Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Nyoi-Bo Studio

  The next morning, Li Maoshuang came to the village with two sets of ancient herb cabinet.

  His car stopped at the foot of Nanshan hill. Wang Yao came down from the top of the hill after receiving a phone call from Li Maoshuang. He saw the ancient herb cabinets immediately.

  The cabinets looked like they were glowing. They were glowing not because of how new they were, on the contrary, they were quite old. The glow was from numerous usage and infiltration by herbs. The cabinets were marked by time. The wood used to make the cabinets had clear lines, which looked really nice.

  The cabinets were built in accordance with ancient designs. They had up, down, left, right, horizontal and vertical drawers—in total, seven drawers. Therefore, they were called the seven-star herb cabinets.

  “What do you think of them?” asked Li Maoshuang.

  “Really nice!” Wang Yao fell in love with the cabinets at first sight.

  “Good, let’s bring it up the hill,” said Li Maoshuang.

  “Thanks, but I can do it myself,” said Wang Yao with a smile.

  “What?” Li Maoshuang was shocked.

  Li Maoshuang amazingly watched Wang Yao carry one of the cabinets and walk uphill. After a while, Wang Yao came back to get the other one. It took him two trips to transfer the cabinets to the hill.

  “What made you so strong!” said Li Maoshuang amazingly.

  Although there was nothing inside the drawers, the whole cabinet including drawers and frame were made of solid wood, which was made of heavy Northern Chinese ash wood. Li Maoshuang asked three people to help him transfer the cabinet onto his van. He would have asked his friends to help transfer the cabinets if he didn’t worry about upsetting Wang Yao. He didn’t expect Wang Yao could do it all by himself.

  “I exercise a lot. Is cabinet antique?” asked Wang Yao.

  “Yes, it is very old. I asked one of my friends to buy it for me from the South. The seller had ancestors that were Chinese Traditional Medicine practitioners in the Qing Dynasty. Although no one in the family practices medicine now, the seven-star herb cabinet has been kept. Initially, there were four sets of cabinets; two have been sold. Are the ones I brought here big enough for you?” said Li Maoshuang.

  “Should be big enough for now,” said Wang Yao.

  There were thousands of different herbs in China, but only a small portion of them was commonly used. Two sets of cabinets could store hundreds of different herbs. So they were big enough for Wang Yao.

  “How much do I need to pay you?” asked Wang Yao.

  “You don’t need to pay me; consider it a gift,” said Li Maoshuang with a smile.

  “No way!” said Wang Yao. Although he had no idea how much exactly the two sets of cabinet would cost, he knew they were not cheap. The cabinets were from Qing Dynasty, and they were antiques.

  “Well, don’t worry about the money. As long as you can treat me when I’m not well in the future. Deal?” said Li Maoshuang with a smile.

  “Deal!” Wang Yao accepted it with a smile.

  The two sets of seven-star herb cabinets were placed inside the room where Wang Yao brewed decoctions. They faced the wall to the east.

  “Are you going to open a clinic on Nanshan hill?” asked Li Maoshuang.

  “Not for now; I need them for my own convenience,” said Wang Yao.

  He then invited Li Maoshuang to take a seat in his cottage and made him a cup of tea. “Here is your tea,” said Wang Yao.

  “Thank you. Is this the same tea I had last time?” asked Li Maoshuang.

  “Yes,” said Wang Yao.

  “The tea is really nice. I brought some tea leaves you gave me to a friend of mine a few days ago. He asked me where I got them after tasting the tea. He wanted me to get several kilograms of tea leaves for me, as he hadn’t had such nice tea for many years!” said Li Maoshuang.

  “Hehe.” Wang Yao just laughed. Let alone several kilograms, it was hard enough just getting several grams.

  “Well, I don’t want to bother you anymore. I gotta go,” said Li Maoshuang after drinking the tea. He stood up and was about to leave.

  “You are not bothering me at all. How about having lunch here?” asked Wang Yao as he glanced at the clock. It was almost noon—lunch time.

  “Thank you, but I promised my wife I’d go home to have lunch. By the way, I noticed something different,” said Li Maoshuang.

  “What is it?” asked Wang Yao.

  “I feel different here from how I feel when I’m in town,” said Li Maoshuang.

  “How different?” asked Wang Yao.

  “Well, it’s hard to say. But I feel so comfortable on Nanshan hill. The wind is soft; I can breathe smoothly here. Anyway, it’s much better here. I had the same feeling when I was on Wudang Mountain,” said Li Maoshuang.

  “Really? Maybe it is because the air on the hill is much fresher,” said Wang Yao. In fact, Wang Yao hadn’t been aware that his battle array had started to take its effect on people. Li Maoshuang was not the only one who had the feeling. He noticed it because he was sensitive to the changes.

  “Maybe. But I didn’t have the same feeling when I was on Changqing hill and Jiulian hill nearby,” said Li Maoshuang.

  “You can visit me often if you like the feeling here,” said Wang Yao.

  “Sure. I really have to go now,” said Li Maoshuang.

  Wang Yao and Li Maoshuang left Nanshan hill together. Wang Yao came back to Nanshan hill after having a simple lunch at home. He started to arrange the herbs inside the herb cabinets.

  The rules of how to store herbs in an herb cabinet were strict. Some people stored herbs depending on the type of herbs, for example, roots, stems, leaves, stones, insects, and grass should be stored separately. Some people stored herbs depending on the usage of herbs, while some depended on the list of combinations for different formulas.

  Wang Yao didn’t arrange his herbs in a rush. He checked the drawers one by one to see if there was anything wrong with the cabinets. He had to say that the ancient Chinese people made things in a unique way. The cabinets were not only good-looking but also solid and practical. There was no damage by pests, corrosion and mold. The only smell Wang Yao could sense was from the herbs.

