those corners daily.

If it weren’t for Nangong Shuangshuang insisting not to uproot useful herbs prematurely, and stating some weren’t ready for harvest, Bai Ruoyun would probably have even collected the herb seedlings.

For half a month, whenever Nangong Shuangshuang finished processing the herbs, Bai Ruoyun pulled her to run outside the Violence Room, even assigning her usual task of patrolling and nitpicking with a small whip to Qiushuang and Qiuyi.

Qiushuang and Qiuyi, both having worked their way up from palace maids, weren’t harsh people. Without Bai Ruoyun supervising, the two were happy to let the working palace maids catch their breath, letting the Violence Room’s many palace maids have a few relaxed days.

Bai Ruoyun wasn’t unaware that Qiushuang and Qiuyi were lenient with the maids, but she was so focused on looking for herbs that she turned a blind eye, not bothering with it. Furthermore, Bai Ruoyun herself wasn’t fond of beating or abusing others; she wasn’t mentally twisted.

Bai Ruoyun kept a cold face all day and used the whip on subordinates to command respect. When she first came to the Violence Room, she sympathized with the palace maids suffering hardships, relaxing the rules slightly, thinking nobody would notice if the higher-ups didn’t come checking.

But sadly, among the palace maids in the Violence Room, except for a few innocent ones, most had indeed committed offenses in the palace, like betrayal, or were family of disgraced officials, once noble but suddenly fallen. None of these people were easy to manage.

Bai Ruoyun’s compassion and leniency led them to think she was easy to bully, almost causing a major incident. Had it not been for Xiao Chun, who had long mastered the Violence Room, stepping in to help, Bai Ruoyun nearly made a grave mistake and lost her life.

From then on, Bai Ruoyun learned her lesson and hardened her heart; no matter how pitiful someone seemed, she ceased to show sympathy, managing the Violence Room with strict measures, making everyone in it fear her. Only then did she suppress those with ulterior motives and firmly stayed in control of the Violence Room.