  Wang Yao then categorized all the herbs he had and made labels on the drawers. After he had written down all the herbs and finished arrangement, it was dark already. Another day had passed.

  Ha, time passes really quickly!……

  Inside a household at Lianshan town center, a few people were gathered.

  “Sis, what has Mom been taking? It really worked. I haven’t heard her complain for several days. She also has been sleeping well in the last few days,” said a young man.

  “I took Mom to see a Chinese Traditional Medicine practitioner. Let’s wait and see for a few more days. After all, she hasn’t taken the herbal decoction for too long,” said a middle-aged woman. But she actually started to change her opinion on Wang Yao from skepticism to admiration.

  I didn’t expect that young doctor to have such wonderful medical skills! thought the middle-aged woman.

  “Sis, how many doses did the doctor prescribed for Mom?” asked the young man.

  “Just one dose to see if it would work,” said the middle-aged woman.

  “Just one dose? No way! A treatment consisting of herbs should be at least ten doses. You should ask that doctor to prescribe more for Mom,” said the young man.

  “No need to rush; it may take days to see the effect, and also just in case if there are any side effects of the decoction!” said the middle-aged woman.

  “Okay, let’s wait for a few more days. But Mom does look much better,” said the young man.

  “Yes, and the doctor said that we should take Mom out more often. I plan to take her to the coastal park tomorrow,” said the middle-aged woman.

  “Sounds good. Thank you for spending so much time with Mom,” said the young man.

  “That’s alright. Another thing, I think we should take turns taking Mom out for travel after she has fully recovered. We should take her to see different parts of the country!” said the middle-aged woman.

  “Sure, I totally agree with you!” said the young man.

  “Good!” said the middle-aged woman.

  This was a family meeting. The topic of the meeting was the elderly lady sleeping inside her bedroom. The meeting hadn’t finished until 9 pm. Then, the lady’s son left. The middle-aged woman and her husband were still in the living room. The middle-aged woman was Ms. Guo who took her mother to see Wang Yao at Renhe clinic the other day.

  “You’ve finished talking with your brother, Comrade Guo?” Ms. Guo’s husband brought her a glass of warm water and said, “Have some water. I presume you are tired and thirsty after talking so much.”


  “Thank you. I didn’t expect the herbal decoction would work so well. That doctor is so young and capable!” said Ms. Guo.

  “Didn’t you not trust him at first?” said her husband with a smile.

  “Well, he was too young to see patients. Would you believe him if you were me? But fortunately, I didn’t say anything too bad to upset him,” said Ms. Guo.

  “Let’s wait for another two days to see if your mother gets better,” suggested Ms. Guo’s husband.

  “Sure,” said Ms. Guo.

  The next morning, around 10 am, a crackling sound suddenly appeared in the quiet village. The village suddenly became noisy. The machinery processing factory, which was set up inside the old warehouse of the village production team, had all the equipment ready and opened today.

  The crackling sound lasted for the whole morning. Then, the machines were turned on, making a continuous roaring sound.

  The workers in the factory were all hired from nearby villages, except for the two team leaders. The total number of employees was twelve. What they were processing in the factory were some iron fittings.

  Has the factory opened? It looks quite busy today in the village! Wang Yao had guessed what was going on in the village after hearing the crackling sound from Nanshan hill.

  “The factory in the village opened today,” said Zhang Xiuying. Wang Yao and his family talked about the factory at lunchtime again.

  “How many workers are there in the factory?” asked Wang Yao.

  “Not many. I heard there were only a few people. They only hired several people from our village,” said Zhang Xiuying.

  “They do machinery processing?” asked Wang Yao.

  “Yes, I heard it was related to vehicle parts,” said Zhang Xiuying.

  Wang Yao didn’t ask any more questions.

  He returned to Nanshan hill after dinner. He had a lot to do. Tian Yuantu called him in the morning but didn’t say why exactly he called. Wang Yao presumed the reason he called was because of Secretary Yang’s mother.

  Secretary Yang’s mother had symptoms caused by a lack of Yang.

  Although Regather soup was good, it wouldn’t cure Secretary Yang’s mother completely. It would only temporarily relieve the symptoms and delay the progress of her disease. Wang Yao had had some thoughts of how to treat a lack of Yang. He needed to use herbs with a nature of extreme Yang.

  The method Wang Yao thought about had appeared in Kung Fu novels such as The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. In that novel, the hero Zhang Wuji suffered from extreme Yin poisoning from Xuanmingshen-Zhang, which couldn’t be cured by any external forces. Only extreme amounts of Yang and firm Nine Yang Magic could remove the poison.

  There was one herb with extreme Yang nature, and Wang Yao had it in his herbal field.

  The herb was called Dangyang flower. It was actually a type of flower, which was as red as the flames from the sun, and could enhance Yang in the body. Given the nature of Dangyang flower, it belonged to the category of Yang energy. The function of Dangyang flower was simple: enhance Yang.

  Its function was simplicity and straightforwardness.

  I can try and use it.

  Wang Yao drew a circle around the Dangyang flower in his notebook.

  Although Wang Yao planted the Dangyang flower in his herbal field, it had been growing extremely slowly due to the lack of nimbus. Although Wang Yao could put its leaves into the decoction, the leaves would be far less effective than the flowers.

  Dangyang flower couldn’t work on its own; it required other herbs to support it. The decoction should not only enhance the Yang energy in the body but also restore corporeity.

  Let me check if there are any suitable herbal formulas available in the herb store.

  Wang Yao opened the system and took a close look. He soon found a suitable formula called Sanyang powder. The function of Sanyang powder was a simple sentence: Enhance Yang and remove cold evil.